Niao Ni
Chapter 368: Heavenly Maiden Scattering Blossoms
Xia Qifei left Jiangnan Residence and came to the street, looking at the people passing by in the night. He couldn't help but lower his head slightly, seemingly lost in thought.
"Boss." A dozen burly men surrounded him outside the building, looking at him with a mixture of awe and unfamiliarity, bowing respectfully.
These men were all skilled fighters from the Jiangnan Water Camp. Because of the Internal Treasury bidding, they had followed Xia Qifei into Suzhou City. However, Suzhou City was always heavily guarded, and some of these water bandits even had their faces on wanted posters. So, normally, they wouldn't enter Suzhou City.
These men hadn't expected that now, they, as thieves, could not only stroll openly in Suzhou City but also that their leader could sit at the same table with the wealthiest merchant families in Jiangnan. Those merchants usually only used silver to buy the lives of the brothers to fight, how could they be so polite to Brother Xia as they were today?
Thinking of this, a feeling of vanity and pride rose in the hearts of these men. This world was indeed different from before.
Looking at the complex expressions of panic, joy, and confusion on his subordinates' faces, Xia Qifei couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly and said, "Brothers, you must learn more. You've all seen those gentlemen this time. When you have free time, please ask those gentlemen for guidance."
The "gentlemen" he was referring to were the old officials from the Ministry of Revenue whom the Imperial Envoy Fan Xian had sent to help him win the bid. The Jiangnan Water Camp was gradually developing into a merchant firm, and Xia Qifei also hoped that his trusted subordinates could quickly master the skills of doing business. At least, they should be able to do accounting.
Amidst the harmonious atmosphere, Xia Qifei suddenly felt a chill.
He looked up, and the bright moon hung in the azure night sky. It was still spring, and the night after a clear sunny day was indeed colder.
He withdrew his gaze and saw three strange people standing across the street.
The reason they were strange was that they had appeared so abruptly and were staring coldly at this side of the street. They weren't returning travelers, nor were they pleasure-seeking revelers. Their clothes were ordinary, but the person in the middle was wearing a bamboo hat, which seemed rather peculiar on such a night.
Having mingled in the Jianghu for many years and struggled for survival since childhood, Xia Qifei didn't even have time to react. The chill in his bones, the instinct for danger, made his eyes shoot out a cold light. With a strange cry, he tapped the ground three times with his toes, and his whole body floated towards the entrance of Jiangnan Residence!
As his toes touched the ground, the person in the middle of the three across the street placed a hand behind his shoulder, under the bamboo hat, and grasped something.
Then, a snow-like torrent of saber light cascaded down, chasing after Xia Qifei's body, which was as light as a water bird treading on water, and slashed down!
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"Kill!"
As the saber light arose, the Jiangnan Water Camp men also reacted. Relying on their inherent bravery, they wanted to block between their boss and the soul-reaping saber light. However, their reactions could never match the speed of the bamboo-hatted man's saber light. Only the closest confidant to Xia Qifei shouted wildly, drew the straight knife hidden in his clothes, channeled his strength into his arms, and blocked with all his might!
With a crisp sound, the straight knife in the water camp man's hand was cut in half like a tender Jiangnan lotus root.
With a whoosh, the man's body was split in two by that extremely violent saber strike, turning into two terrifying pieces of flesh and blood. Fresh blood splattered, and internal organs spilled all over the ground—the two severed hands were still holding the hilt and tip of the knife, defending weakly and tragically!
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The saber's momentum didn't stop and had already reached the front of Jiangnan Residence, before Xia Qifei, whose toes had just landed on the ground.
The saber energy was like a straight line, splitting people and the ground it encountered, tearing open the bluestone pavement on the street, revealing the fresh stone beneath!
With a loud bang, rubble flew around in front of Jiangnan Residence, and dust rose. Xia Qifei shouted violently, blocking with both palms, confronting the unwavering saber momentum.
The saber light suddenly converged, and the dust gradually settled.
Xia Qifei's nostrils were shaken and bled, his palms trembled as he defended in front of his body, looking at the bamboo-hatted man across the street with a face full of horror.
This saber strike had been delivered across a long street, splitting a person's body in the middle and injuring him internally. What a terrifying realm this was! He must be a Ninth-Rank master! Where in Jiangnan was there such an unfamiliar top expert?
One saber, violent, unreasonable, cutting through the night sky. Only now did the crowd clearly see the person wearing the bamboo hat.
The bamboo-hatted man was tall, exuding an air of severity. He held a long saber in his hand, its blade gleaming like snow. The handle was extremely long; it was a long saber that was usually only seen on the stage or on the battlefield. This saber was fully eight feet long. How had the opponent managed to conceal it behind his back earlier!
All this had happened in the blink of an eye. Xia Qifei only blinked after desperately blocking this saber strike.
With one blink, he realized things were a bit frightening—because the two people beside the bamboo-hatted man had disappeared without a trace, not knowing where they had gone.
Since the opponent had come to kill him, those two definitely wouldn't remain idle.
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In fact, just as the bamboo-hatted man drew the long saber from behind his back and hacked over mightily across the street, the other two experts beside him had already soared into the air, avoiding the Jiangnan Water Camp men in the middle of the street. Their figures glided out in two extremely graceful arcs, like two dark arrows, piercing towards where Xia Qifei was.
With the long saber cleaving mountains and opening paths, hidden by the momentum of two swallows flying together to kill, if nothing unexpected happened, the startled Xia Qifei should have already died at that moment.
The reason he didn't die was that when Xia Qifei barely managed to block that saber strike, a new change had appeared on the long street.
When the Jiangnan Water Camp men moved forward to block in front of Xia Qifei, four of these men very strangely shifted to both sides. Then, when the two experts who were rapidly passing by like swallows wanted to slip past from both sides, these four men flipped their hands, took out the iron skewers from under their robes, and stabbed horizontally!
A very clean, simple, and decisive stab, but it landed precisely on the chests, abdomens, and lower parts of those two experts, forcing them to avoid it.
These four men were naturally the assassins from the Sixth Bureau whom Fan Xian had hastily sent over tonight.
The level of the Sixth Bureau's assassins might not be as high as the three top experts who had come to kill tonight, but they possessed a natural keenness in their judgment of the situation and the possible routes the opponents might choose to take.
So, they blocked the two swallows who intended to join forces to kill.
Clang clang clang clang, in just an instant, countless soft, crisp sounds rang out on the street in front of Jiangnan Residence, dense and continuous, seemingly never ending, like a sudden hailstorm in this bright and beautiful Suzhou City.
The two experts like swallows held two short swords in their hands, poisoned and gleaming eerily in the night.
The four assassin swordsmen from the Sixth Bureau held iron skewers in their hands, also poisoned, and blending into the night.
After a moment, several muffled groans seemed to sound simultaneously.
The two experts who had come to kill Xia Qifei despondently retreated to the opposite side of the street, their clothes slashed in a dozen places by the iron skewers. Some of the cuts were deep, seemingly piercing the skin.
And the Sixth Bureau also paid a terrible price for this. One person's left hand had been cleanly severed, exposing the bone inside, while another had been stabbed in the shoulder, and a strange color began to appear in the blood. And one person had already fallen in a pool of blood!
As soon as the two sides met, they suffered irreparable losses. No one knew what dangers had been encountered in those delicate, clanging sounds.
Even after suffering such heavy injuries, the Sixth Bureau assassins only let out two muffled groans at most, their wills firm and unyielding, far beyond what ordinary Jianghu people could compare to. The three who could still move were eating the antidote pills prepared by the Third Bureau while trying to retreat and narrow the defensive circle, determined to protect Xia Qifei's life.
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The two swallows who had retreated to the opposite side of the street also seemed to have not expected that there would be such a group of professional assassins beside Xia Qifei, even causing them to suffer no small amount of harm.
The two exchanged glances, knowing that their opponents must be from the Monitoring Office. Regardless of which faction they belonged to, everyone knew the terrifying level of the Monitoring Office's poisons. The poisons personally managed by Mr. Fei Jie could not be resisted by just anyone.
So, the two turned around cleanly, tapped their toes on the wall, and disappeared into the night sky, gone in an instant.
They were all true experts and assassins of the Jiangnan Martial World. They had come today to kill Xia Qifei, but they were unwilling to sacrifice their precious lives here.
From a distant alley in the night, a soft sound came.
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Two of the three experts across the street had left, but Xia Qifei felt that his situation had not improved at all. The pressure he was under was even greater—because that saber, that long saber only seen on the stage, had already struck again while that dense, clanging battle on both sides was taking place.
No one could withstand the saber's edge; no ghost under the saber had a complete corpse.
The snow-like saber light dismembered, separated, and beheaded those brave and respectable water camp men, cutting out a bloody path. Amidst the flying limbs and blood, it was getting closer and closer to Xia Qifei.
Watching his brothers die tragically on the long street, listening to the frightening saber sounds and screams, smelling the strong smell of blood, watching the bamboo-hatted man walking resolutely and persistently, covered in blood, that man walked with such determination and persistence, like a demon.
Xia Qifei's heart turned cold, but his blood turned hot. His eyes were about to split, and he wanted to rush forward, block in front of his brothers, and have a grand and passionate battle with this bamboo-hatted expert, even if he died under the saber, so what?
But he couldn't move. He retreated, sadly but resolutely, towards Jiangnan Residence.
Because he knew that the opponent's goal was to kill him, and his name, this person, was very useful. If he wanted revenge, to make the enemy unable to eat or sleep, he...must live on! Even if it meant living on so disgracefully!
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The bamboo-hatted man was only five steps away from Xia Qifei.
The three wounded swordsmen from the Sixth Bureau finally returned to the rescue, but their injured bodies could not withstand the bamboo-hatted expert's earth-shattering saber momentum. The iron skewers broke into several pieces, and all three were sent flying.
Jiangnan Residence was right in front of him.
Xia Qifei fled up the steps.
The waiters and diners at the entrance of the building screamed in panic, but they seemed to be enchanted, their minds shocked by this bloody and terrifying scene. Their legs were weak, and they seemed unable to move.
The bamboo-hatted expert was still five steps away from the stone steps when he struck with his saber. The saber's momentum was directed at Xia Qifei's extremely disheveled back!
A waiter who seemed to have been frightened, was now trembling while holding onto a beautiful pillar of Jiangnan Residence, and then for some reason, he shook out an iron skewer and stabbed fiercely towards the bamboo-hatted expert's inner thigh!
The bamboo-hatted expert was tall and imposing. This hidden Sixth Bureau assassin didn't have the confidence to attack where the enemy would surely defend, to strike a vital point before the saber could split Xia Qifei's body, so he chose the inner thigh.
No one expected that the bamboo-hatted expert would act as if he hadn't seen this stab and continue to swing his saber downward.
With a clang, the iron skewer struck the man's inner thigh, but it felt as if it had hit an iron plate!
The Sixth Bureau assassin's heart turned cold, knowing that this was a kind of foolish and clumsy Kung Fu that no one in Jianghu practiced anymore - Iron Shirt.
But since the opponent had practiced it, and didn't avoid it at all, it meant that the opponent had foolishly spent decades of hard training, abandoning all pleasures of the flesh, and had brought this Kung Fu to its extreme.
This Sixth Bureau assassin knew that he couldn't block this saber strike, but Supervisor's order was that he must protect Xia Qifei's life, so he flew sideways, fearlessly jumping towards the bamboo-hatted expert's head. While in mid-air, he drew a small dagger from his boot and stabbed fiercely towards the eyes that had been covered by the bamboo hat.
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At this time, the bamboo-hatted expert's saber was less than a foot away from Xia Qifei's back, and two iron skewers reappeared tirelessly.
A total of seven Sixth Bureau swordsmen had been sent by Fan Xian to protect Xia Qifei. Five had already appeared earlier. The last two, who had remained silent, were originally preparing to attack where the enemy would surely defend, like the leader earlier, to save Xia Qifei's life.
But when they discovered that the opponent had an extremely freakish horizontal training Kung Fu, they knew that that method wouldn't work, and the saber was already here, so they had no choice but to forcibly clash with the opponent.
With two extremely harsh sounds, the two iron skewers didn't break, but were shaken loose.
Taking advantage of this block, Xia Qifei pounced forward like a poor puppy, dodging this saber strike very dangerously.
The saber light landed, directly splitting open a large gash in the stone steps of Jiangnan Residence!
Xia Qifei spat out a mouthful of blood. He had been locked onto by this expert's Qi, and the force of the saber had hit him, making him suffer the heaviest internal injuries.
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, his face, while lying on the ground, was still vicious. His right hand reached out from under his left armpit with incredible speed and triggered the crossbow arrow hidden in his sleeve.
This was something that the Imperial Envoy had given him to defend himself.
As the crossbow arrow shot out, the Sixth Bureau swordsman had also pounced in front of the bamboo-hatted expert!
The bamboo-hatted expert's long saber couldn't be retracted in time, so he punched horizontally with his left fist, sending the swordsman flying out with a loud bang. In doing so, he had exposed an opening in front of his face.
The thin crossbow arrow shot towards the front of the bamboo hat. This person finally showed a trace of normal reaction, tilting his head back slightly. It seemed that even with a body full of domineering Kung Fu, his face was still a vulnerable spot.
The arrow shot through the air, deeply embedding itself into the upper edge of the bamboo hat!
The bamboo hat was tied with a string, so it wasn't blown away by this crossbow arrow. Therefore, this mysterious Ninth-Rank expert's true face was still not revealed to the crowd.
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A soft sound, but not crisp, with a slight bang, like children playing with firecrackers, or the crackling of burning wet firewood.
The crossbow arrow embedded in the upper edge of the bamboo hat...exploded!
A flash of fire passed, and the bamboo-hatted expert's head instantly produced a cloud of smoke, looking extremely bizarre.
Although the Third Bureau's modification still couldn't unleash the true power of gunpowder, and the burning force wasn't strong enough, it still burned the bamboo hat cleanly in an instant.
The bamboo-hatted expert held the long saber, his feet in a neither-here-nor-there stance, silently standing in front of Jiangnan Residence, his face black, with terrifying blisters in the middle, his eyes tightly closed, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes, a burst of rage flashing in them.
This mysterious expert was still not dead.
But what shocked everyone was not that this person had survived such an attack, because with the opponent's strength, he was not so easy to kill in the first place. What shocked Xia Qifei and the Monitoring Office even more was...this expert who had been wearing a bamboo hat...was actually bald!
The current world emphasized filial piety, the so-called "our body, hair, and skin are received from our parents," no one would cut their hair indiscriminately, let alone shave their heads. The only people in this world who were allowed to walk around with shaved heads...were ascetics.
Ascetics who believed in the Temple.
And everyone knew that ascetics had always loved and cherished the people, and never became involved in worldly disputes...why was it that today, this extremely powerful ascetic had come to kill Xia Qifei?
There was no time to think about this shocking question, because this ascetic raised the terrifying long saber again, grunted, held the saber with both hands, and slashed towards Xia Qifei on the steps, with the force of a mad tiger, impossible to stop!
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Impossible to stop with a thousand troops, but a single flower could stop it.
The desperate crowd on the stone steps only felt a gust of clear wind pass by, and a sea of flowers bloomed before their eyes, instantly dispelling the bloody smell on the long street in front of the restaurant, with fragrant blossoms that were refreshing.
A pair of steady and gentle hands, carrying a basket of cheap silk flowers bought from Wuzhou, met the sharp edge of that unwavering long saber.
The saber came extremely fast, and the hands moved even faster. Somehow, the flower basket was already hanging on that long saber in the next moment.
The saber's momentum was extremely fierce, and the flower basket was extremely light, but when the flower basket hung lightly on the tip of the saber, the long saber, which had been steadily frightening, trembled involuntarily and drooped down, as if the flower basket was incredibly heavy!
The saber's momentum stopped, and the ascetic holding the saber shouted violently, the true Qi in his arms bursting forth, lifting the saber like lifting Great Dongshan!
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With a rustling sound, the flower basket finally couldn't withstand the resistance of such astonishing true Qi from both sides, and it was shattered by the saber tip. The rattan flower basket was slowly drawn, shattered into countless fragments, and shot out, hitting the ground with a cracking sound in that moment of seemingly paused time.
The silk flowers in the basket were blown up by the strong wind and fluttered up, adorning the long street that was already like a Shura field.
In the rain of petals, the girl in the floral cotton jacket, like a gust of wind, gently and softly attacked the ascetic along the trembling long saber.
The ascetic struck with his palm, the palm wind like a knife, but it couldn't stop the other person's swaying figure.
After a moment, those gentle hands lightly slapped the saber handle, then flicked their fingers out, stabbing directly at the edge of the ascetic's giant palm.
The ascetic cried out strangely, and a strange red color formed by the agitation of true Qi appeared on his burned face. His whole body retreated like a large bird.
In one exchange, this god of slaughter-like ascetic was repelled.
At this time, the rain of flowers was still falling, contrasting with the bright moon in the blue night sky above Suzhou City, looking particularly beautiful.
The petals fell one after another. The Haitang girl stood calmly in the rain of petals, not pursuing, but looking at the ascetic across from her with a slight trace of melancholy.
A village girl, occasionally had the most beautiful moment.
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"Second Sacrificial Priest of Qing Temple, why are you here?" Haitang said with a face full of melancholy.
The ascetic looked at her, recognized her identity, and shouted sharply, "Haitang Duoduo! Why are you here?"
Haitang lowered her head slightly and said softly, "I am with Fan Xian."
The ascetic was stunned, seemingly not expecting that Haitang, with her identity as the successor of Tianyi Dao and the Holy Maiden of Northern Qi, would say this reason so easily.
"Today I want to kill someone, don't stop me." The ascetic said coldly, looking at her.
Haitang frowned slightly, looking at the people who had died above and below the stone steps of Jiangnan Residence, the dismembered limbs in the center of the long street, the pungent blood, and said softly, "You have killed enough people tonight, don't kill anymore."
It was not a request, nor was it a persuasion. Since Fan Xian was worried about Xia Qifei's side, he had the spur-of-the-moment idea to have Haitang come over and take a look, which represented absolute trust in Haitang. And as long as Haitang was here, except for the legendary four old immortals, no one could kill anyone as long as she said not to kill.
Although the ascetic was badly burned, one could still see a trace of perseverance on his face. He looked at Haitang with a strange look, then turned around and left.
Leaving didn't require a path. This ascetic broke through a courtyard wall beside the street very directly. With a booming sound, a large hole was broken in the wall, and his figure disappeared into this hole.
A rain of flowers fell, and Haitang was silent. Then, she floated lightly and went behind the courtyard wall.