Chapter 293 - 156: Divine Sword, Layman, Gang

Ruan Yuqing shot Tang Huayi a surprised glance.

She focused and listened intently again, but still couldn’t detect anything.

’Could this old fellow’s Inner Energy be even greater than my own?’

Just as she was pondering this, the sound of clashing weapons finally reached her ears, growing closer and closer.

Suddenly, a flash of sword light cut across the void, and a man appeared before them.

He sniffed the air, looked at the roast chicken warming by the bonfire, and swallowed hard.

"Greetings, young friends."

"A weary traveler has arrived here late at night with nowhere to go. Might I warm myself by your fire and fill my belly with some of that roast chicken?"

Jiang Ran glanced at him.

It was an old man, his age hard to tell, but he looked to be in his fifties or sixties.

He wore drab gray clothes and casually carried a sword that looked rather cheap.

But even cheaper than his sword was the smile on his face.

The smile seemed infectious. When Jiang Ran saw him smile, he smiled back.

The old man’s smile grew even wider.

Just as he was beaming with delight, Jiang Ran spoke.

"No."

"Hahaha... good... huh?"

The old man’s smile froze. "You won’t?"

"No."

Jiang Ran nodded firmly. "That’s right. You heard me."

The old man pouted.

"Young people these days. No respect for their elders at all."

"Fine, fine. I was going to offer you a fortuitous opportunity, but you’re all so blind. If you won’t share, you won’t share. This old man..."

As he spoke, the fallen leaves behind him suddenly parted in a line.

A man dressed in black closed in abruptly. The leaves naturally split to either side as he passed, and a fierce, powerful palm strike was already aimed at the old man’s back.

The old man sighed again.

"Here we go again..."

As he said this, he spun his sword around, bringing it behind his back.

It happened to block the palm strike perfectly.

CLANG!

The bonfire roared, and the astral wind from their clash sent everyone’s clothes billowing.

At that moment, the old man suddenly turned back, his sword pressing down and then thrusting forward.

The sword lunged forward like a striking dragon.

Ruan Yuqing gasped in surprise.

She could see that while the sword strike looked simple, like a mere straight thrust, it actually concealed a deeper sword intent. It had sealed off the black-clad man’s every escape route. Whether he advanced, retreated, dodged left or right, or even tried to leap into the sky or burrow into the earth, he would remain within range of the blade.

But the black-clad man’s martial arts were by no means weak.

He saw the sword intent that Ruan Yuqing had perceived with perfect clarity.

So instead of retreating, advancing, or dodging, he drew circles with his hands, one left and one right, until his palms faced each other at the end of the motion.

By this time, the tip of the sword had reached his chest.

His palms met the exact spot where the sword tip was aimed, without the slightest deviation.

He instantly circulated his inner breath, and his formless Inner Strength locked the sword between his palms.

HUMMMMM!

The sword’s hum instantly erupted into a roar. The moment the formless Inner Strength touched the sword intent, the escaping force sent sand and stones flying with a thunderous BOOM.

The old man stomped his foot, and with a BANG, a deep crater appeared where he stood.

He drove his sword forward, trying to break the bind and pierce the black-clad man’s heart.

But the space between his opponent’s palms was like another world. No matter how much Inner Strength the old man exerted, he couldn’t break through and could only push the black-clad man backward.

The black-clad man retreated in a flurry of steps, each one blasting a crater into the ground.

He retreated seven or eight steps, and the ground rumbled seven or eight times.

It wasn’t until the ninth step that the black-clad man’s momentum halted. He suddenly angled one heel outward and pressed his toes down to stabilize himself. At the same time, white steam erupted from his back with a HISS.

He had pushed his Inner Strength to its absolute limit.

Abruptly, he flipped his palms.

The old man’s sword blade instantly rippled like water, like a Spiritual Snake being choked at its vital point.

The old man, however, merely tilted his head slightly, a smile playing on his lips.

"Interesting!"

He formed a sword-finger with his left hand and tapped a point on his right forearm.

In that instant, the faint sound of a dragon’s roar echoed.

It was as if a coiled dragon emerged from the old man’s back and, in a flash, slammed into the sword in his hand.

The sword immediately straightened, its tip like a dragon’s head, as it unleashed a magnificent surge of Sword Qi.

Seeing this, the black-clad man’s expression changed drastically.

He flipped his palms again, and his aura condensed, becoming as heavy as water.

A deafening BOOM! erupted.

The two figures were sent flying in opposite directions.

The old man was thrown backward, somersaulting several times in mid-air before landing on a tree branch.

He angled his sword down, and with a BOOM, its tip blasted a deep crater into the ground.

The black-clad man, meanwhile, slid smoothly backward for a full seventy or eighty feet.

He flicked his sleeves, and with a HISS, they carved two deep gashes into the ground on either side of him.

"Not bad, not bad. It’s been five years, and your [Celestial Profound Wishing Palm] has improved again."

"Your Inner Energy has deepened, making you even more unpredictable."

The old man let out a long laugh and casually fumbled inside his robes. After a moment, he actually pulled out a handful of peanuts, tossed one into his mouth, and began chewing on it with a CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

But whenever he glanced back at the roast chicken by Jiang Ran’s bonfire, the peanuts, usually so sweet and delicious, suddenly lost all their flavor.

The black-clad man snorted coldly.

"Your [Heavenly Dragon Swordsmanship] is as troublesome as ever..."

"I haven’t heard any news of you these past few years. I thought you were already six feet under, but here you are, back in the martial world, causing trouble."