Chapter 58 : Chapter 58
Chapter 58: If I Cannot Kill This Villain, I Will Have No Face to Live On in the Jianghu!
Cheng Yu returned to the ranks of the Jinyiwei.
According to the earlier arrangement, Ai Peng should finish checking what exactly was hidden inside Sword-Forging Mountain in about the time it took one stick of incense to burn.
Only then would they know whether it was truly the Dragon Vein they had previously extracted through interrogation.
After all, the Dragon Vein was an extremely mysterious thing. There was every chance Sword-Forging Manor had simply mistaken it for something else.
Only once that was fully confirmed would the two Eighth Rank Assistant Commissioners wholeheartedly help Cheng Yu raid and wipe out Sword-Forging Manor.
“Dragon Vein...”
Cheng Yu murmured the words softly.
Now that the Great Qian Emperor had sent people to Dragon Abyss Path, Cheng Yu himself had no real chance of obtaining the treasure that everyone here coveted.
Not unless some extraordinary stroke of fortune intervened.
But Cheng Yu did not find that regrettable.
Without this borrowed strength, he would have had no hope at all of making a move against Sword-Forging Manor.
He understood that only by not coveting what should not be coveted could one stay alive.
As long as he managed to raid Sword-Forging Manor, the reward would surely be extraordinary.
Most likely, it would be no worse than that illusory, untouchable Dragon Vein.
As Cheng Yu was thinking this over, he suddenly heard Zhao Xichun’s voice from behind him again.
“Yu’er, stop being stubborn, all right? Mother is begging you!”
When he turned around, he saw that Zhao Xichun had chased after him.
Cheng Yu faced her with an expression as cold as ice.
This woman was not as hypocritical and disgusting as Cheng Zhenjiang, but in the end, she was still a fool lost in self-deception.
She did not care whether her own son lived or died. All she ever did was cry and wail with tears in her eyes.
Seeing the coldness in Cheng Yu’s gaze, Zhao Xichun wept harder, her heart hurting as though cut by knives.
“Yu’er, Mother was wrong. Don’t keep stubbornly walking this mistaken path. Mother is doing this for your own good!”
“Just listen to me this once. Come home obediently and stop doing these things. From now on, I’ll treat you well. I’ll give you the best life possible.”
“Can’t our family just live together in peace?”
Live together in peace?
Cheng Yu sneered inwardly.
This woman was still dreaming.
He remembered that look in her eyes.
He had seen it before, a few months ago, when they had finally reunited after eighteen long years.
Back then, Zhao Xichun had worn that same look and made those same promises.
And in the end, had she not still driven her son onto a dead road?
On the surface, becoming a disciple of the River-Severing Sect and the Cheng Family seemed like the finest background anyone in the world could hope for.
But with parents like these, there could never be a good ending.
No matter how beautifully they promised things, the moment even the slightest dissatisfaction arose, they would tear off that hypocritical mask and reveal their true faces.
“Promise Mother, all right?”
Her vision blurred with tears as Zhao Xichun reached out and grabbed Cheng Yu’s sleeve.
When she realized that Cheng Yu had not dodged away, joy surged in her heart.
Had Yu’er changed his mind?!
She looked up at him in excitement.
But what awaited her was only a cold sentence.
Cheng Yu shook off Zhao Xichun’s hand.
“Madam Cheng, in this life, aside from nearly dying in the River-Severing Sect, I do not seem to have had much to do with you people, do I? Why keep forcing the matter?”
“At worst, I can forgive Great Hero Cheng. So can you please stop hounding me?”
The moment Zhao Xichun heard that, the hope that had filled her heart turned utterly cold.
Yes.
Other than pain, they had truly given him nothing...
At that moment, what filled Zhao Xichun’s heart was no longer pain, but despair.
She had always believed their family’s separation was a matter of cruel fate and Heaven’s injustice.
But only now, in the face of Cheng Yu’s coldness, did she realize the truth.
She simply had never been a qualified mother.
For a time, she stood rooted to the spot, hurting too much to say a word.
Seeing that she had finally stopped talking and quit pestering him, Cheng Yu thought that Ai Peng should be returning soon.
There had been no commotion at all from inside Sword-Forging Mountain.
If Ai Peng still did not come back, then Cheng Yu would have to remind He Qin and the others, lest someone else end up profiting from the struggle.
But just then, an angry figure came striding over with sword in hand.
“You’ve driven Mother into such grief again! I won’t spare you!”
The sword at Cheng Feng’s waist flashed with a stern aura, sharpened to the extreme by the River-Severing qi that clung to it.
He came straight at Cheng Yu.
Today, he would personally eliminate this unfilial, unrighteous man and avenge his father and mother!
Cheng Yu had not expected that while he was busy with greater matters and had no time to deal with this younger brother of his, the boy would actually deliver himself to him.
Perfect timing.
In one motion, he drew the Thunder-Cleaving Xiuchun Saber from his waist and clashed head-on with Cheng Feng.
The moment the Xiuchun Saber met Cheng Feng’s sword, thunder roared and the clash of metal rang out.
But in the next instant, Cheng Feng’s weapon showed its superiority.
His sword was a top-tier High-Grade Human Rank weapon, slightly better than the Thunder-Cleaving Xiuchun Saber.
Internal Energy laced with a trace of Dragon Qi burst forth and drowned out the lightning.
“Feng’er, don’t!”
When Zhao Xichun saw her two sons about to slaughter one another before her eyes, she could not bear it.
Feng’er was the treasured prodigy she and her husband had painstakingly raised, renowned throughout the Jianghu.
But Yu’er was the one about to come to harm!
She was just about to step forward and stop them when Cheng Feng suddenly shouted:
“Do not stop me! If I do not kill this villain, I will have no face to go on living in the Jianghu!”
In order to get rid of his own brother Cheng Yu, Cheng Feng had decided to threaten his parents with his very life.
Though such conduct ran against the morality of chivalry and would stain his reputation, it was worth it as long as Cheng Yu could be removed.
A true man of chivalry ought to know how to sacrifice himself!
Hearing that, Zhao Xichun froze in place, not knowing what to do.
She desperately wanted to move and save Cheng Yu.
But the moment she thought of how stubborn her youngest son was, and how likely he really was to kill himself, it felt as though an invisible force had seized her feet and rooted her where she stood.
On the side of Sword-Forging Manor, the gathered martial artists stared in dumbstruck disbelief as Cheng Feng pressed Cheng Yu.
They felt as though they were witnessing the greatest scandal in all the Jianghu.
The two sons of Great Hero Cheng were trying to kill each other!
“Heh. You’ve got quite the temper.”
Cheng Yu received Cheng Feng’s strike and came off slightly worse, but his expression remained calm.
After all, Cheng Feng was a Fifth Rank martial artist who had been raised on countless heavenly treasures and cultivation resources. Among those of the same rank, his foundation was exceedingly rare.
It was enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cheng Yu, even though Cheng Yu’s Fourth Rank Internal Energy had been tempered by the True Martial Inheritance.
Combined with the advantage in weapons, it was only natural that Cheng Yu was at a slight disadvantage.
And yet, he still had not used his true strengths—his cultivation art, his Sword Dao, or even the Demon-Slaying Sword.
“You actually managed to receive one of my strikes?”
Seeing that his first sword blow had failed to crush Cheng Yu outright, Cheng Feng was utterly shocked.
A mud-legged nobody with no inherited foundation actually possessed such strength.
If he were given time, what kind of monster would he become?
Grinding his teeth, Cheng Feng resolved to use his full strength.
“Die!”
He attacked again, and this time the surging aura on his sword erupted with terrifying force, as though the phantom image of a great river had been called forth.
River-Severing Sword Strike!
The core inheritance art of the River-Severing Sect, an Earth Grade Low-Rank technique!
Cheng Feng’s face twisted savagely. He would end that man with this very strike!
Cheng Yu let out a cold laugh and swung his saber.
The saber light spread out in ring after ring, perfectly tight and unbroken, yet without losing any of its killing intent.
The Hundred-Battle Reincarnation Saber Art, executed with astonishing mastery of the saber!
“What kind of move is this?!”
As ring upon ring of saber intent unfolded before him, Cheng Feng, who had already unleashed the River-Severing Sword Strike, stared in disbelief.
The essence of the River-Severing Sword Strike was to break the enemy with a single sword stroke.
But why was it that within Cheng Yu’s layered circles of saber light, he could not find a single point through which to break his foe?
Even so, he gritted his teeth and struck.
Faced with the force of the River-Severing Sword Strike cutting through the air, Cheng Yu sneered, infused his Internal Energy into the weapon, and easily blocked with his saber.
Sword and saber crashed together with a thunderous roar, and the dust on the ground was swept outward by the force.
Everyone opened their eyes wide, terrified of missing the outcome.
In the very next instant— Cheng Feng’s sword flew from his hand and fell to the ground.
He had lost!
Yet Cheng Yu’s saber intent did not diminish. His attack drove straight toward Cheng Feng’s chest.
“Yu’er, no!”
Zhao Xichun had not expected events to reach this point. Cheng Feng was no match for Cheng Yu, and Cheng Yu was going to kill him!
She immediately moved, releasing her Eighth Rank Internal Energy to suppress Cheng Yu and stop him.
But the moment her power surged out, it was completely intercepted by an incomparably sharp strand of sword qi accompanied by the howl of rushing wind.
Zhao Xichun looked over in fury and despair.
There, an elderly figure stood calmly with a cane in hand.
With Zhao Xichun no longer able to interfere, Cheng Yu’s Xiuchun Saber came slashing down viciously toward the unarmed Cheng Feng.
“I told you before. I would repay the grudge of that palm strike.”
As those cold words rang out, the blade struck Cheng Feng’s body, and golden light exploded outward.
An Inner Armor hidden beneath his clothes shattered instantly.
That Inner Armor was extraordinary. It actually blocked seventy to eighty percent of the force for Cheng Feng.
But the remaining force was still enough to grievously wound him and send him flying.
Cheng Feng crashed to the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood.
His pupils trembled as he stared at Cheng Yu in utter despair.
Why?
He actually was not that man’s match!