The Path of the Martial Arts BOSS
Chapter 183 - 172: Ambush

Chapter 183: Chapter 172: Ambush

Lin Tengyuan followed the direction the man pointed and saw a thick plume of green smoke slowly rising from the east side of the city.

"Not good, there’s trouble at the East Sea Commerce..."

Immediately, Lin Tengyuan thought of the East Sea Commerce. The east side of the city was precisely where the East Sea Commerce’s stronghold was located. During this time, the only place where such a significant incident could occur was at the East Sea Commerce.

"Mr. Lin, if you have matters to attend to, you may leave first. It just so happens that we were about to leave as well." The leader of the black-clothed men said with a grin before striding away from the city gate.

Lin Tengyuan had no intention of stopping them. The reason for the delay until now was simply the other party deliberately causing trouble to prevent his departure, not Lin Tengyuan trying to stop them from leaving.

The urgent matter at hand was to rush to provide support to the East Sea Commerce. The East Sea Commerce had dispersed a large number of their people, and although some remained, the defenses had inevitably become more vulnerable. Lin Tengyuan was worried about unfavorable developments. He did not call for his men, to prevent the enemy from pulling a diversion and because they couldn’t keep up with his speed.

Lin Tengyuan’s True Qi surged as he dashed across rooftops like a bolt of lightning, stirring gusts of wind in his wake.

However, someone did not wish for him to reach the East Sea Commerce swiftly and unobstructed. As he approached Huaining Street, which was three streets away from the East Sea Commerce, Lin Tengyuan found the street eerily quiet. Strewn about were constables from the Six Gates, members of the Cao Gang, and those from the East Sea Commerce who had been assisting in the search.

They were not dead, merely drained of all strength, limp on the ground, unharmed.

But that might not be the case going forward. The area was about to become a battlefield.

One after another, a total of thirty masked assassins in black, with arm crossbows on their left hands and long swords flashing with a green light, clearly poisoned, surrounded him from all sides.

These men were all the remaining Exorcism Sword Guards under Qing Yu’s command.

As the encirclement was completed, the True Qi of the Exorcism Sword Guards began to fluctuate violently, constantly rising.

Just like the Exorcism Sword Guards at the East Sea Commerce, they directly employed the forbidden technique "Blood Sacrifice to Heaven" from the Cangsheng Sect.

Under the effects of this forbidden technique, which burned essence blood, the True Qi levels of the Exorcism Sword Guards all soared to above the Innate Fifth Realm.

However, the Innate Fifth Realm was still far too weak compared to the Divine Origin Realm, even more so when it was temporarily boosted by a forbidden technique.

"Come and meet your death."

Lin Tengyuan looked on, brimming with murderous intent, at the Exorcism Sword Guards rushing towards him.

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Over at the East Sea Commerce stronghold.

Qing Yu pushed the Qi Integration Technique of the Taiyi Splitting Light Sword to its limits. One Element births two forms, two forms birth the Four Symbols, the Four Symbols Produce the Eight Trigrams. An eightfold increase in True Qi brought his "Innate Gang Qi" to a substantial transformative level, with the Extremely Yin and Soft Gang Qi generating to the point of birthing Supreme Yang Gang Qi.

Although he had long been able to freely switch between Yin and Yang attributes, this kind of transformation from Yin to Yang was not something that could be achieved by simple conversion; it required a massive amount of True Qi to stimulate the attributes to their utmost. The same process was something Qing Yu had only accomplished once before when he had first begun his cultivation of the Exorcism Sword Manual by leveraging the special characteristics of the technique.

The Extreme Yang and supremely firm Innate Gang Qi protected his body while also possessing an extremely potent offensive capability.

"You will not live to see Lin Tengyuan..."

In Qing Yu’s eyes, there was cold indifference. In his view, Fujita Heijiro was already a dead man.

Sticking his dual swords into the ground beside him, Qing Yu lifted his palms. With his True Qi spurred to its limit, Qing Yu was no longer able to control it with ease, so it was better to not use a technique that required precise manipulation like the Taiyi Splitting Light Sword at this time. Instead, the simple and violent Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms would do.

"Qi Dual Flow·Shocking Hundred Miles."

Among the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, the most straightforward and also the most domineering palm was merely pushing both palms flat, yet it carried an incomparable power.

"Boom—"

The palm force exploded through the air, as if a divine dragon was truly roaring within the palm. With unsurpassed might, he slammed his palms towards the trembling Fujita Heijiro.

"Crack—"

Even the sturdy Juzu shattered before "Shocking Hundred Miles," and Fujita Heijiro’s body flew up like a torn sack before falling down.

His mouth opened and closed, but only fresh blood kept spilling out, mixed with some small chunks—those were his shattered internal organs.

After one palm strike, Qing Yu did not pause for breath. His figure flickered towards a Ninja entangled in a fight with Luo Yan. With the technique "Sudden Onrise," swift and ferocious, he shattered his spine.

At this moment, the Exorcism Sword Guards, unafraid of sacrifice, had lured another master into a deadly trap at the cost of nearly total annihilation. On the Japanese side, only three people remained.

Disregarding the fact that Ada and his three brothers were entangled with a master which had severely wounded them all, it seemed like a fair match with three against three from the Central Plains against the Japanese. Three versus three seemed quite fair.

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Lin Tengyuan cleaved through the body of the last Exorcism Sword Guard with his sword. His blade energy ravaged the remaining corpse of the guard, yet even amidst such torment, the guard remained silent as if his body was not his own.

Such coldness and numbness even made the weathered Lin Tengyuan feel a chill in his heart. These people, if one could still call them people, were more like the mechanical men produced by the Mo Family—cold, heartless, unconscious.

Blood with a hint of exotic fragrance sprayed onto Lin Tengyuan’s face, making his expression even darker.

The blood was poisoned, something Lin Tengyuan had not anticipated.

These inhuman black-clothed Death Soldiers were not just dipping their weapons in poison, or infecting their Inner Strength with toxins, even their blood was laced with deadly poison. From the very beginning, these men were sacrificial pawns. Having ingested so much potent poison, even if they were masters of Poison Skill, they could not withstand it. They were fated to die from the poison if not by Lin Tengyuan’s hand.

"Words uttered weakly..."

Surprisingly, just before death, the last Exorcism Sword Guard uttered a few words. The voice was weak and feeble, but it did not escape Lin Tengyuan’s ears.

"I am Japanese..."

Lin Tengyuan, imprinted in his mind; the long-unused mother tongue automatically made him understand the meaning of the sentence.

As if suddenly driven insane, Lin Tengyuan sprinted over and tore open the guard’s chest. Then, he saw a small, sun-like tattoo, a symbol all those from Japan who ventured to the Central Plains possessed. Lin Tengyuan himself once bore this mark, but later, to better conceal his identity, he washed it away with a medicinal concoction.

"These people, all these people are..."

The ruthless tactics of the mastermind behind the scenes shocked Lin Tengyuan into a moment of mental disarray. Although his strong Mental State Cultivation as a Divine Origin Realm master allowed him to quickly regain his composure and not lose control, it was in this moment that he inadvertently created the opportunity for a hidden technique to take action.

Specks of yellow light twinkled, resembling fireflies. Under the daylight sun, they were even less conspicuous. These tiny bugs flew from the bosom of the dead Exorcism Sword Guard and landed on Lin Tengyuan’s hand.