Chapter 61: Increasing Murderous Intent
Jian Chen quickly moved through the grass, the Light Wind Sword had already become a streak of white light. He slashed out with his sword at a rapid speed in several directions, his swordplay fast yet sharp.
Following Jian Chen’s quick movements, the wind scattered dry leaves into the air, fluttering around Jian Chen like gentle dancing butterflies.
And at this moment, Jian Chen’s swordplay suddenly changed. Although his sword techniques were still fast, but with every stab he made with his sword, the air whistled and left an afterimage that no ordinary person would be able to see easily.
A moment after, the rapidly dancing sword in Jian Chen’s hand suddenly stopped. But despite after such a long period of intense exercise, he did not even look out of breath and was instead still breathing normally.
And at the same time, Jian Chen finally stopped his wild dance, the leaves that were all previously flying around him disintegrated into powder and scattered onto the ground. Only a few leaves were left completely intact, but written on some of them was the word “Sword”. Although the size was different on each of them, it was written clearly and covered the entire area on each leaf. Although, there were some other leaves with the word “Sword” on it that had missing strokes, being either unclear or incomplete.
If anyone else saw this sight, then they would surely be amazed to the point of having to pick up their jaw from the ground. This scene was far too astonishing to believe since the leaves had been floating wildly through the air and even weaved with other leaves at random intervals. Just focusing on one leaf amid the mess of them, constantly changing positions in the air would definitely cause a person to become dizzy. It would had been even more impossible to think that someone had been able to clearly write the word “Sword” on any of them.
Most importantly, the leaves were very fragile and liable to break upon the gentlest of touch. To use a sword to achieve such a feat without leaving a single trace of a tear, was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
If people were to find out about what Jian Chen had done, then his name and prestige would be announced and known to the entire Tian Yuan continent in the shortest period of time.
Watching the still intact leaves gently float down to the ground with a happy smile, Jian Chen muttered to himself, “Although my speed with a sword has deteriorated, my control over it has greatly improved to a level that can’t even compare to my past. It’s almost as if the sword has become an integral part of my body; perhaps this is the advantage of this world’s Saint Weapon.”
Jian Chen’s ears suddenly detected a sound. Concentrating on the source, Jian Chen turned towards the opening of the grove while willing his silver sword to fade away.
In a short amount of time, the place where Jian Chen looked at started to shake even more before a bloodied figure with a ripped uniform came scurrying out of it.
Just one look at the clothes of the person and Jian Chen automatically knew that this was a student of Kargath Academy. But for what reason why the student was bloody all over, Jian Chen was puzzled. There were no magical beasts around so there was no reason why he would be so injured. Kargath Academy also had strict rules about fighting among students. While giving each others pointers was allowed, fights that could lead to fatal injuries were not allowed.
However, when Jian Chen looked at the student’s face, he immediately became stunned. His face froze in a hard expression as he looked at the amount of blood that covered half of the student’s face. Jian Chen couldn’t believe what he saw, so he opened his mouth to cry out.
“Big brother!” Came the astonished shout. In a flash, he crossed over 30 meters to arrive at his blood soaked and injured brother with worry etched on his face.
Seeing the horrible wound on Changyang Hu as well as the blood still flowing from his head, Jian Chen’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Big brother, what happened to you. Who did this to you?” An intense murderous intent was emitted from his body the longer he looked at his injured brother.
When it came to his brother Changyang Hu, he was the only person Jian Chen had actually cared about after his mother because Changyang Hu had treated him like a true younger brother, so Jian Chen had wanted to repay him for this debt. When he had first come to Kargath Academy, it was Changyang Hu who had brought him on a tour around the academy grounds and explained the rules to him. He faced huge amounts of danger after running into the magical beast forest to fight and kill a Class 1 Magical Beast to gift Jian Chen its monster core without any regard for his own personal health. Although Class 1 Magical Beasts weren’t even a threat to Jian Chen, Changyang Hu did not have as much fighting experience or combat skills as Jian Chen. At the time, Changyang Hu only had the strength of a peak 10th Saint Force Layer cultivator, so obtaining a Class 1 Monster Core wouldn’t have been an easy task for him.
Later on, his brother had even fought against Ka Di Yun for him on the platform even after knowing his own strength was lacking in comparison to his opponent, initiating the challenge.
Jian Chen had clearly felt that Changyang Hu cared for him from the bottom of his heart, and so from then on, Jian Chen had always treated him like close family.
In his previous life, Jian Chen was a war orphan who had his parents murdered by the enemy army. From his birth, he had no family or friends and never knew the warm embrace of family. But now that God had arranged such a nice life for him, Jian Chen would definitely treasure this, and Changyang Hu held the second biggest spot in his heart after his mother Bi Yuntian. So seeing Changyang Hu beaten into such a state, Jian Chen’s heart flew into a rage that was unprecedented. A single look from him gave the feeling that it could injure someone.
Seeing Jian Chen suddenly appear, Changyang Hu looked at him with a dazed expression. However his face changed once more as he spoke anxiously, “Fourth brother, why…why are you here. Hurry up and run! Leave this place, they’ll be here in a moment!” Changyang Hu looked impatient; he hadn’t thought that he would run into Jian Chen here.
Instead of running, Jian Chen’s face darkened as he said in a low voice, “Big brother, who in the world beat you to such a state?” The suppressed rage in his tone could’ve been identified by anyone.
Changyang Hu’s hands desperately grabbed onto Jian Chen’s body as he continued to speak urgently, “Fourth brother, don’t bother asking about that right now and leave this place immediately. Take the long route back to the academy, or else they’ll definitely find you.” Although he knew Jian Chen’s strength was enormous since he had beaten a Middle Saint, Changyang Hu did not believe that even Jian Chen could take on a dozen Saints, along with Cheng Mingxiang, who was an Upper Saint.
But Jian Chen stood right where he was, like a stone statue that could not be budged. No matter what Changyang Hu did, nothing would sway Jian Chen. With eyes that spoke volumes of his murderous intent, he glared at the grove, waiting for someone to come out.
A dozen uniformed students eventually walked into his range of sight, with Luo Jian and Cheng Mingxiang walking in front of the group.
When they saw Jian Chen, Cheng Mingxiang’s and Luo Jian’s expressions became excited. With a big smile, Luo Jian said, “Changyang Xiang Tian, we’ve found you at last. I was beginning to wonder where you had run off to.” Without any need for instructions, the group of people immediately surrounded Jian Chen and his brother in a circle.
Seeing how he and his brother were surrounded, Changyang Hu’s face grew ugly and gave a small sigh. But other than that, he said nothing.
Despite the arrogant manner of the people around him, Jian Chen did not look scared at all, and instead remained calm. It was almost as if he had not even noticed such weak people were surrounding him at all.
Jian Chen’s face hardened as his eyes swept across the faces of the people around him. Some of them had pained looks on their faces; they felt a chill well up in their hearts, as if Jian Chen’s stare was a cold blade that had penetrated their souls.
“Who was the one who beat my brother!?” Jian Chen shouted, “Step forward!” Immediately, a large amount of force was released into the air. Despite the dozen members in front of him, Jian Chen was not scared, and instead held his head up high as a sign of his determination to not give up.
Jian Chen’s powerful command was accompanied by the release of a strong Qi, causing all of them to take an instinctive step backwards. After all, Jian Chen had already been baptized with murderous intent, and the children in front of him who still had the smell of their mother’s milk on them would not be able to stand up against it.
Realizing that he had been intimidated by Jian Chen’s command, Cheng Mingxiang became angry. He had thought that with his majestic Upper Saint strength, it would be him that would be doing the intimidation; he couldn’t accept the reverse outcome.
“Changyang Xiang Tian, you’re seeking death right now!” Cheng Mingxiang snarled. The fiery red sword appeared in his hands, and gave off a searing red glow as it struck out towards Jian Chen’s chest.
“Hmph!” Seeing the stab of the sword, Jian Chen’s eyes flashed with strong murderous intent. His Light Wind Sword immediately appeared in his right hand, parrying the stab from the other sword as fast as lightning.
“Ding!”
A crisp sound rang out as the two swords clashed; both points of the swords had somehow pressed against each other.
Seeing how the two points of the sword made contact with each other, Cheng Mingxiang’s eyes widened in shock. He couldn’t believe such an event had happened. Even if Jian Chen was his opponent, having the two points of the sword meet as both swordsmen stabbed out wasn’t something any normal person could replicate, especially considering the difference in size between their two swords, and the speed at which they had thrust their swords forward. And to be able to do it so flawlessly, this was not the sign of a weak person; it signified that a person’s Saint Weapon control had far surpassed that of a typical Saint.
However, Jian Chen, who had only recently broken through Sainthood, had easily achieved such a feat. This made Cheng Mingxiang skeptical. He had thought that this was a coincidence, but the moment he saw Jian Chen’s calm face, his heart immediately dispelled any notions of it being one.
Another thing that had startled Cheng Mingxiang was the sword in Jian Chen’s hands. Because the sword had been so tiny in comparison to his, he had thought it was merely an embroidery needle. It was four feet long and 2 fingers wide, so it looked quite frail in his eyes. It looked as if the moment a large amount of strength was exerted onto it, the weapon would snap in half.
Cheng Mingxiang could swear that in his entire history of living, this was the first time he had ever seen such a sword. Within the Tian Yuan continent, every single Saint had a Saint Weapon that leaned towards a great broadsword, since they had all condensed their Saint Force into heavy-type weapons. This convention was a fact that was commonly accepted by almost every single cultivationist.
If Jian Chen’s delicately small sword wasn’t able to block against his attack, then Cheng Mingxiang definitely would have ridiculed Jian Chen.