Chapter 34

As the night deepened, the old locust tree stood silently.

Suddenly, a figure appeared on the wall of the courtyard.

It was vaguely visible that he was wearing a dark robe, his figure as thin as bamboo, and he was carrying two corpses in his hands.

The Daoist casually threw the two corpses into the courtyard, then leaped over the wall and landed inside.

"Huh, Qingwan, is someone living in this courtyard?"

Due to the darkness, the Daoist only then noticed that the once overgrown and abandoned courtyard had been cleaned up and looked brand new.

"Wu Ruoqiu, you finally came."

The calm voice that answered was Su Yi's.

He had risen from his bamboo chair, casually holding a peachwood sword, standing in the night, quietly watching the other person.

Wu Ruoqiu was about forty years old, with fair skin, willow-like whiskers, and a sword on his back. A yellow gourd hung from his waist, giving him a rather transcendent air.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?"

Wu Ruoqiu was startled, his expression turning wary.

Just as he spoke, a sharp, eerie whistle came from his mouth.

But after waiting for a long time, nothing happened as he had expected.

Wu Ruoqiu's heart sank, feeling anxious. What's going on?

"All the ghost corpse bugs have been killed by me. You can shout until your throat is sore, but it won't do any good."

Su Yi strolled leisurely toward Wu Ruoqiu.

"Who are you really?"

Wu Ruoqiu said sternly, his eyes flashing with a fierce light, his entire body poised for action.

"Don't be nervous. Before we fight, I have some questions for you."

Su Yi stopped about ten feet away from Wu Ruoqiu.

Wu Ruoqiu then saw that the person in front of him was a teenager, wearing a green robe, holding a wooden sword, tall and slender, with the aura of only a Blood Circulation Realm practitioner.

Wu Ruoqiu immediately relaxed, inwardly mocking himself for becoming so timid. He couldn't believe he had almost been scared by a mere Blood Circulation Realm novice.

He folded his hands behind his back and said coldly, "Young man, you're not qualified to talk to me. Go get your master. I want to ask him how he teaches his disciples, with no manners at all!"

The ghost corpse bugs in the well had lost contact, and even Qingwan was hiding, which made Wu Ruoqiu suspect that there was a powerful expert behind Su Yi.

Su Yi sneered and shook his head, "If there were truly someone in this world who could be my master, I might be delighted. Unfortunately... I have never met one."

Wu Ruoqiu was taken aback and sneered, "You're still a kid, yet you have such a big mouth! If you don't bring out your master, don't blame me for being impolite!"

His eyes flashed with a fierce light, and his aura suddenly changed. As his energy circulated, a surging, thunderous sound could be heard, a power that only a Qi Gathering Realm practitioner could wield.

Once a martial artist used their power, their blood and qi would gather and boil.

With the guidance of their energy, every movement in battle would be precise, as if measured with a ruler, not a hair's breadth off, and their control over their strength would be at the most exquisite level.

Wu Ruoqiu was at the Qi Gathering Realm, with a body as tough as copper and stone, bones as hard as iron, and tendons as strong as jade. Ordinary weapons could hardly harm him.

A faint sneer appeared on Su Yi's lips, "Then I, Su Yi, will see how a Qi Gathering Realm practitioner can be impolite."

"Wu Ruoqiu has wandered the world for many years. I've seen many arrogant people, but none as arrogant as you!"

Wu Ruoqiu laughed in anger.

A Qi Gathering Realm practitioner is a small fry?

Listen to this, is this human talk?

He suddenly lunged forward, his sleeves flaring, and reached out to grab Su Yi's neck.

Boom!

The sudden attack of a Qi Gathering Realm practitioner was as swift as lightning, fierce and overwhelming. The mere momentum of it could scare the wits out of a Blood Circulation Realm practitioner!

Wu Ruoqiu's plan was simple: capture Su Yi first, then force him to reveal the expert behind him, thus ensuring his own safety.

He was about to grab Su Yi.

At that moment—

A sword shadow suddenly appeared in Su Yi's pupils, followed by a vast, cold, and terrifying aura.

Boom!

Wu Ruoqiu's mind was struck as if by lightning, his soul trembling, his vision darkening. In a daze, it felt as if he had fallen into an endless hell, with a mysterious celestial sword descending from the heavens, shattering the ancient sky, and crushing down.

In that instant, the terrifying sword intent filled every direction, the sound of the sword's roar like the angry cries of gods, echoing in his ears and heart.

A sense of smallness, helplessness, and despair overwhelmed him, striking a heavy blow to his state of mind, almost causing him to collapse.

This feeling lasted only a moment.

But the impact made Wu Ruoqiu's forward momentum falter, stopping just five steps away from Su Yi.

Five steps is the standard distance for a martial artist's life-and-death struggle.

As the saying goes, "Blood splatters within five steps, even emperors cannot stop it." When you are this close, the enemy is as close as your own country!

It was at this five-step distance that Su Yi moved.

He simply thrust his sword forward.

Fast, accurate, and ruthless!

It was like an instinctive reaction formed through countless sword draws, precise to the extreme, fast to the extreme, and ruthless to the extreme.

Thud!

The thick wooden sword pierced through Wu Ruoqiu's chest, breaking his ribs, and penetrated with a force that crushed everything in its path.

Hot blood and the sword tip spurted out from his back!

The force of the blow was so powerful that Wu Ruoqiu's body bent forward sharply, like a cooked shrimp.

His eyes were wide open, his face full of bewilderment, as if he couldn't believe it, and he said in a hoarse voice, "You... you are really a Blood Circulation Realm practitioner?"

"As genuine as it gets."

Su Yi casually pulled out the wooden sword and stepped back three steps.

Wu Ruoqiu's body shook violently, blood gushing from the wound in his chest like a fountain. If Su Yi hadn't moved in time, he would have been splattered.

Thud!

Wu Ruoqiu fell to the ground, gasping in pain.

The injury was too severe, and he could feel his life force rapidly fading.

"You... you said you had questions... why... why did you attack so ruthlessly? If I die, you won't know anything."

Wu Ruoqiu spoke in broken sentences, confused.

Su Yi said casually, "Oh, I'm not interested anymore."

Wu Ruoqiu: "..."

He was so angry that he spat out a mouthful of blood.

He gritted his teeth and hissed, "You've ruined my sect's big plan. Just wait for the revenge!"

With that, Wu Ruoqiu fell to the ground, his breath gone, dead.

His wide-open eyes were filled with regret.

He probably never expected that a single move would cost him his life at the hands of a Blood Circulation Realm practitioner.

"Even a trace of aura was too much for him to bear. The souls of the martial artists in the Great Zhou Dynasty are truly weak..."

Su Yi shook his head inwardly.

Earlier, he had used a trace of the aura from the "Nine Prisons Sword" in his mind.

Even this faint trace of aura was too much for Wu Ruoqiu, a Qi Gathering Realm practitioner, to withstand, causing his soul to be shaken.

It was this opportunity that allowed Su Yi to thrust his sword through Wu Ruoqiu's chest.

"If I had known, I would have fought him head-on. It would have been more troublesome, but with my current cultivation and sword skills, I could have killed him."

Earlier, Su Yi thought Wu Ruoqiu was an evil cultivator with many vicious means, so he didn't plan to fight him directly and instead used a bit of his own cultivation as a trump card.

Who would have thought that the other person would be foolish enough to fight him with just his cultivation, without using any vicious secret techniques or powers.

"It seems I took the evil cultivators in this world too seriously."

Su Yi felt a bit self-deprecating.

Now he realized that Wu Ruoqiu wasn't stupid; as a Qi Gathering Realm practitioner, he had underestimated Su Yi, who was only at the Blood Circulation Realm.

This showed that being weak in cultivation had its advantages, as it could make opponents underestimate and be careless.

"Do you know which sect Wu Ruoqiu belongs to?"

Su Yi looked at the old locust tree not far away.

"Reporting to Master, I... I don't know about this."

A red figure appeared nervously on one of the branches.

She was fidgeting with the hem of her clothes, her head lowered, her slightly chubby, delicate face filled with weakness, helplessness, and pity.

She had seen Wu Ruoqiu being killed with a single sword strike. If she hadn't covered her mouth tightly, she would have screamed in terror.

Su Yi didn't ask further, crouched down, and began to search Wu Ruoqiu's remains.

A sheathed long sword, a yellow gourd, three thousand-tael silver notes, a pouch of about twenty taels of silver, and a tattered, yellowed scroll with only a few pages left.

Apart from these, there was nothing else of note.

After putting away the silver notes and silver, Su Yi picked up the yellowed scroll.

The scroll was tattered, and the few remaining pages contained some vicious secret techniques for cultivating and nurturing ghost corpse bugs, with very sinister content.

After a quick read, Su Yi felt disappointed. Even in the hands of evil cultivators, the secret techniques in the scroll were crude and laughable.

However, Su Yi noticed that at the end of the last page, there was a line of writing:

"Yinsha Sect, Master Weng Yunqi, to my disciple Wu Ruoqiu."

Su Yi immediately understood.

Wu Ruoqiu's sect was the "Yinsha Sect," and his master was named Weng Yunqi.

"He said before he died that I had ruined his sect's big plan. It seems that Wu Ruoqiu's cultivation of ghost corpse bugs was under the orders of the Yinsha Sect."

Su Yi's eyebrows raised slightly.

He had a feeling that the place where the Yinsha Sect cultivated ghost corpse bugs was not limited to this one.

In other words, there should be similar "bug cultivation sites" in other parts of Guangling City.

While thinking, Su Yi tore the scroll to pieces, as such evil secret techniques, if obtained by others, would surely cause great harm.

Next, he picked up the sheathed long sword.

The scabbard was made of black iron. When he drew the sword, a pungent, bloody, and putrid smell hit his nose.

Su Yi frowned, showing a look of disgust.

The sword was made of pine wood, its body stained with a dark red color, and its edge glowed with a greenish light, emitting a foul odor.

"Using the menstrual blood of unmarried girls to nourish the sword, what kind of evil cultivator is this? It's simply too low!"

Su Yi shook his head, feeling nauseous.

Crack!

Su Yi exerted his strength, and the pine wood sword shattered into splinters, which he then burned to ashes.

"Hmm, this gourd is somewhat interesting."

When Su Yi picked up the only remaining yellow gourd, he finally showed some interest.

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PS: Well... with the monthly votes breaking 600, I'll add more updates. I really don't have any drafts left, so I was quite anxious when I proposed this update condition.