All Heavens: A Role-Playing System Starting from Tianlong

Chapter 63 Zhang Cheng: Big sister, who are you?

Xiao Yu gritted her teeth and remained silent. But the pain was too intense; her body began to tremble uncontrollably, veins bulged on her forehead, and sweat mixed with blood streamed down her face.

Li Qiushui watched her reaction with great interest. "Still not willing to tell?"

Xiao Yu bit her lip hard, trying not to make a sound. Blood seeped from the corner of her lips and dripped to the ground.

Just as Li Qiushui was about to press the matter further, "Swoosh—!" A sharp sound suddenly rang out, and a fierce energy pierced straight towards her back!

She reacted with lightning speed, striking out with a backhand palm. Bai Hong's palm force met the incoming object mid-air with a resounding crash.

"Bang!" The force of the energy scattered, causing the furnishings in the room to fall to the ground.

Li Qiushui's White Rainbow Palm technique had reached a state of perfection; her inner force moved with complete ease. The instant her palms clashed, she could already sense the texture and power of the incoming object.

It is condensed yet unyielding, incomparably sharp. Could it be some kind of sword energy?

Before she could think it over, an even more intense series of whooshing sounds followed!

"Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh—!" More than ten invisible sword energies shot out, blocking all her escape routes.

Li Qiushui returned fire a few times, but then realized something was wrong. Her opponent's speed in striking was far faster than hers. If she continued to exchange blows from a distance like this, she would inevitably fall into a disadvantageous position.

She acted decisively, dropping the maid in her arms, and with a light step, used the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) to dodge.

Unexpectedly, her opponent seemed to possess the same skill as Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique). The moment she stepped out of the "Mingyi" position, the sword energy shot towards the "Wuwang" position where she was about to land.

Li Qiushui had no choice but to activate her protective energy to withstand the attack.

The invisible sword energy struck her protective aura, creating ripples that spread outwards. Her internal energy was rapidly depleted, but it had at least bought her time to strike.

She took a deep breath and unleashed a powerful palm strike.

The White Rainbow Palm, infused with a massive amount of true energy, was like an invisible giant hand, swung left and right under Li Qiushui's control, shattering all the incoming sword energy.

Then, with a thought, she sent the giant hand slapping towards the direction from which the sword energy originated.

A tremendous force surged forward, crushing walls and breaking beams with overwhelming force, flattening half of the house.

The roof, having lost its support, crashed down with a deafening roar, filling the air with smoke and dust, and sending splinters of wood flying everywhere.

After the dust settled, two people stood in the ruins.

One of them was Li Qiushui. She used her protective energy to push aside the collapsed wreckage, and then with a burst of true energy, she sent all the bricks and tiles that were pressing down on her head flying.

The other person was a towering, black-clad giant.

The collapsing building crashed down on him, and he simply shouldered the weight. With a slight straightening of his back, he flung away the bricks and tiles that were pressing down on him.

Li Qiushui looked at him warily, her gaze sharp.

"Who are you? Were you the one spying in the Western Xia palace earlier?"

"My name is Zhang Cheng," the man replied casually, then lowered his head to look at the person he was protecting.

"Are you alright? I was just wondering how to find you when I triggered [Sense of Righteousness] after climbing to the top of the mountain. I rushed over without even having time to read the prompts."

I thought your dog-eat-dog relationship wouldn't trigger any sense of righteousness. Looks like you've done quite a few good deeds in your life—"

Before he could finish speaking, he froze, seeing the tall woman beneath him. "Big sister? Who are you?"

Despite being seriously injured, Xiao Yu still struggled to get up and express his gratitude, unwilling to lose face for the Spirit Palace.

"I am Yu, the commander of the Haotian Division of Lingjiu Palace. Thank you for saving me—"

Zhang Cheng quickly reached out and pressed her down: "Don't move, lie down first."

Just then, a strong gust of wind suddenly rose from behind. Li Qiushui seized the moment when he was distracted and struck out with her palm.

Zhang Cheng grabbed Xiao Yu and used his Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) to dodge. But the palm strike followed them relentlessly, turning in mid-air and continuing its pursuit.

Seeing this, Zhang Cheng raised his hand and struck out with his Zhongchong sword.

"Swoosh—!" The sword energy and the palm force collided in mid-air, exploding with a loud bang, and the energy scattered in all directions.

Zhang Cheng steadied himself and looked at Li Qiushui. "Sister Li, I wasn't really fighting just now. Otherwise, if you had chosen to use your protective qi to withstand the sword energy, I think the outcome would have been decided already."

Li Qiushui stared at him, her eyes flickering. "Why do you know the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique)? Who—who is your master?"

"Sister Li, aren't you getting a little senile?" Zhang Cheng raised an eyebrow. "Have you forgotten that you left behind a secret manual in the Wuliang Mountains of Dali?"

The secret manual from Wuliang Mountain? Li Qiushui was taken aback.

That was something she did in a fit of anger when she broke up with her husband, "the second-generation Xiaoyaozi" Wuyazi. So much time has passed that she's long forgotten about it.

Only now that Zhang Cheng brought it up did she remember that such a thing had happened.

Then I remembered her foolish deeds from back then—

On the scroll, she wrote that whoever mastered the martial arts should kill all the disciples of the Free and Unfettered Sect for her. To urge the person who obtained the scroll to practice diligently, she replaced all the diagrams of human meridians in the manual with her own nude portrait.

She didn't think much of it when she did it, but now that someone who practices silk scrolls has caught her doing it, she feels quite embarrassed.

However, she was no longer a young girl, so she immediately changed the subject.

"So you're saying you visited my and my senior brother's former residence and even practiced the martial arts manual I left behind?"

She narrowed her eyes. "But judging from what you said when you appeared just now, you don't want to save this wretched maid, but rather my dear senior sister, right?"

Zhang Cheng did not deny it.

Li Qiushui continued her analysis: "There are only traces of a woman living in that cave. Combined with the silk scroll and the inscription on the stone wall, it's not hard to guess who left the items. You've seen that jade statue, so it makes sense that you recognized me based on half of its face."

She stared intently at Zhang Cheng: "But how did you know my surname based solely on what you found in the cave?"

How could they possibly know about my past with my senior sister?

At the end, her voice lowered slightly: "You still say you're not my senior brother's disciple?"

Zhang Cheng: ?

Before he could speak, he noticed that Li Qiushui's gaze seemed to soften slightly.

"My senior brother disappeared without a word for thirty years, and I never expected him to take on another disciple," she said softly. "How has your master been lately?"

Zhang Cheng pressed his fingers against Xiao Yu's back, using his One-Finger Divine Skill to heal her. However, because he used to heal allies with the [Iron Cavalry] buff, his One-Finger Divine Skill wasn't very high. In addition, the characteristics of the Northern Darkness True Qi caused the healing effect to be far below normal levels, only able to slightly alleviate the other party's injuries.

Upon hearing this, he explained, "I have no relation to Wuyazi. However, I did receive the scroll in gratitude for your help."

So since you want to know, I'll tell you about Wuyazi's current situation. He's probably paralyzed now, and he's not doing well at all.

Li Qiushui's expression changed drastically.

"What did you say?!" Her voice suddenly rose. "How could my senior brother become paralyzed?"

"So, your senior brother wasn't knocked off the cliff by you and Ding Chunqiu working together? Then Ding Chunqiu must have taken care of him all by himself. I don't know exactly how he did it."

Zhang Cheng had cultivated the Northern Darkness Divine Art and knew how powerful this technique was in terms of defense.

Not to mention the tangible protective true energy he possesses when he's in a state of spiritual energy, the fact that all his meridians and acupoints can absorb other people's internal energy after he reaches mastery is enough to make Ding Chunqiu panic.

"Nonsense!" Li Qiushui retorted sharply, "How could that good-for-nothing surnamed Ding possibly do anything to us—"

She stopped speaking abruptly, as if she had suddenly remembered something.

Now it was Zhang Cheng's turn to feel uncomfortable. Couldn't he have stopped saying things in half-finished?