Chapter 409: Not Fighting, No Acquaintance

Two short arrows shot out from the cabinet, embedding themselves in his lower back with a whizzing sound. After the ground-sinking trap was activated, the crossbow mechanism also fired, injuring people with hidden arrows.

He Lingchuan had perfected this entire set of trapping techniques while hunting demons on the Chipa Plateau, able to adapt them to local conditions.

Another dark figure climbed through the window; it was Fu Shanyue.

He scanned left and right, then stepped forward to help his companion up.

Just as he was about to leap out the window, a sudden warning flashed in his mind, and his movement abruptly stopped.

Immediately afterwards, an inconspicuous blade light silently swept past the window, making his scalp tingle.

If he hadn't stopped, that strike would have decapitated him.

A third person glided through the window, as smoothly as a leaf carried by the wind, even pausing slightly in mid-air.

Fu Shanyue braced himself as if facing a formidable enemy. Just as he pushed his companion away, a brilliant blade light arrived, like a waterfall of silver.

The Floating Life Blade finally revealed its true power.

The force of this blade was fierce and its hidden current prolonged. Fu Shanyue dared not meet it head-on, maneuvering several times in the dark room to avoid its sharp edge.

The dark room became a flurry of flashing blades.

Both parties moved extremely fast; Fu Shanyue's subordinates could barely make them out.

These two had finally engaged.

"Since you're already here, why not stay a while longer?" He Lingchuan said while fighting, "It would seem impolite of me not to offer hospitality."

If Fu Shanyue were to counterattack, He Lingchuan was confident he could press his advantage; the follow-through of the perfected "Wave Sever" technique was always powerful. But this fellow seemed to recognize its danger, only retreating and not advancing.

When He Lingchuan comprehended his blade technique at the Northern Xia front-line camp, he could already sever seven raindrops with a single strike. After the Emperor's Dew helped him open his second Dantian, his speed and force became incomparable to before.

But Fu Shanyue was like a loach, always evading at the last possible moment.

Such a nimble opponent was comparable only to the specific ferry specters in the Coiling Dragon dream realm.

But the room was so small; constant retreat would inevitably lead to defeat.

Fu Shanyue chuckled in reply, "Alright, as the host wishes." With a raise of his hand, he fired two sleeve arrows.

These didn't require an elbow movement; with just a flick of the wrist, the sleeve arrows flew straight for He Lingchuan's eyes. The arrowheads had a faint blue tint, clearly coated with something dangerous.

The distance between them was always less than three feet. These sleeve arrows were cleverly made, with powerful mechanisms and short, narrow shafts, perfect for close-range surprise attacks.

He Lingchuan had no time to block with his blade and could only turn his head to dodge.

When he fought the ferry imp in the Flesh Fortress, he was also sprayed with venom at close range, which directly blinded one of his eyes.

Since then, he had harbored caution towards close-quarters combat.

After all, losing in a dream meant simply waking up, but getting blinded or having one's skull pierced in reality offered no second chances.

As his offensive paused, Fu Shanyue seized the opportunity and quickly snapped his fingers.

With a snap, the oil lamp on the cabinet behind him lit up.

The oil lamp had originally been on the table, but He Lingchuan had moved it to the five-drawer cabinet when setting the trap, placing it exactly at his eye level.

The lamplight wasn't dazzling and wouldn't attract the attention of the street patrols.

However, light and shadow accompany each other; where there is light, there is a shadow.

He Lingchuan was directly facing the lamp, so his shadow naturally fell on the wall behind him.

After dodging the hidden arrows, he drew his blade again, but his upper arm suddenly got stuck halfway up.

It was as if someone was holding his arm and pulling it back with all their might.

In the diagonal rear of the room, Fu Shanyue's injured companion urgently cried out, "Quickly, quickly!"

He had moved to the wall, his hands firmly clutching He Lingchuan's shadow, pulling it back relentlessly.

Upon closer inspection, one would notice that his forearms were like thin vines, each emitting a faint black light, piercing into He Lingchuan's shadow.

This obscure divine ability was called Shadow Binding, which restricted the true body's movements by controlling its shadow.

Fu Shanyue wasted no time. He raised his Water-Splitting Dagger and thrust it directly at He Lingchuan's eye, intending to pierce him through.

The tip of the dagger reached his cornea almost in the blink of an eye. He Lingchuan even felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.

It was his spiritual perception frantically alerting him.

Fu Shanyue had also pushed his speed to the limit. The longer the night, the more variables, so he had to win quickly.

He Lingchuan did not blink.

His arms were restricted in speed, but his fingertips, hidden by his body's shadow, were still agile. At that moment, he raised them and commanded, "Appear!"

With a clang, Fu Shanyue's Water-Splitting Dagger struck something solid.

A round shield had appeared out of thin air.

The dagger tip was deflected, and Fu Shanyue himself grunted, clearly affected by the recoil. But the shield was also knocked aside, and he still lunged at He Lingchuan.

At this point, he simply resorted to his old habits, suddenly opening his mouth and biting at his opponent's neck, his neat white teeth instantly transforming into sharp fangs.

Even a python demon several zhang long wasn't enough to satisfy him; how could a mere human sate his hunger?

He Lingchuan's body was restricted, but his mouth was free. He immediately gathered his inner power and blew a powerful gust of air. With a whoosh, the air current instantly swept over the five-drawer cabinet.

The oil lamp was extinguished instantly.

Without light, there is no shadow.

This wasn't a groundbreaking countermeasure, but his ability to devise a solution in the blink of an eye demonstrated incredibly swift reactions.

With his hands freed, He Lingchuan had no time to counter with his blade, so he directly threw a hook punch, striking Fu Shanyue in the chest and abdomen.

Although it was a hurried blow, his inner power surged, providing ample force.

The Blackthorn Ring on his finger, acquired from the rebels, not only amplified the wearer's strength but also applied corrosive poison to the opponent's wounds, making it an excellent tool for assassination.

With a dull thud, Fu Shanyue crashed through the wall and flew backwards.

Beyond was the inn's courtyard.

He Lingchuan took two quick steps outside, feeling a chill on his neck.

He reached up and touched it; there was blood, dark in color.

His neck hadn't been bitten by Fu Shanyue's fangs, but it had been grazed by his sharp claws, narrowly missing his carotid artery.

Still, it was just a graze.

His claw tips contained corpse poison. He Lingchuan quickly swallowed a pill and then channeled his inner power to force the remaining blood out of the wound.

When he touched it again, the bleeding turned bright red, and only then did he relax.

Fortunately, he treated it promptly.

These few actions only delayed him by six or seven seconds; he kept his eyes on the front throughout.

After that, He Lingchuan stepped out through the hole in the wall.

Fu Shanyue had broken a small tree in the courtyard and only managed to get up after shaking his head. The brick wall of the guest room he had just crashed through was of good quality.

Seeing He Lingchuan emerge with his blade, Fu Shanyue repeatedly waved his hands at him, "Stop, no more fighting!"

Seeing He Lingchuan's blade shift, he quickly added, "I'm serious. My actions just now were merely to test your caliber, nothing serious. I also had no killing intent, you should have felt that."

The opponent had never made a move before, yet he had suffered four setbacks: once by Three-Heart Lake, once in Fufeng City, and twice at Wind Demon Rock.

The thought infuriated Fu Shanyue; he had to prove himself this time, or his mind wouldn't rest.

He Lingchuan seemed unfazed. "How was the test?" he asked.

He had left abruptly at Wind Demon Mountain, so he expected this fellow to follow.

Fu Shanyue was an opportunist; he would always try his luck, regardless of the odds.

It was as expected.

However, this guy's body was truly robust; he took a direct punch and acted as if nothing had happened.

"Not weak. You're qualified to take the spirit seed."

"What spirit seed?" He Lingchuan asked indifferently.

"Nothing, I spoke out of turn. I don't know what a spirit seed is either," Fu Shanyue chuckled. "We both find it hard to deal with each other, and we have no mortal enmity, so how about we make peace?"

He Lingchuan pointed back at the large hole in the guest room wall. "Peace requires sincerity."

He knew very well that Fu Shanyue was also here tonight to settle scores for his previous losses. His desire for peace now simply stemmed from finding He Lingchuan a formidable opponent, realizing that fighting him would come at too great a cost.

If he had thought He Lingchuan was weak and easily controlled, he would not have shown such a demeanor.

Whether to befriend or to fight, it ultimately came down to strength.

Fu Shanyue waved his hand, tossing over a large silver ingot. "I broke it, I'll pay for the repairs."

Sure enough, footsteps sounded outside, and soon someone tapped at the door. "Guests, what's happening in there?"

In the quiet of the night, a wall being smashed through with a crash was impossible for any innkeeper to pretend not to hear.

He Lingchuan took the large silver ingot Fu Shanyue had thrown, casually pinched off a small portion, and tossed it outside the wall. "It's a minor matter, just a broken flowerpot. You can clean it up tomorrow."

Breaking a flowerpot and smashing a wall were two very different sounds, and the innkeeper outside the door knew he was lying, but the silver thrown out was real and more than enough to rebuild the wall.

Any leftover would be his tip.

So the innkeeper said, "Then please rest early," and quickly scurried away.

Before long, the alarmed Second Manager Shi also came to inquire. While he had departed from Fu Nation with He Lingchuan with mutual benefit in mind, he now regarded Young Master He as a great lucky charm and absolutely did not want anything to happen to him.

He Lingchuan still dismissed him with a few words, though without using silver this time.

Fu Shanyue then strolled through the large hole in the wall and into the room.

As he passed He Lingchuan, both men raised their inner power, maintaining strict vigilance, yet their smiles were warmer than a spring breeze.

Fu Shanyue walked to the corner of the room, helped his subordinate sit up, and then said to He Lingchuan, "How did you know I would come?"

All these traps set up in the room were for him.

He Lingchuan replied calmly, "You don't know when to quit."

This remark truly hit a nerve regarding his personality. Fu Shanyue choked for a moment. "No discord, no concord. Let me reintroduce myself: my name is Fu Shanyue, and I am from Chiyan Nation."

"He Xiao, from Fu Nation."

Fu Shanyue was somewhat surprised. "Such a small nation, yet it produces a figure like you?"

He rubbed his nose. "I heard you've been walking with King Baoshu's guard team these past few days, getting along quite well. Those fools, haha, they have no idea that you helped the Wind Demon escape, killed their captain, and sent them fleeing like wild dogs, with thousands dead."

The guard team only had three hundred people; most of the dead that day were merchants and travelers.

If the Wind Demon had been suppressed by the root ball, there would certainly not have been corpses strewn everywhere afterwards.

Trying to pin the blame on him? He Lingchuan didn't even blink. "I don't know what you're talking about. Wasn't the Wind Demon released by you?"

Fu Shanyue shrugged. This young man in front of him was also quite ruthless, and seemingly without any moral burden.

He Lingchuan found a chair and sat opposite him. "You wouldn't have climbed through my window in the middle of the night just to chat, would you?"