Chapter 17: Fire and Beast, Will Overcomes Knife

"Hehehehe!!"

The red-faced old man looked at the night falling, took out food from his arms, chewed it in his mouth, and his cheeks bulged.

The black wild cat was attracted by this bloody stench and approached this side.

The old man held up the wild cat, sprayed the dregs in his mouth on the cat, and grabbed a handful of insects, rinsed them in his mouth, and sprayed them on.

Strange to say, as soon as these disgusting residues touched the wild cat's fur, light smoke rose, making the whole wild cat blurry.

"Low, stain! Dry cut heavy stalk!"

The evil sorcerer urged in Vietnam language.

Go, bite them to death!!

The wild cat let out a shrill cry and ran toward the town.

The situation in the town had stabilized a lot.

Seeing Chu Tianshu had just killed and injured the most fierce people among the bandits, killed through the bandit team, and led away the swordsman.

Wang Fu shook his spirit, endured the injury and fired steel darts, a group of guards cooperated with him, and there were reinforcements continuing to rush from the town.

The battlefield was pushing toward the edge of the town.

Suddenly, shrill cat cries came one after another.

Hundreds of wild cats ran out of the forest, screaming while weaving through the bandits, straight toward the militiamen and guards.

For a time, almost everywhere on this small road were shadows of wild cats jumping up.

Pouncing on people's faces, pouncing on people, tearing and scratching, the sound was extremely unpleasant.

The militiamen were in a hurry, wanting to shake off these beasts, but these things were not big, but very flexible, crawling and scratching on their bodies, biting people's ears, making people unable to bear it at all.

Wang Fu saw a bandit take the opportunity to chop at a militiaman with a knife.

The blade clearly swept across the wild cat, but the cat was fine, only the person was chopped down.

"Fake!!"

Wang Fu roared, "They are all fake, don't panic!"

Where is it fake? The cat bit on the person, it was clearly painful, and no one listened to him at all.

Shopkeeper Ma only arrived at the end of the street at this time.

He didn't rush onto the small road directly, hid behind the corner of the street, and took out the bottom one from a stack of talismans.

Purple talisman paper, with golden talisman seals drawn on it.

Suddenly there was a cracking sound beside him, which startled him, and he turned to look.

It turned out that the owner of this house had smashed the window and was fleeing with his family in a panic.

Shopkeeper Ma retracted his gaze, his lips trembled, his fingers traced the talisman in the air, and finally pointed down.

"Evil spirit dissipates, evil things disappear, the spirit official is angry, the fire burns Kunlun, I follow the three Mao ancestors' urgent law! Go!"

The talisman paper floated automatically, turned a corner, flew onto the small road, as fast as a crossbow arrow, passing over the heads of everyone on the battlefield.

Behind the bandits, a cat cry that made people crazy suddenly erupted.

Hundreds of wild cats disappeared with a bang, and finally only one black cat remained.

The purple talisman paper covered the black cat, the black cat's eyes were blood red, baring its teeth, but it seemed to be pressed by a large stone, struggling to get up.

In the forest, the evil sorcerer screamed, and three bloody scratches appeared on his face.

It was like a dying fierce civet cat pouncing on his face.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The evil sorcerer's face twitched with pain, revealing a ferocious expression, and kicked over all three large bamboo baskets beside him.

The two dwarves guarding him showed panic and avoided to the side.

The evil sorcerer pulled off the white bone whistle on his chest and blew a cold and miserable tone.

The buzzing sound in the large bamboo basket was more than twice as strong, and three strands of black smoke rushed out.

Those were poisonous bees as long as an adult's little finger, black and yellow mixed, and the black tail needle seemed to have a metallic luster.

This kind of poisonous bee was fierce, and the tail needle could pierce leather clothes, but after stinging once, the bee would also die, and the evil sorcerer cherished it very much.

This town's strength exceeded expectations, but there were already so many losses, and if there was no harvest, it would be even harder to accept.

Only then did the evil sorcerer release the three strands of poisonous bees.

People on the small road were still fighting. After the civet cat disappeared, the bandits were beaten back steadily.

Shopkeeper Ma only noticed that poisonous bees were flying in the forest, and hurriedly threw the kerosene lamp on the ground.

The glass shattered, the kerosene splashed on the ground, and a fire ignited.

He twisted his hands, the talisman paper unfolded like a fan, all swept over the fire,

The fire burned through inside and out, the flames roaring, forming a suspended fireball the size of a wine jar; it flew across the small path, heading toward those poisonous bees.

"Evil ways, I'll fight you to the death today!"

Shopkeeper Ma formed hand seals with both hands, changing three mudras in succession, signifying the invitation of the Fire Spirit Official, the Fire Marshal, and the Fire True Lord, then pointed like a sword, wiping from above the bridge of his nose to his forehead.

A flame, golden inside and red outside, ignited out of thin air on his fingers, borrowing his own Yang Qi and burning his own mental energy, pointing toward the sky.

From afar, the fireball split into three, each meeting one of the three strands of black smoke.

The fireball seemed to have a fatal attraction for the black smoke, causing the swarm of bees to circle around it, lingering and unable to leave.

But as the swarm buzzed and circled, waves of sinister, poisonous aura pressed toward the fireball, making the flame flicker.

A bandit wanted to throw a machete at the fireball in the air, but was tackled by a militiaman, and they rolled and fought.

The sound of the bone whistle in the woods and the flame on Shopkeeper Ma's fingers waxed and waned, one growing as the other diminished.

And in another part of the fruit orchard.

Seeing Chu Tianshu suddenly stopped, turned around, exhaled turbid air from his mouth, inhaled sharply, and pointed his sword at the ground.

The green-skinned fruits on the trees all around gave off a sour and bitter smell in the moonlight, making one feel uncomfortable.

What made one even more uncomfortable was what he heard in his ears.

With his current hearing, even in the woods, he could hear the slaughter, the gunfire, and the screams in the town.

There were also men's curses, children's crying, and women's shrieks; those were the residents in the south of the town, trying every possible way to take their families and flee their homes, far away from that place of slaughter.

This atmosphere was truly like a bad dream.

When Seeing Chu Tianshu was back home, he always treated reality as a safe haven.

No matter how terrifying the dream was, as long as he woke up, he could see the small bridge and fields in front of his door, the neighbors, and the villagers strolling on the road.

But here, someone wanted to turn reality into a nightmare too; it was truly... damn it!

When the swordsman chased to this point, what he saw was the killing intent filling that person's calm face and eyes.

But speaking of killing intent, the swordsman was also full of it.

The long, narrow steel sword in his hand was held horizontally in front of his chest; one could see the blade was straight, only having some curvature near the tip.

The back of the blade also had a palm-length reverse edge near the tip.

This expert among the Vietnam marauders was actually using a Goose-Quill Saber.

The general on the southern expedition had great courage, with a Goose-Quill Saber like autumn water at his waist.

The Ming Dynasty once sent a large army to help the Vietnam grandson suppress a rebellion; the rebel army was wounded and fearful, surrendered and offered gifts, and also received rewards.

The saber techniques of the Goose-Quill Saber flowed into Vietnam at that time, and have been passed down to this day, with many who carry them forward, never having been cut off.

"Ruan Zhixiong, Goose-Quill Saber!"

The swordsman's words were a bit stiff, his long, narrow eyes squinting, "You, what person?"

This person actually understood some Chinese.

Seeing Chu Tianshu's expression shifted, noticing that the person's left foot was missing from the ankle down, with a wooden stake installed as a prosthetic foot.

So that was it; the swordsman's strength was clearly higher than the Leopard Cat warrior's, and he understood some Chinese, so even if he couldn't communicate, perhaps he could eavesdrop, but he wasn't the one who went to the town to scout.

It must be because his left foot was already crippled that he couldn't be as agile and silent in stealth as the Leopard Cat warrior.

"Someone preparing to help you treat your madness!"

Seeing Chu Tianshu loosened his left-hand sword scabbard, flicked his finger, and a silver needle shot toward the swordsman's left leg.

The swordsman's eyes were cold; he shifted his left foot back, and his long saber met it as if he had anticipated it.

Sure enough, Seeing Chu Tianshu had already charged and swung his sword to slash, his arm swinging like a whip, the iron sword like the tip of a whip.

This thick-spined long sword was even more powerful and fierce in his hands than a broadsword.

When the Goose-Quill Saber was swung, it was very delicate.

Not touching the tip of the sword where the force was strongest, the blade swept against the side of the latter half of the long sword, almost near the guard.

Clang!!

The weapons collided with a spark, and each bounced away.

Seeing Chu Tianshu flicked his wrist and wiped downward; the Goose-Quill Saber changed, directly using the connection between the guard and the blade to hard-block this sword.

Sparks just burst, and the sword blade had already jumped using the reaction force, almost carrying a silver afterimage, stabbing out.

But the Goose-Quill Saber turned with the momentum, pressing toward the sword blade, shaking out a saber flower.

Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!!

The saber body and the sword body were almost tangled together, the harsh sound of steel clashing and rubbing forming a continuous stream.

The sharp sounds rose and fell, never ceasing.

Although the swordsman's left foot was crippled, judging from his previous performance, he had already adapted to this leg, and his speed was not affected when running and exerting force.

The only thing that could be exploited was stability. Without a natural foot, there was always a lack of stability.

Seeing Chu Tianshu used his fast sword and great strength to fight hard, wanting to shake the opponent's balance; he didn't expect the opponent's saber technique to be so exquisite, clearly having specifically considered how to deal with this situation, immediately dragging the weapon battle into another level.

The saber and sword seemed tangled together, turning and twisting, but in fact, both were probing, wanting to stab forward.

It was just that if the sword wanted to stab forward, the sword guard would be grazed by the saber tip, so it had to shrink back quickly.

If the saber wanted to stab forward, the guard would be hit by the sword tip, mutually resisting the momentum for an instant.

The steel advanced and retreated in the turning, colliding and vibrating.

Even if the sword and saber handles had shock-absorption effects, this short-distance entanglement and high-frequency mutual probing also made people's fingers and the web of their thumbs start to feel like they couldn't bear it.

Whoever had the slightest slack, the opponent's weapon would be the first to pierce into their chest and lungs.

Both sides' attention had to be concentrated on their arms, their breathing subconsciously held.

But before one breath was held to the end, both sides realized a fact.

The opponent was more difficult to deal with than expected; using this method to fight to the end, I'm afraid there would be no winner or loser, and it was more likely to be mutual destruction.

Clang!!!

The saber and sword were pulled back at the same time, the vibrating steel rubbing out a brilliant spark.

The bright light flashed and vanished.

Both people had squinted their eyes in advance to prevent themselves from being too affected by the instantaneous change in light.

And at this very moment, Seeing Chu Tianshu's left finger joint bent fiercely, flicking out a second silver needle.

Squinting eyes would narrow the field of vision, but the sensitivity of an enlightened martial artist would not be affected.

If this needle were shot at any part of the opponent's body, it would definitely be detected.

If shot at the prosthetic foot, the silver needle sticking into the wood would have no meaning.

So this needle was shot at the Goose-Quill Saber.

Five meters away, a silver needle capable of piercing a one-inch thick wooden board.

Now at close range, shot at the steel saber, the needle tip still couldn't penetrate the steel saber, so all the force collided completely on the saber body.

Clang!!

The silver needle hit the steel saber, and the entire silver needle twisted and shattered violently.

In exchange, there was a metallic sound as if the steel saber had been hit by an iron marble.

The hand holding the saber had just been withdrawn from the dangerous confrontation, the previous force was exhausted, the subsequent force had not yet arrived, and receiving this shock, the movement faltered.

The sword light took the opportunity to flash back, having already swept across that wrist.

A difference of a fraction of a second, the price of blood!

The swordsman's pupils shrank to a small point, his teeth seemed to crack, and he kicked off and retreated violently.

The severed hand and the saber were still left in mid-air; his figure had already twisted direction while retreating, running wildly to escape, and his left sleeve also threw out five or six iron star-shaped weapons backward.

So he also had hidden weapons.

But the saber and sword were dangerous just now, and his attention was entirely on his right arm holding the saber, not having time to divide it to the hidden weapons.

And the opponent actually seemed to change focus in less than an instant after the saber and sword were pulled away, flicking out a silver needle at full speed.

Using this kind of speed to switch focus and let the brain complete the drive of the body, the burden on the brain was simply something human instinct did not allow; it was hard to imagine what kind of mental training that person had undergone to be able to do this.

Seeing Chu Tianshu did have a trace of stinging pain in his brain, his eyes wide with anger, his long sword flashing repeatedly; after knocking away the hidden weapons, the sword hilt had turned into a reverse grip.

He stepped out in a lunge, his long arm held high; it couldn't be said to be like a dragon or a snake, but the fluidity of his force at this moment, from his legs, waist, and back to his long arm, was like a whole large tendon jumping, the hot force tightening and rising, instantly impacting to the top.

"Kill!"

The silver bottle suddenly broke, as fast as a spark.

As the swordsman ran wildly, he used the forest for protection, the branches and leaves of the trees already covering most of his back.

But this flash of silver light shone straight through, piercing three clusters of branches, seemingly without any obstruction, shooting into his torso on the spot, sinking straight to the hilt, and even driving his whole body to slide forward half a step, crashing into a tree.

Sshhh—

The sword tip pierced through the fruit wood, startling a tree full of bitter fruits to fall.

(End of chapter)