Chapter 58 (1/2)
Five swords in the rainy night flew at high speed, sounding sometimes deep and low and sometimes with a sharp whistling cry like some kind of weird instrument, each occupying an empty s.p.a.ce next to Chao XiaoShu and Ning Que’s sides, and unceasingly rotating positions. Five moving brightnesses interlaced all around, making the young branches beaten by the rainwater and the limestone tiles acc.u.mulated with water become completely woven tightly together in the empty s.p.a.ce of the courtyard.
Amidst the rain, sometimes seen and sometimes unseen, the swords flowed gracefully as they flew, at times brus.h.i.+ng against the floor tiles or grazing through, splas.h.i.+ng up a plume of rain; at times cutting out a deep sword mark into the walls, and at times flying over the bodies of those four soldiers that Ning Que slew, adding several b.l.o.o.d.y sword slashes onto bodies of the still not yet dead soldiers. As they were sliced by the sword again they would have a fit of twitching.
Chao XiaoShu and Ning Que both stood within the formless sword net, each streak of the weaving of this net represented a sword tip that couldn’t be blocked, representing death. No matter if it was solid limestone tile, or the wall soaked from the rain, or the corpses of the Tang troops lying on the ground, they had no way of slowing down those streaks one bit, or softening them one bit.
The wind could enter, the rain could enter, the night could enter, but a person could not.
There wasn’t a person that dared to set foot into this formless great net with a range of 30 feet. Even the bravest of the Tang elites, wouldn’t knowingly enter death and still want to forcefully step in. As for the ascetic monk and the long-robed swordsman in the rain-listening pavilion, at the moment their pale faces were impatiently harmonizing their breathing. The copper bowl, prayer beards and the blue light short sword quietly hovered around them.
The long-robed swordsman from Nan Jin looked astonished at Chao XiaoShu amidst the rain, and bitterly he said, “I hadn’t thought that a gang leader from ChangAn City…… was an honorable, top cla.s.s Great Sword Master, even…….. he’s just one step short of entering the Fate Seeker realm. Could this be the Great Tang Empire’s strength and heritage? In that case, you should be very clear, killing you is the thought of your Tang n.o.bles. You can’t win. The n.o.bles have said as long as you surrender, they’ll spare your life.”
Chao XiaoShu raised his left hand, pulling off a green leaf that had unknowingly landed on his lapel, and then raised his head towards the long-robed swordsman and calmly said, “You killed my brother, so whether you surrender or not, you must die.”
The long-robed swordsman was silent and wordless.
The ascetic monk wearing a bamboo rain hat looked at Ning Que beside Chao XiaoShu, looked at the black mask on his face, and looked at his familiar yet slightly strange hair style. Frowning he asked, “Youngster, are you from Yue Lun Kingdom?”
Ning Que returned the ascetic monk with silence, and hadn’t made any response, just that his brows slightly knitted together in his black mask.
Chao XiaoShu, turned his head towards those elite Tang troops on the other side of the courtyard. His eyes gradually becoming coldly stern, in a deep voice he said, “One is a Great Sword Master from Nan Jin, one is an ascetic monk from Yue Lun Kingdom, and you guys….. are soldiers from my Great Tang Dynasty. For those so-called big shots to randomly order, to unexpectedly collude with foreign peoples, that really is disgraceful.”
The leader of those Tang troops slightly lowered his head, apparently not wanting the boundless rain to confuse his eyes, but also seeming a bit ashamed, unable to face Chao XiaoShu’s cold, crus.h.i.+ng gaze.
But all battles that have strong cultivators partic.i.p.ating, inevitably the whole battle is controlled by the cultivators. Ordinary people like Ning Que and those elite Tang troops could only a.s.sist as support from the side, and couldn’t influence the course of the battle. When cultivators fought, their mental strength and most importantly their wear of psychic power was extremely fast. In the situation where there is no way to strike an enemy with an attack, they would typically choose to withdraw the attack and harmonize their breathing. With the previous situation, the Tang troops would use the G.o.d Targetting Crossbow – Chao XiaoShu was worried Ning Que had no way to react, gambling to recall his swords, thus having this simple conversation in the rainy night.
“Let’s end this.”
Chao XiaoShu calmly said these words, then raised his hand and pointed towards the rain-listening pavilion – the realm of his strength was above the ascetic monk of the Yue Lun Kingdom and the swordsman of Nan Jin, so he had the strength and the ability to choose when to fight.
Exactly in this instant.
The five swords within the courtyard weaving back and forth seemed to hear a clear command, their movement trajectories suddenly turned; the whistling suddenly became even more shrill, chi chi splitting open the rainy night, stabbing towards the rain-listening pavilion!
The ascetic monk’s complexion suddenly tightened, his two eyes fully widened. His two hands between his knees began to rapidly change with hand seals, and the copper bowl floating in front of him hummed flying to meet the enemy. The string of metal and wood prayer beads followed flying after, rotating around his body at high speeds.