The sword was definitely going to hit Ye Xiao on the face, and its sword breath would reach him even before the blade would. With such an overbearing sword breath, the blade would not even need to connect, just the sword breath alone was enough to kill him!
Although Ye Xiao had no powers left, he had retained his vision. He was seeing everything with great clarity at the moment. This particular attack was called the Mountain Cracking Strike in the cultivation of swordplay. If this sword actually hit him, nothing in his body would be left intact. It would be completely torn apart. There would be nothing left unbroken!
"You want to kill me with no reason at all and you even want to tear me apart?"
Ye Xiao was angry. He was really furious.
At this moment, the raging power within Ye Xiao's body had no means of dissipating. It was currently circulating within his body, providing him the illusion of regaining his lost strength. He instinctively wielded his sleeve, and without thinking too much, he performed a "Laughing Eight Blast" in order to defend from the attack and fight back.
He began to laugh while performing the Eight Blast!
This was precisely the Xiao Monarch's signature move.
But it hadn't occurred to him until he had already executed the move, [Damn it! I am no longer the Xiao Monarch of my previous life. No matter how surging my strength is, the spiritual qi inside my body is all dependent on an external source. I can't use this power as I wish, I need to be frugal. But if I don't exert this power now, how can I defend and fight back?]
However, even he was surprised by what happened next.
Now that the endless raging power had found a way to burst out, it began to pour out continuously and showed no signs of stopping!
With a sharp sound, a powerful wind emerged, which was then followed by a burst of purple light.
At that moment, Ye Xiao had a feeling; it felt like an illusion where he was back to the best condition of his prior life!
The Xiao Monarch who had laughed at all heroes, had he come back?
Puff…
A slight sound came out. The guy who was rushing towards him was now incapable of executing any more crazy sword-moves. He was unable to attack anymore, because he was rendered completely immobile by an invisible force which had emerged from Ye Xiao's Laughing Eight Blast. When faced with such force, even the sword in his hand was repelled, and it was made to turn around and smash the head of its owner with an unstoppable power!
The force from the Laughing Eight Blast had made the sword strike many times fiercer than when it had originally been released.
The assassin, facing such misfortune, besides being scared enough to lose his countenance, was actually terrified to the extreme. Unfortunately, the assassin was also experienced in battle. With quick reactions, he forced himself to correct his stance to block the blade. Kacha! Both his hands were cut off at the same time. This action caused the back of the blade to hit his head instead of its sharp edge, yet it still made him bleed at once!
Receiving a powerful shock, his whole body was sent flying away like a kite with a broken string. With a bang, he crashed into a wall and rebounded back to the floor. Although all his bones were likely to be broken, he had dealt with this crisis correctly and had managed to preserve his life.
Ye Xiao had just wielded his sleeve and actually managed to get such a frightening win! He had managed to redirect the fearsome Mountain Cracking Strike just by a flick of his sleeves!
"The Sky Origin Master! Who is he?" The surrounding assassins were shocked to a standstill. They were now facing a situation which had caused even the tone of their voice to change!
"My bloody god. Being called out for a mission, I had almost finished it and returned, but now I just casually met someone in a narrow alley, and he turned out to be the stuff nightmares are made off… What fxxing luck do I have…"
The power inside Ye Xiao's body was still raging like before. It hadn't slowed down at all, and even after the strike just now, it was still going berserk. At any moment, it was going to explode. Ye Xiao gave a humph and casually reached out with his hands into the air and grasped it. With the sound of a sword being unsheathed, the space in front of him distorted into a familiar shape. He had actually conjured a sword from thin air!
When the spiritual qi turned into a sword, everything would become his weapon!
The special move of the Xiao Monarch, Long Sky Laugh!
While smiling, this attack was used to take lives and chase after the souls of the dead.
"That move! Creating a sword from thin air?! You can't be…" The assassins in the enemy camp shouted out in panic, completely terrified while stepping back at the same time. They obviously knew that they were not qualified to fight the other party, so they could only attempt to flee in order to save their lives.
But it was already too late.
Ye Xiao's eyes were filled with rage. He stepped forward and stabbed.
Suddenly, a splendid ball of purple qi appeared, which then burst out, like some purple gorgeous fireworks were exploding in the night sky. The sword breath had instantly disappeared, as if it was trying to get back to one thousand years earlier!
"Urh…" Weird stuffy sounds echoed out. The assassin, who had swung the sword earlier, as well as the other two assassins following him had their necks slashed. With their eyes popping out, they used all their strength to hold on to the wounds before eventually falling down on the floor with a flow.
Triple kill with one sword move!
"Out of nothing, the purple qi in the skyline!" The leader, who was standing the farthest from Ye Xiao, had the chance to observe earlier. As the only survivor in the group, he was extremely anxious to get away. However, he had received a large wound on his chest, and his eyes were filled with alarm. He was looking at Ye Xiao with a horror-stricken face, "It is actually you! Ning Biluo! How dare you fight against us. Even though you are the No. 1 assassin in the world, our lord highness would never let you get away with this!"
Ye Xiao was puzzled, "Ning Biluo? Who is he? The No. 1 assassin? There's actually an elite cultivator in this mortal world…"
That aside, the lord highness? What lord? Who is he?
When he was about to finish this guy with another attack so as to avoid future troubles, he felt that the plentiful power, which had been running restlessly in his body, was now actually quickly calming down like ebbing. The crisis of his Jing and Mai [1] exploding had passed, and the rampage he had gone through had drained the power acquired through the powder from the Heavenly Crystal Marrow.
The spiritual qi, which never truly belonged to him, was not able to persist.
Without the support of the continuous supply of spiritual qi, the sword in his hand disappeared. Ye Xiao yelled, "Humph, you've mistaken my identity."
The Xiao Monarch was a proud cultivator who travelled the world above. What was right was right, and what was wrong was wrong. He wouldn't let others take the blame!
However, the more he denied the truth, the firmer the guy believed he was Ning Biluo. With the mountain-like bearing of a master cultivator and the recognizable fighting style he had, if he wasn't the No. 1 assassin, who else could he be?
The assassin humphed and and said, "Ning Biluo, there will be a chance for us to meet again. Wait and see!" He said as he did a backward somersault. Under extreme fear, he actually burst forth with unbelievable potential as he twisted his body to disappear into the darkness.
He thought that it was fortunate that the monster - Ye Xiao - didn't attack again… The face-covered assassin had cold sweat dripping all over his body, believing that he had escaped with his life…
The sound of soldiers was getting closer and closer.
"I absolutely can't stay here any longer!"
The assassin was unaware that Ye Xiao was also secretly elated, "The assassin didn't attack me. I have really escaped with my life!"
In Ye Xiao's estimation, the escaping assassin was actually the one with the greatest strength among them, even greater than the one who had attacked him. If he had been brave enough to attack Ye Xiao, a fight would have been impossible with the power left within him.
Although the last bit of his power that hadn't disappeared was insufficient to fight against the enemy, it was barely enough to run for his life. Ye Xiao faded like a ghost, disappearing at once from the alley.
This movement was actually the skill from which he was known for in his prior life as the Xiao Monarch: One Laughter in Skyline!
Ye Xiao had gone over a hundred meters with a single movement and heavily fell on the ground. The accidentally-gained power in his body was now completely used up.
The Xiao Monarch, in his best condition, could go dozens of miles whenever he used the One Laughter in Skyline at full power, but now he could only go on for about a hundred meters. It was a difference similar to heaven-and-hell.
Although Ye Xiao felt like sighing with a certain dissatisfaction, he felt a surprising pleasure about escaping from the central zone of the battle. Besides, as a master of martial arts, he understood the reason why he had only moved for such a short distance. It was not that his One Laughter in Skyline was lame, but it was because he was in a really poor condition, and the spiritual qi in his body was just inadequate. With all these disadvantages combined, it was no wonder why the distance he moved for was so lame.
But in truth, no expert had witnessed the god-like skill of moving for hundred meters with a single breath. If they had, they would have been surely shocked enough to drop their jaws to the floor!
What he was unaware of was that - at the moment, it was not only the Zuo Xiang Fu which was in disarray. In fact, the entire capital was already falling into disorder!
There were people shouting and horses neighing. Countless soldiers rushed on the street conducting a search for the escaping assassins.
"Catch the assassins!"
"Do not let the assassins go!"
"Search carefully! Let no suspects go!"
"Rather kill an innocent than let them escape!"
This corner of the capital was the epicenter of the disorder. It was as if a huge rock had fallen into a peaceful lake, and the ripples had spread across the whole city. The situation had shown signs of getting more and more serious!
Inside Ye Xiao's body, although the spiritual qi was depleted, he still had the strength to move his legs, which was barely enough to enable him to walk on the street. By the time he got home, he was utterly exhausted to the point where he couldn't even move his little finger…
In fact, he had gotten through god knows how many questioning kiosks, but everyone had recognized the foppish son of the Northern General. When they saw him walking closer with an overly drunk pace and a pretentious look, what interest did they have to bother with him?
Even if they were searching everyone, they would never suspect that one of the three lords would be involved. As such, they didn't bother to interrogate him.
The Xiao Monarch had just reached the door at home, when he heard a voice yelling with anger, "Where have you been? At such a dangerous time, you're actually still lingering around. I'll beat you to death! Arghhhhh..."
Although the voice was filled with anger, it was delicate and sweet-sounding. It was the voice of a girl.
Ye Xiao looked towards the source of the voice and saw two girls standing gracefully erect under the lanterns hanging in his house. The one in front was pouting her lips while furiously staring at him, but this angry look had an indescribable charm and glamour.
The guard standing beside the door was showing a bitter face, "My Lord… The princess has come to see you…"
Ye Xiao immediately felt that his scalp was burning. From the successive memory, he learned that this girl in front was indeed the fiance that his present father selected for him. She was the daughter of the Prince Hua-Yang, the well-known Princess Yeyue [2] in the capital.
"Hmmm, isn't it claimed that she is gentle, soft and virtuous? She just yelled like a female lion when she saw me. What is going on…"
Before he could react, his ear was grabbed by a soft and small hand, "Why don't you get in here!"
The maids beside her tittered away while covering their mouths. Ye Xiao was grabbed on the ear in an extremely awkward fashion and led through the door.
"Oy, oy. Take it easy…" Ye Xiao had a bitter face. All his power had been recently exhausted, and because of that, his body was now at its weakest. He was really not going to make it…
"Speak! What have you been up to? Bastard!" Princess Yeyue was looking at Ye Xiao in front of her with a tiger-like face.
It really felt different to see a beauty under the light. Princess Yeyue had a face like flowers, curved eyebrows, clear and clever eyes, firm nose and a little mouth like a cherry. Her hair was slightly rolled up on her head… She was really like a beauty from poems and paintings. Even though she was hosting an evil and scary look, she was still a stunning beauty; only one in millions. She had the ability to make a thousand faces, and no one could recognize her true face.
———
[1] Jing and Mai: Jing is the Chinese word for "essence", specifically kidney essence. Mai is vein.
[2] Princess Yue. Su Yeyue (苏夜月,苏 is her family name; 夜 means night; 月means moon). The daughter of the Prince Hua-Yang (The Royal Highness Hua-Yang).