Before the battle, most people had believed that no matter how strong Yan Wushi was, Ruyan Kehui was still a notch above him. After all, while Yan Wushi was one of the top ten, Ruyan Kehui ranked in the top three. But after today, they’d no longer dare to say so. Yan Wushi’s reputation would surely soar to new heights, and the battle would soon become a hot topic. If all went as expected, it would be the jianghu’s most spectacular battle in years.
At some point, Bai Rong, who’d been standing beside Shen Qiao, had vanished without a trace.
She came and went like a shadow—even left without a goodbye.
Shen Qiao didn’t chase after her, nor did he retrace his steps down the road he’d taken. Instead, he squinted for a long while, as if scrutinizing something, and then left along another small path.
By now, the sky had darkened completely.
The mountain winds grew colder after nightfall—although it was April, summer hadn’t yet taken hold. Through cracks in the canyon walls, the gales howled and wailed like the weeping of ghosts.
The summit of this mountain was somewhat similar to Banbu Peak, where Shen Qiao and Kunye’s match had taken place. It was not as tall, but there was little foothold at the peak, and the ground there was treacherously narrow. Only a scant few trees grew there. Their branches rustled in the night wind, too scraggly and thin for anyone to lean on, let alone to use as protection from the night winds.
But when one crossed over the clifftop and went a little down the other side, they’d find a sunken hole that formed a cave, large enough to accommodate three or four people. With a rocky wall against one’s back and a stone ledge hanging overhead, it was a natural shelter from the wind.
And inside this cave sat the cross-legged silhouette of a man.
When Li Yue entered, that man didn’t move at all, as if he were dead.
“Sect Leader Yan?” he asked, questioning.
If someone else heard him, the name would surely have given them a fright.
Yan Wushi and Ruyan Kehui had clearly left long before, so why would Sect Leader Yan reappear in this mountain cave?
Li Yue called his name several more times, but there was no reaction from Yan Wushi.
His nerve grew, and as he crept closer, step by step, he groped inside his lapels for a torch, then lit it. He shone the firelight at where Yan Wushi was sitting. The man almost looked like a high monk who’d passed away in self-mummification,16 as immovable as bedrock. Even the flickering torchlight couldn’t make him open his eyes.
Joy suffused Li Yue’s heart. He was so excited, even his hands began to tremble imperceptibly.
He was only a second-rate martial artist, but he’d come from a long line of constables, and his judgment was keen. From a young age, he’d been influenced by his father and grandfather and had developed a habit of observing the subtlest details.
Everyone believed Ruyan Kehui and Yan Wushi’s strength was equal, thought their final draw was a pity. However, Li Yue didn’t see things that way.
It was a battle that had lasted from the day into the night, and both sides had given, if not their all, then at least eight or nine tenths of it. There was no doubting it—where they’d fought most fiercely, the mountain stones had been shattered into powder, boulders half the size of men splintered into gravel in mere seconds, the river waters temporarily reversed, and the surrounding trees snapped clean in two. In the face of such enormous might, the spectators hadn’t even dared to block with their internal qi. With just how much destructive power there’d been, could both combatants have really walked away without a scratch?
Even a peerless expert like Qi Fengge eventually met their death. There was always some chance of injury, as long as they weren’t true immortals, entirely disconnected from the world.
Though Ruyan Kehui and Yan Wushi both acted as if nothing had happened, Li Yue’s intuition told him that the conclusion wasn’t so simple.
His martial arts would never catch up to those two, but when the others had left, he’d stayed to wander the surroundings and even scaled the cliff for a closer look. During the duel, the combatants had stopped for a moment on the peak, and no one knew what had happened during that time. For half a day, Li Yue did nothing but search, but in the end, he found nothing. He was just about to leave, thinking that he was once again overthinking things, when he came upon the cave.
And inside was Yan Wushi.
It was truly a great surprise from the heavens. Li Yue tried to calm himself down, but he couldn’t suppress the trembling in his hands, which had his torch quaking. Its firelight wavered unsteadily inside the cave, casting an inexplicable, treacherous pall over the place.
He was certain that Yan Wushi must have been injured and was here to recuperate. Furthermore, for Yan Wushi to remain unaware even as Li Yue approached, it must be no light wound.
If… If he could kill Yan Wushi, display his corpse for everyone to see, then in the space of a night his name would resound through the entire land.
And then everyone in the land would know that the one who’d killed the Demon Lord wasn’t the Linchuan Academy Master Ruyan Kehui but the Dragon Who Crosses Rivers, Li Yue himself!
In his extreme elation, he failed to give a thought to the troubles that would follow. For example, if he truly killed Yan Wushi, how would he deal with Huanyue Sect, who would certainly come after his head? And how would he make the world believe that a second-rate fellow like him had managed to kill the Yan Wushi, when even Ruyan Kehui couldn’t?
But Li Yue didn’t consider any of this—the temptation of success and fame had flooded his mind, and involuntarily, he drew the sword at his waist…
The sword’s point advanced inch by inch. The Demon Lord, so proud and vigorous earlier that very day, was now right in front of him, dead to the world and completely at his mercy.
In the throes of his excitement, there was a twisted cast to his expression.
Then suddenly, his face froze.
Li Yue stared, wide-eyed, at the bamboo cane that had appeared without warning and was blocking his sword point. Slowly and stiffly, he raised his head, gazing at the cane’s owner, who had soundlessly appeared.