At the northwest corner of Feiyun village located a row of old houses, worn down by the years without repair.

When Lin Xun laid eyes on them, he knew instantly he was surrounded and was left with no room to retreat.

In his front, three guardians were closing in with a triangle formation. Their faces twisted, and their eyes glared with hatred and killing.

In his back, Lian Rufeng was waiting for him with a longsword in his hand.

It seemed Lin Xun would not be able to escape.

To their surprise, he was not nervous at all. He had a faint smile on his lips, yet his eyes were cold as ice.

He had known it would be hard before the fight was started. He even felt relieved that he was surrounded by Lian Rufeng and three village guardians, not the dangerous old man with a goatee beard.

Lian Rufeng laughed, in a ferocious way. “Little bastard, why don’t you keep running?”

Lin Xun smiled. He tapped the ground with the tip of his toes, spun backwards and flew at Lian Rufeng, leaving his back unprotected.

The three guardians were first frozen and then rejoiced, all swinging their weapons at Lin Xun.

The guardian with a short axe took the lead.

The next second, he was in great shock that Lin Xun, who was supposed to rush forward, paused suddenly, bent his back like a spring and rotated in the air.

Sky Breacher was swung a half circle at the same time.

From a distance, Lin Xun and dagger were integrated as one, spinning like a top in the air. The edge whirled up a swirl.

This was the “spinning” move of the Six-word Saberplay.

It was treacherous and ruthless when spinning of the knife could create a swirl.

Puff!

The guardian’s arms were cut off, but he was unable to steady his body then. He ran directly into the swirl of the edges and got his head severed in an instant!

His arms and head flew in the air, and blood spattered everywhere. It was gruesome.

The other two guardians, one step behind, watched the scene helplessly. They were shocked as hell, and dodged with a rush.

But they underestimated Lin Xun, who continued to bolt at them with a swinging dagger.

“Son of a bitch!”

Lian Rufeng hurried to rush at Lin Xun. His face was twisted, his breath intense, and his longsword cutting the air as furiously as raging fire and as fast as lightening.

Even he had failed to expect that Lin Xun could swing around and catch the three guardians off guard!

Such diversion tactic was not worth mentioning for him, but that Lin Xun could kill one of his guardians with one blow in hand-to-hand combat, leaving him no time to rescue, shocked him.

He could not restrain his rage any longer when he saw the rest two guardians were at risk.

His black sword, howling through the air like a viper out of its hole, cut right at Lin Xun’s back.

It was a ruthless and cunning blow. If Lin Xun wanted to stay alive, he had to evade and gave up his attack on the two guardians.

Little did Lian Rufeng thought that Lin Xun seemed not be aware at all, neither eluding nor stopping his chasing on one of the guardians.

He was playing with fire!

Lian Rufeng was ravished and took the chance to strike on Lin Xun’s back forcibly.

Bang!

His longsword hit the target, but unexpectedly it sounded as if it chopped on a steel plate. No blood was shed.

Shit! He was protected by armor!

There was a thump in Lian Rufeng’s heart. His face darkened suddenly.

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In the meanwhile, Lin Xun was accelerated by this blow and charged at the target like a bullet. He quickly swung his dagger at the guardian, so fast it looked like a cyan waterfall pouring down. The guardian right in front of him was beheaded.

Blood splashed high in the air, and the headless body collapsed on the ground.

Lin Xun’s face turned pale, nearly coughing blood, yet he was not defeated. He swallowed down the blood surging up to his throat, and rushed at the last guardian.

The guardian was so terrified that he screamed loud and then ran away regardless whatever orders he received.

The unexpected fleeing shocked both Lin Xun and Lian Rufeng, as none of them had believed the guardian had no guts at all.

“You are the last one.”

Lin Xun gasped, staring at Lian Rufeng.

By now, his spiritual energy had been consumed a lot. If he had not prepared the “spiritual syrup”, he would have collapsed already.

After all his cultivation had only risen to the third level of the Martial Realm, his spiritual energy was limited no matter how pure and vigorous it was.

Besides, he must have suffered a bad internal injury when he took the blow abruptly. Even Lian Rufeng found it unbelievable that Lin Xun could still stand and fight.

No one, including himself, could have survived until now.

Only the boy was standing right in front him with a bleeding dagger in his hand, his intention to kill unimpaired.

How could a young boy with his cultivation of the third level of the Martial Realm achieve so much?

Lian Rufeng couldn’t figure it out. But one thing was clear, Lin Xun was already exhausted, a spent arrow to be exact.

“Me alone is enough to kill you.”

Thoughts flooded with his brain, but did not slow his movement. He strode forward and blew his longsword at Lin Xun.

He had not consumed much energy since the beginning and was in his prime comparing to Lin Xun.

More importantly, his cultivation was one level up than Lin Xun’s.

He swung his longsword with all of his spiritual energy, making it dazzling.

He hated Lin Xun, and would not give him any chance to catch his breath.

Within a short period of several breaths, they had crossed swords for dozen times.

Lin Xun’s face was getting paler and paler, but this did not interfere with his moves, each of which was still as forcible and fierce as before.

Though his spiritual energy was about to use up, his flesh body still possessed enough energy to fight off all the attacks with the “tangling” move of the Six-word Saberplay.

Tangling meant fighting in a roundabout way.

The “tangling” move of the Six-word involved making a force with borrowed force, like levering a ton of weight with four ounces of force or using soft to conquer hard.

When Lin Xun practiced it, it was like the silkworm spinning, soft as the spring rain at one time and rolling like surging waves at the other.

Lian Rufeng’s face grew darker and darker. He had a terrible feeling that his opponent was a slippery loach, and every blow was like hitting on the swamp.

What kind of blade was it?

He had travelled between Feiyun and Green-sun Tribe all these years, and he had been to Donglin Town once.

He had seen numerous master-hands and their martial arts, but none of them were as fascinating as the one Lin Xun practiced.

In no time did he discover that Lin Xun was all wet through with cold sweat and was getting paler and paler, clearly unable to hold for too much time.

“Maybe I can loot it from him after I kill him?”

He got tempted and thus more determined to kill Lin Xun.

At the age of twelve or thirteen, Lin Xun’s fighting power had long ago exceeded his age. Who would know what he could achieve if he lived?

All of a sudden, a bone spear shinning with chill starlight stroke through the air.

What?

Lian Rufeng narrowed his eyes. What was it?

He felt a sharp pain in his chest before he had time to dodge it. Darkness came over his eyes, and he lost consciousness completely.

Seeing this, Lin Xun was confused at first. Soon he figured it out. He exhaled a long breath of foul air, feeling overwhelmed by unspeakable fatigue.

He couldn’t rest now. He bit the tip of his tongue, trying to let the pain keep him awake.

“They are all dead.”

He heard a voice, quiet and sweet like the fresh breeze blowing gently.

“All of them?”

Including the dangerous old man? He found it hard to believe.

“Yes.”

Shia Zhi looked up at his pale face, frowned and told him seriously, “You need to rest.”

Then she grabbed Lin Xun’s clothes at his waist, picked him up and ran to the distance.

“Again……”

Lin Xun forced a bitter smile, feeling embarrassed for just about a second, because the next second he already fell asleep. The fight exhausted him so hard.

By now, sixteen people including Lian Rufeng and Wu Henshui had been killed.

Their bodies spread across the village in disorder, shocking to see in the blood setting sun.

……

Lin Xun had a dream.

In his dream, he heard a familiar chilly voice saying:

“Seeker, the ‘Secret Heaven’ will be open in three months. The second level is called ‘Body Refining’. You’ll be give one hundred and eight opportunities. If you fail, the ‘Secret Heaven’ will be sealed for another one thousand years……”

“Three months after I broke through the first level? It seems I don’t have too much time now!”

He abruptly opened his eyes and woke from the dream.

He looked at the familiar room and reflected for a long time. Finally he shook his head and decided not to think about it for now. He still had a few days to prepare, and overthinking was useless.

He got up from the bed, still weak but not tired any more.

At that time, Shia Zhi pushed the door open. When she saw Lin Xun was up, she seemed not surprised, as she only said, “I am hungry.”

Lin Xun felt lost. He had thought that Shia Zhi would ask about his health first instead of hastening him to make dinner.

He shrugged his shoulders in frustration. “I’ll cook the meal now.”

Then he suddenly asked, “how long did I sleep?”

Shia Zhi replied, “four days.”

Lin Xun stared at her with wide open eyes. “Haven’t you eaten all these days?”

He saw her nodding.

That made him heartbroken. He had let his “life savior” starve for four days, so he rushed into the kitchen immediately.

When he was busy cooking, Shiao Tianren came. Seeing Lin Xun was a pleasant surprise. “Lin Xun, you are finally awake!”

“Uncle Shiao, is there a problem?”

Lin Xun asked casually.

His mind-absent question made Shiao Tianren speechless. Was the fight taking place four days ago not a problem? And you sleeping for four days was not a problem either?