Chapter 73
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Blood Hand Killer Guest
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In that instant, Ha Jin was stunned upon seeing the divine technique unfolded by the Six Gates Immortal.
It was none other than the Kunlun Sect's signature ultimate art, the Cloud Dragon Great Eight Forms.
Though it didn't flip the leaping body multiple times as the name suggested, the elegant yet majestic momentum made it unmistakably the Cloud Dragon Great Eight Forms.
"How... how is a Kunlun expert here...?"
Ha Jin swung the longsword in his hand upward from below to block the Six Gates Immortal's right hand.
The Six Gates Immortal's right hand was already plummeting from above.
But Ha Jin's upward thrust with the longsword was a feint.
He merely mimicked blocking with the sword before pulling his body back.
Then, fleeing with all his might, he shouted toward his subordinates.
"Everyone, get away fast! It's a Kunlun mad dog!"
The moment Ha Jin recognized his opponent as a Kunlun expert, he immediately thought of retreating.
This region's overlord had originally been the Kunlun Sect, but now, months after they had sealed their gates, the Red Horn Gang—who had been lying low, barely clinging to survival—were strutting about like they owned the world.
But with a Kunlun expert revealing himself like this, escape was the only option.
However, as he watched Ha Jin's retreating figure, the Six Gates Immortal's expression hardened, and he launched himself at Ha Jin again, roaring in fury.
"You bastard, stay right there! Isn't the martial art you're using clearly Kunlun's?"
It was an unexpected bellow, but the Six Gates Immortal's eyes were sharp.
Though it had been a feint that slipped away, the stance Ha Jin had used to block his right hand was unmistakably one move from the Kunlun Sect's ultimate art, the Embracing Jade Sword Method.
And the lightness skill he had just used to retreat was none other than Flying Dragon Pursues Lightning.
"What are you talking about? Kunlun martial arts...?!"
Ha Jin pretended ignorance even as he fled for dear life.
But the Six Gates Immortal, acknowledged by all as the pinnacle of Kunlun martial arts, said it was so, and thus it was.
"You vicious scum. I can't just let you go like this."
The Six Gates Immortal unleashed peak-level Flying Dragon Pursues Lightning.
It was on an entirely different dimension from Ha Jin's mere imitation.
In an instant, he caught up, flicking his right index finger toward Ha Jin's Daichui acupoint.
It was, of course, the Kunlun Sect's famed ultimate technique, the Golden Dragon Finger.
But Ha Jin was no slouch himself, a master in his own right. Sensing the fierce finger wind surging toward his back, he launched his body into the air and flipped three times to evade.
Absurdly enough, the movement Ha Jin had just executed was the third form of the Kunlun Sect's Cloud Dragon Great Eight Forms: Dragon Swims and Whisks Its Tail.
Seeing Ha Jin use Dragon Swims and Whisks Its Tail to dodge his own finger strike, the Six Gates Immortal was so flabbergasted that he stood there laughing dryly.
"Hahaha... So you're truly a Kunlun disciple?"
After flipping three times and landing, Ha Jin seemed to abandon any thought of escape. He stood before the Six Gates Immortal and cupped his hands in salute.
They were now in some alley far from the Red Horn Gang's underlings.
"This worthless nobody from the Red Horn Gang failed to recognize you, Daoist Priest. Please forgive me."
"Hmph. You're quite the sly one. Enough nonsense—state your name and origins. Having seen you use Kunlun martial arts, I can't simply let this pass."
Ha Jin smiled brazenly as he replied.
"My name is so lowly that if Your Honor heard it, it might dirty your ears, but defying your order would anger you further, so I ask: I am Ha Jin, in charge of the outer hall of the Red Horn Gang. I'm also known around here by the moniker Blood Hand Sword Guest, for better or worse."
"Hmm... Blood Hand Sword Guest Ha Jin. I've never heard of you, but the skills you showed are undoubtedly Kunlun martial arts, aren't they?"
"More importantly, may I know Your Honor's esteemed name...?"
"You think you qualify to ask that? Cut the crap and reveal your true origins."
Though the Six Gates Immortal feigned anger, Ha Jin grinned cheekily again as he answered.
"Why does Your Honor torment a mere nameless wretch from the jianghu like me? What fortune would I have to learn the Kunlun Sect's treasured ultimate arts? Aren't most martial arts in the jianghu all pretty similar anyway? Haha..."
"You're toying with this old Daoist. The Embracing Jade Sword Method move you used and the Flying Dragon Pursues Lightning may not have captured our sect's true intent, but the forms were precise. No more word games—tell the truth."
As the Six Gates Immortal hardened his expression and pressed him, Ha Jin dropped the playfulness and responded.
"Very well. Since it's come to this, I can't let it slide. If Your Honor shares your esteemed name, I'll tell you everything from the beginning."
"Hmm. Finally, some sense. I am Kunlun's Six Gates."
In that moment, Ha Jin's expression stiffened.
Before him stood one of the handful of absolute masters counted among the top twenty in all the land.
Only then did Ha Jin bow his head with the look of one who had given up everything.
But that slippery tongue of his hadn't gone anywhere.
"This worthless wretch Ha Jin greets the renowned First of the Five Immortals, Senior Kunlun Sword Immortal. I heard Kunlun is sealed and that the Sword Immortal is in hiding, so why show interest even in an event for lowly scum like us...?"
"Hahaha... What an impudent brat. Your skills are at a level to peek into the supreme realm just by looking, yet you cry 'nameless' and 'wretch'—what nonsense is this?"
"Oh come now, supreme realm? You jest, sir. I'm just a lowly outer hall head in the Red Horn Gang. Please look kindly upon me, Sword Immortal."
"Hmph. What irks me isn't just that you're mimicking Kunlun martial arts in appearance, but that at your level, you're running errands for riffraff like the Red Horn Gang. Show your true face now. Do you intend to keep toying with me, the Sword Immortal?"
As the Six Gates Immortal bore down with his questions, Ha Jin, who had been bowing, lifted his head straight.
His expression was neither servile nor fearful.
Rather, it carried a smug satisfaction, as if he had achieved his goal.
The Six Gates Immortal himself flinched at Ha Jin's look.
"As expected of the Sword Immortal—your insight is divine. I, Ha Jin, am truly in awe. Just understand that I've been racking my brains for quite some time to arrange this meeting with you. Heh heh..."
At the same time, over a dozen experts sprang out from all directions, surrounding the Six Gates Immortal.
They were eerie figures.
No inner energy could be felt from them, yet they reeked of the foul stench of butchers, thick with the scent of blood.
This was a narrow alley in the slums of the city of Dunhuang.
The senses of countless commoners flowed through the alleys and beyond, but the Six Gates Immortal was no fool unaware of experts hiding among them.
Yet these ones had no presence at all.
Only then did a certain name from the old jianghu legends come to the Six Gates Immortal's mind.
Blood Hand Killer Guests.
Do not meet them in the darkness, unless you wish to meet death.
The Six Gates Immortal silently expanded his senses and stirred his inner energy.
The fiends had dug a trap for him, and he had already stepped into it—he was no fool to grow careless now.
Ha Jin, who had called himself the Blood Hand Sword Guest, wiped the smile from his face and bowed again.
"I hold the third seat among the Blood Hand Killer Guests. Bringing the Sword Immortal here today is no plot for mishap. We were simply ordered to escort you."
"Hmph. I've heard of you Blood Hand Killer Guests. Among the assassins for hire, you're said to be the best, aren't you? Who hired you lot?"
"We didn't wait for you today for money, nor to take your life, sir."
"Fine then. What do you want from me?"
"Just follow us to meet Him."
"Him being, of course, Cult Leader Wu. So you're all Demonic Cult affiliates?"
"Exactly right. I hold a lowly post under the Phoenix Banner of our cult. We've been waiting here on orders to bring the Sword Immortal."
"It's shocking that you, whose ill fame shook the jianghu, are Demonic Cult members. In any case, I have no intention of going anywhere with you to meet anyone. This old man still has much to do."
"As expected of the First of the Five Immortals. We'll do our utmost, so please take care."
"Haha... Such arrogance from mere assassins, before this old Daoist... In any event, thanks to you, most of my questions are answered. Now, I'd like to hear more about that Kunlun martial art you learned."
At that moment, the surrounding experts stepped closer without a sound.
The man called Ha Jin readjusted his longsword and advanced.
"It's nothing special. Our cult's warehouses are overflowing with such manuals—you could kick them aside. I hear they were gathered back when we drove out the Mongol dogs."
At Ha Jin's explanation, the Six Gates Immortal let out a groan.
Indeed, back in his youth as a young Daoist, he had heard such tales.
Over two hundred years ago, when the entire central plains jianghu banded together to repel the Mongol barbarians, each sect had sent copies of their treasured manuals to a secret location for safekeeping.
He hadn't known that location was some warehouse of the Great Cloud Bright Religion, of course.
It was an era when the war's outcome was uncertain.
Thus, as a precaution for worst-case scenarios to preserve each sect's lineage, they had done so—but after the Ming Cult nominally vanished, the matter faded from memory.
That was the true reason the Great Cloud Bright Religion's martial arts had advanced so dramatically through the anti-Mongol wars.
Having gathered and studied the treasured manuals of all the central plains' major sects, sifting truth from falsehood—what staggering gains that must have yielded?
"So that rumor was true. I half-doubted it even as I heard it in my youth."
"You needn't worry over it, Sword Immortal. As you've seen, those in our cult's warehouses are mere shells. They wouldn't have handed over inner methods or sect-specific insights, would they?"
The Six Gates Immortal heaved a deeper sigh and countered.
"Then this business of Dunhuang's treasures, gathering people here—it's connected to that, isn't it?"
"Haha... Over those long years, each sect must have practical manuals they've refined. If one could find the originals and hold them to shake things up, wouldn't they stake their lives for it? Heh heh..."
Suddenly, a faint azure energy began swirling around the Six Gates Immortal's entire body.
At last, he had begun circulating the Pure Azure True Qi, the foundation of Kunlun martial arts.
"I've understood everything. No more time to play with you lot—I'm off. Punishment for your crimes today, I'll defer to next time."
Only now did the Kunlun Sword Immortal, Six Gates, realize that a vast conspiratorial net had been cast over Dunhuang, and that the events to unfold here were the prelude to a bloody storm that would engulf the entire jianghu.