Chapter 201 - 125: Please Step In (2)
"If you were a descendant of Red Maple Manor and knew a Jiaowei was hidden nearby..."
"...how could you not be flustered? How could your heart not be in turmoil?"
"You would surely come to investigate... thus showing this old man the way."
Jiang Ran smiled at his words.
"That’s not a particularly brilliant scheme. Many people have used it before."
"And what of it?"
Shi Pingzhang grinned.
"As long as it works."
However, having said that, he tilted his head and gave Jiang Ran a long look.
"Speaking of which, this old man has had his doubts ever since I first met you, young man."
"I’ve just resolved some of your questions. Perhaps you could resolve some of mine?"
"Why... are you so strange?"
"Strange?"
Jiang Ran was taken aback. "What do you mean by that?"
Shi Pingzhang said,
"Why do you carry the scent of the Demon Sect?"
"Yet you cultivate the orthodox arts of the righteous path."
"Strange. It is simply too strange."
"If not for my self-created ’Book of Inhumanity,’ a peerless art in this age, I’m afraid I would never have seen through your mystery—demonic on the inside, righteous on the outside."
’Demonic on the inside, righteous on the outside?’
Jiang Ran let out an incredulous laugh.
"That’s utter nonse—"
Jiang Ran trailed off, suddenly speechless.
He had suddenly thought of the Blood Cauldron Scripture that Li Feiyun of the Wan family had used during the Cangzhou Heroic Assembly.
Why did that strange art from the Demon Sect’s Eighteen Celestial Demon Records have no effect on him whatsoever?
’Demonic on the inside, righteous on the outside...’
’Is it really just baseless nonsense he’s spouting?’
’Or is there some mystery within my own body that even I don’t know about?’
"From the look on your face, it seems I’ve asked the wrong person."
Shi Pingzhang shook his head slightly. "Never mind. There are countless mysteries in this world. We mortals seek high and low, tirelessly, yet we can never hope to solve them all."
"The Way of Heaven and Earth is vast and ethereal... beyond the grasp of human power."
"It matters not if this question remains unsolved today."
With that, he suddenly thrust out a palm, aiming straight for Jiang Ran’s face.
As the palm strike shot forth, the wind billowed and surged.
A suffocating killing intent assaulted the senses.
But that was not all. Jiang Ran looked up and saw that the old man’s palm had a character written on it: ’Kill’!
This character seemed to possess an indescribable Magic Power, compelling anyone who saw it to fix their gaze, and indeed their very soul, upon it.
In that instant, it was as if he stood apart from the world, silently looking down upon the mortal realm. He saw only sin and filth everywhere, and the word ’Kill’ was the only thing that could stop this great cosmic transgression!
Just then, his Scripture of Creation and True Heart began to churn.
Everything around him shattered in an instant.
Jiang Ran’s head snapped up, and he met the attack with a palm of his own.
The two palms met, but there was not a sound.
Not only was it silent, but more terrifyingly, Shi Pingzhang’s palm passed straight through Jiang Ran’s hand, as if it were not a hand at all, but a mere phantom.
A flicker of astonishment appeared in Shi Pingzhang’s eyes.
He looked down again to see Jiang Ran’s hand, now less than three inches from his chest, its palm transformed into a claw, poised to rip out his heart.
"So that’s how it is!"
Shi Pingzhang seemed to have a sudden realization. His body spun abruptly, and he bent his fingers to strike at Jiang Ran’s five digits.
His move was bizarre. In the space of a hair’s breadth, he struck repeatedly to block Jiang Ran’s assault.
As he struck, the wind from his fingers swept through the air, seeming to trace a left-falling stroke, a dot, a horizontal line, and a vertical hook.
’Is he writing a character?’
The character was now half-complete, and the force emanating from his fingers had already caused considerable damage to the surroundings.
Gold, silver, and jewels scattered everywhere, and dozens of new marks scarred the walls.
Even the Luminous Pearls were sent flying.
Jiang Ran’s brow furrowed. At the same time, Shi Pingzhang slashed down with a finger again, writing another left-falling stroke.
Immediately after, he held his fingers together like a sword, or like the tip of a brush. He stared at Jiang Ran and extended his hand for a final dot.
This final dot seemed to condense all his previous moves into a single point.
A faint radiance gathered at his fingertip. The dot was drawn with excruciating slowness, yet beneath it, even the surrounding air grew scorching and viscous.
And every inch of force he emanated seemed to carry soft whispers, expounding the principles of the universe, conveying profound truths in simple words.
Yet every single word and phrase guided one toward slaughter.
It instilled a feeling that one had no choice but to kill.
Empowered as it was, this finger strike made Jiang Ran feel as if he were facing death itself.
It was as if a thousand voices were constantly telling him... You must die!
It made Jiang Ran feel that no matter what divine techniques or peerless arts he possessed, no matter how profound his Inner Energy, once that finger fell, death was the only certain outcome!
This finger strike seemed to determine not life or death, but an inevitable result.
’How can such a martial art exist in this world?’
’Is this the Book of Inhumanity?’
Jiang Ran quietly observed the shifting attack, feeling that this move pushed the boundaries of martial techniques to their absolute limit. It was truly the most exquisite martial art he had seen since he first entered the martial world.
And in that life-or-death instant, Jiang Ran’s hand was already on the hilt of his saber.
A stream of shimmering gold lit up the entire room!
Shi Pingzhang’s finger strike seemed to have laid out every reason why Jiang Ran’s death was an absolute necessity.
But Jiang Ran’s saber... had never been one for reason.
The blade’s edge, glinting with shattered golden light, did not make the secret chamber any more magnificent.
But the splash of blood added a new color to the scene.
The finger that had decreed Jiang Ran must die went silently flying.
Shi Pingzhang stared at his severed finger, but he had not seen how it was cut off.
Just as he had not seen how Jiang Ran had drawn his saber.
He had only seen the room-filling golden light, not even registering the pain!
The next moment, the cold ring of the saber sounded once more.
Only then did the searing pain from his finger shoot through him. In the next instant, he took a single step, as if shrinking the earth, and in that one stride, he moved from right in front of Jiang Ran to the steps outside the door.