Chapter 35
Chapter 35
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Annihilation in the Ancient Temple
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Helian Zheng's eyes nearly split from rage. Before he could circle around the Eight Immortals table, Chen Shi struck first, taking out Zhao Third Young Master and Zhao Xue'e with two chopsticks. It left him seething with uncontrollable fury.
This time, the Zhao family's Xuan Ying Mansion had sent Zhao Third Young Master out to locate Second Miss Zhao and resolve the disappearance of Steward Zhao Ming and Old Man Iron Brush. At the same time, they dispatched Helian Zheng to lead the Embroidered Uniform Guards in protecting Zhao Yue and the others.
Though Zhao Yue was the Third Young Master, he enjoyed considerable prestige within Xuan Ying Mansion. Intelligent and studious, he had immersed himself in poetry and classics from childhood, excelled at the qin and se, and brimmed with compassion, earning the affection of everyone in the household.
Rumors even swirled that if the Eldest Young Master proved unworthy and Second Miss could not be found, the master intended to name Zhao Yue as heir.
Zhao Xue'e, standing beside Zhao Yue, was his full sister, just sixteen—blossoming into womanhood. Upon hearing that her third brother was off to find their second sister and avenge Zhao Ming and Old Man Iron Brush, she eagerly tagged along.
She too was a compassionate soul, endlessly kind, the type who wouldn't harm so much as an ant.
Who could have imagined this country savage would be so ruthless—one chopstick to kill Third Young Master Zhao, another to finish Zhao Xue'e!
With Zhao Yue and Zhao Xue'e dead, Helian Zheng could not escape blame. He would face charges of dereliction, perhaps even execution alongside the Third Young Master!
And it was all thanks to Chen Shi!
"Country barbarian!"
Helian Zheng gnashed his teeth and charged forward. Having felled two foes with his chopsticks, Chen Shi flipped the dining table with an upward sweep. The table whooshed into the air, blocking the view of those ahead.
As the table flew up, Chen Shi's figure shot backward. His left hand lashed out like a cleaver, striking the throat of the Embroidered Uniform Guard behind Zhao Yue.
"Such fast speed!"
Despair gripped that Embroidered Uniform Guard's heart.
He had sensed something amiss but had no time to evade. His neck bone snapped.
Right Two. Dead.
Chen Shi spun and threw a punch. His fist whipped up a gust as it smashed into the face of a nearby Embroidered Uniform Guard, driving the man's head into the ancient temple wall. The wall boomed open in a gaping hole!
Outside, the Embroidered Uniform Guards watched the temple wall bulge outward. Several green bricks flew free, followed by a shattered skull protruding through.
Left One. Dead.
"Enemy attack—"
The others froze for a split second before snapping to action, rushing the ancient temple.
Inside, pandemonium erupted. Nearly everyone lurched into motion—some shoving chairs aside to rise, others tripping over them, some surging forward, some scrambling back to evade Chen Shi, the harbinger of doom.
In the chaos, one stumbled into another, blocking paths. The Embroidered Uniform Guards yearned to strike but held back amid the crowd—any spell now would slaughter their own ranks.
Their limbs flailed in disorder, their minds in turmoil. They itched to hurl the obstructing allies aside but restrained themselves, mindful of their bonds.
Chen Shi remained ice-calm.
It was uncanny. Beforehand, he weighed risks with endless hesitation. But once engaged, serenity washed over him. Every blow landed swift and true, as if slaughter were his innate gift.
His speed was blinding, his small frame elusive as an eel. He sidestepped a charging Embroidered Uniform Guard, cocked his fist—thumb tucked beneath by his middle finger, index finger braced atop—and drove the knuckle into the man's temple. It shattered the fragile skull, force surging into the brain.
The Guard's right eye bulged bloodshot, the entire orb crimson, pupil lost.
Vessels ruptured at the temple. Eyes flooded first, blurring sight. Then concussion seized the brain, halting thought. Blood surged in, death swift with scant pain.
Like a darting fish, Chen Shi circled behind the crumpling Guard, back pressed to back—only to face Zhao Yan swinging a chair down viciously.
Chen Shi neither dodged nor flinched. The chair splintered against his head with a boom, shattering into fragments. Zhao Yan clutched two legs; Chen Shi snatched the rest.
Zhao Yan eyed the jagged tips, malice flashing. He moved to impale Chen Shi—too slow. Chen Shi rammed a chair leg through his throat!
Zhao Yan practiced body refinement, but his physique paled against Chen Shi's. His speed lagged far behind.
Chen Shi dropped low, leg whipping out to boot the groin of a Guard charging from the side. He spun, left hand thrusting the spare chair leg into the abdomen of another, face twisted in agony.
Right One. Left Two. Zhao Yan.
Dead.
The ancient temple dissolved into bedlam. Zhao Yue and Zhao Xue'e yet clung to life, the neck-snapped Guard hadn't fallen, Zhao Yan pawed futilely at his throat—when one Guard invoked a Yellow Turban Warrior Talisman. Golden radiance enveloped him, strength boundless. Like a rampaging bull, he barreled at Chen Shi, fist descending.
Chen Shi discarded the chair legs. A lesson from the Li family camp: blood-slicked weapons slipped free too easily.
Chopsticks or chair legs—he used them once and tossed, reusing only if handy.
He pumped qi and blood. His right arm ballooned double-thick, palm hefty as a bear's paw, meeting the incoming fist head-on.
The Guard's talisman blazed golden at the fist peak, his form aglow like gilded armor, a deity manifest!
The Warrior Talisman granted a cultivator diamond-hard flesh and inexhaustible might in moments—prime for melee.
"Crack!"
Fists met. The Guard's fingers pulverized, arm bone splintered. Grimacing, he cocked his left for a strike—but Chen Shi seized the mangled right arm, shoving hard. The jagged bone pierced the man's own chest.
The Guard's left hammered Chen Shi's face—once, twice, thrice!
Chen Shi weathered the barrage, shoving relentlessly until the man slammed the wall with a boom, impaled on his own fracture.
Chen Shi wrenched the bone free. Blood fountained. The Guard expired.
Left Three. Dead.
A Zhao clansman spotted Chen Shi charging. Without pause, the Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword leaped from the Divine Shrine, shrieking sharply. Chen Shi teetered on the brink of decapitation—then dropped into a squat.
The sword qi skimmed his scalp. The Zhao clansman trailing Chen Shi froze; his head tumbled from his neck.
The blade sheared through, unrelenting, carving a deep gash in the far wall with a thunderous boom!
Chen Shi hadn't anticipated spellcraft in such cramped quarters. Squatting, he snatched a shard from a shattered plate.
The temple floor slickened—oil from dishes or blood? Chen Shi glided past the fallen clansman, yanking one leg to topple him, plate shard in the other hand flashing up and down, up and down.
In an instant, stabs marched from leg to chest—over a dozen. Slipping, the shard stayed lodged, nicking Chen Shi's palm too.
He rolled, vaulted clear of a plummeting three-eyed fire lance, mind tallying silently: "Twelve in the temple at the start. Two remain. Eliminate them..."
The fire lance skipped across the floor, thrusting ahead to thud his chest!
A gun art—not a prod, but a piercing thrust, deadlier still!
Helian Zheng lacked time to reverse it; this blunted end sufficed. The opposite bore a lethal spike that would have skewered Chen Shi outright.
Even thus, the ten-odd jin weapon, powered by Helian Zheng's brute force, struck like an iron maul. Chen Shi grunted, hurled backward. Mid-flight, Helian Zheng hoisted the lance single-handed; its muzzle flared!
He crashed the wall, chest ablaze with pain, but one palm clawed into the brick, hauling with a surge. His body twisted upward like a coiling serpent.
The impact site erupted—half the wall demolished in a blast of debris and shockwave!
The three-eyed fire lance's powder hailed from Great Tang's Daoist medicine sage Sun Simiao: three ingredients refined into Three Yang Thunder Fire. Eruption sundered flesh, scourged souls—even Nascent Soul grandmasters yielded to this Daoist marvel.
Helian Zheng's shot: one-and-a-half liang black powder, one liang thunderbolt pellets, barrel etched with Five Yang Heavenly Thunder Talismans. Such devastation. More powder? Unimaginable fury!
Helian Zheng missed, leveled for another. Chen Shi crested the roof—no great beams, merely hexagonal lattice along six minor ones.
Hands and feet flying, Chen Shi scrambled up. Helian Zheng leaped after, lance in grip, Divine Shrine flaring behind. Air whistled—Chen Shi released, plummeting.
Two sword qis swished, slicing the roof. Sunlight poured through.
Chen Shi hit ground running, bolting for the lance-blasted hole.
Helian Zheng, airborne, triggered leg Galloping Horse Talismans. Divine Embryo in his shrine coalesced true qi into Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword qi. Lance downward—muzzle belched flame. Thunder cracked the temple!
Thunderbolt pellets detonated beside Chen Shi, shrapnel raking bloody trails across his back.
Recoil hurled Helian Zheng upward. Palm snagged a roof beam; he flipped through the sword-gashed roof, boots thudding atop the temple. Cold eyes scanned below.
No sign of Chen Shi.
By rights, the boy should burst into view for a point-blank blast!
"This kid's breakout was a feint—he's back inside!"
Helian Zheng reeled. "Young Master Zhao Rui's still in there!"
He plunged through the breach. Mid-drop, Chen Shi slammed Zhao Rui's head into the wall—blood and brains splattered.
Zhao family's six: all eliminated. None spared.
Chen Shi exhaled, heart settling into solid calm.
A gentleman without resolve lacks majesty.
Only by striking decisively, slaying them to the last, could he forge awe—and cow the Zhao clan in the provincial seat.
"If Scholar Zhu were here, he'd rejoice. I honored the master's teachings!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------