Aslan reacted quickly, but Naimu'er had anticipated this; seeing him respond, he instantly leaped backward.
At the same time, he drew his pistol and fired four or five shots in rapid succession at his opponent.
His closing in on the wounded man on the ground had fundamentally been a feint to distract him.
Most Great Liang folk refused to be swayed by threats.
Being injured himself, the task his two companions had assigned him was simply to disrupt the enemy's combat rhythm as much as possible!
Yet in the next instant, the youth from Jin spun around, shot back like lightning, and slashed fiercely down at the wounded man on the ground.
When Wu Youren swung his blade toward the injured man, his mind was still as water.
Was it a little underhanded? Perhaps, but at this moment, he was in no mood to worry about that.
He had only one thought in his head: *I want to live!*
The other man had already made his stance clear, coveting his biguijue. He couldn't just wait around until trouble knocked at his door.
He also knew the Liang people didn't yield to threats, but killing one first to vent some spite was only natural, wasn't it?
Fortunately, Aslan arrived in the nick of time, slashing his sword in from an angle toward Wu Youren's legs.
The knight's face contorted as he ground his teeth. "You'll be buried with him!"
Yet right at that moment, Wu Youren's body twisted in an uncanny fashion, his core muscles tensing.
The long saber in his hand carved back in a bizarre trajectory—part slash, part thrust, somewhat like carrying a sword behind the back, yet also resembling a hooked parry.
Aslan possessed extensive combat experience, yet witnessing this sudden shift in technique sent a chill down his spine.
Even so, he remained remarkably calm, tucking his chest and drawing in his belly as his body shifted laterally through midair.
Still airborne, he couldn't help remarking, "Good moves. A pity, though... Wait, what?"
He truly hadn't expected the kid to possess such a rare combat technique—whose style was this?
Even so, it merely surprised him for a moment and actually strengthened his resolve.
Still, he would hold back just a little and try not to kill the boy; after seizing the biguijue, he would try to pry this combat technique out of him!
Yet in the very next instant, he discovered to his astonishment that the youth's wrist twisted once more, sending the saber tip sweeping toward his chest and abdomen.
The angle was exceptionally tricky and bizarre, beyond anything an ordinary person could conceive.
Yet the movements flowed with extraordinary smoothness and natural ease, without the slightest hint of strain... *Damn it, what kind of moves are these?!*
As they might say in a certain world, many traditional martial arts techniques could only be described as "vicious."
He wanted to dodge again, but having already exerted force in midair, he lacked the ability to generate a second burst of momentum.
The kid's movements were also blazingly fast; he could only watch helplessly as the saber tip ripped open his chest and belly, leaving him no time to react.
The force behind this strike wasn't lacking either, surpassing that of an ordinary apprentice knight.
Still, with such a bizarre technique and tricky angle, it was impossible to put full power into it.
Aslan still had battle qi protecting his torso, and he was confident the wound wouldn't be deep.
He was already braced to take the slash head-on; once his feet touched the ground, he would unleash everything to turn the tables and kill him!
His only concern was the uneven ground beneath him; when delivering his lightning-fast riposte, he would need to mind his footwork and leverage.
His landing... was fairly steady, save for a small pebble shifting slightly beneath him.
Yet just as he went to swing his broadsword, he suddenly felt drained of all strength, his limbs limp and useless.
His power was rapidly draining out through his torso, like air leaking from a punctured balloon.
*It's over!* A despairing thought struck his mind. *My qi field has been breached.*
It was normal for a battle qi field to be pierced, resulting in injury to the martial artist.
But when one was utterly exhausted and unable to mend the breach, the consequences were far more severe.
Worst of all was losing effective control over one's battle qi, causing the entire construct to collapse—that truly meant the end.
At this moment, he had only one choice: rely on raw physical flesh to endure!
A knight's physique was far tougher than an ordinary person's, but when facing an apprentice knight armed with a weapon, turning and running was the only sensible path.
Unfortunately, a knight whose qi had leaked could not even muster the speed to run.
Not to mention that Aslan was exhausted and starving, struggling even to stand upright on the rugged hillside.
Gritting his teeth, he resolved to curl into a ball and roll down the mountain.
Whether he lived or died from tumbling down, he could no longer worry about it; the enemy's stance was abundantly clear.
Since they had accused him of carrying Guizu aura, they were bound to go for the kill. Humans and Guizu could not coexist—that was common sense.
Yet just as he began to bend over and curl up, a flash of snow-white blade light arrived once more, lunging straight for his neck—they truly intended to kill him.
He tried to raise his broadsword to parry, but in this moment, the greatsword felt impossibly heavy.
Straining to twist his body, heedless of the intestines spilling from his slashed abdomen, Aslan gritted his teeth and forcefully raised his right arm.
As the blade flashed past, his right arm went flying, the severed right hand still gripping the greatsword tight.
For some inexplicable reason, he felt his body grow a fraction lighter...
In the next instant, a scimitar swept across his chest and stomach, disemboweling him completely.
Then the curved blade reversed in a sweep across his neck.
Aslan could stand no longer. Blood erupted furiously from his neck; he swayed twice and collapsed face-first to the ground.
Those last two slashes came from Cynthia, effectively scooping up an easy kill.
Since the man was tainted by Guizu aura and even the Jin youth had struck, she had no reason to hold back.
She had sensed his greed and malice quite clearly; she had not only voiced a warning, but had also taken an intense dislike to him from the start.
Because the fight had ended so swiftly, like a hare darting and a falcon striking, she had not even realized that the critical damage had come from Wu Youren.
Holding her blood-dripping scimitar, she snorted coldly and proclaimed with haughty pride, "Knights aren't all that much after all!"
Then she turned to Wu Youren. "Where are your ghost-vanquishing bullets?"
The trio's stock of ghost-vanquishing bullets was running critically low; only the Jin youth still held the dozen or so rounds left behind by the instructor.
Wu Youren shook his head, pulled out his biguijue once more, and waved it repeatedly over Aslan on the ground.
Seeing this, Naimu'er was astonished. "A biguijue can be used like that?"
Cynthia glanced at him. "Don't ask so many questions. Take out that one too!"
"Right." Without a second word, Naimu'er slashed straight at the young man on the ground.
Liang people never showed mercy in such matters; the youth had deep ties to the slain knight, so why keep him alive to seek revenge?
Truth be told, someone like Instructor Kelly, who was a descendant of King Xi and yet could live as an ordinary person, must have had special circumstances behind it.
Naimu'er had already killed a knight, and one more life on his hands made little difference.
Previously, he hadn't thought much of Wu Youren because no matter how he looked, he couldn't see what made the boy formidable.
Well, now he had seen him boldly initiate an attack against a knight, and with terrifying prowess to boot; no wonder his junior sister held him in such high regard.
As for hailing from Jin—they said people there tended to be treacherous; truly, a biting dog never barks.
Naimu'er had another motive for striking so decisively: "Xiao Wu, will you search the bodies?"
"Wait a moment," Cynthia said, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Jin youth. "Is the Guizu aura severe?"
He had claimed Aslan harbored Guizu aura, so he had to provide an explanation in the end.
Wu Youren pondered for a moment, slowly retrieved his biguijue, and nodded with a smile. "It's taken care of!"
It was evident he was in very high spirits.
"Does your biguijue have something special about it?" Naimu'er asked.
In different countries, biguijue had distinct stylistic variations; even within Liang, styles and structures differed noticeably.
A biguijue could repel Guizu aura without needing to be pressed right against the target to dispel it, though the effective range varied.
Still, to be able to dispel the lingering Guizu aura on a knight from such a distance proved it was truly a treasure.
"Nothing that special," Wu Youren replied with a chuckle. "There are better ones out there."
He wasn't lying; even with the jade's current quality, it was far inferior to what most hostages in Hostage Manor possessed.
However, he didn't wish to pursue the topic. "You do the honors, Senior. I'd rather avoid suspicion."
They already knew he was from Jin, so he saw no need to explain himself further.
Still, he believed that after his sudden, ferocious assault, as long as Naimu'er retained any sanity, he would think twice before trying to cause trouble.
"Then I'll... go ahead?" Naimu'er glanced tentatively at Cynthia, his face brimming with eager anticipation.
To say nothing of anything else, those two gold coins alone indicated the dead man was carrying plenty of good stuff.
Wu Youren did not linger to watch and stepped back behind the boulder.
He was in genuinely high spirits, for he had harvested another wave of experience points and confirmed part of his hypothesis.
The experience points Aslan yielded were substantial—not quite matching that iron scrap, but roughly half of it.
Crucially, that apprentice knight had also provided some experience points.
Though meager, barely better than nothing, it helped flesh out the underlying logic.
Namely, he didn't earn experience points only from slaying Guizu—neither of these two had actually been tainted by Guizu aura.
At the very least, he hadn't detected the slightest trace of Guizu aura on them.
Cynthia and Naimu'er hadn't sensed any either, but Guizu aura often came and went without a trace, so they hadn't doubted his claim.
*Killing people grants experience points too...* Reflecting on it, Wu Youren found the thought a little chilling. Would he end up turning into a murderous maniac?
Come to think of it, it really felt like playing a video game. Could it be that other people were just NPCs or wild mobs?
Yet thinking carefully, he felt that was unlikely. What kind of game could keep someone fully immersed for this long?
Corroborating this was the death of that old gardener in Hostage Manor, which had almost no direct connection to him.
There was a strong chance the old man had died from drinking his strong liquor.
Yet he had merely brewed it and handed the liquor to another hostage; he didn't even know how the old gardener had gotten his hands on it.
Personally, he hadn't even known the man, so on what basis would the experience points be credited to him?
Fortunately, he had a few other theories as well.
None of this was urgent right now; he could figure it out gradually over time.
Wu Youren still had some faith in himself; at the very least, deep down, he had no desire to slaughter the innocent indiscriminately.
His paramount priority right now was that he had accumulated far too much experience points, making the surging momentum toward breaking through to knight level exceedingly difficult to suppress.
Perhaps, while Instructor Keli was away, he could try out the Daoist method of cultivation?
Chapter 62