Stranger Danger

“Why wouldn’t I be confident?”

Duanmu Longhua turned around and shot him a cute smile. “It is impressive that you are already a Trueman at your age, but this is Goddess City. You are in my domain.”

“Do you know how many subjects I have? One thousand ordinary disciples, three hundred inner disciples, thirty stewards, and twelve elders. Three of the twelve elders are Trueman, and I myself am a late-stage Trueman only one step away from becoming a Sage. We can literally drown you just by spitting at you, so I ask you this: do you really think you can escape us?”

Ye Qing smirked at that. “I’ll grant you that you have the numbers advantage, but I wonder about the quality.”

“Is that so? Would you like to give it a try, warrior Ye?” Duanmu Longhua returned a smirk of her own.

“Why not?” Ye Qing probed.

“Hahaha! If that is what you wish, then sure. I just hope you won’t regret it later.”

Like a child who just found a new toy, Duanmu Longhua reappeared on her seat and grabbed a plate of melon seeds. Acting like a spectator in a gladiator match, she ordered, “Armless, go play with warrior Ye, will you?”

“As you command, my lord.”

The armless Trueman had not seen eye to eye with Ye Qing since the very beginning. Now that he had gotten permission from his own city lord, his empty sleeves immediately billowed with great power. He took one step forward, and the wind grew to the point where it was difficult to open one’s eyes. At the same time, a curtain of pitch black darkness spread out from where his sleeves billowed.

The sleeves summoned a black gale so powerful that it could blot out heaven and earth. Hence, it was named the “Sky Blotting Sleeves”.

Unable to withstand the pressure produced by the technique, Yao Jingce and Yue Hongmian let out a muffled groan before blacking out just like that. In response, Ye Qing caught the unconscious duo with his own sleeve and flung them aside so that they wouldn’t get in the way. Then, he made a hand knife with his right hand and swung diagonally at the incoming attack.

The hand knife fell, and the pitch black curtain that sucked out all of the light in the world was suddenly replaced by radiant red. At the same time, red lotuses rained everywhere like a dream.

The curtain of pitch black darkness disappeared, and the powerful gale winked out of existence just like that.

Ye Qing stayed where he was while wearing a playful expression on his face. On the other hand, Armles was wearing a dark expression on his face. There were big holes in his sleeves, and one could vaguely catch the smell of something burning from it.

“The quality of your shirt is quite… something. Where did you buy it?” Ye Qing taunted.

“You are courting death!” Armless grunted as killing intent spilled out of his eyes. He abruptly dashed forward, swung his sleeves in a circle, and kicked up a powerful gale once more. This time though, it was also accompanied by a powerful current and a snowstorm.

When the two sleeves became locked together, what looked like a spear thrust forward at high speed.

Booooom!

The two sleeves pierced the space in front of them like cannonballs. One could literally see a pair of black holes in the sky. Gushing out of the holes were infinite killing intent, the wails of gods and demons, and the deaths of celestials and Buddhas.

The spear-like sleeves possessed the power to slay gods, demons, celestials and Buddhas. Hence, it was named the “Celestial Piercing Sleeves”.

The “Celestial Piercing Sleeves” was a technique Armless had invented based on an incomplete spear manual and his own insights. Many years ago, when he had just become a Trueman and was on top of his life, he accepted a friend’s invitation and visited an ancient tomb. There, they encountered a soldier in silver armor. The soldier in silver armor was just a wisp of martial intent, but he had unleashed a spear strike that annihilated his friend and the rest of his companions with insulting ease.

Armless had survived out of pure luck. He had been standing just far enough away from the soldier that the spear strike failed to kill him outright. Even so, he lost both of his arms, and he never managed to regrow them due to how potent the spear intent contained within that spear strike was. Throughout the years, he obtained many priceless treasures and sought out countless extraordinary healers to heal his arms to no avail.

That said, fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin. Although he lost his arms, he was able to glean something from the spear intent and advance his martial arts. He was able to subsume the experience and invented an ultimate technique for himself.

He later learned that the spear technique used by the soldier in silver armor was named “Celestial Piercer”, so he named his own killer move the “Celestial Piercing Sleeves”.

The “Sky Blotting Sleeves” he executed earlier was just a test; a probe to sound out Ye Qing’s true strength. The “Celestial Piercing Sleeves” was the conclusion he arrived at after he believed he had gotten Ye Qing’s measure.

He wasn’t foolish enough to put his “Celestial Piercing Sleeves” on the same pedestal as the soldier’s “Celestial Piercer”—that technique had been strong enough to annihilate not one, but multiple Truemen like nothing—but severely injure an ordinary Trueman? That was a completely different story.

He could kill Ye Qing outright, but the city lord obviously needed the young man alive, at least for the moment. However, she surely wouldn’t mind him cutting off a limb or four.

A savage smile appeared on Armless’ face as he imagined Ye Qing’s screams inside his head. Consciously or not, his technique grew a tad more vicious than before.

“Oh! That’s a good technique.”

Ye Qing’s response toward Armless’ “Celestial Piercing Sleeves” was a raised eyebrow and a calm, collected smile.

“Pretentious bastard…”

Anger and malice sprouted like weeds inside Armless’ heart. In his imagination, Ye Qing should be panicking and begging for mercy right now, but not only was he calm, he was smiling at him.

There were only two reasons why the young man was smiling at him. Either he had gone crazy, or…

In any case, Ye Qing’s smile unsettled Armless greatly. That was why he shifted his aim slightly from Ye Qing’s abdomen and arms to his eyes and face.

You like to smile, don’t you?

Let’s see if you can smile after I poked out your eyeballs and squished your face into goo!

Something even more incomprehensible happened, however. Instead of retreating, Ye Qing was leaning forward toward his sleeve!

What the hell is going on here? Did he think that my sleeve was too slow or something?

Seriously, he had never encountered such a strange thing in his life.

Despite his confusion and doubt, Armless did not hesitate. He simply could not think of any reason to miss such an excellent opening.

Thud!

His sleeves landed squarely on Ye Qing’s face. For a moment, Armless thought it was over. Then, the old man’s eyes widened like saucers.

What did he see? He saw his sleeves disintegrating into a million pieces; the sleeves he had created using thousand-year-old natural silk. He saw his killer move slapping harmlessly against his opponent’s face as if it was made of mud or paper, failing to leave even a reddened imprint behind, much less disfigure him.

For a moment, Armless seriously thought that he was dreaming. Was his sleeves that fragile, or was his opponent’s face that thick?

“Armless! Watch out!”

Duanmu Longhua’s urgent voice abruptly entered his ear, and Armless jolted back to reality. He finally recalled that he was still in a fight.

It was too late though. While Armless was blanking out, Ye Qing had taken a step forward and threw a punch.

They were extremely close in the first place, and Armless’ momentary distraction cost him his last chance to dodge out of the way. The punch easily shredded his protective astral qi and landed squarely on his chest.

To his surprise, the punch did… almost nothing. The punch looked like it would be explosive to say the least, but not only had it not elicited the slightest noise, he couldn’t feel any pain whatsoever. The only thing the punch did was to gently push him into the air.

Meanwhile, Duanmu Longhua had disappeared from her seat and reappeared behind her elder. Unsuspecting, she caught him in an attempt to arrest his momentum. However, the second her hands made contact with his body, alarm bells suddenly rang inside her head, and every hair on her body suddenly stood on end.

Duanmu Longhua channeled her force and tried to push Armless away, but it was already too late. The old man abruptly exploded in a shower of blood and gore, and an unbelievable force slammed into her body like a truck. A muffled groan escaped her lips as she was flung backward.

Ye Qing was a believer of kicking downed dogs. Like a phantom, he dashed forward and threw out another punch.

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