Wuxia: Starting Off With 60 Years of Inner Strength

But he was still a step too slow. The blade sliced down from his left shoulder, crossing his body and ending at his right waist.

It left a wound so deep the bone was visible.

Fresh blood immediately gushed from the wound, and Baojing let out a series of wretched screams.

He cultivated this divine protective art, using True Qi to project an impenetrable Protective Gang Qi.

No matter how many blows he’d taken in the past, he had never suffered so much as a scratch.

But now, this single slash from Jiang Ran had reintroduced him to the sensation of pain. Perhaps because the feeling was so foreign, it felt all the more intense. The pain sent Baojing staggering backward again and again, and the phantom Buddha image around him vanished.

When he looked up again, Jiang Ran was already closing in.

In that instant, Baojing didn’t even think of channeling his energy to meet the attack. His only thought was to turn and flee!

His pride, his arrogance—all of it had been shattered by Jiang Ran’s single slash.

But where could he possibly run to now?

Turning his back on Jiang Ran was simply courting death.

The moment he turned, he felt a lightness in both his shoulders. He whipped his head around to see his own two arms flying through the air.

Before he could even register his horror, his body sank, and he fell to the ground with a THUD.

Looking down, he let out another series of wretched screams.

”MY LEGS!!!”

”Good thing you can’t channel the Great Brahman Vajra Skill while you’re running. Otherwise, this would have been a bit more troublesome.”

Seeing this, Jiang Ran smiled faintly and paid no more attention to the limbless Baojing.

He turned to Dugu Yu and Yin Yue and spoke softly.

”And you two... I wonder if I’m skilled enough to take both your heads for the reward?”

Dugu Yu and Yin Yue, however, were no longer in any mood to joke.

Dugu Yu’s gaze was ice-cold. He stared intently at Jiang Ran’s hand, at the saber hanging from his waist.

”What is your relationship with Duan Dongliu?”

Yin Yue asked, her voice chilling, ”The saber style you’re using... is it the Nine Shocking God Sabers?”

”Duan Dongliu?”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

”I don’t know him.”

”You’re lying!”

Dugu Yu roared in anger.

”The saber style you’re using is clearly Duan Dongliu’s style!”

”That’s the very style that took our arms... It’s been twenty years! Twenty long years!!”

”I never expected that before we could find Duan Dongliu, we would run into you.”

”Brat, I don’t care what your relationship is with Duan Dongliu. Today, you will die here.”

”On that, we are in complete agreement.”

Jiang Ran nodded slightly.

”However, I’d like to ask one more thing. What exactly do you two know about this Duan Dongliu?”

”If you say my saber style belongs to him, then he must be my master.”

”It’s just a shame that I, the supposed disciple, seem to know far less about this master of mine than you both.”

”A man about to die has no need for answers!”

Dugu Yu roared, and as his Inner Strength circulated, his clothes billowed without a wind and his white hair flew about.

A scorching gale spiraled around him, making him look as if he were shrouded in a blazing sun.

Under the searing heat, the surrounding vegetation quickly blackened and withered, until flames began to lick at the dry foliage.

Jiang Ran’s brow furrowed slightly as he glanced around.

’There’s miasma nearby. Who knows what kind of trouble a fire like this could stir up.’

While his mind was wandering, Dugu Yu was already upon him.

It was like a blazing sun hurtling toward him.

At the same time, Yin Yue had vanished.

While their combined ”Sun and Moon” attack was powerful, only now were the Sun and Moon Lords truly unleashing their full strength.

One engaged in a frontal assault to pin down the opponent, while the other hid in the shadows, ready to ambush at any moment.

Jiang Ran silently activated his Heart Method. The saber in his hand hummed and trembled. As Dugu Yu closed in, Jiang Ran suddenly slashed out.

Qi condensed to a single line. The blade moved without a sound, spanning a thousand miles... to shock the very gods!

The wave of saber qi was silent, yet astonishingly fast.

It arrived without a sound or warning. Dugu Yu’s expression darkened. He pushed out with one hand, and with a loud HUMMM...

The saber qi slammed into the blazing sun, and for a moment, the two forces were locked in a stalemate.

At the same time, Jiang Ran felt a bone-chilling cold from behind. He spun around abruptly to see an ice spike tearing through the air toward him.

He immediately knocked it away with a flick of his saber.

A wave of cold instantly spread throughout his body.

Yin Yue, who had attacked from the shadows, had no time to rejoice. She saw Jiang Ran merely shudder once before his footwork became a blur. His form dissolved into a series of afterimages as he angled his saber and charged straight for her.

Yin Yue was taken aback, but her reaction was instantaneous.

Her Heart Method activated, and her figure flickered between real and illusory.

She had previously attacked Liao Chengfeng and slapped him across the face.

Liao Chengfeng’s Reversed Soul Devouring Palm had clearly struck Yin Yue, but it had passed right through an afterimage, never hitting its real target.

This was precisely the ”Mirror Flower, Water Moon” technique from her Cold Moon Skill.

It deceived the eyes and clouded the senses, creating a visual displacement.

An attack that appeared to land was actually off by the barest of margins, which in battle, might as well be a thousand miles.

Now, she used her ”Mirror Flower, Water Moon” again, only to find that Jiang Ran’s blade suddenly moved in the complete opposite direction.

A slash that was clearly coming from the left suddenly changed direction, now arriving from the right.

She had left a wide opening on her left, not only to let the blade pass but also to create an opportunity for her to advance and counter-attack.

But this blade coming from the right was now aimed perfectly at her waist.

If this slash were to land, she would undoubtedly be cut in two by Jiang Ran.

Horrified, she instantly dropped into a crouch and spun, trying to escape the blade’s arc.

But at that very moment, Jiang Ran’s saber moved. The brilliant light of the blade vanished, retracting into itself, as if simply sketching the world’s simplest line in midair.

Yet it was a line that no one in this world could possibly block.

Yin Yue looked up at this slash, and her mind went completely blank.

It was as if the slash had severed all her thoughts, leaving her mind wiped clean, empty. There was nothing left but to wait for the butcher’s blade to fall and for death to claim her.

At this critical, hair’s-breadth moment, a blazing sun suddenly appeared above Jiang Ran’s head.

It fell from the highest heavens, like the sun itself crashing down on him.

Jiang Ran looked up, and with a smooth, upward thrust, his saber rose to meet the blazing sun in midair!