Chapter 84: Sword Energy Gives Birth to Splendor (Part 1)

  Just like many drunkards who trip and fall, Xiao Ziyang's left leg was suddenly tripped by his right foot, and he fell forward, as if he wasn't dying fast enough, he also bumped his head against the huge and frightening board axe.

  The sturdy man seemed to have already seen the scene of the drunkard being chopped into four pieces by himself.

  At this moment, he suddenly found that for some reason, the speed of his axe chopping down had become extremely slow, and the blade had only moved down less than three inches when the drunkard had already rushed over, his shoulder hitting his chest.

  "Bang" was another loud noise, even louder than the sound of him stomping on the ground earlier. The sturdy man suddenly flew out and crashed into a two-person-hugging silver ginkgo tree, shaking off nearly half of the leaves on the tree.

  The sturdy little man crashed into the tree and stopped for a moment on the trunk, then slid down along the trunk, sat under the tree, tilted his head and fell silent.

  The four people who came up behind, as if they had seen a ghost, rushed forward and retreated backward. They retreated to a place seven or eight zhang away from Xiao Ziyang, looking at Xiao Ziyang in horror, still like a drunkard.

  At the end of the small path behind Xiao Ziyang, Tang Pei and Jin Shengjie's faces suddenly lost their carefree expressions.

  Xiao Ziyang pretended to vomit under the big tree, and these two people, Wen Yuanwai and Liu Bingbei, had already arrived at the crossroads. Xiao Ziyang easily dodged Wu Peng's three fatal arrows, and these two didn't take it too seriously either, because they could also do it easily.

  Xiao Ziyang's internal energy was quite unique. As long as he didn't use his inner strength, no one could tell that he was actually a high-ranking master of the Internal School.

  In the Jianghu, internal martial arts masters have always looked down on those who practice external martial arts. In their eyes, whether Xiao Ziyang was truly drunk or just pretending to be, he was nothing more than a fish on a chopping board, only one was a dead fish and the other was a live fish.

  And that sturdy fellow was also seen by the deputy leader, so he showed such bravery and paid with his life.

  Tang Pei saw his powerful subordinate being killed, and his face suddenly turned extremely gloomy. He waved his hand back, indicating that Wen Yuan and the others should stay in place, and he walked with Jin Shengjie towards Xiao Ziyang, who was still wandering around.

  Wen Yuanwai and Liu Bingbei were shocked to discover that Tang Pei and Jin Shengjie, who had just been gentle and calm, suddenly turned into two long swords with scabbards that couldn't withstand the chill of the air.

  The two men's footsteps seemed slow, but in just three breaths' time, they arrived at a place ten zhang behind Xiao Ziyang, displaying the extraordinary lightness and agility of their Shrinking Distance skill.

  "Friend, stop pretending, don't you think this is ridiculous?" Tang Pei's voice was cold, as if it came from the icy depths of hell.

  Xiao Ziyang stopped his staggering figure and slowly turned around. In fact, Xiao Ziyang was a very steady person, and tonight's clown-like performance was a kind of venting after he had been greatly stimulated.

  Xiao Ziyang was also quite worldly, and he had anticipated this beforehand, but when he actually faced such ruthless and naked betrayal, he still couldn't accept it.

  "Bring it on!" Jin Shengjie sneered, his long sword at the ready: "Show off whatever skills you have, let me see what makes you dare to play tricks on us like this."

  Xiao Ziyang's face was expressionless, he turned around and didn't look at the two people in front of him, but instead stared at the small path behind them, where Wen Yuan stood; even though they were separated by nearly twenty or thirty zhang, Wen Yuan could still feel the fierce anger burning in Xiao Ziyang's eyes.

  Xiao Ziyang's disregard made the two people's faces even more gloomy. Tang Pei also slowly drew out the long sword from his waist. Xiao Ziyang's gaze finally fell on the two of them.

  He flipped his hand over, and the thick-backed knife with a dark, faintly glowing blue light appeared silently in Xiao Ziyang's hand, as if it wasn't inserted into its scabbard but was floating behind him. Seeing this scene, Tang Pei and Jin Shengjie's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

  Xiao Ziyang was just about to speak when he suddenly paused, a flash of murderous intent flickering in his eyes.

  He had a black hawk behind him, which seemed to think it should show off in front of its master, quietly drawing its bow and arrow, preparing to give Xiao Ziyang a ruthless shot.

  Xiao Ziyang flipped his wrist, and the knife shook slightly towards the back. A formless aura silently shot towards Wu Peng. Wu Peng, who thought he had the upper hand, suddenly felt the bowstring in his hand tighten and then snap loudly, causing the longbow to break into two sections. Then, he felt a severe pain in his chest.

  Wu Peng lowered his head to look at the wound that had suddenly appeared on his chest, a look of confusion on his face, and the gushing blood made a faint buzzing sound; His hand slightly raised, as if wanting to cover the wound, but before he could do so, he fell to the ground with a thud; On his back was another wound, just like the one on his chest, also spewing out fresh blood.

  The three people standing with Hei Wu Peng jumped back in shock, tightly grasping their weapons and nervously looking around.

  Unlike Handong's confusion, Tang Pei and Jin Shengjie saw clearly what had just happened.

  "Jian Qi!" Two words were uttered from Tang Pei's bitter mouth, as if he was groaning; beside him, Jin Shengjie's face, which had been full of playful teasing just a moment before, suddenly showed a flustered expression.

  When he saw Xiao Ziyang's thick-backed knife spit out a blade of over two feet long, Tang Pei suddenly threw away the long sword in his hand and bowed with his fists: "We were deceived by others and offended our predecessor, I hope our predecessor will not blame us for our ignorance."

  Jin Shengjie, at a loss for what to do, seeing Tang Pei like this, hastily threw away his long knife. He bowed and said: "Please forgive us, we didn't know any better."

  A suffocating silence made the two people's foreheads sweat; the two people who were bowing and lowering their heads did not even dare to lift their heads; glancing at the blade that was hesitating to advance, the two people couldn't help but feel a chill on the back of their necks.

  The actions of the two left Xiao Ziyang somewhat stunned, but upon careful consideration, he felt that it was reasonable; after all, techniques like Knife Edge, Sword Energy, and Splitting Air Palm that could project internal energy for a strike required refining one's internal energy to an extremely pure state, using it with a free will, in order to be executed, which was exactly the hallmark of a top-notch master. This kind of extremely pure internal energy was also known as True Qi.

  But not all top masters who have cultivated their inner power into true energy can display sword energy and sword edges, apart from the fact that this type of martial arts is extremely difficult to cultivate, there is another reason, which is that these types of martial arts are all the untransmitted secrets of various major schools.

  Apart from the six major thousand-year-old sects in the Jianghu, only two major sects and three major families possess this kind of secret skill; this is the real reason why Tang Pei and Jin Shengjie didn't even have the idea to resist.

  It's hard to imagine that Xiao Ziyang, at such a young age, could master the ultimate martial arts and grasp untransmissible secrets, which probably only the mysterious and unpredictable Six Great Thousand-Year-Old Sects can cultivate.

  The six major sects in the martial arts world are like temples that command respect, and even an outer disciple's status is not something that ordinary people can attain; let alone Xiao Ziyang, who at a young age has already been taught the core secret techniques. If Xiao Ziyang were to kill them, his sect would probably not dare say a word of complaint.

  Even if they knew about Xiao Ziyang's identity as a lone wanderer, they didn't dare to resist him in person, but it wasn't certain afterwards.