Qi Wuwang

"You... when did you poison us?" Among the young people, one stood up with a deathly pale face, looking at the middle-aged man in pure terror. The middle-aged man coughed harshly twice, speaking with unconcealed disdain: "You hotheaded greenhorns from the Cangwu Sword Sect truly can't keep your composure. When did I ever say I poisoned your tea?" Fang Shuwen looked up at the youngsters in some surprise. Cangwu Sword Sect? During his time at Zhujige Pavilion a while back, he had chatted quite a bit with Zhou Qingmei, mainly hoping to broaden his knowledge of the jianghu. In the past, he had only known of Zhujige Pavilion, and only upon arriving there did he learn that Zhujige Pavilion was one of the Seven Great Sects of the Eastern Domain. Later, he learned that the Seven Great Sects of the Eastern Domain were Zhujige Pavilion, Taixu Dao, Wentian Mansion, Feixing Palace, Cangwu Sword Sect, Yuqing Pavilion, and Nianhua Zen Courtyard. Nianhua Zen Courtyard was different from Huanxi Zen Courtyard; it was an authentic Buddhist monastery. Named after the allusion of the Buddha holding up a flower and smiling... not from the idiom of dallying with women. He had not expected to run into people from the Cangwu Sword Sect here. As the middle-aged man's words fell, the remaining youths rose to their feet one after another. Sure enough, each carried a longsword. At their head was a square-faced young man with thick brows, large eyes, and an expression brimming with righteous indignation. He barked in a deep voice, "When did you find out who we were?" The middle-aged man cast them another disdainful glance. "The stench of so-called reputable orthodox sects can be smelled clearly even three li away. You greenhorns trailed behind me for three days, and you genuinely thought I was clueless? I merely had important business to attend to and couldn't be bothered with you. Up until now, if you hadn't jumped out, I could have continued pretending you didn't exist... granting you a few more days to live. Who knew that a single jest of mine would make you so impatient? Truly laughable to the extreme." The Cangwu Sword Sect youths flushed between livid and pale under his tongue-lashing. In the end, their leader sneered coldly, "So what if you know? We disciples came specifically for you, Qi Wuwang! Three years ago in Liuzhou Town, you violated Miss Chen to death, and after a household servant stumbled upon it, you went on to slaughter all seventy-five members of the Chen family—an utterly inhumane atrocity! Two years ago at Jiuhua City's Huibin Restaurant, you murdered thirteen disciples from Cangwu Sword Sect, Yuqing Pavilion, and Wentian Mansion combined! What's more, you abducted several junior sisters from Yuqing Pavilion... By the time they were found, their bodies were beyond recognition, yet you still carved words into their corpses, spouting outrageous claims and insulting our seven orthodox sects! Your sins are unforgivable! Your crimes are too numerous to recount. Today, our Cangwu Sword Sect shall execute you, demonic villain, to rid the jianghu of this scourge!! Martial brothers, martial sister, form the formation and slay the demon!!" With those words, the clatter of longswords ringing from their scabbards sounded in rapid succession: clang, clang, clang! Several young men and women leaped forward, encircling Qi Wuwang in the blink of an eye. Qi Wuwang coughed once, an unnatural flush rising across his face. He looked up at the Cangwu Sword Sect disciples and sighed. "I paid you no mind along the way, yet you insisted on rushing to your deaths. Why bother?" As he spoke, his gaze fell upon the young woman among them, a wicked glint surfacing in his eyes. "You are quite pretty. How about after I send them on their way, you and I find a secluded spot to have some proper fun?" The girl's expression darkened. "Demonic villain, die!!" With that, her longsword thrust forward. A single pull moved the whole net—the other Cangwu Sword Sect disciples struck at the same time. When Fang Shuwen used to read novels, he had seen sword formations described in their pages. They were often arranged according to heavenly stems, earthly branches, or the positions of the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching. Once caught inside without knowing the key, one would be constrained at every turn. With the slightest carelessness, even someone of formidable martial arts could perish within such a sword formation. Looking at them now, what these Cangwu Sword Sect youths were employing was indeed a sword formation. One saw that whenever one person struck, the others inevitably responded in coordination. Sword points shifted, advancing and retreating with disciplined measure, each step forward and backward complementing one another. Fang Shuwen's martial arts insight was quite seasoned by now; after observing for only a couple of moments, he grasped the principle. In martial arts, whether sword techniques, saber techniques, fist styles, or palm strikes... whenever one moved, flaws were almost impossible to avoid. A formation took martial arts that were difficult for a single person to execute perfectly and dispersed them across multiple people. While maintaining the original power of the techniques, it compensated for individual flaws through the assistance of others. Thereby, it unleashed power far exceeding their individual levels and left opponents with no weaknesses to exploit. Such was the case with these Cangwu Sword Sect disciples now. Their sword momentum flowed like a tide, like a meteor shower, vast, grand, and inexhaustible. Trapped inside, it felt like braving wind and rain from all eight directions, nearly impossible to resist. "This is the Cangwu Sword Sect's Eight Directions Wind and Rain Sword Formation. There really is quite some skill to it," Lu Guiyan murmured from the side. Fang Shuwen nodded as well. "It is indeed impressive. What a pity..." Before he could finish, Qi Wuwang—who had seemingly been hard-pressed and in dire peril within the sword formation—suddenly reached out a hand. A palm struck against the chest of the lead youth. The blow was neither particularly heavy nor light, just enough to push him aside half a step. Yet that mere half-step distance caused him to collide instantly with the person beside him. Immediately following, like a line of falling dominoes, one after another, the Cangwu Sword Sect youths collapsed to the ground in succession. Qi Wuwang burst into loud laughter. "If your Cangwu Sword Sect had sent Xiao Ruofeng, I wouldn't have lingered for a second—I'd have turned and fled! Yet with just you few greenhorns, you thought you could kill me, Qi Wuwang? Nothing but wild fantasy!" With their formation broken, the Cangwu Sword Sect disciples suffered a backlash of internal force. Their qi faltered, leaving them struggling and powerless to stand up. They could only glare venomously at Qi Wuwang. The leader gritted his teeth and snarled, "Demonic villain, if you want to kill us, then kill us! Why all the useless chatter? Even if we die today, our sect master will surely avenge us in the days to come!! As for you, monster, you have committed countless evils—retribution will inevitably fall upon your head!" Qi Wuwang swept his gaze over them and sneered. "You are nothing more than a minor nuisance, hardly an urgent matter..." At that point, his eyes suddenly landed upon Lu Guiyan's face. After the Cangwu Sword Sect disciples collapsed, Lu Guiyan had already placed a hand on the hilt of her goose-quill saber. After all, she was of the righteous path in the jianghu. Had she not witnessed this, so be it, but now that she had seen it with her own eyes, she could not simply stand by. Otherwise, if word spread that Qi Wuwang had killed Cangwu Sword Sect disciples while the Lu'an Escort Agency looked on doing nothing... the agency would probably find it impossible to stay in business. Although in their current circumstances they ought not to poke their noses into other people's business, with things having come to this, she could only lament her bad luck. Yet as Qi Wuwang looked over, Lu Guiyan suddenly realized... The "important business" Qi Wuwang had spoken of was very likely connected to this escort mission. Sure enough, Qi Wuwang smiled faintly: "Lu Guiyan, Young Chief Escort of the Lu'an Escort Agency? You truly have kept me waiting!"