Chapter 287: The Third Blade (1/2)

[Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict]

The young man’s hands had been bent into odd angles. He could no longer speak clearly and was only capable of rolling on the ground while crying out in misery.

The group at the entrance of the alleyway witnessed this scene and were immediately upset.

Their leader, a thin man in brightly colored clothing, roared angrily, “You dare touch someone from our big blade gang! Everyone, attack! Chop him up!”

The group of thugs drew their machetes, flocked toward Qianye, and covered him with slashes. Their machetes were all of the same style—over half a meter long with a thick back and a straight edge. This kind of weight and sharpness was enough to lop off one’s head with a single slash.

The thugs wore sinister expressions and had apparently exerted lethal force behind their blows as numerous machetes whistled toward Qianye. It almost seemed as if they couldn’t wait to hack him into several pieces.

Qianye responded with relative ease. With a slight shift of his body, he had passed through the gap between two machetes and grabbed the skinny leader. Then, with a full swing of his arms, he sent the man directly into the wall on one side of the alley.

With a muffled bang, a human-shaped defect appeared in the red brick wall wherein the skinny man was completely embedded—he had been knocked out cold.

At the same time, Qianye stepped sideways and kicked an incoming thug flying over ten meters away. Afterwards, he performed a backhand slap which sent another hooligan into the air. He spun several times before falling back to the ground with a mixture of teeth and fresh blood splashing onto the nearby wall.

In the blink of an eye, only one was left from the group of thugs. This burly man was also one of the most ruthless in his attacks. It was just that despite going all out with his slashes, the man had failed to even touch the corners of Qianye’s clothes. The latter casually grabbed onto the burly man’s wrist—with a twist and a push, he easily turned the man’s shank-sized arm around and pushed the machete into his abdomen.

In no time at all, no one in the alley, apart from Qianye, was left standing.

His frown hadn’t dispersed because his instincts were telling him that the matter wasn’t as simple as it seemed on the surface.

Qianye turned around and saw a bald man full of tattoos rushing out from the alleyway behind him. He was surging with killing intent as he aimed a large caliber origin gun at Qianye and pulled the trigger.

The trigger hadn’t even reached its base when Qianye stomped firmly on the ground, sending a wave of vibrations through the ground and toward the burly man’s feet, sending him flying into the air. As for that shot, it had long since blasted toward some other direction.

The bald, burly man slammed heavily onto the ground and even his origin gun had flown out of his hands. Qianye had appeared beside him at some point—his right hand reached out and caught the falling weapon firmly.

The bald, burly man wanted to flip over, but no longer dared to move after realizing that the hot muzzle was pressed against his temple.

His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he begged, “D-Don’t kill me! I’m only following orders. I had no other choice!”

Qianye paid him no heed and gradually raised his head.

A sinister looking man almost two meters in height was walking into the small alleyway at the moment. He opened his jacket to reveal a strong chest filled with black hair and three eye-catching combat blades, one long and two short, hanging at his waist.

The man walked over to a point ten meters from Qianye and said while pointing at himself with his thumb, “Your daddy here is called Ma Zuo. All the brothers in my line of work call me Triblade Ma. However, in the recent years, there aren’t many people left who are qualified to see my third blade.”

Qianye sized up this Triblade Ma—the man’s nine origin nodes lit up radiantly under his True Sight. His aura was exuberant, but the activity of his origin nodes wasn’t uniform. Some were overactive, while others were deficient, and there was even a fair amount of impurities mixed into them.

Apparently, this self-proclaimed Triblade Ma was a rank-nine fighter and one who had stagnated here for a considerable length of time. It was just that his foundation wasn’t optimal, and his origin power was impure despite its abundance, making it difficult for him to advance to champion rank.

Triblade Ma frowned. He felt extremely uneasy before Qianye’s eyes which had suddenly turned a deep blue. It felt as if he had suddenly turned naked from inside out and was being read like a book.

He spat somewhat angrily. Then, he unsheathed his sword and shouted while pointing toward Qianye, “Brat, this can be considered your misfortune. Someone paid me a large sum to take your worthless life. Let go of the bald head and hand over the goods obediently. I promise you a clean death!”

Qianye replied indifferently, “I don’t have a habit of releasing people I plan to kill.”

With that, he immediately pulled the trigger and blasted the man’s brains out with a boom.

“Bald head!!!” Triblade Ma roared madly. His expression turned ashen as he glared at Qianye with flaming eyes. “Well done! It’s been many years since I’ve seen such a reckless brat! It seems I've been so quiet lately that no one remembers Triblade Ma anymore. Little bastard, you can rest assured. After you die, I’ll put in the effort to find your family and have them accompany you. Die, brat!”

Triblade Ma leapt up and immediately rushed toward Qianye. His sword, accompanied by fierce winds, slashed toward Qianye’s head.

Within Qianye’s eyes, he could already see the affected origin power fluctuations even before Triblade Ma’s sword swung down. A ripple had formed before the blade’s edge, clearly denoting the blade’s lethal trajectory.

Qianye immediately performed a sidestep and easily allowed the blade to brush past his body.