These masters rarely followed the usual path; even after gaining fame in the martial world, they never did anything conventional afterward.
First, let’s talk about Qin Lu. Mr. Qin had three reasons for practicing martial arts: to strengthen his body, to walk farther and heal more illnesses, and because high internal strength could cure some difficult diseases. This former number one martial artist in the world never pursued fame and fortune in his practice, nor did he have a competitive nature.
Then there’s Xue Ting. Although his poison techniques were exceptional, his martial skills were lacking. Strictly speaking, Xue Ting wasn’t even at the level of a top master. Similarly, Gong Jun, who excelled in light-footed techniques and swordsmanship, lacked interest in martial affairs, focusing instead on becoming an official, making money, and living a carefree life with his eight cats. Both of them, after realizing that life in the martial world wasn’t easy, sought the stability of officialdom, with the difference being that Xue Ting managed to pass the imperial examination, while Gong Jun could only serve in the Jinyiwei.
Meng Qi, although skilled in martial arts, was not considered part of the martial world by most. His skills were only half-developed when he followed the Chu army in its campaigns. After the Chu dynasty was established, his martial prowess grew significantly over the decades, though he took many detours without proper guidance. He remained relatively unknown until the Qi dynasty replaced the Chu, by which time he had already retreated to the mountains to nurture the dragon veins.
Master Yuan Zhi had a solid foundation and strong internal strength, surpassing Gong Jun in many ways. However, the old monk was devoted to Buddhism, bound by numerous precepts, and remained an obscure wandering monk for decades.
The mysterious leader of Piaoping Pavilion’s assassins, Suo Li, was an exceptionally qualified assassin. Apart from Fengxing Pavilion, probably only the dead knew of him. Even Gong Jun, who served as a Jinyiwei commander, was unaware that a swordsman superior to him had emerged in the martial world.
Finally, there were the only two truly famous top masters in the martial world: the Qingwu Ancestor Zhao Cangfeng, who sought to sever dragon veins to achieve immortality, and the swordsman Ning Changyuan, who sold fake travel passes and monk certificates.
Now, Zhao Cangfeng was dead, and Ning Changyuan’s whereabouts were unknown as he continued his “business.” Who could the unknown master on the other side of this wall be?
It could only be the person mentioned by the swordsman, his “benefactor,” the true master of Piaoping Pavilion, and the suspected leader of the Western Liang restoration forces.
…A terrifying aura of death.
It wasn’t killing intent, but death. The difference between the two was obvious. Suo Li gripped his sword hilt, filled with killing intent—a formless threat, like the instinct of a mountain tiger hunting. But this aura of death was more like an already existing barren desert devoid of life.
Swordsman Suo Li had killing intent, but he was alive and full of vitality.
This person, however, seemed already dead.
If not for the certainty that there were no ghosts in the world, Mo Li would have almost suspected that the person behind the wall was a dead soul, a vengeful ghost from a storybook.
Because—
“The spiritual energy is changing.”
Meng Qi grasped Mo Li’s hand and quickly wrote with his fingertips.
Transmitting sound might be overheard by someone with higher internal strength, so writing was safer, especially since they couldn’t gauge the opponent’s strength.
This was an unprecedented situation.
If the standard was raised and measured by Meng Qi’s strength, anyone below him wouldn’t count as a top master, including Mr. Qin (who was truly old and had declined in strength). Among the masters Mo Li had met, only the Qingwu Ancestor could be considered a top master.
But even if the Qingwu Ancestor were to return, he wouldn’t give Mo Li this uneasy feeling.
There was no sound inside or outside the wall—no birds chirping, no insects buzzing.
When Mo Li snapped back to reality, he realized he had been holding his breath.
Lady Liu and the others were in even worse shape, gasping for breath, clutching their chests in spasms.
What kind of martial art would release internal energy that could suffocate people? At most, it might make someone feel stiff and unable to move, or forget to breathe for a moment, but nothing like this—like an invisible hand squeezing their hearts and covering their mouths and noses.
Mo Li silently circulated his true energy, quickly breaking free from this restraint.
“It is indeed spiritual energy.”
Mo Li’s face was as grim as Meng Qi’s.
Others might mistake it for some evil art, but only the two dragon veins knew the truth.
——The spiritual energy lingering near the City God Temple had all been driven here, circling the courtyard wall and pressing in on it.
Being within it made one feel inexplicably suffocated, unable to breathe.
When the spiritual energy in a place was too dense or suddenly increased, living beings would have difficulty adapting. Fortunately, the spiritual energy near the City God Temple in Run County wasn’t too abundant. If it were in a mountainous area rich in spiritual energy, this technique could directly claim the lives of the weak and frail.
The Qi dynasty’s Emperor Yongchen was gravely ill; this person wouldn’t even need to do anything—just entering the palace and standing there for half a stick of incense would be enough to cause the emperor’s demise.
Mo Li wasn’t afraid of such methods; what would a dragon vein fear of spiritual energy?
But how could the opponent manipulate spiritual energy?
Spiritual energy is formless, a naturally occurring element in the world. Dragon veins use spiritual energy to take shape, and Mo Li used it as internal energy, but the unknown master on the other side of the wall was actually using their internal energy to manipulate spiritual energy? How was that possible?
“You can’t even sense the dragon veins!”
Meng Qi could only use spiritual energy on Shangyun Mountain, Mo Li could only do so on Qimao Mountain, and in the entire area of Run County, there was no dragon vein at all!
Using spiritual energy while being filled with the aura of death… such a contradictory and bizarre existence completely stumped Master Meng.
What exactly is outside this wall?
A person? A ghost?
Mo Li instinctively wanted to hold Meng Qi’s shoulder, urging him not to act rashly.
But Meng Qi was quicker.
Meng Qi firmly grasped Mo Li’s hand, preventing him from moving forward to investigate.
Thus, the two sides confronted each other across the wall.
Lady Liu and the others gasped and struggled for a moment before finally adapting. They laboriously picked up the weapons scattered on the ground, their eyes darting around uneasily. By rights, they should assist their master at this moment, especially since the person before them seemed to be the successor of the Chu Dynasty’s national master, a deadly enemy of both the monks of the Mojie Temple and the Western Liang Kingdom. However, their master was proud and highly skilled; if they interfered, they might incur an even greater punishment.
Thinking this way, the skilled warriors of Western Liang were deeply conflicted, feeling both fear and unease.
Mo Li took a slow step back, his gaze falling on them.
Lady Liu, sharp-eyed, vaguely saw the faint edge of a blade hidden within Mo Li’s drooping left sleeve.
The blade was dull, without any sharpness, and even the tip was no exception. Its outline was hidden within the folds of his sleeve, and before it was infused with true energy, it couldn’t cut through anything, not even soft cloth, which could glide over its surface without damage. At this moment, the dim blade edge pointed slightly downward—
The stagnant spiritual energy accumulating in the courtyard began to flow, drawn by Mo Li’s latent inner strength.
Mo Li couldn’t summon the spiritual energy like those outside, but he could try to drive it away, as this was not a place where it should remain.
“Hmm?”
A low, somewhat surprised sound came from outside the wall.
The strange pressure suddenly vanished, and the spiritual energy, as if a floodgate had been opened, swiftly flowed back in all directions.
The skilled warriors of Western Liang turned pale, as if an invisible hand had just submerged them in deep water and now forcibly pulled them into the air. Unaware of the existence of spiritual energy, they assumed that their master’s martial art could harm their heart meridians.
In this situation, the enemy remained unscathed, while they, the subordinates, were the ones suffering.
Lady Liu no longer dared to stay; she glared fiercely at Meng Qi and was about to flee in panic.
Mo Li, who had been ignored, furrowed his brow.
Lady Liu suddenly saw the leaves, previously cut off by the Empty Flower Array, whirling up as if to block her sight. She cautiously leaped back, swiftly slashing down with her weapon.
A spinning leaf collided directly with her blade.
Lady Liu’s wrist tingled, and she immediately felt a powerful inner force sweeping across the ground, sending leaves and scattered bricks hurtling toward her face. She scrambled to fend them off, even pulling a companion to block and attempting to form a formation, but the fierce wind that suddenly arose pushed her a yard away, almost slamming her into the wall.
When she looked up again, she was shocked to see cracks appearing on the ground and the courtyard wall.
Following the spreading cracks, she saw a short, dull blade turning within a robe embroidered with golden osmanthus flowers.
“Well done!”
Meng Qi’s spirit was lifted, and he promptly kicked the courtyard wall.
Mo Li’s seemingly ordinary strike had, in fact, harnessed the dispersing spiritual energy, greatly enhancing its power.
Amid the shock of inner force, the courtyard wall swayed and teetered, and after receiving Meng Qi’s blow, it suddenly crumbled into pieces, sending all the bricks flying into the air.
Amid the swirling dust, a person wearing a bamboo hat was revealed.
The bamboo-hat person remained silent and motionless, but the aura around them shifted, and their inner force caused the bricks to disintegrate into sand before they could hit the ground.
Sand obscured their vision.
Just as everyone was about to blink, a sudden gust of wind arose beside their ears, and out of the corner of their eyes, they vaguely saw the fluttering figure of a robe.
The bamboo-hat person, Meng Qi, and Mo Li… none of them were slow, and in that instant, they exchanged seven moves.
The bamboo-hat person’s movements were strange, seemingly a martial art from the Mojie Temple, but far more advanced than Lady Liu and her companions.
Mo Li tried five different grappling techniques in succession, but he couldn’t even touch the hem of the bamboo-hat person’s robe.
Meanwhile, the bamboo-hat person attempted sinister killing moves, but due to the seamless cooperation of the two opponents, each advance and retreat perfectly synchronized, every attack failed.
The raging wind swept up the gravel, and three shadows, moving so fast that the human eye could not distinguish them, stirred up an even stronger gust. Their collisions were silent, and the powerful inner forces unleashed by their techniques, being evenly matched, did not explode outward. Instead, they clashed and combined, instantly forming a massive vortex.
The vortex rose higher and higher, and from a distance, it looked like a sand dragon about to take flight from a blacksmith’s forge.
Onlookers were stunned, and then they fled in a panic, abandoning all sense of self-preservation.
“A demon dragon!”
“A monster has appeared! Everyone, run for your lives!”
Not just the people on this street, but even those three streets away hurriedly shut their doors and windows, wishing they could hide under their beds.
“This is bad,” Mo Li muttered as he glanced at the surrounding houses.
Meng Qi drew his sword, and purple energy shot up to the sky.
The bamboo-hat man spread his arms, and each hand now held a blade shimmering with a deadly red glow.
“The Zhongqing Sword…”
“The Bloodbone Mace?”
Meng Qi’s voice was full of surprise, while the bamboo-hat man seemed to have already anticipated this.
Bloodbones buried in yellow sand, Zhongqing buried in the blue river.
The two most famous and long-lost weapons in the martial world had met again in such a manner.
The mace was a pair of iron rods, each three feet long and quite heavy.
The Bloodbone Mace was a deep crimson all over, with the segments of its body resembling vertebrae, slightly protruding at the edges.
At this moment, the twin maces turned into deadly beams, the “dragon” now half-red, pressing urgently against the purple sword’s edge.
Both sides’ movements were at their peak.
Meng Qi did not retreat; instead, he channeled all his inner strength into his sword, intent on testing his opponent’s skill.
The bamboo-hat man seemed to have the same intention, and he slashed down with the Bloodbone Mace.
Mo Li steadied his stance and slightly sank down, trapping the bamboo-hat man in front of Meng Qi, then unleashed his dual blades.
“Boom!”
A thunderous explosion.
The county magistrate had been furiously scolding his yamen runners for their incompetence, letting bandits run rampant in the city, even causing a disturbance near the City God Temple, not far from the county office. Before he could gather his forces to suppress them, he felt the ground tremble slightly, followed by a deafening explosion like a clap of thunder.
The magistrate lost his balance and fell flat on his face, even chipping a tooth in the process.
He had no time to get angry; he quickly covered his head with both hands and shouted, “What’s going on?”
A yamen runner scrambled in, stammering, “All the houses on the street by the City God Temple have collapsed! There’s a monster! Someone saw a monster!”
Author’s Note:
This is not a dragon vein.
——
Mo Li: The true number one in the world?
[Looks at Meng Qi], then thinks of Ancestor Qingwu, and the bamboo-hat man who appeared in this chapter, finally—
Mo Li firmly says: I vote for Gong Jun!
Meng Qi: ?? It’s not me, fine, but why not Qin Lu? Gong Jun’s martial arts can only beat Xue Ting, and he can’t even deal with Xue Ting’s poison???
