Rebirth of The Strongest Swordsman

Chapter 2

Song Feng stepped over the broken wooden frame, his blue outer disciple robes sweeping across the dirt threshold. A sharp steel sword gleamed in his right hand, reflecting the cold morning light filtering through the storehouse shutter.

Behind him, ten patrol guards clad in heavy leather armor spread across the yard, leveling their iron-bound spears directly at Lin Feng's chest.

"Lin Feng!" Song Feng barked, his voice carrying the heavy weight of internal Qi. "You have broken the laws of the Qingyun Sect by assaulting patrol members and disturbing the peace of the servant division. By order of Elder Liu, accept your execution on the spot!"

Da Zhuang stumbled forward, spreading his broad arms between the armed guards and Lin Feng. Sweat washed through the black soot on his cheeks as he shouted, "Senior Brother Song, please listen! Zhao Wei brought Gao Wu here first to extort Low-Grade Qi Stones! Brother Lin was only defending himself!"

Song Feng did not even turn his gaze toward Da Zhuang. He raised his left hand, channeling a surge of raw Qi into his palm, and struck Da Zhuang's right shoulder with a heavy push.

The force of the blow sent Da Zhuang crashing three feet backward against a stack of dry firewood, sending loose timber rattling across the dirt floor.

"Useless trash has no right to speak in the presence of an Outer Disciple," Song Feng sneered, stepping past the fallen servant. He stopped four feet from Lin Feng, scanning the pale youth from head to toe. "You do not possess a single thread of internal Qi in your Dantian. Your meridians were destroyed three years ago. How did a cripple disable Gao Wu?"

Lin Feng stood near the timber stack, maintaining flawless skeletal balance despite the cold numbness lingering in his marrow from the Eclipsed State. His Dantian remained entirely empty, rendering him unable to project Sword Intent or channel energy, yet his dark eyes remained motionless and cold.

"Elder Liu dispatched ten guards and an Outer Disciple to execute an unranked servant," Lin Feng said, his voice calm and unyielding. "It seems the supervisor of the servant division is remarkably terrified of a crippled boy."

"Terrified?" Song Feng laughed loudly, raising his steel sword until the blunt tip pointed directly at Lin Feng's throat. "Elder Liu is a senior administrator of the outer sect. You are merely a broken dog living on scraps. Killing you requires no more effort than stepping on an earthworm."

"Is that so?" Lin Feng replied, taking a half-step forward without flinching from the steel blade.

"Elder Liu steals the monthly allowance of three hundred servants in this division every single month. Every servant holds an entitlement of one Low-Grade Qi Stone per month, which exchanges for one hundred Gold Coins, or ten thousand Silver Coins."

Lin Feng paused briefly, letting his cold eyes sweep across the ten patrol guards before continuing. "Elder Liu siphons nine hundred Low-Grade Qi Stones every year to purchase his own advancement pills, while you act as the hound he feeds with his leftover copper coins."

Song Feng's jaw twitched violently in rage as the surrounding patrol guards exchanged quick, uneasy glances. The exact financial figures echoed heavily through the storehouse, exposing the precise scope of the supervisor's theft.

"Silence!" Song Feng roared, his right arm swelling as blue Qi wrapped tightly around the hilt of his weapon. "Spreading malicious lies against a sect elder carries the penalty of skinning! I will cut your tongue out first!"

Song Feng lunged forward, thrusting his steel sword straight toward Lin Feng's throat at a velocity of five feet per second. The point of the blade sliced through the stagnant air, carrying a hair-thin stream of sharp Qi designed to pierce flesh and shatter the cervical vertebrae upon impact.

Lin Feng calculated the trajectory of the steel instantly, tracking the alignment of Song Feng's shoulder joint and the slight physical imbalance in his leading right knee. When the sharp tip reached within two inches of his collarbone, Lin Feng shifted his body mass onto his left heel and pivoted his torso to the left by exactly three inches.

The steel blade sliced through empty air, grazing the frayed cotton of Lin Feng's tunic without touching his skin. Before Song Feng could retract his overextended arm, Lin Feng drove his left hand forward, striking his index and middle fingers directly into the ulnar nerve junction situated beneath Song Feng's right elbow.

THWACK!

A sharp popping sound echoed off the timber walls as the nerve cluster collapsed under the pressure. Song Feng gasped as his entire forearm went completely numb, forcing his fingers to open reflexively and release the steel sword.

Lin Feng caught the falling weapon mid-air by its leather hilt with his right hand. Reversing his momentum through the rapid rotation of his hips, he drove the heavy iron pommel of the sword straight into Song Feng's solar plexus using his full physical weight.

Air expelled violently from Song Feng's lungs, causing his eyes to bulge outward as his torso doubled over in intense pain.

Lin Feng swept his right foot behind Song Feng's left ankle, applying physical leverage that slammed the Outer Disciple flat onto his back against the dirt floor.

Lin Feng pointed the razor edge of the steel sword down, placing the blade tip against the center of Song Feng's throat, half a millimeter from his skin.

The entire storehouse fell into absolute silence as the surrounding spectators froze.

Zhao Wei dropped to his knees in the dirt, clutching his broken wrist while shaking uncontrollably with wide eyes. Beside him, Li Er pressed his forehead against the dirt, weeping silently in terror. The ten patrol guards stood paralyzed, their iron spears trembling in their hands as cold sweat drenched their collars.

An Outer Disciple at the Third Layer of the Sword Meridian Realm, wielding full internal Qi, lay disarmed and grounded by a servant without Qi in under three seconds.

Song Feng lay motionless on the dirt floor, staring up at Lin Feng with wide, bloodshot pupils. Heavy sweat poured down his temples as he felt the razor-sharp coldness pressing against his windpipe.

"You have zero Qi within your Dantian!" Song Feng choked out, his chest heaving violently. "How can a mortal frame disarm a Sword Meridian practitioner?!"