Plundering the Dao of the Immortal Journey

“No! Wait for me Young Master!” Zhang Pei Sheng panicked after seeing Zhang Jie Yu fleeing off by himself.

The rest of the black robed bandits heard this and were also shocked, "What?! Young Master Zhang has fled?”

The bandits all paused in confusion, and only understood what was happening when the silence was broken by a shrill scream, "Stab them!” Zhang Dashan yelled.

The villagers heard the command and thrust their spears out in unison.

“Pu, pu!” The cries of agony rang repeatedly throughout the village. four bandits in black robes were struck by the spears, they pierced through their bodies. When the villagers withdrew their spears, blood leaked out of their gaping wounds.

“Kill! Kill them all.” Zhang Dashan yelled once again. He realized that they had gained the upperhand, and understood what Pei Zi Yun had said.

“Whatever flowery techniques a person has, or however fast he is, the main purpose is to be able to defeat their enemies. It’s been said that the best fighters in the world, are equivalent to 7 or 8 swordsman. That’s the threshold of their physical capabilities.”

“But if we were to stick with our formations, and stab a person in every direction. Using 7 or 8 people to attack simultaneously, that is equal to the prowess of a top fighter.”

“Staying in formation and attacking at the same time would most certainly break the bandits. How powerful can these bandits be? Are they the top fighters in the world? Defeating them would mean that teamwork would trump individual skills.”

One thing that Pei Zi Yun did not say, was that an elite fighter had to train for decades before he were to reach that standard. Once he dies, the world wouldn’t see anyone like him for another century or so.

But staying in formation, and sticking your spears out requires the training of one or two months at most. If 18 people die, another 100 people can take their place without problems!

That is why a martial artist, or a fighter would not reach the peak of his prowess during battle, unless something extraordinary happened.

Zhang Dashan understood what was happening before him. Zhang Jie Yu turned back and bit down hard on his teeth, feeling the full intensity of hatred towards these damned villagers, "This stupid idiot is completely useless. The only thing he succeeded in was failing. When we get back I’m going to lop his head off!”

The situation was going downhill for them, and they were caught in a deadlock for a long time afterwards. However, seeing some fellow black robed bandit get killed, the rest of the bandits had enough. They then turned around to flee.

One of them who was fleeing was lagging behind. All he could do was shout, "Brother, fellow brother, wait for me…”

Before he could even finish his sentence, three brave village men caught up with him, and stabbed him from behind with their spears, "Pu, pu!” could be heard as the spearhead penetrated his flesh. He died instantly.

It was late in the night, and they have suffered many casualties. Fresh blood stained the entire area around them, as people were still crying out in pain far behind. Zhang Jie Yu continued to run forward. He felt a pain in his heart. After all, these were his men. His hatred for Pei Zi Yun intensified manifold.

Seeing Zhang Jie Yu flee without turning his head back, Pei Zi Yun chased after him.

“Master? It has to be Zhang Jie Yu!”

Although this man was masked, and his identity was hidden, Pei Zi Yun was certain that it was him. He had even brought the monks from the Silver Dragon Temple. The gangsters from the river, who had tried to kill him once, were here too. The masked man also displayed some Dao Arts, which means he was a disciple of Holy Jail Sect. This man was definitely Zhang Jie Yu.

He had initially thought of defeating Zhang Jie Yu slowly, with a detailed plan. Who would’ve expected him to show up late in the night, under the banners of Black Wind Sect to try and finish him off. Pei Zi Yun was not foolish like Zhang Dashan, who thought that soldiers stabbing their foes while standing in a formation, were unbeatable. A man with fighting techniques wasn’t scary. Scary was when a person well versed in military strategies knew fighting techniques.

A person who understood Dao Arts and had good fighting techniques would know of a thousand different ways to break that formation, and then kill them off. As long as he wasn’t foolish enough to take them head on, he would emerge victorious.

A person like that was a threat, and needed to be killed off fast.

Pei Zi Yun had these thoughts in mind as his heart burned with killing intent. He continued his pursuit, and ran past several bandits, completely ignoring them. These foolish four bandits had their backs towards each other, facing the village men with their formation. Pei Zi Yun knew that they were doomed.

Zhang Dashan led the group of villagers, looking valiant. Seeing his own people being slaughtered mercilessly, his heart was filled with fury. He was about to give the order to kill, and wipe them off the face of this earth.

Cao San too was furious that these bandits had killed his Chief Patrol Officer. He had just reached the scene. However he realized that it was important to keep these men alive so they could provide testimonies. He then shouted ferociously, "If they drop their swords, spare them.”

“If they drop their swords, spare them!”

Seeing these village men with their spears raised, a black robed bandit removed his mask and knelt down sobbing, "I surrender, I surrender.”

The other three men saw their companion surrender, as they too threw their swords and knelt down.

Zhang Jie Yu was filled with regret. He had suffered a huge loss in Li Wen Jing, and now he had failed in this mission. He turned his head back and saw Pei Zi Yun holding his sword and chasing him. He continued running faster.

Seeing a horse in front of him, Zhang Jie Yu leapt up and landed on the back on the horse. Cutting the rope tying the horse to a wooden beam, he shouted, "Run, run, run!”

He didn’t notice that Zhang Pei Sheng had caught up to him, and received a shock when he said, "Young Master, take me with you.”

The horse neighed as Zhang Jie Yu held it back. With intense frustration and anger, he drew his sword and stabbed in wildly in a direction. The sound of his sword piercing through the chest of Zhang Pei Sheng could be heard. He withdrew his sword as he urged the horse to run off, "Run, run!”

Seeing Zhang Jie Yu being delayed, Pei Zi Yun hurried on forward and smiled. He leapt on one foot and lunged towards the horse, with his sword outstretched. With a flash of a sword, he plunged it right into the heart of the horse.

The horse grunted in pain, as it reared before falling to the ground. Zhang Jie Yu was stunned, "This is not good!”

He jumped off the horse with agility, and fell onto the ground, rolling, dirt and blood flying in all directions. He stabbed his sword into the ground and used it for support to get back on his feet.

Pei Zi Yun grasped his sword as he approached. He was grinning widely, "I was wondering who it was, it seems like Master Zhang has paid me a visit. I am deeply honored!”

Before this, he was only guessing. Now he was certain. Zhang Jie Yu put his hands to his face, and realized that his mask was no longer on his face. It must’ve dropped out when he was rolling on the ground.

Having lost his mask, Zhang Jie Yu didn’t bother trying to hide his identity any longer. He was emitting a faint white light, as he stretched out his hands, pointing his finger at Pei Zi Yun.

Pei Zi Yun felt his feet sinking into the sand. He looked down and realized that he was being engulfed by quicksand beneath him. Zhang Jie Yu hobbled towards the trapped Pei Zi Yun, with his sword gleaming under the moonlight. The wind was howling and thunder started rumbling.

“Ci!” Suddenly, he felt an inexplicable white light pierce into his eyes, making it hard for him to see.

“Zheng!” Both their shadows interlocked as their swords grazed against each other.

“Dao Techniques. Pei Zi Yun, you really have learnt some Dao Techniques, and you’re not a Rogue Cultivator. All those villagers were worthless, and while you were amongst them, I could not tell that you’ve acquired Dao Arts. I had thought you were still an ordinary person. Damn it!” Zhang Jie Yu ground his teeth in anger.

Pei Zi Yun understood what Zhang Jie Yu was saying. Since the gates to Heaven had yet to open, it meant that the strength of his Dao Arts wasn’t great. And yet today, inferior Dao Arts meet inferior Dao Arts. In fact, suppressing all these highly skilled warriors was way too easy for him.

Imagine this, two equally strong enemies facing each other in a battle between life and death. All of a sudden, one of them is blinded by light. And the other remained immobile, being caught in quicksand. Both their swords suddenly felt immensely lighter. Shouldn’t they both be in mortal peril?

Although the Dao Techniques they possessed were weak, they knew that they must leave no traces of killing the other this way, and at this point, it was impossible to do so. A Rogue Cultivator would not know something like that, since their only objective was to chase after power and strength. That was the difference between a Rogue Cultivator and one that belonged to a sect.

The move displayed just now, obviously showed that Pei Zi Yun had inherited the Dao Arts from a sect.

Pei Zi Yun clearly would not admit that he had acquired this from the memories of the original owner, and only learnt it tonight. He laughed coldly, "Your Quicksand move was pretty good. But since there are many wondrous Dao Arts, there would also be corrupted Dao Arts.”

“If you use Martial Arts to kill someone, even killing the Emperor is fine. However, using Dao Arts to kill someone would make your Qi flow backward. Since you’ve killed the Chief Patrol Officer, your Qi Circulation has already been inverted. I wonder, how many more times can you go through this? My dear master Zhang. It looks like Nobody Pei is extremely lucky tonight, since I will have the upperhand in killing you tonight.”

As he spoke, Pei Zi Yun raised his sword up to finish him off.

Zhang Jie Yu’s expression fell. His heart was cold with fear. Not only was this person skilled with Martial Arts, he also had a good understanding of Dao Arts. Only people who directly inherited skills from their sect would understand what he spoke of.

If he had known what he was up against, Zhang Jie Yu would’ve asked some of his sect brothers to investigate this person thoroughly. Then they would have grouped up and hatched a foolproof plan to kill Pei Zi Yun. It was too late to say all this now though. The only way out was to meet Pei Zi Yun head on, and find out who would emerge victorious. It was time to end this!

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The both of them shouted at the top of their lungs, lunging at each other with such ferocity and intensity. The pair carried an explosive energy, and killing aura radiated.

Their shadows interlocked once more, as their blades reflected light. Thunders roared when their blades clashed against each other. They traded seven blows with each other, all were parried by the other party. Sparks were ignited repeatedly.

Zhang Jie Yu took a step back, before pressing to attack once more, his sword gleaming in the dark.

“Zheng!” More sparks flew from the blades of the weapons. Pei Zi Yun groaned, as he was forced to retreat a step. Zhang Jie Yu took several seconds before he too, could steady himself.

“That’s skillful, your sword technique is reaching a critical point. You’ve even learnt your sects signature sword move.” Zhang Jie Yu said slowly, "Not only are you a member of Free Cloud Sect, your moves are as strong as those of a Core Disciple. You even have a chance of becoming a Sect Elder or even a direct disciple of the Sect Leader!”

Both their Dao Arts were rather weak. Zhang Jie Yu’s intention was to harass his enemy before eventually killing him. It was supposed to be easy. And yet, he had met a person with good Martial Arts abilities. Every attack he made was countered with thunder. Where could he find the opening to conjure Dao Arts to subdue his enemy?

And yet if he was able to infuse his Dao Arts with his Martial Arts skills, even if a highly skilled warrior stood before him, the warrior would perish under his sword anyway.

Zhang Jie Yu was using the fighting techniques from Holy Jail Sect and Pei Zi Yun was using the fighting techniques from Free Cloud Sect. Both of these techniques were different, yet used the same foundation.

Zhang Jie Yu laughed coldly, "Does Free Cloud Sect wish to start a war with Holy Jail Sect?”

“This matter was started by Holy Jail Sect!”

Zhang Jie Yu’s eyes watered with tears, as he blinked rapidly to ease the discomfort. This was an after effect of Pei Zi Yun’s Illuminating Energy Skill. In that small window of time, Pei Zi Yun lunged forward as the gleam of the sword reflected in Zhang Jie Yu’s eyes. Zhang Jie Yu screamed out in pain, as the sword sliced across his right chest, near his shoulder. Although the cut wasn’t very deep, blood leaked out of the wound, and soaked his robe.

“Kill!” Pei Zi Yun moved at the speed of light, his shadow was a blur, his sword raised.

Zhang Jie Yu ignored the pain he was feeling, and gathered some energy, before directing this beam of light toward Pei Zi Yun.

“Zheng!” Pei Zi Yun held his sword up to block the beam of light, as sparks flew in all directions. Pei Zi Yun laughed aloud, pushing his sword forward as if to pressure the beam of light. In five breaths, the beam of light before him shattered and exploded with an anguished scream, revealing the sword. It seems like Zhang Jie Yu had combined his Dao Arts with his sword, and enveloped the sword with his powers. The sword dropped to the ground lifelessly, it’s spiritual energy had been destroyed.

Zhang Jie Yu felt the side effect of his Qi flowing backward and spat out a huge mouthful of blood. His face was pale and cold sweat trickled down his forehead, "Pei Zi Yun, you really wouldn’t rest until you’ve killed me?”

After this encounter, Zhang Jie Yu realized that Pei Zi Yun had gained access to the sect and inherited Dao Arts as a Core Disciple. Although their fighting skills were on the same level, it was clear that he had stronger Dao Arts. Knowing that his Qi Circulation had been inverted and thus any use of it would be directed back at him, he knew it would be hard to escape. With this in mind, he took in a deep breath and said, "I did you wrong, Pei Zi Yun. But between us, there was no death feud and thus we can stop now. The reason I’ve come to seek revenge was because you killed many of my Black Wind Sect brothers. Since you belong to a sect, let’s stop now. There’s no need to fight till death. We can both take a step back.”

Pei Zi Yun understood Zhang Jie Yu’s plan and smiled, "Let’s not speak of other offenses you’ve done to me. The worse thing you could’ve done, that started all this, was how you had plotted with the Black Wind Sect to kidnap my childhood lover from me. Was that not a death feud? The numerous times you had tried to kill me, was that not a death feud? Tonight you came to my village with the intention of killing my family. Is that not a death feud?”

Pei Zi Yun’s words were punctuated with strong killing intent. He laughed once more, "Zhang Jie Yu, you’ve made many moves on me. We have long passed the stage of forgiveness. This place shall be your burial ground!”

“And you’ve killed the Chief Patrol Officer, and are under the effects of inverted Qi Circulation. Your Dao-Imbued weapon has been destroyed and your energy has been shattered as well. Although you can eventually recover from these, do you think I would let you?”

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Today shall be the day you die. You still dare to use words to convince me otherwise?”