Chapter Twenty-One: Confrontation
"This shouldn't be happening!" Qingxu Skill is divided into five levels: Unity, Guiding Breath, Embryonic Respiration, Spirit Preservation, and Internal Elixir. By rights, as long as he had enough energy points, he should be able to continue breaking through. So why did the system indicate he couldn't progress any further?
"It seems I'll have to find a chance to ask Master, or perhaps the Temple Abbot," Qin Yi could only set the matter aside for now.
...
Night was thick.
Outside the row of houses housing the second grain convoy, more than twenty figures dressed in black suddenly appeared.
A man in gray stood atop a rooftop. With a slight wave of his hand, the black-clad men swiftly closed in on the row of houses.
The first to suffer were a few members of the Iron Wolf Gang, followed by several monks...
...
Qin Yi had barely fallen asleep when he suddenly noticed the loud snoring from the monks two rooms over had abruptly stopped.
"Hmm?" Qin Yi quickly leapt up, dashing toward the door.
Bang!
A black-clad man who had just pried open the door was sent flying before he could react, crashing heavily to the ground, fate unknown!
Stepping outside, Qin Yi saw that several black-clad men had appeared at his doorway at some point, and he could hear commotion coming from a nearby room!
Assassins!
"We're exposed—take him down!" The three black-clad men hesitated for a split second, then charged at Qin Yi.
"You're too slow!"
Qin Yi moved like a streak of black, closing the distance in an instant.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
With each stride, the sound of fist striking flesh reverberated.
In three successive blows, the three black-clad assailants collapsed in a heap.
"Sir, it's him! It must be him!" Chen Chengquan looked up at the gray-clad man on the rooftop—wait, where had he gone?
In the distance.
Qin Yi sensed a sudden whistling from his left. In a flash, he raised his arm to block.
Boom!
The tremendous force shoved Qin Yi back four or five steps before he managed to steady himself.
Even fiercer whistling sounds followed!
Danger!
"Fivefold Force!" Qin Yi gritted his teeth and thrust his right fist forward.
Thud!
The two figures clashed and immediately broke apart.
"A secret technique?!" A hoarse voice rang out.
Only now could Qin Yi see clearly—his opponent was a gray-clad man in his forties, with the word "Slave" tattooed on his right cheek!
"So young, yet you’ve already mastered a secret technique. Remarkable. No wonder five elite squads fell at your hands before!" The gray-clad man clicked his tongue in astonishment. He had trained in martial arts for thirty years—though he had reached the sixth stage’s peak, he had yet to comprehend a secret technique himself. That alone showed just how difficult it was to attain one.
Their brief exchange revealed that the opponent’s strength far surpassed an ordinary fifth-stage fighter, and with the secret technique, he could match the gray-clad man’s full-force strike. In fact, his speed already exceeded that of a typical sixth-stage expert!
But the gray-clad man remained confident. A single secret technique could not change the outcome; a mere pseudo-sixth stage was no true sixth stage.
"Run!" Qin Yi didn’t hesitate for an instant—he turned and fled!
After two exchanges, he knew the opponent’s strength was the greatest he had ever encountered, and the speed was almost a match for his own—a true master beyond the sixth stage!
Most importantly, when he’d blocked with his left arm, he felt the bone crack; the whole arm was now numb and useless for the time being.
"Hmph, trying to escape? After him!" The gray-clad man sneered, pursuing like a wraith.
Their speeds were nearly matched; the gap between them never widened.
Chaser and pursued vanished in the blink of an eye. The trailing Chen Chengquan and his men could only follow in the direction they’d disappeared.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The two fought as they fled.
"Fivefold Force!" Qin Yi spun and punched again.
Thud!
The clash bought him a moment’s respite; Qin Yi used the rebound to gain a little more distance.
"Heh, that’s your third use of the secret technique. I’m guessing you can manage it once or twice more at best, right? When you’ve spent it, what will you fight me with?" The gray-clad man was patient and kept the pressure on.
Qin Yi’s expression darkened, but he kept running.
In truth, he could still use it five more times!
He understood well that only with the secret technique could he barely match the opponent’s strength. The remaining five strikes had to count!
The gray-clad man stuck close, giving him no chance to widen the gap.
Thud!
They clashed again.
"Ha! Your secret technique must be nearly spent—your speed is dropping!" The gray-clad man grinned savagely. "Die!"
A palm strike, fierce as a blade, sliced through the air toward him.
"Shadow Step!"
"Hmm?" The gray-clad man’s palm struck only empty air. In the next instant, he sensed danger and tried to retreat.
"Fivefold Force!"
Crack!
A searing pain pierced the gray-clad man’s ribs, and he was sent flying, utterly off balance.
"Shadow Step!"
"Fivefold Force!"
Boom!
The gray-clad man smashed violently into the ground, blood gushing from his mouth.
"Heh... heh heh... You—you actually have other... secret techniques!"
With both ribs and chest caved in, the gray-clad man died, unwilling to accept his fate.
He could not understand it—had secret techniques become so commonplace? Even if your martial art could only reach the fifth stage, attaining its secret technique required decades of mastery to even have a chance at comprehension.
Some, with heaven-given talent, grasped a secret technique within months of perfecting a martial art. Others, after ten or twenty years, still failed to achieve one.
"My combat experience is still lacking. If I had used Shadow Step to evade his first killing strike, I wouldn’t have been injured," Qin Yi muttered, examining his swollen and bruised left arm.
Had his opponent been a seventh-stage expert, that sneak attack would have left him gravely wounded, perhaps without even a chance to escape.
He rifled through the body.
"Why do none of these people ever carry any money?"
...
"They’re too fast!" Chen Chengquan gazed ahead, still seeing no sign of the two, and sighed in frustration.
"Hmm?"
A figure approached from afar.
"Sir must have succeeded!"
But as soon as he saw who it was, his face changed dramatically. Without a second’s hesitation, he turned and ran.
It wasn’t the gray-clad man—it was Qin Yi!
"Impossible—how can someone so young have sixth-stage cultivation?" Countless doubts flashed through Chen Chengquan’s mind, but his feet moved quickly.
The other black-clad men were stunned as well. Seeing their captain flee, they followed suit.
"Why run? Wouldn’t it be better to stay and have a chat?"
Qin Yi appeared behind one of the black-clad men.
"I’ll fight you to the death!" The man spun, slashing with his blade.
"Too slow!" Qin Yi didn’t meet the attack head-on. Though he could now contend with sixth-stage experts, he was still a mortal flesh and blood.
No matter how hard the fist, it could not match a blade or sword!
Shifting slightly, Qin Yi easily dodged the strike.