Chapter 1019

"It's you?"

General Zhebie, who had been watching the battle from afar, was utterly shocked once he made out the newcomer's face.

Bi Xuan staggered back a few steps in defeat.

He happened to catch the shock in General Zhebie's tone and could not help turning his head to ask,

"General, do you know this kid?"

In truth, the reason Bi Xuan had just lost was that he had sensed the sudden appearance of this swordsman of about thirty.

His cultivation was only barely at the Earthly Immortal Realm!

A mere Earthly Immortal Realm — forget about defeating him, even if he just stood there and let the man hack at him, the man probably could not wound him.

Who would have thought Bi Xuan's miscalculation was so grave — this mere Earthly Immortal Realm could not only wound him, but defeat him in a single move.

Moreover, the defeat was so utterly baffling that, thinking it over carefully, Bi Xuan still could not figure out why his weakness had suddenly appeared.

Nor why that man's sword thrust had so precisely pierced his weakness.

Was it because his recent string of failures had shaken his martial heart?

Or had this man simply been lucky, stumbling into dog-shit fortune?

"The great name of the Six Heroes of Wu Dang — who does not know it?"

While Bi Xuan's thoughts were running wild, Zhebie spoke out the man's identity, his tone filled with wariness.

"What is Wu Dang—"

In Bi Xuan's eyes, apart from the Seven-Dragon Head Zhang Sanfeng, the rest of Wu Dang were not worth his time.

So, blunt as he was, he spoke the words despising Wu Dang outright.

Fortunately he woke in time, recalling the battle of Tang Yuan, where the Seven Heroes of Wu Dang had joined forces to defeat the Great Yuan's Protectorate Supplicant Long Xiang Seng.

At this thought, terror rose in Bi Xuan's heart,

"You are the Sixth Hero of Wu Dang, Yin Liting?"

The newcomer was indeed the Sixth Hero of Wu Dang, Yin Liting.

At this moment he still held his sword drawn, standing guard before Zhou Zhiruo and Abbess Extinguishing.

Seeing that Zhebie and Bi Xuan had recognized his identity, Yin Liting nodded with easy grace,

"Indeed! This unworthy one is Yin Liting.

Though the three of you hold the rank of Great Yuan Supplicants, if you want the Heaven-Severing Sword, you must still come openly and honorably to ask Miss Zhou for it.

Yet not only are your cultivations peerless and your status lofty, you have not a shred of shame.

The two of you joined forces and even launched a sneak attack — that is not the way of our kind."

Since the Seven Heroes of Wu Dang took Zhang Sanfeng as their master, they had been guided by Zhang Sanfeng's zeal for justice and his chivalrous ways.

Yin Liting, coming as he did from a decent background, held the chivalrous way in even higher esteem.

Originally, had Zhebie and the others won the Heaven-Severing Sword through a contest of martial skill,

though it might have felt a touch like strong-arming, it would still be a common enough occurrence in Wu Lin.

Yin Liting would not have said much, nor would he have intervened.

But Bi Xuan and Meng Chixing first used Abbess Extinguishing to pin down their target, and then the two of them joined forces to launch a sneak attack on Zhou Zhiruo.

Such conduct was truly despicable in Yin Liting's eyes.

Therefore, although Yin Liting's cultivation was only at the Earthly Immortal Realm, this time he stepped forward without hesitation.

A chivalrous man, after all, roars at injustice the moment he sees it.

Given Yin Liting's character, if he were to fear death and stand by while others faced peril,

it would instead leave his conscience uneasy for life; not only would it form a demonic barrier to his martial path, it might even destroy all his cultivation in a single stroke.

807 This is fairness!

"Sixth Hero Yin, I advise you to mind your own business."

Bi Xuan confirmed Yin Liting's identity, and seeing General Zhebie's face shift between light and shadow without ever speaking,

he knew Zhebie could not make up his mind, so he took it upon himself to threaten Yin Liting,

"Out of respect for the Seven-Dragon Head, the jianghu of the Nine Provinces will all address you as Sixth Hero Yin.

Yet your own cultivation is only barely at the Earthly Immortal Realm.

Not to mention compared with the likes of us, even compared with this Zhou Zhiruo, you fall far short.

Here in this foreign Great Ming, you are nothing at all.

Like a clay Bodhisattva, you can hardly save yourself.

So why bring this trouble upon yourself, playing the hero?"

Bi Xuan's words were not far off the mark.

Even in this foreign Great Ming, there were no few experts at the Earthly Immortal Realm.

Take the Eight Grand Masters of the Eastern Depot, for instance — quite a few of them surpassed Yin Liting in cultivation.

Therefore Yin Liting's stepping in this time did give the impression of biting off more than he could chew.

Hearing Bi Xuan speak thus, Yin Liting showed not the slightest fear; instead he shook his long sword and said,

"We of the chivalrous path — how could we cower before life and death?

If you mean to touch Zhou Zhiruo today, you will have to step over my corpse."

"You—"

Bi Xuan was so angry he jumped.

If it were anyone else, he would simply have killed them.

But Sixth Hero Yin — he truly did not dare to kill him.

Have you not seen how, when Long Xiang Seng plotted against Wu Dang, he nearly exterminated the entire Wu Dangpai save for the Wu Dangqixia?

Afterwards, the Qinglong Society was so enraged that they not only slew Long Xiang Seng on the spot before both armies.

They even stormed the Great Yuan imperial court and bloodily purged the upper echelons of the Great Yuan, including the late Khan Tie Muzhen.

Such a horrific scene truly made every Great Yuan man feel their scalp prickle with dread.

Bi Xuan was no exception.

He had merely slain some Wudang Sect disciples, and already such a catastrophe had been brought down upon them.

If he had killed Yin Liting, he would surely be ground to dust by the Qinglong Society and eternally imprisoned in the Avici Hell, would he not?

At this thought, Bi Xuan shuddered all over, and dared not act rashly.

"Hero Yin Liu, since you have made this demand, I promise you — a fair martial contest against this Zhou Zhiruo to decide the ownership of the Heaven Reliant Sword. How does that sound?"

Seeing Meng Chixing's shudder, General Zhebie immediately knew this old fox could not be relied upon.

Sighing inwardly, he could only step back and address Yin Liting.

A fair contest, naturally, would not be fought by Bi Xuan or Seeing Meng Chixing, but by General Zhebie himself.

Even if Zhou Zhiruo could but catch one arrow, it would count as his, Zhebie's, loss!

This is what fair means!

"No!"

To his surprise, Yin Liting flatly refused, shaking his head firmly as he said,

"If before this you had held a fair contest, I would not have stepped in to meddle.

But now Miss Zhou has not only been wounded by you, and even at this very moment, someone is still attacking her with the demonic seed's strange power.

General Zhebie, do you call this fair?"

The demonic seed's strange power is truly formless and intangible.

With such a vast gap in realm, one cannot even sense it.

By all rights, Yin Liting should not have been able to sense Seeing Meng Chixing's demonic seed strange power.

"Seeing Meng Chixing, stop…"

General Zhebie was instantly at a loss for words, and could only call a halt to Seeing Meng Chixing.

Seeing Meng Chixing, who had been hiding behind a large tree, immediately withdrew his hand in sullen displeasure.

He had been only a hair's breadth from breaching Zhou Zhiruo's mental defenses.

Once that happened, Zhou Zhiruo would have been his puppet.

As a puppet, handing over the Heaven Reliant Sword to his own people would be perfectly reasonable, would it not?

Yin Liting surely could not interfere again then, could he?