Chapter 14 - Battle

Boom!

Qin Shujian's aura suddenly changed. He became like a ferocious tiger that had leaped from the forest. His fierce aura pounced toward the guards.

He instantly unsheathed his Tiger Head Blade. The blade brought about an intense gust of wind as it cleaved toward the guards.

Ferocious Tiger Descending the Mountains!

Overwhelming power!

A dozen spears were broken in the blink of an eye. The remnants of Qin Shujian's power continued throttling toward the guards.

The guards had looks of fear. Their bodies seemed to have been frozen in place by the powerful aura.

In their eyes, Qin Shujian seemed to have transformed into a terrifying beast. His violent aura caused their hearts and minds to freeze.

The guards were not the only ones who felt that.

Even the players around QIn Shujian felt as though they had dropped into an icy cavern when Qin Shujian's aura swept past them.

At that instant, they felt as though it was not an NPC standing in front of them. Instead, it was a terrifying, ferocious beast that could take their lives.

"Stop!" A furious roar rang out in the sky.

Qin Shujian's gaze turned ice-cold. He did not stop his attack in the slightest.

His blade swept past the guards. Fresh blood was drawn.

A pitch-black figure charged out of the starter village. The figure pushed a palm forward. The scorching wind his palm generated caused the surrounding temperature to rise instantly.

Shocking a Thousand-Mile Radius!

Roar!

The roar of the ferocious tiger within the forest instantly caused the dark figure to pause.

Qin Shujian advanced instead of opting to retreat. He used "Ferocious Tiger Descending the Mountain" and struck with the Tiger Head Blade once again. He collided fiercely with the other party.

Boom!

A violent wind scattered into the surroundings.

Qin Shujian felt the arm in which he was holding his blade with tremble slightly. He involuntarily took multiple steps back.

The dark human figure also fell backward.

Martial Entry-Level Five?

Martial Entry-Level Six?

Qin Shujian's expression turned slightly grave. He looked at the middle-aged man dressed in brown in front of him.

None of them managed to gain the upper hand from their clash just now.

Thus, Qin Shujian arrived at a general estimate of the person's strength in front of him.

"That is… Head Coach Zhang from the training hall!"

The players slipped into commotion when they saw who had arrived.

The head coach of the training hall was the person who imparted techniques to the players.

From the start, these players knew that the training hall's head coach was a powerful fighter.

However, they didn't know exactly how powerful his abilities were.

Now that they saw Head Coach Zhang appear and stop the mysterious NPC, they guessed that his abilities must be exceptional.

Head Coach Zhang had a dark expression. His heart trembled when he saw a dozen corpses on the ground.

Those neat wounds, the clash he had with Qin Shujian just now, as well as the strength that Qin Shujian had displayed all showed that the other party was a particularly tricky opponent.

"Mister, why did you come to kill our men without reason?" Head Coach Zhang scolded furiously.

"I've already killed them. Those who don't know better wouldn't be able to live until tomorrow even if they don't die today," Qin Shujian let out a cold laugh of disdain.

The other party was not weak.

However, Qin Shujian was confident that he could kill his opponent with his blade if they were really going to engage in a battle of life and death.

The power of the Black Tiger Blade Technique at the Pinnacle level was nothing to be scoffed at.

He had not even used 70% of the blade technique's essence in his hurried attack just now.

The only thing that Qin Shujian was cautious about was if the person in front of him was the most powerful fighter in the starter village or if he was but one of the mighty warriors in the village.

Head Coach Zhang's gaze turned dark, "Mister, you are very arrogant."

"Attack quickly if you wish to exact revenge for the guards. Move over to the side if you do not dare to."

"Insolence!" Head Coach Zhang turned extremely dark. He shouted with fury, "I gave you respect due to your status as the Liangshan Stronghold Chieftain. That was why I was rather lax with you. Don't push your luck!"

Hearing this, Qin Shujian squinted slightly.

Judging from the meaning of the other party's words, he must have known about his identity.

Logically speaking, he had only killed and replaced Wu Sheng's position two days ago.

Other than the Mountain Bandits at the Liangshan Stronghold, the rest of the people should not have known that the Stronghold Chieftain had changed in the Liangshan Stronghold.

However, the other party had directly exposed his identity. This meant that the other party had some understanding of him.

But, Qin Shujian was only confused for a short time. He then reached an epiphany.

He was an NPC, but the other party was also NPC.

Since he received a few system notifications from time to time, the other party might have had notifications like those too.

Then, there was no need to be in doubt.

His status as a Liangshan Stronghold Chieftain must have been revealed to the other party through the system.

On the other side, the players had a look of confusion.

Liangshan Stronghold Chieftain?

They knew that Qin Shujian was the master of a faction somewhere from his title.

Head Coach Zhang from the training hall had not attacked recklessly even though Qin Shujian had killed many guards from the starter village. This made the players even more shocked at Qin Shujian's abilities.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A man and a woman rushed out of the starter village and arrived by the side of Head Coach Zhang.

The man had a large head and huge ears. The shirt he wore was so dark that it was shiny. He had a stubble, which made him look extremely disheveled.

The woman looked about 40 to 50 years old and was dressed in simple clothes. She looked like a typical village woman.

The aura released by these people made everyone understand that they were people of extraordinary ability.

In the crowd, Lu Shoujia's heart froze for a moment as he looked at the two people who had suddenly appeared.

Not only had he seen these two people before, but he was also somewhat familiar with them.

One of them was the butcher who sold pork in the village. His name was Zhu Daming.

The other was the lady boss of the seamstress in the village. Her name was Li Chunhua.

To gather enough copper coins to learn techniques in the training hall, he had once helped the butcher and seamstress with a few miscellaneous tasks.

What surprised Lu Shoujia was these two unremarkable people were experts who were hiding their strength.

Qin Shujian's gaze turned cold when the two of them appeared.

In an instant, Boom!

He leaped from his original position and sliced forward with his Tiger Head Sword, bringing about a strong gust of wind while he was at it.

Ferocious Tiger Descending the Mountain!

At this moment, he was activating the Pinnacle-level Black Tiger Blade Technique to its extreme.

This time, Qin Shujian's target was still Head Coach Zhang from the training hall.

The three fighters did not expect Qin Shujian to erupt with such a terrifying killer move without saying a word. The Black Tiger Blade Technique that was activated with full power made Head Coach Zhang feel like he was not doing battle with a human. Instead, he felt as though he was battling a horrifying fierce tiger that had massacred all living creatures in the mountainous forests.

There was no hesitation.

Head Coach Zhang's palms turned red as a raging flame. Intense flames seemed to pulse as he pushed his palms outward. The scorching heat contorted the air around it slightly.

Qin Shujian's blade cleaved downward and met with Head Coach Zhang's crimson palms. Head Coach Zhang wanted to clasp the blade between his palms.

Unfortunately, the blade was approaching with high speed, and the power that it harbored was also abnormally fierce. Head Coach Zhang had just touched the blade with his palm when he felt an indefensible power well up within him. It immediately forced his hands open.

The length of the blade was thrust forward. It was about to pierce through Head Coach Zhang's throat.

Whoosh!

A long silver snake pounced over through the air. It instantly coiled itself around the blade. Upon closer inspection, however, Qin Shujian could see it was actually a long silver whip.

On the side of the long whip were the hands of the seamstress, Li Chunhua.

Head Coach Zhang and Li Chunhua had not had an opportunity to catch their breaths when they saw the Tiger Head Blade being forcefully pulled back. The considerable force pulling on Li Chunhua caused her to involuntarily stagger a few steps forward.

Then, Qin Shujian took a step forward and pointed his Tiger Head Blade downward to free it from the silver whip. He then turned the blade around and sliced it toward Li Chunhua's neck.

A butcher's knife moved later. It obstructed the path of the Tiger Head Blade before it landed on its target.

Twang!

The two blades collided. Sparks flew everywhere.

Zhu Daming felt his grip tremble. He nearly could not hold on to his butcher's knife.

However, it was because of that impact that Qin Shujian stopped in his tracks. His flawless attacks came to an abrupt stop. Li Chunhua and Head Coach Zhang, who had come to their senses, were about to attack him together.

Seeing this, Qin Shujian immediately pulled his sword back and retreated. He escaped out of the radius of the three fighters' attacks, then turned and ran out of the village.

When a few spectators, who were watching the battle, saw that Qin Shujian was charging toward them and were about to dodge to the side, and they saw the cold glow of his blade slicing down toward them, they felt a surge of pain before transforming into a bolt of white light and disappearing from the surroundings.