"You're a lot different from the rumors. Have you gotten old?"
The six Ghost Samurai spoke at once.
There was no telling which one was the real Ghost Samurai.
Ignoring the pain of his injuries, Huang Shanya said calmly, "I haven't used my full strength in many years. I haven't gotten old; I'm just rusty. A little exercise will set me right."
"Young man, do you know what matters most in life?"
"Leaving no regrets?"
"That's right, leaving no regrets. But I've already left too many."
Huang Shanya took a deep breath and suddenly attacked!
In midair, his fists sent raindrops flying.
"At eighteen, I enlisted and became a member of the Demon Suppression Army!"
Whoosh-!
He threw another punch.
Suddenly, a Ghost Samurai appeared behind him.
Huang Shanya dodged, evading the fierce slash.
"At twenty-six, I became captain of the Brocade Martial Battalion's vanguard squad!"
"The vanguard squad, the most dangerous squad in every battalion!"
He shouted the words as though recalling the past events of his life.
As he remembered the moments he had spent in the Demon Suppression Army, a wave of bitterness rose in his heart.
Remembering the sight of more than a dozen comrades scrambling to divide a leg of lamb, he smiled.
"At thirty-four, I held back a demon tide single-handedly in the eastern demon-extermination war zone. People thought highly of me and called me the Human Weapon!"
With every sentence Huang Shanya spoke, he threw several punches in succession.
His entire body was soaked by the rain, and the five Divine Marks on his back shone with dazzling light.
"At thirty-six, I was at the very peak of my fighting strength!"
"I was young and wild-tempered then. For a woman, I raised hell at the Divine Mark Association and injured its vice president at the time!"
Bang, bang-!
"At forty-five, I had reached the age of no doubts. Three brothers from the Brocade Martial Battalion who enlisted at the same time as me were murdered after they retired because of a personal grudge!"
Bang-!
Huang Shanya punched one of the Ghost Samurai.
The tremendous force sent him flying several meters.
"Eighteen people across the three families, young and old. Only one survived!"
"I promised that child I would avenge all three families with my own hands!"
"If I failed, I would regret it for the rest of my life!"
"Later, I found out their killers were from the Heaven Pavilion in the Yang Nation, an organization like the Divine Mark Association!"
Hum!
The five Ghost Samurai stopped and stood across from Huang Shanya. The one who had been knocked down slowly climbed to his feet as well, his hideous ghost face sinister and terrifying.
"Was it you who killed four members of the Yang Nation's Heaven Pavilion leadership, one after another over twelve years?"
"That's right, it was me!"
Huang Shanya stood in the rain. "You could say I did you a favor, couldn't you? Otherwise, your Church of the Dark Night could never have expanded so quickly in the Yang Nation."
"So you were the one helping us from the shadows... Hahaha, interesting..." Ghost Samurai said with a cold laugh. "No wonder you chose to live in seclusion. You were afraid that if this came to light, it would spark a conflict between the two nations."
"I did it for the Dragon Nation's homeland. This was no small matter. If it came to light, it would surely cause trouble! In fact, you should be grateful. If I hadn't acted alone and had reported it instead, your Yang Nation might already have sunk to the bottom of the sea!"
Huang Shanya had chosen to act alone because the situation on the Dragon Nation's front lines had been critical at the time.
If the incident had sparked a conflict between the two nations, causing the front lines to collapse and demons to pour into the country, hundreds of millions of families would have perished.
He alone was enough to avenge his comrades! There was no need to spill more blood!
"Then I really should thank you for getting rid of those troublesome fellows from the Heaven Pavilion for us."
"I know only one saying: whoever offends my compatriots shall be slain, however far away they may be!"
Ghost Samurai let out a sinister laugh. "Another extraordinary secret. Once I get back, I'll spread the news. I'm sure there'll be a good show to watch."
Huang Shanya sneered. "That's where you're wrong. Do you really think the Yang Nation's Heaven Pavilion as it is now dares to challenge my Dragon Nation? Besides, the Yang Nation harmed people first. All I did was repay a blood debt with blood!"
Huang Shanya's gaze suddenly turned cold:
"Besides, do you think you can get away?"
Sinister laughter rumbled deep in Ghost Samurai's throat.
"If the man standing before me were you thirty years ago, I might not have been your match. But now, you've gotten old."
Huang Shanya said, "Then you can try me."
He compressed his body, his legs like springs, and suddenly launched himself forward.
He blasted out a punch! It whistled through the air!
Duan Ming watched Huang Shanya fighting fiercely in the rain.
So this was why he had suddenly disappeared twenty years ago without leaving a trace.
If Duan Ming had been in his place and done nothing after his brothers were killed, he too would have regretted it for the rest of his life.
More and more blade wounds appeared on Huang Shanya's body.
But he seemed unable to feel the pain.
His gaze was resolute, unafraid of a powerful enemy.
He began to throw himself into the fight with his whole heart.
Of the six Ghost Samurai around him, five were clones.
But all of them could inflict real injuries on him.
He observed them for a moment.
Only one of them was the real body.
The other five were probably clones that the real Ghost Samurai had formed with Qi using the garment he wore.
Fighting the clones was useless; it couldn't harm the real body in the slightest.
He had to find the real body.
But the six Ghost Samurai around him were identical, right down to the rhythm of their breathing.
There was simply no way to tell which one was the real body.
If he still possessed the strength he'd had at his peak, killing Ghost Samurai would have been no trouble at all!
But it had been eight years. Since killing the last of his Heaven Pavilion enemies among its leadership eight years ago, he had scarcely fought.
Every aspect of his bodily functions had long since begun to decline.
On top of that, his Power of God was not combat-oriented.
Otherwise, this fight would not have been so difficult.
Ghost Samurai's hideous blood-red mask resembled an enormous ghost face.
After pausing to catch their breath for a moment, the six Ghost Samurai slashed at Huang Shanya simultaneously.
Blade light flickered.
Swish, swish, swish-!
The sound of swinging blades came in an endless stream. In the span of just a few breaths, hundreds of streaks of blade light converged.
Under the crushing pressure of gravity, Huang Shanya kept dodging.
He grew faster and faster, then gathered his greatest strength and smashed out a punch.
One of the Ghost Samurai had no time to dodge and was struck by Huang Shanya's fist.
Puff!
The clone he had struck vanished strangely.
"You went to all that effort just to destroy one of my clones. So much for the Human Weapon."
Huang Shanya was not angered by Ghost Samurai's words.
But he knew this fellow was extremely troublesome.
If he couldn't find the real body, destroying any number of clones would be useless.
Unless he destroyed the clones one by one.
But clearly, that was no easy task.
Even the clones possessed powerful Qi.
Duan Ming watched from the side, wanting to help.
But in a battle of this caliber, he would only hold Huang Shanya back if he joined in.
For the aged Huang Shanya to have held out this long under the continuous attacks was probably already close to his limit.
Huang Shanya didn't want to admit he was old.
But while his mouth could lie, his body couldn't.
His heavy breathing had already betrayed him.
In the security room, Huang Shanya's Power of God, Wangcai, stood on the table, pacing anxiously in circles.
Rumble-!
Thunder rolled, never once stopping since the two had begun fighting.
The whole of Jiang City was shrouded in a curtain of rain.