Chapter 56 The Terrifying Blade

The word "head" sounded the horn of slaughter.

Wang Yuyan took the lead, flying straight toward Duan Yanqing and thrusting out a palm!

Amidst the faint roar of a dragon, Duan Yanqing knew that Wang Yuyan’s internal force was immensely formidable. Using his steel staff as a sword, he countered her attack.

The Duan family possessed not only the One-Sun Finger, but also their ancestral sword techniques.

Once both the One-Sun Finger and the sword techniques were mastered to an advanced level, one could progress to the ultimate Duan family art: the Six Meridian Divine Sword!

The Duan family sword techniques were no secret in the pugilistic world, and at a single glance, Wang Yuyan saw through the flaw in this move as well as its subsequent variations.

Instead of changing her stance, she simply added another palm strike, hitting the exact point of transition in Duan Yanqing's counter. Then, her dual palms closed in, driving straight toward his chest.

These rapid moves threw Duan Yanqing completely off balance, forcing him to retreat.

As he fell back, Wang Yuyan unleashed a continuous flurry of palm strikes, giving him no time to catch his breath.

His lightness skills, footwork, and swordplay were seen through completely and anticipated entirely by Wang Yuyan.

Fleeing backward through the air, Duan Yanqing raised his hand and fired an One-Sun Finger!

Seeing that this young girl of barely seventeen or eighteen was this ferocious, he could not help exclaiming, "What a formidable girl!"

Compared to her, all his decades of martial arts training might as well have been wasted on a dog!

The One-Sun Finger was the unique signature art of the Dali Duan family, graded by ranks, with the first rank being the highest.

When trained to its absolute pinnacle, one's internal energy became unfathomably deep, capable of projecting force through the air to injure foes with terrifying power.

Ordinarily, Duan Yanqing could never have reached the highest realm, but having suffered total mutilation of his body, by a stroke of sheer fortune he had stumbled upon and mastered the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic.

True to its reputation as the supreme martial art of Shaolin Temple, the classic not only deepened his internal strength immensely, but even restored sensation to his crippled limbs.

Thus, this single finger strike hissed through the air with ferocious dominance, carrying the faint, shadowy semblance of the Six Meridian Divine Sword.

Wang Yuyan did not dodge or evade, letting the strike hit her squarely. Feeling a surge of finger force pierce straight through her chest, she could not suppress a mouthful of fresh blood.

A flash of triumph crossed Duan Yanqing's heart, only to see Wang Yuyan wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth, paying no heed to her injury whatsoever. Instead, her eyes blazed with excitement as she cried out, "Again! Come again!"

Immediately after, the sound of a dragon's roar accompanied by a fierce gale closed in on him!

Before he even understood what was happening, the iron staff he raised to block was bent double by Wang Yuyan's single palm strike.

Duan Yanqing's eyelids twitched violently. Those were dual staffs forged from refined steel, the very crutches he relied on for daily movement!

What on earth was wrong with this girl?

While Wang Yuyan was displaying divine might and pursuing Duan Yanqing, Zhu had already finished off the Western Summer warriors single-handedly.

***

That squad of Western Summer warriors, clad in leather armor and armed with long spears, possessed superior martial arts and were elite fighters of the Western Summer Yipin Hall.

Now, apart from two or three who managed to flee, all the rest had been slain by Zhu.

A black blade, a bright full moon, pure slaughter, and fragmented corpses.

Anyone who witnessed Zhu's blade technique would feel a chill run down their spine, marveling that such a terrifying saber style could exist in this world.

Every single one of those Western Summer warriors had been cleaved cleanly in two by the black wooden blade in Zhu's hand.

If someone were to measure them with a ruler, the left and right halves would be identical.

Faced with this terrifying blade, some tried to fight, some attempted to use poison, and others launched sneak attacks, but in the end, there was only one outcome.

"Terrifying! What a terrifying blade technique..." Yue Lao'er, the big-headed brute, clutched his crocodile-tail whip and hid behind Duan Yu, still shaken to his core.

Just moments before, holding his crocodile-tail whip and crocodile-mouth shears, he had been observing the situation.

On one side was his boss; on the other side was his master.

As he was trying to figure out which side to help, he watched as Zhu cut down the Western Summer warriors one by one, slicing them in half as easily as chopping vegetables and melons.

Zhu, caught up in the frenzy of slaughter, suddenly noticed this ugly freak staring blankly with a weapon in hand.

The freak had a massive head, small and round eyes, an upturned nose, a thick upper body with slender legs, fingernails long and curved like chicken talons, and a scruffy beard—looking both vicious and bizarre, which thoroughly displeased Zhu.

What are you staring at?

Fortunately, Duan Yu spoke up in time, declaring that this was his disciple, causing Zhu's blade to veer off course. It struck the empty ground beside them, gouging out a trench a thumb's width wide.

Yue Lao'er was frightened out of his wits, missing being split open himself by a mere hair's breadth!

He had nearly transformed from the Chinese character for "person" into the slanted strokes "丿" and "丶"!

"Disciple! Look, acknowledging me as your master was useful after all, wasn't it?" Duan Yu said to Yue Lao'er.

As the Southern Sea Crocodile God and one of the great villains of the world, Yue Lao'er had lost a wager with Duan Yu. True to his word, he had accepted his defeat and taken Duan Yu as his master.

What was even more remarkable was that after becoming his disciple, Yue Lao'er actually showed him considerable respect!

"Master, who are all these people?" Yue Lao'er asked, rolling his eyes as he looked at Shi Fei and the others.

Duan Yu joked, "These are all your Master's friends, and your martial uncles. Why don't you call out to them as martial uncles? Won't you have established connections if you run into them in the future?"

If anyone else had said this, Yue Lao'er certainly wouldn't have submitted, but having witnessed Zhu kill without blinking an eye, his heart quailed with dread. Collecting his wits, he stepped forward and said to Zhu, "Yue Lao'er greets Martial Uncle!"

Zhu was in the midst of retrieving medicinal pills from her pouch when she heard the big-faced, small-eyed Yue Lao'er address her as martial uncle.

Seeing a man in his forties looking completely earnest as he called her martial uncle, she couldn't help feeling a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

***

Seeing that Zhu did not object, Yue Lao'er turned to Shi Fei and said, "Yue Lao'er greets Martial Uncle!"

Shi Fei tossed a melon seed into his mouth and laughed, "Those who submit to circumstances are wise men! Following Prince Duan to become a founding subject of a new dynasty—isn't that far better than drifting through the pugilistic world?"

Yue Lao'er's old face flushed red, and he remained silent.

Calling someone martial uncle just to save one's skin was indeed rather humiliating.

But that blade technique was simply too terrifying!

"Here! Have some melon seeds!" Shi Fei said, handing him a handful.

"Yue Lao'er greets Martial Uncle! Yue Lao'er greets Martial Uncle!" Yue Lao'er bowed and shouted toward Ah Bi and the immobilized Murong Xing as well.

Ah Bi merely smiled at him, while Murong Xing, unable to move, could only roll his eyes.

Retrieving two kinds of medicine from her pouch, Zhu walked over to the completely motionless Qiao Feng.

"It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" Zhu said, looking at Qiao Feng, whose entire body was stained with blood.

Qiao Feng had also been struck by the Tragic Wind of Bliss, rendering him completely immobile and unable to speak.

In truth, he could have forcibly activated the Heart-Burning Technique to expel the poison, but right then, he was grievously wounded. Once the Blood-Dyeing Technique was initiated, his blood would circulate at an extreme speed.

He feared he might bleed to death.

If the Beggars' Sect brothers were behind him, he could have died in battle for the sect. But he had already been betrayed by the Beggars' Sect, and he still harbored doubts about his own origins.

Moreover, the leading elder responsible for murdering his parents was still living comfortably!

If he did not kill that man, how could he face the spirits of his biological parents in heaven?

"I don't have the antidote, but I can bandage your wounds for you first!" Zhu looked at this man of iron, her eyes filled with admiration.

With that, she applied medicine to Qiao Feng's wounds, bandaged them up, and fed him a medicinal pill.

Qiao Feng felt a trace of coolness wash over his stabbed wounds, while the pill he swallowed dissolved into a warm current.

He looked at Zhu with a gaze full of gratitude.

If he could speak, he would surely have said thank you to this young maiden.

Seemingly guessing what Qiao Feng wanted to say, Zhu smiled and said, "My name is Zhu!"

From that moment on, the name Zhu was deeply etched into Qiao Feng's heart.