Shao moved toward the two men on his right first. They began to move a half-second before him, but it was like they moved in slow-motion. The two lower-realm Lianqi raised their swords to strike, opening up a path for Shao to strike. They were slow, too slow to live.

Striking forward, Shao cut one man deeply in the area of the chest just under the ribcage. He was not confident in his blade’s ability to cut through bone without chipping or dulling, so he made sure to strike the vulnerable organs that were not protected by bone. A micro-instant later, Shao’s antique blade found its way to the other man’s neck. His second cut was much more shallow, because he didn’t want to strike the outer disciple’s spinal column. This shallow cut was more than enough, and bright red blood began to spurt from the gash in the second disciple’s neck.

Before the two outer disciples even realized their lives were over, Shao turned his attention to his three remaining opponents. Shen Guanzhong advanced with a slow confidence that made Yang Shao wary. The upper-realm Lianqi didn’t seem bothered in the slightest that Shao had just killed two of his followers with little effort.

Shao retreated a few steps away from Shen Guanzhong, putting the two surviving lower-realms between himself and their leader. This moment of hesitation gave them enough time to launch an attack. The remaining lower-realms swung at Shao, but he caught both of their attacks on the flat of his blade.

Of the two remaining lower-realms, one was a woman. That seemed to have been the pattern ever since Shao had started interacting with cultivators. About one in five of them were women. He wondered why that was. One would think that, among people born with the talent for cultivation, half of them would be female. Either way, it bothered Shao that his blade was crossed with a female outer disciple.

He really didn’t like killing women.

Using a variation of the shoulder check he saw Ren use against Gao Linyu several hours before, Shao dropped his center of gravity and pushed against the two lower-realms with enough force to cause them to stagger back a few steps. A thrown steel dagger stabbed deeply into the male disciple’s eye socket, and Shao cut the female disciple’s abdomen deep enough to cleave her stomach, kidneys, and intestines into multiple pieces.

Before the last lower-realm disciple fell to the ground, Shen Guanzhong attacked Shao with a powerful downward slice. Shao intercepted the sword with his forearm. The upper-realm’s blade clashed against the Coiled Dragon Armor, tearing Shao’s sleeve.

“For such an arrogant upstart, you’re pretty slow,” Shen Guanzhong mocked as sparks flew from where he pressed his blade against Shao’s armor.

“I was fast enough for your goons,” Shao spat back.

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“They were trash, not even worth the effort of throwing away. I should thank you, garbage collector.”

Shen Guanzhong withdrew his blade and struck several more times in rapid succession. Shao was barely able to parry the attacks. As he moved and dodged, he could tell every attack launched by Shen Guanzhong was a killing stroke. If he faltered for even a moment, he would be killed.

Shao knew that he would have to increase his speed to have any hope of defeating Shen Guanzhong. He would have to remove the armor weighing him down or buy himself enough time to unleash the Howl of the Black Wolf. Either one would be immensely difficult considering the furious barrage of attacks thrown by his opponent. He quietly swore at himself for using Bolin’s knife to kill that disciple. It would have been much easier for him to cut the ropes binding his bracers if he still had the knife.

Their blades locked again, and the smirk on Shen Guanzhong’s face made it clear that he intended to engage in more mockery. “You know, I’ve never heard of the Yang Clan. What? Are they a bunch of trash collectors like you?”

This time, the mockery did not upset Yang Shao. He was so absorbed in the fight and thinking of a way to win that Shen Guanzhong’s words barely registered. With such little room to work with, Yang Shao didn’t have enough time to use most of his techniques. He would need two or three seconds to use any of them, and Shen Guanzhong would certainly not give him enough time. There was really only one thing for him to do.

Instead of responding to Shen Guanzhong’s insult, Yang Shao’s hand shot forward and grabbed his opponent’s blade.

“What are you doing, you crazy bastard!?” Shen Guanzhong uttered in surprise, shocked by the unexpected grapple.

Shao’s katana dropped to the ground as he used his other hand to grab Shen Guanzhong by the wrist. As soon as the upper-realm Lianqi’s arms were held in place, Shao began to scream at the top of his lungs. He activated his technique, the Howl of the Black Wolf, and felt as his body filled with energy.

It took Shen Guanzhong a few seconds to free himself from the grapple, but that was enough for Howl to do its work. Shen Guanzhong yanked his blade free, and Shao’s hand was cut deeply. Within seconds, Shao’s hand was painted completely red.

Shocked by the unexpected development and his own ringing ears, Shen Guanzhong took a step back, giving Shao an excellent opportunity. Yang Shao took a step forward and threw a variation of the Crashing Star of the Southern Heavens. Shao’s unexpected speed caught Shen Guanzhong off-guard, and the attack struck him hard in the chest. The upper-realm Lianqi flew thirty paces back, crashing into several trees as he went.

Not allowing the opportunity to be wasted, Shao untied his bracers and slipped out of his boots. His body lightened significantly as his heavy armor fell to the ground. Shao retrieved his fallen sword from the ground and, without hesitation, began sprinting toward the location where Shen Guanzhong had disappeared. Perhaps the attack had killed the upper-realm Lianqi, but Shao would not be caught off-guard again.