A Riot of Blossoms, Spear and Gun

The instant Troupe Leader Chen heard the warning, he sprang two steps back.

But two steps were all he managed.

After those two steps, he felt a hollow sensation in his chest, and all strength left his body.

A line of blood appeared from his right abdomen to his left shoulder. With a wet spurt, a great spray of hot blood burst forth.

His blood pressure plummeted, knocking him unconscious on the spot.

Troupe Leader Chen's final thought was to tighten his right hand and crush the snuff bottle in his grasp.

Boom!!!

It was as though a signal rocket had exploded in his right hand, sending a streak of red smoke over a foot long shooting outward.

When Chu Tianshu had drawn his sword just now, his right arm had also burst forth at its utmost speed. Only then had he been able to kill the opera troupe's leader with a single stroke.

The sword pointed at the sky without a trace of blood on it, but its blade was still humming faintly, and the force in his fingers had yet to subside.

Seeing the red smoke shooting toward him, Chu Tianshu raised his left hand and held his umbrella across its path.

It was like a giant firecracker exploding in midair.

The large oiled-paper umbrella, with its yellow bamboo ribs, was blown apart on the spot, its fragments flying in every direction.

Amid the shredded paper and bamboo splinters, however, a peachwood scabbard lay across its path.

Chu Tianshu thrust out his left palm, pushing the scabbard into the tip of the red smoke.

Every talisman on the peachwood scabbard lit up in an instant, and the red smoke slowed sharply. At its tip, the faint shape of a thumb-sized swallow could be made out.

It was neither metal nor jade, wood nor stone. Judging by its color and form, it looked like a swallow-shaped pattern fashioned from a great mass of bloody red iron rust.

This was the Red-Tailed Swallow of the Five Rampancies Dharma!

A black swallow skimmed across water; a red swallow skimmed through blood.

To nurture a single Red-Tailed Swallow, Troupe Leader Chen had once sought out ten executioners' sabers in the capital, each of which had been used for more than ten years.

He had performed the Five Communications Opera, gathering the bloody rust and resentful Qi from the blades and nurturing it in a small crystal bottle.

When the Red-Tailed Swallow first took shape, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month that year, he had slit the throats of ten executioners within the midnight hour, letting it taste blood and sharpening its edge.

Over the years, the Red-Tailed Swallow had killed who knew how many people. If the troupe leader were still alive, he could have guided it through twists and turns at will, seeking out weak points.

Its agility and sharpness were almost comparable to the legendary Flying Sword Technique, though its range was limited.

As for the Red-Tailed Swallow now, all that remained was its bloodthirsty, savage nature.

The tip of the red smoke struck the peachwood scabbard. With a flap of its wings, the swallow made no attempt to evade, instead ramming it with all its might.

Boom!!

The peachwood scabbard exploded as well, while the foot-long streak of red smoke lost more than half its length.

Chu Tianshu swiftly pulled his left hand aside and smashed down with his right. His movements were so tight and swift that his arms resembled a rapidly spinning windmill.

The sword hilt was also made of peachwood and bore talismanic commands.

Chu Tianshu's downward blow struck the red swallow squarely with the hilt.

The red swallow let out a piercing bird cry and broke apart on the spot.

Only then did Troupe Leader Chen's corpse fall backward.

The other members of the troupe were all furious and shocked, and they rushed out to attack.

Liu Siniang was still the fastest.

Her whole body resembled a spinning lotus, her billowing skirt its broad leaf, as she suddenly floated out of the corridor.

She crossed the five or six meters in a flash.

The rapidly swirling colors of her costume filled Chu Tianshu's vision, but the sword in his hand slashed down without mercy.

He meant to cleave through the lotus leaf with one stroke, and split the person behind it in two from top to bottom.

The man surnamed Zhou had said a great deal at the restaurant that day, but Chu Tianshu and the others had not believed all of it.

In the middle of the night, Shopkeeper Ma had cast a spell, releasing all the sparrow spirits to slip in bit by bit and investigate carefully. He had lit incense and sat quietly, watching through their eyes in his mind.

He had seen that the troupe really was rehearsing scenes from the heretical Five Communications Opera.

And in the side rooms of the mansion's rear courtyard, Meng Xiaobao was not the only child hidden away. There were more than twenty of them.

The oldest were no more than ten, while the youngest were probably only three or four. All had been drugged into a stupor so they would neither cry out nor run, and shut inside large iron cages.

The martial performers were responsible for bringing them food. Judging by the basins, they were fed about once a day, an unorthodox medicinal meal from the jianghu to keep them alive.

They put on a respectable face for outsiders and sang of loyalty, filial piety, honor, and righteousness, yet secretly abducted children and treated them like livestock.

Even if these children were rescued, several of them would likely be left with lasting ailments and be difficult to raise to adulthood.

Chu Tianshu had already wanted to kill the man surnamed Zhou yesterday.

But after hearing Shopkeeper Ma's account in the middle of the night, his killing intent toward the troupe had leaped forward, leaving his desire to kill the man surnamed Zhou far behind.

Now, the vicious force of his downward slash tore a shriek through the air like an iron whistle.

The lotus-leaf skirt was cleaved open, but unfortunately, the blade did not strike her body.

The moment the skirt split, Liu Siniang kicked the blade.

When she performed, she wore small-foot coverings over the fronts of her feet. Lacquered and patterned on the outside, they looked like wood, but were actually made of refined iron.

Her toe struck the blade with a crisp metallic clang.

Astonishingly, Chu Tianshu's sword blade flew out of his hand, spinning skyward and shooting high into the air.

Indeed, only the blade had left his hand. The hilt was still in his grasp.

Chu Tianshu's expression changed slightly. He closed his fingers and crushed the hilt.

What sifted through his fingers was not hard splinters of wood, but rotten powder, as though insects and ants had eaten it hollow.

The hilt's collision with the red swallow just now had indeed smashed the evil spirit to death.

But the peachwood hilt had also been corroded and eaten hollow, leaving only a brittle outer shell that still looked intact.

Liu Siniang had anticipated this. After kicking the blade away, she suddenly dropped down, stamping toward the top of Chu Tianshu's foot.

Chu Tianshu pulled his foot back, and her iron toe could only smash into the ground.

As the stone bricks cracked, her foot rebounded off the ground and shot upward even faster than before, kicking toward Chu Tianshu's chest.

Her split skirt swept like a peacock's tail as Liu Siniang pressed her attack fiercely, her feet rising and falling and changing direction in a chain of kicks that forced Chu Tianshu to retreat again and again.

The others in the front hall had also charged out by then.

They had been familiarizing themselves with the performance and all had things used in the Five Communications Opera at hand. Swords, sabers, and musical instruments were all deadly weapons.

In particular, the several dressed as martial performers were close to the main gate. They charged out like fierce tigers descending a mountain, ready to surround and kill Chu Tianshu.

Just then, the sky suddenly darkened.

A figure sprang in from the eaves above the mansion's main gate.

Like a diving eagle, the man swept past the spirit screen and the great water vat, charging into the front courtyard. His feet struck the rain-soaked stone bricks, and he slid forward.

A length of green bamboo pierced the curtain of rain and mist, its tip wrapped in thick sheet iron shaped into a cone to serve as a spearhead.

The martial performer in front was quick enough, hastily holding his saber across his throat to block the spearhead with its blade.

But that crude spearhead punched straight through the refined iron blade and plunged into his neck.

Clang!!

By the time the sound of the blade being pierced rang out, the spear had already been withdrawn.

Zhong Jinqiu flicked his wrist, sweeping the spearhead against the base of the corpse's ear and sending it crashing sideways, exposing a host of enemies behind it.

Three gleaming silver sabers chopped at the green bamboo pole at once.

With the coordination of an opera troupe, the three struck together, their flashing blades dazzling to the eye.

Zhong Jinqiu was only one man with a battered spear, but he shook out a continuous flurry of spear blossoms, knocking the blades aside and pressing them down.

His spear was so fast that he fought all three alone, sparks flashing incessantly where the spearhead scraped against the blades.

From beginning to end, only the part of the spearhead protected by thick sheet iron collided with the saber edges.

After a round of aggressive attacks, the three had failed to advance even half a step. When their hands slowed slightly, the spear's pointed tip flicked sideways and swept across all three throats.

This time, the troupe members behind them turned ruthless and shoved all three corpses forward at Zhong Jinqiu.

Zhong Jinqiu suddenly pulled his spear back, then thrust again.

The long spear darted like a white snake flicking its tongue, stabbing diagonally into a gap between the stone bricks.

The green bamboo pole bent under pressure into a full arc. Its wielder leaped backward, and the pole sprang straight.

As though launched from a catapult, Zhong Jinqiu dodged the three hurtling corpses and landed behind the great lotus vat. He kicked the vat at once.

The vat burst apart, not from the point where he had kicked it, but in every direction at once, leaving only its base intact.

A whole vat of water spilled out and washed across the ground.

Zhong Jinqiu's second kick had already struck the heavy base, sending it sliding along with the flow of water and crashing into the crowd.

The crowd fell into confusion. Some tried to dodge, while others raised their feet to intercept it.

Zhong Jinqiu had already swept his spear into the crowd and charged through as though no one stood in his way, fighting his way into the front hall.

Water spread freely across the courtyard.

It reached the corner where Chu Tianshu and Liu Siniang were fighting as well.

Liu Siniang's next step came down a little harder, leaving a shallow pit of broken brick in the ground to keep the slippery water from affecting her footing.

She specialized in kicking techniques and hardly ever had both feet on the ground during a fight. She relied on the alternating strength of one foot at a time to display her footwork, so she was instinctively more cautious when the footing changed.

Boom!!

At the same time, Chu Tianshu seized the opening and swung out a long-armed punch, producing an explosive crack in the air.

Liu Siniang's waist swayed like a willow branch, and her head naturally slipped aside, dodging the punch.

The swinging punch was withdrawn as soon as it was thrown, but on its way back, it raked three bloody lines across Liu Siniang's face.

As the Tongbei Fist saying went, "Throw the fist like an arrow, draw it back like a hook!"

When a swinging punch was thrown, the hand did not necessarily form a fist. It could also strike with the back of the hand, in a move called the whip hand. But when withdrawn, it always took the shape of a claw.

Pain stung Liu Siniang's face, and a reflex made her whole body tense for an instant. The straining lines of her clenched jaw muscles were visible on her cheeks.

The face was one of the most sensitive parts of the human body, and tensing up when injured was inevitable.

But for a kicking expert like her, that tension in her face slowed her legs.

Liu Siniang had just begun to kick when Chu Tianshu intercepted her with a kick to the front of her shin, sending another piercing pain through her.

Boom, boom, boom!!!

In the next instant, Liu Siniang took three punches in succession to the chest, neck, and forehead. Her pupils went slack, and her body crashed backward.

White Ape Startled by Dew, three punches to take a life!

Chu Tianshu remembered the first time he had watched her perform, and a trace of complicated emotion flashed across his face.

In the Mulian Opera, a mother's love for her child moved the Buddha, allowing the child to brave hell, save his mother, and free her from the sea of suffering.

Yet the person before him was an accomplice in the abuse of children, and would go to hell for it.

Chu Tianshu's eyes shifted, his icy gaze turning toward the front hall.

Zhong Jinqiu had killed as he charged, carving a bloody path, but he had dealt with only about half the people in the courtyard.

The rest had been terrified by that long spear. Just as they turned to look toward Liu Siniang, they saw a flash of silver.

A silver needle struck a white-faced clown in the face, and the saber was immediately snatched from his hand.

Chu Tianshu charged into the crowd with the saber, its blade moving with his body.

By the time he passed through the crowd and entered the front hall, everyone in the courtyard had a broken leg and lay on the ground screaming.

Their fighting spirit had been at its height when they attacked Zhong Jinqiu.

Now, they were still shaken, and Chu Tianshu had caught them by surprise, aiming not to kill or wound them otherwise, but only to break their legs.

Thus, the remaining people in the courtyard had almost collapsed at first contact, every one of them falling to the ground.

The servants outside the rear hall had long since heard that something was wrong and hurried into the hall.

"Eunuch, something's happened out front!"

The old eunuch did not react at all. In his urgency, one servant grabbed him and shook him several times.

"Eunuch! Eunuch!!"

The old eunuch's eyelids remained tightly shut, his eyeballs rolling from side to side, but he still did not wake.

A rumble came from the courtyard, and a huge hole was smashed through the front hall's wall.

Broken bricks and the bass drummer flew backward together, crashing onto the opera stage in the courtyard.

A broken length of spear still protruded from the bald drummer's chest. The instant he was struck, he had crossed his two drum mallets and smashed the green bamboo shaft in two.

Two figures pursued him onto the stage, one holding the broken bamboo, the other carrying a saber.

"Quick!"

"Old Ma can't hold out much longer," Zhong Jinqiu shouted. "As soon as we get close, our killing intent will wake him."

Chu Tianshu transferred the saber to his left hand, reached behind his waist with his right, and drew a revolver.

As soon as a killer approached the room, the old eunuch would wake.

But if he drew his gun before getting close, could the sleeping old eunuch react in time?!

The revolver had been left behind by that bandit leader. There was no telling where he had gotten it, but its caliber was large, and it was even more powerful than the militia's crude rifles.

Only one bullet remained, and Chu Tianshu intended to use it here.

Using his powerful muscle control to hold the gun perfectly steady, Chu Tianshu aimed at the old eunuch's eye socket and pulled the trigger in an instant.

Bang!!

The old eunuch's eyes flew open, but before he could make another move, an impact carried his gaunt body backward, smashing his chair and slamming him into the wall.

His head, its white hair disheveled, struck the wall and sagged forward.

A hit!

The two servants stared at the scene in utter terror, silent as cicadas in winter.

But in the blink of an eye, that head rose again, its face twisted and ferocious.

"Who?!"

In that instant, he had moved an inch or so out of the searing bullet's path. Instead of hitting his eye socket, it struck his cheekbone.

What was frightening was that the bullet had only broken the old monster's skin before it deformed and lodged in his flesh.