"Why did Han Qingyu suddenly run away?!" At the entrance of an office building by the edge of the square, a tall man in a Rejecters uniform looked thoroughly bewildered, turning to ask his colleague beside him.
Just moments ago, at the height of danger, Han Qingyu had fought Ye Jian alone, risking his life to shatter the blades and bar his path. But now, everything here was completely under control: thousands of soldiers stood in formation, a super-expert had intervened to intercept the enemy, and even the Legion Commander was personally overseeing the field...
Even noncombatants like them dared to stop running and secretly watch from the sidelines... Yet Han Qingyu, of all people, had inexplicably grabbed his things and bolted. He had even fled looking somewhat frantic.
"Tu Zi, Tu Zi?!"
Seeing his companion lost in thought, the tall man called out twice more.
"Hmm?" A handsome, delicate youth who looked somewhat pretty-faced turned his head back.
Tu Zi was naturally still with the Rejecters. However, to attend this All-Army Conference, he had specially borrowed a combat uniform and slung twin sabers across his back. He wasn't the only one; word had it that among this year's batch of Azure recruits, more and more people were submitting requests to be equipped with twin blades.
Tu Zi had only just arrived as well, having come in the same group as Xin Yaoqiao and the others. Before he even had the chance to find Brother Qingzi to say hello, he had witnessed that scene unfold.
"Your Brother Qingzi... ran," the tall man said, gesturing toward the conference hall while asking in confusion, "Why?"
He seemed unable to accept that the young Azure hero from two minutes ago had suddenly become the one fleeing the scene faster and more thoroughly than anyone else.
"Why? Isn't it obvious?" Tu Zi grinned. "Look at Ye Jian. Ye Jian is standing there dumbfounded... He was just about to steal my Brother Qingzi's weapon. But my Brother Qingzi beat him to the punch, pulling the rug out from under him, so now he doesn't know what to do."
He finished speaking with a smug laugh.
The tall man froze for a moment, thought it over, and realized it was true. In awe, he marveled, "So Han Qingyu anticipated Ye Jian's move earlier than anyone else. Just like a master chess player who always sees several moves ahead of the rest... What incredible battlefield instincts!"
His colleague was heaping praise on Brother Qingzi. Should he tell the truth, then? Tu Zi hesitated for a moment before saying casually, "Actually, it might not be quite like you think."
The tall colleague turned his head. "Hmm?"
"Azure Han Qingyu's First Law, also known as the Law Concerning Enemies... formulated by me," Tu Zi declared with great gravity. "If Han Qingyu thinks you want to kill someone, he will pounce on you and chop you down. But if he determines that you might try to snatch his things, he will run."
With that, Tu Zi turned to his colleague and explained, "Seriously. That's how it was when I dealt with him before, that's what the battle reports from Xilang Peak showed, and that's exactly what happened here just now."
"..." The tall colleague took a moment to digest this. It really did seem that way. So the young genius of Huaxia, the hero of Azure's Xilang Peak, was actually such a bizarre individual?
This was simply too amusing. The more he thought about it, the more he laughed, his interest thoroughly piqued. He pressed, "Is there more? Is there a Second Law?"
"...There is." This time, Tu Zi's expression and tone turned somber. Reaching toward his pack, he touched the seven blue crystal blocks he had painstakingly saved up and brought along to pay off his debt. "Azure Han Qingyu's Second Law, also known as the Law Concerning Us—the 'us' in friend or foe... Unless you are absolutely certain, never use things like source energy to test your friendship or love with Han Qingyu."
"Love?"
"Not me. I'm the kind whose friendship took the hit," Tu Zi lamented bitterly.
At that moment, a memory flashed through Tu Zi's mind. It was that phone call before Brother Qingzi left for Xilang Peak. Over the line, Brother Qingzi had said: *Thank you, Tu Zi. So, uh, those source energy blocks you owe me...*
Listening on the other end, Tu Zi had been moved nearly to tears, thinking their friendship had finally transcended mere source energy blocks.
In the end, Brother Qingzi had said: *No rush to pay them back.*
Meaning: they still had to be paid back.
"Of course it couldn't be you. I was just curious. To think love wouldn't even measure up to source energy blocks—no wonder people call him a dead iron straight man." The colleague rubbed the goosebumps on his arms with a look of distaste. "Still, looking at it now, you really weren't bragging before. You seem genuinely close with Han Qingyu."
"Well, of course!" Tu Zi grew excited at once. "We're brothers."
*And in a debtor-creditor relationship,* he added silently in his heart.
"All right, introduce me to him sometime later, okay? What he did just now totally won me over." Being just as young, hot-blooded, and full of yearning for the battlefield, the tall colleague had heard many stories about Han Qingyu, and he had just witnessed him lunging to strike down Ye Jian with his own eyes.
Right now, before their eyes, Ye Jian could only scramble desperately, fleeing in every direction. At the end of the day, this predicament had been carved out by Han Qingyu. Facing overwhelming odds, he had stopped Ye Jian from reaching the crowd and severed his blades... That was Ye Jian, after all, and Han Qingyu was only twenty.
"Sure thing," Tu Zi said, patting his chest. "Though you can be impressed by me first right now. I just did something pretty incredible myself."
Saying so, he pulled out half a broken blade from behind his back.
His colleague stared blankly. "Ye Jian's?"
"Yeah. Picked it up while running earlier. The other half flew away."
Tu Zi looked at the broken edge in his hand. Recalling the moment, he still couldn't help trembling with excitement. As Han Qingyu's friend, under such perilous circumstances, he had actually managed not to forget swiping Ye Jian's broken blade... How else could he be Han Qingyu's friend?
Besides, this was prime material.
"What a great prize!" The colleague's eyes lit up with envy. "Are you going to turn it in?"
Tu Zi whipped around to look at him, shaking his head vehemently. "No way. Brother Qingzi doesn't turn things in, so I won't either. I plan on taking this to that damn blacksmith later to have him forge me a short blade."
"Are you talking about me?" Just as Tu Zi finished speaking, a voice suddenly asked from behind him.
Tu Zi turned around. That damn blacksmith from the Azure Huaxia Front, who also belonged to Sub-Sequence, had been standing right behind him the entire time... His eyes flickering with panic, Tu Zi offered a sheepish grin and greeted him respectfully, "Brother... Brother Jiang Chou."
"Mm." Jiang Chou gave a cold acknowledgment. He looked at Tu Zi, then glanced at the broken half-blade in his hand, his eyes burning slightly with interest, though his tone remained calm. "The dead iron quality is top-notch... Don't worry, I won't take it from you."
With that, Jiang Chou observed the situation on the square, ducked his head, and quietly slipped toward the rear.
Jiang Chou could fight, and his degree of fusion and combat strength were quite solid.
***
At long last, Ye Jian managed to gain another breathing space. The old monk and the Azure troops looked completely unhurried now, whereas if this dragged on, he would almost certainly be worn down and killed here today.
The problem was that he had no blade capable of standing up to that small axe. Fighting under these conditions was simply impossible.
As for whether anyone else present possessed a top-grade weapon? Perhaps, but finding that person among thousands of soldiers was absurdly difficult, and he had neither the opportunity nor the time to search.
"There is one, though, with a very clear location..." Ye Jian stroked the wound on his left shoulder, his hand coated in blood. He turned his head and looked at the old man standing on the third-floor walkway.
*Steal Old Man Chen's Red-Slaying Saber?! Forget it.*
*Right now, even a random chunk of top-grade dead iron would do... If I had known I'd be facing that little axe... Right, my hilts!* Ye Jian finally remembered the two hilts he had discarded earlier. Though using them would look ridiculous and feel terribly awkward, it was still far better than his current state.
His mind made up, Ye Jian dodged another positioning attack from Jiang Longchi, twisting his body and turning back.
"Damn it..."
In his line of sight, another figure was retreating into the distance... That person had run off with his two hilts.
His entire expression froze in place. Ye Jian muttered, "Has the entire Huaxia Front adopted this kind of style now?!"
"Be on your way."
Jiang Longchi's voice came from his flank, perfectly calm.
Yet the sheer momentum of the small axe tearing through the air was immense. Amidst the surging source energy tides, for the first time, a dense life source energy blended with an unfamiliar aura.
Ye Jian knew that was the burst of Jiang Longchi's unique presence.
After more than five minutes of relentless pursuit, the killing blow had finally arrived—and it arrived without warning.
The gap in strength between the two men was already razor-thin. Without a weapon, Ye Jian could not possibly withstand this strike head-on. Moreover, Jiang Longchi had waited all this time, choosing an angle and timing that left Ye Jian with nowhere to dodge.
The tide of battle shifted abruptly...
The clamor on the square rose only to instantly fall silent. Almost everyone swallowed their half-uttered gasps, staring intently at the scene in breathless suspense.
Roughly one story up, Ye Jian was retreating. His life source energy erupted violently, yet his body made no superfluous motions, hurtling backward through midair in a straight line.
Jiang Longchi was the same, devoid of unnecessary movement. Yet he and the small axe in his hand bore down directly, a strike with the force of a thousand-tiered waterfall plunging from the heavens, sealing off the entire space as it cleaved forward.
Amidst the groaning cracks of pressurized air, the distance between them closed rapidly.
Facing this situation, Ye Jian could not dodge, nor could he take the blow.
Thus, Ye Jian—this Azure traitor who was like a blot of ink smeared across the flag of the Huaxia Front—seemed poised to meet his end here today.
At this moment, some prepared to cheer, venting the resentment they had harbored for so long.
Others felt a strange sense of melancholy and regret. Had he not taken that step, wouldn't he still be their hero? Wouldn't he still be that Huaxia youth genius who had walked thousands of miles alone across the desert, openly defied every enemy, and finally slaughtered his way out of Egypt?
The axe blade was within three feet.
Aside from severely injuring Jiang Longchi at the end in an attempt to drag him down together, Ye Jian had no other options left.
...Everything about Ye Jian—everything they had once taken pride in, and later felt ashamed to remember—seemed about to end.
*Clang!*
A sudden hum of a blade rang out sharply from the edge of the square, extremely close to the clash.
Amidst the ringing sound, a specially crafted battleblade soared into the sky.
The scene fell dead silent. Beneath the stunned, temporarily bewildered gazes of nearly everyone present, Ye Jian reached out and caught the blade—
*Boom!*
The blade did not shatter.
At the final moment, Ye Jian caught the weapon and blocked Jiang Longchi's axe, withstanding the blow.
The source energy unleashed by their collision tore through twenty to thirty square meters of space, virtually obliterating everything in its path. An entire exterior wall of an adjacent office building was blasted open.
A bloody gash tore open across Ye Jian's chest as he plummeted into the office building.
Having received the blow in haste, he had unquestionably come out the worse for wear. But that was precisely the office building he had been trying to reach all along!
Amidst billowing clouds of dust, Ye Jian's figure vanished inside.
Jiang Longchi landed without pausing to readjust, springing up immediately to pursue him inside.
And then, everything seemed to come to a sudden halt. After an abrupt twist that people hadn't even had time to process... in under five seconds, both Ye Jian and Jiang Longchi had vanished from the sight of everyone surrounding Legion Square.
Left standing tall in the open was only a young officer whose saber was now missing from his back.
"Traitor! Who... who is he?"
"First Army, twenty-four-year-old top combat power, Li Sen."
"Someone the Legion Commander once personally kept by his side and mentored."
"...Was his blade top-grade?"
"It had to be. Otherwise, Ye Jian wouldn't have been able to block that blow."
"Then he..."
"Traitor."
Amidst low murmurs and immense outrage, Li Sen turned his head back, gazing up at the old man on the third-floor walkway. "I'm sorry, Legion Commander."
Chen Buer said nothing, merely looking down at him.
"I considered hinting for him to steal my blade, but in the end, I thought doing it directly like this was better... I'm sorry, I let you down."
Chapter 297