Chapter 2: Wave Subduing Blade Technique, Green-Clothed Ghost Mask

"Kill!"

"Red Lotus Purification, recreating the universe..."

The sounds of killing filled Zhou Ping'an's ears; the world before him was a blur of blood. Surrounded by a sea of figures, he was swept along by the throng of people, involuntarily rushing forward.

Wait a minute.

Where am I?

Who am I?

What am I supposed to do?

Wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and feeling a chill, Zhou Ping'an had no idea what was going on.

He was running down a small hill, the ground soft with mud and dotted with both fresh grass and numerous footprints creating shallow pits that eventually flattened out.

All around, ragged men wielding swords and spears roared maniacally, their eyes fixed dead ahead...

It's like a horde of zombies has been unleashed!

Dazed and confused, the tree bears the fruits of bewilderment, and beneath it, you and I stand befuddled.

His brain whirred for three seconds before Zhou Ping'an roughly pieced together the scene unfolding around him.

"This is a battle, a charge..."

"For real."

Thwack!

A dark shadow accompanied by a shrieking sound plummeted from the sky, an arrow piercing the neck of the man in front of him, splattering blood that sprayed onto Zhou Ping'an's face.

The pungent smell of blood almost made him throw up. His stomach churned, hair stood on end, and he quickly raised his hand to shield his forehead, using the shadows of his "comrades" around him for cover as he continued to rush forward.

But he had to keep moving...

The men around him were like lunatics, brandishing their weapons so wildly that several times they nearly struck him.

Standing still, he was likely to get hacked or speared by someone just passing by.

Zhou Ping'an had just seen a skinny figure, whose age was indiscernible, fall in his rush and fail to get up. Then the crowd trampled him into a bloody, muddy mess.

...

Case closed, case closed.

One moment he was examining the scar on his wrist, and the next, he found himself in the midst of this carnage. Zhou Ping'an realized how Master Dong Qingshan must have died.

A warm, tingling sensation at his wrist brought a flash of understanding into his mind, letting Zhou Ping'an know...

He was no longer in his original time and place. That Broken Mirror could actually carry his true self across worlds, yet he couldn't return at the moment.

It needed to recharge, it needed time.

Ten cycles of sunrise and sunset to recharge and return.

So, he needed to survive in this slaughterhouse for at least ten days...

That seemed challenging.

"Kill, kill all the soldiers, loot gold and silver, take women, become officials and get rich."

"Follow the Fiery Flame Messenger and break down the walls of Qingyang City."

"Kill."

Amid the cacophony of endless roars, one voice stood out, sharp and loud. A robust young man in tattered gray clothing with a Red Bandana tied around his head was brandishing a large sword and shouting as he fought fervently.

This young man had sharp eyes and bushy eyebrows, wide shoulders, and a muscular build; his charge was swift and light on his feet. Despite running hard, his breathing was steady.

Although alone, his voice carried the resonant power of surging Qi-Blood and the fierce tempo of war drums.

What a voice.

The crowd accelerated with his battle cry as the front lines clashed.

Amid the din of men and horses, swathes of bodies fell into pools of blood like straws.

Zhou Ping'an took notice.

The youth who shouted the loudest ran about five paces ahead of him...

He seemed to charge quickly, but somehow, he was always being passed by, never engaging in combat.

After several shouts, groups of people had surged past him.

Countless bodies lay scattered.

Some in Green Clothes, some in Gray Clothes.

A viscous stream of blood flowed along...

Looking ahead, he saw a man at the forefront, dressed in a Fiery Red Daoist Robe and wearing a Golden Crown, riding atop a mighty black steed, bellowing as he charged.

This man wielded two black Great Halberds that spun like wheels, sending men flying and splitting horses where they stood.

Even with Zhou Ping'an's exceptional eyesight of 20/20, he could only make out the layered and overlapping shadows of halberds.

Damn it...

An unparalleled grass cutting.

This must be the so-called Fiery Flame Messenger.

Zhou Ping'an had already seen the exposed arms of the person outside their robe, the undulating bright red glow shimmering on the skin.

A face, as red as Guan Yu, exuded an overwhelming sense of a raging blood inferno.

A vast rain of arrows shot forth.

But for that man with the twisting beard and valiant demeanor, it was utterly useless.

With a crisscross of his twin halberds, he swept all the arrows aside, guarding both himself and his horse, and roared towards the sky, "Red Lotus Purification, Recreating the Universe, Tian Baoyi, come and meet your death..."

"Playing the ghost, boasting shamelessly."

"Master Wu, Leader Zhang, please trouble you heroes to slay this Red Lotus bandit."

A voice, neither hurried nor slow, sounded from afar.

Even amidst the cries of war on all sides, it couldn't drown out this person's voice.

"I'm coming."

"Seeking death."

A figure in green and another in black, charged with a whoosh, one brandishing a long spear, which like a venomous dragon, buzzed and weaved immense blossoms of spear movements, thrusting straight for the chest.

The other leapt a good ten feet into the air, twin hammers spinning, smashing down from above, causing the air itself to tremor with a roaring boom.

Clang clang...

Amid the sound of metal clashing,

Zhou Ping'an, even at a distance, felt his ears ring and his qi-blood churn.

He saw the man in the red robe with twin halberds and a twisting beard force the horse to retreat several steps, standing on its hind legs... while the two men in green clothes and black armor who had rushed forward were sent spinning and bleeding from their mouths as they tumbled to the ground, sliding several yards away.

Within a single move, their weapons had been knocked away.

They couldn't even crawl back to their feet.

The Fiery Flame Messenger let out a wild laugh, with a fierce gleam in his eyes, spurred his horse forward, and, with the halberds held diagonally, prepared to chase and charge for the kill.

"Lady Lin of the Third Seat, will you not make your move now? If you slay this villain, three-tenths of the spoils will go to your Lin Family," Tian Baoyi called out urgently, clearly not expecting the Red Lotus Sect's Fiery Flame Messenger to be so ferocious.

The infamous Snake Spirit Master and Leader of the Green Wolf Gang within the city were no match for him, not even for a single exchange.

If he kept killing unchecked, it was quite possible that he could scatter the City Guards and break into Qingyang City.

No sooner had Tian Baoyi finished speaking,

than a magnificent white horse charged out with a splash.

Atop it sat a slim woman in green clothes and a red cloak.

This woman wore a ghost mask on her face, her ponytail whipping fiercely in the wind, her hand dragging a sword behind her as she urged the horse into a gallop.

"County Magistrate, do make sure not to go back on your word."

Her crisp voice had just reached the ears when a streak of white light flashed by, the sound of the blade reverberating enough to make one's head spin.

Sss...

The person was fast, the horse was fast, and the sword was fast.

This slash, from the moment she spurred the horse forward to the moment the sword descended, was swift as lightning.

Before the eyes, the swordlight seemed like a vast river, cleaving straight down towards the Red Lotus Sect's Fiery Flame Messenger.

The Fiery Flame Messenger danced with his halberds, charging furiously into battle, but unexpectedly from the side came a sword, threatening to slash his head; he hurriedly raised one halberd to the sky, and with the other, he made a horizontal cut, attacking head-on...

As his left halberd was swung forth, he felt as though he had struck the void, as if the blade of the halberd had fallen into a vortex, his entire strength being siphoned off to one side, his left arm opened wide, exposing a vast opening.

"Wave Subduing Blade Technique..."

The Fiery Flame Messenger was shocked to his core, crying out in alarm, but it was too late to do anything more; with all his might, he swung the right halberd horizontally, desperate to force his opponent back.

Boom...

As the thrust made impact, a hand that rivaled the purest snow suddenly reached out, seizing the blade of the halberd.

Before his eyes, the lightning-fast blade seemed like a rolling wave that, deceivingly slow but in fact rapid, flashed past his neck in an instant.

Whoosh...

A head, large and firm, soared towards the heavens.

The headless figure in the red robe swayed atop the horse, then tumbled down.

The woman in the green-clothed ghost mask sat atop the white horse, her body swaying slightly as she threw aside the short halberd caught in her left hand, felt a sweetness in her throat, and spat out a mouthful of steaming hot blood; she cried out, "Follow me and charge!"