Chapter 106

A great tree two people could barely wrap their arms around had been blasted into this wretched state — if flesh and blood took a hit like that, how could anyone survive?

Judging by this power, if not for the long activation time and the glaring flaw, this move might have ambushed a Celestial Being to death!

At this moment, Jiang Sishui was dealing with several flying rings.

Those flying rings gleamed silver all over, circling and darting around Jiang Sishui like living things, attacking freely at their master's whim — indescribably bizarre and uncanny.

Jiang Sishui's long sword came out again, and he executed the "Arrow-Breaking Stance" repeatedly, knocking all those flying rings away!

Under the impact of his surging Northern Nether true qi, the silver rings sank deep into the ground and could no longer fly.

When Jiang Sishui broke free of the flying rings' entanglement and looked at Wuhua again, the other had somehow produced a long blade from somewhere.

Wuhua held the blade reversed in his left hand and the long saber in a forward grip in his right — left hand hanging below his waist, right hand raising the saber to brow level, edge facing outward, ready to slash down at any moment.

Yet his body stood as still as a stone statue, his bloodshot, venomous gaze fixed dead on Jiang Sishui.

A fierce killing intent spread out, shrouding Jiang Sishui along with the saber light and that stare....

The moment Jiang Sishui moved, a flaw would appear in his body, and then Wuhua would launch a fatal strike.

This was the method of using stillness to control movement.

"Wind-Cleaving Guihai Yi Dao Slash?"

Seeing Wuhua's stance and momentum, Jiang Sishui had a guess in his heart.

This was the signature Sword Technique of Wuhua's father, Tianfeng Shisilang — in the original work, this very slash had been used against Chu Chu Liuxiang.

(Note: It seems the Eastern Island swordsmen in Wu Xia all like to perform Sword Techniques with sabers, so this is not a typo. Similar cases later on will not be pointed out one by one.)

But Wuhua was not his father Tianfeng Shisilang, and Jiang Sishui was not Chu Chu Liuxiang.

Without the slightest hesitation, he strode forward directly.

And the instant he moved, Wuhua's eyes went completely crimson, and the true qi within his body erupted without reserve, puffing his tattered monk's robes high.

The next moment, he raised the long saber high and, leaping up at the same time, brought it down in a clean stroke.

The saber light was like a pool of cold autumn water — a chilling, eerie green that stabbed into flesh and bone — cleaving straight down at Jiang Sishui.

Seeing this devastating slash bearing down like a bamboo-splitting force, Jiang Sishui merely made a feint, then dodged past it with "Lingbo Weibu," letting the slash fall into empty air.

No matter how fearsome the move, missing the target was useless.

The reason Jiang Sishui handled it so easily was not that "Lingbo Weibu" was too strong, nor that "Wind-Cleaving Guihai Yi Dao Slash" looked good but lacked substance — it was that his realm utterly crushed Wuhua's!

Wuhua was only at the Early Grandmaster Stage — how could he possibly be Jiang Sishui's opponent?

Being able to exchange a couple of moves with Jiang Sishui was only thanks to his bizarre and uncanny methods.

In a straight-up clash now, Wuhua couldn't last a single move against Jiang Sishui, whose divine art had reached perfection!

After dodging the "Wind-Cleaving Guihai Yi Dao Slash," Jiang Sishui thrust and swept with his long sword, severing the tendons in Wuhua's right hand — the long saber dropped to the ground at once.

Jiang Sishui's figure flashed, circling behind Wuhua, and he pressed both hands onto the latter's shoulders — the "Northern Nether Divine Art" activated!

Suck—

In an instant, Wuhua's internal force poured out of his body like floodwaters breaching a dike, completely beyond his control, drawn away by Jiang Sishui.

Wuhua knew he was finished.

At this moment, oddly, there was no sorrow left in his heart.

Because the instant Jiang Sishui had disfigured him, he had already lost the will to live.

But one confusion still lingered in his heart, something he wanted answered even at the point of death: "Wh... why?"

Jiang Sishui understood what he meant: there was no grudge between them, so why try to kill him the moment they met?

He smiled at once: "Your disguise was good, but it couldn't fool me. You're not so wronged either — just obediently go and die."

117 Wang Yuyan: Seven years of pining for my cousin can't compare to seven days of joy with Big Brother Jiang

Disguise?

Wuhua's pupils contracted, but he asked no more.

His ashen eyes gradually calmed, and he silently awaited death's arrival.

Jiang Sishui was not polite either — after draining the internal force, he directly slammed a palm down and crushed his crown, sending him to Guixi.

Watching Wuhua's body collapse limply, the women finally gathered around.

Before they could speak, Jiang Sishui said: "Don't ask yet — I'll explain later. Turn around first."

Turn around?

The women were puzzled, but asked no more and did as told.

"Rong'er, trying to sneak a peek, aren't you?"

"Hehe, not at all — my neck was just a little sore."

Jiang Sishui shook his head helplessly, then briskly stripped off Wuhua's monk's robe, tore it into strips, twisted them into a cloth rope, and bound him to a large rock.

Then Jiang Sishui carried the corpse to the lakeside, hurled it with all his might, and the body sank straight to the lake bottom.

The splash was enormous, and the women instinctively turned their heads to look — seeing this, they understood.

Wuhua was from the Shaolin Temple; if people learned he died at Jiang Sishui's hands, it would inevitably cause trouble for the Nanmian Society, so destroying the body and the evidence was quite necessary.

A corpse alone won't sink, but with stones tied to it, it can't float back up — and with the lake water soaking it and fish and shrimp gnawing at it, it wouldn't be long before Wuhua truly vanished from the face of the earth.

After finishing all this, Jiang Sishui led the women away from the scene at speed.

Wang Yuyan and Ah Bi's horses had run off; the latter voluntarily rode double with Ah Zhu. Wang Yuyan was still mulling over whether to ride with Huang Rong or Zhao Qiying, when Jiang Sishui simply picked her up.

Over the past few days, Jiang Sishui had, to varying degrees, shown that sort of intention to the women, constantly testing their attitudes.

The result surprised him greatly — they didn't seem to have any particularly strong resistance to his idea of "building a harem."

This left Jiang Sishui both puzzled and even more delighted, and his courage gradually grew.

That was why he dared to embrace Wang Yuyan right in front of Huang Rong and Zhao Qiying.

Wang Yuyan's delicate frame was the perfect embodiment of the phrase "soft as if boneless" — held in his arms, she was wonderfully pliant and very comfortable.

Jiang Sishui set her in front of him, soft jade and warm fragrance in his embrace, and the lake of his heart stirred with ripples on all sides; his arm unconsciously tightened, as if to press her into his very body.

Wang Yuyan had never been this intimate with a man before; in an instant, crimson clouds spread across both cheeks, even the roots of her ears flushed a deep red, and a pair of glistening, rippling phoenix eyes seemed about to brim with water.

Autumn light swirled in her gaze, as if she wished to speak yet held back.

At this moment, the Fairy Sister possessed a startling beauty.

To prevent the women from growing jealous and the scene from devolving into a shambles of rivalry, Jiang Sishui, while feeling Wang Yuyan's supple body, kept his expression deadpan, like a perfect gentleman.

At the same time, he spoke to draw the women's attention away: "When wandering the jianghu, as long as you confirm the other party harbors ill will toward you, and the surroundings allow it, you can strike directly."

"He who strikes first has the upper hand; he who strikes late suffers. Sneak attacks, poisons, hidden weapons—anything goes. There's no high or low in method; what matters most is killing your opponent."

"Besides, you must remember: never judge people by their looks. Some who seem easy to bully might just as easily send you to your death."

"For example, Ding Chunqiu's 'Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles,' or the 'Loyal Heart Art' Wuhua just used—these are hidden methods capable of killing Celestial Beings."

"Although you have the protection of the 'Kunji Seal,' how strong an attack that barrier can withstand at most, I can't say for certain."

"Perhaps there exist methods in this world capable of ambushing even a Demigod—no one can say for sure."

"So in your future conduct, you must be bold yet cautious. Never assume you are absolutely safe. Only with care can your ship sail for ten thousand years."

Hearing this, the women knew Jiang Sishui was sounding a warning bell for them; they dared not be careless and answered in unison.

Huang Rong asked curiously: "The one that blasted the great tree into charcoal—was that called the 'Loyal Heart Art'?"

Jiang Sishui nodded: "And the silver ring that seemed to have a spirit of its own, flying and attacking in tune with its master's will, that was the 'Death Attachment Art.'"

"These two arts are strange and mysterious, quite unlike ordinary Wu Gong—more like techniques from beyond the realm." Wang Yuyan interjected, her expression deliberately calm.

"Yuyan is right." Jiang Sishui agreed: "This is Dongying martial learning."

Dongying martial learning?

The women were all unfamiliar with it.

Only Wang Yuyan, who had read widely through the Hundred Schools, knew something of it: "I've heard that Dongying martial arts are mostly fierce and cruel in their cultivation methods, following unorthodox paths, with vicious and bizarre techniques, hard to deal with—and among them, ninjutsu is the foremost."

"So-called ninjutsu is basically a blend of poisons, hidden weapons, Disguise Art, the Mystic Gates and Strange Arts, and so on. To an outsider it seems miraculous, almost like magic or sorcery."

"Could it be that this 'Loyal Heart Art' and 'Death Attachment Art' are Dongying ninjutsu?"

As she spoke, the maiden turned her head to look back at Jiang Sishui.

Jiang Sishui, forcibly restraining the impulse to lean in and kiss her, nodded and said: "You're right. These are two of the nine great secret arts of the Dongying Iga Sect's ninjutsu."

"A Monk of Shaolin Temple, in a life-and-death battle, using not his own sect's supreme techniques but Dongying ninjutsu—now that is strange." Zhao Qiying spoke with hidden meaning.

A'Zhu said with a smile: "Still, Jiang Dage is impressive. Whichever one he kills at random turns out to be a Dongying spy, cleansing the Weifu Sect of its rotten elements. From now on, when we go to the temple for vegetarian meals, the Monks there certainly won't charge us incense oil money."

After these few days together, A'Zhu's way of addressing Jiang Sishui had grown more intimate; she no longer called him "Young Master."

Jiang Sishui had now grown accustomed to A'Zhu's coquettish ways, and hearing this, laughed: "No matter how high my Wu Gong, how could it compare with yours, A'Zhu?"

"With a single Disguise Art, you could impersonate the temple's abbot or elders. Not only would the little Monks not charge us incense oil money, they'd actually hand the incense oil money over to us."

"So you see, A'Zhu is the truly formidable one."