Chapter 9: Murder and Heartbreak

On Baiji Ridge, amidst the wooded path, Double Xie hatched an extraordinary plan.

After the battle at Zouma Village had unfolded, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had nearly clinched a complete victory.

However, as the saying goes—the last leg of a hundred-mile journey is the hardest to complete.

Ma Si, though not considered a top-notch martial artist in Jianghu, not even clearly a second-class fighter, was undeniably stronger than the inexperienced Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai.

As someone seasoned in Jianghu, accustomed to killing and leading a life drenched in blood, Ma Si saw life-and-death struggles as nothing out of the ordinary.

And whereas Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were just beginning their journeys in Jianghu, even if they were perhaps psychologically older, they severely lacked in combat experience compared to Ma Si.

In just a glance, Ma Si determined that these two were no match for him.

Not to mention their youthful appearance, seemingly around seventeen or eighteen, with no reputation in Jianghu; even from the scene before him, Ma Si could tell their martial arts prowess was limited.

Because true masters would never need ordinary villagers to kill for them...

Forget someone at Shen Youran's level; even Ma Si himself was confident that he could single-handedly eliminate all fifty-odd riffraffs of Zouma Village.

At the end of the day, these bandits of Zouma Village weren't much stronger than ordinary villagers; how could someone like Ma Si, who had wiped out his own Master and his sect, truly teach these scoundrels any real kung fu? He had merely taught them the most rudimentary basics.

But Ma Si's own martial arts were worlds apart from these men; he was confident that alone, he could annihilate Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai, and all the villagers present.

Moreover, now that Zouma Village had been destroyed, Ma Si saw no reason to remain at Baiji Ridge, hence he had no reservations about killing; if push came to shove, he would simply flee afterwards and establish himself elsewhere.

In such a mindset, enraged and overflowing with murderous intent, Ma Si charged down the slope on his horse.

"Scatter! Take cover back in the woods!" Faced with imminent danger, Sun Yixie reacted swiftly, shouting at the villagers to disperse while he himself did a leap and tumbled behind a rock.

They were fortunate, for the area was littered with the bodies of dead bandits, forcing Ma Si's horse to slow down as it approached; and thanks to Sun Yixie's timely warning, the villagers successfully escaped from Ma Si's attack range.

Unfortunately... In the middle of the road stood Huang Donglai alone, confronting his adversary.

Seeing this, Ma Si sneered, pulled on the reins to slow his horse, and using the momentum, he leaped from his mount and descended like thunder from above, his "Hundred-Catty Sword" striking straight towards Huang Donglai's left shoulder.

Although the move was fierce, Huang Donglai handled it with relative ease. After all, the Qinggong of the Huang family was renowned worldwide, and the first "Triple Excellence" skill he learned in his youth was Qinggong, so attacks of this type, hurtling from the sky without the ability to alter course, were quite manageable for him.

Huang Donglai's right foot shifted slightly, directing his energy through Dadu (an acupoint), and with a light tip of his toe, his figure swayed, dodging a meter to the right; simultaneously, his hand flickered coldly as he launched a hidden weapon directly into the path of Ma Si's descent.

Clang—

Unexpectedly, Ma Si's quick reflexes allowed him to change his move at the last moment and block the poison dart with a horizontal swipe of his sword.

Evidently, Huang Donglai's skill with hidden weapons was still unrefined; the strength of his throw was insufficient, his variations lacking; had it been a master of hidden weapons, the outcome would have been three darts in a flash, each splitting different paths in multiple variations—utterly unblockable.

"Hah... is this the extent of your skill, daring to meddle in other's affairs?" The moment Ma Si landed, having somewhat gauged Huang Donglai's capabilities from the brief exchange, he felt assured of his victory.

While taunting, Ma Si leaned forward, dragging his sword as he advanced swiftly.

In a breath's time, he had advanced close to Huang Donglai. But the blossom of his blade was enough to corner Huang, forcing him into a continuous retreat.

This was different from the previous encounter outside Hangzhou City, where a hooded Cao Gang thug had mistaken Huang Donglai for a mere verbose scholar and had come too close without any guard, only to be instantly killed by a poison dart thrown by Huang.

But now, Ma Si was regarding him as a true opponent, carefully on guard; Huang had no chance to strike due to the oppressive sword skill of Ma Si.

In this moment of crisis, suddenly...

Whoosh—

The sound of powerful air and the sudden appearance of a halberd.

Ma Si was vigilant, immediately detecting the danger and sharply twisting his body to dodge the sneak attack launched by Sun Yixie from behind.

"Hmph..." Following the close call, Ma Si turned ferociously and thought to himself resentfully, "A brat with barely any Inner Strength dares to play dirty with me?"

With that thought, he swiftly rotated, his blade tracing an arc in mid-air, slanting directly towards Sun Yixie's neck.

But Sun Yixie was not Huang Donglai; with his current level of movement technique, he couldn't completely dodge such a rapid sword skill; he could only manage to twist his body at an angle, opting to take the blade with his back instead—but that would be enough.

Ping—

When Ma Si's sword struck Sun Yixie's back, the sensation that passed through his hands felt strangely off; it didn't feel like a sword slicing through flesh, but more like a stick hitting cotton, with a piece of iron hidden beneath it.