Burned Out

In the space of a lightning flash, Chen Fan had no time to block.

His body reacted in the most direct way.

He lunged forward and slammed his shoulder into Li Rong'er, shoving her out of the deadly dagger's path!

Puchi!

There was a muffled sound of flesh being cut.

The short dagger, coated in a green sheen, missed the princess consort, but carved a wound into Chen Fan's back, deep enough to expose bone.

Agony exploded through him in an instant!

Blood dyed his guard's uniform red.

"Ah!"

The two maids inside the carriage finally came to their senses and let out piercing screams.

Li Rong'er was knocked into a corner of the carriage. She looked up to see the gruesome gash across Chen Fan's back and his face, which had gone deathly pale from the pain.

"Go!"

Without looking back, Chen Fan roared with all his strength.

His eyes fixed on the black-clad assassin, he held his saber across his body in a defensive stance.

Reason told Li Rong'er that she had to leave.

If she stayed, she would only be a burden and get the guard who had taken the blade for her killed.

But her legs felt as though they had been filled with lead, and she could not move.

She clutched the Phoenix Seeks the Phoenix she had just received. The smooth, warm jade was now piercingly cold.

The assassin paid Chen Fan no heed. He had only one target in his sights.

His figure flickered as he moved to slip past Chen Fan and pursue the princess consort, who was now exposed.

"I'm your opponent!"

With an angry roar, Chen Fan dragged his injured body forward to meet him.

Saber light flashed again!

This time, it was no longer the conventional, regulation saber technique of the prince's personal guards.

His saber style abruptly changed!

Violent and fierce, it carried a reckless madness!

It was the very Gale Saber Technique that had made him famous back when he was Black Wind Baleful Intent!

In an instant, saber light formed an airtight net within the cramped carriage, sealing off every path the assassin could take.

The assassin was clearly shocked. He had never expected a mere Ninth Grade guard from the prince's residence to wield such a devious and vicious saber technique.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

A rapid barrage of clashing metal rang out wildly inside the carriage.

The sudden, furious assault forced the assassin back again and again.

Though the short dagger in his hand was nimble, he could not gain the slightest advantage for the moment against Chen Fan's life-for-life fighting style.

"You're not a guard from the prince's residence?" the assassin demanded sharply, his attacks growing ever more vicious.

The difference in their internal force was a gulf that could not be crossed.

Though the Gale Saber Technique was exquisite, every slash Chen Fan delivered brought a tremendous recoil from his opponent's Eighth Rank internal force.

"Crack!"

After another head-on clash, the saber in Chen Fan's hand rang out with a sharp crack and snapped in two!

An immense force surged into him. Chen Fan could no longer hold on to the broken saber, and he was flung backward, crashing through the carriage wall on the other side and slamming heavily onto the street.

"Puh!"

A mouthful of blood sprayed across the cold flagstones.

His internal organs felt as though they had all been knocked out of place.

It's over.

I'm dead this time.

I have to go through the pain of dying again.

Chen Fan lay on the ground, feeling his life slip away rapidly, utterly helpless.

It was not that he feared death; he simply did not want to experience the pain of his soul being torn apart again.

It was unbearable.

The street had long since descended into chaos.

People screamed and fled in all directions, knocking over stalls and scattering goods across the ground.

With the maids' help, Li Rong'er finally climbed down from the carriage as well. She looked at Chen Fan lying in a pool of blood, all color draining from her face.

The assassin stepped out of the shattered carriage. Without another glance at Chen Fan, he walked straight toward Li Rong'er.

In his eyes, the guard was already a dead man.

"Princess Consort, it's time to be on your way."

His voice was utterly devoid of emotion.

Li Rong'er closed her eyes in despair.

Just as the assassin was about to strike,

a figure swept in on a gust of wind and blocked her path once more.

It was Chen Fan.

Supporting himself with the half of his broken saber, he staggered to his feet. Blood from his back had soaked through his clothes.

"I'm not... dead yet."

He bared his teeth in a bloody smile at the assassin.

The assassin stopped in his tracks.

He looked at the guard, whose oil was spent and lamp nearly extinguished, yet still refused to fall, and was finally enraged.

"You're courting death!"

Abandoning Li Rong'er, he flashed forward like a bolt of black lightning, charging straight at Chen Fan!

Murderous intent enveloped Chen Fan's entire body.

This time, he was truly at a dead end.

Chen Fan watched the dagger grow rapidly in his vision and knew he could no longer stop it.

He could already feel that familiar stabbing pain deep in his soul.

Yet at this critical moment between life and death,

he suddenly raised his head and looked past the assassin's shoulder toward the chaotic street in the distance.

With the last of his strength, he shouted hoarsely,

"Captain Li! You've watched the show long enough. Aren't you coming out?!"

His shout cut through the noisy street.

The black-clad assassin's movements suddenly faltered.

He instinctively halted his killing blow, a flicker of doubt and alarm crossing his face.

Is he bluffing? Or is there really an ambush?

He whipped his head around, his keen gaze sweeping in the direction Chen Fan was looking.

There was nothing in the street but the panicked crowd fleeing for their lives.

I've been tricked!

Furious, the assassin turned back, ready to hack the brat who had fooled him into ten thousand pieces.

But the instant he turned his head,

"Thud!"

A heavy, muffled sound rang out abruptly.

It sounded less like a footstep and more like a heavy suit of iron armor crashing down from a height.

The assassin's body went rigid.

Slowly, inch by inch, he turned his head back.

There was now a man behind him, though the assassin did not know when he had appeared.

A towering figure clad in the regulation heavy armor of the prince's residence, one hand resting on the saber at his waist, his whole body radiating an iron-blooded killing aura.

Captain Li Zhong.

His face was as still as water, and his eyes, like two unsheathed blades, were fixed on the assassin.