"Yu, are you okay?"
Shen Ruyun ran upstairs and found Su Yu leaning against a corner by himself, the stench of blood wafting off him. The sight gave her a fright.
She hurried to his side and checked his breathing. It was strong and steady. Shen Ruyun let out a slow sigh of relief, then turned her head and saw several headless corpses.
Only then did she realize the blood on Su Yu wasn’t his own.
Not far from the door and by the windows lay more mangled bodies. They each had only a single, perfectly clean wound. This ant the gap in strength between the combatants was imnse; the deceased had been killed in a single strike with barely a chance to fight back.
"These people... are all core Priests of the Spiritual Sect."
Liu Ming, Wang Yu, and Bailan—who was wearing a hospital gown—entered one after another. Wang Yu held a small booklet, checking it against each body before speaking with certainty.
They all had various injuries, clear evidence they had fought their way up from downstairs. Liu Ming asked:
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. This can be classified as the Spiritual Sect’s second major assault. They’ve practically exhausted their entire reserve of Priests. Only one Soul Priest didn’t participate in this attack. The rest of the Priests... all died tragically."
After hearing Wang Yu’s report, Liu Ming slowly walked over to Su Yu and squatted down. He then asked:
"Yu, how are you holding up?"
"Of course, Brother Ming. I wasn’t injured this ti."
Su Yu grinned. He was indeed uninjured. It had been a complete slaughter-fest by his older brother. Su Yu, already wounded, had just been lying on the cold floor, which had made his complexion look rather poor.
"That’s good."
Knowing Su Yu was already injured, Liu Ming took off his own jacket and draped it over him. "Can you tell what happened here?" he asked.
Liu Ming gestured at the blood-soaked floor and the five headless corpses.
Su Yu nodded. Coughing and stumbling over his words, he gave a rough account of what happened, carefully avoiding any ntion of his older brother.
While he had been lying there, he had already composed a story in his head. The plan was simple: mindlessly bla it all on a mysterious expert. Since his brother was, in fact, a mysterious expert, he wasn’t technically lying to his teammates. Who they ended up suspecting was none of his business.
After listening to Su Yu’s description, Liu Ming rested his right hand on his chin and fell into deep thought.
The mysterious expert had struck again. They had previously determined that the expert was the Sword Hall Master, but the Master had vanished without a trace. Logically, he shouldn’t have had the opportunity to act.
This ant the organization’s assessnt of the mysterious expert’s identity had been wrong from the very beginning.
So who was the mysterious expert?
And what was the Sword Hall Master’s true identity?
Liu Ming’s brows furrowed slightly. One thing after another piled up, leaving him feeling frustrated.
"Yu, where’s your brother?"
Bailan, who had been standing in the back, asked with a slight cough.
She rembered telling Su Xing about Su Yu right before the Spiritual Sect’s attack. If an ordinary person were caught up in such a dangerous situation, it was all too likely that sothing terrible could happen.
At this thought, her already pale face seed to turn even paler.
"Oh?"
"Is Su Yu’s older brother soone special?"
Liu Chang, who had been lurking in the shadows at the back, suddenly spoke up, making Bailan and the others jump. They had clearly been startled. They turned to look at Liu Chang behind them, a hint of confusion in their eyes, as if to ask, ’Who is this guy?’
"Big Bro... why did you suddenly co up here?"
Liu Ming glanced helplessly at the sunglasses-wearing Liu Chang.
Hearing what Liu Ming called him, the others exchanged glances. Everyone in the organization had heard that Liu Ming had a genius older brother. Blessed with imnse talent, he loved to fight strong opponents and was constantly pestering Li Yu.
If Li Yu hadn’t broken through to the fourth rank one step ahead of him, he would have been pestered to death.
"Sigh. I thought that guy wouldn’t be able to handle so many Priests and I’d have to step in. Didn’t expect I’d be the one to misjudge the situation."
Liu Chang sighed and continued:
"Anyway, back to the point. You still haven’t told who Su Yu’s brother is."
He had been in seclusion recently, consolidating his power, and had finally broken through to the fourth rank. He was originally planning to go find Li Yu for another "spar" when he received a call for help from his younger brother.
He had only started getting familiar with the situation in the south a few days ago, so he really didn’t know who Su Yu’s brother was. But for Bailan to bring him up in a situation like this... could he be the expert?
"Um... he’s just an ordinary person."
Bailan stamred, "I told him that Su Yu was hospitalized here. I was worried he might have been caught up in the attack, so I was just asking."
When Liu Chang heard that Su Xing was an ordinary person, he imdiately lost interest. He turned away to ticulously examine the wounds on the corpses, ignoring their conversation.
Su Yu smiled and said, "Sister Lan, don’t worry. My brother went back a long ti ago."
Bailan let out a breath. "Whew, that’s good."
"Alright, since everything’s fine, you all should hurry up and recuperate. The day we leave for the Capital City is getting closer, so you need to be prepared."
"You all head back first. I’ll handle the rest."
"Also... Wang Yu, we found the term ’Spirit Realm’ in the materials we confiscated from the Spiritual Sect. I need you to figure out what it is."
"..."
Wang Yu, who had thought she could finally rest, sighed at Liu Ming’s words and replied, "Yes, sir."
Liu Ming noticed her fatigue and comforted her, "Don’t worry. After we get to the Capital City, you’ll have several months of vacation. No one will be giving you any more assignnts."
After a shuffle of footsteps, the mbers of the organization finally left the rooftop of the hospital wing. Only the two brothers, Liu Ming and Liu Chang, remained. Liu Ming glanced at Liu Chang, who was still staring blankly at the corpses, and called out:
"Big Bro, it’s ti to go."
"Oh."
Liu Chang stood up reluctantly, an unconscious smile touching the corners of his lips. He could feel his blood seemingly on fire, his heart thumping with a warlike rhythm.
It had been a long ti since he’d felt this excited. He had originally co to the south just to help his little brother, and then maybe have a match with Su Yu once he grew to the fourth rank. But now... it seed he had found a much stronger opponent.
’This guy is probably even stronger than Li Yu was at the third rank, right?’
’If I get the chance, I really want to fight him. It would be fucking aweso!’
...
Sword Hall, a room.
Su Xing was leaning against a pillow, staring blankly at the ceiling. In his field of vision, a progress bar was slowly filling up, having only just reached the one-third mark.
Based on a rough estimate of its fill rate, it would take at least two to three days for the progress bar to complete.
Until it was full, his Sword Dao Points seed to be locked. The status just read "Calculating," and he couldn’t see or use them.
This made Su Xing itch with anticipation,
as if countless little bugs were crawling over his heart.
His expectations for this harvest were practically overflowing. He wished the progress bar would just fill up in the next second so he could see how many Sword Dao Points he had earned.
After a long while, he finally cald his mind.
Lying in bed, he recalled the move he had used. Myriad Sword Convergence was indeed as powerful as he had imagined. A single sword strike had instantly killed five Priests. It was far stronger than "White Line Slash."
For so reason, however, Su Xing could only materialize a single longsword. He couldn’t, as the "Myriad" part of the skill’s na suggested, surround himself with thousands or tens of thousands of swords and control them at will.
Su Xing figured it was because the skill was only Lv. 1. It would naturally change once he raised its level. But the thought of allocating points...
Su Xing was again troubled by a dilemma: which skill should he prioritize leveling up—"Myriad Sword Convergence," "Mortal Sword," or "Blade Stance"?
After thinking it over, Su Xing ultimately decided to stick with his old plan: first, put points into "Mortal Sword."
This was because the improvents from "Mortal Sword" were the most comprehensive. Previously, every level-up of "Sword Breathing" had strengthened both "White Line Slash" and "Sword-Drawing Stance." In contrast, putting points into the other two skills would only enhance those specific skills. Without a doubt, upgrading "Mortal Sword" was the most logical choice.
With that thought,
Su Xing closed his eyes.
He had to replenish the energy he had spent throughout the day.
...
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