The pupils of the boatman waiting to meet his contact contracted to the size of pinpoints. Catching only a glimpse of sword light from the corner of his eye, immense terror seized his heart.
The sword light was like a sheet of autumn water, entirely inescapable.
The blade met skin.
A twist of the wrist! A horizontal slash!
The boatman's throat tore open in a long, narrow gash, and a torrent of blood surged forth, spraying crimson into the air.
Bystanders on the street shrieked and scrambled away in terror. In the blink of an eye, only Xu Zishuai and his companions remained.
The boatman's eyes bulged. Clutching his throat, he looked up in sheer disbelief at Xu Zishuai's face and stumbled backward. His feet caught on the gunwale, and just as he was about to tumble into the water, a firm support caught his back.
The boatman glanced back and found the point of a spear braced against him.
River currents slapped against the rocks, the rush of water unending.
A straight-backed young man stood on the bank, his upper body cloaked in shadow, expression unreadable.
With a flick of Liang Qu's forearm, the spear shoved the boatman back.
The boatman collapsed into the boat, blood still gushing from his throat as he emitted wheezing, ragged gasps. He reached out a trembling hand, fingers quivering as if trying to curse them.
Xu Zishuai sneered. "Quite a convincing act. Why don't you peel off that human skin?"
The boatman seemed not to hear. After glaring a few times, his breath ceased entirely, and he began to slump over—only for the keen tip of the spear to press against his back once more.
A gentle poke pierced his skin, and fresh blood mingled with cold sweat to soak through his back.
The river wind was bone-chilling, cold enough to shatter marrow.
"The skin-painting method—we already know about it," Liang Qu said flatly. "I advise you to behave."
In the letter Zhao Hongyuan provided, everything that could be said was laid out in clear detail.
The so-called boatman was actually a dwarf disguised in refined human skin. Once stimulated, the skin wriggled and knit itself together with his own flesh, making him look like an ordinary human—a technique known as the skin-painting method.
It shared a striking resemblance to how Senior Brother Lu had used shadow beast hide while forging the Wave-Subduing Spear for Liang Qu.
Senior Brother Xu's strike had looked fatal, but in reality, it hadn't harmed the dwarf in the slightest.
Unfortunately, no amount of trickery could change the fact that he was merely a boatman. Anyone with real cultivation would never willingly serve as a ferryman.
Even after his trick was exposed, the boatman remained motionless.
Xu Zishuai didn't indulge him. With a flick of his longsword, he shaved away the outer layer of false skin, exposing the roughly one-meter-tall dwarf underneath.
Only then did the dwarf drop his act, shouting, "I won't tell you a thing! I have a blood curse on me! If I speak, I'll drop dead on the spot! Give up already!"
"Even if you wanted to talk, we wouldn't want to listen," Liang Qu said, holding his spear, thoroughly unimpressed.
The Ghost Mother Cult was packed with old holdouts; tossing this hot potato to the imperial court would be more than enough.
As for the blood curse, it was a method of controlling another's life and death by driving qi and blood into their body to form a spiderweb pattern that continuously absorbed their own qi and blood. It could be triggered passively or actively.
While they certainly lacked the means to break such a curse, could the imperial court really be without one?
He wondered if Zhao Hongyuan had one on him as well. If not, the man was truly defying fate.
With the boatman secured, Xu Zishuai sheathed his sword. "Let's go to the Zhao residence and check on Senior Brother Lu."
"Right."
Liang Qu pulled out hemp rope and trussed the dwarf up tightly like a mitten crab. When finished, he grabbed him in one hand and hurried behind Xu Zishuai toward the Zhao residence.
The entire street was deserted; what they had just done was more than enough to scare the townsfolk away.
Inside the Zhao residence, dust billowed through the air, and all the servants had fled.
Lu Gang stepped over the shattered remains of a screen wall. Just as he reached the center of the courtyard, the half-ruined main hall could hold out no longer and collapsed completely.
The roof of the main hall had been built with interlocking tiles, and Zhao Hongyuan, seeking comfort, had also laid a bed of mortar beneath them, making the entire roof exceedingly heavy. Once the main supporting pillar snapped, total collapse had only been a matter of time.
Thick dust billowed upward. Lu Gang did not rashly draw close.
According to Zhao Hongyuan, the cult emissary was at the middle Wolf Smoke realm—one minor realm above Lu Gang—which was why he dared to come alone to oversee the blood sacrifice.
Even though Lu Gang had seized the initiative and gravely injured his foe, he still needed to proceed with caution.
Lu Gang glanced left and right, spotting a pillar supporting the eaves of a side wing. Stepping forward, he brought his hand down like a blade, cleanly severing the massive pillar before wrapping an arm around it and pulling it free.
Sinking into his stance and gathering his qi, his muscles bulged. His strength rippled through his body like waves of water and transferred into the pillar, which he hurled violently into the ruins of the main hall.
A shockwave of white mist rippled through the air, quickly dispersing.
The giant log tore through the dark, ripping through the air before its copper-sheathed end slammed heavily into the wreckage.
Empowered by qi, the timber was several times harder than refined steel!
Shattered tiles were pulverized to dust in an instant as the massive pillar drove straight into the deepest recess, unstoppable!
Hidden beneath the rubble, Huang Zejun could hold out no longer. He leaped upward, dodging the pillar plunging into the ground.
Kicking upward, he shattered the pillar, spun in midair, and kicked half of the severed log back!
Without lingering to see the outcome, Huang Zejun bolted from the ruins and shot toward the courtyard exit.
On another rooftop, Hu Qi had been waiting for this exact moment. Drawing his bow into a full moon, he loosed an arrow!
Piercing through the surging air, the arrow reached Huang Zejun in a flash.
An arrow from a mere four gates martial master could not even pierce a martial master's protective astral qi, and Huang Zejun paid it little mind. Yet his body instinctively dodged—and that was enough!
Lu Gang lunged forward, the ground cracking instantly into a massive pit beneath his feet. The hurtling log crashed into the hollow and shattered into countless diamond-shaped splinters.
A deafening roar crashed over him as surging qi and blood erupted from Lu Gang, billowing ten feet high like rolling smoke. Huang Zejun's eyes nearly tore at the corners. He whirled around, putting everything he had into a block.
BOOM!
Like a crack of thunder in the freezing night, the immense boom resounded over a hundred meters around.
Huang Zejun was blasted down from midair, tumbling across the ground and plowing a trench dozens of meters long. He crashed through a side room before barely steadying his footing, but Lu Gang was already upon him again!
"Lu Gang! You think I fear you?! Take a punch from me!"
Livid with rage and ignoring his wounds, Huang Zejun unleashed his qi and blood. His body burned crimson as if engulfed in flame. Stomping hard, he shattered the paving stones beneath him into gravel, kicking up howling gusts of astral wind.
He stepped forward, twisted his waist, clenched his fingers, and threw a punch!
Astral wind lashed their faces and the air detonated, as though two battering rams were colliding head-on.
BANG!
Force danced wildly like thrashing dragons; the earth churned as if a slumbering dragon were turning in the abyss.
The surrounding ground for dozens of meters sank several chi at once. Every brick and stone within exploded, blasting open a neat circle of bare yellow earth around them.
Surging qi and blood coalesced into two indistinct phantoms rising behind them—one like a tiger, the other like a python—looming faintly against the night.
Staring at Lu Gang's steady, unruffled breathing, Huang Zejun was inwardly shocked. Surging with force, he tried to use the thrusting power of grappling to fling Lu Gang away, yet the violent qi and blood erupting from his arm vanished into Lu Gang like a clay dragon into the sea, swallowed without a sound.
He was horrified. What kind of force was this? It felt like a millstone grinding away!
Lu Gang was equally astonished. Huang Zejun had already been gravely injured by the ambush, likely with much of his sternum shattered, yet he could still hold his ground without yielding an inch!
He was indeed worthy of being a Ghost Mother Cult emissary; though not the sharpest mind, his martial prowess was formidable.
Waves of ferocious energy burst continuously, like rolling winter thunder.
Fists and kicks clashed in relentless fury, their monstrous killing intent soaring into the sky with savage brutality.
From the eaves, Hu Qi kept his gaze fixed on the battlefield, arrow resting on the string, ready to support at any second.
With his strength, he had no way of inflicting real damage, but he could harass Huang Zejun if the man tried to flee.
As long as he could create an opening, his presence held value.
Just as Lu Gang and Huang Zejun were locked in fierce combat and Hu Qi was utterly absorbed, a hand quietly came to rest on his shoulder.
Startled, Hu Qi whirled around to find Xu Zishuai, then noticed Liang Qu beside him holding a dwarf. In delight, he asked, "Senior Brother Xu, you caught the boatman?"
"Yeah," Xu Zishuai nodded, smoothly taking the longbow from his grasp. "Leave the rest to me!"
Chapter 86