Rebirth of The Strongest Swordsman

Chapter 6

Without waiting for a response, Lin Feng turned on his heel and walked calmly down the central aisle. The crowd of five hundred servants parted instantly, staring at his retreating back with a mixture of awe and terrifying anticipation.

Da Zhuang hurried behind him, his heart pounding violently against his ribs as they left the central square toward the lower mountain path.

"Brother Lin!" Da Zhuang stammered, wiping cold sweat from his forehead. "You accepted a death match against three Outer Disciples! They will send Third Layer Sword Meridian experts armed with high-grade weapons!"

Lin Feng reached into his inner pocket, feeling the cold, smooth surface of the copper key he had recovered from Gao Wu's pocket earlier.

"Three days is enough time," Lin Feng said quietly, his eyes fixing on the dense, fog-covered woods of the rear mountain peak ahead. "I need to open the third spinal node before the sun rises on the fourth day."

Suddenly, a dark, hooded figure dropped silently from a high pine branch twenty yards ahead, blocking the narrow mountain trail.

A dark, hooded figure landed on the damp gravel path twenty yards ahead of Lin Feng. A six-inch curved steel dagger gleamed in his right hand, its dark edge coated in a thick greenish liquid that emitted the sharp odor of bitter toad venom.

Da Zhuang stopped his stride, raising a thick oak branch with trembling fingers. "Brother Lin, watch out! That man is Shadow Corporal Meng from Elder Liu's patrol squad!"

Lin Feng did not halt his forward movement. He adjusted the thirty-five-pound black iron sword resting across his right shoulder, tracking the assassin's physical posture with motionless pupils.

Shadow Corporal Meng lowered his stance by bending his knees four inches. "Elder Liu pays fifty Gold Coins for quiet work. You will not reach the rear mountain, cripple."

"Liu Tianba is wasting his stolen gold," Lin Feng replied, stopping ten feet from the assassin. "Sending a First Layer cultivator only shortens his own remaining lifespan."

Shadow Corporal Meng sneered beneath his black cloth mask and sprang forward across the damp gravel path at a movement velocity of eight feet per second. He thrust his poisoned steel dagger straight toward Lin Feng's right subclavian artery, carrying ten pounds of physical thrust force behind the strike. The green venom on the blade was formulated to paralyze human muscular tissue within three seconds of skin contact.

Lin Feng calculated the trajectory instantly, observing the angle of Meng's right ankle joint and the forward slant of his shoulders. When the dagger tip reached within four inches of his chest, Lin Feng shifted his weight onto his right heel and pivoted his torso to the left by four inches. The poisoned steel blade sliced through empty air, passing four inches past Lin Feng's left shoulder.

Before Meng could recover his forward momentum, Lin Feng swung the broad flat side of his thirty-five-pound black iron sword horizontally into Meng's extended right wrist joint.

BOOM!

The heavy iron surface collided directly with the assassin's right wrist. The kinetic impact shattered Meng's radius and ulna bones into splinters, sending the poisoned dagger spinning twenty feet through the air until it plunged deep into a pine tree trunk. Meng screamed in physical agony, clutching his ruined right arm as he stumbled three steps backward on the gravel.

Lin Feng advanced two swift steps forward without pausing. He drove his left palm straight into the brachial plexus nerve cluster located beneath Meng's left collarbone.

THWACK!

A sharp popping sound echoed through the pine grove as the nerve cluster collapsed under forty pounds of concentrated physical pressure. Meng's left arm dropped limply to his side, and his internal Qi flow halted completely. Lin Feng raised his right boot, slamming his heel into the back of Meng's left knee joint to force the assassin flat onto his knees in the cold mud.

Swoosh!

Lin Feng pointed the razor edge of his thirty-five-pound black iron sword down, resting the steel blade directly against Meng's windpipe.

"Speak," Lin Feng ordered coldly. "How much gold did Liu Tianba pay for this attempt?"

Meng gasped for air, cold sweat pouring down his temples as the razor edge nicked his skin. "Fifty Gold Coins! He also gave me a bottle of Blood-Refining Pills from the storage vault! They are inside my leather waist pouch! Take them and spare my life!"

Lin Feng reached down with his left hand, tearing the leather pouch from Meng's belt. He unfastened the drawstring, extracting a small jade bottle containing two dark red pills alongside a heavy purse filled with fifty Gold Coins. Lin Feng unstoppered the bottle and smelled the contents, confirming that the thermal herbs inside contained sufficient raw heat energy to jumpstart the internal combustion required by his Nirvana Sword Sutra.

Lin Feng drove the solid iron pommel of his sword into Meng's temple with controlled kinetic force, rendering the assassin unconscious instantly.

Da Zhuang stood on the path with his mouth open, dropping his wooden branch into the mud in complete shock. "Brother Lin, you defeated a shadow corporal in two moves!"

Lin Feng opened the purse and tossed ten Gold Coins to Da Zhuang, who caught them with trembling fingers. "Take these coins to Uncle Zhu's forge in Zone 1. Buy meat rations and stay inside the forge. Elder Liu will not attack Uncle Zhu's shop directly."

Da Zhuang clutched the heavy gold coins against his chest. "Where are you going, Brother Lin?"

"I am going to the Scripture Pavilion in Zone 2," Lin Feng answered, placing the jade pill bottle into his inner tunic pocket. "I need to consult ancient records before my breakthrough."

Da Zhuang nodded hurriedly, stepping back down the trail toward Zone 1.

Lin Feng turned and walked up the winding mountain trail, entering the dense bamboo woods that bordered the Scripture Pavilion in Zone 2.

Thick white mountain fog filled the tall green stalks, dampening the sunlight and lowering the surrounding temperature to fifteen degrees Celsius.

Lin Feng pulled the jade bottle from his pocket, unstoppered the cap, and swallowed one Blood-Refining Pill. The pill dissolved in his stomach, releasing a hot surge of thermal energy through his digestive tract.

Lin Feng immediately activated the internal incantation of the Nirvana Sword Sutra, directing the thermal energy straight into his spinal marrow to force the heat upward toward his third vertebra.

A silver spark ignited on his third spinal node, causing his entire spine to vibrate with metallic resonance. His physical vitality expanded, bringing his body to the precise threshold of the Third Layer of the Sword Meridian Realm.

The sound of a bamboo broom sweeping across dry leaves echoed through the dense fog ahead.

Chhh...

Lin Feng halted his footsteps ten feet from an ancient stone archway.

An elderly woman clad in faded grey robes stepped onto the stone path through the white mist, holding a long bamboo broom. Her eyes were milky white and completely blind, yet she turned her head directly toward Lin Feng's physical location.