With a shout, he slashed horizontally toward Xiao Ah Tian. Suddenly, his sword morphed into the form of a snake, giving off a sickle-like appearance as it tried to bite its target with its fangs.
A sharp shockwave spread in the air, creating a gust of wind that scattered the dust all around them.
Silence engulfed the two as they faced each other without a word spoken between them.
Thud
A soft thud echoed loudly in the arena after a few seconds as Xiao Ah Tian's severed arm fell to the ground. His expression remained calm and unbothered as he glanced at his fallen arm that was now turned into a bloody stump, almost looking like it had been chopped off cleanly.
"Hmph!"
With a hum, the Wandering Sword Saint used his Qi to control his muscle and stopped the bleeding. He put his severed arm into his spatial ring.
Then, he smiled and bowed slightly at Shui, showing his respect.. "It's my loss. You're a worthy opponent and a talented martial artist. Do whatever you want with me. Kill me or spare me. It's your choice."
Shui bowed in return. "Thank you for the fight. I'm honored. I don't kill those that's not my target, so I will spare you. And my name is Shui from Hallowed Insects."
"Hahaha... Shui, you're an interesting person but naive! What would I do if I seek revenge? I would love to fight you again, but..." Xiao Ah Tian smiled softly as he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his eyes were filled with disappointment.
"It seems I need to train myself again how to use a sword with just one hand. Thank you for sparing my life. I will repay it in the future. Goodbye."
And with that, he was about to leave. But Shui stopped him.
"What if we can fix your arm?" He asked. "Would you fight me again?"
Xiao Ah Tian raised his eyebrows at him before sighing with a wry smile on his face. "I appreciate the kindness, but this wound is severe even for someone at my level. It's impossible to recover from this."
"But we can fix it."
Another voice said behind Xiao Ah Tian. The person in question turned around and saw Leo standing behind him, wearing a smirk on his face.
"Though we will have to ask for your cooperation in something."
Hearing what Leo said, Xiao Ah Tian stared at him incredulously. He couldn't believe what he just heard. It was impossible! No one could recover from a wound like this...
"We have an excellent doctor at home. Shui over there has severed his arms many times, but we can grow it back easily. If you can help us, we can also help you to heal your arm. How's that sound?"
Shui nodded his head as if what he said was true. "It's true."
The Wandering Sword Saint became silent while pondering the offer in his mind.
"There is nothing wrong with trying. You're the victor, anyway. I will honor your request." He turned around and said, "Lead the way."
"You heard him, Shui. I will tell Chiaki and have her prepare for it. Anya will take over your job as Young Lady Peng's bodyguard. Our next job won't start so soon after the commotion earlier, so take your time."
"Yes, Leader." Shui saluted before moving to pick up the destroyed sword lying on the ground. "Please follow me to Chengdu City. I believe you can still hold on until then?"
"Hahaha, that's easy. Lead the way." Xiao Ah Tian laughed as he followed Shui who walked out of the arena.
Meanwhile, Leo talked to Anya through the communication device to talk about Peng Li-Yue's situation. She asked the girl to help Peng Li-Yue to hide in Qin City for a while until the situation calmed down. If she could, she should help her to run away from the city too.
Leo looked around the arena after everything was done. The aftermath of Shui and Xiao Ah Tian's duel was... pitiful. The spectator area was gone because it was blown away by the force of their sword and was currently burning somewhere. Meanwhile, the stage below was also destroyed, revealing a huge crater beneath it.
Imagining the cost of the repair, Leo couldn't help but smile wryly at it. Luckily, he could just blame it on the attack and not compensate for anything.
'Tang Clan huh. Their conspiracies might be deeper than I originally thought. The attackers aren't real Nokrim. They didn't kill people by stabbing the side of their heads like real Nokrim would do but instead they just killed people normally.'
He looked at one of the corpses near his foot with cold eyes, 'What's the purpose of this attack? Green Forest Bandit had nothing to get here. Is it just to give them a reason to eradicate the bandit group? Or maybe... There is another goal in this.'
He really felt that this plan had multiple layers to it that he hadn't been aware of yet. This was something far bigger than he thought it would be. Tang Clan wouldn't send their men out just because of revenge after all.
'I will have Jessica to look into it more. The job from Peng Li-Yue was finished with Tang Jiuyang's death. We just need to help her create a new identity and get the payment, and that's done. What worries me is the job Tang Yao asked me for. I shouldn't have accepted it, no?'
Being too greedy might backfire on him in the future, but that was life. A mistake to some was an opportunity to others. And in this case, Tang Yao's job was an opportunity for him.
'After saving Qin Weiqi, I have leverage against him. If it comes to the worst, I will just return to Chengdu and ignore the Tang Clan's threat. But I better be careful about this. The good news is the Wandering Sword Saint seems to be interested in Shui now. If we play our card right, maybe I can recruit him into our mercenary band. He'll prove to be useful.'
He thought in his mind as he decided to return to the inn.