Chapter 277: Where Is Your Sword?

“Honored sir, that was hardly fair of you,” the old man said helplessly.

He could tell that the Blind Man held an official post. Why a blind man could somehow secure a government appointment in the State of Yan, he could not say, but this was the land of the Three Jin, and everyone now accepted that Yan people stood a rank above the locals.

The Blind Man sighed and sat up from the bed.

He was genuinely exhausted. After eating his fill, he had wanted nothing more than a proper nap.

But from the look of things, that was no longer going to happen.

Because while the confrontation downstairs continued, the group standing by the second-floor railing had actually drawn crossbows and aimed them below.

The noisy relay station fell silent once more.

They were military crossbows.

And the men wielding them held the high ground.

That kind of threat was something none of the jianghu figures downstairs dared ignore.

A middle-aged man in a long robe stepped out of one of the second-floor guest rooms. He wore a long beard, which he stroked as he walked forward. Then he cupped his hands respectfully toward everyone below.

“My apologies, everyone. I have disturbed your meal.

“This child and I seem to share a certain affinity. I would like to take him as my adopted son. I hope all of you will grant me this favor.”

And if you refused then kindly make your way to the Yellow Springs.

Inside the guest room, the old man smacked his lips and muttered, “Now which immortal has descended this time? Military crossbows aren’t easy to get your hands on.”

The Blind Man covered his face with one hand and rubbed hard at his drowsiness.

“They used to be difficult to obtain. Not anymore. After the Wenren Clan and Helian Clan were destroyed, quite a few weapons from local arsenals ended up circulating among the people.”

“Oh. So that’s how it is.”

The old man nodded, then looked at the Blind Man.

“Honored sir, are you in a hurry to reach somewhere?”

The Blind Man nodded.

“I grew tired on the road. That’s why I stopped here to rest.”

“You truly didn’t come here for some other reason?”

The Blind Man suddenly asked, “Whose child is that baby?”

At first, he had no intention of involving himself in whatever human trafficking these jianghu gangs were conducting.

To put it unpleasantly, Shengle City was currently the largest human-trafficking market in the entire Three Jin region. Countless captured savages were being bought and sold there like livestock.

But now wave after wave of people had appeared, all of them seemingly here for that one child.

That made the matter interesting.

The old man shook his head.

“Better not to know.”

The young girl copied her grandfather’s mysterious expression and said with exaggerated gravity, “It must not be spoken.”

“BOOM!”

Without warning, the roof above the relay station shattered apart.

A group of black-clad men dropped through the opening and immediately began hacking and killing.

The middle-aged man who had just declared his intention to adopt the child managed only two steps backward before a blade punched straight through him from behind.

At almost the same moment, another group of black-clad men rushed in through the relay station’s entrance.

They wasted no words.

They simply charged in and started killing.

The various factions inside the relay station, which had previously maintained a tense balance, were instantly thrown into complete chaos.

Ding Heng held the baby in his left arm and wielded his saber in his right. He knocked aside two consecutive attacks from the black-clad men, but just as he prepared to seize the opening and launch a counterattack, yet more black-clad men swarmed him, forcibly breaking his momentum before it could peak.

“They’re not jianghu people!”

Ding Heng immediately became alert.

These black-clad men clearly specialized in coordinated formation fighting.

This was how soldiers fought.

On the second floor, the men who had been holding crossbows were slaughtered in short order.

Two black-clad men then rushed directly into the Blind Man’s room.

The jianghu figures from earlier had still carried the habits of people who relied three parts on actual ability and seven parts on intimidation.

These new arrivals were different.

They attacked with the ruthless efficiency of men who intended to uproot the grass along with the roots.

The old man shook the wine gourd in his hand.

Then he leaned backward.

His body shot out.

In an instant, he appeared behind the two black-clad men.

His left hand clenched into a fist, while his right still held the wine gourd.

Both struck at once.

“BANG!”

“BANG!”

The two men’s necks snapped immediately.

Their bodies hit the floor with heavy thuds.

“Jinchai, stay here.”

“All right, Grandpa.”

The old man glanced once at the Blind Man.

Then he shot out of the guest room.

The girl folded her arms across her not-yet-developed chest, lifted her chin toward the Blind Man, and said, “Well? My grandpa’s amazing, isn’t he?”

The Blind Man remained unmoved.

Instead, he asked very calmly, “Whose child is that baby?”

“I’m not telling you. Unless you...”

“I’m begging you. Please tell me.”

“Uh... heh-heh. Grandpa isn’t here, so fine, I’ll tell you.

“Chu’s Second Prince once had a consort from the Wenren Clan. She originally returned to Jin to visit her family, but who could have known war would suddenly break out and leave her stranded here?

“Later, the Wenren Clan was destroyed. That woman survived, and not long after she returned to Jin, she discovered she was already pregnant...

“And now Chu’s Second Prince has clearly gained the upper hand. He is the man most likely to sit on that throne.

“So this child has become incredibly important.

“Whoever can seize the baby and deliver him to Chu—tsk, tsk, tsk—Grandpa will have enough wine to drink for the rest of his life, and I’ll have enough snacks to eat forever.”

“That convoluted?”

A consort had returned to Jin to visit her family.

After arriving home, she discovered she was pregnant.

Then war broke out.

Yan, Jin, and Qian went to war, while Chu descended into internal conflict, leaving the matter delayed all this time.

Now the baby had finally been born, and the news had instantly attracted waves of jianghu figures who wanted to seize the child, carry him to Chu, and claim a reward from the future Emperor of Chu.

The story fit.

The timing fit.

The location fit.

The people involved fit.

But that was precisely the problem.

It fit too neatly.

First, the story itself had to be true.

Second, after the Yan people entered Jin, their policy toward the Wenren Clan and Helian Clan had been extermination.

Helian Baozhu had only managed to reach the Tianduan Mountains because the Secret Intelligence Department had deliberately allowed her to escape, using her as bait to hook larger fish.

And now another one had conveniently slipped through?

Why didn’t Great Yan’s Secret Intelligence Department simply rename itself the Fisheries Bureau?

“When did this rumor begin spreading?” the Blind Man asked.

“A few months ago. People in the jianghu have been moving because of it for quite some time already.”

A few months ago?

The Blind Man instinctively sensed that the matter was nowhere near as simple as it appeared.

Then, an extraordinarily bold possibility suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The chaotic slaughter downstairs continued.

The black-clad men’s forceful intervention had instantly given the jianghu figures present a common enemy.

After all, the jianghu had its own rules.

Everyone played within those rules.

Then suddenly a group barged in and began killing indiscriminately.

How could the others tolerate such arrogance?

Quite a few people, like Ding Heng, had already realized the black-clad men probably came from a military background.

But at a time like this, there was no room to care.

Kill them first.

And this seemingly ordinary little relay station turned out to contain a surprising number of skilled fighters.

That clearly exceeded the black-clad men’s expectations.

At first, they had seized the initiative.

But before long, the fighting bogged down into a stalemate.

Instead, the jianghu experts began fighting with greater and greater ferocity.

“CLATTER—!”

Two black-clad men were hurled down from the second floor.

At the same time, an iron chain shot downward and smashed deep into the floor.

The old man slid down along the chain.

On the way, he knocked several more people flying before landing directly in front of Ding Heng.

Several of Ding Heng’s subordinates had already been killed or wounded beneath the black-clad men’s attacks.

But Ding Heng himself remained steady even while fighting one-handed.

The instant the old man appeared behind him, Ding Heng seemed to grow eyes in the back of his head.

His great saber swept backward.

A domineering wave of saber force roared with it, carrying an air of absolute supremacy.

The old man merely flicked his sleeve.

The iron chain beneath him moved as though alive, shooting upward like a spirit snake scaling a cliff.

In an instant, it wrapped around Ding Heng’s saber and locked it in place.

Then the chain forced the blade downward until it stabbed deep into the floor tiles.

“Iron Chain Elder?”

Ding Heng cried out in shock.

But the old man did not slow.

A second iron chain shot from the back of his collar and flew straight for Ding Heng’s face.

At the same time, both of the old man’s hands reached for the child in Ding Heng’s arms.

Ding Heng gritted his teeth and immediately made his choice.

Abandon the child.

Save his life.

Against the other jianghu figures—even against these black-clad men—he had confidence he could fight.

But against someone who might truly be the Iron Chain Elder, he had none at all.

This old man had been famous in the jianghu for years.

He was already close to the level of a true grandmaster, one of the towering figures of the martial world.

Ding Heng truly had not expected even someone like him to appear here.

Then again, rumor said the Iron Chain Elder was a man of Chu.

It was perfectly natural that he would come seize a future imperial heir for Chu.

The exchange looked vicious.

In reality, by this point the two men had already reached an unspoken understanding.

One wanted only the child.

The other was practical enough to retreat when he knew he was outmatched.

But just then—

“SWISH!”

A crisp sound cut through the room.

A figure appeared between Ding Heng and the Iron Chain Elder.

It was none other than the swordsman who had originally carried the child into the relay station.

No one knew why.

When Ding Heng had taken the baby earlier, the swordsman had behaved as though nothing had happened and calmly continued eating his noodles.

But now that the Iron Chain Elder was about to take the child away from Ding Heng, the swordsman moved.

The Iron Chain Elder did not hesitate.

His left hand shot forward.

In an instant, the iron chain wrapped around Ding Heng’s great saber moved like a spirit snake climbing stone, seized the sword hilt at the swordsman’s waist, and yanked.

But the moment the weapon came free, the Iron Chain Elder’s eyes abruptly narrowed.

There was only a hilt.

No blade.

It was an empty sword!

The swordsman spread his left hand.

Three chopsticks from a nearby table flew toward him in the blink of an eye.

His fingertips brushed lightly through the air.

The three chopsticks shot forward with lightning speed and pierced directly through three sections of iron chain.

One chain was nailed to a wooden pillar.

Another was pinned to the floor.

In this tiny patch of heaven and earth, the Iron Chain Elder had supplied the chains and the swordsman had provided the nails.

He locked them in place.

The third chopstick flew straight for the Iron Chain Elder’s throat.

The old man instantly severed his own chains and hurled himself backward.

After landing, he tasted sweetness in his throat.

He lowered his gaze slightly.

Only then did he realize that half a chopstick had already pierced into his neck.

Cold sweat instantly drenched his back.

Had he retreated even one step later, the chopstick would have passed straight through his throat.

One exchange.

The difference between them was already clear.

The Iron Chain Elder stared at the swordsman in absolute horror.

With the chopstick lodged in his neck, his voice had become painfully hoarse.

“You...

“You...

“Where is your sword?”

The swordsman sighed.

Then answered, “Ah.

“This bastard’s father took it from me.”

[End of Chapter 277]