The world of martial arts, the immortal swordsman in the mortal realm.

Chapter 22, First Blood
Huang Yaoshi remained expressionless, his eyes cold and aloof. He glanced at Lu Chen, then looked at the cave and asked calmly:
Why did you come out?

The question seemed abrupt, but Lu Chen understood his meaning and answered calmly:
"The cave is too small, and Rong'er is just a little girl who doesn't understand anything. I can't take advantage of this to bully her."

Huang Rong is knowledgeable in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, divination, the Five Elements, Qimen Dunjia, and mechanical formations. She is also a legendary chef and is quite versatile. However, she is completely ignorant about matters between men and women.

She still believes that babies crawl out from under the armpits.

Huang Yaoshi snorted coldly upon hearing his reply:
"You are quite the gentleman."

The tone was strange; it was hard to tell whether it was a compliment or an insult.

Lu Chen knew he couldn't respond to such remarks, so he remained silent.

Huang Yaoshi remained silent, only watching him coldly. The forest fell silent for a moment, with only the rustling of leaves in the evening breeze and the occasional chirping of night insects.

The atmosphere was a bit tense.

Huang Yaoshi's cold gaze was very intimidating, but Lu Chen showed no fear. His face remained calm, neither humble nor arrogant, and his spine was straight.

After a long silence, Huang Yaoshi spoke again:
Have you ever killed anyone?

Lu Chen shook his head:

"Never."

Huang Yaoshi sneered:
"You've never killed anyone, so what makes you think you can roam the martial world with Rong'er? Just because of that one sword strike?"

Lu Chen remained silent for a moment, then slowly answered, his voice not loud, but his tone exceptionally serious:
"With that one sword strike! In the entire world, apart from the Five Greats, no one can face my sword without paying a price. As long as I stand, no one can harm Rong'er. Not only that..."

He looked Huang Yaoshi directly in the eye, his eyes full of composure and confidence:

"At most six months, even the Five Greats will have to avoid the sharpness of my sword!"

Now, his "Sword One" can be easily blocked by the Five Greats if they are armed, and even if they are bare-handed, they will only suffer a minor loss.

But Lu Chen believed that in just six months, even the Five Great Masters of the World would find no other way to dodge his "Sword One" before he could achieve it.

Huang Yaoshi smiled wryly:
"Six months from now, even the Five Greats will have to avoid your sword? You've got quite the nerve!"

As he spoke, he flicked his finger, sending a soybean flying into the woods beside him.

A muffled groan came from the woods, and only then did Lu Chen notice that there were other people in the woods.

Were they brought by Huang Yaoshi?

Just as they were speculating, they heard Huang Yaoshi say coldly:
"Get over here!"

Judging from his tone, Lu Chen was certain that the person in the forest was the one Huang Yaoshi had brought.

Previously, his acupoints had been sealed, but Huang Yaoshi used his "Finger Flicking Divine Skill" to release them.

Footsteps sounded.

A middle-aged man with dark skin, a fierce face, and a centipede scar on his left cheek, carrying a single-edged sword, emerged from the forest.

Lu Chen noticed that when the man looked at Huang Yaoshi, his eyes were full of fear, clearly indicating that he had suffered quite a bit at Huang Yaoshi's hands.

Huang Yaoshi stood with his hands behind his back and said calmly:

"This man is named Xue Wu. He is the leader of the river bandits on the Cao'e River. He has dozens of lives on his hands and his skills far surpass yours. His 'Splashing Wind Blade' technique is also quite remarkable. Kill this man. Let me see if your sword is sharp enough."

He paused, then looked at Xue Wu:
"Defeat him, and I will spare your life."

The bandit leader Xue Wu's eyes lit up. He habitually stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. His gaze toward Lu Chen turned fierce and bloodthirsty, as if he were looking at a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Lu Chen disliked that look. He had just frowned slightly when Xue Wu suddenly appeared in front of him, his steel blade flashing a bright arc of light as it slashed diagonally at Lu Chen's neck.

This slash was menacing, powerful, and heavy, demonstrating the user's solid swordsmanship skills.

Lu Chen drew his longsword with a clang, blocking the clash with a horizontal strike. The sword and blade clashed, producing a clear, melodious metallic sound and sparks.

Although he blocked the attack, Xue Wu's internal energy was much stronger than Lu Chen's. He immediately deflected Lu Chen's sword to the side, and a shockwave even spread along the blade to the hilt, making Lu Chen's fingers and palms numb.

With just this one collision, Lu Chen knew that Huang Yaoshi's words were true. This bandit leader's skill was indeed far superior to his own. He immediately used the force of the recoil to gracefully retreat, causing Xue Wu's follow-up slash after deflecting his longsword to land in empty air.

Xue Wu didn't expect to kill Lu Chen with just one or two strikes. After testing the boy's skills and finding them inferior to his own, he was greatly encouraged and saw a glimmer of hope for survival. He unleashed the "Splashing Wind Blade Technique" and launched a full-scale attack. The steel blade stirred up a fierce wind, like a whirlwind, as it slashed continuously towards Lu Chen.

Faced with the menacingly swift blade, Lu Chen remained unfazed, using his movement techniques combined with his swordsmanship to fight back. Although he had only studied Peach Blossom Island's lightness skill for a few days, his movements already captured the essence of the skill. His shifts and turns were not only as swift as the wind, but also quite elegant and graceful.

While using his lightness skill to temporarily evade Xue Wu's swordsmanship, he also used the Yue Nu Sword and the Falling Petal Sword to counterattack from time to time. His swordplay was sometimes as fierce and brutal as a battlefield, and sometimes as dazzling and eye-catching as falling petals. Each time, he was able to force Xue Wu's attack to slow down.

Xue Wu originally wanted to seek a clash of swords, to rely on his skill to overpower Lu Chen, and to easily defeat him by knocking his sword away.

However, Lu Chen's movements were elusive, and his swordsmanship was even more unpredictable, never clashing with his steel blade. As a result, Xue Wu launched more than a dozen attacks in one go, but apart from the initial clash of swords and blades, there was no second collision between them. The only sound in the forest was the continuous sound of swords and blades cutting through the air.

Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted.

Xue Wu launched a dozen or so attacks but failed to land a blow, and his momentum gradually lost its previous ferocity.

Lu Chen remained patient, fighting calmly and methodically. His swordsmanship was like a gentle spring breeze or a spider weaving a web, gradually setting up a deadly trap.

After exchanging dozens more blows, Xue Wu suddenly realized that he was like a small insect caught in a spider web, with sword lights flashing and disappearing all around him, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion.

The more he struggled, the tighter the "spider web" woven by the sword light became. Despite his superior skill, he was powerless to use his strength. Not only could he not overpower his opponent, but his desperate counterattacks were often stopped halfway by Lu Chen's divine sword strikes.

Xue Wu grew increasingly furious as the fight progressed, his temper flaring, and he grew increasingly agitated, even fearful.

He couldn't understand why, with his superior skill and decent swordsmanship, he had ended up in such a predicament. Panicked, his swordsmanship began to falter.

Seeing that Xue Wu's sword was in disarray, Lu Chen, who had been patiently "weaving a net," immediately and without hesitation pulled it in. He used several feints to lure Xue Wu's long sword away, causing him to expose a fatal flaw, and then seized the opportunity to stab him.

puff!

With a flash of sword light and the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh, the tip of the sword had already deeply penetrated Xue Wu's throat.

Having landed a successful strike, Lu Chen didn't hesitate and instantly drew his sword and retreated, avoiding Xue Wu's final, desperate counterattack.

Xue Wu's sword missed its mark, the steel blade braced against the ground, and he clutched his throat tightly, but could not stop the gushing blood.

He stared wide-eyed at Lu Chen with resentment, made a few muffled gurgling sounds in his throat, then collapsed to the ground, struggled a few times, and died.

Lu Chen twirled his sword, flicked away the bloodstains from the tip, bowed to Huang Yaoshi, and said in a deep voice:
“Senior, this person’s martial arts are too poor and he is not worthy of my use of the Absolute Sword.”

Xue Wu's skill level is higher than his.

However, the level of skill does not necessarily represent absolute strength or weakness.

Especially in melee combat, in this low-level martial arts world, the Five Greats are nothing more than flesh and blood in the face of steel blades and iron swords.

As for his moves, Xue Wu's "Splashing Wind Blade" was indeed fierce.

However, Lu Chen had already thoroughly mastered the Yue Nu Sword Technique and the Luo Ying Sword Technique, and had even cultivated these two sword techniques to the point of imbuing them with spirit and charm, so that he could use them at will.

Let's talk about practical experience.

Although Lu Chen did not have dozens of lives on his hands like Xue Wu, he had sparred with Huang Yaoshi several times and received a lot of guidance from Huang Yaoshi. He was able to hold out for forty or fifty moves without being defeated when Huang Yaoshi suppressed his power to a level comparable to his own.

This training experience is also practical combat experience, and it is even more valuable than fighting with others in the martial arts world.

With this swordsmanship and experience, even if a mere bandit leader is more skilled than him, as long as his martial arts don't completely overwhelm him, he has a chance to win, and he doesn't even need to use "White Rainbow Piercing the Sun".

Huang Yaoshi didn't even glance at the bandit leader lying dead on the ground, but only coldly observed Lu Chen.

After killing someone, Lu Chen showed no signs of the tension, panic, or bloodlust that one might expect from a first-time killer. Instead, his breathing was steady, his eyes were bright, and his emotions were calm and undisturbed.

After observing Lu Chen carefully for a while and confirming that he was not feigning composure, Huang Yaoshi coldly said:
"Take good care of Rong'er. If she suffers even the slightest injury, I will take your life."

Having said that, he glanced at the cave, picked up Xue Wu's body, and with a flick of his robes, drifted away, disappearing into the forest in the blink of an eye.

Lu Chen watched Huang Yaoshi leave, feeling somewhat surprised by his own calmness after killing someone.

But then I thought about it again. I was a man who had been annihilated by the "Sword Intent of Immortal Slaughter"... no, the chosen man. I had already experienced the great terror of life and death.

Although I did not personally experience life and death in this life in the "main world", I have seen a lot of shocking news and information. My will has been tempered, and it is only natural that I can kill without changing my expression for the first time.

Turning his gaze away from the corpse, he looked back at the cave and saw Huang Rong emerge from the cave entrance, carrying a dagger in her hand. She had clearly been awakened by the commotion of Lu Chen and Xue Wu's fight, and after realizing the situation, she hid at the cave entrance, ready to secretly throw a flying knife to help him at any time.

"Rong'er, I won." Lu Chen smiled slightly: "Your father won't take you back."

I need votes!!


(End of this chapter)