Chapter 12: Chapter 12 Hahaha
At this time and place, there was nothing else to ask, they simply wanted to retrieve the treasure stolen by Shi Chun from his hands.
They had not yet seen what the treasure looked like; previously, they had only heard the Supervisor in the mine mention it as an unexpected joy, and now, having regained it, they were very pleased.
Shen Youkun, who had run back, was also very excited, the kind of excitement that was tinged with ferocity. He hadn't even voiced his intention to teach Shi Chun a lesson when he was glared back into silence by the fierce, cold gaze of his uncle.
Qi Ziru guessed what his nephew wanted to say, not wishing to stop him from venting, but before they recovered the treasure, he did not want his nephew to speak recklessly.
The logic was simple: it was not yet confirmed whether the Master had the treasure on him. If he hid it somewhere, and if his nephew uttered words that made the opposite party feel they were headed for certain death, should the adversary become desperate, wouldn't it ruin everything?
The family had sent him to personally manage the situation, which was a recognition of his abilities; he would not allow himself to make such a basic mistake.
The masked enforcer nodded at the order and turned towards Shi Chun. He leaped up, reaching out to plant a symbolic restriction on Shi Chun to control him before releasing the immobilization charm.
Wu Jinliang, standing behind Shi Chun, witnessed this scene and his heart was filled with a deep lament, knowing that the brothers were in for it; they had truly met with disaster.
He couldn't help but complain inwardly, having repeatedly reminded them to leave earlier; but Chun Tian, this damn fool, just refused, insisting on taking risks by coming here, and now, look where they were.
Amidst his melancholy, his eyes suddenly brightened with hope. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but Chun Tian, who had been immobilized in front of him, seemed to move.
The masked enforcer, who was about to touch Shi Chun, also thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. What the hell, it seemed like the immobilized man moved.
Before he had time to take a closer look, the astonishment in his eyes turned into horror. The immobilized man had truly moved, turned his head pointedly towards him, and the direction of the knife in his hand also shifted, his gaze even more horrifying.
Qi Ziru, who lay in the recliner composed and collected, also thought he had seen wrongly. The slight smile on his face suddenly stiffened and transformed into shock.
Shen Youkun, with an excited and ferocious look in his eyes, simply froze, his mouth hanging open as his eyes widened in disbelief, as if he'd seen a ghost.
It was not their imagination; Shi Chun indeed moved. The surprise at escaping his bonds turned instantly into fierceness, and with a tremble of his knife's edge, it slashed towards the leaping masked enforcer.
The dismayed masked enforcer realized he had nowhere to hide. Just as he leaped up and was suspended in the air without leverage, the knife's edge approached; in desperation, he twisted his body to avoid his vitals.
He dodged with his head, but the knife's edge swept diagonally across his shoulder and neck.
Without any warning, a sudden change occurred: a head and a shoulder, along with an arm, flew out amidst a spray of fresh blood.
Shi Chun's knife came out and his foot kicked; he kicked the leaping, blood-spurting torso to borrow force mid-air, then twisted and leapt back towards Wu Jinliang. It was crucial to save oneself first while the opponent was caught off guard; otherwise, the immobilized person would be a defenseless live target, and even a thrown knife or a casual stone could prove deadly.
With a flip in mid-air to stretch out his body, he first tore off the talisman from his own chest, then reached out and pulled off the talisman from Wu Jinliang's chest.
In his bizarre right eye, he clearly saw the pulled-off talisman, like uprooted tree roots, pulling out many glowing filaments.
This scene, in the blink of an eye, left him with a deep impression—the intangible glowing filaments, suspended between illusion and reality, could be grasped as if holding a physical object with the talisman.
It was not hard to understand, after all, the talisman was the container for those glowing filaments.
As soon as the talisman was ripped off, Wu Jinliang, whose eyes brightened, felt freed from his restraints. As he quickly landed, he impulsively raised his arm to support Shi Chun. Seeing Shi Chun twisting in mid-air to smash down and throwing out a foot to greet him, Wu Jinliang immediately upheld his knife to catch it. The two men coordinated flawlessly without needing words, an extremely tacit understanding.
Shi Chun kicked his knife blade and was pushed forward by Wu Jinliang's arms; he once again lunged toward the two guards who were on guard with weapons.
Even though he couldn't fly, the successive actions of killing and saving people were completed in the air in one go.
The enforcer who was instantaneously killed did not even have time to scream before being decapitated amidst the spray of blood.
Qi Ziru's countenance drastically changed, he stood up in shock, his eyes filled with disbelief. He very much wanted to ask how this was possible. The talismans he had brought were not of low quality; their power could easily suppress even an average High Martial Realm, so how could they not suppress a monk of such low cultivation?
Logically, the power of the talisman should last at least half an hour before dispersing on its own. Could it be that they encountered some shoddy, inferior talismans?
Suddenly, a rustling sound arose from the side. Shen Youkun panicked and fled again. He was so frantic that he didn't step firmly and tumbled down the slope, escaping for his life.
He knew the Master of East Nine Plain was formidable, but he never imagined he would be so powerful that not even an immobilization charm could hold him. How could this be? It was too terrifying. The blood drained from his face, and the only thought he had was to flee, regretting that he had come back to watch the excitement.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye at his nephew's cowardly behavior, Qi Ziru, disregarding everything else, urgently fumbled out two talismans from his sleeve.
Being here, he couldn't afford to hand out these sorts of talismans, intended for emergency situations, to everyone. Apart from giving two of them to the masked man, he still kept two for himself in case of urgent need. He hadn't expected to actually find a moment to use them.
However, the incident occurred too suddenly, and Shi Chun's series of moves was too fast. Anyone with clear sight could tell from his clean and efficient actions that this was someone honed in the thick of combat, who in an instant had completed the process of killing and saving, not to mention his counterattack was as fluid as flowing clouds and water, utterly depriving his opponent of any chance to respond.
This meant he was unable to pass the two talismans to the sedan bearers in time.
Just as he thought to give them, the two sedan bearers had already moved in front of him to block the attack. But now his cultivation was ruined, all mana gone, leaving him incapable of using the talismans.
He could only improvise, prioritizing his own safety and to avoid becoming a burden. He quickly turned around to leave from in front of the reclining chair, running down the hillside as he waved the talismans in his hand and called out, "One person, come here!"
He meant for one to engage the opponent while the other came to take the immobilization charm.
The two sedan bearers, however, couldn't disengage in time, and shoulder to shoulder they struck out, their swords simultaneously thrusting at the charging Shi Chun.
Shi Chun, launching himself in the air, changed his tactics in a split second, positioning the knife's back against his forehead. Facing the two cold glints aimed at his face, he shockingly neither dodged nor evaded, as if intending to collide head-on with brutal force.
This move slightly startled the attacking sedan bearers, but they knew the situation couldn't be that simple.
Sure enough, with a sudden thrust forward, in the moment between the two swords, the knife's movement turned dramatically like tai chi, disrupting their coordinated attack. He then let go of the knife, striking it with his palm, and pressed down towards the intersection of the blades. His claws viciously gripped the place where the three weapons overlapped, intent on forcibly taking the weapons from their hands, the intimidation of his posture fierce.
The two sedan bearers, handpicked by Qi Ziru for their protection, were not pushovers either. They simultaneously cast spells with power, intending to join forces and cut down Shi Chun.
The charging Shi Chun looked as though he was suspended in the air by the dual swords.
But this lasted for only a fleeting moment. Shi Chun, realizing their cultivation was not weaker than his own, and seeing his attempt at brute force was not only unsuccessful but could also endanger himself, promptly gave up. With a flip of his hand, he delivered an explosive palm strike, like a tray booming against the intersection of the three weapons, sending them flying skyward while seizing the chance to charge at the two sedan bearers.
The two sedan bearers frantically put up another hand to block, with fists and palms firing together, only to see Shi Chun's palms piercing through like splitting light and shadow.
Amid the confusing array of palm shadows, in the instant their four hands met, Shi Chun's technique of piercing, cutting, lifting, and bombing was executed seamlessly, leaving the two in a daze, only to feel their own hands being deflected, exposing their centerline. With hearts' racing and in the throes of trepidation, they heard a dull yet resonant voice ring in their ears, "Demon Dispel Hand!"
Boom! Boom! Two echoing sounds.
The alternating palms struck the chests of the two sedan bearers, causing both men to stumble backwards unsteadily, their swords wavering as they staggered. Almost simultaneously, they violently coughed up mouthfuls of blood.
They could hear the crack of their own ribs breaking, the agony and rush of blood momentarilly throwing them into chaos, as they realized their predicament. Yet by then, it was too late for regrets.
Qi Ziru, who had been running while looking back to call someone to take the talisman, not only witnessed the two sedan bearers suffer heavy hits but also saw two unsettling shapes writhing on the bare backs of the two men. They looked like faces struggling to escape endless torture and shed their physical confines, or like demons trying to leave the body. They then fell still, shaping into bloody imprints akin to skulls.
He thought it was an illusion, but under the bright moonlight, he saw everything clearly.
Shi Chun, with a light foot on the hillside, grabbed the falling knife and lunged forward again, slashing with one stroke through the cross of the two swords. Clang! With a poorly raised defense, both swords were knocked out of their hands at the same time.
Then the blade whirled like a disc, shielding a figure that twisted through between them.
Almost at the same moment, two heads shot up, and dual streams of blood shot up into the sky like a cascade of petals.
Shi Chun, passing between the two without a glance backward, leapt into the air and nonchalantly tossed the knife away.
Swooosh—Qi Ziru came to an abrupt halt as he fled because a cold light descended from the sky, and a large knife landed in front of him, quivering as a warning.
Nearly colliding with the blade, he stopped and didn't run any further, knowing there was no longer any need.
Soon after, a figure landed next to the planted knife—it was Shi Chun!
The wind from his arrival blew open his hanging hair, and under the moonlight, his face was revealed to be both handsome and spirited. Qi Ziru saw it—a face still young, but undeniably resolute, marked by unknown experiences.
He turned again to look at the two headless sedan bearers who continued to sway and fall down the hillside, realizing that his last hope had vanished.
Before falling, the backs of the two sedan bearers appeared to be bleeding profusely, the color rapidly spreading and blurring across their backs, swiftly merging the blood imprints that resembled skull heads. Despite this, Qi Ziru still squinted his eyes.
"Wahaha!" Wu Jinliang burst into a bizarre laugh, streaking past the two like a whirlwind, not bothering with them at all, seemingly too lazy to even look, dragging his large knife as he chased after the fleeing Shen Youkun, cackling with a threatening tone, "Shen, last time I took your pants, this time I'll skin you alive. Where will you run to? Grandpa is coming for you!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone