Chapter 70: A Gloomy Path of the Blade

Chapter 70: A Gloomy Path for the Blade

An hour later.

The ground trembled slightly.

In the distance, a group of figures dressed in black, riding on horseback, arrived near the dilapidated roadside tea stall.

Two of them swung down from their saddles and inspected the dozen or so corpses inside the tea stall. Turning back to the man in black at the head of the group, one reported, "Venerable Sword, these people died about an hour ago. Judging from the wounds, they were all killed by blade weapons. The perpetrator was a single person."

"A skilled swordsman—or rather, bladesman. That means he must be the helper hired by that pedantic, stinking scholar."

Venerable Sword glanced down at the corpses on the ground and sneered. "No wonder out of the four squads we sent out, only three returned."

The man in black asked again, "Venerable Sword, what should we do next?"

"Since we've accepted this mission, it must be completed. We cannot tarnish the reputation of our Blood Killing Pavilion."

Venerable Sword looked up at the sky, his tone biting and cold. "We leave tomorrow morning. There are still plenty of missions waiting for us back at the pavilion."

The men in black bowed their heads in unison. "Understood, Venerable Sword!"

Deep within the mountain forest.

A caravan was slowly making its way along the central imperial road.

The armed guards riding on either side of the caravan frequently cast glances toward the front, fixing their eyes on Nie Qingge, who was mounted on a large, earthy-yellow horse beside the lead carriage.

The garments soaked in blood from an hour ago had been discarded, replaced by a clean and tidy guard's uniform. However, his bamboo hat had merely been rinsed with water to wash away the bloodstains and still remained on his head.

Had they not witnessed Nie Qingge changing his clothes with their own eyes, they would never have been able to connect this silent, low-profile figure—who struggled to utter a single sentence in half a day—with the god of slaughter they had seen earlier.

Even Wang Chen occasionally cast a glance in Nie Qingge's direction.

Back then, after confirming that Nie Qingge was indeed hired by Lin Zhenwei and that the danger had been neutralized, Wang Chen had gone into the tea stall to conduct a thorough investigation.

There, he had fished something out from the bodies of those disguised as traveling merchants.

A crude map.

The route marked on the map was precisely the path their caravan was taking, and a large cross had been drawn over the location of the tea stall.

Judging by this, the objective of those men was undoubtedly to assassinate the princess.

If not for Nie Qingge, even if he and his men had not stopped at the tea stall for tea, they certainly would not have been able to avoid a fierce battle. They would have lost several guards and likely alarmed the princess in the process.

Because of this, Wang Chen was all the more curious about the true identity of Nie Qingge, a man capable of so easily eliminating those individuals.

More than half of those men had been killed by a single fatal blow, showing that the killer possessed formidable martial arts. Someone of this caliber might not have reached the Xiantian realm, but he was definitely no nameless nobody.

After all, anyone capable of achieving a near-flameless victory when facing a dozen enemies of the same realm alone could not possibly have achieved it through mere diligent practice. His hands were bound to be stained with the blood of at least three figures, and few of them would be weaklings.

Such a person was destined to possess considerable renown.

Wang Chen shifted his gaze and looked at the blade strapped to Nie Qingge's back.

Judging from the several broken blades found at the scene and the notches on most of the weapons, this saber had also performed countless feats; it was at the very least a divine weapon-grade blade.

This stirred a sense of envy in Wang Chen, who was also a blade user. If only he too possessed such a saber...

"As a blade, this is too hard for me!"

On the other side, Jiang Ren could not help feeling a chill run down his spine as he noticed Wang Chen patrolling back and forth in front of and behind the caravan, repeatedly casting burning gazes in his direction.

The saber was hailed as the commander of all weapons.

Employing methods such as hacking, chopping, slashing, stabbing, pressing, sweeping, and parrying, the saber could be used with infinite variations, perfectly balancing offense and defense.

Yet, precisely because of this, very few women used sabers.

The mere thought of countless men gazing at him with such peculiar looks in the future gave Jiang Ren the chilling sensation that his path as a blade was shrouded in utter darkness.

*Get lost!*

Seeing Wang Chen look over yet again, Jiang Ren could not help mentally thrusting a middle finger at him.

Once or twice was fine, but now the guy was really getting carried away, wasn't he?

After a long while, Jiang Ren calmed his emotions. Seeing that his soul power still needed some time to recover, he shifted his attention to the second carriage trailing behind them.

The three carriages formed a single straight line.

From the outside, the carriages looked largely identical, but their interior decorations and occupants differed greatly.

The first carriage carried Lin Zhenwei, the second held the princess and two maidservants, and the third was used to transport cargo.

*This little princess is quite stunning.*

Jiang Ren recalled the scene when the little princess had first appeared. Her already beautiful face and figure, combined with that unique temperament, actually gave off a synergistic effect where one plus one was greater than two.

In the real world as well as the Hunter and Demon-Hunting worlds, he had seen many women, and encountered plenty of such beautiful faces, but he had rarely seen a woman as breathtaking as this.

*Uh... that person doesn't count as a woman.*

Jiang Ren mused silently. This wasn't the result of different worlds, but rather the modern social environment, which destined that it would be difficult for a maiden of such stunning beauty to emerge.

Of course, he hadn't sunk so low as to harbor any filthy thoughts toward a young girl.

The reason he paid attention to the little princess was simply akin to most upright gentlemen, holding an inner appreciation for beautiful things, much like the old saying: "To be viewed from a distance, not to be played with."

Beautiful things did not need to be touched; their mere existence was enough to gladden one's heart.

*I can cultivate again!*

Noticing that his soul power had recovered, Jiang Ren once more threw himself into the cultivation of converting soul power into artifact energy.

Through the slaughter at the tea stall, all that blood energy had been converted into artifact energy by him, successfully filling the greater part of the blade's body.

"The remaining bit should be filled up by tonight."

"Although I can directly use this artifact energy to strengthen the blade's body, judging from the ability I obtained the last time it was fully filled, the blade can hold even more artifact energy now. Will filling it again grant me a new ability?"

Jiang Ren looked at the slowly increasing artifact energy with a sense of anticipation.

As dusk approached.

The caravan arrived at a small mountain village consisting of only about a hundred households.

Seeing unfamiliar visitors wearing swords and sabers, the villagers looked on with deep vigilance.

However, backed by a subsequent onslaught of silver coins, the group was quickly welcomed into the village. Not only were numerous houses specially cleared out for them, but the villagers even brought out food supplies they usually kept for special occasions.

Had the guards not chosen to cook their own meals to prevent food poisoning, those villagers probably would have scrambled to cook for them in hopes of getting a larger share of the silver.

After a hearty meal.

Having arranged the rotation for night watch duties, most of the caravan members returned to their rooms to rest, and Nie Qingge was no exception.

Though he had just joined the caravan, his ferocious appearance upon first meeting meant he was assigned to one of the best rooms available.

At that moment.

In the courtyard next door where the princess resided, the main hall was still brightly lit.

The princess sat gracefully on a wooden chair, with a maidservant standing on either side. Even though she was still young, every gesture she made carried the refined demeanor of royalty.

Near the entrance, Lin Zhenwei and Wang Chen stood straight.

A serene smile bloomed on the princess's face. "Steward Lin, the person you hired is quite interesting."

Hearing this, Lin Zhenwei wore a wry smile. "Your Highness Princess Changping, you should really just address this old servant by his given name."

"That won't do. You are my elder, after all."

Princess Changping blinked playfully, a trace of amusement in her eyes. After exchanging a few lighthearted remarks, she asked with a serious expression, "Just who is that Nie Qingge?"

Wang Chen also looked over at Lin Zhenwei at that moment, as this question had perplexed him for the better part of the day.

"To be honest with Your Highness, this old servant doesn't know either."

Lin Zhenwei shook his head and said, "Twenty years ago, seeing that he was pitiful, this old servant once gave him a bowl of rice. We never met again after that."

"Until four years ago, he suddenly appeared before me and promised that I could come to him for anything—whether it was murder or anything else. Then he gave me a contact location and method before leaving gracefully."

He was a man who loved to gamble, though few people knew it.

Moreover, he had sent out letters with roughly the same contents to four different people, but only Nie Qingge had arrived within the agreed time. Presumably, the other three hadn't come either out of fear or because they had died on the road.

As things stood, he had no other choice left.