Chapter 283

The old woman boarded the carriage, and it continued on its way.

Thump, thump, thump!

Dust billowed, and a powerful aura slowly spread, causing the vision of the martial arts grandmasters hiding in the shadows to blur for a moment. When they looked again, the carriage had already vanished.

"As expected of Bai Xiaosheng!"

"Appearing and disappearing like a phantom, as if through immortal arts."

Many people sighed.

Meng Mei, Hu Haihan, and Medusa were all very low-key. Instead, it was Bai Xiaosheng, who taught Hu Rennong, whose reputation soared. This was compounded by Meng Mei's wild rumors, leading people to believe Bai Xiaosheng was the primary figure in the carriage.

The swaying of the carriage unexpectedly caused the armless old woman to gradually fall into a semi-conscious state, as if she were extremely tired.

Little fox Hu Haihan stroked the old woman's aged face. "This armless old woman has no cultivation. She's so pitiful!" she murmured. "Subject to birth, old age, sickness, and death, she's only in her seventies or eighties. This is what it means to be a mortal..."

Swoosh!

Hu Haihan began to use her magic power to gradually soothe the old woman's aged body, constantly sensing it. "In her early years," she murmured, "it seems a master once soothed her body, but she suffered severe injuries. For an ordinary person to have lived this long is already quite remarkable, but she doesn't have many years left."

"Who is she?" Meng Mei couldn't help but ask Bai Xiaosheng, unable to believe this frail mortal was so ordinary.

"Equivalent exchange," Bai Xiaosheng replied.

Meng Mei's face darkened upon hearing this. She then reluctantly shared some of her knowledge.

This was the accumulated knowledge from her years of work. Although she might seem lazy, she couldn't possibly have done no research; these were all her core secrets and research findings. But over these past few days, she was almost completely drained of them.

That's why she wanted to turn the tables on him.

Bai Xiaosheng's expression remained serene as he calmly and slowly replied, "Liu Wenjian, the strongest assassin in the martial arts world, number one on the killer rankings, is an ordinary person with no cultivation."

"Liu Wenjian, a boy's name?"

Meng Mei's eyes widened, and she stood up in shock. "Wait, what you're saying contradicts itself!!" she exclaimed. "You say she's the number one assassin in the martial arts world, but how can she be an ordinary person who has never cultivated?!"

Meng Mei looked at the old woman, her face filled with disbelief.

An ordinary mortal who isn't even a first-stage martial artist, and also a disabled person with a broken arm, is actually the number one assassin on the martial arts world's Heavenly Ranking?

How did she manage that?

Has this martial arts world gone mad?!

An ordinary mortal assassinating martial arts grandmasters of the Purple Mansion and Dao Palace realms?

You have to understand, even a fourth-stage Purple Mansion realm expert is already a formidable power—equivalent to a fourth-stage wizard in the wizarding world. The aftermath of their battles could destroy an entire forest. How could an ordinary mortal possibly assassinate them?

It's simply impossible!

If it were the wizarding world, it might be possible, as wizards have fragile bodies.

But those martial arts grandmasters breathe like dragons and have incredibly tough bodies. Even when asleep, they cannot be assassinated by ordinary people! A knife wouldn't even pierce their skin, and one breath from them could blow an ordinary person away!

This ordinary, armless old woman!??

"It must be that paper!"

Meng Mei's eyes gradually lit up. It must contain an astonishing secret that allows an ordinary person without cultivation to kill a fifth-stage Dao Palace realm expert!

Her eyes shone brightly; she seemed to understand the meaning of equivalent exchange and realized it was indeed worth a Heavenly Emperor.

She immediately took the few sheets of paper covered in writing. On them appeared to be dense blacksmithing sword-forging techniques, completely indecipherable. All she could make out was a small line of text: "Bingyi Sword."

It seemed to be a forging manual for some kind of weapon.

"Bingyi Sword?"

"What is this?"

The two girls, master and apprentice, were both in shock, chattering excitedly in the carriage.

"Speaking of the number one assassin?" the apprentice beside them, little fox Hu Haihan, suddenly exclaimed in surprise. "This old woman, she's the Heavenly Ranking's number one, Liu Rentu!?"

"My dear apprentice, you know her?" Meng Mei asked.

"The world's number one butcher, known as the Butcher Assassin, how could I not know her?" Hu Haihan replied. "The most mysterious martial arts grandmaster, whose gender is unknown, once roamed the martial arts world and, in a single night, slaughtered several sects while their members slept. Many top Dao Palace realm grandmasters died in their sleep among them. How could I not know her?"

Hu Haihan shook her head. "Teacher, you often enter secluded cultivation and sleep. I've traveled the martial arts world and actually met her once in a southern tavern. What impressed me most was that she always wore a black cloak and had no strong aura whatsoever, as if she were an ordinary person!"

It is known that no expert can perfectly hide their aura; they will inevitably be detected. Yet, she had no aura, which is why she was the world's number one assassin.

"Perhaps... the number one assassin, she really is just an ordinary person. With no aura at all."

Meng Mei was incredulous, finding it terrifying and unfathomable, as she looked at the woman.

Hu Haihan continued, "That was a grand event more than fifty years ago. At that time, the Earth Immortal Duan Qianyu had not yet shattered the void, but Liu Rentu was about to shatter the void and step into the immortal realm."

At the time, the news spread like wildfire, shaking the entire martial arts world.

This assassin swung her sword, shattering the void, and angrily shouted to the heavens, "Dare I ask, are there immortals in the sky?"

Unfortunately.

Liu Rentu ultimately failed to break open the heavens. Instead, her long sword shattered, blood splattered the ground, and she was severely injured and disappeared without a trace.

At the time, this became a common topic of conversation. Everyone celebrated her demise and mocked her for being like a moth drawn to a flame, for not knowing her own limits.

"Relying on exceptional talent, to be so rebellious and dare to open the heavens?"

"This Liu Rentu was indeed the martial arts world's greatest prodigy, but she also perished. No one had seen her true face, and her gender was unknown!"

At that time, everyone feared the heavens.

The Earth Immortal Duan Qianyu, already two hundred years old at the time and having lived in seclusion for fifty years, was so much older that all martial artists of that generation were like his many-times-great-grandchildren. After hearing about this, it seemed he had once met the younger martial artist, Liu Rentu, and had a brief encounter. He couldn't help but sigh,

"Liu Rentu, to slaughter others, first slaughter oneself!

He went to the Wan River, to the broken sword splattered with blood.

"I once told you that your body was insufficient to support everything, but you wouldn't listen," he said. "You said, 'If I hear the Dao in the morning, I can die in the evening.' This saying is tragic, yet I don't know why, I always found it magnificent, beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful."

He raised his wine cup and poured it onto the ground. "As your elder brother, two hundred years your senior, I offer you this drink," he said. "I salute your astonishingly brilliant sword strike, now forever sealed and covered in dust."

This statement puzzled the entire martial arts world.

Liu Rentu's talent was poor?

No one believed that an assassin who brought darkness to the martial arts world, striking fear into countless hearts, and whose movements were as elusive as a divine dragon, could be someone with extremely poor talent!

Yet, several years later, Duan Qianyu emerged from seclusion. Above the Wan River, where Liu Rentu once made her stand, he swung his sword. Heaven and earth rumbled with thunder as his sword pointed straight to the firmament.

"Dare I ask, is there heaven?"

He sliced open the heavens but stood before the immortal gate without entering.

Disregarding the shocked immortals in the sky, he turned and drifted away. He seemed to be fulfilling Liu Rentu's wish from years ago, as if conveying a bond across time and space.

"So, this was Duan Qianyu's reason for opening the immortal gate?" Meng Mei felt a surge of emotion as she looked at the armless old woman. "Could it be that she is the long-vanished Liu Rentu?"

The feuds and conflicts of the martial arts world, with its flashing blades and swords, filled her with deep emotion.

Liu Rentu, who was shrouded in such extreme mystery, was truly an ordinary person with not a shred of cultivation from beginning to end?

Then how did she, as an ordinary person, manage to dominate the entire martial arts world?

"It's very strange, too strange. Perhaps I've underestimated this martial arts world too much!..." Meng Mei mused. "It now rivals the mythical era of the Western Ages, a high-martial world where perhaps astonishingly talented Martial Emperors will emerge in the future, capable of battling the ancient Immortal Emperors of the Western Ages. This is already an era filled with hidden sacred lands, major sacred sects, and a multitude of prodigies vying for emperorship!" She looked at the armless old woman, on whom the years had left marks of weariness and age. "What secret does she hide that's worth a Heavenly Emperor?"

"Tell me her full history." Meng Mei remembered Bai Xiaosheng.

"Equivalent exchange," Bai Xiaosheng replied.

Meng Mei's face darkened once more.