Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 457: Life and Death Fight in the Forest (Part )
There used to be hundreds of collections displayed in the Cangjian Pavilion of Wujian Villa.

Some of these swords are top-quality swords made by famous swordsmiths, some are heirlooms presented by guests of the villa, and some... are relics of dead swordsmen.

Among them, the top-quality swords forged by famous masters, although not necessarily reaching the level of precious weapons, are the most likely to be highly regarded by the world, because the edge of this kind of sword is more obvious, and when it really faces a precious weapon, it will not be defeated immediately. It is indeed a very good weapon.

The quality of the heirloom swords presented by the retainers was a bit uneven - most of them were inferior to those forged by famous masters, but there were occasionally some precious weapons mixed in.

As for the swords left behind by the swordsmen, that is another matter...

The ancestors of the Xiao family collected these swords not because the swords themselves were sharp, but just to commemorate their former owners.

Among those people, there were their friends, lovers, rivals, and nemesis... Leaving these swords behind was like leaving behind a memory, a piece of grudges and love and hatred.

It's a pity that all of this has now disappeared.
It would take many years to collect these swords.

But it only takes one day to disperse them all.

After the fall of Wujian Villa, almost all of these hundreds of famous swords flowed into the world. For some swords, this could be considered as seeing the light of day again, but for more swords, they gradually passed into the hands of people who did not know the value of them, and finally became wall decorations or were simply thrown into the furnace.

As for this "Chanxia Sword"... it is quite special. It has not disappeared from the world, but it has not appeared in the world in the past two years.

Because Chi Xiao, Bi Xiao and Qing Xiao, who took the sword away, gave the sword and their "loyalty" to one person in exchange for the other person's protection not long after leaving Wujian Villa.

That is... the masked man who appeared in front of San Zi Wang and the others at this moment.

"Thank you for saving me, Master..." After being temporarily safe, the first thing Chi Xiao did was to turn to the masked man, kneel on one knee, and quickly admit his mistake, "It's all my fault for not doing my job well. I have to trouble you, Master..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the masked man.

"You two retreat first." The masked man's voice was low and strange. No one knew whether he used the mask or his internal energy to change his original voice.

"Yes, I obey your command." Chi Xiao and Bi Xiao did not dare to question or delay the masked man's order. After receiving the order, they immediately responded with fists clasped together, then turned around and ran.

Everyone, please pay attention. The masked man said that you two should retreat first.

If he hadn't said "two" and had directly said "you retreat first", Chi Xiao and Bi Xiao might have hesitated whether to take Qing Xiao, who had already lost his ability to move, with them. But since the masked man specifically said "two", the meaning was actually very clear...

Qingxiao, slumped under a tree, watched Chixiao and Bixiao running past him at high speed on both sides, both avoiding eye contact with him even for a second... In his heart, he was basically clear about his fate.

"Who are you?" At this time, the Three Character King on the other side finally couldn't help but speak and tested the masked man.

He was also quite realistic. Facing the Sanxiao who had lost one member, he decided to launch a surprise attack. However, facing this masked man with unfathomable martial arts skills, he chose to just say a few words first instead of rushing into a fight.

"Do you think I will tell you?" The masked man's response makes sense - if I am willing to reveal my identity, why would I wear a mask?

Swah——

While asking the question, the masked man slightly turned sideways and swung out a sword.

The target of this sword was Qingxiao, who was several feet behind him.

"Heh..." At the moment before his death, Qingxiao could only smile bitterly.

When the masked man gave the order just now, Qing Xiao understood: his new master had no intention of rescuing him, a useless man who was useless even when he was healthy, nor did he intend to leave him for questioning. So his fate was naturally doomed.

Even though Qing Xiao could not be called a gentleman and had done many dishonorable things, he was still a first-rate swordsman and a man ranked among the Nine Heavens Swords in Wujian Villa during its heyday. So when he knew he was going to die, he still tried his best to maintain his dignity.

He did not cry or rage, but just went to his death with a smile. Even if he had much regret and remorse in this life, he kept it to himself and secretly said, "I'll be a good man again in 18 years."

And the masked man seemed to be interested in preserving Qingxiao's dignity.

He swung the sword with almost all his strength, so Qingxiao's neck and the tree trunk behind him were almost cut off by the flying sword energy in an instant, without any delay.

Just from this one sword, it can be seen that this person's skills are definitely not inferior to Xiao Zhun's back then.

"Three-Character King, Linghu Xiang, Qin Feng..." The masked man called out the names of the three people one by one, paused, and then continued, "You are all swordsmen too. If you want to know who I am, you might as well ask with your sword."

What he meant was to let the three of them go together.

"It's over. It seems that the three of us are surrounded by him alone." Linghu Xiang has known Sun Huang for a long time and has learned a lot of dirty talk. At this tense moment, he was still throwing out such words, but the second half of his sentence turned back to a more pragmatic direction, "How about I go up and deal with him one-on-one for a while, and you guys wait for him to tire yourself out and observe his routine from the side?"

I have to say, his idea sounds pretty reliable, but...

"It's better not to." But the Three-Character King stopped him.

Among the three, San Zi Wang's strength is closest to the top-notch, and his martial arts talent and experience in the martial arts world are also higher than the other two. So through the masked man's previous actions, he has already seen that this enemy is probably not the type that Linghu Xiang is suitable to deal with.

Some people may say after seeing this, Linghu Xiang was able to delay Xiao Zhun for a while, so why can't he do that against this one?
The reason is quite complicated...

However, the most important point is that Xiao Zhun more or less did not use his full strength in the early and middle stages of the battle.

Because Xiao Zhun had not yet fully turned into a demon at that time, he was still using the "sword-teaching" skills in battle, which was the type that was easily defeated by the "Invincible Sword Technique". So after a few moves, when Xiao Zhun found out that he was actually beaten by Linghu Xiang in terms of moves, he was unwilling to accept the result and tried even harder to use the "problem-solving sword technique" to solve the unsolvable problem of the Invincible Sword Technique.

If you want to ask whether Xiao Zhun tried his best in the early and middle stages of the battle, he did try his best, but he tried his best under the premise of "must defeat the opponent with sword principles", rather than the kind of "forget it, as long as I can win" that he tried in the later stage when he repeated "Yingfeng Shanyue".

As for the fighting style when Xiao Zhun entered the "Sword Demon" stage later, there is no need to mention it - the "invincibility" of the invincible sword technique is only limited to the defensive invincibility at the level of moves. The battle with flying sword energy is not in the same dimension as this one.

And the masked man in front of him is undoubtedly not the "sword master".

Although the sword in his hand is the Canxia Sword, which best represents the sword spirit and sword principles of the "Sword Master", the things he has demonstrated in the few times he has used it so far are incompatible with the nature of this sword.

Compare the flaws and notice the imperfections. Compare is enlightenment and imperfection is deficiency.

Everything has its imperfections. The "perfect swordsmanship" that Xiao Zhun sought before he became a demon was not a flawless state of enlightenment, but one in which the flaws outweighed the merits, leaving some flaws in the whole.

It is similar to some powers which can only reach 990,000 horsepower. Once it reaches 1 million horsepower, it will collapse, or its nature has changed and it is no longer controllable by humans.

This is the answer Xiao Zhun realized throughout his life when he was at the threshold of "the absolute top level". Although this may not be the only answer in the pursuit of swordsmanship, it is indeed the ultimate answer when a certain type of sword theory reaches its extreme.

It’s a pity that when Xiao Zhun later crossed the threshold to the top level, he did not take the path he had been studying, but another path of destruction.

Even at the end, what he held in his hand was not his Chanxia sword.

But no matter what, the sword abandoned by Xiao Zhun is the weapon that perfectly matches the sword theory of the "Sword Master"; when it is swung, it can maximize the accuracy of the swordsman's moves, and can even perform some incredible operations such as stopping suddenly at ultra-high speed while swinging, and the sword body remains motionless.

But the three moves that the masked man used to repel San Zi Wang and others, including the sword energy he displayed a few seconds ago, were all very different from the style of the Chan Xia Sword... His moves were broad and ordinary, without any sense of sophistication, as if he was not a swordsman himself, but only relied on his powerful skills and the blessing of his precious weapon to disguise himself as a sword expert.

Facing such an opponent, Linghu Xiang was the one being restrained. Even though his internal strength had improved recently, fighting against such a person would still be very dangerous.

"Cover me." After dissuading Linghu Xiang, the Three-Character King hesitated for a few seconds before saying these three words.

If you ask him what he was thinking during those few seconds, the answer is very simple - he was considering whether he should abandon Linghu Xiang and Qin Feng and run away by himself.

But after thinking about it for a while, he gave up the idea...

Firstly, the opponent's target is the "True Hero Order", so even if he runs away alone, the opponent may quickly repel Linghu Xiang and Qin Feng and continue to chase him.

Secondly, the two guys had some friendship with him, and they had taken the initiative to help him before. It was really not very loyal for him to just abandon them and run away.

Therefore, the killer San Zi Wang, who was always reluctant to "stand up for justice", could only speak helplessly at this moment. He prepared to take the lead in the frontal attack, and let Linghu Xiang and Qin Feng guard the side to fight this mysterious masked man.

The masked man's reaction was also strange. When he saw the Three-Character King leading the charge, his face under the mask involuntarily twisted with excitement.

At this moment, he shook his wrist and wielded the sword, and the sword style suddenly appeared.

And that move suddenly stopped being ordinary, and turned into an extremely exquisite style...

(End of this chapter)