Chapter 44: Combat II

Stab, retract.

Stab, retract.

The rapid feints made Wan’er fume with rage, but she was utterly helpless.

She had no more trump cards, but her opponent clearly didn’t believe it and was still cautiously probing.

Strike after strike, she missed, and the anger in her heart accumulated more and more.

“Stop running if you have the guts!!” She finally couldn’t help but roar in anger.

Puff!

In an instant, blood exploded.

Wan’er’s figure paused, freezing in place, completely motionless.

She slowly reached out her hand, wanting to grab the longsword pierced into her heart, but the instantaneous loss of pressure from the ruptured heart chamber left her with no strength at all.

With a puff, the sword tip was pulled out, bringing a trail of bright red.

Wan’er fell back weakly, the scene just now replaying repeatedly in her mind.

‘Just now… what happened?’

‘Was I… ambushed by another person??’

She was clearly still fighting that person, but in the next instant, a sword abruptly penetrated all her defenses and pierced her heart.

She didn’t even know how it all happened, and the battle was over.

Until the end, when Wan’er’s eyes plunged completely into darkness and she lost consciousness, she didn’t know how she lost. Perhaps she didn’t even think she lost, but was simply ambushed by another sinister fellow hiding on the side.

Lin Hui’s figure solidified, appearing beside the corpse.

Looking at the motionless woman on the ground, he bent down and picked up the material bag.

‘Special Effect Featherweight is indeed powerful. Activated for just an instant, the speed skyrocketed three times, and the consumption was almost imperceptible.‘

To be honest, he felt that the strength of this woman on the ground was no worse than the Senior Brother, perhaps even a bit stronger.

But even such an expert, when encountering an opponent whose sword speed suddenly tripled during combat, couldn’t react at all and was gone in the blink of an eye.

In a clash of external martial arts, without internal force covering the body for defense, a single missed move meant fatal danger.

Life and death were decided in an instant.

“Wan’er!!” A fierce roar came.

In the next instant, Lin Hui’s figure flashed, retreating several steps to avoid a white palm shadow attacking from behind.

Although that white light was much dimmer than before, it still gave him a strong sense of threat.

Then he saw the grandmother pounce beside the woman’s corpse, bending down to help her up and check her condition.

Clang!

Lin Hui boldly drew his sword.

He wasn’t a fool to wait for the opponent to carefully examine the corpse and prepare before acting. Not seizing an opportunity when it presented itself—what was that if not stupidity?

The Nine-Section Quick Sword killing move, Wind Passing Without Trace, suddenly brought a series of afterimages rushing toward the opponent.

“You deserve to die!!” The grandmother put down the corpse. Interrupted, she had to stand up and blast a palm frontally at the longsword.

Amidst the flickering white light, her palm even faintly emitted tiny light spots like petals.

And this palm strike even faintly carried an exaggerated power that covered a five-meter radius.

Lin Hui’s heart trembled. He turned his sword tip, trying to retract it again to avoid a head-on collision.

He wasn’t in the Internal Force Realm, but his master was. He knew the consequences of clashing with internal force.

He had tested it with Mingde. Including his own Clear River sword, all weapons he could find, when clashing with an Internal Force expert without being covered in internal force—as long as the opponent was prepared and used internal force—resulted in him being unable to hold the weapon and instantly disarmed and defeated.

At the moment of collision, the internal force would conduct along the weapon like lightning, like an electric current, forcibly numbing his hand and making him unable to grip the blade.

So, once he truly fought an Internal Force Realm opponent, he had to avoid their internal force.

But as he retracted, the opponent’s palm shadow actually surged suddenly.

In an instant, a large fan-shaped white palm shadow seemed to light up before Lin Hui’s eyes.

Palms emitting white petal-like light spots pressed down densely toward his face, like a white wall!

A white wall five meters high and five meters long!

At this moment, there was simply no time to change moves.

Although his speed was fast, it wasn’t fast enough to change moves once and then do it again.

The opponent was an Internal Force Realm expert, not a slow snail.

‘Too late.‘

Lin Hui had originally wanted to exchange a few more moves with the opponent using the Perfected Nine-Section Quick Sword, but now it seemed that without activating the special effect, he probably couldn’t win a single exchange.

The gap between External Kung Fu and the Internal Force Realm was too great.

‘Forget it.‘

A thought flashed through Lin Hui’s mind. His body retreated rapidly, avoiding a white palm print that was about to hit him directly in front.

Raising his head, he stared at the palm print.

Everything around him seemed to slow down and stagnate at this moment.

‘Special Effect—‘

‘Featherweight.‘

BOOM!!

Everything around Lin Hui blurred instantly at this moment.

The white palm print in front of him instantly froze, receded, and disappeared.

He held the sword in his right hand, his body light as a feather.

‘Clear Wind Sword.‘

‘Single Hand Brushing Clouds…‘

In an instant, the blade in his hand brought out trails of afterimages to the side, as if gently brushing past invisible clouds.

Layers of silver sword shadows formed a fan-shaped silver light, then froze.

Whoosh.

Lin Hui disappeared.

Accompanying his disappearance was the sound of a gentle wind dispersing invisibly.

In the next instant. He appeared silently behind the grandmother, the sword tip already landing on the right side of her neck.

CLANG!!!

A terrifying impact sound exploded abruptly.

The white light of internal force on the grandmother’s neck dented inward rapidly, protruding a crater.

Her attention was still on Lin Hui’s afterimage directly in front of her. She completely failed to realize that the real enemy had already arrived at her rear flank.

Under the terrifying extreme speed, her reaction movements were like a slow-motion movie slowed down significantly.

By the time she showed shock and anger, turned sideways, raised her hand, and grabbed at Lin Hui’s real body…

That real body dispersed in the blink of an eye, turning into an afterimage again.

In the next instant, a crisp sound also exploded on her left waist, and a spark of golden fire scattered.

Internal force and sword tip collided again.

Before she could recover, in the next instant, a new spark lit up from her back.

Chii chii chii chii!!

Continuous sparks exploded from various vital points all over her body, scattering in all directions.

And her internal force also faded and dimmed rapidly under such extreme consumption.

“What exactly are you…!”

Puff!

A sword tip suddenly broke through the white light and pierced into her abdomen.

The grandmother opened her mouth to shout, her palms grabbing rapidly at the blade.

Unfortunately.

The blade jerked upward suddenly, slicing open her chest from the abdomen, creating a straight, sharp, and terrifying bloody gash.

Blood spurted out like a fountain. It also took away all the strength in her body.

The huge, clear bloody wound ran through the grandmother’s abdomen to her chest and chin, almost splitting her entire person in two.

Her last sight was watching that sword rise, flick diagonally to clear the blood, and slowly return to its sheath.

“You…”

The breeze caressed gently. Only now did the white light on the grandmother’s body disappear completely. She had been forcibly cut open and killed after her last bit of internal force was broken through.

Thud.

The corpse fell backward onto the ground, eyes wide open in death, blood flowing out and dyeing the ground red.

Mist filled the surroundings; there was no more sound.

Lin Hui stood where he was, closing his eyes to feel the sensation of using the Clear Wind Sword with Featherweight just now. That wonderful feeling of seemingly turning into the wind at extreme speed was simply an exhilarating, almost addictive sensation.

That feeling completely suppressed the stifling sensation of killing someone for the first time; all that remained was the carefree pleasure of swinging the sword at will, like splashing ink to write characters.

After a long time, the faint roars of monsters from the surrounding mist startled him awake from that wondrous feeling.

Only then did he bend down to quickly collect the valuables from the corpses.

Two corpses, each with a money pouch and a pair of gloves. As for the other obviously custom-made accessories, he didn’t take them. Such things were too distinctive and inconvenient to fence.

After putting all the silver notes and gold from the money pouches into his own bag, Lin Hui discarded the money pouches as well. He turned and left the spot, then lured two One-Horned Spiders closer. Only after hearing the spiders spinning webs to wrap up the corpses and leaving from afar did he leave with peace of mind.

The characteristic of the One-Horned Spider monster was to wrap prey into a ball with silk and take it back to the nest to slowly consume.

Finally, carrying the material bag, he returned to the mist-free zone and walked leisurely toward the Clear Wind Taoist Temple.

It wasn’t until he completely returned to his own room that the guard in Lin Hui’s heart slowly lowered.

With Master Mingde and the martial uncles of the other two branches nearby—three Internal Force Realm experts sitting in command—the safety here far exceeded the outside world.

He finally relaxed and reviewed the fight just now.

Sitting cross-legged on the cloth cushion, Lin Hui calmed the surging blood in his heart and replayed the battle bit by bit.

‘That Wan’er’s practical combat attainment should be slightly stronger than the Senior Brother’s. She herself was at the peak of External Kung Fu Body Tempering. Activating Featherweight for an instant solved it easily. But that old undying Internal Force Realm one behind her was much more troublesome. Internal force can be driven along the weapon to numb my hand. During the final execution, every time, it slowed down my sword speed. Fortunately, the internal force flowing over each time was very little, just a sliver, and the duration of the slowing was also very short.‘

‘It was only because I was too fast and she wasn’t a speed-style Internal Force expert; otherwise, the outcome of this battle would have been hard to say.‘

Internal Force Realm expert!

Thinking of this, Lin Hui’s heart suddenly relaxed. He actually killed an Internal Force Realm expert!

Although it was just a non-speed type who had been worn down by many monsters for a long time, internal force was still internal force. No matter how he did it, he indeed achieved it—completely resolving the opponent with his own strength.

‘The effect of Featherweight is truly terrifying. In that state, probably even Master would find it hard to catch up to my movement.‘

Master Mingde was a speed-style Internal Force expert. Lin Hui had seen the speed displayed when combined with the Clear Wind Sword. Compared to himself, it was about twice his normal state.

Far from the terrifying effect of activating triple speed.

‘Calculating it this way, can I almost be considered an Internal Force Realm expert now?‘ Lin Hui estimated in his heart.

Featherweight now consumed very little; keeping it on for a day continuously would be fine. If used intermittently, it could basically be used indefinitely.

Not to mention the more concealed Sealing Toxin hadn’t been used yet.

Standing up, Lin Hui gently drew the Clear River sword, took out sword oil and a silk cloth, and maintained the blade.

‘But the numbness and super strong defense of the Internal Force Realm are too tricky. Once careless, if I get numbed and disarmed, I pose basically no threat to the Internal Force Realm.‘

‘Moreover, when their internal force is abundant, my attacks would probably need to wear them down for a long time to cause specific damage to an Internal Force Realm expert. This is a problem.‘

Lin Hui had also asked his teacher if there were any divine weapons that could break through internal force protection, but the answer was no.

Internal force protection was more like a force field, preventing weapons from making contact, slowing them down out of thin air, suspending them, and blocking the weapon’s penetration from all directions.

This method prevented the sharpness of the weapon from playing any role at all.

‘Breaking through to the Internal Force Realm is still the true path… The current me is still too unsafe.‘

Thinking to the end, Lin Hui sighed long and hard, quietly calming the physical exhaustion of his body. He prepared to take the materials to exchange for money tomorrow.

At this point, he discovered that his efficiency in hunting monsters to amass wealth far exceeded other methods; there was no need to take on any missions or employment at all.

(End of Chapter)