58 A Battle of Two Persons (1/2)
Chapter 58: A Battle of Two Persons
Translator: TransnEditor: Transn
Chao Xiaoshu's sword transformed into five sword blades.
Three sword blades buzzed as they evaded the copper bowl and shot towards the sadhu. The remaining two sword blades did not return back to protect Old Chao, and instead, completely ignoring the robed swordsman's cyan-light short sword, and sharply tilted to stab right towards him!
Even though it was a battle between cultivators, this middle-aged man in indigo robe was still concentrating on what was the motto of Chang'an Jianghu world, ” If you kill me, you'll also die. I've been cultivating in Chang’an Jianghu world for many years, so I don't fear death or anything else. While you've cultivated under the wing of famous masters for many years, don't you fear death? ”
The robed swordsman feared death. With a slightly pale face, he combined two fingers as one sword to strike, forcefully recalling the cyan-light short sword that had firmly flown out half way. At this most dangerous moment, it struck two sword blades attacking towards his eyes. But this movement made his right hand slightly tremble and blue veins on the back of his white hand visible.
That sadhu nearby, heavily concentrating on those three sword blades attacking him, had found it too late to recall that heavy copper bowl to protect him. When he clumsily shouted a vague word, the prayer beads hanging between his thumb and forefinger started to hover in the air and whizzed as it rotated around his body. Only a series of flames were visible around and no one knew how many times they have collided with the unexpected three sword blades!
The shadow of the sword arrived, piercing through the air, and the copper bowl rose with water. The cyan-light short sword pierced straight towards the mansion entrance. Finally the dull gray shadow of sword became five sword blades, the cyan-light short sword fled backwards like lightning, and the prayer beads floated to guard the body. Each section contained a terrifying danger. The three strongmen would die with spilling blood as long as there was a single mistake among them.
In the world of the strong, the scale of time was fundamentally different. What seemed like a complicated, dangerous and long course was only a very short instant in real life. In fact, at that moment, the water spilling over from that copper bowl was still transforming into splashes of glazed tiles in the air that had not ever fallen on the floor. Rain continued to fall slowly. The elite troop of Tang with crossbows did not have any reaction at all.
Rat-tat! Rat-a-tat!
The elite troop of Tang reacted as soon as possible, quickly pushing the trigger to make tens of arrows carrying the powerful wind-ripping force shoot towards the mansion entrance. At this moment, those five sword blades were fighting with two cultivators inside Rain-enjoying Building. Chao Xiaoshu had no ability to protect himself and could only watch the crossbow arrows rush towards him, on the verge of turning him into a sick facsimile of a hedgehog.
And just in this instant, when the crossbow arrows were about to hit Chao Xiaoshu, one shiny, snow-bright blade light shone in the courtyard, making layers of the rain visible and sucked in all the densely-packed crossbow arrows!
With the boots struck in watery puddles before Chao Mansion's main entrance, like nails chiseling into the ground, and two hands firmly gripping onto the hilt like steel, Ning Que circled to the front of Chao Xiaoshu, tightening and relaxing the muscles of his wrist and forearm at a speed difficult to imagine. He drove that snow-bright podao swiftly swiveling around the wrist, which changed into a silvery circular shield to illuminate the old black mask on his face and batted those densely-packed crossbow arrows away.
”Bang, bang”, a tinkling shattering sound was heard before the two as numerous crossbow arrows were batted away by the powerful blade. They flew in all directions at a high speed, sticking into the signboard of Chao Mansion, which later gave out a flurry of thudding sounds.
Tens of crossbow arrows fell unexpectedly like rapid rain. Even though he had good podao techniques, Ning Que could not completely block them. But at this moment, with shrank pupils and a sharp sight like an eagle flying in the open sky of a grassland, he saw all the details before him and kept the state of mind as calm as an eagle, relying on his senses to intercept the shooting angles of crossbow arrows. He waved his podao only at the arrows that might injure himself and Chao Xiaoshu, ignoring the rest.
In this instant, this lad, who had gone through countless struggles of life and death, perfectly presented a polished sensitivity to danger and good judgement polished by the terrors he had gone through. Those crossbow arrows that seemed to be especially dangerous brushed past his earlobe, penetrating through his robe fiercely and piercing into rain-soaked blue flagstone cracks without causing any harm to him.
”Attack!” The leader of the elite troop of Tang yelled sternly.
Following the order, the elite troop of Tang that had fired one round of crossbow arrows split into two groups. One group quickly pulled the springs and set arrows, while the other group of more than ten soldiers silently drew the steel blades at their waists and came charging at Chao Mansion's main entrance.
Clump! Clump! Clump! Clump! A Tang elite soldier trod repeatedly on the wet ground with two feet, as if they were following the last round of crossbow arrows. Before getting to the main entrance, he howled once and wielded a blade with his two hands before leaping up high, hacking down towards Ning Que's head with an irresistible force.
The two eyes showing from the black mask lowered slightly. Ning Que looked at the wet ground in front, as though not seeing the ferocious strike about to land, but only flicked his wrist to turn his podao's edge into a white brightness, hacking at the last two crossbow arrows precisely. Then... the podao's gleam suddenly disappeared.