Bang!!!
An explosive crash rang out. Peng Tianlang hurriedly raised his saber across his body to block, but Wu Shuangren's strike drove him back a step.
Internal power!
12 First kill
Gripping his saber in both hands, Liao Yu slashed furiously at Peng Tianlang's back.
In that instant just now, he had truly thought he was about to lose his brother!
Peng Tianlang turned sideways and darted away like lightning, but Wu Shuangren's strike had forced him back, slowing him for an instant.
Rrrip-
The sound of a blade slicing through leather.
A gash opened in the leather armor on Peng Tianlang's back, and the tremendous force of the blow sent him staggering.
Mo Zhengshang's iron spear struck at his throat like a venomous snake waiting for its chance.
Peng Tianlang slashed the spear shaft while twisting his head aside, leaving a bloody line on his neck.
His eyes were bloodshot, his beard and hair bristling. Had it not been night, others could have clearly seen white steam rising steadily from the top of his head.
This was what happened when blood and Qi circulated to their utmost limit!
Peng Tianlang stepped to the right and abruptly contracted his body, vanishing into a clump of wild grass like a wolf lying in wait.
"Watch out-"
Liao Yu quickly turned and charged toward Wu Shuangren.
The moment Peng Tianlang ducked into the grass, Wu Shuangren felt a staggering killing intent lock onto him.
He turned decisively, shielding the injured Wu Dongrong behind him.
The grass ahead shook violently, then burst apart. Weeds and dust filled the air, forming a "curtain" that swept toward Wu Shuangren!
In the darkness, the "curtain" was enough to block his view.
A fierce wind howled, and dust stung his eyes.
Wu Shuangren did not swing his saber to block the flying weeds and dust. He narrowed his eyes and waited calmly.
The next instant, a flash of saber light pierced the "curtain" before him, slashing toward him with savage killing intent!
Wu Shuangren swung his saber to meet it, blood and Qi flowing through his body like rivers. In the blink of an eye, his blade clashed three times with the descending thick-backed saber.
Peng Tianlang's blade kept changing its angle of attack and the point of impact, trying to knock the saber from Wu Shuangren's hand.
But at the instant of each collision, Wu Shuangren adjusted his blade, avoiding the points Peng Tianlang wanted to strike. Peng Tianlang's Gold-Inlaid Saber technique was like a blow landing in a ball of cotton.
Peng Tianlang was shocked and furious. He had thought the young man who had been watching from the sidelines all this time was the weakest fighter, yet his saber skills were this formidable?!
He let out another long howl and fixed his blood-red eyes on Wu Shuangren. His saber flashed and whirled as an astonishing killing aura erupted.
It was as though Wu Shuangren saw a vicious wolf open its bloody maw and pounce on him!
But his heart was firm as a rock. Without wavering, he stepped forward.
All he had to do was swing his saber!
The weeds and dust that had just settled burst into the air again. Amid the crisp clash of weapons came the sound of flesh being cut and Peng Tianlang's muffled grunt.
Wu Shuangren stopped Peng Tianlang's all-out attack, and Liao Yu and Mo Zhengshang arrived and wounded him again!
Wu Shuangren had intended to rush in and join the attack, but when Liao Yu and Mo Zhengshang arrived, the blood and Qi surging through his body suddenly calmed, and his internal power vanished.
Startled, he hurriedly retreated.
I can't join a group attack...?
Wu Shuangren immediately understood.
[Match for One Person] only took effect in a one-on-one duel.
But the criteria for a "duel" were actually quite lenient. Just now, Wu Shuangren had faced the charging Peng Tianlang alone, while Liao Yu and Mo Zhengshang had yet to arrive.
That brief interval had also counted as a "duel," and [Match for One Person] had worked consistently.
The "duel" condition was only broken when someone attacked the same target as Wu Shuangren within the same period of time.
In other words, if anyone else joined in during the period from the start of a move to the end of an attack, it could not count as a duel.
Having worked that out, Wu Shuangren did not join the fight. He simply ran alongside the three combatants, keeping his eyes fixed on Peng Tianlang from the outside.
The fight had gone from three against one to two against one, but although there was one fewer person, Mo Zhengshang had more room to use his spear, so the pressure on Peng Tianlang had not lessened much.
He had forcibly stimulated his blood and Qi to enhance his internal power, a method he could not sustain for long. After exchanging a few moves, he resorted to the same trick again, taking a blow from Liao Yu's saber on his leather armor and using the force to leap aside.
Although the leather armor stopped the blade, it did not completely absorb the force behind it. Blood seeped from the corner of Peng Tianlang's mouth; he had already suffered internal injuries.
He had only leaped two zhang and had yet to regain his footing when a figure came at him from the side.
It was Wu Shuangren!
Peng Tianlang let out a furious roar and drove his internal power recklessly. Instead of competing with Wu Shuangren in saber techniques, he simply slashed furiously, trying to force him back with strength.
Their blades collided. Wu Shuangren twisted his wrist, sliding the edges apart, and redirected the force through his feet, stamping two deep footprints into the dirt.
Just as Peng Tianlang swung his second blow, his face suddenly flushed red, and his saber faltered!
He had forced his blood and Qi into motion, exerting himself beyond his limits, and had been wounded repeatedly. Now the circulation of his blood and Qi had finally gone awry.
With [Match for One Person] active, how could Wu Shuangren miss such an opportunity?
He took half a step forward, blood and Qi in his body surging as if about to burst out, and his blade struck the lower half of the thick-backed saber like a raging wave.
Immediately afterward, Wu Shuangren turned his waist and hips, twisting his arm with them. His blade shifted sharply, knocking Peng Tianlang's thick-backed saber aside and leaving him wide open.
Wu Shuangren's blade swept upward, cutting across his opponent's neck without pause!
Swish-
Blood gushed forth, and Peng Tianlang's head flew high into the air.
A fearsome bandit of his generation had fallen!
Liao Yu and Mo Zhengshang, hurrying over, abruptly stopped in their tracks. Both stared at the scene in astonishment.
The man they had failed to take down together had been killed by Wu Shuangren just like that?
How old was Wu Shuangren?!
Liao Yu's feelings were the most complicated. He had watched Wu Shuangren grow up, and he could hardly accept that this junior had suddenly become an expert.
Having killed someone for the first time in his life, Wu Shuangren felt a little weak in the arms and legs.
But he did not feel sick or want to vomit. He was simply unaccustomed to the blood spattered on him and the bloody stench in the air.
"Shuangren, are you all right?!"
Wu Dongrong, his thigh wounded, limped over and asked anxiously.
Wu Shuangren looked at Wu Dongrong's still-bleeding thigh, then glanced down at the leather armor he himself was wearing. He felt something stir in his heart.
"I'm fine. Dad, your wound..."
"It's just a scratch. Nothing serious."
"I'll bandage it for you."
Wu Shuangren crouched down, cut strips of cloth from his clothes with his saber, and bandaged Wu Dongrong's wound.
The cut was actually deep, not the superficial wound Wu Dongrong claimed it was. Fortunately, it was not bleeding much. Presumably, since martial artists could control their blood and Qi with internal power, they could naturally stop a wound from bleeding.
"I'll deal with the rest."
With those words, Mo Zhengshang picked up his iron spear and left.
"Old Liao, you go too. I'm fine here."
Wu Dongrong spoke to Liao Yu.
Liao Yu nodded, picked up his saber, and went to help elsewhere.
Only after the two had left did Wu Dongrong lower his voice. "Didn't you say that person never taught you internal power? What were you using just now?"
Wu Shuangren met his gaze. "I really never learned internal power!"
"Still arguing? You clearly just..."
"I saw you were in danger just now, and in the heat of the moment, I don't know how, but I suddenly could control my blood and Qi. But I really never learned internal power. I have no reason to lie to you about that!"
Wu Shuangren spoke firmly.
Wu Dongrong met his eyes and ultimately chose to believe his son.
Seeing that he would not press the matter, Wu Shuangren breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he was surprised to discover that the [Match for One Person] entry above his head had undergone a new change...
13 Color
Wu Shuangren entered that perspective resembling an out-of-body experience again and "looked" at the entry above his head.
The edges of the four large characters, originally pure white, had turned pale green.
The color changed. If all four characters turn green, will my entry change again?
Wu Shuangren thought, delighted.
What caused the entry to change?
Wu Shuangren began considering the question, and one thing readily came to mind-
He had killed Peng Tianlang.
Can I upgrade the entry by defeating more experts while [Match for One Person] is active?
Wu Shuangren had a guess, and silently felt fortunate that he had come along tonight.
The sounds of fighting around them gradually died down.
With Peng Tianlang dead and the two experts, Mo Zhengshang and Liao Yu, joining the assault, the remaining bandits had little strength left to resist.
The fighting ended before long.
Mo Zhengshang and Liao Yu ordered a count of the casualties and treatment for the wounded.
After a flurry of activity, a row of corpses was laid out in front of the mountain god temple.
Of the fifteen bandits, thirteen had died and two had escaped.
Three of the militiamen Mo Zhengshang had brought from the local militia had died.
One of the constabulary's official constables had died, as had four auxiliary constables.
Wu Shuangren looked at the corpses on the ground. Several of them had still been chatting with them that morning.
In the blink of an eye, those people had become corpses...
Killing someone himself just now had not affected him much, but seeing people he knew reduced to corpses made Wu Shuangren feel a little sick.
The mood was somewhat gloomy, especially among the people from the constabulary. They had thought this trip would be like "picking up money," and had not expected this band of bandits to be so troublesome.
"Carry all the bodies back. We're heading home."
Mo Zhengshang gave the order.
Naturally, Wu Shuangren did not need to carry a body. He had wanted to carry Wu Dongrong, whose thigh was injured, but found it too strenuous with his current build, so he had no choice but to let several auxiliary constables take turns carrying him.
The journey back was slow. Wu Shuangren reflected on the internal power he had used while fighting Peng Tianlang.
After the fight ended, he could no longer control the blood and Qi in his body or enter that state of extreme exhilaration.
[Match for One Person] had only temporarily given him internal power; it had not truly changed how he exerted force.
Wu Shuangren tried to recall that state and imitate the special breathing method, but that alone was nowhere near enough to control his blood, Qi, and mental strength.
Internal power was not that simple.