Chapter 243: 243
"So this is referred to as the number one genius, huh? Nothing more than trash!"
The man in black was sneering continuously, but he could not vent the anger brewing within him. He rapidly slapped Shi Xiaole twice, making him bleed all over.
No one knew that at that moment, Shi Xiaole plunged his mind into the system.
’The function of the ’Killer Technique’, each time only one type can be exchanged, and a new one can be drawn after using it up. This time it’s all down to luck.’ He didn’t think twice and directly used Heart Method of Unity as a sacrifice.
"Sorry, the draw was unsuccessful."
The system’s voice was like a basin of cold water pouring over Shi Xiaole’s head. Every time he had previously drawn from the system, it had yielded something. Yet, at this crucial moment, the draw was unexpectedly void for the first time.
"Dance of the Death."
When Shi Xiaole focused back, he saw Su Yanru’s body swaying rhythmically. The man in black seemed fascinated by the dance, entrapped within it. In a flash of the knife, Su Yanru ruthlessly slashed at him.
"Lele, Auntie will never leave you."
Su Yanru knew Shi Xiaole best. Before the man in black could manage to apply the acupuncture pressure, she had already pre-emptively avoided it. However, her reaction was slightly delayed due to the abrupt shock she had experienced earlier.
"Auntie, no!"
Shi Xiaole suddenly roared.
"Damn woman, I was just playing along."
With a cruel smile on his face, the man in black forcefully thrust Su Yanru’s blade aside. Violently aiming a kick at her stomach followed by a destined crunch, Shi Xiaole seemed to hear the sound of cracking bones. Amidst a heavy shower of blood, Su Yanru flew backward, her body scraping a long bloody track on the ground.
’Conquers All Men,’ though intensely commanding, cannot be effective as Su Yanru’s skill was vastly inferior to her adversary, revealing her lapse from the start.
Aargh!
An elongated roar of rage echoed. The hitherto overlooked Qingfeng suddenly sprang up. Taking advantage of the momentum, it charged at the man in black. This loyal and fierce horse never left, it had been waiting for an opportune moment all this while.
The man in black reached out to push it but unexpectedly he didn’t manage to repel Qingfeng. Instead, he himself was flung beneath a tree. His face bore a brutal and greedy look, he applied more force and struck Qingfeng’s head harshly.
Thud...
Shi Xiaole would never forget that sound in his lifetime, it felt like a sledgehammer hitting metal. The hoarse cry echoed through the sky, reaching miles away. Qingfeng fell to the ground heavily, causing the ground to shake and a thick cloud of dust and smoke concealed its figure.
"After women and horses, do you have any other helpers?"
The man in black appeared in flight, his chest heaved wildly in agitation. From midair, a powerful palm strike was already directed straight at Shi Xiaole.
Mustering his strength, Shi Xiaole moved fluidly using the ’Bird Crossing Skill’. He managed to pick up the Su Yanru, who was lying on the ground. His hands were sticky with her blood.
What truly enraged and broke Shi Xiaole’s heart was that he distinctly felt Su Yanru’s back becoming soft. Her spine had been broken.
Gritting his teeth so hard they pierced through his lips, Shi Xiaole ran off without turning back.
"Think you can run, you mongrel?"
The man in black laughed uproariously, his laughter filled with a chilling, malicious undertone. With a swift leap, he surprisingly intercepted Shi Xiaole before he could escape.
The man’s tyrannically powerful, sixth-tier Xuan Qi was overwhelming. Coupled with his equally proficient secondary and lighter technique, Shi Xiaole was indeed left with no escape route.
Flicking his long sword, Shi Xiaole wielded the ’Meteor from the Sky’ with his right hand. Nevertheless, the sword light was intercepted midway by the man’s palm force, and the Qingfeng Sword flew off, stabbing into the ground.
"Anyway, the ’Fish-catching Plan’ only requires the essence of your genius bunch. I’ll cripple you first."
The constant intense pain in his wrist reminded the man in black about his disability. His anger flared up the more he thought about it. He gathered all his strength in his hand and directly aimed at Shi Xiaole’s shoulder.
The dreadful force of the palm strike seemed like a raging storm, a furious torrent spreading out in all directions. Amidst this palm force, Shi Xiaole felt as if he was knee-deep in a swamp, and his chest was heavily suffocating under the weight of a mountain.
If this palm connected, it would probably immobilize half of his body.
Behind him, a shrill scream erupted.
"Young Master!"
"Shi Xiaole!"
Anxious and panicked voices echoed as the Golden Phoenix Tower’s high-ranking practitioners arrived. The Deputy Chief and others had been waiting for Su Yanru to return, but when they lost sight of her and Shi Xiaole, they realized something was wrong. They ventured out to search. They were guided by Qingfeng’s neighing and had arrived to see the horrifying sight.
"No..."
Lan Ning looked at Shi Xiaole, enmeshed in the palm strike, rendered powerless. Despair flooded her heart. This young man had just begun to flourish, with a radiant future awaiting him. Is his life going to be cut short here?
The heavens had been too cruel to him.
A palm strike was imminent, Shi Xiaole readied himself to face it head on, but to his surprise, Su Yanru, who was in his arms, thrust herself out and stood in front of him. She smiled back at him.
It felt like a sword piercing his heart. His scalp prickled, yet he found he couldn’t make a sound.
Crack...crack...crack.
The palm strike unyieldingly hit Su Yanru. The successive cracking of bones, along with her feeble cries resembling a cuckoo’s cry marked with pain resonated in the air, as Su Yanru fell to the ground, her surroundings stained red with her blood. Whether she was alive or dead remained unknown.
Stained red too, was the world in front of Shi Xiaole’s eyes.
"Auntie!"
Never had there been a moment like this, his heart was filled with powerlessness and despair. This intertwined pain made Shi Xiaole rage against the world, he looked upwards and howled, his chest almost exploded with hatred.
Bang!
A world-beating, seemingly ceaseless sharp aura gushed out from Shi Xiaole, carrying endless resentment and bloodlust, as if it could pierce everything in the world.
In the face of this sword energy, even the man clad in black felt a twinge in his heart.
"Is this...the Sword in the Heart?"
The man in black showed a color of extreme astonishment.
The Unity of Man and Sword Realm is the first Sword Realm step for a swordsman. Above the Unity of Man and Sword, is the realm of having a sword in the heart. In short, the Sword Heart.
Once the Sword Heart is comprehended, the swordsman’s sword momentum will experience an unprecedented surge, as if the momentum is no longer just a momentum, but countless Qi swords.
But how could this be possible? Even among the top ten famous swords in Qingxue State, no one has heard of anyone comprehending the Sword Heart before the age of twenty. Even throughout the martial history of Qingxue State, it’s extremely rare.
But Shi Xiaole’s momentum could not be feigned, the man in black clearly felt a needle-like sharp pain going over his whole body. Even if the other party hadn’t completely understood the Sword Heart, he was not far from it.
The man in black guessed well; normally Shi Xiaole would need at least five years, ten years or even longer to comprehend the Sword Heart.
But, under his provocation, Shi Xiaole broke through his potential limit, vaguely touching the sword realm that countless swordsmen dream of but are unable to contemplate.
With a casual draw of his sword, Shi Xiaole, holding Qingfeng sword, unthinkingly thrust at him. The same Meteor from the Sky, but this time it carried a different flair.
"Even if you understand the Sword Heart, I can still make you useless."
The jealousy in the man in black swelled further, he increased his power by twenty percent, and slapped Shi Xiaole with an overwhelming palm force, immediately causing Shi Xiaole to cough up blood repeatedly.
Fortunately, he had swallowed ten Elephant Strength Fruits previously, having a body no less than that of a regular Horizontal Practice Martial Artist, otherwise he would have been useless by now.
The high-quality martial artists from Golden Phoenix Tower who wanted to stop the attack, only added to the casualty numbers, with screams all around.
"A swordsman who uses a sword, what will happen if he loses his hand?"
Without torturing Shi Xiaole enough, his raging heart would not cool down. The man in black laughed sinisterly, suddenly rushed to Shi Xiaole’s face, grabbed his right hand and made a move to pull it out, intending to pull out Shi Xiaole’s whole right arm from his body.
"Let go of him, you evildoer."
Just as the situation was critical, a shouting voice came from afar, followed by a sword light piercing through, which was many times faster than Shi Xiaole’s.
To save his life, the man in black had to turn and retreat, saying angrily: "Who are you to meddle in other’s business?"
The man who came was a Taoist about thirty years old, with a Duster on his shoulder he held a long sword in his hand, the revealed aura reached an impressive Fifth Tier Xuan Qi. He said coldly, "I am Lian Chen from Wudang Mountain, here to eliminate you, the Devil Path demon."
"From Wudang Mountain?"
The man in black was shocked and thought of retreating. The name of Wudang Mountain was too famous. Why was this little boy worth the intervention of a Taoist from Wudang Mountain?
In the meantime, Lian Chen had already charged in with his sword, and the two quickly engaged in combat.
Shi Xiaole just stopped, leaving Wuxia to handle the fight ahead, and instantly ran to Su Yanru, but he didn’t dare to touch her trembling hand.
The beautiful lady had already sobbed into a mess.
Although she had never gotten along with her daughter since childhood, seeing her daughter in such a tragic situation made her heart ache like a knife.
With Su Yanru’s bones shattered all over, Shi Xiaole dared not move her, nor did he dare to send internal power into her body for fear of thoroughly ruining her.
He touched her arm, which felt a bit cold, his chest was as if it was hit by a heavy punch, and when he checked her breath, when he was about to faint, he finally sensed a breath as thin as a thread.
"She’s not dead yet, she’s not dead yet."
Shi Xiaole’s heart kept surging. A crucial problem lay before him, although Su Yanru was barely alive, her breath could dissipate at any time, what should he do?
Everyone from the Golden Phoenix Tower came around, all of them pale-faced and clueless. Looking at Su Yanru’s miserable state, even the three vice tower masters almost shed old tears.
"I got it."
All of a sudden, Shi Xiaole thought of the Cuihua Immortal Ganoderma that Xia Xiaonine had given him. He supported Su Yanru with his slightly solid Brahma-I Unity and immediately sat on Qingfeng’s horse. Without saying much, Qingfeng galloped off, going even faster than Shi Xiaole’s full-speed run.
As soon as he returned to the small courtyard, Shi Xiaole immediately opened the wooden box and directly broke off a piece of Cuihua Immortal Ganoderma and put it into Su Yanru’s mouth.
He kept his eyes glued to Su Yanru’s reaction. After about half a moment, her pale face gradually turned a little rosy, and her breath grew heavier. Shi Xiaole was soaked through and sat on the ground weakly.
When the others from Golden Phoenix Tower came back and heard that Su Yanru was out of danger, they all cheered. But then they found Su Yanru had more than 80% of her bones shattered, and even if she was brought back to consciousness, she would probably be crippled for the rest of her life.
The prestigious Bewitching Flying Phoenix, the most famous and charming woman in Feiyan City, was going to be bedridden for the rest of her life. Everyone present felt a lump in their throats.
"I have a way."
Suddenly, Shi Xiaole said.
