Chapter 111: The Martial World Is Treacherous

Hero Chen.

His name was actually Hero Chen.

Fine.

The name really did suit him.

Although they had not known one another for long, and although the man intended to kill him, Zheng Fan still had to admit that this utterly ordinary-looking fellow possessed a kind of simple, honest foolishness in the way he spoke and behaved.

He truly carried something of the flavor of Hero Guo.

Even with the man preparing to draw his sword against him, Zheng Fan genuinely felt as though he were some villainous character about to be cut down by the honest embodiment of justice.

Xue San bent his knees slightly.

His two little hands flipped.

Two military stilettos dropped into his palms.

Normally, Liang Cheng trained soldiers.

The Blind Man handled accounts and studied construction plans.

Feng Siniang trained the Red Whisk Girls.

Fan Li chopped firewood and carried bricks.

A’Ming got shot by Master.

As for Xue San, he made full use of his “dwarf” racial-class talents.

Whenever he had free time, he tinkered with concealed weapons and small arms that suited his hands.

Heaven only knew how many accessories were strapped somewhere onto that tiny body.

Xu Wenzu could leave.

And from the look of things, Hero Chen had genuinely allowed Xu Wenzu to go.

He had not been joking.

But Xue San and the Blind Man could not leave.

That fool Fan Li had once suggested:

If we just “crack” Master and kill him, wouldn’t that mean we obtain complete freedom?

Perhaps all their restrictions would instantly disappear.

Perhaps they would recover their full strength and immediately reach the summit of life.

But according to Murphy’s Law, the more likely outcome was that all seven of them would be erased along with Master’s death.

They might simply drop dead together.

There was only one Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan had only one life.

You could not treat him like a fish, catch another one, and kill it experimentally just to see what happened.

No matter how many calculations they made, no matter how many deductions they ran, as long as even a sliver of possibility remained, then to the Seven Demon Kings themselves, probability ultimately collapsed into only two possibilities: zero, or one.

They had no room in their hearts for optimistic gambling.

The Blind Man and Xue San did not lack fear of death.

What they feared more, however, was dying confused.

Or dying absurdly.

Only cowards handed their endings over to fate and Heaven.

Only the lowly pinned their hopes on some tiny chance of good luck.

A true Demon King should have the courage to face his own life directly.

That sounded somewhat melodramatic.

Mostly because the vast majority of people who said things like that were only saying them.

At this moment, Xue San moved.

Master naturally had to remain at the very back.

If Master shouted “Ura!” and charged forward only to be instantly killed, then Xue San and the Blind Man would die just as uselessly.

The Blind Man’s abilities obviously did not suit taking point.

So Xue San knew perfectly well what he had to do.

His body shot forward with astonishing speed.

He appeared before Hero Chen.

Xue San understood that the man he faced might be a Fifth Grade Sword Cultivator of this world.

His military stilettos thrust forward.

This did not mean Xue San moved slowly.

It was simply that the development of all things in this world was relative.

Before Hero Chen’s sword, Xue San’s stilettos genuinely looked as though they were being offered forward in slow motion.

“Clang!”

Both military stilettos locked against the sword blade.

Xue San had not even clearly seen Hero Chen move.

Their gazes met.

Hero Chen’s eyes remained pure and calm.

He was not showing off.

There was not the slightest trace of affectation anywhere on him.

He was like a law carved into stone.

Every motion and every act was rigidly straightforward.

The sword blade twisted.

An overwhelming force followed.

“Bang!”

Xue San was hurled directly backward.

His feet struck the ground first.

But when he realized the force imposed upon him had still not dissipated, Xue San refused to resist it head-on.

He simply started rolling across the floor.

He rolled all the way behind Zheng Fan.

“Crack, crack, crack.”

Stone tiles shattered in a line beneath him.

But the moment his body finally stopped, Xue San immediately stood back up.

Even if his face was already swollen and bruised.

Fighting was not a beauty contest.

Xue San could have forcibly stopped himself earlier.

But the remaining force would have injured his internal organs, and he would very likely have sprayed several mouthfuls of blood.

That sort of thing generally happened only in television dramas.

As though, for the sake of preserving face, a person would rather injure himself.

Xue San did not care about face.

He would rather destroy his appearance by rolling and tumbling across the floor to bleed off the force.

He would rather look utterly miserable if it meant preserving enough strength for a second charge.

“You are an excellent assassin.

“Better than all of them.”

Hero Chen said this plainly.

By “them,” he probably meant the assassins who had come earlier to kill Zheng Fan.

A battered smile appeared on Xue San’s face.

“Do you know something?

“If Grandpa here had recovered his full strength, it should be me saying to you:

“You’re an excellent swordsman.”

Hero Chen remained entirely unmoved.

He only replied calmly, “I only came to kill Zheng Fan.

“Next time, I will not hold back.”

“Pah.

“You think Grandpa cares whether you hold back?

“Who the hell are you pretending for?

“Don’t think Grandpa can’t tell that when you say that, you’re secretly enjoying the hell out of yourself!”

Hero Chen shook his head slightly.

“I do not like killing people.

“Killing people is wrong.”

“And Grandpa won’t even bother asking why you still want to kill my Master.

“Because Grandpa already knows what you’ll answer:

“Because some problems can only be solved by killing people.”

Hearing this, Hero Chen’s mouth opened slightly.

Then he said, “I am very satisfied with that answer.

“If someone asks me the same question in the future, may I borrow it?”

“…”

Xue San.

“Use it.

“Go right ahead.

“The licensing fee is simple.

“Burn me some extra paper money every Qingming Festival.”

The Blind Man walked forward two steps.

His hands came out of his pockets and opened in front of him.

Hero Chen’s gaze shifted toward the Blind Man.

He said, “You are very unusual.

“But you are not suited to killing.”

“Mm.”

The Blind Man admitted it.

Then he closed those eyes that looked nearly identical whether open or shut.

Invisible currents began spiraling around him.

This was a mental storm.

Hero Chen held his sword and began walking toward the Blind Man.

Once the distance between them closed to a certain point, the Blind Man suddenly clenched both hands into fists.

“Buzz!”

Powerful psychic force swept toward Hero Chen.

Hero Chen’s body swayed slightly.

Yet he continued walking toward the Blind Man.

Sweat began appearing on the Blind Man’s face.

Hero Chen continued advancing as he said, “I seem to feel countless pairs of eyes staring at me.

“What are they looking for?”

The Blind Man, eyes closed, answered, “Cracks in your mind.”

Everyone possessed cracks in their heart.

Perhaps they came from childhood trauma.

Perhaps some sorrowful memory.

Perhaps even a joyful event.

As long as something existed that could stir ripples within your heart, then it could be exploited.

It could be controlled.

It could become a breach.

It could be magnified.

It could be painted over and intensified.

Those who specialized in psychic abilities were, in truth, experts at destroying a thousand-li dike through the smallest ant hole.

Hero Chen continued walking forward.

He asked, “Then have you found one?”

The Blind Man shook his head.

“No.”

“Oh.

“Is that so?”

Hero Chen’s tone remained perfectly calm.

The Blind Man sighed.

“Before, I thought you were pretending…”

“And now?”

“You’re not pretending.

“You really are an idiot.”

The Blind Man sounded helpless.

Because he had encountered someone someone whose heart possessed no cracks whatsoever.

Put more plainly, Hero Chen possessed the heart of an innocent child.

This bastard truly was not acting aloof.

He genuinely lacked that part of the brain.

“What does ‘really an idiot’ mean?”

Hero Chen asked.

Before the Blind Man could answer, Hero Chen said with some regret, “There is no time.

“My steps have arrived.”

Hero Chen raised his sword.

“Rise!”

Silver needles suddenly floated out from beneath the Blind Man’s clothes.

Controlled by his telekinesis, they hovered before him.

“Go!”

A storm of silver needles shot toward Hero Chen.

Hero Chen’s sword came down as well.

A milky-white sword aura appeared.

In an instant, the Blind Man’s silver needles were blasted apart.

The Blind Man pressed both hands downward.

Veins bulged across his neck.

The floor tiles across the first floor of the relay station were ripped upward.

But in the very next instant, the sword aura swept them away.

The Blind Man then condensed telekinetic power in front of himself, forming a protective barrier.

Yet even after being weakened twice, the sword aura still shattered the barrier almost instantly.

“Puh…”

A wound opened across the Blind Man’s body.

From his left shoulder down to his lower right hip.

“Thud…”

The Blind Man dropped to one knee.

Both hands braced against the floor.

If he had not been wearing the golden-thread soft hedgehog armor beneath his clothes, he might already have been split in half.

The so-called golden-thread soft hedgehog armor was something Zheng Fan had specifically asked Feng Siniang to weave.

For Siniang, making it was little more than a trivial matter.

So she had not only made one for Zheng Fan.

She had made one for everyone else as well.

“Blind Man!”

Zheng Fan ran to his side and crouched down.

Earlier, the Blind Man had transmitted a mental message telling Zheng Fan to act last and absolutely not rush forward first.

So Zheng Fan had obeyed.

Hero Chen straightened.

He began adjusting his breathing.

At the same time, he said, “I am regulating my qi.

“You may come sneak-attack me now.”

“…”

Xue San.

Fuck your ancestors.

Do you think I have no dignity at all?

But there was no choice.

Xue San could already see that the Blind Man had been knocked out of the fight.

Naturally, he had to go forward again.

Otherwise, were they supposed to let Master go first?

In truth, he and the Blind Man simply wanted to enjoy themselves properly before Master got killed and dragged them down with him.

Xue San charged toward Hero Chen.

Another dagger appeared in his hand.

Hero Chen simply watched Xue San approach.

The sword in his hand gave a soft hum.

The distance between them closed again.

Xue San thrust with his dagger.

When an assassin was forced to stand beneath open firelight and duel someone face-to-face, there was often a peculiar helplessness about it.

Even a strange tragic grandeur.

But there was no helping it.

The dagger and sword collided once again.

Everything seemed like a replay of what had happened before.

Except this time, when the force from the sword arrived, Xue San allowed his body to drop first.

Yet at that exact moment, the force from Hero Chen’s sword changed direction.

It smashed downward.

The force landed on Xue San’s body.

His descent accelerated.

At that moment, the Blind Man, already crouched miserably beside Zheng Fan, suddenly trembled.

Two trails of blood seeped from his empty eyes.

“Buzz!”

The falling Xue San was forcibly pushed sideways by telekinetic force, straight toward Hero Chen’s flank.

Hero Chen’s gaze sharpened.

His sword followed through.

Xue San did not dodge.

Instead, his bones contracted.

His entire body curled inward until he became a meatball.

This time, he shrank even more drastically than when he had slipped free of the string net earlier.

Because of that, the sword tip missed his body.

But Hero Chen immediately raised one leg.

Like a man about to kick a football, he drove his foot straight toward Xue San.

At that moment, Xue San opened his mouth.

“Bang!”

Xue San was kicked flying.

He smashed directly into one of the relay station’s pillars.

The pillar caved inward.

A succession of crisp bone-cracking sounds came from inside Xue San’s body.

After hitting the ground, he unfolded limply.

His face was covered in blood.

He breathed in more than he breathed out.

Hero Chen’s gaze shifted toward Zheng Fan.

“You have two very outstanding servants.”

Zheng Fan ignored Hero Chen.

He looked instead toward the Blind Man beside him.

“Can I go now?”

The Blind Man remained bowed low, kneeling on the floor.

He nodded.

Then pressed his forehead against the tiles.

“Actually, the three of us could have attacked together from the beginning.”

Zheng Fan genuinely could not understand why the Blind Man had insisted that he stand aside and watch.

True, he was only a Ninth Grade Martial Artist.

But he could trigger the Demon Child’s power.

If all three of them attacked together… well, perhaps they still would not have much chance of winning.

But it surely had to be better than taking turns walking up one by one to be defeated.

Hero Chen held his sword and began walking toward Zheng Fan.

He had come here for one purpose.

To kill Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan drew in a deep breath and straightened.

Truthfully, this was the strongest opponent he had encountered since awakening.

In the past, whether they had ambushed people or exterminated whole households, there had always been a certain feeling of a cat playing with a mouse.

Everything had been leisurely.

They could even pursue a sense of aesthetics.

But once he himself became the mouse, he discovered that he truly hated the feeling.

And moreover, Zheng Fan vaguely felt that tonight’s events might not be as simple as they appeared.

His left hand moved toward his chest.

There, a stone rested quietly.

“Son…”

Suddenly, Hero Chen’s body stopped.

His step faltered.

Confused, he lowered his head.

The tip of his sword cut open the cloth of his trouser leg.

The skin on his calf had already turned dark blue-black.

And the darkness was spreading upward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Hehehe…

“Hehehe…”

The Blind Man, forehead still pressed against the floor tiles, began laughing.

“Jie-jie…

“Jie-jie…”

Off to the side, Xue San lay collapsed on the ground.

His face was a mangled mess of blood and flesh.

Yet he too was laughing hideously.

“Pah…”

Several broken teeth, mixed with a mouthful of bloody foam, were spat from Xue San’s mouth.

Several silver needles were embedded inside those broken teeth!

Earlier, just before Xue San had been kicked away like a ball, he had opened his mouth.

The silver needles hidden between his teeth had struck Hero Chen’s flesh at the exact instant he was kicked flying.

The needles had been coated in refined zombie blood essence.

It had taken Xue San half a month of pestering Liang Cheng to finally obtain it.

The corpse poison produced by that blood was terrifyingly potent.

“Jie-jie…

“Jie-jie…”

Xue San was already sprawled there like a dead dog.

Yet even now, he forced out the last of his strength to speak.

Even if Grandpa dies, even if they throw Grandpa into a coffin, Grandpa is still finishing this damned line:

“Grandson…

“Grandpa will teach you one more thing today… teach you… what it means… when people say—the martial world is treacherous!”

(End of Chapter)