Free Web NovelChapter 96: Chapter 95: Counter-Kill
Chen Shouye meditated in the inn for another two days, making sure there were no issues.
On the morning of the fifth day, the faint, almost imperceptible feeling of being watched from outside his window seemed to have vanished completely.
’Have they given up, or is this some other trick?’
After a moment of contemplation, Chen Shouye hesitated no longer.
He settled his bill, slung his satchel over his shoulder, and left the inn.
He headed straight for the city gate without any delay.
Shortly after he left, Wu Gui came staggering back from the direction of the gambling dens, looking utterly devastated. His eyes were bloodshot, his gait unsteady.
In just two days, the five hundred taels of silver he had carried were long gone, gambled away to the last coin. He had even racked up a huge debt.
He habitually wandered over to the inn, only to see that the door and windows to Chen Shouye’s room were open. Bedding was even being aired outside the window.
’He’s gone?’
A jolt shot through Wu Gui. What little rationality he had left was completely devoured by greed and the fury of his gambling losses. He burst into the inn, grabbed a waiter, and demanded, "The kid in room nine on the second floor! Where’d he go?"
The waiter, startled by his rough manner, snapped, "He just left! How should I know?"
"Do you know where he’s from?" Wu Gui roared, a vicious glint in his eyes.
Terrified, the waiter gulped. "His accent... sounded like he was from the Mirror Mountain area?"
"Mirror Mountain?"
Wu Gui thought of Chen Shouye’s heavy satchel, of his only hope to win back his losses. He couldn’t be bothered with anything else and raced off toward the main road.
...
It was winter, and the vegetation had withered and died.
More than ten li out from the county seat, the land grew increasingly desolate.
On the main road from Ping County to Jingshan County, pedestrians were scarce, with only the occasional cart or horse passing by.
Chen Shouye drove his ox cart at a steady, unhurried pace. He reached a narrow stretch of road, empty of travelers before and behind him, and flanked on both sides by dense, withered reeds. It was then that he heard the sound of urgent, slightly chaotic footsteps approaching from the distance behind him.
The steps were accompanied by a hoarse shout, thick with frantic greed. "You, kid! Stop! I said, stop!"
Chen Shouye pulled the ox cart to a halt and turned, his posture wary.
Wu Gui charged forward like a madman, his eyes crimson, glued to the satchel at Chen Shouye’s waist. His voice was raw from panting and excitement. "Kid! Hand over every bit of silver you have! All of it! Or I’ll leave your corpse to rot in this wilderness today!"
Chen Shouye regarded him with a placid gaze. "The silver has been paid. Step aside."
"Paid my ass!"
Wu Gui’s face twisted into a ferocious snarl. From the small of his back, he whipped out a wood chopper. The blade was mottled with rust, but its edge had been honed to a bright gleam. He pointed it straight at Chen Shouye. "My skills aren’t so easy to learn! Pay the rest with your life!"
Before the words had even left his mouth, he took a swift, if somewhat unsteady, step forward. His chopper sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, aimed directly at Chen Shouye’s face.
The slash was vicious, its angle cunning.
This was none other than Mountain Splitting from the Eight-direction Saber Technique, a move designed to overwhelm an opponent with its ferocious opening attack and shatter their nerve.
Chen Shouye’s eyes narrowed. Instead of retreating, he advanced.
In the instant before the blade struck home, he shifted his body slightly to the right. He wasn’t dodging completely, but rather bracing his left shoulder to receive the side of the blade.
CLANG!
A sharp crack echoed!
The chopper struck Chen Shouye’s left shoulder with full force, but it was like hitting tough old leather. The combination of his solid muscle, imbued with the Power of the Iron Mountain Lean, and his surging vitality repelled it. The blade failed to penetrate an inch, merely tearing the outer layer of his cotton clothes.
"Horizontal Training Skills? Blood Refining?"
Wu Gui felt a jarring force travel up the blade, numbing his arm. He was stunned.
His impression of Chen Shouye had been that of a simple-minded son from some rich, backwater family.
He’d never imagined the man was a martial artist, let alone one with a high level of Cultivation.
"Damn it!"
Wu Gui was enraged. ’If you’re this strong already, why the hell did you buy my Pile Skill?’
Resentment festered within him. The vicious streak of a desperate gambler was fully unleashed, and he went berserk.
He roared and lunged again, his chopper a wild blur. He unleashed the moves of the Eight-direction Saber Technique, but with no form or reason—only a vicious, lethal intent.
Flashes of the blade stirred up a whirlwind of dead grass and leaves. The assault was a furious tempest, threatening to engulf Chen Shouye completely.
’So strong!’
Chen Shouye was equally shocked. He knew his body had become unexpectedly tough after consuming the Arhat Vajra Relic Fruit, but testing it for real like this was still startling.
He had spent the last few days studying the Eight-direction Saber Technique in depth, so he could anticipate all of its moves.
Relying on his familiarity with the Saber Technique and his own powerful physique, he continuously blocked and dodged. The air filled with the CLANG CLANG of collisions and the sound of his clothes whipping through the wind.
Wu Gui’s prolonged assault failed to break through. His stamina drained rapidly, his breathing grew ragged and chaotic, and his Saber Technique became increasingly sloppy.
Though he had reached Blood Refining Perfection, years of gambling addiction and a lack of money for Medicinal Cuisine had left his vitality depleted. He was running on sheer ferocity alone.
Now, with his attack failing, he grew frantic, and his openings became more and more obvious.
Chen Shouye saw his chance. After Wu Gui overcommitted to a "Sweeping Leaves" horizontal slash, his entire center was left exposed.
He stopped dodging at once. Taking a deep breath, he caused the vitality in his entire body to surge, and the muscles on his right shoulder instantly swelled.
Iron Mountain Lean!
Chen Shouye blocked with his left arm. His right shoulder, like a cannonball fired from its chamber, shot forward. He concentrated all his strength and the immense vitality of his Blood Refining Great Success stage into a single, unadorned, yet incomparably ferocious Iron Mountain Lean.
CRACK!
The sickening crunch of breaking bone.
"PUH..."
Wu Gui’s eyes bulged, the bloodshot orbs looking as if they would leap from their sockets.
He clearly heard the horrifying sound of his own sternum shattering. An irresistible, terrifying power pierced through his body, instantly liquefying his internal organs.
His entire body was thrown into the air, flying backward as a spray of blood from his mouth traced an arc through the sky. He landed heavily on the main road several yards away in a cloud of dust.
Wu Gui’s body convulsed twice. He tried to struggle, his mouth opening, but only bloody froth bubbled out. His head then lolled to the side, the light vanished from his eyes, and he stopped breathing.
A mournful wind swept across the main road.
Chen Shouye walked over to the still body. He bent down to check for breath, then pressed his fingers against the man’s neck to check for a pulse, confirming he was completely dead.
To be absolutely certain, he gathered his strength again and delivered a final, heavy punch to the man’s heart. It landed with a dull thud.
Afterward, he quickly cleaned up the scene: dragging the body, digging a hole, and burying it.
By the time he was finished, it was nearly dusk. The clouds on the horizon were tinged with the fading, sallow light of sunset.
Chen Shouye straightened his slightly disheveled clothes, brushed the dirt from his hands, and with a placid expression, walked out of the reed marsh and back onto the main road.
He glanced back in the direction of Ping County, a flicker of deep contemplation in his eyes.
’Wu Gui was a degenerate gambler and cunning by nature. There’s no guarantee he didn’t tamper with the Cultivation Techniques...’
A thought began to form in his mind.
He had the two Cultivation Techniques, but given Wu Gui’s nature as a gambler, Chen Shouye resolved to return to the man’s shack and search it thoroughly.
Upon returning to Ping County, Chen Shouye checked into the same inn he had stayed at before.
He waited until the dead of night, when the city was quiet and the last lights had been extinguished. Under the cover of darkness, he once again crept silently toward the dilapidated, chaotic shantytown.
Relying on his exceptional memory and keen Spiritual Sense, he moved like a phantom through the narrow alleys, easily avoiding the occasional pedestrian and drunkard. Before long, he was once again standing outside the low, dilapidated, felt-roofed shack.
