The Killing Begins

The crescent moon was thin and the starlight was sparse.

The lighting conditions are poor tonight.

All the houses in Luoyang, whether restaurants, shops, pagodas, mansions, courtyards, or ordinary houses, had only dim outlines.

The occasional bursts of fire from the city wall could serve as a temporary source of light.

However, Chu Tianshu turned the shells towards the outside of the city, and after a round of bombardment...

The city, now devoid of its superfluous light sources, appeared even darker than before.

At that moment, Sun Feng'an arrived at full speed and stepped onto the small bridge in front of him.

This gray-white stone arch bridge spans the small river. The bridge is mottled and dirty, and several pieces of the railing are missing.

Given Sun Feng'an's speed, he could basically cross the entire bridge with just one step.

But as soon as his right foot stepped onto the ground, he felt that the surrounding environment suddenly became unusually dark, and the sound of the water suddenly became piercing.

The bridge surface arches abruptly, and the stone slabs show signs of cracking.

"Oh?!"

Sun Feng'an, who was already leaning forward and about to sprint, suddenly twisted his waist.

With a whoosh, his whole body spun like a top, flying diagonally to the right railing.

Large stone slabs on the bridge shattered and flew upwards, revealing a skeletal figure leaping out of the water.

This skeleton had no head, and its entire skeletal frame was yellowed. Dozens of cinnabar talismans were pasted all over its body, but the talismans didn't get wet at all when it was submerged in water.

After crashing through the bridge, the skeleton actually floated in mid-air, standing in mid-air.

There was clearly no flesh and blood, no clothes.

But its slender limbs, especially its delicate Ruyu hand bones, combined with the fluttering talisman paper and the swirling water mist around it, made it a striking sight.

She possessed a unique, elegant air, with flowing sleeves that billowed like clouds.

Sun Feng'an had never seen this skeleton before, but a name instinctively flashed through his mind.

"Brother Yu Ji."

Sun Feng'an stood steadily on the railing and took out a folding fan from her sleeve.

"You're not the real Sun Ce. You should find the person who desecrated your tomb and dug up your bones and take revenge on them first!"

The talismans affixed to the skeleton were all fluttering fiercely from the inside out.

The remains of this ancient sorcerer, after his death, were said to have been arranged by his disciples in the tomb to gather extremely pure yin energy.

The Five Rampancies Dharma Sect unearthed it, refined it repeatedly, and manipulated it by the Holy Maiden, giving it numerous wondrous uses.

If it were used for curses, it would have taken longer to process, but its invisible power would ignore the target's defenses.

Let the life force of the target engage in a dull, agonizing battle with this curse, wearing it down day by day until it becomes incurable.

The situation has changed drastically, so using it as a curse is clearly inappropriate.

Once the Holy Maiden Cao Ying made her decision, she decided to unleash the essence of the skeleton tonight.

When the ancient yin energy emanated from the skeleton, it was not like ordinary yin energy, which carried a fishy smell or even manifested as black. Instead, it resembled a colorless and formless north wind.

However, the surrounding light naturally becomes diluted and darkened.

The moisture content in the air rises rapidly.

Sun Feng'an only said two sentences before large raindrops began to fall from the sky.

Splash splash splash splash!!

It's like rain falling from tens of meters above the ground.

The area affected by the rainfall was only slightly larger than the bridge.

But Sun Feng'an felt a deep sense of being locked on.

He had no doubt that if he left the bridge, the rain would move with him.

Call!!

The skull was like a magnet strongly attracted to Sun Feng'an; it slid through the air to Sun Feng'an in an instant, carried by the dampness of the rain.

The slightly yellow finger bones, like sharp thorns, pierced into Sun Feng'an's chest.

The closed folding fan protruded from below, resting against the skull's wrist.

Within a second, the folding fan collided with the skull's hands more than thirty times.

Sun Feng'an exerted his strength so fiercely and swiftly that his hair stood on end like needles, and his clothes shook violently.

The rain couldn't get close to his body for a moment.

Beneath the rain, a distinct gap appeared in his silhouette.

"You ungrateful wretch!"

Sun Feng'an let out a low shout and thrust his folding fan with all his might, instantly breaking through the waterless area.

The folding fan in his hand resembled a short spearhead, its purple aura fierce and crackling like lightning.

A large raindrop in front of me was wiped away by the folding fan and disappeared instantly, as if it had never existed.

Compared to a full-length spear, this short spear and broken blade fighting style, simulated using a folding fan, exudes a more thrilling and ferocious aura.

Actually, this is also a bayonet fighting style.

When Sun Feng'an went to Columbia University, his father only gave him a bayonet for self-defense.

"This was forged using ancient Chinese steel ingots, modeled after the design of modern bayonets. It inherits the past while innovating, serving as a weapon for your self-defense and a symbol of your resolve."

Later, because of the vengeful spirits of the indigenous people in Columbia, many students became like zombies.

After Sun Feng'an used the ancient bayonet to perform a ritual to guide the souls of the dead, the blade was damaged in several places and rendered unusable.

After returning to his country, he only carried the fragments with him as a memento. Later, by chance, he met Cai Shanjun was suffering from a strange poison, at a ferry crossing.

It was through that meeting that he reforged the fragments, transforming them into fan ribs, thus creating this folding fan.

Seeking only the sharpness of bayonets will not build a peaceful foundation; the indomitable spirit amidst ruins is the principle by which he lives today.

The fan's surface depicts a desolate landscape, while within it lies a weapon of iron as sharp as a spear.

Even if Sun Feng'an obtained Sun Ce's Origin Canon, he never truly considered himself Sun Ce.

How could that Hegemon-King of Jiangdong understand, like my father and I, to first care for the people before seeking to establish a career?

How could Sun Bofu of the Three Kingdoms possibly regard Zhuge as a mentor and friend?

However, what stood in the way of Sun Ce and his brothers back then included a powerful old force with four generations of high-ranking officials, as well as a rapidly rising military and political monster who only cared about profit and loss.

What now looms over Sun Feng'an seems to be the same deeply rooted, inescapable gloom.

Boom!!!

The folding fan struck the skull's collarbone, causing cracks to appear.

The skeleton trembled violently, like a kite with a broken string, and suddenly drifted away.

But in an instant, it drifted back with rainwater, tearing at the bones of both hands.

Sun Feng'an's heart sank. He wanted to break the skeleton's bones, not to drive it away.

If a full-force attack can only repel but not destroy, then he will likely be entangled with a headless skeleton.

Xu Laohu has not yet appeared.

That guy, though poor at management and with a disorganized army, was able to repeatedly defeat overwhelming odds and lead his men out of encirclement with his personal bravery...

Clang!!

The folding fan struck again at high speed, colliding with the skull and exploding into fist-sized bursts of purple light.

About 100 meters away, on the street diagonally opposite the small bridge.

Huo Ming rushed over, his rifle aimed at the skeleton, but suddenly a chill ran down his spine, and he dodged.

Six or seven small craters immediately appeared on the road, coming from all directions.

Huo Ming leaned against the wall and looked up.

The men who had been shooting at him from at least two hundred meters away had taken cover behind the roof, but Huo Ming continued to fire.

Bang bang bang bang!!

The muzzle moved only slightly, and the angle changed four times, firing in four directions.

All the bullets that Huo Ming fired had an arc.

To the southeast, the gunman hiding behind the roof ridge never expected that a streak of blue light would bypass the roof ridge and strike him on the top of his head.

The four gunmen rolled off the roof with a dull thud, like sacks hitting the ground.

Those who died under Huo Ming's gun all died from a direct hit to the head.

Huo Ming only had time to fire four shots before he immediately fled.

Several bullets grazed the spot where he had just been standing.

"Are these people's eyesight and reflexes enhanced by magic? How come they're all so good?"

Huo Ming darted through the narrow alleys, then suddenly raised his right hand to shove up the muzzle of his gun.

A gunman on the right roof, only a few meters away from him, had just peeked out when a gun was pressed against his forehead.

With a thud, the body fell to the ground.

Huo Ming huddled under the eaves for a short rest.

"They couldn't have done this by coordinating on their own; it was due to the terrain and communication. Someone had obtained a map of Luoyang's eastern district beforehand, made plans, and could even give commands remotely."

He glanced at the corpse.

There was no communicator on the corpse, so it must have been done by magic. If it was done by magic, how much casting material would that have required?

Huo Ming's eyes flickered slightly. He seemed to sense that a huge, heavy net was covering the East District.

A gunman in the northeast had just taken his position and, without thinking, poked his head out, ready to pull the trigger on Huo Ming.

He didn't notice a flash of green in the air behind him.

Chu Tianshu stepped on his back, and a muffled groan came from beneath his foot; the man had died instantly.

Chu Tianshu leaped down from the city wall, having already killed twelve people.

Killing these gunmen doesn't take much effort, but in today's dangerous Dongcheng District, high-speed counter-attacks require considerable energy.

"Call!!"

Chu Tianshu also showed signs of fatigue. He took a step to the side, his back muscles relaxed, and his figure flashed out, leaping onto the side street.

With his previous agility, all that could be seen when he came and went was a blur of green shadows moving through the air.

Just now, although that step shifted more than ten meters to the side in an instant, it didn't emit such abundant green energy.

His back muscles tensed, his arms were raised horizontally, and his entire body moved sideways, allowing us to see the details of his fall onto the street.

It is clearly the agile side-jumping footwork from Tongbei Fist.

The street where he landed was mostly lined with shops, teahouses, and restaurants, and the houses there were taller than those in other places.

The shadows cast were also heavier.

The wine flags and other decorations extending horizontally from the rooftops were also more cluttered than elsewhere.

As soon as Chu Tianshu landed, a patch of shadow under the teahouse suddenly came to life.

It turned out to be a short, stout old man sitting in the shadows of the teahouse, his whole body seemingly shrouded in a strange, dark aura.

This made him appear like a flat shadow when he wasn't moving.

At this moment, his body suddenly swelled up. Although he was still squatting, his plump body appeared very solid, full, and powerful.

He crouched down and swayed his body, reaching Chu Tianshu's feet, and then casually threw something at him.

It was a bench, no more than two feet long and one foot high, covered with several layers of tattered cloth, and very inconspicuous.

But when the sharp edge of the stool struck Chu Tianshu's shinbone, even Chu Tianshu felt his hair stand on end.

There's a kind of phantom pain that arrives even faster than the sharp edges of a stool, penetrating deep into the bone marrow.

Chu Tianshu suddenly pulled his leg back and slapped the short, fat man's head with his palm.

The front edge of the stool missed its target, but it flipped over, with the rear edge pointing upwards to intercept Chu Tianshu's wrist.

The speed at which the stool was lifted seemed to be no slower than the speed at which Chu Tianshu reached out his hand.

Only a dark shadow could be seen flashing upwards in the air.

This short, stout old man was named Laughing Guest. Although he was unremarkable in appearance and his real name was unknown, he was once the number one assassin in the Forbidden City.

When he went out to kill, he only carried this iron stool. When he killed, he often shattered the bones of the victim's limbs, collapsed the chest cavity, and the death was so gruesome that it was unbearable to look at.

Moreover, he preferred to kill people in busy city centers.

An old man sitting on a bench by the street, smiling broadly, flipped the bench over, instantly smashed the victim with a hook, and left, leaving only the corpse smeared on the ground.

This time, the Cao Family invited him out.

The Five Rampancies Saintess even sent two preachers, whose souls left their bodies and possessed his.

The Mind Power of the two great preachers naturally harmonized with his muscles, bones, blood, and energy.

This strike was truly the most powerful he had ever delivered.

He felt as if the air was as easily accessible as layers of damp cloth.

Yet it resembles rotten Xuan paper.

Even if they rushed forward one after another, they were easily torn apart by his iron bench.

Chu Tianshu's outstretched hand and wrist seemed so fragile, hovering above the iron bench.

But then the hand suddenly retracted, and then released again!

His fatigue vanished instantly, replaced by a murderous intent!

(End of this chapter)