Chapter 1604

Blade Demon FengXingyun's icy, emotionless face showed an unprecedented solemnity; he stood there silently, the Eyebrow Knife in his hand slowly lowering, tilted at a forty‑five degree angle pointing at the snow, his gaze fixed intently on Weichi Chong's visage as he whispered, "He is my disciple!" Only after Yang Mingwei's death did he finally admit to being his own disciple, witnessing his personally transmitted disciple struck down by Weichi Chong's palm, FengXingyun's heart filled with killing intent.

Weichi Chong smiled and said, "Very good, I feel much better."

FengXingyun slowly lifted the Eyebrow Knife; the light blade felt as heavy as a thousand jun in his hand.

Weichi Chong's white eyebrows twitched slightly; he knew FengXingyun, though not rushing to attack, had already begun gathering strength, his blade aura emanating, killing invisibly. Weichi Chong clenched his fists, his finger joints cracking crisply like firecrackers exploding.

Liang Wen Sheng watched ahead with concern, while Xue Zhen Hai softly sighed and said, "It's a clash of masters; we'd better stay farther away." He helped a subordinate up, preparing to withdraw from the battlefield to avoid collateral damage, but then saw a white figure standing still in the northeastern distance—none other than Shangguan Yun Chong, whom he had searched everywhere for without finding a trace, holding an entirely jade‑green dog‑beating staff in his hand.

Xue Zhen Hai set the subordinate down, then said in a low voice to Liang Wen Sheng, "Help me watch over them." He grabbed the dog‑beating staff and walked toward Shangguan Yun Chong.

Weichi Chong suddenly stepped forward, his white beard bristling hair by hair, his whole body like an angry male lion, imposing and overlooking the six directions; he pushed off with his right leg, launching himself like a cannonball into mid‑air, his raised right fist drawn back to the limit, then he slammed a punch downward, the punch's force substantial yet formless, blasting into the void. The snowflakes that had been falling were instantly blown away, and between Weichi Chong and FengXingyun a void about three chi in diameter appeared; Weichi Chong's punch power, with astonishing speed, pierced the space between them, surging overwhelmingly toward FengXingyun with an unstoppable force.

FengXingyun's Eyebrow Knife finally activated, the blade flashing a cold gleam. A narrow, sharp blade qi detached from the blade and slashed toward the void ahead; snowflakes swirled wildly around the void, forming a white column in the emptiness, yet inside this column lay a tremendous fist force that pursued the soul and seized life.

When the blade qi was unleashed, snowflakes on either side flew outward in a frenzy, and a narrow crack visible to the naked eye appeared in the void, quickly expanding. In an instant it collided with the white column ahead; blade qi tore through the fist force, the white column split open a fissure and then shattered into pieces. Blade qi shattered the fist force; the fist force was fierce and unyielding. Blade qi was sharp and unstoppable.

The blade qi split the white column only halfway, after which its energy rapidly waned.

The white column was reduced to a half‑section, its front shattered completely, and the collision of the two forces finally reached its extreme. Accompanied by a dull boom, the snow‑made column exploded entirely. Snowflakes shot outward in all directions, and under the explosion caused by the clashing internal forces they actually flew in straight lines through the air.

FengXingyun's pupils contracted sharply; Weichi Chong's strength far exceeded his imagination. This man had always kept a low profile in Da Yong; all that was known was that his command of troops was divine and he enjoyed great prestige in the military, yet no one knew he also possessed marvelous martial arts—judging solely by Weichi Chong's present display, his martial arts are in no way inferior to FengXingyun's own.

FengXingyun roared, and his Eyebrow Knife swept toward Weichi Chong like chasing wind and lightning; the blade light crisscrossed in the void, weaving an immense invisible net that enveloped Weichi Chong from heaven to earth.

Weichi Chong's body remained airborne, his fists swinging in succession; wave after wave of invisible fist force struck the blade net like rapid‑fire cannon shots, the thumping sounds unceasing. Each impact made FengXingyun's arms tremble violently, and he quickly realized that Weichi Chong was using powerful internal energy to disturb his own internal breath, disrupting the flow of his meridians today, preventing his internal energy from smoothly flowing into the blade and interfering with the outward release of his blade qi.

After throwing several punches in a row, Weichi Chong flipped backward, increasing the distance between himself and FengXingyun; it looked like he was giving up the offensive, but in fact he was steady and firm, planting his feet on the snow, lowering his body, then slamming his fists down onto the snow, raising his head like a lion gathering strength before striking.

As his fists hit the ground, the earth trembled; ahead, the accumulated snow formed two swift snow currents that rushed toward FengXingyun's feet. FengXingyun did not let his guard down; he swept the Eyebrow Knife horizontally downward, cutting off the flow with a single stroke. The blade qi carved a ditch three zhang long and deep enough to reach the ground in the front snow, and when the two snow currents met the blade qi they exploded in place, raising snow walls about one zhang high.

While Weichi Chong and FengXingyun were locked in fierce combat, Xue Zhen Hai had already swung his dog‑beating staff, employing the dog‑beating staff technique to entwine Shangguan Yun Chong—Entangling Character Formula! The dog‑beating staff writhed like a spirit snake attacking Shangguan Yun Chong's lower three points.

Shangguan Yun Chong curled his lip in contempt, lightly shaking his green jade staff—clack‑clack—and in a short time the two sticks had endured countless collisions; Shangguan Yun Chong knew Xue Zhen Hai's attacks inside out and could always block them accurately before he even struck.

Xue Zhen Hai shouted, "Traitor, you have betrayed your master, split the Beggars' Sect—you are truly an eternal sinner of the Beggars' Sect!"

Shangguan Yun Chong laughed loudly and said, "You collude with external enemies, betray your lord for personal gain—the Beggars' Sect that once dominated the martial world has been reduced by you to wagging its tail and begging for pity, surviving only by relying on others' protection—who is really the sinner?" A green shadow flickered, and his attack speed was actually more than double what it had been just moments before.

Xue Zhen Hai saw nothing but staff shadows filling the sky, approaching from all directions; although he was a nine‑bag elder of the Beggars' Sect, he was old, his martial arts greatly diminished after being schemed against by the Sword Palace before, and to top it off he faced Shangguan Yun Chong, a genius rarely seen in a century among the Beggars' Sect.

Shangguan Yun Chong's mastery of the dog‑beating staff technique could be said to be second only to Long Xi Yue, but when it comes to understanding and actual combat with the staff, he deserves to be called the foremost person in the Beggars' Sect today. Shangguan Yun Chong sneered, "Let you see what the Entangling Character Formula truly is!"

In a flash of green shadow, the green jade staff wrapped itself like ivy around Xue Zhen Hai's dog‑beating staff; he instantly felt his staff as if stuck in a mire, and when he tried to yank it free, a strong suction only pulled it tighter.

Xue Zhen Hai lifted his right foot to kick Shangguan Yun Chong's ****; though his status normally forbade such a sneaky move, in a life‑and‑death struggle he could not afford to hesitate, and although Shangguan Yun Chong was younger, his martial arts surpassed Xue Zhen Hai's.

Shangguan Yun Chong gave a cold snort, and his green bamboo staff snapped back; Xue Zhen Hai felt his arm loosen, his dog‑beating staff finally free from the bind, relieving him of the fear of it being taken, but Shangguan Yun Chong's green jade staff shifted its target to entangle his right leg; the green shadow stirred, and with a crack, the force of the staff's sudden inward squeeze snapped Xue Zhen Hai's calf, making him grunt in pain as he balanced on his left foot alone in the snow.

Shangguan Yun Chong said softly, "Tripping Character Formula!" He intended to trip Xue Zhen Hai to the ground.

Xue Zhen Hai inhaled, opened his mouth, and pfft! sprayed out a mist of alcohol; facing Shangguan Yun Chong, whose martial arts surpassed his, he had no chance of winning outright, and only by using unexpected tactics could he hope for a sliver of survival—when fighting desperately, why bother with scruples?

Shangguan Yun Chong feinted with his left palm, the fierce palm wind blowing the alcohol mist completely back; as Xue Zhen Hai sprayed the mist, he gritted his teeth and leapt back on his injured foot, trying to escape Shangguan Yun Chong's attack range, but the green jade staff clung to his ankle like a shadow, causing him to lose balance and crash heavily to the ground.

Shangguan Yun Chong stepped forward one step, with a clang, drew the three‑bladed sword hidden inside the green jade staff, starlight flashing, aiming straight for Xue Zhenhai's chest.

Xue Zhenhai secretly sighed in his heart, "My doom!" He never imagined that after roaming the world for half his life, he would die in such a miserable, pathetic way at the hands of this traitor. At the moment when life and death hung by a thread, someone thrust a blade toward Shangguan Yun Chong's back. It was Liang Wensheng who finally could not hold back and struck out; although the internal strife of the Beggars' Sect had nothing to do with him, he could not bear to see Xue Zhenhai die at Shangguan Yun Chong's hands, for Xue Zhenhai had just given him a Soul‑Returning Pill, and whether he admits it or not, he owes Xue Zhenhai a favor, and psychologically he leans more toward Xue Zhenhai's side.

Shangguan Yun Chong heard the whooshing sound of wind behind him, and could only temporarily halt his assassination attempt on Shangguan Yun Chong, then with a backhand he used the three‑bladed sword to deflect Liang Wensheng's strike, coldly looking at Liang Wensheng and saying, "A sneak attack?"

Liang Wensheng's arm went numb from the shock of Shangguan Yun Chong's sword, and he secretly wondered in his heart, "The opponent looks about my age—how can his inner strength be so formidable?" He did not know that Shangguan Yun Chong had once received the inner strength of the three Elders of Transmission of the Beggars' Sect; looking across the world, the number of peers whose inner strength surpasses his can be counted on one's fingers.

Shangguan Yun Chong's eyes blazed with killing intent as he thrust his three‑bladed sword toward Liang Wensheng's chest. Liang Wensheng, who had just barely escaped death under the Blade Demon's sword, had become considerably wiser; he gauged that he was no match for Shangguan Yun Chong, and seeing the opponent about to strike, he immediately fled into the distance, shouting, "If you've got the guts, come fight me for three hundred rounds!" Relying on the Phantom Shift movement technique, he escaped to a distance of three zhang in astonishing speed.

Shangguan Yun Chong saw through his intention to lure him away, a faint cold smile curling his lips as he turned around. Xue Zhenhai's legs were broken, leaving him utterly unable to flee; he looked at Shangguan Yun Chong and gave a bitter laugh, saying, "You are the dog who betrays his lord for glory, splitting the Beggars' Sect and fleeing to Li Chen Zhou—what face do you have to meet the elders of the Beggars' Sect?"

Shangguan Yun Chong said softly, "The Beggars' Sect is ruined in the hands of you lot of rotten old things." He then raised the three‑bladed sword again.

Updates have been slow lately; Zhangyu explains the reasons again. First, wrapping up the beginning requires attending to all aspects of the plot, which is hard to write. Second, the revised edition of the Three Palaces needs amendments, and Zhangyu must devote considerable effort. I hope everyone can show more understanding—this month is actually Zhangyu's busiest and most tiring. I can only guarantee writing well, not writing much. (To be continued~^~)