The snow ape had been sliced clean in two by a single blade strike. The sight sent chills creeping up from the depths of Shao Chengfeng and Feng Yi'an's hearts. Instinctively taking a step back, they once more doubted whether their team leader could truly handle him.
Fu Entao's expression shifted slightly, but his assault was not hindered in the least. Seizing the opening revealed when Qin Ming sidestepped the snow ape, his gleaming saber cleaved through the wind and snow, sweeping toward Qin Ming's waist with incomparable power.
As though anticipating it in advance, Qin Ming held the iron spear with his left hand behind him in a guarding stance, facing away from him. Then, leaping into the air, he used the tremendous momentum of Fu Entao's saber crashing against the iron shaft to propel himself forward with added speed.
An ordinary person would never dare attempt such a feat; even if they weren't cleaved dead on the spot, the sheer concussive force would injure their vitals and leave them coughing up mouthfuls of blood.
Qin Ming remained entirely unharmed. In a single bound, he closed in on his target.
The burly mountain patroller felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. The youth was coming straight for him, ferocious as a mountain beast. The moment Qin Ming landed, a gleaming arc of blade light slashed directly toward him.
He immediately swung his saber to retaliate, intending to clash blow for blow, but in an instant felt his grip slipping from the hilt. The force behind the strike was simply too immense.
After two brief, rapid clashes, the tender flesh between his fingers tore open, blood streaming down to dye the hilt crimson, leaving him unable to hold his saber any longer.
Thwack!
Illuminated by the glow of the Fire Spring, a brilliant streak of blade light flashed. His head flew through the air, and his body collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.
Qin Ming whirled around abruptly. Parrying Fu Entao's saber with his iron spear, his gaze swept murderously toward Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng.
Panic surged in the hearts of the two behind. In ordinary times, they were ruthless characters themselves—vicious as jackals and wolves, sinister, venomous, and calculating. Yet this youth before them was terrifyingly brutal, slaughtering people without uttering a single word, leaving them thoroughly unnerved.
A shadow crept across Fu Entao's heart as well. The pressure this youth—whom he took to have undergone a second Newborn transition—placed on him was immense. Every thrust of the spear and sweep of the blade numbed his arms slightly.
At this moment, he desperately wanted to turn and flee into the dark depths of the forest. Yet he feared that showing cowardice and turning his back would invite a fatal barrage of killing strikes.
Qin Ming spoke. "At the mountain outpost, there were seven heads waiting to be taken. Four have already rolled. Only the three of you are left."
Fu Entao froze, his face darkening. The youth was counting the golden mastiff, the snow ape, and the five men together, equating them with two beasts?
Shao Chengfeng and Feng Yi'an tightened their grips on their iron spear and saber. In normal times, if anyone dared demean them like this, it would be a death wish.
Qin Ming's intention was precisely to stoke their fury. He sensed they had lost their nerve and were considering flight, and he worried he might not be able to catch Fu Entao, who was a second Newborn.
Sure enough, the shadow that had just settled over Fu Entao's mind was provoked away. In this region, not even the veteran leaders of other mountain patrol teams dared humiliate him so.
After years of accumulation, Fu Entao stood on the verge of reaching a higher tier, almost brushing against the threshold.
"He's that Qin Ming from Twin Trees Village?" Fu Entao asked the two behind him.
Earlier, when discussing the Blood Bamboo Forest, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng had both mentioned Qin Ming, planning to use this youth with a golden foundation to scout the path and dispose of him along the way.
"It's him," the bearded Feng Yi'an nodded.
Fu Entao gave a nod and said coldly, "Fine then. Later, we'll wash Twin Trees Village in blood—not a man, woman, old, or young left alive. In these special times, once the mountain-clearing operation begins, it's only normal if an unexpected 'famed beast' charges out from the deep mountains and massacres a village."
The cold smile on his face carried the stench of blood as he slowly raised his saber.
Qin Ming wasn't provoked. His aim had been to stir up their emotions so they wouldn't lose their nerve to fight and flee in the short term.
He added more fuel to the fire, saying, "Was what I said about you wrong? Chixia City pays you generous stipends, and the villagers revere you, willing to let their fire fields suffer reduced harvests just to help your mountain patrol team cultivate Black Moon. And what did you do? Drained the pond to catch the fish, cracked bones to suck the marrow, eager to devour every shred of spiritual essence from the Fire Spring without caring how many people will starve in the coming famine! You slaughtered innocent villagers at whim just to threaten and intimidate the rest! In your eyes, human lives aren't worth as much as a river deer, let alone the golden mastiff you raised. Do you have any shred of humanity left? Was it wrong to put you alongside a vicious dog and a snow ape? You are far more destructive than they are! Think of the mountain patrol team's late former leader, and think of the responsible patrollers in the other teams—you aren't worthy to stand among them."
Qin Ming spoke calmly, without agitation or anger, his voice not even raised.
Yet his words made veins bulge on the hand Fu Entao used to grip his saber. Without a word, he pressed forward on the offensive.
Even Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng brimmed with murderous intent, itching to immediately kill this youth whose calm voice stabbed straight into their souls.
Qin Ming struck first. Gripping the heavy iron spear in one hand, he wielded it as effortlessly as an extension of his arm. The sharp spear tip thrust forth, leaving behind streaks of afterimages that churned the swirling, goose-feather snow. When Fu Entao tilted his head to evade it, the spearhead punched clean through a bowl-thick larch behind him. With a slight flick of Qin Ming's wrist on the spear shaft, the trunk snapped with a loud crack.
Instantly, the wood-chopping knife in his other hand slashed out in follow-up.
In mere breaths, layers of blade light flashed between the two in a perilous exchange. Wherever they passed, swaths of trees toppled, their destructive force astounding.
As they fought their way near the Fire Spring, with a tremendous crash, a large wooden cabin shattered into pieces amid the fury of their blades.
Standing nearly two meters tall, Fu Entao originally carried an imposing presence, but now he was gasping for breath, white vapor steaming from his naturally curly hair. He was alarmed. Exhaustion weighed heavily on him, his arms rattled numb, yet his opponent remained just as ferocious as ever.
Had it not been for his superior speed, he would have fallen long ago.
He noticed that the youth's speed seemed to be lacking, realizing what his own advantage was. Just then, his opportunity arrived: as Qin Ming thrust with the spear while swinging his knife, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng unleashed their full might and struck together in a sudden assault.
Clang!
A piercing clash of metal erupted. Qin Ming parried Shao Chengfeng's iron spear with his wood-chopping knife, then swiftly knocked Feng Yi'an's saber aside with the back of the blade.
At that moment, Fu Entao was like a human predator, savage and relentless. With his hair whipping in the wind and snow, his gaze turned razor-sharp. Gripping his saber with both hands, he brought it down in strike after relentless strike, exerting every ounce of his power.
He noticed that when Qin Ming wielded the iron spear with only one hand to counter him, the force was no longer as overwhelming as before; the youth seemed on the verge of being suppressed.
He roared, "Go all out and kill him!"
Qin Ming used the wood-chopping knife to fend off the other two, while the iron spear in his left hand was battered down by Fu Entao's relentless chops, making his position appear precarious.
In several perilous clashes, he even adopted mutual-destruction tactics—ignoring Fu Entao's incoming saber strikes to thrust his spearhead forward, forcing his opponent to pull back.
Fu Entao sneered coldly. When it came to ferocity, whom had he ever feared? Leaping forward, he merely shifted to shield the vital points of his upper body and swung the gleaming saber downward at Qin Ming with all his might.
At the same time, savage grins broke across Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng's faces. Acting in flawless coordination, they cut off all of Qin Ming's avenues of retreat. Saber and spear struck together, forcing Qin Ming's wood-chopping knife to be used solely to parry their attack.
Qin Ming could not retreat, nor did he have time to dodge Fu Entao's downward cleave. Without the slightest hesitation, he chose to surge forward with increased speed. It was too late to raise the spear high, so its trajectory remained unchanged—thunk—piercing cleanly through Fu Entao's thigh from front to back.
Though Fu Entao's face twitched with agony, his expression turned even colder. In this exchange of blood for blood, he had merely taken a wound to the leg, whereas his saber cleaving down from midair would split his opponent in two.
At that critical instant, with the knife in his right hand still engaged against the other two, Qin Ming let go of the iron spear and raised his left arm to block the razor-sharp saber head-on.
Fu Entao sneered in contempt. Doing that would only result in having his arm and his body hacked through together.
Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng laughed as well. No one knew better than them how terrifying a downward chop from their two-meter-tall leader was; they could already envision the gory aftermath.
Clang!
A vibrating ring rang out, accompanied by the ear-splitting screech of grinding metal. The outcome was nothing like what they had imagined.
The outer garment on Qin Ming's arm tore open, revealing the armor unique to members of the mountain patrol team—and he was wearing more than one layer.
While this armor was not as well-crafted as that worn by Team Leader Fu Entao, Qin Ming had draped three layers over himself, which was more than enough to stop the blade.
Had he not found it too cumbersome, Qin Ming might well have put on the armor of all four men he had slain at the foot of the mountain.
With a heavy thud, Fu Entao landed from midair and stumbled. His thigh had been impaled, the spear still embedded, and blood gushed from the wound. He could barely stay on his feet.
Feng Yi'an turned and bolted without the slightest hesitation, decisive to the core. He knew their entire mountain patrol team was about to be wiped out.
Shao Chengfeng realized as well that the youth's earlier vulnerability had merely been deliberate bait. He immediately fled as well.
Qin Ming picked up an iron spear from the ground, leaped into the air, and hurled it with tremendous force. At such close range, his aim was infallible. The iron spear shot forward at blistering speed and, plunging downward from above, impaled Feng Yi'an through the back with a wet crunch, pinning him to the ground!
"Aaargh..." he screamed in agony. Unable to die immediately, he was trapped in place, powerless to break free.
The instant Qin Ming hit the ground, he gave chase to the other man. His speed might have fallen short against Fu Entao, but catching up to Shao Chengfeng was child's play.
Shao Chengfeng refused to sit and wait for death. He spun around, swinging his iron spear in desperate resistance, but it was futile. A sweep of Qin Ming's knife severed his right arm.
The iron spear clattered to the ground and was picked up by Qin Ming, who then mercilessly pinned Shao Chengfeng to the spot with it as well, splattering the ground with blood.
Standing in the clearing, Qin Ming spoke, "If none of us tried to run and we simply fought to the death right here, I expect I would have finished you off long ago. Throughout the fight, I had to divide my attention for fear that one of you might slip away. If even a single one of you escaped, my mission would have been a failure."
"You..." Propping himself up with his saber, Fu Entao was so infuriated he nearly spat blood, believing the boy was merely boasting.
"Clashing blades with you was indeed strenuous while dividing my attention, but considering I only became a Newborn not long ago, it's forgivable," Qin Ming said, reflecting on the fight.
"What?!" Fu Entao's expression froze, his heart trembling. He could not believe that his opponent had only recently become a Newborn; he refused to accept such a reality.
"So you truly haven't undergone a second Newborn transition..." Feng Yi'an spat out a mouthful of bloody foam and laughed bitterly. He knew everything was completely over—to have crossed paths with such an unbelievable monster.
Chapter 16