Book 1 Chapter 16: Kill! Kill! Kill!
Tiger Li was one of the four hallmasters of the Blackwood Stronghold and a late Soul Apprentice. This man’s name sounded somewhat imperious but he looked more like a scholar. If he held a folding fan in his hand instead of a multi-ringed large saber, nobody would think that he was a vicious bandit.
However, despite looking gentle and weak, he was the most brutal and ruthless among the four hallmasters. He usually killed a large number of people or even slaughtered a village just because he was slightly dissatisfied with something — like today.
The mission of escorting the tributes back into the school had been snatched by that hallmaster Zhong, so he had really been in a bad mood. Today he took his henchmen down the mountain, wanting to find some women to play with. They unexpectedly encountered resistance in a hamlet so he destroyed the hamlet in his anger and took away seven or eight young women.
Originally he wanted to return through the night to the stronghold but he felt somewhat tired on the way so he stopped in a vacant area to eat, preparing to have a rest before resuming his journey.
Seeing that his subordinates were totally impatient to play with the women they had captured, Tiger Li drank all the wine in his wineskin in one go then shouted at a group on the right-hand side: “Damn. It! Leave that juicy beautiful girl for me! You bastards, how dare you fight over her in front of me? That one over there too! I intend to give her to Vice-Chieftain when we return! Don’t you dare snatch her, you hear?”
The two groups berated by him spread out with embarrassed expressions. The group on the right apologized to him again and again with ingratiating smiles and stepped aside to make room, ready to let their hallmaster ‘take the first bite’.
Tiger Li stood up and took two steps forwards, but he suddenly turned around as if thinking of something, looking in the direction of the road they had taken to come here, only to see a long crimson line approaching at high speed.
After giving it a good look, he discovered that it was not a red line. Instead, it was unexpectedly a youngster holding a flaming red spear in his hand who was coming at full gallop with a totally murderous expression. It seemed the moment he saw clearly what was coming, there was already only a distance of a hundred meters left between them.
Enemy! Moreover, this feeling… This was a soul cultivator!
Tiger Li was the type who reacted rather shrewdly. He could tell almost instantly that the visitor had no good intentions and shouted loudly: “The enemy is here! Be ready to fight!”
His shouting gave everybody a start. They turned their heads to take a look, only to see a man with a spear in his hands rushing at them at high speed. They were all somewhat doubtful: It’s just a man. Why is Hallmaster panicking like this?
An outermost subgroup of bandits had already raised their weapons, ready to teach this man who was charging up recklessly a brutal lesson, letting him know that he would have to pay for disturbing them when they were seeking pleasure — with his life!
Seeing that man about to charge up to his face, the bandit in the forefront raised the weapon in his hand with a ferocious expression, ready to hack down.
However, his raised hands stopped moving right above his head, and even the hideous grin on his face seemed to have frozen. He looked in stupefaction at the crimson spear which had pierced through his chest. The moment before his death, he thought that — his chest felt so ‘warm’…
But he did not know that in addition to himself, even another bandit standing behind him had also been pierced through similarly by the spear.
… … … …
His eyes filled with rage, Bai Yunfei charged into a bandit group in front of him without pausing and thrust the spear out efficiently. His fast speed was not something these ordinary bandits could react to in time so the spear pierced through the bodies of two bandits directly.
All of a sudden, he pulled the spear back, letting blood spray onto his body, then made a turn. Following his body, the spear swung out in a crimson arc, its tip sweeping across the necks of three bandits. Blood spurted and these three bandits gradually fell backwards without having any reaction.
“He’s a soul cultivator! Go up together, everybody! Go up together! Kill him!” A loud roar by Tiger Li woke the other bandits up with a start. Only when they saw their hallmaster charge at the intruder while raising his large saber did they react. Regardless of how frightened they were because the opponent was a soul cultivator, when even their hallmaster had charged up, could they possibly go into hiding? Not unless they did not want to live later.
Tiger Li was both shocked and furious inside. As he rushed out, his mind was working overtime, “Who could have thought a soul cultivator would suddenly appear and attack us? What does he want? He wants to single-handedly take on these forty something men on my side?
Though he seems a bit more powerful than myself, I’ve still got a few dozen subordinates. If we go up together, we’ll definitely be able to destroy him!”
Bai Yunfei cast a look at Tiger Li, who was rushing at him. His feet did not stop at all. After avoiding a saber coming at him from behind, he sent a man in front of him flying with a kick, knocking down several men who were charging up after this man. Then he thrust the handle of his spear backwards fiercely. A man behind him was immediately pierced through the neck by the spear’s handle then fell backwards with his eyes popping.
Holding the spear horizontally, Bai Yunfei blocked two sabers hacking at him from one side. He suddenly pushed with force, causing those two men to lean backwards, then swung the tip of the spear at them, splitting their throats!
Now Tiger Li finally arrived. He had not expected this man to be so fierce that he could kill three men in just a moment. With a loud roar, he suddenly jumped up then brought his saber down on Bai Yunfei in a hack.
It was already too late for Bai Yunfei to turn around then attack with the spear. He could only lift the spear horizontally up above his head. After blocking this saber strike head-on, he was knocked back several steps continuously by the force of the impact. When Tiger Li was about to pursue and attack Bai Yunfei, he was forced to back off by a horizontal sweep of the spear.
After forcing Tiger Li to retreat, Bai Yunfei dashed away, extending the distance between them, and attacked another group of seven or eight bandits.
Every time Tiger Li wanted to rush up, he forced him to retreat then pulled away and continued to deal with other bandits.
Bai Yunfei was like a tiger among sheep. His spear, his punches and his kicks were all lethal weapons to this bandit group. One bandit after another was knocked down to the ground, leaving fewer and fewer still standing.
When Bai Yunfei yet again pierced through the chest of a bandit with his spear, Tiger Li finally was able to grab the opportunity. With an acceleration, he rushed up to Bai Yunfei’s face and swung his large saber horizontally at his waist.
Bai Yunfei planted the spear down off to one side and blocked this strike of the saber. His eyes flashing with a hint of delight, Tiger Li took half a step forwards again, resulting in him and Bai Yunfei almost standing face to face, and raised his left hand. His arm swelled up instantly, its muscles bulging out. He then struck a fierce blow at Bai Yunfei’s chest!
He was certain that because Bai Yunfei was good at using a spear, he had to be weak in close-quarters combat. At the moment, he was close to the enemy’s face so his long spear was not convenient to brandish. As long as he himself utilized his violent close-quarters attacks and was assisted by the sneak attacks of the bandits around, this man would definitely die!
However, Bai Yunfei did not panic at all. He took half a step backwards with his right foot to create a little distance then did the same by lifting his right fist and striking a blow.
Crisp sounds of smashed bones rang up in Tiger Li’s ears and also exploded in his heart. With his eyes full of disbelief, he flew backwards involuntarily. A huge force came at him through his right fist, then came the second force and the third force. It seemed in the blink of an eye, three layers of fist force surged up through his fist. He even felt that the bones of his left arm, starting from his fist up to his shoulder, were disintegrating bit by bit.
Overlapping Waves Art, Threefold Fist Force!
After sending the opponent flying, Bai Yunfei did not pursue and attack him immediately. His right arm was trembling slightly. Even though he had only used the first level of the Overlapping Waves Art called Threefold Fist Force, the side effect of the eruption was still somewhat unbearable to his right arm.
“I’m not proficient enough yet…”
Bai Yunfei swung his right arm a bit and channeled soulforce into it, allowing it to recover very quickly. He then raised his eyes, looking at those bandits in the surroundings, who with frightened expressions had all stopped attacking because their hallmaster had been sent flying.
Not only those bandits, at the moment, even Tiger Li was also staring at Bai Yunfei in disbelief, his left arm shaking unnaturally. Seeing that Bai Yunfei did not pursue and attack him right away, he let out a sigh of relief, but his eyes were still filled with a deep fear.
“Go up together!! Go…”
The words he was about to say got stuck in Tiger Li’s throat because now he had discovered with fright that there were already only a few bandits still standing around.
At Bai Yunfei’s feet, over thirty bandits were lying in disorder and none of them could struggle up again!
This shout from Tiger Li also woke up the several surviving bandits with a start. But instead of rushing up to fight the enemy as their hallmaster had told them, they started fleeing desperately.
They were no fool! This was an enemy who had eliminated over thirty men on their side with ease and who even a soul cultivator like hallmaster Li was no match for!
But when they had run away just a few steps, they were so frightened by two miserable cries coming from the distance that they stopped moving again.
It turned out two men had reacted a step ahead of them and had already run away several dozen meters, being about to disappear into a grove on one side. However, these men’s hearts had been penetrated by two daggers shot at them from up ahead all of a sudden. They fell down with astounded expressions.
Li Chengfeng slowly walked out from the forest, pulled the daggers out of the two corpses then walked towards the remaining four or five bandits step by step. He gave Bai Yunfei in the distance a look, saying in a deep voice: “Leave the rest to me…”
The last four bandits had originally also wanted to run into the forest then flee for their lives. But now, seeing Li Chengfeng kill the two comrades who had fled one step ahead of them as soon as he had appeared and seeing him walking towards them with a furious look in his eyes, they were extremely frightened. With a fearful cry, they immediately ran away in all directions.
One of them fled in a random path which happened to lead to Bai Yunfei. When he noticed this, it was already too late. Bai Yunfei sent him flying backwards with a kick. Li Chengfeng then chased up and slit his throat with a sweep.
Without stopping, he chased after the other three runaway bandits one by one, killing them all.
He then returned to Bai Yunfei’s side and began to check out the bandits knocked down by Bai Yunfei earlier to finish off those who were still alive with his daggers. Seeing this, Tiger Li had an even more unsightly expression.
He had never expected the enemy to have a companion. Moreover, this was also a soul cultivator! Seeing their ruthless manner, Tiger Li abandoned the idea of begging for mercy. His eyes glittering, he was trying to think of a way to escape.
Suddenly, his eyes flashed with a hint of delight. He glanced out of the corners of his eyes at the three young women who were embracing each other at a place two meters away on his left-hand side. They were covering their mouths tightly, their eyes full of terror and their bodies shivering.
A miserable cry suddenly rang out. Li Chengfeng had just discovered a bandit lying on the ground playing possum and finished him off mercilessly with a dagger blow.
However, the moment the cry was heard, Tiger Li’s eyes flashed with fierceness. He loosened his right hand, unexpectedly discarding his own weapon, then suddenly dashed to the left. At the same time, he reached out his right hand and made a grab at one of those young women!
He had guessed that these two men were probably trying to rescue these women, therefore he wanted to take a hostage to find a chance to survive.