Joy of Life

There was a loud crash. Someone with unnatural strength had tossed that large stone over the tall wall! After the carriage was smashed to pieces by the stone, a rain of arrows followed. Had Fan Xian not took evasive action quickly, those arrows would have turned him into a bristly hedgehog even if he managed to survive the stone.

With the exception of Teng Zijing, Fan Xian’s guards were rank 5 in terms of skill. Facing this assault, they did not panic and drew their blades. Several flashes of silver light later, most of the arrows had been knocked down. The attackers were few, but due to the close range, the guards weren’t able defend themselves completely. The three of them were eventually hit in the leg and collapsed to the ground.

Gritting their teeth, they got back up and leapt over the wall, cutting down the archers. However, the poison was too potent, and in no time all three guards felt numb and lost control of their bodies.

It was at this moment they saw a pair of terrifyingly massive hands crash down upon their heads!

Hiding behind a tree, Fan Xian was spared from the initial rain of arrows. But it also prevented him from coming to his guards’ aid. Hearing three familiar screams from behind the wall, he was filled with rage. It was during his emotional turmoil that he almost got skewered by two swords, which struck like venomous serpents.

Two women surrounded him. They were dressed in all black, their swords also painted black to avoid reflecting any light—they were obviously seasoned assassins. Fan Xian knew clearly that, since they weren’t covering their faces, it meant they were here to eliminate all their targets.

Slightly bending his knees, he turned his body and made a twist with the tip of his foot. A sword brushed past his chest from the left, followed by the other sword from the right.

Fan Xian never learned how to fight, having only trained his body under Wu Zhu for the past ten years. All the dodges he performed were out of reflex. Despite the swords striking with the flexibility of snakes and elusiveness of smoke, they were far inferior to Wu Zhu’s wooden staff in both speed and accuracy. Time after time, Fan Xian managed to evade by the skin of his teeth.

The three of them began to drift away from the wall, and Fan Xian finally woke up from his panic; now those two swords looked so much slower.

The two female assassins, with their pale white faces, discovered that their hits weren’t landing despite Fan Xian’s seemingly pathetic movements!

Another loud crash. This time the wall fell. A huge brute appeared from the rubble. He walked towards a guard who collapsed under a tree with an arrow in his left leg.

Three of the four guards who came out with Fan Xian today had been killed; he was the last one, also paralyzed by the poison. Only now did Fan Xian discover that last guard was Teng Zijing. His chest tightened as he wanted to rush over to help. Unfortunately, the two female assassins were relentless in their attacks, completely trapping Fan Xian.

At that moment, Teng Zijing, who appeared to be taking his last breaths, leapt up from the ground. The blade he had kept hidden behind his back turned into a blur, hacking towards the brute’s neck!

Fan Xian was overjoyed at first, but what happened next stunned him.

The brute tilted his head and raised his right hand, catching Teng Zijing’s blade like a fly. A line of blood dripped down, but that is all the damage his hand suffered. What was his body made of?!

Seeing he was in a bad situation, Teng Zijing kicked against the brute’s chest with the tip of his feet, ready to jump over a nearby wall. Among Fan Xian’s guards, Teng Zjing was the leader, even though his martial art abilities were the weakest, and this was due to him being the most clear-headed of them all.

The brute only grinned and threw a punch. At this instant, Teng Zijing felt the poison taking over his body. Since his body had gone limp, he was unable to avoid the giant fist. There was a crackling sound, followed by Teng Zijing’s scream. His left leg was broken by the punch. Lying on the ground, blood came gushing out of his pant leg.

Fan Xian knew things weren’t good when Teng Zijing’s blade was caught. Grunting, his footwork turned stiff, and the two swords danced past his torso even closer than before. The blade tips pierced his shirt, drawing two bloody lines across his body.

Taking advantage of this moment, Fan Xian gripped his hands together and released two puffs of pink smoke directly into the faces of the two female assassins.

The assassins reacted with supernatural speed; they closed their mouths and held their breath, ready to jump back. But Fan Xian would not let this hard-gained chance slip away. With a tremendous shout, he released the overpowering zhenqi in his body. For the moment, it was as though his arms lengthened, enough to reach the two assassins’ throats.

With two cracks, the female assassins had their windpipes crushed. Frothing blood at their mouths, they collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile, that monstrous brute had raised his hands, ready to slam them down onto Teng Zijing’s skull.

Fan Xian was exceptionally calm. This calm came from the experience of having lived a previous life, and also from Fei Jie and Wu Zhu’s tutelage. Right now, he wasn’t at all thinking about why Uncle Wu Zhu hadn’t done anything. He knew this was his most dangerous trial after coming to the capital; if he couldn’t make it past this, it would only prove that he didn’t deserve his second life in this world.

Despite being over ten meters away, Fan Xian covered that distance in a flash. With his left hand, he already put a pill into his mouth. With his right, he propped up the palm of that mad brute in front of the almost dead Teng Zijing!

There was a muffled sound of explosion as shockwaves made the surrounding trees shake. Leaves fell.

Fan Xian felt intense pain travel down from his right hand to his bones; he had never faced such formidable strength. Only moments had passed and he was already at his limit.

Blood trickled down the corner of his lips, but he only grunted and didn’t lose his composure. His left hand had already found the key to dealing a killing blow.

Then something very strange happened.

A gust of wind came blowing in, gentling swirling around Fan Xian’s body. As if carrying a strange power, it blew against Fan Xian’s body. While only a weak breeze, it was quite annoying, enough to disrupt Fan Xian’s next course of action.

The brute laughed, seeing the look in Fan Xian’s eyes. He was like a wild beast filled with raw power; even his eyes were ghastly bloodshot.

Fan Xian gazed past the brute’s massive frame. At the mouth of the alleyway was the blurry figure of a person. That person was wearing a conical hat of bamboo.

“Let me crush your head.” The brute apparently discovered that Fan Xian had run out of options and started to laugh maniacally. He then put more strength into his hand.

“Hmph.” Fan Xian only exclaimed coldly. He knew this was the greatest dilemma he had faced since his rebirth. His right arm started to tremble, but deep inside his heart he was screaming “Screw you!”

In this life-or-death moment, the zhenqi that had flowed through his entire body like a calm ocean suddenly began to stir as if provoked, a massive amount of zhenqi gushing from the xueshan in his back, a small circulation going along his body and infusing with his right arm.

Suddenly, if just for an instant, Fan Xian felt the illusion that his right arm was made of iron.

The collision between powerful zhenqi forced apart two hands—which differed greatly in size—by about an inch before they crashed back together.

Countless currents of broken zhenqi arose around the two, turning the leaves in the air to dust.

“Die!” Fan Xian roared, withdrawing his arm with terrifying control before throwing a straight punch right into the brute’s torso. A strange expression formed on the brutes face as he opened his mouth, bathing Fan Xian’s face in blood. His chest and abdomen had been completely caved in!

But this brute turned out to be surprisingly resilient. Despite receiving such a heavy blow, he stood unmoved, crashing his hand mercilessly down onto Fan Xian’s right shoulder and turning it into a bloody mess.

Today, Fan Xian’s true viciousness finally exploded. Responding to his severe injury with only a cry, he used the momentum of the blow and charged into the brute. Using his left hand, he took out his thin dagger and rammed it mercilessly into the brute’s throat.

He then pulled down with all his strength.

With his torso already caved in, the brute was gutted alive. His organs came flowing out in a torrent of blood and fluids.

Unable to believe what his own eyes showed him, the brute looked at Fan Xian one last time before crashing down backwards like a felled tree.

It appeared as though the whole world had gone silent.

Panting hard, Fan Xian remained standing with great difficulty, staring at that shadow in the bamboo hat.