Rebirth of The Strongest Swordsman

Chapter 8

The crowd of eight hundred parted, creating a ten-foot-wide path as Lin Feng walked toward the four-foot stone platform. Whispers rippled through the onlookers while outer disciples stared at the thirty-five-pound black iron sword resting across his right shoulder.

Elder Liu Tianba stood at the edge of the stage, channeling blue internal Qi into his throat as his voice echoed across the square.

"You actually dared to show your face, cripple, so step onto the stage and meet your execution!"

Lin Feng placed his left hand on the marble edge, leaping upward with a single physical thrust that landed his leather boots silently on the wooden stage floorboards. He lowered his thirty-five-pound black iron sword to the wooden surface with a heavy metallic thud.

"I came to collect the nine hundred Qi Stones you stole from the servant division."

Supervisor Hu Lang of the Canglan Sword Sect folded his arms, his golden-trimmed red robes remaining still as his amber eyes scanned Lin Feng's physical posture. He gestured toward the first elite Outer Disciple standing beside the stage steps.

A tall, broad-shouldered disciple named Zhang Lie stepped onto the platform, unsheathing a five-foot refined steel broadsword that hummed with dense blue Qi. Zhang Lie possessed cultivation at the peak of the Third Layer of the Sword Meridian Realm.

Zhang Lie pointed the tip of his steel broadsword directly at Lin Feng's chest, channeling sixty pounds of physical pressure through his grip.

"You disabled minor patrol guards with physical leverage, but your mortal tricks end here, brat!"

Lin Feng stood motionless, tracking the alignment of Zhang Lie's shoulder joints and the ninety-degree bend in his right elbow.

"Your stance is forward-heavy by two inches, which leaves your right rib cage completely exposed."

Zhang Lie's face twitched in rage. He lunged forward across the wooden stage at a movement velocity of nine feet per second, driving his steel broadsword in a horizontal sweep aimed at Lin Feng's neck. The sharp edge carried a two-inch blade of compressed blue Qi designed to sever muscle tissue and bone.

Lin Feng calculated the weapon arc instantly. When the gleaming steel reached within five inches of his throat, Lin Feng shifted his weight onto his right heel and dipped his torso downward by six inches. The broadsword cut through empty space, passing six inches above Lin Feng's head.

Before Zhang Lie could reverse his sweeping momentum, Lin Feng drove his left fist upward, striking his knuckles into the intercostal nerve junction between Zhang Lie's ninth and tenth ribs.

The blue Qi wrapping around his blade vanished instantly as his diaphragm paralyzed, forcing all oxygen out of his lungs.

Lin Feng grabbed the hilt of his thirty-five-pound black iron sword with his right hand, rotating his hips to swing the heavy flat side of the blade directly into Zhang Lie's exposed right shoulder.

BOOM!

The kinetic impact shattered Zhang Lie's clavicle and acromion bones into splinters. The physical force lifted Zhang Lie's two-hundred-pound body off the wooden floorboards, sending him flying fifteen feet through the air until he crashed heavily onto the stone pavers below the stage.

Zhang Lie lay unconscious in the dirt, blood spilling from his mouth as his broken broadsword clattered uselessly beside him.

The surrounding crowd of eight hundred servants and disciples fell into dead silence. Over a dozen outer disciples dropped their jaws in shock, staring from the unconscious Third Layer elite to the pale youth standing on the stage.

A senior outer disciple backed away two steps, clutching his sword hilt with trembling fingers.

"One strike... He defeated a Third Layer elite in a single exchange!"

A young servant in the front row waved a fist in excitement, pointing at the stage.

"He didn't even use Dantian Qi, and Brother Lin smashed a Canglan champion with pure physical balance!"

Elder Liu Tianba's face turned completely white, his hands trembling violently against his purple robes as he stared at the fallen champion.

Supervisor Hu Lang narrowed his amber eyes, his fingers tightening around his golden sword hilt while a cold thread of killing intent leaked from his frame.

"You hide your internal cultivation well, junior, so Second Disciple Feng, step up and cut his limbs off."

A lean, dark-robed disciple named Feng Yan leaped onto the stage, holding twin curved steel scimitars that glowed with venomous purple Qi. Feng Yan possessed cultivation at the Fourth Layer of the Sword Meridian Realm and specialized in high-speed assassination arts.

Feng Yan crossed his twin blades, his dark pupils locking onto Lin Feng's throat with lethal intent.

Lin Feng raised his thirty-five-pound black iron sword, resting the purified steel back onto his right shoulder while silver Divine Sword Qi vibrated along his three unlocked spinal nodes. "Send the third one up as well, because fighting you one by one wastes my time!"

Supervisor Hu Lang's face darkened while cold killing intent radiated from his Fourth Layer cultivation base. Beside him, the third Canglan disciple, a heavy-set warrior named Sun Jiao holding a massive double-edged iron battleaxe, stepped forward to stand alongside Feng Yan.

"Since you seek death so eagerly, grant his wish and shatter his limbs together!" Hu Lang commanded, his voice ringing across the high stone platform.

Feng Yan and Sun Jiao moved simultaneously, springing across the wooden stage floorboards from opposite flanks at a movement velocity of ten feet per second. Feng Yan swept his twin curved scimitars in a low, spinning arc toward Lin Feng's legs while Sun Jiao raised his heavy iron battleaxe overhead, bringing eighty pounds of steel crashing down toward Lin Feng's head.

Lin Feng tracked their dual trajectory in a fraction of a second, analyzing the thirty-inch gap between Sun Jiao's downward strike and Feng Yan's horizontal sweep. He channeled the silver Divine Sword Qi through his three unlocked spinal vertebrae, accelerating his muscular reaction speed.

When the heavy battleaxe descended within four inches of his shoulder, Lin Feng executed a rapid ninety-degree pivot to the left, stepping directly inside Sun Jiao's physical reach. He thrust the solid iron pommel of his thirty-five-pound black iron sword upward into the soft tissue beneath Sun Jiao's chin.

The heavy pommel impact shattered Sun Jiao's lower mandible and cervical vertebrae with seventy pounds of kinetic force. Sun Jiao's eyes rolled back as his battleaxe flew uselessly out of his grip, crashing onto the wooden platform.

Feng Yan adjusted his rotation mid-air, thrusting both purple-glowing scimitars directly toward Lin Feng's exposed rib cage at point-blank range.