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Xia Qifei left Jiangnan Restaurant and stood in front of the main street. Looking at the people passing by in the night, he couldn't resist lowering his head slightly, thinking about something.
"Big brother." Outside the building, a dozen men surrounded him. They looked at him with a glimmer of respect and unfamiliarity, and bowed respectfully.
These people were all good hands of the Jiangnan water bandits. Because of the palace treasury bidding, they had followed Xia Qifei into Suzhou. However, Suzhou had always been heavily guarded. Some of these water bandits were even on wanted posters, so normally, they would not enter Suzhou.
These people had not expected that they, as bandits, could not only openly wander through Suzhou, but that their leader could even sit at the same table as the wealthiest large merchant families in Jiangnan. Normally, those merchants would only use silver to buy the lives of their brothers to fight. How could they be as polite to Brother Xia as they were today?
Thinking of this, a sense of vanity and pride rose in the hearts of these men. The way of the world was indeed different from before.
Looking at his subordinates' faces filled with panic and joy, Xia Qifei couldn't resist laughing at himself and saying, "Brothers, you all have to learn more. This time, you've also seen those old teachers. When you have free time, ask those teachers for guidance."
The teachers in these words were the old officials of the Ministry of Revenue that imperial envoy Xia Qifei had sent to help him win the bidding. The Jiangnan water bandits were gradually developing in the direction of trading. Xia Qifei also hoped that his trusted subordinates could quickly grasp the skills of doing business. At least they had to know how to do accounts.
Amidst the joyous and harmonious atmosphere, Xia Qifei suddenly felt a glimmer of coldness.
He raised his head and looked. The bright moon was in the blue dome of the night. It was still spring, so the nights on sunny days were indeed a bit colder.
Pulling back his gaze, he saw three strange people standing on the opposite side of the street.
The reason why he said these three people were strange was that they had appeared out of nowhere and looked coldly at the street. They were not tourists returning home at night, nor were they guests seeking pleasure after drinking. They were dressed in ordinary clothes, but the person in the middle was wearing a conical hat. On a night like this, he seemed a little special.
Having mingled in Jianghu for many years, he had struggled between life and death since he was a child. Xia Qifei had no time to react. The chill in his bones and his intuition for danger made a cold light shoot out of his eyes. With a strange cry, the tips of his feet pushed off the ground three times, and his entire body floated toward the door of the Jiangnan Restaurant.
When the tip of his foot touched the ground, the person in the middle of the three people across the street placed his hand under the bamboo hat on his shoulder, grasping something.
Then, a snow-like blade light sprinkled down, chasing after Xia Qifei's body that was treading on the water like a water bird, chopping down!
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"Kill!"
When the blade light flashed, the Jiangnan water bandits also reacted. Relying on the bravery in their bones, they wanted to stand between their big brother and the soul-chasing blade light. However, their reactions could never catch up to the blade light of the man in the bamboo hat. Only the trusted aide closest to Xia Qifei let out a wild roar and pulled out the straight knife hidden in his clothes. He channeled his strength through his arms and used all his strength to block!
With a crisp crack, the straight knife in the hands of the water bandits was like a tender lotus root in Jiangnan. It was cut in half by the blade light.
With a loud crash, the man's body was split into two by that extremely violent saber strike, turning into two pieces of horrifying flesh and blood. Blood spurted out, and internal organs spilled all over the ground. The two hands that had already been separated were still holding the hilt and the tip of the saber, powerlessly and miserably defending themselves!
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The power of the blade did not stop. In the quiet night, it had already reached the front of the Jiangnan Restaurant, in front of Xia Qifei, whose toes had just touched the ground.
The energy of the blade was like a straight line, cutting people when it met people, cutting the ground when it met ground. With a swish, it broke through the green stones on the street, revealing the fresh stone stubble within!
With a loud boom, rocks flew in front of the Jiangnan Restaurant, and dust rose. With a roar, Xia Qifei's two palms came together to meet the indomitable power of the blade.
The blade light suddenly faded, and the dust gradually settled.
Two streaks of blood spurted from Xia Qifei's nostrils. His hands trembled in front of his body, and he looked with terror at the man in the bamboo hat on the opposite street.
This wild blade had come across a long street, cut through a person's body, and caused him internal injury. What kind of terrifying realm was this? He was probably already a ninth-level master! How could there be such an unfamiliar top master in Jiangnan?
The wild and unreasonable blade cut through the night sky. After a moment of silence, everyone finally saw the man in the bamboo hat.
The man in the bamboo hat was tall, and his entire body exuded a stern and cautious aura. He held a long blade in his hand. The blade was as bright as snow, and the hilt was extremely long. It was a long blade that could only be seen on stage or on the battlefield. This blade was eight feet long, and no one knew how he had managed to hide it behind his back earlier!
All of this happened in the time it takes for a spark to fly off a flint. After Xia Qifei desperately blocked this blade, he blinked.
In the blink of an eye, he discovered that the situation was somewhat terrifying — because the two people beside the man in the bamboo hat had disappeared without a trace. He didn't know where they had gone.
Since the opponent had come to kill him, the two of them would definitely not sit idly by.
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In reality, just as the man in the bamboo hat pulled out the long blade on his back and valiantly chopped down across the street, the other two aces beside him had already floated up, avoiding the group of Jiangnan water bandits in the middle of the street. Their bodies were like flying swallows, forming two beautiful arcs. Like two dark arrowheads, they pierced toward Xia Qifei's location.
Using the long blade as a mountain of thunder, concealing the combined attack of two swallows flying at the same time, if nothing unexpected happened, the panic-stricken Xia Qifei should have already died in that moment.
The reason he did not die was because when Xia Qifei barely managed to block that blade, a new change had already occurred on the long street.
When the Jiangnan water bandits moved in front of Xia Qifei to block him, there were four people in this group of men who very strangely moved to the sides. Then, when the two aces who swept past like swallows wanted to dodge to the sides, these four people flipped their palms and pulled out metal drills from under their long robes, stabbing them horizontally.
It was a very clean, simple, and neat stab, but it just so happened to land on the chests and abdomens of the two aces. They had no choice but to dodge.
These four people were the assassins of the Sixth Bureau that Fan Xian had hurriedly sent over tonight.
Perhaps the skill of the Sixth Bureau assassins was not as good as the three aces who had come to kill tonight, but their judgment of the current situation and the possible routes that the other party would choose to kill had a natural sensitivity.
Thus, they blocked the two swallows that the other party had intended to kill together.
Ding, ding, ding, ding. In an instant, countless light and crisp sounds rang out on the street in front of the Jiangnan Restaurant. They were densely packed, as if they would never stop. It was as if a storm of hail had suddenly descended on the bright and beautiful city of Suzhou in spring.
Two swallow-like aces held two short swords in their hands. There was poison on them, and they glowed in the darkness.
The four Sixth Bureau assassin swordsmen held iron rods in their hands. They were also poisoned and blended into the darkness.
A moment later, a number of muffled grunts seemed to ring out at the same time.
The two aces who had come to kill Xia Qifei dejectedly swept back across the street. There were a dozen cuts on their clothes from the metal rods. Some of the cuts were deep and seemed to have broken through their skin.
On the Sixth Bureau's side, they had also paid a heavy price for this. One person's left hand had been neatly sliced off, revealing the bone inside. Another person's shoulder had been stabbed with a knife. A strange color began to appear in the fresh blood, and one person had already fallen into a pool of blood.
The two sides had just met face to face, and both sides had suffered irreparable losses. No one knew what kind of danger there had been in those tinkling sounds.
Even after suffering such heavy injuries, the Sixth Bureau assassins only let out two muffled grunts at most. Their willpower and determination were not something normal jianghu people could compare to. The three people who could still move ate the antidote pills made by the Third Bureau as they tried to retreat and shrink the defensive circle. They had to protect Xia Qifei's life.
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The two swallows who had retreated across the street did not seem to have thought that there would be such a group of professional assassins by Xia Qifei's side, and that they had also suffered significant injuries.
The two of them looked at each other and knew that the other side was definitely someone from the Overwatch Council. No matter which faction, they all knew the terrifying extent of the Overwatch Council's poison. Not everyone could withstand the poison that Sir Fei Jie single-handedly took care of.
Thus, the two of them cleanly turned around and rose. The tips of their feet pushed off the wall and swept into the night sky, immediately disappearing.
They were all true aces and assassins of the Jiangnan martial world. Today, they had been entrusted with the task of killing Xia Qifei, but they could not bear to bury their precious lives here.
In the distance, a light sound came from the dark alley.
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Two of the three masters on the opposite side of the street had left, but Xia Qifei felt that his situation hadn't improved at all. In fact, the pressure he was under was even greater — because that long saber, the long saber that could only be seen on the stage, had already charged at him again when the two sides were fighting intensely.
Before the knife, there was not a single enemy. Under the knife, there would not be a complete corpse.
Like splashing snow, the knife light dismembered, separated, and beheaded the brave and respectable water bandits, creating a path of blood. Amidst the sky full of flying limbs, it came closer and closer to Xia Qifei.
Seeing his brothers die wretchedly on the long street, hearing the soul-shaking sounds of knives and wretched cries, smelling the thick scent of blood, and seeing the man in the bamboo hat step through the blood, the man walked with such determination and stubbornness, like a demon.
Xia Qifei's heart went cold, but his blood heated up. His eyes were about to burst, and he was filled with the desire to charge forward, stand in front of his brothers, and engage in a vigorous battle with this expert in the bamboo hat. Even if he died under the blade, so what?
However, he could not move. Instead, he retreated. Sorrowfully but determinedly, he fled toward Jiangnan Restaurant.
He knew that the other party's goal was to kill him. His name, this person, was very useful. If he wanted revenge, if he wanted to make the enemy unable to eat or sleep in peace, he … had to live! Even if he had to live in such humiliation!
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The man in the bamboo hat was only five steps away from Xia Qifei.
The three injured swordsmen of the Sixth Bureau finally returned to their positions, but their injured bodies could not stand against the ace in the bamboo hat's shocking knife power. The metal rod broke into several pieces, and the three of them were sent flying.
Jiangnan Restaurant was right in front of him.
Xia Qifei fled up the steps.
The waiters and customers at the door screamed in panic, but it was as if they were possessed. They were shocked by this bloody and terrifying scene. Their legs weakened, and it seemed they could not move.
The ace in the bamboo hat was still five steps away from the stone steps when his knife chopped down. The direction of the knife was aimed at the wretched-looking Xia Qifei's back.
A customer who seemed to have been scared out of his wits was currently trembling against the beautiful pillars of Jiangnan Restaurant. Then, for some reason, he shook out a metal drill and viciously stabbed it at the thigh of the expert wearing the bamboo hat!
The ace with the bamboo hat was tall and powerful. This hidden assassin of the Sixth Bureau did not have the confidence to attack the enemy's vital point before he could cut through Xia Qifei's body. Thus, he chose to stab the base of his thigh.
No one expected that the ace in the bamboo hat would act as if he did not see this stab. The knife continued to chop down.
With a clang, the metal rod struck the base of the man's thigh, but it was like stabbing a metal plate.
The Sixth Bureau assassin's heart chilled. He knew that this was the stupid martial art that no one on the jianghu practiced anymore — Iron Shirt.
Since the other party had practiced it and did not avoid it, it meant that he had stupidly spent decades practicing it, abandoned all the pleasures of a man and a woman, and practiced this martial art to the extreme.
This Sixth Bureau assassin knew he could not block this knife, but the commissioner had given a strict order to protect Xia Qifei's life. Thus, he flew sideways and fearlessly jumped toward the ace in the bamboo hat. In midair, he had already pulled out a small dagger from his boot and viciously stabbed it toward the eyes that were covered by the bamboo hat.
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At this moment, the ace's knife was less than a foot from Xia Qifei's back. The two metal rods once again appeared, tirelessly.
There were a total of seven Sixth Bureau swordsmen that Fan Xian had sent to protect Xia Qifei. Earlier, five had already appeared. The last two had originally been prepared to be like the leader earlier and attack the enemy's vital point to save Xia Qifei's life.
However, after discovering the other party's abnormal martial arts, they knew that method would not work. Furthermore, the knife had already arrived, so they could only helplessly meet the other party's blow head on.
Two very unpleasant snaps rang out. The two metal rods did not break, but they were shaken out of their hands.
Xia Qifei took advantage of this block and threw himself forward like a pitiful puppy, narrowly dodging the knife.
The knife light landed and cut a large hole in the stone steps of Jiangnan Restaurant.
Xia Qifei gave a cry and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. He had been locked onto by this ace's aura the entire time. The knife attacked his body, so he was the one with the heaviest internal injuries.
He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, but his expression remained dark and ruthless as he lay on the ground. His right hand shot out from under his left armpit with incredible speed and pulled out the crossbow arrow hidden in his sleeve.
This was something the imperial envoy had given him for self-defense.
When the crossbow arrow flew, the Sixth Bureau swordsman had already leaped in front of the ace's body.
The ace didn't have time to pull back his long knife. His left hand formed a fist and struck out horizontally. With a boom, the swordsman was sent flying. In this way, there was an opening in front of his face.
The thin crossbow arrow shot in front of the bamboo hat. The man finally had a trace of a normal reaction. He tilted his head back slightly. It looked like the face was still a weak spot despite his Tyrannical martial arts.
The arrow flew through the air and, with a whoosh, pierced deeply into the top of the bamboo hat.
There was a belt tied under the bamboo hat, so it was not taken away by the crossbow arrow. Thus, the true appearance of this mysterious ninth-level ace was still not revealed to the crowd.
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A light sound rang out, but it was not crisp. It was like the sound of children playing with firecrackers or the crackling sound of wet firewood burning.
The crossbow arrow embedded in the top of the bamboo hat exploded.
A streak of fire flashed by. Immediately, a cloud of smoke rose from the ace's head. It looked incomparably strange.
Although the modifications of the Third Bureau were still unable to bring out the true power of the gunpowder, and the power of the burning was not strong enough, it still burned the bamboo hat clean in an instant.
The ace in the bamboo hat held a long knife in his hand. His feet were unevenly spaced as he stood silently in front of the Jiangnan Restaurant. His face was pitch-black with terrifying blisters in the middle. His eyes were tightly closed. It was unclear whether he was alive or dead.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes, and a glimmer of anger flashed through them.
This mysterious ace was still not dead.
However, what caused everyone to be indescribably shocked was not the fact that this person had managed to preserve his life under such a heavy blow, because with his strength, it was not so easy to kill him. What shocked Xia Qifei and the Overwatch Council the most was that this ace, who always wore the bamboo hat, was bald.
Nowadays, the world was particular about filial piety. It was said that the body, hair, and skin were given to one's parents. No one would randomly cut their hair, much less be bald. The only people in this world who were allowed to walk around with a bald appearance were the Ascetic Monks.
The Ascetic Monks who believed in the Temple.
Everyone knew that the Ascetic Monks loved the people and cherished their bodies. They never had anything to do with the battles of the secular world. Why had this extremely powerful Ascetic Monk come to kill Xia Qifei today?
There was no time to think about this shocking question because the Ascetic Monk once again raised that terrifying long knife. With a muffled grunt, he held the knife with both hands and chopped toward Xia Qifei on the steps. His power was like a mad tiger that could not be stopped by a thousand soldiers.
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A thousand soldiers could not be stopped by a single flower.
The despairing people on the stone steps only felt a cool breeze sweep past in front of them. A flower-like ocean bloomed in front of their eyes. In a moment, it drove away the smell of blood on the long street in front of the restaurant. Fragrant flowers filled the air and refreshed the mind.
A pair of steady and gentle hands, carrying a basket of cheap silk flowers bought from Wuzhou, welcomed the sharp edge of the long knife that pressed forward with indomitable will.
The knife came very quickly, but the hands were even faster. For some reason, in the next moment, the flower basket was already hanging from the long knife.
The knife force was very fierce. The flower basket was very light. When the flower basket gently hung from the tip of the knife, the long knife, which had been steady and terrifying, involuntarily trembled and drooped down. It was as if the flower basket was incomparably heavy.
The knife force paused. The Ascetic Monk holding the knife gave an explosive cry. Zhenqi surged out of his arms and valiantly lifted it up like he was lifting up Dong Mountain.
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With a crashing sound, the flower basket finally could not withstand the resistance of the astonishing true energy from both sides. It was pierced by the tip of the saber and fell apart. The flower basket that was woven from the vines was pulled out bit by bit in that moment that seemed to have come to a standstill. The vines shattered and turned into countless fragments that shot out and hit the ground with a "pa pa" sound.
The silk flowers in the basket were stirred up by the wind and fluttered into the air, decorating the long street like an Asura battlefield.
Amidst the rain of flower petals, the girl wearing a flowery cotton jacket was like a gust of wind. Following the trembling long knife, she gently attacked the Ascetic Monk.
The Ascetic Monk struck out with his palm. The wind from his palm was like a knife, but it could not stop the other party's swaying figure.
A moment later, the pair of gentle hands gently patted the hilt of the knife. Then, with a flick of her fingers, it pierced straight toward the edge of the Ascetic Monk's huge palm.
The Ascetic Monk gave a strange cry. A strange red color formed from the zhenqi surging appeared on his burned face. His entire body retreated like a large bird.
In one exchange, this killing god-like Ascetic Monk had been forced back.
The rain of flower petals was still falling. Contrasted with the blue night and bright moon above Suzhou, it appeared particularly beautiful.
Flower petals fell one after another. Haitang stood calmly in the rain of flower petals. She did not pursue. She only looked at the Ascetic Monk with a trace of worry.
Village girls occasionally had their most beautiful moments.
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"Second priest of the Qing Temple, why are you here?" Haitang asked with a face full of worry.
The Ascetic Monk looked at her and recognized her identity. In a stern voice, he cried out, "Haitang Duoduo! Why are you here? "
Haitang lowered her head slightly and quietly said, "I'm with Fan Xian."
The Ascetic Monk was startled. It was as if he had not thought that Haitang, the successor of Tian Yi Dao and Northern Qi's saint girl, would give such a reason so easily.
"Today, I want to kill. Don't stop me," the Ascetic Monk looked at her and said coldly.
Haitang furrowed her brows slightly. She looked at the stone steps of Jiangnan Restaurant, the dead people in the middle of the long street, the broken limbs, and the pungent blood. In a quiet voice, she said, "You've already killed enough people tonight. Don't kill anymore."
It was not a request or a persuasion. Since Fan Xian was worried about Xia Qifei's side and had come up with the idea to have Haitang come take a look, it represented his absolute trust in Haitang. With Haitang here, other than the legendary four old immortals, as long as she said not to kill, no one else could kill.
Although the Ascetic Monk had been badly burned, it was still possible to see a glimmer of determination on his face. He glanced at Haitang with a strange gaze and then turned to leave.
He didn't need a path to leave. The Ascetic Monk directly smashed through a courtyard wall on the side of the street. With a rumble, a large hole appeared in the wall. His figure disappeared into this hole.
The sky full of flower petals fell. Haitang was silent. Then, her body floated lightly and she arrived behind the courtyard wall.
(To be continued, if you want to know what happened after, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading.)
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