Chapter 11: Chapter 11
Sun Yue disengaged from Ye Qingmei.
She moved to intercept, but two eighth-rank Red Lotus Sect fighters stepped forward to fill Sun Yue’s place.
Their coordination was tight, but Ye Qingmei — poisoned or not — was not the kind of opponent eighth-rank fighters could tangle with.
HISS!
Sword qi flared.
The instant steel met flesh, both eighth-rank fighters were wounded. Sword gashes opened across their bodies, blood soaking their clothes crimson.
If Lin En hadn’t committed to a full-force block that absorbed most of her sword qi, both men would have died to that single stroke.
“Kill one of my Red Lotus Sect brothers — and you die!”
Sun Yue launched himself skyward, steel saber arcing overhead before crashing downward at Li Suifeng like a mountain being cleaved in half.
“Red Lotus Sect trash — killing them was the point!”
Li Suifeng’s eyes held neither joy nor sorrow. He strode forward to meet the strike head-on.
His aura erupted. Every muscle across his frame swelled with power.
CLANG!
His right palm deflected the descending saber, swatting it off its trajectory. His other hand shot for Sun Yue’s throat.
“You—”
Sun Yue’s eyes went wide. He’d expected dealing with some no-name nobody to be trivial.
But that palm had rattled him to the core.
This kid was a seventh-rank master — he’d simply concealed the telltale aura somehow. Now Sun Yue was airborne with no foothold to redirect off of. His only option was to meet force with force.
His title might be Soul-Severing Blade, but he’d trained in palm techniques as well.
Sun Yue’s left hand shot out to intercept Li Suifeng’s right, aiming straight for the fingers closing around his throat.
CRACK!
A crisp snap of shattering bone.
“AAAGH…!”
Then came a scream of pure agony.
Sun Yue was dangling in the air, Li Suifeng’s single hand clamped around his throat, holding him up like a ragdoll.
His left hand hung at a grotesque angle, blood drenching the sleeve all the way to the wrist. His steel saber clattered to the ground.
It had happened in an instant. Two exchanges — nothing more.
Everyone froze.
Even Lin En, mid-clash with Ye Qingmei, stopped fighting.
Two moves to cripple Sun Yue. That kind of strength was on par with Ye Qingmei in her prime, wasn’t it?
“Sp… spare me!”
Sun Yue dangled from Li Suifeng’s grip, his plea mangled by the pressure on his windpipe.
“Who’s the Canal Gang higher-up that’s been colluding with your Red Lotus Sect in Nanyang Prefecture?” Li Suifeng asked.
He might well become the Nanyang Branch Helmsman someday. Now that he’d bumped into the Red Lotus Sect, he might as well ask.
A seventh-rank fighter was probably considered high-ranking within the Red Lotus Sect’s Nanyang operations.
“Young hero… I… don’t know!”
“Only the Branch Master knows that!”
Sun Yue’s face was turning purple, the hand around his throat making each breath a battle.
He’d committed crimes in Mingzhou Prefecture and only joined the Red Lotus Sect to survive. He was not about to die here.
CRACK!
Li Suifeng’s fingers squeezed gently.
Sun Yue’s neck snapped. His corpse was tossed aside like refuse.
If you’ve already crossed swords, there’s no room for mercy.
A pity, though — this group of Red Lotus Sect fighters attacking him hadn’t triggered a system task.
“You…”
Lin En’s voice trembled as he watched Li Suifeng advance toward him.
“Attack!”
“Everyone — hit him together! It’s the only way any of us gets out alive!”
Lin En roared the command.
Joining forces was his only chance of escape. If he could just reach the Branch Master, he might survive.
WHOOSH!
Again, the whistle of hidden weapons tore through the air.
Dozens of projectiles hurtled at Li Suifeng.
Every remaining Red Lotus Sect fighter abandoned Ye Qingmei and converged on him.
“If numbers alone could win, what would be the point of martial masters?”
A mocking smile tugged at the corner of Li Suifeng’s mouth.
He turned his right hand with a subtle rotation. Sun Yue’s still-warm blood responded to an invisible pull, streaming out of the corpse and condensing into over a dozen thumbnail-sized, paper-thin projectiles.
FWIP FWIP FWIP!
The blood-forged projectiles shot outward in a lethal spray.
The Life-Death Talisman’s launch technique!
SHUNK!
SHUNK!
SHUNK!
In the span of a heartbeat, over a dozen bodies dropped.
He’d used the Life-Death Talisman’s firing method, but every shot had been aimed at their skulls.
“This…”
In an instant, only three people remained standing on the street — Ye Qingmei, Li Suifeng, and Seven-Trick Sword Lin En.
“I didn’t expect you to be a hidden-weapons expert as well.”
A flicker of curiosity surfaced in Ye Qingmei’s eyes.
She’d met her share of Human Rankings prodigies. Among them was “Heavenly Blossoms” Gu Tianyu, ranked twenty-seventh, whose hidden-weapon skills were renowned. Yet this young man — barely a few years her senior — wielded projectiles with a precision that wasn’t far off from Gu Tianyu himself.
“Young hero… you know the Red Lotus Sect’s power. Even the great factions don’t want to make enemies of us. If you—”
Lin En started to speak, but then he remembered that this man had just killed Sun Yue without blinking. There was no turning back. He pivoted desperately:
“The Branch Master was wounded fighting Ye Qingmei. With your combined strength, you can take him. If you spare my life, I’ll lead you to his hideout.”
【Ding!】
【System Task: Kill Red Lotus Sect Nanyang Branch Master Song Xian. Reward: Frigid Ice True Qi (maxed).】
The task came out of nowhere.
Even Li Suifeng was caught off guard.
When this pack of Red Lotus Sect fighters had been trying to kill him, the system hadn’t issued a peep. Now it decided to show up.
The Frigid Ice True Qi was a top-tier art from the world of the Swordsman — Zuo Lengchan had used it to nearly counter even the Energy Absorption Art. It held a certain appeal.
Still, even though Nanyang Prefecture was a backwater, the man who held the title of Red Lotus Sect Branch Master here had to be at least sixth-rank.
And probably not a simple sixth-rank, either. This would require careful planning.
“I only wounded Song Xian because I got the drop on him. He’s not weak — close to fifth-rank, in fact. With the poison eating at me, I’m afraid I won’t be much help.” Ye Qingmei shook her head.
“Shh shh shh…”
Footsteps approached from somewhere nearby.
Muffled sounds stirred inside the surrounding houses.
“We need to go!”
“We can plan this later — charging in head-first is suicide.”
Ye Qingmei frowned.
This wasn’t the stranger’s fight to begin with. If someone spotted his true face, it could bring the Red Lotus Sect’s wrath down on his head.
“Mm.”
Li Suifeng struck like lightning, one palm chopping toward Lin En.
They were too close. Lin En had let his guard down — he barely managed to raise his sword to block.
But he was a step too slow.
CRACK!
PFFT!
Li Suifeng’s palm hammered into Lin En’s body. Bones snapped. Lin En was flung backward, a gush of blood laced with fragments of shattered organs spraying from his mouth. He crashed to the ground and exhaled his last.
Neither Ye Qingmei nor Li Suifeng hesitated.
They launched into qinggong, streaking away in the opposite direction of the approaching footsteps.
A dozen breaths after they vanished—
Six or seven figures materialized on the street.
The man at their head was Qin Wuyang.
“Elder Qin — these are Red Lotus Sect!”
A Canal Gang disciple spotted the markings on the corpses’ clothing and let out a startled cry.
Qin Wuyang’s face turned ugly. He raised a hand.
“Send someone to notify the Helmsman.”
The eighth-rank retainer accompanying him finished examining the bodies, his expression grave.
“It’s Soul-Severing Blade Sun Yue.”