With the Blade

Du Chengfeng furrowed his brows.

"I’m talking to you seriously, why are you shouting obscenities? Is this your character?"

"Divine Sword Sunfall!"

The ancient longsword descended from the sky and once again sliced through Du Chengfeng.

However, Du Chengfeng was still unharmed. This time he wasn’t even knocked flying, and the wounds that should have covered his body turned into mere scratches on his skin.

This made Du Chengfeng shake his head even more.

"Look, your moves are distorted, like this you can’t hurt anyone."

Looking at the nearly mad strange man before him, Du Chengfeng suddenly felt a bit emotional.

If he had encountered a formidable enemy he couldn’t possibly defeat when he first started his journey, he might have turned into this impotent fury too. It was just his luck that all the opponents he faced were ones he could defeat with effort, allowing him to step by step gain his current prowess—but clearly, not every martial artist has his good fortune. Most warriors are beaten back when they first emerge.

Thinking of this, Du Chengfeng looked at the strange man with a bit more compassion in his eyes.

Clearly already unable to fight back, yet still insisting on continuing, fueled only by an unwillingness to succumb to failure. Because of possessing strength, because of winning again and again, hence not wanting to lose, not wanting to be knocked to the ground...

This strange man must have suffered some hardships along the way, right?

You can understand that just by looking at the grand setup earlier: sitting high up, the attire must be the most domineering, the moves must be executed in the most grandiose manner, as if that would showcase strength...

Indeed, those things make someone appear very formidable.

But it’s just merely appearing as formidable.

"Are you trying to prove something?"

Thinking of this, Du Chengfeng looked at the strange man with even more sympathy.

Yes, sympathy. He had once wanted to do the same before he had the strength, using the most ferocious techniques to prove his power, killing more to prove his might... Of course, he’s past that phase now, but precisely because of that experience, he feels more that he understands everything about the strange man.

The grand setups, the domineering ways, it’s less about showing others and more about showing himself.

You must make yourself look strong, make yourself appear unparalleled, only then can you gain a bit of basic security, only then can you truly believe you possess strength...

"Sigh."

Letting out a sigh, Du Chengfeng actually sheathed his sword.

"No need to fight anymore, I lost."

Saying this, Du Chengfeng pointed at a scratch on his face, indicating that he was genuinely injured.

There’s no point in continuing this fight; he didn’t want to hurt the junior’s pride any further, so he might as well admit defeat—if it happened in the past, losing just once would make him sleepless for seven or eight nights, but for him now, winning and losing isn’t that important anymore. It’s not the end of the world if he loses.

"You truly won."

Seeing the strange man still not intending to stop, Du Chengfeng even raised his hand to exaggerate the scratch so it looked more serious.

"See, such a big slash, about to cut my throat. Your skill is quite good, you are something."

Saying this, Du Chengfeng gave the strange man a thumbs-up.

This was unprecedented behavior; Du Chengfeng appreciating his opponent for the first time.

But the praised strange man, named Huang Tian, became even angrier.

"How can there be such a beast like you! How can one give birth to a donkey like you!"

Faced with Du Chengfeng’s relentless sympathy, Huang Tian flew into a rage, and even the ancient longsword that had flown out was now tightly gripped in his hand.

"Divine Sword Opening Heaven!"

"Sigh..."

Du Chengfeng caught the incoming sword blade single-handedly, increasingly unwilling to continue the fight.

No point fighting anymore; this duel was like looking in a mirror, especially with that shout, it was as if he was facing his own embarrassing past — he had also contemplated some technique names before, but due to his lack of cultural knowledge, he eventually could only come up with straightforward, shamefully inappropriate names.

Thinking this way, he viewed the strange man with a bit more friendliness.

People always hold some affection towards others similar to themselves. It’s said that like attracts like, birds of a feather flock together. Because he’s been through it before, looking back at struggling young martial artists, he can’t help but feel empathetic.

"How about we find a place to grab some food?"

Casually catching the longsword handed over, Du Chengfeng thought.

"No need to fight anymore, today let’s consider it a meeting through combat just to know each other. I’ll personally cook and serve some wine, what do you say?"

"You..."

Faced with Du Chengfeng’s kindness, the man named Huang Tian’s eyes turned bloodshot.

Then, the ancient longsword pierced through his throat.

"Whoa!"

Du Chengfeng quickly let go of the sword.

Under heaven’s watch, he had merely disarmed casually. The sword was held in hand, truly never thrust outward—anyone with normal vision could see, that strange man thrust his neck into the sword’s tip entirely by himself, it had nothing to do with him.

"Don’t move, I..."

"You..."

Huang Tian, with the sword piercing his throat, breathed his last breath.

"I will remember you."

Then, his corpse with the sword in his throat fell from midair.

This left Du Chengfeng dumbfounded.

"No, I mean this injury isn’t severe, it can still be treated..."

Even though it’s a fatal wound through the throat, for Du Chengfeng it’s not entirely unmanageable. Reviving flesh through evil qi is something he can do for himself; even if the stranger can’t do it, he could slice off some skin to cover it up and probably seal the wound.

But now, it’s too late to say anything. Falling from a height of twenty or thirty meters isn’t exactly high, but it’s not low either, and coupled with the fatal injury, falling from that height, if not dead, is still fatal.

"This really isn’t my fault, right?"

Du Chengfeng felt it was better to first sort out the responsibility relation, like, if he actually killed someone, he wouldn’t deny it, but this person wasn’t killed by him. Heaven knows why this strange junior suddenly committed suicide.

He had already admitted defeat; bear in mind, he only lost once since wielding the sword, shouldn’t this be enough to put the junior at ease?

"Good!"

While Du Chengfeng was still puzzled, a cheer like a mountain roar and tsunami suddenly broke out.

Those were spectators in the contest arena, originally should have been killed by the sword’s light, but now they survived, and that once arrogant monster was dead instead. Finding hope in hopelessness, how could they not be elated?

"Good! Good! Good!"

"Sigh, no..."

Midair Du Chengfeng started scratching his head.

Who can tell him what exactly is going on?

Things seemed a bit different from what he imagined; everything happened too fast, he didn’t even have time to grasp the reasons before it abruptly ended—he wanted to ask someone what actually happened, but now he couldn’t even find anyone to ask. Everyone was clapping and cheering; who cared about him?

Yet thankfully, he still had at least some, basic methods.

"Not entirely wasted effort, I suppose."

Landing from midair, Du Chengfeng bent down and pulled out the ancient sword from the corpse on the ground.

Yes, the living have no time to talk, the dead don’t speak; hence, he’s only left with his own method to understand the process.

Thinking this way, Du Chengfeng didn’t seek a place, but directly pulled out a small piece of grinding stone from the heap of rags on him, and placed the longsword onto it.