Chapter 312 - 285: The Situation is Settled
"Kill!" Su Xiao let out a low roar, lunging forward with a flash of his blade.
His blade work was solid. His first slash aimed for the tendon behind the Fishman’s knee.
SHLICK!
The blade slid across the thick hide, almost slipping off.
The Muddy Race Fishman didn’t even sway. It swung its massive, fan-like palm, which whistled through the air as it swept toward him.
Su Xiao ducked and rolled.
Just as he was steadying his breath to counterattack, two loud splashes erupted from the mud on either side of him.
To his left and right, two more equally immense Muddy Race Fishmen slowly rose from the muddy pits where they had been hiding, cutting him off from the team behind him.
Six murky yellow eyes locked onto him through the curtain of rain.
At the same time, battle cries erupted from behind him.
Su Xiao looked up, senses on high alert, and rolled to dodge the sound of something cutting through the air behind him.
Two Artisan Race Fishmen charged over, wielding Fish Spears.
Their movements were incredibly nimble. One dropped low, rolled, and thrust its Fish Spear. Their fluid motions gave Su Xiao the bizarre impression of watching a fish that had come ashore.
"Go hold off those people behind us. This one is ours." Qin Ziwu emerged, Long Spear in hand.
He looked at Su Xiao and smiled. "I heard there’s a master among the Blood Words leadership. Someone who single-handedly carved his way through an entire floor of a building with just a blade. Was that you?"
Su Xiao lowered his gaze, saying nothing.
He slowly backed away, searching for an escape route.
"How dull. Instructor Du says the only way to improve is through life-and-death spars with masters. A perfect chance for me to see what you’re made of." With a flick of his wrist, Qin Ziwu’s spear tip sliced through the rain in a three-pointed flourish aimed straight at Su Xiao’s face.
Su Xiao crossed his twin blades to parry the Long Spear and was about to counterattack.
To his left, a Muddy Race Fishman roared and swung its pillar-like arm, smashing it toward Su Xiao’s flank.
Su Xiao froze, instantly aborting his attack and rolling to evade.
The moment he landed, the Muddy Race Fishman to his right lunged forward.
𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
THUD!
A huge spray of mud erupted from the spot where Su Xiao had just stood; the Muddy Race Fishman had crashed down like a boulder.
Su Xiao rolled forward. As he landed, he lashed out with a backhand strike that cut across the Fishman’s face.
The slash was incredibly swift, carving a gash across the Muddy Race Fishman’s face.
He had discovered the monsters’ weakness—he couldn’t just chop at them as he normally would. Instead, he needed to use quick, slicing motions.
SHINK!
He had just landed when Qin Ziwu’s spear struck, grazing his ear by a hair’s breadth and leaving behind a line of blood.
If he had dodged any slower, that spear would have pierced the center of his forehead.
From within the curtain of rain behind him, battle cries echoed.
’We’ve been ambushed.’ Su Xiao sighed softly. ’This defeat is fated.’
’Favorable timing, terrain, and unity—I have none of them. I’m no different than a skeleton in a tomb.’
’I had hoped to find a path to survival by taking a huge risk.’
’But great risks come with great failures.’
He glanced up at the gloomy gray sky.
A glint of grim resolve flashed in his eyes.
’Kill.’
Casting aside any hope of a lucky escape, he ignored everything else and charged straight for Qin Ziwu.
He rolled, surged forward, his twin blades arcing like a full moon, the force of his strikes like a flowing river.
Ten slashes in a row, each one relentlessly pressing forward.
Qin Ziwu blocked the first nine slashes, but on the tenth, his spear was knocked askew.
Qin Ziwu switched from parrying to thrusting, aiming straight for Su Xiao’s chest.
With a loud laugh, Su Xiao advanced instead of retreating.
The spearhead burst through his chest as his own blade slashed across Qin Ziwu’s face.
Qin Ziwu grunted, his head snapping back. The flesh on his face split open, and blood gushed out.
He tried to pull the Long Spear back, but Su Xiao held the other end in a death grip.
Su Xiao raised his arm, about to throw the blade in his hand.
SWOOSH—
The sound of something tearing through the air ripped through the rain.
A black javelin shot straight toward the center of Su Xiao’s forehead.
The instincts honed by years of martial arts made him reflexively twist his head to dodge, but a second javelin shot from the rain like a vicious viper and struck him squarely in the shoulder.
His arm went numb, and he could no longer hold his blade.
With a CLANG, the blade fell to the ground.
The nearby Muddy Race Fishman seized the opportunity, pressing down and pinning Su Xiao beneath it, rendering him immobile.
On the hillside, Yan Da and Yan San sprinted down, their feet as swift as the wind.
Seeing the state of Qin Ziwu’s face, Yan Da shouted in alarm, "Men, quickly! Protect Young Master Wu! Young Master Wu, I’ll carry you back."
Qin Ziwu looked up. A gruesome wound ran diagonally from his forehead, across the bridge of his nose, down his cheek, to the corner of his lip.
The slash had nearly split his head in two. It would have, if Su Xiao’s blade had been any longer.
"I’m fine." Qin Ziwu raised a hand to stop Yan Da from trying to carry him, but he didn’t try to act tough and continue fighting. "Does anyone have a hat or something to block the rain?"
Yan San quickly handed over a bamboo hat, the one he had been wearing just before.
After putting on the bamboo hat to shield himself from the rain, Qin Ziwu was incredibly calm. He took a canteen from his waist, which contained the Healing Spring, and took a large swig.
He felt the bleeding from the wound on his face slow, replaced by a tingling, numbing sensation.
His mind was filled with the image of Su Xiao’s relentless swordsmanship, and that one flash of a blade as bright as the full moon.
A trace of lingering fear rose in his heart.
’I was so close. I almost died.’
Through the curtain of rain, he could faintly hear the battle cries from the rear.
About ten minutes passed.
The battle cries gradually faded.
Cao Biansheng returned, fully armed. He led a group of well-trained Qin Alliance elites wielding Long Spears, three hundred able-bodied men from the Urban Village who had provided support, and a troop of Artisan Race Fishmen that had fought alongside them.
Seeing this, Qin Ziwu felt a sense of relief. ’The battle is decided.’
After he thought this, a wave of dizziness washed over him. He had lost too much blood, and felt unsteady on his feet.
"Holy shit, what happened to you? You actually got your head split open!" Cao Biansheng exclaimed, shocked by Qin Ziwu’s appearance.
He quickly pulled out his own half-empty canteen of Healing Spring. "Here, drink some more. Don’t die on me."
"I’m fine," Qin Ziwu said, but he still readily accepted the canteen from Cao Biansheng and drained its contents in large gulps.
He glanced at the wounds on Cao Biansheng’s body. "I’ll get you back the rest of the Spring water after we return."
"Don’t mention it between us," Cao Biansheng said with a magnanimous wave. Seeing the strength in Qin Ziwu’s voice, he relaxed, knowing his friend wouldn’t be dying anytime soon.
When they returned to the Urban Village, Qin Ziwen saw the gruesome wound on his younger brother’s face. After hearing his description of the battle’s dangers, he simply nodded. "Yes. You and the other wounded should go rest and recover."
When the other members of the Qin Alliance saw the wound on Qin Ziwu’s face, they were shocked, but they also felt something more—something hard to put into words.
Even the leader’s own younger brother fought side-by-side with them on the battlefield.
After the wounded had left, Qin Ziwen asked Yan Da for the details of what had happened. Yan Da recounted the events, omitting nothing.
He and Yan San had been the ones to throw the javelins. The three brothers had roamed far and wide, honing their masterful skill with the weapon.
"Mm. He can still talk and move around. It’s just a superficial wound; he’ll be fine once it heals." Qin Ziwen nodded. "As for the Blood Words, they’ve lost another batch of elites. Their internal situation should be unstable now, I imagine."
In fact, the situation was even more dire than Qin Ziwen had guessed.
Having suffered such a major defeat and losing so many people, the already low morale worsened. The Blood Words’ control over its lower echelons weakened, and that very night, seven instances of violent infighting erupted within Hongding Mansion.
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