Book 1 Chapter 25: Fighting for vengeance! (2)
Li Shi reacted very fast. He raised his saber, making a block with it, sending a dagger flying. But the other two daggers were shooting at Du Xin behind him!
Du Xin, merely a late Soul Apprentice, was following closely behind Li Shi. Originally, seeing Li Shi draw his saber, he had thought that Bai Yunfei would be stopped. But just when he wanted to charge up with an acceleration, he suddenly saw the opponent turn strangely then in the blink of an eye, two sharp blades were already about to hit him, one aimed at his throat and the other at his heart!
Having basically no time to think carefully, he leaned his body to one side almost instinctively. A dagger flew past his neck, grazing it, but the one aimed at his heart could not be avoided completely. At the last moment, he channeled his soulforce and flexed his muscles, causing his skin to become as hard as a layer of horn.
However, they were all useless! The dagger pierced into his left shoulder almost without hindrance, up to the hilt!
Before he could even let out a groan, he was gagged by yet another dagger that had just arrived!
A dagger had almost pierced through his neck, causing his blood to spurt out unceasingly. His mouth was wide open but no sound came out of it. With popping eyes, he stared desperately at Bai Yunfei not far in front of him, his eyes filled with terror, unwillingness and also bewilderment. He then fell down gradually and died.
Because he had been slightly slower right from the beginning, he could only follow behind Li Shi. Thinking that Bai Yunfei would rush straight up to young master’s face, he simply did not expect the opponent to suddenly choose him as the target of his attacks, much less expect the opponent to be adept at flying daggers and, in addition, to be able to shoot multiple daggers in a row without pausing. There were many things he had not thought about, but he would not have a chance to think again. With just one mistake, he had already lost his life!
With a turn of his body, Bai Yunfei had killed a soul cultivator!
When these two men had dodged the stone tile fragments, he had found out their power levels and instantly decided on how to act. Although a late Soul Apprentice meant nothing to him at the moment, if he was surrounded, a Soul Apprentice would also pose a threat to him.
Therefore he gave up the chance to come straight at Zhang Yang to launch a surprise attack at Du Xin, who was the last to chase up. Afterwards, he even used his waist to block a saber strike from Li Shi without hesitation and threw that final, mortal dagger at Du Xin, shooting him dead.
After sending that dagger flying, Li Shi did not pause at all. Taking advantage of the fact that Bai Yunfei still had not regained his balance, he strode forwards, swinging his long saber out, wanting to force the opponent into dodging to launch a violent attack.
However, instead of dodging, the opponent unexpectedly shot another sharp blade out of his hand with a flick. His long saber then hit the opponent’s waist in a hack, but a loud and clear sound of metal clashing against metal rang out. After that, the opponent only staggered half a step before unexpectedly turning around, completely unharmed, and charging forwards!
Since avoiding the first broken stones, Zhang Yang had been standing at the entrance of the corridor, staring at the fight with an ice-cold expression. Even though he was sinister and vicious, he was definitely not a good-for-nothing playboy. Many of the Zhang family’s underground forces were handled by him, and he himself was also a soul cultivator. To his eyes, this kind of situation still could not be considered ‘dangerous’.
In the beginning, he had been flustered for a moment, but when Bai Yunfei charged at him after falling down, he could already tell that the intruder was not very powerful, only a bit more powerful than himself, and comparable to Li Shi at the most. He thought that even if he himself did not get into action, the two bodyguards would be able to take down the intruder.
The situation in the beginning did not disappoint him. When the intruder was only halfway through charging up to him, he was caught up by Li Shi. However, just when he pondered whether or not he himself should get into action to resolve this ‘trouble’ a bit earlier, the opponent pierced through Du Xin’s throat with a turn of the body, killing him. That man then unexpectedly withstood a saber strike from Li Shi head-on before charging at him again at high speed!
That indifferent expression on Zhang Yang’s face froze instantly. He even began to think of ‘fleeing immediately’.
However, when Bai Yunfei had covered just half the distance and was only less than five meters away from Zhang Yang, he was once again caught up by Li Shi and could not pull away.
Worthy of being one of the most competent bodyguards under Zhang Zhenshan, Li Shi kept in mind the order to protect young master’s life which his master had given him when he had been about to leave. He did not even take a look at Du Xin, who had fallen down behind him, and was not frightened at all by Bai Yunfei’s lightning-fast killing blow either. With nothing but a solemn expression in his eyes, he caught up with Bai Yunfei in an acceleration. Brandishing his long saber, he surrounded the enemy in a sphere of saber blurs.
Only upon seeing that the intruder had finally got entangled in a fight with Li Shi did Zhang Yang let out a sigh of relief and abandon the idea of running away. However, instead of charging up immediately to fight the enemy together with Li Shi, he backed off and watched the fight between the two of them.
After staring at Bai Yunfei for a while, he pondered in his mind: “I always feel that he leaves me with a slight impression, but I can’t remember who he actually is. Seeing as he obviously came here for me, does he want to kill me? But except for the several flying daggers he shot out earlier, now he doesn’t even have a weapon in his hands. This is too illogical. Is he not good at using weapons? He only relies on close-quarters hand-to-hand combat? Oh? Is that soft armor on his body… a soul item?!”
In the courtyard, Bai Yunfei was dodging left and right. Even though he had been hit by the long saber, he did not seem to be injured at all. His clothes had been lacerated, revealing a soft armor which was slightly sparkling with a golden light.
Relying on the defense of the soft armor, he wanted to force his way up to Li Shi’s face and fight him in hand-to-hand combat. As someone with obviously a very great deal of combat experience, how could Li Shi possibly let the opponent achieve this? Saber blurs flying everywhere, the large saber was unexpectedly used as nimbly as a dagger by him. The sharp blade of the saber always surrounded Bai Yunfei’s entire body, giving him no chance to break away.
After dogfighting for about ten minutes, the two of them seemed unable to do anything to each other and were still locked in a close battle.
Standing on one side, Zhang Yang was staring at Bai Yunfei with almost glowing eyes. Or rather, he was staring at the golden soft armor on his body with a hint of pleasant surprise and greediness on his face.
“That soft armor on his body is a soul item! It’s definitely a soul item! A defensive soul item… Who could have expected this? No wonder he seemed very confident earlier. Indeed, Li Shi’s weapon simply can’t break that soft armor. But, it’s not like your whole body is covered in defensive soul items! You can deal with the attacks from Li Shi alone, but you’ve forgotten that I’m here!” He said ecstatically in his mind: “It seems he’s alone and he isn’t hiding his power. He’s really just a late Soul Personage like Li Shi. Then, this soul item… will be mine!”
Having made his decision, Zhang Yang no longer hesitated. He reached out his hand, drawing a dagger from his waist, and flew into the battlefield while shouting loudly: “Li Shi, keep him entangled! I’ll deal him a fatal blow!”
This move by Zhang Yang made the expressions of the two current combatants change: Li Shi’s face showed a pleasant surprise while Bai Yunfei’s face seemed to show some anxiety… and terror.
Seeing the expression on Bai Yunfei’s face, Zhang Yang gave a complacent guffaw, saying: “Now you know how tough we are, right? You can only blame yourself for overestimating your power, bringing about your own destruction! You’ll pay for this with your own life, and even give me a soul item!”
While shouting, taking advantage of an opportunity created when Bai Yunfei lowered his body to dodge a saber strike from Li Shi, he swung his dagger and thrust it straight at the back of his head!
Bai Yunfei did a roll and avoided this attack with some difficulty. However, this roll happened to make him end up at a place behind Li Shi on the left hand side. Now the three of them were almost on a straight line with Li Shi ending up between Bai Yunfei and Zhang Yang.
Expressionlessly, Li Shi turned around, charged at Bai Yunfei, who had yet to stand up completely, and brought his saber down on him in a hack. He knew that the opponent could withstand this blow head-on using the soft armor, but even if he could not injure him, he could make the opponent lose his balance with force, making it impossible for him to maintain his fighting rhythm. In that way, as long as young master kept waiting for an opportunity on one side, they would be able to kill him very quickly!
Bai Yunfei bent his body slightly. Another hole was cut into the clothes on his back by the long saber, revealing the golden soft armor underneath. But this time, after taking the force of this saber strike, his body only shook slightly once. Unlike before, now he did not lose his balance because he could not absorb the impact of a blow anymore!
Li Shi was raising his long saber, preparing to keep up the pressure. Before he could be startled by Bai Yunfei’s reaction, his eyes came into contact with Bai Yunfei’s eyes, which looked upwards. His face was immediately full of shock.
The moment Bai Yunfei lifted his head, his expression unexpectedly no longer contained the previous anxiety and fear. Even the exhaustion on his face had mostly disappeared. Now, there was only a frosty look in his eyes and a totally stern expression on his face!
Without pausing at all, under Li Shi’s astonished look, he took half a step backwards with his right foot while leaning his body forwards and threw a punch with his right fist, creating brief whizz sounds! He seemed to have been saving this punch for a long time!
Overlapping Waves Art, Threefold Fist Force!
Soft sounds of broken bones were heard. Even though Li Shi strengthened the defense of his body at the last moment, he still could not withstand this focus attack. He retreated hurriedly uncontrollably.
Li Shi spewed out a mouthful of blood. His mind was in a daze for a moment. As soon as he regained his composure, he felt his face hit by a heat wave. An almost dazzling flaming red spear was thrusting straight at him!
Basically unable to avoid the blow completely, at this moment of life or death, Li Shi only had enough time to move aside a little more than one and a half centimeters. At the same time, he put the long saber in front of him, hoping that it could ward off the opponent’s incoming spear thrust.
The spear arrived in the blink of an eye and hit the body of the saber, creating an almost inaudible soft ringing sound. It then pierced through the saber without hindrance and went into the left side of his stomach!
Li Shi had known that it would be impossible to avoid getting injured so he had adopted a defensive measure to minimize the injury. Even though the spear had pierced into his stomach, this wound was not fatal at all to soul cultivators. Any soul cultivator who had learned the bones and blood control of the Soul Personage stage could accelerate the recovery speed of his body.
“It didn’t hit my vital parts! Luckily, I’ve still got a chance…” Li Shi’s delight only appeared in his heart for a moment before being replaced with endless fear.
The moment the tip of the spear pierced through the body of the saber, Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed with an unnoticeable trace of happiness. He roared inside: “Successful! Now time to… Burst!”
“Bang!!” An explosion rang out from the tip of the spear, or perhaps, from inside Li Shi’s body. Blood and flesh splattered around. The entire left side of his stomach had exploded, leaving behind a terrifying gap. The surface of the wound was a burned black area, but red blood still gushed out nonstop from inside the gap.
Li Shi’s hand was still holding one half of his broken saber in front of his chest. His expression was full of terror, bewilderment and disbelief, astonishingly similar to Du Xin’s dying expression. His body gradually fell backwards, revealing Zhang Yang behind him, whose face was similarly full of disbelief.
Zhang Yang was looking forwards with a stupefied expression. He even still maintained the position which he had adopted to prepare to charge up. Only when Li Shi’s body hit the floor with a thud did he wake up, seemingly with a start. He thudded backwards several steps continuously, extending the distance between him and Bai Yunfei. With a distorted face, he shrieked in a terrified manner: “Soul item! Another soul item! And you’ve got an interspatial ring! You were hiding your power! How is this possible? Why in the beginning didn’t you… You did that to stall me!!”
Zhang Yang could also be considered the shrewd type. He had reacted almost in an instant. Only, after understanding all this, he was even more terrified inside.