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It was just a small, short blade—yet it cut clean through two wooden walls in succession. And not ordinary walls—they were crafted from reinforced, specially treated wood. Even after that, the blade still carried enough force to strike the white-robed figure behind them.
Hiss!!
The sound was sharp, like fabric being violently torn. Lu Sheng’s eyes flared red, bloodshot with fury. In a single, brutal motion, he cleaved the white-robed figure cleanly in two.
The blade whipped back with a swish, slicing the wooden table beside him in half like paper.
Lu Sheng’s eyes swept across the room. The Black Fiend Art was coursing wildly through his body, its power surging at a terrifying speed. A savage, uncontrollable urge roared inside his chest—but there was no release for it.
Bang!
The Eight Immortals Table blocking his path was kicked aside with a crash, slamming into the wall before crumpling to the ground. But even then, Lu Sheng could feel it—someone was watching him.
"Looking for death!" he roared, eyes burning with madness. The blade in his hand swung with terrifying force, unleashing the Tiger’s Wrath strike from the Black Tiger Saber Techniques Technique.
"Get out!!!"
The blade light shot forward, slamming into the wall like a clap of muffled thunder. The roar of a black tiger echoed alongside the strike.
Boom!!
The entire wall exploded under the impact. Blessed by the Black Fiend Art, Lu Sheng’s strike shattered it into countless shards of blackened wood that rained across the room.
Through the third collapsed wall, a woman appeared—dressed in white, with long hair that fell like a curtain over her face.
In a corner, Song Zhenguo and Jun’er huddled together, trembling in fear and despair. They hadn’t expected to be caught in Lu Sheng’s onslaught.
At first, both of them were stunned. But when they recognized the figure, a rush of joy filled their faces. They saw Lu Sheng charging forward like a divine warrior, heading straight for the woman in white.
Song Zhenguo began to rise, ready to approach him—but Jun’er suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Something's wrong! Wait a minute!" she warned sharply. Blood stained the corner of her mouth, though she hadn’t even realized she was injured. Her beautiful eyes locked on Lu Sheng, sensing that something about him wasn’t right.
"Why is it wrong? That’s Brother Lu—Brother Lu Sheng! I didn’t expect him to be this strong. He must be here to save us!" Song Zhenguo said excitedly, his voice trembling with hope.
"Take a closer look!" Jun’er urged in a low voice.
Song Zhenguo froze. He turned his gaze back to Lu Sheng—and finally noticed.
Something was off. Deeply off.
"Hehehe..." The woman’s figure floated backward, her eerie laugh echoing in the air. From both sides of her, dozens of green flames burst forth—shaped like human heads—racing toward Lu Sheng with terrifying speed.
The glowing flames swarmed through the air, sealing off every possible angle of escape.
Lu Sheng’s Black Fiend Art surged to its peak, his heart overwhelmed by bloodthirsty rage. The short blade in his hand trembled violently, pulsing with internal energy. Power flooded his right arm—then he swung the blade forward in a devastating arc.
Aww!!
A massive tiger’s roar exploded through the room.
The silver blade light erupted forward, forming a brilliant arc like a giant axe made of light. It clashed head-on with the incoming green flames.
Puff puff puff...
A rapid series of popping sounds filled the air, like bubbles being pierced. One by one, the green flames were shattered, scattered into flickering embers. Some landed on the red hanging lanterns, igniting them in an instant. Fire raced along the velvet drapes and carpeted floor.
"A martial arts master? Both internal and external? You're quite capable." The woman let out a shrill laugh. She floated higher into the air, then waved her hand with a chilling grace.
Suddenly, a series of black orbs shot in through the broken wall of the wing room. Dozens of them rained down on Lu Sheng in an instant—too fast to block.
"Tiger's Might!" Lu Sheng bellowed. He gripped the short blade tightly with both hands. Though his weapon was small, his towering frame and the fierce vibration of the blade created an overwhelming presence. The flame’s reflection danced across the blade's surface, growing brighter and brighter.
Whoosh!
Like a pouncing tiger, a vicious wind swirled around him. Lu Sheng charged forward with a sudden burst of explosive speed—faster than when he had pursued the white-robed figure earlier.
He twisted, ducked, and sidestepped with terrifying precision—dodging every black orb without letting a single one land.
In a blur of motion, he appeared before the woman in white and swung the blade at her neck.
Puff!
Her head flew from her shoulders.
Lu Sheng spun and slashed again.
Puff.
The woman's body was cleaved diagonally in half, her shrill scream echoing in the burning air.
The fire spread wildly, growing hotter and fiercer. The main beam of the wing room caught fire and gave way with a thunderous crash.
Just as Lu Sheng completed his final, full-powered strike, the flaming beam came crashing down. Still recovering from the attack, he couldn't escape in time.
The flames surged around him like living creatures—and in the blink of an eye, he was swallowed whole.
"Lu Sheng!!!"
At that moment, Song Zhenguo and Jun’er rushed out from the corner of the wing room, desperate to save him—but they were too late.
The burning beam crashed down, striking Lu Sheng squarely on the head. Flames surged upward and swallowed his figure completely, until he was no longer visible.
"Go!" Jun’er shouted, grabbing Song Zhenguo tightly.
"Lu Sheng! Brother Lu!!" Song Zhenguo cried out, his voice torn with grief.
"You should worry about yourselves."
A chilling voice cut through the flames. The woman in the white dress appeared again—completely unharmed. She floated silently by the blazing ruin of the wing room, her long hair still covering her face. Her eyes, hidden in shadow, locked onto them with sinister intent.
Without hesitation, Song Zhenguo and Jun’er turned and fled through the door, too afraid to look back.
"It's me... It's me who hurt Brother Lu!" Song Zhenguo’s eyes brimmed with tears, his heart twisted with anguish. "If not for me—!"
"Escape first!" Jun’er snapped, her voice firm with urgency.
Whoosh!
Behind them, the woman in white drifted silently from the burning building and gave chase, her movements smooth and unnatural.
"Want to escape?!" she shrieked, her voice shrill and furious.
Ah!!
Just then, a roar erupted from within the inferno.
A blazing figure burst through the collapsing structure, flames clinging to his body. With a violent motion, he shoved the beam aside and leapt from the fire. Sparks exploded into the air as a massive hand shot forward from the smoke—aiming straight at the ghostly woman.
"You!!?" The woman recoiled in horror, turning back too late.
Lu Sheng surged out of the blaze, his eyes wild and bloodshot. The blade in his hand cleaved through the wall of fire, the arc of steel like a crimson tidal wave—aimed straight at her neck.
Swish!
Once again, the woman in white was sliced in two, her body neatly split by Lu Sheng’s burning blade.
But her severed form didn’t fall. In midair, the two halves twisted and curled unnaturally, then merged back together like smoke reforming—her figure whole again in the blink of an eye.
"A mere mortal! How dare you—!" she screamed. Her black hair flared around her like a halo of shadow. Hands folding in a strange gesture, she cast her spell. Her white gown unraveled into dozens of strips of silk, whipping through the air toward Lu Sheng.
"Go to hell!"
The strips of white cloth whistled through the air like razors, each one slicing toward him with lethal precision.
Lu Sheng’s eyes gleamed red, flames still licking his scorched clothes. Wisps of smoke curled off his body, but he didn’t falter.
Despite the damage, the Black Fiend Art had begun to restore his clarity. He could finally feel the haze of madness lifting just enough to focus.
His skin burned, pain radiating from large swathes of scorched flesh. Without hesitation, Lu Sheng activated the Black Tiger Jade Crane Art, accelerating the flow of energy within him. The enhanced art, known for its strong regenerative power, surged through his meridians.
The searing pain began to ease. Slowly—but surely—his wounds started to knit together.
Yet in that very moment—while both the Black Tiger Jade Crane Art and the Black Fiend Art surged wildly through his meridians—Lu Sheng felt something shift within his body.
Two streams of internal energy coursed through him at once. One burned with violent fury; the other flowed in calm, steady silence.
He gripped the blade tightly, eyes locked on the woman suspended in midair. Then, without warning, an unfamiliar sensation blossomed in his chest—strange yet instinctive.
The twin streams of energy—one hot, one cold—rushed into his left and right arms respectively. There, they spiraled down into the short blade gripped in both hands, intertwining and compressing into a force that felt immense, almost uncontainable.
His body instinctively crouched low, coiling like a spring.
In his mind’s eye, the black tiger and the white crane—the two visualizations from his martial arts—suddenly merged, their forms spiraling into one another like yin and yang, fierce and graceful.
At once, the short blade in Lu Sheng’s hands flared with radiant red light.
Ouuugh!—Roooaaa!
A piercing roar, both savage and shrill, echoed through the sky. It was as if the mighty cries of tiger and crane had risen together—twisting, fusing, becoming one.
Amid the deafening call, Lu Sheng launched upward, blade flashing, and struck straight toward the woman.
"Kill!"
Bang!
This time, the force didn’t merely slice her in half.
It obliterated her.
Her body burst into countless fragments, scattering like ashes caught in a storm. Sparks flared as the remains caught fire, crumbling silently into the inferno below.
Bang!
Lu Sheng landed heavily on the deck, his impact shaking the entire pleasure boat. He remained still for a moment, chest heaving, before slowly rising to his feet.
Lowering his gaze, he noticed something glinting near his boot. He knelt and picked it up—a single purple jade hairpin. The only thing the woman had left behind.
He turned toward the figures on the deck, and with a half-smile, showed his teeth.
"Brother Song. Looks like your luck’s not too bad—you made it out in one piece."
Not far away, Song Zhenguo stood frozen beside Jun’er, still in shock.
"Brother Lu... Brother Lu..." he stammered, wide-eyed. He had witnessed the entire fight, and now questioned whether this new friend of his was even human.
"Let's go find Brother Chen. We need to get off this boat—if we wait any longer, we might not be able to leave at all," Lu Sheng said, raising his arm to glance at himself.
His clothes were scorched and clung painfully to his skin, but thanks to the Black Fiend Art coursing through him, the burns weren’t severe. His body, now used to extreme heat, had withstood the worst. During the fight, his sheer speed and intensity had prevented the flames from spreading too far.
"Then... that female ghost, she just vanished like that?" Song Zhenguo asked, his voice still laced with disbelief.
"I’m not sure," Lu Sheng replied with a shake of his head. "But I think... she’s gone for good."9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZHE6Y1Bny
He turned to look at Xiaojun.
She responded with a soft, grateful smile.
Without wasting more time, the three of them quickly found Chen Jiaorong asleep in a corner of the cabin. Song Zhenguo hoisted him onto his back, and the group of four made their way off the boat via the dock.
Just as they stepped onto solid ground, the pleasure boat behind them was suddenly engulfed in flames, transforming into a blazing inferno. The fire lit up the surface of the Songbai River, crackling and dancing in the night.
But then something felt... off.
They looked around and realized with growing confusion—they were no longer beside the river near the mountain city. Instead, they stood on the banks of a river surrounded by wilderness. The docks were gone. The landscape had changed.
There were no buildings, no people—only open fields and waist-high grass swaying in the wind.
Lu Sheng rummaged through their belongings and found Song Zhenguo’s coat. He stripped off his burned clothes and changed. Beneath the tattered fabric, his injuries were lighter than expected. Most of his skin had only been blackened, not scorched, though all the hair on his head and body had been singed clean off.
Now completely bald, he looked almost like a different person.
Together, they stood in silence, watching as the fire boat slowly sank into the river and disappeared beneath the surface.
Lu Sheng turned his gaze to Xiaojun. Song Zhenguo followed, his eyes also resting on her.
They both needed answers.
Answers only she seemed to have.
"What’s going on?"
Seeing the sincerity in their eyes, Jun’er lowered her head and gently bit her lip, remaining silent for a moment.
"Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know much about the pleasure boats," she finally said softly. "All I know is that ours isn’t just any ordinary boat. There’s a very mysterious and powerful figure behind it—some boss that controls most of the pleasure boats along the Songbai River. Technically, our boat belongs to him too."
She paused, then added, voice tinged with sorrow,9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqtzE3ePH3p
"That woman… she’s always been in charge of the bow. But I never imagined that she… she would turn out like that."9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnYOMwNxbK4
Jun’er slowly shook her head and let out a long sigh.
"Let’s head back first," Lu Sheng said, glancing at the now empty river. "Who even knows where we are right now?"
"I do," Song Zhenguo replied with a bitter smile. "If I’m not mistaken, this should be the lower reaches of the Songbai River, just outside Yanshan City. We’re at least ten miles away. If we follow the river upstream, we’ll get there."
He looked at Lu Sheng—his clothes scorched, skin blackened, and entire body singed—and suddenly reached out to stop Jun’er from moving forward. Then, without hesitation, he bowed deeply toward Lu Sheng.
"This time, I nearly got Lu Sheng and Jiaorong killed. Because of me and Jun’er, we almost dragged you both into something deadly."
Lu Sheng shook his head slightly, eyes calm but serious.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMoROlTGs9
"I’m afraid… this matter isn’t over yet."
Song Zhenguo was stunned. Then he noticed something strange—Lu Sheng's gaze had shifted to Jun’er.
Alarmed, Song turned to her, and his eyes widened in shock.
Jun’er's body—once completely solid—was slowly becoming translucent, as if dissolving into the air.
-----------9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqliw9qagI
Hi there, Taleria here!9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkcCrFEcv1
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