"Boom!"
"Damn it, is it still not enough? This blade is too short! If only it were like... like my dad's... blade!"
"Agh! I'll kill you! My hand!" Liang Kuan clutched his neck. When he pulled his hand away to check, there was a thin, shallow gash, and fresh blood streamed down from between his fingers. Even more pathetically, his right hand had been severed at the elbow, and blood gushed out like a fountain. He couldn't spare a hand to grab an elixir—damn little wretch!
When Liang Kuan had leaped backward, his right arm happened to strike Jian Xin's blade and was hacked off right at the elbow joint. At the same time, Jian Xin lowered her head and spun the blade, only for Liang Kuan to kick it away midway through the rotation, sending it clattering to the ground beside him.
Struck squarely in the stomach, Jian Xin tightly clutched her belly, curling up into a ball. As she watched Liang Kuan swallow an elixir, a wave of despair washed over her. "It hurts so much! Today... am I actually going to die here with... with some stranger?!"
"No, you won't die right now. I'm going to torture you properly first!" Liang Kuan released his bleeding stump, crouched down unsteadily, picked up the Broken Blade from the ground, and laughed like a madman. "Broken Blade! Hahaha, Broken Blade, I love you so much!"
"Bone-Breaker!"
"Hm?" Liang Kuan instantly leaped backward, dodging a fatal strike. "Shi Wei, you're asking for a death wish! That Broken Blade was a gift to you from that bitch, and now it'll be the last thing I give you! Die!" Landing on his feet, Liang Kuan gripped the blade in his left hand and lunged forward through clenched teeth. Meanwhile, Jian Xin found strength from nowhere, rushed forward, and hugged Liang Kuan's legs tightly.
"Hah! What? Stinking brat, go to hell!" Without even looking, Liang Kuan kicked Jian Xin away, flinging her aside viciously as his eyes locked onto Shi Wei.
"Sever!"
Liang Kuan met the charge with the Broken Blade in his left hand. In his mind, the mysterious blade in Shi Wei's grip should have been shattered instantly, and he would use this very Broken Blade to decapitate him in a single strike!
...
"Impossible! You couldn't possibly..."
Thud.
Standing to Liang Kuan's right, Shi Wei looked coldly at the fountain of blood spurting from the right side of his neck. Watching Liang Kuan's body collapse, Shi Wei crouched down, retrieved the Broken Blade, and asked, "Li... Li Cunyong? Or... Li Gangwen?" But Liang Kuan could no longer speak... A single strike, and he would never get up again.
The instant their blades crossed, Shi Wei had sidestepped to the right, spun around while dodging to the side, and accurately thrust his blade into Liang Kuan's neck.
Gazing at the severely injured and unconscious Jian Xin, whose surrounding green aura was growing faint, Shi Wei picked up the Broken Blade and cut two openings in Liang Kuan's body: one at the Dantian, and the other at the shoulder blade. From the Dantian he extracted a pellet shining with a pale golden light, and from the shoulder blade, a fiery red pellet.
Holding the pale golden bead, Shi Wei walked over to Jian Xin. "Consider this repayment. Hmm." He placed it in her mouth, using his Spiritual Power to dissolve and disperse the elixir. Looking down at the young girl, Shi Wei's expression grew complex and conflicted. As a pale golden aura gradually emerged around Jian Xin, he touched her throat, drew out a wisp of black gas, and turned back to search Liang Kuan's corpse. Prying a ring off Liang Kuan's finger, he smeared a drop of blood onto it and tipped it downward; a pile of items tumbled out from the ring.
Clatter.
Hearing the sound, Shi Wei looked down, a sneer curling the corners of his lips when he spotted certain items on the ground. He crouched down, picked out an elixir from the pile, swallowed it, and sat down to rest.
...
"Huh? Where is this... Ow! Ouch!" Jian Xin slowly regained consciousness, looked around, jumped up in a start, and tumbled to the ground. "Ow, ow, ow, it hurts!"
"You're not dead! Then why didn't you help me?!" Jian Xin glared at the meditating Shi Wei, fury boiling inside her. She had actually tried to save him, yet he had hidden until the very end, only to emerge and watch Liang Kuan—now lying on the ground with two holes carved into him—die, making her realize belatedly that she had apparently... killed someone!
"This, this, this... I... he... did I...?" Jian Xin stammered, flailing her hands wildly, pointing at herself one moment and at Liang Kuan the next, desperately trying to talk herself into accepting the reality that she had killed a man.
"It has nothing to do with you," Shi Wei said coldly.
"You mean... he's not dead?"
"I killed him."
...
"Xiner! Xiner!"
"Is your home around here?"
"Yeah! Hey, what are you trying to do?!"
"Go on home. I... will probably come looking for you." Unsure of himself, Shi Wei still wanted to bestow an opportunity upon Jian Xin. If nothing else, she had saved his life, and he owed her that much. "Remember this: my name is Shi Wei. Not a word to anyone about what happened today."
"What is that supposed to mean?! Why would you come looking for me?!"
"Xiner! Xiner!"
Without answering Jian Xin, Shi Wei waved his hand with great effort, and a gust of wind swept Jian Xin away.
...