Fan Xian's eyes showed a hint of surprise as he exclaimed, "Truly worthy of being a disciple of Master Ku He, truly worthy of being a top-tier ninth-rank expert. You neutralized my attack with such ease." His expression was false, but his words held some truth. Fan Xian knew very well that under the tutelage of his cramming instructor, Uncle Wu Zhu, he was no match for this young woman, Haitang.

He took a step back, his face full of determination, and inserted the poisoned dagger into his boot. Extending his right hand, he gestured, "Weapons are no match for you, Miss. Let me experience your martial arts."

Haitang paused slightly, slowly sheathing her sword. The sword she carried was not very long, so the scabbard was hidden within the village girl attire that was completely incongruous with her identity, making it difficult to spot at first.

Fan Xian smiled, cupped his fist in salute, and kicked off the ground with his toes, transforming into a gray dragon as he charged directly towards the young woman's body without any pretense of fairness.

Haitang widened her bright eyes. Since leaving her master, she had challenged countless experts from the Northern Kingdom, but she had never encountered such a reckless, courageous style of fighting like Fan Xian's. Did he not know that with such a foolish charge, she could easily turn the tables with a slight turn?

Her revered teacher had not given her any other tasks, and had specifically instructed her not to cause unnecessary trouble. But when Haitang saw that handsome young man looking down on her so much, she couldn't help but feel her eyes light up. She thought that killing him would also be a good choice.

Then, she slightly rotated her heel, shifting her center of gravity back by two inches.

……

……

In an instant, Fan Xian had already rushed in front of her, delivering a straightforward punch, aiming directly at the bulging chest beneath her floral cloth attire.

When his fist was less than three inches away from Haitang's body, her body bent backward like a willow branch, as if broken in the middle by the force of the fist. Her entire body leaned backward in an incredibly subtle way, using her heel as a pivot, drawing a semicircle. After a moment, she floated behind Fan Xian like a gust of wind, gently raising her right palm to strike the back of Fan Xian's head.

The seemingly simple movement, under the reflection of Fan Xian's speed and the short moment, seemed incredibly exquisite.

And her casual palm strike, like swatting a fly, was so casual, so natural... By natural, it means that to the bystanders, since that light palm had been struck, it would naturally land on the back of Fan Xian's head in the next moment, turning this generation's poetic immortal into a poetic ghost in the underworld.

Unfortunately, she underestimated Fan Xian's reaction speed, his strong physical control, and the domineering true qi within this young man's body.

Therefore, Fan Xian grunted, and the front foot had been deeply stepped into the soft meadow soil! If an ordinary person wanted to stop suddenly in such a high-speed rush, the knee of the right foot would probably shatter into pieces because it could not bear this force, but Fan Xian borrowed the powerful reaction force to suddenly stop.

Without turning his head, he pulled out the dagger from his boot with a *chih* sound and stabbed back from under his armpit in a sinister manner!

The black blade pointed directly at the illusory, as if with a trace of ethereal immortal air palm!

……

……

Haitang frowned, not expecting that the young man in front of her would be so shameless! But there was no panic in her heart. She flicked her finger, and in a flash of lightning, she flicked the side of the black dagger like a poisonous snake. Her palm naturally lifted slightly, and her sleeve made a *chih* sound. Although she avoided the danger of the palm piercing through, she still couldn't deflect Fan Xian's stab that was condensed with domineering true qi.

The basket hanging on her left elbow just so happened to swing over.

The long dagger entered the bamboo basket, and after a series of rattling sounds, it turned into a sky full of broken bamboo chips.

A faint fragrance accompanied by a burst of white smoke quickly dissipated between the two. Haitang frowned again, held her breath, and pointed her toes, wanting to retreat temporarily. Unexpectedly, three crossbow bolts shot silently from the white smoke. By the time she noticed, they were already within a foot of her!

If it were an ordinary ninth-rank master, their breath would be slightly disturbed, and then they would have to hold their breath, inevitably feeling a little depressed in their chest and abdomen. If they suddenly encountered Fan Xian's crossbow shooting skills, it would be difficult to avoid. But Haitang was, after all, the legendary Heavenly Pulse user. She made a cold move, and the floral cloth covering her head opened with a *hua* sound, spreading flat in front of her cheeks, unmoving in the wind, like a block of iron.

With three crisp *dang dang dang* sounds, the three crossbow bolts seemed to have shot on an iron plate, shattering inch by inch, and the floral cloth in Haitang's hand also shattered into several pieces in a decadent manner.

……

……

At this point, Fan Xian's sneak attack completely failed. Haitang slowly drew the short sword from her clothes, expressionless, and threw it with a backhand. The sword was like a bolt of lightning, splitting through the faint poisonous smoke, following a strange trajectory, and instantly killing Fan Xian.

Fan Xian twisted his hands, and the domineering true qi in his body rushed out. With a *pa* sound, he caught the short sword in his palms, only to feel a burning pain in his palms. He knew that the other party's pure true qi was still attached to the sword, incomparably sharp.

A shadow floated over, Haitang's figure was no slower than the flying sword. Then she arrived on Fan Xian's body, grasped the hilt of the sword extremely calmly, and twisted it gently.

The blade was incredibly sharp, and it was about to cut Fan Xian's palms.

Fan Xian grunted, his true qi moved to his palms, so that Haitang's blade could not reverse. Haitang raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly a little surprised by the domineering true qi from the sword, but she did not have any extra action. Naturally, she drew the sword out and stabbed it towards Fan Xian's face.

A very simple movement, a very natural movement, but it made Fan Xian feel that he could not avoid it. His palms were slightly painful, and the short sword in his hands had disappeared, but in the next moment, it came to his brow.

……

……

Haitang exclaimed! Her face was full of anger, and her whole body floated up.

Below her abdomen was the black dagger that Fan Xian had somehow conjured up again.

Two young experts, one standing on the meadow, the other flying in mid-air, Fan Xian's spicy sword strike made Haitang's naturally perfect sword attack fail. Her body spun in a circle rapidly on Fan Xian's body, and the floral cloth on her body bloomed like a flower, which was a bit dazzling.

A hand stretched out from the flower, striking Fan Xian's chest.

Fan Xian narrowed his eyes slightly, not avoiding it at all. His right palm, sandwiched with domineering and brute true qi, slammed into the soft chest of the Haitang girl in the flower.

Haitang retreated again, turning sideways and wielding her sword. With a series of *ding ding* sounds, as the palm wind gradually subsided, the tips of their swords had collided countless times again.

After a moment, Haitang lowered her head slightly, holding the sword in her right hand and sliding back. The cloth that wrapped her hair had long been shattered into several pieces. At this time, her black hair was scattered like a waterfall. Although she was still wearing the coarse cloth clothes, her posture with the sword was as graceful as a celestial maiden from the nine heavens, with no trace of a village girl's temperament.

On the other side, Fan Xian stared at her figure, his hand tightly holding the dagger was trembling slightly. A feeling of frustration rose in his heart. It was fine if his moves were inferior to this woman, but even his domineering true qi, which he had always been proud of, seemed to be completely at a disadvantage in front of this woman's calm and pure true qi.

In fact, Haitang was even more surprised. Since she left her master, she didn't know how many experts she had met. Fan Xian was obviously not the strongest one, and his strength was at most just stepping into the threshold of the ninth rank - but the one who made her the most embarrassed was Fan Xian.

Fan Xian just didn't want to show weakness in front of women, which was the sourness in his bones. Haitang was a top-tier ninth-rank expert. If he was facing Yan Xiao Yi, he might have run away long ago, but facing a village girl, he chose to attack in a very strong and foolish way.

Fortunately, his way of attacking was extremely shameless, which was completely different from fighting against ordinary strong people.

Haitang stared at his handsome face and suddenly revealed a trace of disgust, and said, "Among the younger generation, Lord Fan can also be regarded as an expert, but his methods are so shameless, where is there any martial spirit?"

That's right, Fan Xian had said that he would compete in martial arts, but he used a dagger to sneak attack. In the end, he used all kinds of things like poisonous smoke crossbows, dragon claw breast-grabbing hands, and street-performing *liao yin* swords. Haitang had never seen such a shameless person. (*liao yin* is literally translated as 'teasing the yin', which refers to a very low blow, targeting the groin.)

Fan Xian breathed two breaths, calmed the slightly disturbed breath in his chest and abdomen, and barely smiled and said: "I have never been a martial arts expert, so naturally I will not follow any rules of the *jianghu*. I am the Supervisor of the Imperial Censorate of Qing Kingdom, an official, and you are a Beiqi person, but now you have entered the country without authorization, standing on the land of our Qing Kingdom, I only need to capture you and punish you, why would I care about what means I use?" (*Jianghu* refers to the martial arts world.)

Haitang was silent, seemingly agreeing with his explanation.

She slowly closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and the unusually natural and beautiful aura began to flourish around her body. The dew in the surrounding meadow seemed to be cheering, struggling to leave the grass leaves, turning into a faint mist.

Fan Xian squinted his eyes, knowing that the palm he shot towards the other's chest and the stab he stabbed towards the other's private parts had made this generation's heavenly pride genuinely angry.

……

……

Like a gust of wind blowing, or like a ray of light passing by, this morning spring breeze gently blew across the meadow. Haitang's sword tip also followed the wind, borrowing the light and shadow, gently and naturally stabbed Fan Xian again. This second attack seemed more gentle than before, but Fan Xian knew that it was even more dangerous.

His feet were a little numb, the sequelae of a night of fierce fighting finally broke out, and facing a top-tier ninth-rank expert, he knew that he could not fight her head-on at all, he did not have that strength.

So Fan Xian abandoned the dagger, retracted his palms, squinted his eyes, stopped attacking, and relied entirely on the contact between his body skin and every bit of air to dodge the short sword's stance that seemed to be naturally formed.

Many years ago, he had done this before, when Wu Zhu was holding a wooden stick.

Today, he did it again, his opponent holding a short sword.

Wu Zhu could hit him, but Haitang... was not Wu Zhu. Even if she was a top-tier ninth-rank expert, she was still far inferior to Wu Zhu.