Chapter 62: Sharply Counterattacking the Long Family
These three men were all trained warriors who were willing to die for their mission from the Soaring Dragon manor. They were, ordinarily, wholly unafraid of dying – but there was a sense of terror in Jiang Chen’s smile that made them shiver all over, yet not from cold.
“Jiang Chen, why ask if you know everything? Deal with us straightforwardly!”
“Kill us!”
“You want to die? It’s not that easy. Tell me, how many are there in your operation this time, and who’s in charge?” Jiang Chen had no doubt that all of this had something to do with the duke of Soaring Dragon.
Except, what was most important was how many people the duke of Soaring Dragon had sent out.
“You won’t be able to escape anyways, so what’s the harm in telling you? The person leading the operation to kill you this time is a true qi master. Jiang Chen, although you got rid of us, you’re destined to die!”
“True qi master?” Jiang Chen hadn’t thought that he would occupy such weight in the duke of Soaring Dragon’s heart for him to send a true qi master!
But, the more the duke of Soaring Dragon was thus, the more it incited Jiang Chen’s pride.
“So what if he’s a true qi master?”
As strong as a true qi master was, it wasn’t as if he, Jiang Chen, was completely without advantage. The “God’s Eye” and the other two abilities he had, gave him many advantages that true qi masters did not boast of.
Not to mention many of the numerous preparations he had made before hadn’t even been employed yet.
When these preparations and personal advantages were combined, Jiang Chen was confident that he could also contend with a true qi master. If he employed them well, it wasn’t impossible for him to kill a true qi master!
After coaxing out the information, Jiang Chen naturally didn’t leave the three of them alive. After executing them one by one, he selected a death warrior that was built vaguely like him.
Jiang Chen began disguising himself at the scene. His powers of disguise were not empty bluster.
Very quickly, Jiang Chen had made himself mostly like this person with a shake of his body. He then conveniently took possession of the person’s black colored clothing and facial mask.
After completing his great transformation, an idea grew in Jiang Chen’s heart. He disposed of the four corpses and cleaned up the area, continuing on his way.
“This can’t be the only ambush, but I don’t know if the true qi master will be waiting for me up front… I must catch him unawares, if I’m to take on a true qi master.”
However, if it was his purposeful intent against someone else’s unformed planning, and he was able to catch the other by surprise, then he would have a sixty to seventy percent surety of this working.
After all, the technique “Moonshatter Flying Daggers”, accompanied by the nine unpredictable Layered Feather Throwing Daggers, was most adept at catching an opponent by surprise, and in obtaining the upper hand by catching someone unawares.
After walking roughly fifteen to twenty five kilometers, he had drawn even closer to the capital.
The official road would start after this bit of mountain pass, and if the others wanted to start something, they would have to think twice before engaging him on the official road.
Therefore, this last obstacle would be sure to appear before he circled around this mountain ridge.
Indeed, as he closed within one thousand meters of the mountain ridge, Jiang Chen’s “Boulder’s Heart” detected a hint of an opposing sensation.
This kind of pressure was concealed quite well, almost to the point of being undetectable.
If Jiang Chen hadn’t trained in “Boulder’s Heart”, he would’ve never discovered this with purely the instinct of a martial dao practitioner alone. Even a true qi master would have been hard pressed to notice, not to mention his mere seven meridians true qi.
However, the ability of “Boulder’s Heart” trained one’s mental strength, making Jiang Chen’s instinct abnormally sensitive and much stronger than many true qi masters.
“Forget it, if it’s a face to face conflict, I’m out in the open whereas the other is concealed. There’s no chance of winning. I can only take a risk and make a gamble. I only hope that the other has sent just one true qi master. If there are two true qi masters, then I can only make my getaway and escape to the depths of the mountain.”
Jiang Chen had settled on a plan,and didn’t drag his feet, sprinting towards the front.
When he’d reached about three hundred meters from the ambush site, a few figures shot out with whooshing sounds from the shadows, halting him in his path.
“Old Ge, number five, why are you alone?”
The person speaking had a tone that cut like the edge of a blade. His eyes seemed to be that of a keen edge which could penetrate metal and stone as it raked over Jiang Chen’s body.
“My Lord, I have intelligence of that Jiang Chen.”
“What intelligence?” The leader was the duke of Soaring Dragon’s confidante, Long San, and the main organizer of the operation to kill Jiang Chen.
“We’ve discovered something along the way.” Jiang Chen respectfully handed over with both hands a package he’d long since prepared.
The leader was obviously quite circumspect as he unwrapped the package with a flick of his longsword.
At this moment, Jiang Chen’s body suddenly moved and his hand tremored, a current of true qi flinging the package directly at the leader.
At the same time, his left hand moved with a powerful, continuous motion.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The Layered Feather Throwing Daggers transformed into five beams of cold light and shot towards the five on the side.
With the properties of the Layered Feather Throwing Daggers and the mysteries of “Moonshatter Flying Daggers”, attacking at such a close distance added wings to the tiger that was the throwing daggers.
Apart from one person who was slightly further away and flinched instinctively when he saw the flash of cold light, the other four didn’t have any reaction at all.
When they felt a cold draft on their necks, their throats had already been pierced.
The one who evaded this calamity hadn’t dodged all of it. The Leathered Feather Throwing Dagger shot into his left shoulder.
Of course, Jiang Chen had merely incidentally attacked these five.
His main target was still locked on the leader’s body. The second the package had shook itself open, he had used true qi to agitate the streams of smoke inside to spread out in the span of a moment.
The leader Long San had witnessed many large happenings before. When he saw the smoke percolating through the air, he knew something was amiss with this smoke, and hastily covered his nose, slight emotion flickering in his eyes. His body rapidly backed up until he was a hundred steps away.
He then took a look at his five underlings. Four were already down, and one was injured.
“You… You’re Jiang Chen!” Long San roared lowly, his eyes like those of a violent beast’s shooting out thick killing intent.
“You’ve guessed correctly.” Jiang Chen stared faintly at Long San. “I saw you in the Soaring Dragon manor.”
“Huh. So what. Your Jiang family is setting yourself against the duke of Soaring Dragon. That’s bringing destruction down upon yourself.” Long San didn’t conceal his identity in the slightest.
“Bringing destruction down upon myself?” Jiang Chen laughed contemptuously. “Do you think that you, someone who’s about to die, has the right to say such things to me?”
“What do you mean?” Long San’s gaze grew nervous.
“You must surely think that you evaded the poisonous smoke because you covered your nose.”
The edges of Jiang Chen’s lips moved slightly as they revealed some hints of mockery. “However, my poison is all pervasive. You covered your nose, but did you cover your ears?
Even if you could cover your ears, could you cover every single pore?
Unless you were prepared well in advance, and prepared a defense of true qi within your body, defending yourself while the poison invaded and used the true qi to force it out.”
Jiang Chen’s tone was diffident and remote. Whether it was a true qi master or an ordinary practitioner, anyone who allowed Jiang Chen within ten meters of themselves was equivalent to laying half their life in Jiang Chen’s hands.
Long San’s pupils contracted rapidly as they shot out the violent, brutal light of a wild beast.
Jiang Chen however, was in no hurry to walk up to him. Rather, he stayed a hundred meters away from Long San, walking in circles.
Out of Long San’s five underlings now, four were dead and one was injured. A peculiar poison had invaded Long San’s body. Jiang Chen would naturally not attack brashly.
He had all the time in the world to dawdle.
However, Long San didn’t have the luxury of wasting time. The more time he wasted, the more the poison would seep through his body.
He continually fished out various antidotes from his self, but they were all useless to a fault.
“Zhang Qi, are you a death warrior under the command of me, Long San, or not? Have you lost your will to fight after your shoulder was hurt?” Long San knew that continuing to waste time like this was not the thing to do.
His only point of reliance now was on this injured underlying. An injured shoulder was not a fatal injury.
That Zhang Qi kept circling not too far and not too close.
When he heard Long San’s admonishment, he roared lowly, “Lord San, I will return to pass on this information and bring reinforcements to avenge you!”
When he’d finished, this Zhang Qi actually sprang off the balls of his feet and leapt towards the depths of the trees and shrubbery, making a clean getaway.
Jiang Chen laughed softly, “Why don’t you stay.”
Two Layered Feather Throwing Daggers, one taking the left and the other taking the right, sealing off Zhang Qi’s escape.
Pfft!
Moonshatter Flying Daggers could scatter the sun, moon and the stars.
Although this Zhang Qi was of eight meridians true qi, his will had been seized from him and he was fleeing in abject panic. He was a walking target in Jiang Chen’s eyes.
Add to that Jiang Chen’s “God’s Eye” scanning the surroundings, he could make exceedingly accurate judgments about Zhang Qi’s escape path and his next move.
Therefore, there was absolutely no chance of missing the mark this time!
Long San’s face was ashen as he muttered, cursing, “Coward, coward. To think that I, Long San, would raise such a coward as a death warrior.”
After half a day, some wandering practitioners riding a horse carriage stopped in front of the door to the Soaring Dragon manor.
“Who are you to dare loiter in front of the manor of the duke of Soaring Dragon?” The manor’s guards immediately appeared and sought to banish these wandering practitioners.
One of the middle aged practitioners smiled apologetically, “Don’t be mad sir, don’t be mad. We haven’t come to act wildly on this trip. We’re purely helping a fellow deliver someone here, fulfilling the spirit of helping each other while in the outside world.”
“Deliver someone? Deliver who?” The manor guard’s tone was quite unfriendly.
“The man who entrusts us to deliver this man said this man’s name is Long San. He said this is a strong practitioner in your Soaring Dragon manor, and that he was poisoned in the course of executing a mission outside. This is most urgent for us to bring him back. He said to ask the strongest poison master within the manor to take a look. We are also trying our best to do what someone else asked us to do.”
“Lord San?” The manor guard was dumbfounded when he heard Long San’s vaulted name. “Where is he?”
“In the carriage, please take a look sir guard, and see if he’s someone in your manor. If not, then we were the ones played for a fool.”
The manor guard jerked at the curtain on the carriage and took a look inside. His expression changed drastically upon seeing the person inside as he hollered, “All of you, wait here. I’ll go in and make a report!”
A group of those notable people with power in the Soaring Dragon manor soon surged out. Although Long San was merely a hired thug for the duke of Soaring Dragon, he was one of the strongest five people within the duke of Soaring Dragon’s manor.
Although he was just a leader of the guards, he had committed many covert actions for the duke of Soaring Dragon, and thus the duke of Soaring Dragon relied heavily on him.
And now, this Long San had been poisoned and sent back by some wandering practitioners, his status unknown. How could this not bewilder and shock the entire Soaring Dragon dukedom?
Long San was a true qi master! The number of people who could harm him in the Eastern Kingdom could basically be counted on one hand!