Chapter Ten: Duel with Murong Ling

  "Hmm!" Shen Du nodded at Shen Yu Xi, a sly smile spreading across his face. He thought to himself: "What's that supposed to be? I now possess not only sword-wielding skills, but also this pair of iron arms that rival those of a sword master, and the Sword King-level 'Ten Thousand Jin Sword'. Even if my opponent has reached the pinnacle of the Sword Master realm, they probably wouldn't be a match for me... unless they have an incredibly powerful trump card."

  Shen thought so, and the smile on his face grew thicker.

  However, Murong Ling's face turned even uglier, and he angrily said: "You little brat, looking at your worried appearance, are you afraid of fighting?!" He then put away his curved knife and continued: "If you give up on entering the city now, then considering your youth and ignorance, this general will let you off easy!"

  He had previously called himself "Murong Ling" and "General Ben", actually reminding Shen Du that with his strength, he was not an ordinary person who could be easily defeated.

  But Shen Dou had never heard of the name "Murong Ling", and yet he heard him call himself General; he was shocked and said: "General, you are actually a general?" Shen Dou asked with furrowed brows.

  "Hmph!" Murong Ling let out a snort from his nose: "What, doesn't it look like it?"

  Shen Du began to carefully size up Murong Ling, seeing that he was in his early twenties, wearing a black armor that was not much different from other soldiers. However, on his waist hung an ancient bronze waist plate, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the mighty General of the Zhonguo Empire.

  Shen Yu Xi also saw clearly, immediately walked to Shen Dou's side, smiled at Murong Ling and said: "Really sorry, it's us siblings who are blind, didn't know it was the great General Wu himself, really very sorry!"

  I didn't expect General Wei Wu to come and guard the gate in person, it seems that this is indeed an order from the emperor himself.

  Shen Dou's tightly furrowed eyebrows slowly relaxed, and he sheathed his massive sword. Seeing Murong Ling remain silent, he also cupped his fists and said: "Although you are a general, I, Shen Dou, am not afraid of you. We came here to find the king, only to temporarily avoid trouble. If you don't want to take us in, we will leave immediately."

  Just as he was about to leave, Murong Ling called out to him, "Wait a minute, you're quite sensible. How about this: if you can defeat me today, I'll personally take you to meet the Emperor."

  "I didn't expect Murong Ling to make such a proposal, which made Shen Du feel extremely surprised and asked: "General Murong, what do you mean by this? Are you going to defy the imperial edict?"

  "Hmph, the imperial edict is nothing in my eyes." Murong Ling said with a face full of disdain.

  As soon as this statement came out, it shocked the black armored soldiers around him, as well as Shen Du and his sister.

  "Hey! You're a great general, an indispensable talent by the king's side. Are you not loyal to the king?" Shen Du asked with a smile, carefully observing Mu Rong Ling's facial expression and starting to speculate about his thoughts.

  Only to see Murong Ling's originally stern face suddenly becoming even more serious, he drew out his words and said: "If it wasn't for Fu Xingbo that treacherous dog framing the former emperor, how would Fu Sibo have fallen ill? Now Princess is wrongly imprisoned, I've always wanted to find an opportunity to rescue her, but I'm powerless."

  Shen Du was shocked by his words: "Your words are actually overturning your own words, you didn't say that before, and the princess you mentioned is referring to Fu Xuehan?"

  "That's right." Murong Ling's originally firm eyes flickered: "The princess and General Ben had already arranged their engagement, and were to be married soon. But then the king fell ill, and the new king refused to mention this matter again. I..."

  Murong Ling hesitated, then drew his curved blade once more and pointed it at Shen Dou: "No matter what, as long as you can defeat my curved blade, we'll join forces to storm the imperial prison and definitely rescue the princess."

  As for the current situation, Shen Du felt quite embarrassed. They were originally refugees from the City of Death, and now they had encountered such a thing. If they assisted Murong Ling in rescuing Fu Xuehan, then they would become wanted fugitives. The entire Empire of Zhongdian would likely have no place for them to hide.

  Shen's face showed hesitation, and Murong Ling smiled slightly at the corner of his mouth: "It seems I was too naive, you didn't want to help me from the start, right?"

  Shen Dou gazed into Murong Ling's eyes, wanting to see through his inner heart, but Murong Ling's eyes full of hesitation did not reveal too much information to him.

  Murong Ling seemed to have sensed Shen Du's thoughts, and with a flash of his curved knife, a powerful sword aura was emitted from the curved knife.

  "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

  The surrounding shrubs were all shaken by the sword energy, and those black-armored soldiers actually died under Murong Ling's tyrannical sword energy, silently falling to the ground.

  Shen Du looked at all of this with endless surprise as he killed the general on the battlefield.

  Although Shen was unclear, he extremely despised the person who killed his companions, slowly pulling out the giant sword on his back, releasing the sword hand and sword energy, a red sword energy burst out, but far inferior to Murong Ling's released sword master sword energy.

  Shen Yu regretfully saw the situation, her toes lightly tapping the ground, and she soared into the air towards the cliff at the back of the mountain. Standing on a boulder at the waist of the mountain, she gazed at all this, her right hand placed on the hilt of her sword, accumulating momentum to strike.

  As soon as Shen Du is no match for Murong Ling, she will take action immediately.

  Feeling Murong Ling's overbearing sword aura, Shen Du immediately sensed that the sword aura was comparable to his grandfather's released sword master's sword aura. It seems that it is indeed the pinnacle of the Sword Master's level.

  But Murong Ling's waist did not hang the grade waist card that every swordsman wore. As for this, Shen Du didn't feel surprised either, because in the past few days, they had also hidden their waist cards.

  Just then, Mu Rongling suddenly let out a loud roar and said: "You young man, you have impurities in your heart, I'm afraid it's hard for you to reach the peak state! But this general will never show mercy!" With that, he swung his curved knife and shouted: "Thousand Blade Slash!"

  Only to see the orange sword energy condensing into a curved knife, thousands of them, rapidly shooting towards Murong Ling. At this moment, the sky was changing dramatically, with dark clouds shrouding the sky above the City of Death. In the pitch-black world, Shen Du saw even more clearly the sword energy condensed into curved knives.

  "What a fast knife!" Shen Dou surprisingly easily saw through Murong Ling's knife technique, and in that one swing, he chopped out 3,100 knives. Without hesitation, the giant sword spun around, and the giant sword with a weight of 10,000 jin was easily rotated by Shen Dou into an indestructible shield.

  "Dong Dong Dong!"

  Three thousand one hundred sword energies curved blades, only striking on Shen Du's sword shield, forming a powerful impact, forcing him to retreat dozens of steps, and in that instant, the mud under his feet sank more than three feet deep.

  "Hey! Not bad!" Shen Du let out a sigh of admiration.

  Shen Du took the first blow, Murong Ling's face revealed a smile, and he shouted loudly: "It seems I didn't misjudge you, continue!" Then, with another loud shout: "Killing God Three Knives Change!"

  With this loud shout, Mu Rong Ling's body emitted a faint orange glow. His hands grasped the hilt of his knife as if supported by an invisible force, slowly rising into the air, the curved blade held high above his head.

  "Hah!" With a sudden slash, three orange sword energies shot out, resembling dragons, tigers and leopards, roaring as they charged towards Shendu.

  Shen Du's face tensed up, "Hmph! Looks like it's time to get serious!" He silently chanted in his heart: "Frenzied Sword Incantation!" This was the second form of Shen Men's Fifteen Swords that he had been practicing for half a month, and this was the first time he was using it.

  Only to see Shen Dou's arms tightly grasping the giant sword, rising into the air, crimson sword energy gathering on the sword body, the giant sword immediately emitted a "humming" loud noise!

  That sound echoed through the sky and actually drowned out the roars of the dragon, tiger, and leopard.

  Murong Ling's three sword auras rapidly charged towards Shen Du, who swung his giant sword and released it from his hand, manipulating the giant sword in mid-air.

  "Boom!"

  The giant sword touched those three sword auras and instantly exploded, transforming into numerous sword auras that splashed out in all directions.

  "Boom! Boom! Boom!" The surrounding bushes had been battered into a thousand holes.

  Shen Du and Murong Ling simultaneously retracted their sword auras, standing still on the spot, admiring each other. The dark clouds dispersed quickly, and the autumn sun shone brightly on their youthful faces.

  Both of their faces were pale, especially Shen Du, whose originally handsome face was as white as a sheet of paper, his right arm trembling non-stop.

  "What a powerful swordsmanship!" Shen Du exclaimed, this was the most dangerous encounter he had with an enemy, thinking to himself that if it wasn't for the Wan Jin Sword he obtained earlier, he would have probably become Mu Rong Ling's soul under his knife.

  "What a great brute strength!" Murong Ling also praised Shen Du, it was his first time to witness the Shen family's Fifteen Swords, he didn't expect that Shen Du, just a sword hand, could fight him to a draw, and immediately showed respect for Shen Du.

  On the other hand, Shen Yu Xi, who was watching from the sidelines, had a cold sweat in her hands as she recalled Mo Rong Liang's "Killing God Three Knife Change" earlier, and her face still looked extremely shocked.

  Shen Du was even more shocked, that "Killing God Three Knife Change" had not only three changes, but every three sword auras had three changes.

  When the dragon roars, the wind and clouds change; when the tiger howls, the sword energy condenses to kill; when the leopard growls, the sword energy doubles; then it transforms into intersecting slashes, with thousands of sword energies slashing; finally, it solidifies into a line, shooting straight at the brow.

  Thinking of all this, Shen's trembling right arm shook even more violently. Thinking that the name was really a death trap, what a killer three knife change, it was clearly nine changes.

  If it weren't for Shen Dou's iron arms, which he had trained since childhood, plus the Wanjun sword that could withstand a thousand jun of force, his powerful brute strength would have been able to withstand the peak sword energy of Murong Ling, and he might have already lost his life.

  The rain fell beside Shen Du, wiping away the sweat on his face.

  "Are you okay?!" Holding Shen Du's trembling right arm, he asked with concern.

  "No problem!" Shen Dou's mouth was filled with fresh blood, but he still managed to boast: "Murong General, we can still fight another round!" With great effort, he lifted his massive sword, and the muscles on his face contorted in a terrifying manner as his right arm shook violently.

  "Haha!" Murong Ling chuckled lightly, and a trace of bright red blood also overflowed from the corner of his mouth. He said in a low voice, "No need, you are the one I am looking for."

  Shen Du heard this and smiled, "Hey! I'm afraid it can't be as you wish, we have no intention of helping you."

  Murong Ling heard this and frowned, saying: "Why."

  "I've said it before, we came to the City of Death only to take refuge and didn't want to stir up more trouble." Shen Du still had a greater life ideal, which was to rescue Pei Xuehan from the Imperial Capital's Great Prison in the Empire of Bricks. That was an extremely adventurous thing, and Shen Du wasn't willing to take that risk.

  Just as he was about to leave, two crystal-like tears fell from Murong Ling's eyes.

  "I promised the emperor that I would never let anything happen to the princess, but Fu Huangbo is so depraved and lawless that even my own sister has fallen victim to him. For my own sake, for the sake of the empire, please help me!" As he spoke, Murong Ling unexpectedly dropped to one knee, begging.

  Looking at Murong Ling with a sincere expression, Shen Dou thought of his own situation again. After all, Murong Ling was also a general and could provide them with a place to settle down for the time being. He said softly, "Let's wait until our injuries heal and we're fully prepared before going."

  Murong Ling heard this, his eyes filled with gratitude, and he said emotionally: "I, Murong Ling, am eternally grateful. If you, Shen Du, ever need anything in the future, I will be your loyal servant, willing to die for you a thousand times!"

  Hey, this is exactly what Shendu wanted.