Chapter 158 [Li Linzhou Lost]
Someone else nearby?
Su Jingxing's heart skipped a beat. He pushed the "Realm of Sound" secret technique to its absolute limit, listening intently.
No one!
At least, within the range of his hearing, there was no one.
Beyond that range, Su Jingxing maximized his night vision and long-distance sight, scanning inch by inch, yet still found no one.
This fellow hiding in the shadows possessed formidable concealment skills.
While marveling inwardly, Su Jingxing readied himself.
Li Linzhou was still here; it wouldn't be so easy for the adversary to take Feng Tiejian away.
Swish!
A dark figure abruptly darted out from the dim grove on the right side of the Martial Suppression Bureau headquarters building, sprinting toward Feng Tiejian.
Then, mid-sprint, the figure split into two, two into four, four into eight, and eight into sixteen!
In less than three short seconds, sixteen dark figures appeared within Su Jingxing's line of sight, as well as in the field of vision of Li Linzhou, who stood by a window on the seventh floor of the Martial Suppression Bureau headquarters building.
Once manifested, the sixteen figures dispersed, charging straight at Feng Tiejian.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Sword Qi hung in the air, blooming with brilliant light.
Li Linzhou leaped out of the window, drifting down onto the path.
Waving his long sword through the empty air, he unleashed strands of Sword Qi to attack the sixteen dark figures.
Swish, swish, swish!
The sixteen dark figures shifted and maneuvered like ghosts, with half of them effortlessly dodging the Sword Qi.
The remaining half were struck by the Sword Qi. Amidst a succession of "bang, bang, bang" explosions, they burst into mist and vanished.
Yet rapidly, in under two seconds, the eight dodging dark figures each split off a new shadow, restoring the total count back to sixteen.
All the dark figures shared a single objective: to lunge at Feng Tiejian and drag him away.
Seeing this, Li Linzhou naturally wouldn't let them have their way. His Sword Qi continued to sweep across the area, and his entire body glided forward, closing the distance to stand right beside Feng Tiejian.
Right before Feng Tiejian's eyes, he shattered the incoming dark figures one by one.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
Dull and oppressive explosions rang out incessantly, echoing through the night sky.
Dark figures exploded one after another, only for new ones to split off and take their place.
Wave after wave rushed forward endlessly, frantically lunging from Li Linzhou's front, back, left, and right.
Tied up with ropes and with a cloth gagged in his mouth, Feng Tiejian watched in utter bewilderment.
Atop the rooftop, Su Jingxing's eyes flickered as well.
Those dark figures were all condensed from True Qi!
Every time one exploded, a portion of True Qi was expended.
Continuous explosions would inevitably exhaust their True Qi completely.
Li Linzhou's Sword Qi was no different, formed by materializing and condensing externalized True Qi.
With a single sword strike bursting a dark figure, it might seem overwhelmingly powerful, but when Su Jingxing carefully sensed the energy consumption on both sides, he found them to be roughly equal.
In other words, one True Qi avatar exactly offset one strand of Sword Qi.
Deciding who would ultimately win came down to whose True Qi cultivation was deeper.
Su Jingxing was unsure how many years of cultivation Li Linzhou possessed.
Nor did he know the cultivation level of the mastermind whose true body remained concealed in the shadows.
However, as the two sides continued to wear each other down, their True Qi dwindled.
Su Jingxing finally pinpointed the hidden location of the mastermind.
The third floor of a shop across the street, right at the entrance of the Martial Suppression Bureau!
As the consumption of True Qi increased, the mastermind's aura could no longer be concealed and was finally exposed.
Su Jingxing sensed it, and Li Linzhou clearly discovered it almost simultaneously.
Without hesitation, while rapidly swinging his sword to shatter four dark figures rushing from behind, Li Linzhou unleashed a fierce, long-distance sword strike that hurtled through the air.
Swish!
Whoosh-boom!
The Sword Qi, resembling a streak of a rainbow, curved in mid-air and struck straight toward the third-floor shop across the street from the Martial Suppression Bureau entrance.
"Boom!"
A dark figure burst out from the third floor, meeting the Sword Qi head-on with a palm strike. The two forces collided and annihilated each other.
Amidst the raging, turbulent shockwaves of violent energy, the true body of the dark figure stepped through the void, charging directly toward Li Linzhou.
This time, he no longer manifested more True Qi avatars; instead, gripping a kitchen knife, he stepped through the air and descended directly above the path where Li Linzhou stood.
Swish!
Under the night sky, the kitchen knife bloomed with a dazzling radiance.
As it slashed downward, no externalized blade Qi was released; instead, illusory blade shadows manifested.
One, two, three, four...
In an instant, countless transparent, nearly invisible blade shadows danced through the air, completely surrounding and besieging Li Linzhou like dumplings wrapped in dough.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
The Sword Qi surrounding Li Linzhou increased its firing frequency, swirling around him and shooting outward at high speed.
The two forces collided—
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Sounds resembling the striking of metal and iron echoed above the path.
Facing the densely packed and terrifyingly powerful blade shadows, Li Linzhou's Sword Qi lasted for merely two breaths before collapsing entirely, transforming into a massive surge of kinetic energy that scattered in all directions.
The swarming, closing-in blade shadows instantly bombarded Li Linzhou's body.
"Pfft!"
A mouthful of dark, stagnant blood sprayed from Li Linzhou's lips.
His protective True Qi disintegrated in a mere half-second. The terrifying impact of the blade shadows lifted him entirely off the ground, sending him flying backward over a dozen meters. He crashed into the grove, snapping seven or eight trees before finally hitting the ground and leaving a human-shaped indentation.
He lost...
As the foremost martial artist of Qinghe City—even if only nominally—Li Linzhou was among the very elite tier. Yet this time, he had lost.
He lost to a mastermind whose face he hadn't even clearly seen, who had defeated him using nothing more than a kitchen knife!
Of course.
The reason Li Linzhou was defeated so swiftly was, firstly, that his True Qi cultivation was inferior to his opponent's, having already depleted the greater half of his energy in the previous clash of shadow avatars and Sword Qi.
The second reason was that the kitchen knife wielded by the mastermind was neither a half-divine weapon nor a divine weapon, but a Spirit Weapon!
Whether it was an ancient Spirit Weapon or a blood Spirit Weapon, Su Jingxing could not yet tell.
However, that the kitchen knife was a Spirit Weapon was an absolute certainty.
Because those densely packed, transparent blade shadows carried not a shred of True Qi fluctuation or internal energy; they belonged to a uniquely pure and distinct power.
This power erupted directly from the kitchen knife itself.
With such terrifying might, it was self-evident that this ability belonged to the kitchen knife itself.
In other words, it was a Spirit Weapon!
This was Su Jingxing's first time witnessing the might of another Spirit Weapon, and he hadn't expected it to unfold under such circumstances.
The mastermind attempting to capture Feng Tiejian possessed the powerful cultivation of the fourth-grade realm and actually wielded a Spirit Weapon.
Just what on earth had Feng Tiejian done to be targeted by such a formidable expert?
Amidst his astonishment and doubt, Su Jingxing controlled his figure as "Thunderclap" materialized from his palm.
Whoosh!
His body moved like a ghost, crossing the void to descend right above the path on the right side of the Martial Suppression Bureau building.
The dark figure, who had just hoisted Feng Tiejian and was preparing to leave, sensed the anomaly and abruptly slashed upward with a single blade strike.
Swish, swish, swish!
Countless transparent, nearly invisible blade shadows danced through the air once more, closing in to besiege Su Jingxing.
"Boom—!"
It sounded like a sudden clap of thunder in a clear sky.
Suspended mid-air, "Thunderclap," under the guidance of Su Jingxing's will, spat out dozens of thick bolts of lightning, carrying the terrifying power of heavenly thunder as they swept across the surrounding void.
Arcs of electricity coiled around the area, and wherever they passed, the blade shadows shattered completely, turning into nothingness.
"Crackling, crackling!" "Crackling, crackling!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The noise was like exploding thunder, with wild serpents of electricity dancing furiously.
As the kinetic energy across the sky churned and the air boiled, all the blade shadows vanished.
In less than five seconds, Spirit Weapon against Spirit Weapon, "Thunderclap" triumphed!