As Gu Qiying surged forward to attack Shui Hanyi, Shui Hanyi drew his blade almost by pure instinct, his hand having long rested on the hilt.
Shui Hanyi held a blade in his hand.
Yet no blade forms occupied his mind.
Super-first-rate bladesmen rarely cared much for set techniques anymore, or even so-called blade intent.
What they valued above all else was speed.
Bladesmen who reached this realm typically pursued the swiftest means to end a fight in the shortest span of time.
By whatever path, the faster your blade reached the enemy's flesh, the greater your odds of victory.
And the methods these top bladesmen used to strike often converged, differing very little from one another, because the most efficient solution was very nearly identical.
*Chiiiing—*
The blade was cold, its edge gleaming with icy light.
In that split second, the wind tore open. Shui Hanyi's blade moved second yet struck first, lunging directly beneath Gu Qiying's right ribs. That was the liver region; as long as the cut landed with even modest depth, stopping the bleeding would prove exceedingly difficult.
Though Gu Qiying was a master of the supreme tier, in terms of sheer speed he remained half a beat slower than Shui Hanyi. That was precisely why Shui Hanyi dared to trade blows with him.
Thus, Gu Qiying failed to evade the slash.
Nor did he need to...
From the very start, Gu Qiying knew Shui Hanyi's blade was astonishingly swift and nearly impossible to dodge. The stance he had assumed while charging was deliberately baiting.
At this moment, it appeared Shui Hanyi had struck him, but in truth, Gu Qiying's posture had forced Shui Hanyi to slash at his right ribs and nowhere else.
Granted, a normal person struck in the liver would bleed uncontrollably. But Gu Qiying was no normal person. Even taking a direct cut there would hardly inconvenience him.
Shui Hanyi understood this as well, yet he had no other option. He could not contest Gu Qiying in pure internal force, nor could he afford a drawn-out battle of attrition. For him, swift counteroffense was the sole effective defense.
Yet this first strike immediately slowed him down.
Once a blade bites into flesh, a momentary snag is inevitable. The brief pause now was engineered intentionally by Gu Qiying, who used the abnormal constitution of his body to stall Shui Hanyi and seize an instant's advantage.
*Whoosh—crack!*
The wind of a palm strike roared, hitting home with a sickening snap.
Even Shen Youran, standing to the side, clearly heard the sound of Shui Hanyi's bone shattering.
A broken shoulder bone was one thing; the real menace was the palm force invading his body, running wild through Shui Hanyi's meridians like a raging beast.
Gu Qiying was only a few years older than Shui Hanyi, but the chasm between their internal energy far exceeded their age gap.
*Absurd...* The instant the palm struck him, Shui Hanyi mobilized his internal force to resist the intrusion, yet he could not help but marvel in shock, *How could someone in their forties possess such horrifying cultivation...*
Of course, Shui Hanyi was not so easily defeated.
What made a top bladesman? Even with shattered bones and disrupted qi, nothing would stop him from unleashing a follow-up move while teetering on the brink of death...
The moment the embroidered spring blade slipped free from the ribs, Shui Hanyi brushed past Gu Qiying, twisted his body in a tight spin, and tossed the blade from his injured arm into his other hand, using the momentum to slash once more.
This second strike was even swifter, and far more perilous.
And Gu Qiying still could not dodge it...
This time, he had to intercept it, because the blade was aimed straight for his head, and he had set up no defense beforehand.
"Empty Hand Enters the White Blade" was normally child's play for Gu Qiying. Since he could drag heavy decorative boulders and rockeries with his internal energy, he could naturally alter the trajectory of a blade.
Yet a rockery could not move...
Whereas a blade could.
Moreover, the man wielding it possessed internal energy as well, and that power was already poured into the steel.
*Splatter—*
By the time Gu Qiying realized he might not catch it, it was already too late.
A layer of flesh was scraped from both his palms, yet it barely slowed the blade's momentum. The slash ultimately carved into his skull, leaving a gruesome gash across his temple. Had blood not come spurting out, onlookers could have seen the stark white bone beneath his scalp through the wound.
In modern terms, Gu Qiying's condition was an acute epidural hematoma caused by blade trauma, which could directly trigger elevated intracranial pressure, clouded consciousness, dilated pupils, vital sign instability, and coma...
However, in this hardly scientific martial world, Gu Qiying's thoroughly unscientific body exhibited a bizarre and unfathomable transformation.
The moment he pressed a hand against the wound, the bleeding abruptly stopped. At the same time, beneath his deathly pale, translucent skin, small bulging lumps rapidly surged up from his torso and converged at the gash on his temple. Within a single breath, no one could tell what transpired beneath his palm, but when he drew his hand away, the wound was already sealed beneath a thick, fleshy scab.
Meanwhile, Shui Hanyi leaped sideways the instant his second slash hit, putting distance between them. For one, his own injuries were severe, and continuing to fight with his off-hand might yield no advantage; for another, his earlier position had left him caught between Gu Qiying and Shen Youran, making him vulnerable to attacks from both front and rear.
"Heh..." Gu Qiying actually chuckled. "Impressive blade work, Officer Shui. Care to try again?"
He knew he had won, and so he was pleased.
Though he had taken two slashes in the exchange, the damage inflicted was actually less severe than the internal injury sustained when Sun Yixie had provoked him into vomiting blood earlier.
In truth, had Gu Qiying not already been suffering from that internal injury, that palm strike would have done far more to Shui Hanyi than break a few bones.
"What a monster..." Shui Hanyi knew he could not fight on, so he flung out a parting curse before fleeing. "...Consider me enlightened. We will settle this another day!"
With that, he whirled around and fled at top speed without looking back.
Gu Qiying made no move to pursue him, knowing he might not catch him anyway.
Shui Hanyi felt deeply frustrated. Before arriving, he had assumed that by relying on his superior speed, he could stall Shen Youran and Gu Qiying for a considerable while—perhaps even long enough for Yun Shili to bring reinforcements. Who could have foreseen that Gu Qiying fought like no human being at all? This flesh-trading tactic left Shui Hanyi helpless. With one shoulder virtually immobilized, he had no choice but to run.
Even as he fled, Shen Youran's voice rang out across the sky above the Tianqi Gang headquarters: "Hear the order, all members of the Tianqi Gang! Cease fighting the fire! Prioritize your lives and evacuate the headquarters immediately! Assemble in the street outside the south side gate!"
Shen Youran had demonstrated this technique of projecting his voice with internal energy several times before, and every gang member recognized it. Hearing the command, they obeyed at once, abandoning the blaze and scattering outward.
"Youran, there is no time," Gu Qiying said, stepping over once Shen Youran finished issuing the orders. "You saw the cloud-piercing arrow from the west of the city just now, didn't you? That Huang Donglai brat has likely regrouped with the escapees. If he explains how to neutralize the Bliss Gu and has them scatter to cure it on their own, we'll be in serious trouble..."
"I understand." Shen Youran already knew what had to be done. "I shall go ring the gu bell at once. Before they disperse, I will pin as many of them in place as possible."
With that, Shen Youran leaped into the air and unleashed his lightness skill at full tilt, streaking toward the western part of the city.
Gu Qiying briefly inspected his two wounds, and upon confirming they posed no hindrance, headed toward the southern gate of the headquarters.
***
In mere moments, Shen Youran arrived at the street behind the oil and salt shop in the western city.
When the cloud-piercing arrow rose, he had seen its trailing smoke rise from this exact spot; with his vision, there was no mistaking it.
The gu bell's area of effect had a radius of roughly five hundred meters. Anyone within this range afflicted with the Bliss Gu—whether hearing-impaired or not—would suffer an attack the instant it rang. Thus, before Shen Youran even reached the street, he had already begun shaking the gu bell hidden within his sleeve.
Yet upon arrival, he found the street utterly deserted...
It was plausible for the martial artists to be absent; one could assume they had panicked and fled or hidden after seeing the arrow flare into the sky. But the scout who fired the arrow should have been waiting to receive him, or at least informed him where the escapees had gone.
*Could the scout who fired the arrow have been captured?* Shen Youran quickly considered the possibility.
Yet the chances of that were minuscule...
As Gu Qiying had said, the members of Youying were all formidable experts capable of holding their own. None of them would be foolish enough to signal from a spot where they could be caught immediately; they would position themselves at a safe distance from the enemy and choose an escape route before ever releasing the arrow.
Then why was no one here?
Before Shen Youran could puzzle it out, someone came to tell him.
"Big Brother Shen, you certainly arrived quickly." Amidst the quiet street, Huang Donglai's voice suddenly rang out. As he spoke, he stepped slowly from the shadows by the roadside.
Shen Youran turned to look at him but offered no reply, silently raising his guard. He understood in an instant—he had walked into an ambush.
"Isn't it a bit late to start feeling afraid?" Sun Yixie made his grand entrance right behind him, brandishing his trident as he strolled up beside Huang Donglai in a few strides.
The mere sight of the pair made Shen Youran's blood boil. Thinking of how he was more than a decade their senior, how he had spent years orchestrating his grand scheme, only to be run in circles by these two buffoons and have his life's ambition ruined—how could he stomach this?
"Hmph..." Shen Youran glared at them, his voice frigid. "I treated you as brothers, yet you treated me as a fool, did you?"
"Oh, spare me..." Huang Donglai retorted with utter disgust. "Just because we called you 'Brother Shen,' you actually fancied yourself our big brother? Let me tell you the truth: back in Hangzhou, the two of us saw right through your little act... You, treating us as brothers? Ha! Spouting nonsense like that—who was really treating whom as a fool?"
"Well said," Sun Yixie chimed in, pointing toward Shen Youran. "You're just lucky you left quickly back then. If you had dared to linger a few more days in Hangzhou and given us more time to test you, you'd already be at the bottom of West Lake feeding the damned fish."
Shen Youran listened to their brazen taunts, fell silent for a brief moment, and then burst into laughter: "Heh... heh-heh... haha... Hahahaha!"
His laughter grew louder and wilder, dripping with both regret and self-mockery.
"What a 'back then'..." Once his laughter subsided, Shen Youran sneered, "I should have listened to Lao Wu back then, stormed the Sun residence that very night, and slaughtered the two of you along with every last soul in the Sun family! If I had, I wouldn't be suffering this indignity today!"
His laughter curdled into blind rage. With a thunderous bellow, his true qi erupted in a magnificent deluge as he lunged forward.
Shen Youran's greatest martial mastery lay in finger techniques—not for sealing acupoints, but for killing: the Qilin Finger.
This finger art was one of the divine guardian techniques of the Five Spirits Cult. Every cult leader was required to master all five guardian arts before assuming leadership.
Those five arts were: Azure Dragon Force, White Tiger Palm, Vermilion Bird Plume, Black Tortoise Armor, and Qilin Finger.
These five disciplines encompassed internal energy, palm strikes, lightness skill, external iron-body conditioning, and finger arts. Even if one took a single art on its own, it stood as a supreme martial heritage capable of making someone unrivaled under heaven. And if someone were to master all five to perfection and synthesize them seamlessly... they might not be completely invincible, but finding a single defeat would be nearly impossible.
Unfortunately, even a generational overlord and martial prodigy like Yi Shixiong could only achieve mastery in two, proficiency in two, and basic competence in the last.
Naturally, this was tied to individual martial affinity. One suited for soft, yielding internal energy would naturally be deficient in hard external force; one inclined toward kicking arts would be weaker in upper-body combat; refining external body-tempering beyond a certain threshold would inevitably hinder lightness skill; and pouring oneself entirely into internal cultivation would neglect the development of offensive forms...
Human beings had their limits, set by the very mechanics of the human body.
Even with the same muscles, the physique of a weightlifter functioned entirely differently from that of a boxer. Nowhere in the world was there a set of muscles capable of reaching the absolute peak in maximum strength, endurance, and explosive power all at once. In martial terms, the deeper one pursued a particular path, the more glaring the shortcomings in other areas became. No matter how peerless a prodigy one was, transcending these physiological limits was impossible—unless one discarded humanity altogether, which was another matter entirely...
As Yi Shixiong's only son, Shen Youran had been groomed from childhood to succeed him as cult leader. Before leaving the Five Spirits Cult, the art he had cultivated best was the Qilin Finger, followed by the Vermilion Bird Plume. As for the other three, aside from laying a foundation with Azure Dragon Force, he had barely practiced White Tiger Palm and Black Tortoise Armor.
Later, when Shen Youran fled the Five Spirits Cult, the distinctive nature of his Azure Dragon Force caused righteous sects to hunt him down. After Gu Qizong rescued him, he taught him how to conceal the signature of his internal energy and modify the patterns of the Qilin Finger, ensuring no one could identify the lineage of his martial arts.
Now, however, Shen Youran had openly torn away all pretenses with the righteous martial path, leaving no reason to conceal anything. In his fury, he drove the purest Vermilion Bird Plume and Qilin Finger with the internal force of Azure Dragon Force, charging straight to slaughter Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai.
Yet he never could have anticipated what came next...
At that exact instant, Sun Yixie pivoted and slung an entire burlap sack of lime powder straight from the shadows behind him.
Yes, a whole burlap sack—the massive kind used to slip over a grown man's upper body to beat him senseless. Brother Sun was intimately familiar with them, and wielded them with practiced ease.
Did anyone think Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had chosen their position by chance? Stepping out from a dim corner stacked with assorted sacks and clutter at the turn of an alley behind an oil and salt shop—how could they possibly be unprepared?
In short, with lime powder in such sheer volume, it did not merely blind a face; it coated the entire body. Holding up a hand to shield one's eyes was useless; the cloud raining down from above smothered everything.
"Holy... fuck!" Even a man as refined as Sect Leader Shen broke into foul language at the sight.
In that lightning-fast breath, the image flashing through Shen Youran's mind was... the moment before the semifinals of the Youth Heroes Assembly, when Sun Yixie had asked him if one was allowed to throw lime powder on the stage. Recalling it now, the question he had asked Sun Yixie back then—"Brother, are you serious?"—had found its answer.
Because his forward charge was so rapid, Shen Youran was instantly transformed into a little white figure. Aside from a relatively clean patch on his back, he was dusted white from head to toe across his entire front, and his eyes clamped shut against the sting.
Taking advantage of his blindness, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai darted off to the left and right, who knew to prepare what other foul tricks.
"You despicable, shameless cowards!" Shen Youran's fury peaked, and he roared with eyes squeezed shut, "Even with my eyes closed, I'll beat you to death!"
Chapter 62