Chapter 2087

Sure enough, it was just as Jin Chen had anticipated.

On the day they returned to the Formless Office, the carriage was still en route when Liu Yun and Zhu Yue could no longer hold back and attacked.

Though they were anxious, they were clearly prepared as well; since their own martial prowess was insufficient, they readied sneaky tactics and hidden weapons, using the Shan Lin cliffs along the route to set up a killing formation.

The cult disciples fought with the Formless Office personnel accompanying the convoy on the other side of the carriage.

On the cliff, thirty-six iron chains clanged; Liuyun's sword blade brushed past Jin Chen's back, cutting the hanging vines of Shan Lin.

Zhu Yue seized the moment to fling out the bone-piercing nails; the dark poisonous green light glimmering from the nail heads traced a snake-like trail on the stone wall.

Ding—

Jin Chen drew his soft sword from his waist with a backhand; the bone-piercing nails were flicked by the blade toward Liuyun's forehead and face, which he couldn't dodge, and the remaining nails embedded into the rock crevice where he had just stood.

"Fifty years to master these shady tricks."

Jin Chen stepped over the rolling stones, landed before the carriage, and sneered, "You two, who style yourselves as carefree clouds and wild cranes, are actually colluding with the cult."

"Cut the nonsense! Hand over the cultivation method and I'll spare your life; otherwise, don't even think about leaving alive!"

Zhu Yue let out a sinister, angry roar, suddenly spun and charged again, but Jin Chen evaded with an unorthodox maneuver, seized him from behind, and as he raised his hand, his left two fingers had already struck Zhu Yue's pressure points.

"Ah!!"

Zhu Yue's entire right arm instantly went limp and fell away, only skin and flesh hanging; the poison powder hidden in his sleeve sifted down onto his feet and was instantly blown away by the wind.

"Damn it!" Liuyun roared, drawing his sword; the blade scraped against the soft sword, producing a piercing sound. Jin Chen suddenly relaxed, leaned back to let the blade sweeping past his nose pass, and whipped the soft sword like a lash at the opponent's wrist.

With a clang, Liuyun's sword flew from his hand and lodged in the stone crack, the hilt still trembling.

"Kill formation!" Zhu Yue shouted hoarsely, staggered back, and stomped hard on a protruding rock, crushing it while clutching his arm.

Beneath the cliff, eighteen iron chains responded, whipping forward to strangle, their poison-coated hooks whipping up a foul wind.

Jin Chen suddenly leapt onto the iron chains, tossing his soft sword through the links.

The cultists were about to activate the second mechanism, but discovered that all the iron chains had become tangled and knotted together.

The carriage was finally lifted at one corner; Ji Lai zhi raised his eyebrows nonchalantly, leapt out, and said, "Your formation has long been broken by me."

Those earlier sparks flying from the collisions were actually Ji Lai zhi taking advantage of their inattention to alter the chains' course!

Jin Chen leveraged the chains' recoil to spring into the air, his soft sword piercing Zhu Yue's right shoulder and pinning him to the rock wall; his left palm simultaneously smashed Zhu Yue's frantic struggle, his fingertips precisely striking the throat bone, killing him in one blow.

"Zhu Yue!!"

Liuyun's furious roar was cut off by the sound of flesh tearing; he shuddered, his already gravely wounded body struck by Ji Lai zhi's sneak attack, and he died almost simultaneously with Zhu Yue.

Jin Chen pulled out his blood‑stained sword and watched the two limp bodies tumble down the steep slope.

Seeing this, the cultists tried to retreat, but they had already lost their best chance to escape and were strangled to death by the black‑clad disciples led by Mo Hei.

Ji Lai zhi tossed aside that dagger, exclaiming, "Heavens, I killed the lay practitioner Liuyun—I'm too awesome!"

Jin Chen couldn't help laughing, he pressed a clean handkerchief onto Ji Lai zhi's face, and agreed, "Yes, it's you, Lai zhi, who should be the number one youth of the jianghu."

"…Well, there's no need to say that." Ji Lai zhi jumped onto Jin Chen's chest, rubbing against him, and said, "I don't want to compete with Du Guwen for the title of number one."

"I already have you; let the top spot be his."

Not being able to become Jin Chen's disciple is where Du Guwen suffers a particularly thorough defeat.

Ji Lai zhi thought this, and nodded more firmly.

【Detected Villain Blackening Value -10, total 17!】

Jin Chen didn't understand youths' thoughts; he simply assumed the lad disliked the nickname and didn't continue joking, holding him as they returned to the carriage to press on.

——

After Liuyun and Zhu Yue died, a rumor began to circulate in the jianghu.

It is said that the cultivation technique practiced by the Grand Master of the Formless Office is unique in the world; not only does it keep one's visage forever youthful, but ten days of practice equal ten years of ordinary methods, and within half a year one can become the strongest person in the present jianghu.

It is also said that the Grand Master already has a lifespan nearing a hundred years, yet he looks as youthful as a young man, showing no signs of aging—all thanks to cultivating that technique.

Furthermore, it is said that even ordinary people who have never practiced martial arts can cultivate this method, and thereafter they need no longer worry about birth, aging, sickness, or death.

The jianghu folk who heard the rumor: "……"

They haven't read any sage's books.

And they're not utter fools!

This is more absurd than the strange tales in storybooks—who on earth started spreading it!

For a while, the factions that had harbored some alternative designs on the technique were all cowed by the rumor into laying down their arms, convinced that someone must have been stirring up trouble beforehand.

Within the cult, the Yin attendant who released the information was furious to the extreme.

"Who spread it?! Ah? I'm asking you—who told you to spread it like this?! Only an idiot would believe it!"

He had made thorough preparations, but this whole mess ruined the effect instead!

He even dragged Liuyun and Zhu Yue into it.

The cultists trembled as they knelt: "Reporting, sir, our people didn't release the news like this; someone else must be meddling."

"Yes, sir, we followed your instructions to spread the word, but it's certainly not this strange; could someone be deliberately trying to confuse the message?"

The Yin attendant's distorted fingers clenched the armrest, "You suspect that Jin Chen saw through my scheme and deliberately sent people to spread the rumor."

That's not impossible.

"What did the person sent to keep watch say?" he asked again, his hoarse voice sounding as if it had been scorched by fire.

The cultists immediately replied, "Sir, you may not know, but it's said that the Formless Office is busy up and down these days; the toxin inside Ji Lai zhi's body hasn't been cleared, and his life hangs by a thread."

"Even the master of the Medicine King Valley has been summoned, and the Grand Master went so far as to declare that if he can't cure his disciple, he'll have the Medicine King Valley buried with him!"

"……Hiss." The Yin attendant furrowed his brows in suspicion, "You're sure those words were spoken by Jin Chen?"

How could it sound so strange?

"No doubt, sir; the watcher has hidden within the Formless Office for decades, unseen by anyone."

Only then did the Yin attendant relax, and he flung the wine jar to shatter.

Good! Everyone get ready, we'll go to the Formless Bureau to see off Ji Lai Zhi on his final leg, and let Jin Chen and his good disciple set off together!