Chapter 213: Sword Cultivation, Sword Form

Under the moonlight, on the roof ridge.

Chen Ji looked at the Emei thorn in his hand, then at the Emei thorn in the hand of the black-clothed assassin...

Earlier, when Yun Yang and Bai Tu wanted to kill him, they mentioned that there was a Jianghu knight who was skilled at using Emei thorns and was determined to avenge Jing Wang.

Chen Ji kept this matter in mind and planned to frame General Wang’s death on the Emei thorn master. He never expected that the other party would actually come.

The black-clothed assassin did not cover her face, and the black hat on her head had also fallen off during the fight... she was actually a woman.

Chen Ji held his breath and observed. The black-clothed assassin was around thirty-six or seven years old, with a beautiful but already world-weary appearance, like a stone bridge on the Luo River, having experienced decades of wind and rain.

Her eye sockets were red like blood, as if she had cried countless times, crying herself to sleep and then waking up crying again.

On the bluestone long street, the black-clothed assassin confronted more than ten Wan Nian Army armored soldiers. The assassin moved to the left, and the armored soldiers also moved together to the left, weaving a net. Their qi machine pulled at each other, seeking each other's flaws.

Under the eaves, General Wang gritted his teeth and propped himself up. He didn't pull out the Emei thorn from his shoulder socket, but drew out the sword from his waist and said coldly: "Su Zhou, I understand your desire to avenge Wang Ye, but how are you so certain that I betrayed Wang Ye? I have been loyal and devoted to Wang Ye all these years, where did I go wrong?"

The female assassin named "Su Zhou" held the Emei thorn in one hand, her blood-red eyes slowly sweeping over every Wan Nian Army soldier: "Wang Ye taught me that to judge a person, don't look at what he says, only at what he does. The Wan Nian Army is Wang Ye's direct line. Wang Ye is gone, yet you are all still alive and well. Isn't that proof enough that you are traitors?"

General Wang's face suddenly tensed, and he gripped the sword hilt tightly.

Su Zhou's hand holding the Emei thorn lightly reversed, bending her waist to hold it in front, like a praying mantis's arm bent into a hook.

She sneered: "Wang Chongli, that year you were shot through the thigh by an arrow outside Liuzhou City. It was Wang Ye who carried you back into the city and then begged for immortal medicine from the Laojun Mountain Daoist court for you, and searched the Jianghu for the Qingyang Sword Art, a path of cultivation, for you. The sword in your hand was given to you by him when he promoted you to deputy general. When Wang Ye sought people to forge this sword, he exhausted his mind to find meteorite iron from the inner court and visited the thatched hut three times to invite the sword master of Cangzhou. Have you forgotten all of this?"

"Wu Yong, that year when you were still a foot soldier, a letter came from home saying that your old mother was gravely ill. You returned to your hometown as a deserter but were caught by the disciplinary office. It was Wang Ye who, seeing your filial piety, spared your life and also invited a doctor for your old mother, and passed on the path of cultivation to you."

"Jian Lin Tao, that year you were just an unknown small fry in the Jianghu. Your father's path of cultivation was coveted by others, and he was poisoned to death. Wang Ye avenged you and seized back the path of cultivation. Now you are repaying kindness with enmity."

On the bluestone board road, Su Zhou's every step echoed with sound, and her words were as hard as iron.

She was actually acquainted with these Wan Nian Army confidants, calling out their names one by one and recounting their pasts as if they were precious family treasures.

An armored soldier was silent for a long time before speaking: "Aunt Su, we did not harm Wang Ye."

Su Zhou asked in a deep voice: "I will let you kneel in the City God Temple and swear by dripping blood with your parents. If you betray Wang Ye, let the old master of the City God take them away to the underworld. Do you dare?"

The armored soldiers subconsciously gripped their knives, but no one dared to respond.

Chen Ji, lying on the roof ridge, listened with shock and doubt. Was it because the Ning Dynasty people were superstitious and dared not swear, or was dripping blood and swearing in the City God Temple really effective?

At this moment, General Wang said slowly: "The reason we are still alive and well is to leave a useful body to avenge him and wait for an opportunity to execute the eunuch party. We did not betray Wang Ye. It was that Chen family illegitimate son named Chen Ji who betrayed Wang Ye."

Su Zhou sneered: "Do you really think I will believe you by splashing dirty water on a mere student? No harm. You must also be killed, and he must also be killed. After killing you, I will go and kill him. Kill them all!"

General Wang gritted his teeth and said: "Mad woman, you're making me mad!"

Su Zhou's eyes were like a deep abyss: "I am indeed mad."

General Wang lowered his head to look at the Emei thorn in his left shoulder socket, then lightly shook his right wrist. The long sword in his hand actually vibrated with a clang: "Do you really think you can kill so many of us? You overestimate yourself. I let you off earlier out of respect for Wang Ye. Do you really think you're some great knightly expert?"

Su Zhou's voice squeezed out from between her teeth: "Try it."

As her words fell, she charged into the midst of the armored soldiers.

An armored soldier swung his knife, but before the blade could strike her body, her shadow was already gone from before his eyes.

A stabbing pain shot through the armored soldier's leg. He turned his head to look and saw that the back of his thigh had been pierced by the Emei thorn, and blood was flowing out like a gushing stream.

Su Zhou used the Emei thorn to hold his neck and pulled him back from behind, leaving the encirclement. The other armored soldiers were hesitant for a while, not daring to act.

The next moment, Su Zhou's hand holding the Emei thorn, lightning-like, stabbed the armored soldier multiple times in the chest. Blood spurted out, dyeing her hands red.

The armored soldier slowly fell down, his eyes vacant, and said: "Aunt Su, I'm sorry..."

Su Zhou's eyes flickered for an instant: "Go say sorry to Wang Ye. What are you saying to me?"

After speaking, she actually charged forward again. She was elusive in her movements, her body moving with her waist first, her steps following her body as she turned and flipped, her palms changing with her body, her steps following her palms, up and down, her whole body as one.

Her hand holding the Emei thorn and her body shape matched, like an elusive leaf, seemingly without a shadow or trace.

Gradually, an invisible wind appeared around Su Zhou's body, causing the armored soldiers near her to sway unsteadily. The fallen leaves on the ground were rolled up by the airflow, slowly forming a Yin Yang fish pattern.

However, just as this Yin Yang fish was about to form, General Wang found the precise timing and struck with a sword, injuring Su Zhou's right arm and also breaking the Yin Yang fish formation.

After landing a strike, General Wang did not linger in the fight but quickly stepped out of the circle: "Wang Ye actually really begged that old thing Cheng Tinghua for you and passed on the Bagua Shou Yuan technique."

After speaking, he lightly waved his hand, indicating for all the armored soldiers to surround her.

When an armored soldier passed by him, he grabbed the other party's arm armor and said in a low voice: "I don't know what realm her Bagua Shou Yuan is now. You and I might not be her opponents. Go to the south city gate and call the Luo City Military Office to come and surround her! Be quick!"

That armored soldier nodded, took advantage of the gap in Su Zhou's encirclement to flip onto a horse, and galloped towards the south city gate.

Just as General Wang was about to lift his sword and re-enter the fray, he felt a slight numbness in his left arm.

His face changed, and he lowered his head to tear open the clothes on his shoulder. The area around the Emei thorn in his shoulder socket was already black and purple, with black lines following the blood flow, like a terrifying spider web.

General Wang dipped his finger in the blood and brought it to his nose to smell it. His eyes narrowed. "Seeing blood seal throat," he thought coldly...

He lifted his long sword and ran towards Anxi Street, but after only two steps, he remembered that Taiping Medical Hall was also sealed along with Jing Wang Manor.

General Wang thought for a couple of breaths, wanting to flip onto a horse.

But he was clearly aware that his physical strength was being drawn away little by little. In just half the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, he would not even have the strength to get on a horse.

General Wang said hoarsely: "Su Zhou, where is the antidote for Seeing Blood Seal Throat?"

Su Zhou, while coping with the armored soldiers' encirclement, said coldly: "Today either you die or I perish. Do you think I would bring the antidote?"

General Wang pleaded in a low voice: "Su Zhou, for Wang Ye's sake, give me the antidote. I will avenge Wang Ye with you! How will you personally find that treacherous minister for revenge? He has the twelve zodiacs. What do you have?"

Su Zhou's heart was as hard as iron: "No need! This poison, Seeing Blood Seal Throat, only Imperial Physician Yao in Luo City can solve. I cannot solve it either!"

General Wang turned around and staggered towards the dark small alley behind him.

Su Zhou wanted to chase after him but was heavily surrounded by armored soldiers and could not move for a while.

In the dim small alley, only the sound of Wang Chongli's footsteps and breathing remained. Black blood flowed from his shoulder socket, following his arm and robe, dripping onto the ground one drop at a time.

Green bricks, gray tiles, white walls, the small alley was like a maze. In a trance, he seemed to be back in Liuzhou City again, with the still-young Jing Wang carrying him through the streets and alleys, shouting loudly: "Is there a doctor, is there a doctor? My brother is wounded by an arrow. If there is a doctor who can treat him, there will be a reward of one hundred taels of silver!"

Wang Chongli seemed to hear the war song of the Wan Nian Army again: "Ten thousand hearts as one, Mount Tai can be shaken. Only loyalty and righteousness, qi rushes to Dou Niu. Report to the emperor, down save the common people. Kill all the thieves, seek a marquis..."

He seemed to see his former comrades one by one emerging from the small alley, passing by him. Someone patted his shoulder: "Go, go kill the thieves!" And then, those comrades disappeared one by one at the end of the small alley.

Wang Chongli shook his head, rubbed his eyes forcefully, making the double images in his eyes lessen and the fantasies in his mind also lessen.

He didn't know how long he had walked until he no longer heard the sound of fighting behind him.

He leaned against the white wall of the small alley, gasping for breath, gritting his teeth, wanting to pull out the Emei thorn. But just as he pulled it out halfway, a black shadow fell from the eaves. One hand pressed on the grip of the Emei thorn, pushing it back in!

Wang Chongli cried out in pain, roaring in a low voice.

He looked up at Chen Ji, who had suddenly fallen from the sky. Just as he was about to get angry, he suddenly cried out: "Wang Ye!"

Chen Ji was momentarily stunned.

Wang Chongli leaned against the wall and slowly sat down, snot and tears flowing down together: "Wang Wang Ye... Your subordinate is sorry for you. Your subordinate has no face to see you again, Wang Ye!"

Chen Ji remained silent, quietly looking at the other party.

Wang Chongli tremblingly wiped away his tears with his sleeve: "But I had no choice either. That treacherous minister sent Bai Tu and Yun Yang to arrest my whole family and chopped off my old mother's ten fingers. I couldn't watch her die. If I didn't agree to them, who knows how many more people in the Wan Nian Army would have died. Wang Ye, please forgive us. Your subordinate will be your ox and horse in the next life." Before his words fell, Wang Chongli's eyes suddenly regained clarity.

He lowered his head to look at himself, then raised his head to look at Chen Ji. His right hand suddenly shook, the Qingyang Sword in his hand tensed, and the straight sword body stabbed towards Chen Ji.

But Chen Ji only lightly stepped aside, easily avoiding the sword.

In a flash, before Wang Chongli could change his sword move, Chen Ji had already grabbed his right wrist and closed in.

Between a lightning flash and a spark, Chen Ji pulled out the Emei thorn from Wang Chongli's shoulder socket and stabbed it multiple times. The last strike went into his heart from under his ribs, and black blood flowed out.

Wang Chongli coughed up a mouthful of blood, his breathing already shallow.

Chen Ji said softly: "Everyone makes mistakes. It's good to correct them in the next life."

"That makes sense," Wang Chongli chuckled bitterly, his eyes scattering again.

He no longer looked at Chen Ji. His gaze went over Chen Ji's shoulder, looking at the white wall behind Chen Ji, as if he really saw something.

After a few breaths, he murmured: "Kill all the thieves, seek a marquis... You promised we would all be made marquises, but why can't these thieves always be killed..."

Chen Ji squatted in front of Wang Chongli, quietly observing the change in the other party's pupils, until his pupils completely dilated, and an ice stream surged out from Wang Chongli's heart, converging into his dantian.

Just as he rose to leave, he suddenly turned his head to look again.

In the small alley, Wang Chongli's Qingyang Sword burned up, decaying inch by inch in the intense firelight.

The Qingyang Sword burned into ash like wood, leaving only a burst of fierce, sun-like pure sword intent that flew into Chen Ji's heart and merged with the majestic sword qi that had been nurtured in his body for a long time.

That sword qi, which had been unable to take form no matter what, finally had a black sword shape!

Chen Ji recalled what Xuanyuan had once said, that the sword is the king of a hundred weapons, and the path of the sword seed is to seize the sword intent of the world to complete oneself.

This was the first sword Chen Ji seized!

So, cultivating the path of the sword seed truly required killing people and seizing swords!

On the roof, the black cloud lightly meowed over his head. He quickly blew away the traces left by the Qingyang Sword and then disappeared at the end of the small alley.

After a while, Su Zhou, covered in bloodstains and injuries, silently approached. She squatted down to examine Wang Chongli's body wounds and suddenly discovered that every wound on Wang Chongli was exactly the same as the positions where she had stabbed the armored soldiers earlier.

She furrowed her eyebrows and looked around. Who had come and finished Wang Chongli? Just as she was thinking, the sound of dense horse hooves came from a distance. The Luo City Military Office had arrived. Su Zhou lightly leaped onto the roof and fled towards the city.