Chapter 438

"He-here..."

On the dirty street, the man clutched his swollen, shiny face and pointed to an unremarkable, dilapidated house, speaking in a slurred voice.

An Ziyang squinted and looked.

He waved his hand.

The three honored guests flew toward the dilapidated house.

The remaining honored guest stayed behind.

A moment later, a deafening explosion erupted!

The three Heaven-Man honored guests struck together, and in an instant, they blasted the dilapidated house into rubble!

An Ziyang was not standing far away, and his eyesight was excellent, so he took in the situation there in an instant, but his brow furrowed.

There were indeed people inside that dilapidated house.

Because among the flying debris, blood was indeed splattered out.

But the amount of blood was wrong; it was too little.

It was probably only enough for three or four people. If the man's words were true, this house should have been packed, and after being blasted by the honored guests, it should have exploded like a soup dumpling, covering the ground in juice.

An Ziyang turned back and scanned the man.

The man's body trembled, and he knelt down with a thud.

"I-I don't know..."

While he was speaking, the three honored guests flew back. One of them handed a blood-soaked wooden board to An Ziyang.

An Ziyang wiped his fingers on it and brought it to his nose to smell.

"Dead man's blood, it's already stinking."

"Is it all like this?"

The honored guests nodded.

"What about the houses on the side, what about those peripheral Ordinary Jianghu people?"

The honored guests shook their heads.

"In that case, those people must have already run away."

"The three of you, search the area."

The three honored guests accepted the order and left.

An Ziyang stood where he was, closing his eyes in thought.

"It's been less than the time it takes to brew tea since we entered the outer city, and dozens of people along with hundreds of underlings have just vanished; it must be a secret passage or a hidden room."

"Liu Jin is indeed among this group of Ordinary Jianghu people."

"What does he want to do with these people?"

"Adding these people up, including Gao Ming, at most they could only take down two or three honored guests; how much use could they be?"

"Who could they threaten?"

An Ziyang pondered for a moment, until the deafening sound of Heaven-Man combat came from afar, and then he opened his eyes and stopped thinking.

"Let's go."

He took Mei Qinghe and flew off to catch up.

————————

On the other side, the battle between the honored guests led by Zhu Shoujing and An Qisheng had reached a fever pitch.

The battle had lasted less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, clearing a vacant area of several dozen zhang in the surroundings. Flesh and blood were splattered everywhere, and two broken corpses lay on the ground, the bloodstains already turning black and drying.

The last surviving Heaven-Man from Yingzhou stood on the roof, his left arm severed at the root, blood dripping incessantly, his face pale, yet he still used one hand to hold his long flute and play continuously.

"Die!"

The rooster crows and the world turns white!

Zhu Shoujing slashed his blade at the top of An Qisheng's head once more!

At the same time, several honored guests in the surroundings struck simultaneously, their attacks falling like raindrops on An Qisheng's body, sending ripples across his protective true energy.

They were all Heaven-Men who had grown up in slaughter; the time it takes to burn a stick of incense was enough for them to figure out a way to deal with An Qisheng—saturate his entire body with attacks so he couldn't concentrate his protective true energy in one place, and then have Zhu Shoujing launch a powerful attack!

Boom!

The long blade slashed down!

Clang, clang, clang, clang—An Qisheng was actually forced back several steps by this strike.

Several strands of half-black, half-white hair drifted slowly from the top of his head.

Zhu Shoujing's strike had broken through his protective true energy, only a step away from cutting through his flesh.

But even at a time like this, his gaze remained without a ripple, still as calm as a pool of stagnant water.

Because Zhu Shoujing was also exhausted.

After slashing this strike, he seemed to have suddenly lost all strength, retreating several zhang before using his blade to support his upper body. As he opened his mouth, hot air escaped, steaming as it drifted into the air.

"Ha—ha—"

Zhu Shoujing gasped for breath.

His attacks, which exceeded those of ordinary honored guests, were not without a price.

Just like the Seven-Injury Fist, the peerless art of the Kong Dong Sect, his blade technique was also a martial art that hurt the enemy by a thousand while damaging himself by eight hundred. If one were to use the games from Li Miao's past life as an example, other martial arts consumed true energy, but he was consuming his true energy limit.

By now, he was already overdrawn.

If he slashed one more time, his circulation would be difficult to maintain, and even if An Qisheng didn't attack him, he would die in the aftermath of the Heaven-Man combat.

As for An Qisheng, he only had four tiny wounds on his left chest, right leg, shoulder, and face. If not for his current state and the difficulty of healing, these wounds would have vanished instantly.

Seeing Zhu Shoujing in this state, the honored guests also stopped.

"Lord Zhu, shall we go?"

"It's probably difficult to keep him here today; it's better to plan for the long term!"

"Indeed, we've found out his foundation, so it's not like we've gained nothing!"

They spoke all at once, all advising retreat.

They had been forced to stay by Zhu Shoujing in the first place, and now that they lacked Zhu Shoujing's main attack to hold him back, they were certainly no match for An Qisheng, so they immediately lost their will to fight.

Zhu Shoujing gritted his teeth.

He couldn't say anything.

He hadn't held high expectations for these surrendered honored guests; that they could accompany him in a life-and-death battle against An Qisheng today and lose two lives here was already fulfilling their duty.

But could he really just give up like this?

Zhu Shoujing turned his head abruptly, looking at the Yingzhou Heaven-Man playing the long flute not far away.

"No!"

"Even if we have to sacrifice our lives here, we must at least bring this Yingzhou Heaven-Man back, so that An Qisheng's state can never be perfected!"

Zhu Shoujing turned back, intending to force himself to slash one last time at An Qisheng, while letting the honored guests take the Yingzhou Heaven-Man and flee.

As his gaze shifted, his pupils shrank.

An Qisheng was not where he had been.

Where had he gone?

Zhu Shoujing reacted instantly; before he could even turn his head back, his body was already rushing toward the rear.

The Yingzhou Heaven-Man!

If An Qisheng killed him, his state could recover further!

Sure enough, Zhu Shoujing cast his gaze toward the Yingzhou Heaven-Man.

Behind him, An Qisheng's emotionless face had already emerged from his shoulder, and his left palm was already raised high, slapping down toward his forehead!

And that Yingzhou Heaven-Man had dull eyes, clearly having had his consciousness taken away by the backup plan An Qisheng had planted, completely unaware that he had reached a desperate situation!

As for those honored guests, except for Ruan Mei who gritted her teeth and rushed over, not a single one moved, clearly terrified of An Qisheng and not daring to step forward to block him!

In the blink of an eye, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

There were not many Yingzhou Heaven-Men left now; if he killed this person, An Qisheng would probably be close to his peak state, and Zhu Shoujing would lose even the qualification to fight for his life.

This all-out encirclement would turn into An Qisheng's victory.

Zhu Shoujing raised his blade to slash out one last blade light, but it was already too late.

At this very instant!

A bright yellow dragon robe descended from the high sky, crashing down in front of An Qisheng!

"So you're the one who hurt Big Li!"

"Die for me!"

Zhu Shoujing's expression relaxed, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud, smiling wearily.

He had held An Qisheng back for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense.

The Emperor had finally arrived!

(End of chapter)