The night was far from over.
A dense crowd had gathered outside the Tianqi Gang's main headquarters. Within that encirclement of more than two hundred martial world experts, Gu Qiying stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his bearing utterly composed.
Things had come to this, and he understood it. Shen Youran was likely never coming back, and he himself would most probably meet his end here as well.
Revenge?
That was already hard, wasn't it.
But if he could take a hundred or so of these so-called righteous folk down with him and make them pay for the life of his elder brother beneath the Nine Springs, that would still be a fine thing.
"What's the matter? No one making a move, all of you just standing there..." Gu Qiying was asking a question he already knew the answer to, so he answered it himself at once. "Could it be that all of you together are afraid of me alone?"
He was exactly right. They were afraid.
There were some two hundred people encircling him here, but roughly half of them were young newcomers to the martial world who had come for the Youth Heroes Assembly. In skill, these youngsters were more than a match for Tianqi Gang disciples, but against a peak expert like Gu Qiying... if they went in, they would certainly be throwing their lives away for nothing.
As for the stronger young ones, like Lei Buji and Song Zhixiu, and the higher-ups of the small and medium sects, they were perhaps a little more useful than the ordinary newcomers, but they were still incapable of posing much of a threat to Gu Qiying.
In other words, though it looked as if two hundred people were encircling Gu Qiying, the ones who could actually apply real pressure numbered only about forty, all of them quasi-first-rate experts or above—basically the higher-ups of the major sects, plus one Lin Yuancheng.
These people could all sense, to one degree or another, just how strong Gu Qiying really was. They also all knew roughly how great a price defeating him would demand. So not one of them was willing to be the first to step forward and die.
Here you could see the flaws of these "jianghu folk."
They lacked conviction, discipline, and restraint.
They did have a certain set of jianghu rules, and a so-called code of honor, but none of it amounted to a sound system; one could even say it was riddled with holes.
Most people, in the end, were acting out of self-interest.
Had it been Da Ming's regular army surrounding Gu Qiying today, not a single expert would have been needed—only a few thousand soldiers who obeyed orders. Even if they had to spend their lives wave upon wave to drain Gu Qiying's internal force, they could still win.
But jianghu folk... it was almost impossible for them to organize a death charge like that.
"Since you're all being so polite..." A moment later, seeing that no one paid him any heed, Gu Qiying added another line. "Then I won't be polite either!"
The moment the words left his mouth, his expression changed abruptly. The killing intent that had been held in check at his brow now stood plainly written across his face.
At the sight of it, the people around him could not help backing away. But the encirclement was packed rank upon rank with bodies—retreating was hardly that easy. And even if they could retreat, they could not do so faster than Gu Qiying could come killing toward them.
"Up!" In that instant, a deep shout rang out.
Riding on that shout, Gu Qiying exerted his strength and drove his internal force. He raised his arm and acted, and his vast internal force surged in a sudden draw—actually ripping one of the bluestone slabs from the street's surface clean off the ground.
The slab was over a zhang long, several chi wide, and more than a hundred jin in weight. Under the push of Gu Qiying's palm force, the massive thing turned on its side and moved, like a thick wall descending from the sky, hurtling down upon a stretch of martial world experts.
This kind of attack simply defied all reason. You might dodge a hidden weapon flying at you—try dodging an entire wall.
The people standing in that direction had no choice. They couldn't dodge it... so they would have to take it head-on.
If someone else could push an object at you with internal force, why couldn't you hold it off with internal force of your own? If one man couldn't hold it, could a whole group not?
So the dozen or so people caught beneath the slab's path who could not dodge all raised their palms and circulated their energy. Those without weapons thrust out both palms; those with weapons freed one hand. All of them drove their full palm force at the oncoming slab, trying to counter its might.
But... when it came to projecting internal energy outward, the gap between one person and another was still enormous. Even among first-rate experts, one who was close to super-first-rate and one who was close to quasi-first-rate could differ greatly in internal force. How could a dozen people below first-rate possibly hold back something driven by internal force at Gu Qiying's peak level?
So if that blow landed squarely, the dozen or so of them would most likely have their internal organs shattered by the shock and die spitting blood. Even if they did not die, their bodies would be pinned beneath the slab with bones crushed and tendons snapped.
Fortunately, at that moment two figures suddenly cut in from outside the encirclement, slicing into the midst of those dozen or so with superb lightness skill, and took the lead in striking back.
These two were none other than Yun Shili and Shui Hanyi.
Though Shui Hanyi was wounded, the damage was mainly to his muscles and bones; his internal injuries were not serious, and he could simply strike with his uninjured arm. And Yun Shili, judging by internal energy alone, stood above Shui Hanyi.
With the aid of these two great experts of Wind, Cloud, Water, and Moon, the dozen-plus people on either side instantly gained a surge of confidence. Although they still did not know who these two who had burst in were, the men's movement techniques alone told them that both possessed formidable skill.
A person's morale did have a positive effect on the execution of their techniques. Spurred on by Yun and Shui, those around them now saw hope of winning the fight, and so they too gritted their teeth and burst forth with extraordinary potential.
Boom—
The next second, a thunderous crash rang out.
The huge bluestone slab was checked and stalled by the crowd's internal energy. After a brief deadlock, it shattered in midair, breaking apart into rubble and dust.
They thought they had escaped disaster and could breathe a little easier. Unexpectedly, beyond the dusty curtain of shattered stone, the sight that met their eyes was another, chilling one—on the other side of the encirclement, some thirty people had already died beneath Gu Qiying's palms.
It turned out that after blasting the slab out, Gu Qiying had paid no further attention to the outcome on this side at all. He had merely used that move to temporarily suppress the enemies on one side, while turning back to slaughter his way toward the other.
The assembled heroes on that side, for all their flying fists and palms, their swift swords and fierce sabers, could not withstand the mad onslaught of a Gu Qiying who had resolved to fight to the death.
Most of them did not even have the ability to exchange blows with Gu Qiying... Before that astonishing speed and power, many were killed with a single strike before they could even react, while the few who could trade a few moves with him became utterly defenseless before his suicidal fighting style.
Gu Qiying could endure blade and fist attacks to a great degree. That body of his, used for refining gu, had long since experienced countless inhuman torments, and the gu within him could rapidly repair his wounds. So ordinary external attacks were as good as nothing to him—unless a blow was heavy enough to inflict internal injury, it would not affect his movements in the slightest.
On top of that, he was already prepared to die. Fighting with the mindset that killing one man broke him even and trading for two was pure profit—how could he not be formidable?
The besiegers, by contrast, fought with the conviction that once they won, at the very least they themselves would walk away unharmed. That alone kept them from drawing out their full worth within this group. What was more, they had no special constitutions and simply could not take a few blows and kicks from Gu Qiying; basically, any solid hit landed on them started at severe injury. This drove them back step by step.
"Anyone without twenty years of internal cultivation, withdraw on your own! Don't come and get in the way!" Seeing the miserable state of those martial world figures, even Shui Hanyi's temper flared, and he immediately let out a furious shout.
He was no jianghu man, so he had no fear that his words would offend anyone.
The words were not pleasant to hear, but they were correct and very practical. In fact, most of the people there were grateful that he had said out loud what they themselves could not conveniently say.
When the shout faded, the encirclement, still over a hundred strong, loosened considerably, for more than half of them had pulled back, leaving only about forty.
And the real battle only began now.
Shui Hanyi and Yun Shili were the only two super-first-rate experts present, the two whose martial arts were closest to Gu Qiying's here and now. Though one of them was now injured, their entry still amounted to a shot of adrenaline for the several dozen deputy-sect-leader-level big shots around them, ranging from quasi-first-rate to first-rate.
"Don't be frightened by his aura. He has internal injuries, and he's forcing his body and internal energy to their limits right now to fight desperately." Seeing that his words were working, Shui Hanyi immediately raised his voice again. "Everyone split into the four directions and form up. As long as we don't let his surprise attacks throw our formation into disorder, there's nothing to fear!"
Shui Hanyi had seen through Gu Qiying—and he ought to have.
Just now, after he had traded moves with Gu Qiying and fled, he had gone back over the moment he took that palm strike, and he quickly realized Gu Qiying had already been suffering internal injuries before he even engaged him. Otherwise, that one palm would not have left him with merely disordered breath; at the very least he should have been spitting blood.
Of course, there was no way Shui Hanyi could deduce that Gu Qiying had been wounded by Sun Yixie's contemptible energy. All he knew was that Gu Qiying was not at his peak right now, that his internal energy must have been circulating with some obstruction, and that this made his palm force considerably stiff and rough.
"You running dog of the court... I have no quarrel with you, yet you won't let me be... Today I'll kill you first!" Gu Qiying, too, was now truly enraged, and with a twist of his head he charged straight at Shui Hanyi to fight him to the death.
In that instant, Yun Shili stepped forward and blocked in front of his comrade.
His arms rose like a roc's wings, his momentum like drifting clouds. He drew up the formless array of qi around his whole body and drove it forth with all his might.
The martial art Yun Shili used was called—the Cloud Illusion Blade, a peerless martial art.
Its forms were delivered with the palms, yet it was no palm technique; it was a blade technique.
A pair of palms, and they were a pair of blades. Its moves were like clouds without trace; its forms outdid illusion in taking shape.
With a martial art this profoundly advanced, a person of low aptitude would find even getting started difficult, let alone mastering it. Moreover, this technique required the user to possess sufficient internal force before it could show its power, and as the user's internal energy cultivation increased, the Cloud Illusion Blade's might would climb exponentially.
Yun Shili was thirty-five this year, and his skill clearly still had much room to grow. Even so, with his current Cloud Illusion Blade, he was already enough to rank among the Four Great Masters of the Court, which was proof enough of this divine art's power.
Gu Qiying had of course heard of the "Cloud Illusion Blade" as well, so when he saw Yun Shili step forward, he did not dare be careless. He hurriedly twisted his body into a new stance and stamped down with one foot.
Even as he halted his charge, Gu Qiying used that stamping foot to shake loose another stone slab from the ground.
This slab was not large—only about the size of an ordinary tabletop. When it flew up to his chest, Gu Qiying drove out another palm, striking the slab and shattering it straight into countless fragments that poured forward like pear blossoms in a storm.
Seeing this, Yun Shili gave a cold snort and, unhurried, unleashed a move of "Tilling the Clouds and Sowing Rain," his pair of palm blades whirling up layer upon layer of afterimages.
In a twinkling, all the flying stones were ground to powder in midair, as though they had struck some invisible wall and been melted away.
Even Gu Qiying, watching this, could not help silently marveling at the Cloud Illusion Blade's subtlety—but this was no time for him to be sighing in admiration... The experts of the various great sects nearby, seeing that someone could now stand against Gu Qiying head-on, began to stir as well. In an instant, three or five more closed in on Gu Qiying's flanks and rear, blades and sabers coming out together, killing moves rising on all sides.
Gu Qiying could not even be bothered to look back at them. He merely judged the positions of his various enemies by ear, then shrank the earth by half a step and swept several chi to the side, ramming his shoulder into a saber-wielder coming at him from that direction and sending him flying. Immediately after, he used another move, "Chasing the Wind and Pursuing Shadows," a flick of his fingertip aimed straight at the Quchi acupoint at the elbow of another attacker.
That man could not dodge in time either; his elbow broke and his sword dropped. Luckily his lightness skill was decent, and after tumbling twice in midair, he did manage to escape the range of Gu Qiying's follow-up move.
Gu Qiying had no time to fixate on chasing that one man down. He at once kicked the fallen sword flying, forcing back a third attacker, and thrust out both palms, taking the fist and palm impacts of the fourth and fifth attackers one in each hand, then blasting the two of them back again with his palm force.
Though any one of this crowd taken alone was far below Gu Qiying in skill, their attacks coming one after another without pause steadily drained his internal force. Added to the internal injuries he already carried, he gradually began to show signs of losing.
And just at that moment, a young face suddenly came charging out of the crowd.
No doubt you have all guessed it: the newcomer... was Lin Yuancheng.
Just now, after Shui Hanyi had clearly said that anyone without twenty years of internal cultivation should withdraw, those "young heroes" had all obediently pulled back. Only Lin Yuancheng had not withdrawn from the battle circle, and moreover he had been watching the fight up close with burning eyes.
Lin Yuancheng certainly did not have twenty years of internal foundation; he was not even twenty years old. But to be fair—compared with many who did possess that level of skill, he was clearly stronger.
Buzz—
Faster than words can tell!
With an eerie ringing, Lin Yuancheng suddenly struck with his sword, and he attacked from directly in front of Gu Qiying.
"Hmph... brat, are you looking to die?" The moment Gu Qiying saw that still-childish face, he took it for granted that this was a junior overestimating himself.
That thought vanished when Lin Yuancheng reached him.
In its place came a kind of fear.
Because in that extremely brief instant as their figures crossed, Lin Yuancheng suddenly slipped out of Gu Qiying's sight.
This experience... Gu Qiying had not encountered it in at least ten years.
Over these years, no opponent of any kind—including Shui Hanyi, who had crossed hands with Gu Qiying earlier tonight—had been able to escape entirely from beneath Gu Qiying's eye.
Whether they could dodge, whether they wanted to dodge, whether they could block—all of that was secondary... What mattered was that Gu Qiying could at least tell how his opponent launched an attack, and what that move was about.
But the move Lin Yuancheng used at this moment, Gu Qiying had not seen clearly at all. And by the time he reacted, a trace of coolness had already touched both his arm and the side of his neck...
Chapter 65