Firmament Sword

In an instant, only the wiry man and the glamorous woman remained where they were.

The glamorous woman glanced at the wiry man and said, ”This is going too far. We’re an adventuring party, not bandits!”

The wiry man gave a faint smile. ”Who wouldn’t be tempted by treasure? Nangong, you can’t be too soft-hearted.”

”In the Jianghu, of course you can’t be soft-hearted. But even thieves have a code. People of the Jianghu should have their own principles and integrity.”

”An adventuring party isn’t the same as a bunch of lowlifes. The gang’s actions have become more and more shameless lately. This isn’t a good sign. It seems… I should probably leave…”

Disappointment filled the depths of the glamorous woman’s eyes. She sighed and shook her head but said no more, only hoping in her heart that the lone traveler could escape this ordeal.

...

Xu Luo had never truly fought anyone before, aside from slapping someone in the Fengyue Building. Although he had full confidence in the Shadow Shaking Heart Method and Breaking Army Seven Kills, he didn’t know how strong he truly was.

After all, the level of True Essence in his Dantian was still at the Tier Nine Sword Disciple Peak; he had not yet broken through to the rank of Swordsman.

The Shaking Light Step was incredibly powerful. Like the Shadow Shaking Heart Method and Breaking Army Seven Kills before it, this suddenly comprehended Cultivation Technique gave Xu Luo the feeling that he had been practicing it for a very long time, despite just learning it.

There was no awkwardness at all; using it felt as natural as a fish in water.

Executing the Shaking Light Step, his feet tracing the Seven-Star Position, Xu Luo moved like a fish darting through the ocean. In the blink of an eye, this patch of jungle actually gave him that same feeling of being a fish in water, and he instantly left his pursuers dozens of meters behind.

”This kid’s footwork is a little strange! Don’t lose him, everyone! We have to get our treasure back from him!” Li the Fourth’s eyes flashed with excitement and greed as he shouted.

At the same time, Li the Fourth’s body transformed into a wisp of green smoke, sticking close behind Xu Luo. No matter how fast Xu Luo ran, he couldn’t completely shake him.

’Does this bastard have a dog’s nose?’ Xu Luo thought as he ran. The man clearly couldn’t catch up to him, yet he couldn’t completely shake him off either. The moment he stopped to catch his breath, he could feel his pursuer closing in.

”You’re a pretty good runner, kid, but it’s useless! Hand over the goods to your Fourth Master obediently. If I’m in a good mood, I’ll leave you a whole corpse. Otherwise, if your Fourth Master catches you, I’ll make you wish you were dead!”

Li the Fourth’s voice drifted from the distance, tinged with smugness. ”No one has ever escaped from your Fourth Master’s grasp. Don’t doubt my methods, young man…”

Xu Luo remained silent, his feet tracing the Shaking Light Step and the Seven-Star Position, continuing to flicker and weave through the dense forest.

Li the Fourth left markers along the way, as they had already covered tens of miles in just a short time.

One must remember, this wasn’t a wide, flat highway; this was the Black Forest!

The Black Forest, fraught with peril!

Blindly traversing tens of miles in a place like this could lead to all sorts of unexpected dangers. So, although Li the Fourth wanted to claim all the credit for himself, he had no choice but to leave markers so the others could keep up.

When Li the Fourth reached an open area in the forest, a cold smile finally appeared on his face. The terrain before had been too complex, and he could only guarantee not losing his target. But in a place like this, Li the Fourth had every reason to believe his prey could not escape his grasp!

”Come on out. It’s useless to hide,” Li the Fourth said leisurely. Meanwhile, one hand slowly and silently drew a sharp, two-foot-long saber as he approached a large tree.

”In this forest, your Fourth Master is the real expert! Do you have any idea how familiar I am with the Black Forest? Haha, I know this forest like a man knows his own manhood!”

”Little guy, you know what manhood is? You little virgin, get the hell out here! Hand over Fourth Master’s treasure!”

Li the Fourth laughed as he walked toward the tree that would take several people to encircle. Suddenly, a shadow flashed out from behind it. An eerie blue light flared as the figure shot straight toward Li the Fourth, the blue glow aimed at his throat!

”You dare show off such a petty trick in front of your Fourth…” Li the Fourth raised his saber and sneered, but before he could finish his sentence, his mouth snapped shut and he threw himself backward frantically.

He followed up with a clumsy roll, tumbling aside in an utterly pathetic display.

The mocking smile froze on his face, replaced by a look of sheer terror. He knew his opponent was carrying a sharp weapon—how else could he have beheaded the Golden King Snake?—but he never imagined it would be *this* sharp!

After all, he had only known that the Golden King Snake’s hide was incredibly tough; he never really believed it was truly impervious to blades and spears.

Especially since the saber in his own hand was also forged from Hundred-refined Steel. He never expected it would be like tofu in front of his opponent’s shortsword!

Even more unexpected was that this young man in the black cloak emanated no strong True Essence fluctuations, yet his strength was so immense!

Seizing the advantage, Xu Luo pressed his attack with the Shaking Light Step, giving Li the Fourth no chance to breathe.

The eerie blue light flickered incessantly, like a blue sprite dancing in the dim forest.

In his heart, he already loathed this group of people!

Bandits were hateful, but these members of the Black Wind Gang were even more detestable!

It wasn’t enough for them to steal the Golden King Snake he had risked his life to hunt; they had to take everything else, too. The worst part was how they shamelessly claimed his belongings were their own.

The fact that such shameless words flowed so smoothly from their mouths showed this was far from the first time they had done something like this!

He may have never killed a person before, but that absolutely did not mean Xu Luo didn’t dare to kill!

Hailing from the National Guardian General’s Mansion, even if he had never seen blood, he had at least heard countless stories of life-and-death struggles on the battlefield.

Xu Luo did not lack for courage in this regard!

Li the Fourth never dreamed that this young man, whom he had completely disregarded, would push him into such a desperate corner.

He clearly didn’t even have Sword Qi, yet that blue shortsword posed a huge mortal threat.

His moves couldn’t be called exquisite, but they were aimed squarely at his vital points.

The deadliest things were his opponent’s strange footwork and the chilling killing intent radiating from his body!

Li the Fourth had spent his life on the razor’s edge, so he naturally understood that his side’s outrageous actions had provoked the other’s will to kill. Though there was no deep-seated hatred between them, the situation had now become a fight to the death.

”Hah!”

Li the Fourth suddenly threw aside his severed saber and let out a furious roar. On one hand, he was summoning his companions; on the other, it was the prelude to an all-out, desperate struggle.

BANG!

As Li the Fourth rolled, he slammed hard into a large tree. Then, using the rebound, his body shot back, his fingers curling into a claw as he grabbed for Xu Luo’s calf!

SNAP!

Using the Shaking Light Step, Xu Luo pushed off forcefully and leaped into the air.

He channeled the power of Breaking Army Seven Kills into his foot and stomped directly onto Li the Fourth’s outstretched claw-hand.

It all happened so fast that if any bystander were watching, they would have gotten the impression that Li the Fourth had actively offered his hand for Xu Luo to stomp on!

”First Kill of Breaking Army Seven Kills—Broken Tendons and Bones!”

Xu Luo roared in his mind.

’Die!’

CRACK!

Under the tyrannical power of Breaking Army Seven Kills, Li the Fourth’s hand was stomped into a mangled pulp.

”Aargh!”

Li the Fourth instantly let out a bloodcurdling scream.

That heart-piercing agony was far beyond what an ordinary person could endure.

In the past, Li the Fourth had enjoyed whittling away at others’ fingers one by one, taking pleasure in the pained expressions on their faces. He never thought that one day, he would get a taste of his own medicine.

After crushing Li the Fourth’s hand, Xu Luo didn’t stop. The power of Breaking Army Seven Kills gathered in the knee of the same leg he’d used to stomp the hand…

He bent his knee, using the momentum from his descent… and slammed it down hard!

The sequence of moves was fluid: Xu Luo leaped into the air, then brought down one leg as if taking a knee.

The knee itself was already incredibly hard. Combined with the momentum and the power of Breaking Army Seven Kills, it erupted with force, unleashing the full might of the First Kill, Broken Tendons and Bones, to its absolute limit!

CRUNCH!

The blow landed squarely on Li the Fourth’s temple!

The crisp sound of shattering bone rang out.

Half of his head caved in deeply. Li the Fourth’s eyes rolled back in their sockets, and he died on the spot.

Blood slowly trickled from his seven orifices.

His two lifeless eyes were wide open, as if in disbelief even in death.

A dignified Tier Nine Swordsman who had dominated the Black Forest for years, with countless lives on his hands—he never dreamed he would one day die at the hands of a young, lone traveler.

Xu Luo glanced at the breathless Li the Fourth. Hearing the approaching sounds in the distance, he grabbed the plant, shouldered his pack, and used the Shaking Light Step to quickly disappear into the dense woods.

He had barely left when the burly man and the others rushed over.

The men first fanned out from Li the Fourth’s position, searching in all directions. After finding nothing, they turned back to examine his injuries.

”He’s dead,” one of them sighed.

”Look! My god, these are the marks of a battle!”

Another man surveyed the scene, growing more shocked the more he looked. Finally, he couldn’t help but exclaim, ”Looking at these battle traces, the opponent had Li the Fourth completely suppressed! From start to finish, Li the Fourth didn’t even have a chance to fight back!”

”Dammit, who the hell is this guy?” The middle-aged man who had pointed out Xu Luo might have other treasures couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath as he stared at the gruesome state of Li the Fourth’s body. Regret began to well up inside him.

”When I heard his scream just now, I already had a bad feeling. I didn’t think we’d still be too late.” The burly man reached out and closed Li the Fourth’s eyes, then carefully examined the fatal wound.

The burly man stared for a long time, the fear in his eyes not diminishing in the slightest. He said in a low voice, ”Our opponent is stronger than Li the Fourth, at least at the level of a Sword Master. We all misjudged him. Li the Fourth must have underestimated him. Look at this saber…”

The burly man spoke as he picked up Li the Fourth’s severed Hundred-refined Steel Saber. ”The opponent caught him by surprise and cut his weapon in two. Li the Fourth could only roll pathetically on the ground to dodge. After that, he must have used his Eagle Claw Skill, but his hand was stomped on and crushed. Then, following the momentum, his opponent used his knee to smash his temple. That one blow killed him instantly.”

”What kind of monster is he? If he’s this strong, why would he give up the Golden King Snake so easily? Was he really scared off by the Black Wind Gang’s reputation?”

The middle-aged man who had pointed out the hidden treasure on Xu Luo’s person had a flickering gaze as he muttered, ”And the way he kills… how to put it? It’s a bit awkward. If it were one of us, after stomping on Li the Fourth’s hand, we would have pressed down with our weapon and gone straight for the head to prevent a counterattack. But he didn’t. He was like… someone who’s never learned any martial arts. He acted purely on instinct, first stomping on the hand, then dropping to one knee to kill him with the momentum… That kind of combat instinct is simply terrifying!”

”Yeah, I’ve never heard of any martial art like that either,” another said, his voice laced with lingering fear.

”Enough talking…” The burly man glanced around, a flicker of fear in his eyes. ”Take Li the Fourth’s body. Let’s get back, quickly.”

”We’re not going after him?” a member asked cautiously.

”Chase my ass!” the burly man cursed. ”He runs faster than a rabbit and he’s this strong. You want to chase after him and get yourself killed like Li the Fourth?”

The man who spoke shrank back, thinking to himself, ’I wonder who was the most gung-ho about it in the beginning.’

After all of them had left, two middle-aged men suddenly appeared from a large, leafy tree.