Chapter 114: I Don't Usually Throw Up, Unless I Can't Help It
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Chapter 114: I Usually Do Not Vomit Unless I Really Cannot Help It
In the courtyard, Thunder Tiger was displaying his signature technique.
“Chain Whip” sounded rather vulgar as a name, but it was in fact the pinnacle of external martial arts. In all the world, only two people had ever mastered it: the Jade Overlord, Bai Yuncheng, and the Wind-and-Cloud Thunder Tiger, Lei Zhenhu. The Jade Overlord had long since established his supremacy and withdrawn from the martial world. Naturally, Iron Tiger had just indirectly admitted that he was Lei Zhenhu.
“I had always looked forward to crossing swords with the Third Young Master and fighting him to the death! But he died. That left me both disappointed and relieved, because, to be honest, the last person I wanted to face was Xie Xiaofeng.”
Lei Zhenhu spoke in a low voice. His words sounded contradictory, but they were the truth.
He had wanted to fight Xie Xiaofeng, yet he had not possessed the slightest confidence that he could win.
“Still, with Xie Xiaofeng gone, you have appeared in his place—the Returning-Heaven Swordsman, Zheng Jian. That is not bad at all! Even if I die beneath your sword today, I will have no regrets. But the outcome of this battle must not be leaked to any third party.”
The moment he finished speaking, Iron Hand’s expression changed drastically. Before he could react, Lei Zhenhu swung a fist and sent him flying.
As Iron Hand A-Yong sailed through the air, a series of sounds came from within his body as his bones shattered one after another. By the time he struck the ground, he had collapsed into a limp, lifeless heap. He had never imagined that he would die at the hands of Lei Zhenhu, the very man who had worked for the Great Boss alongside him.
Lei Zhenhu exhaled slowly and said blandly, “There is one more person in the room.”
Zheng Jian smiled. “She is my friend. You had better not even think about it.”
Lei Zhenhu replied coldly, “There are only a few people beneath heaven capable of defeating Lei Zhenhu. The outcome of this battle must not get out. I can die, but my defeat must not be exposed.”
Zheng Jian pondered for a moment. “You want me to kill my own friend?”
Lei Zhenhu threw back his head and laughed. “Ha ha ha! If you wish to become a supreme expert, invincible beneath the heavens, how can you keep so-called friendship on your lips? To win, one must be willing to abandon anything. Am I not right?”
Zheng Jian’s smile vanished. He said coldly, “I have killed many people, but I have never raised my sword against one of my own. If you do not want news of Lei Zhenhu’s defeat to spread, then very well. My friend will not reveal a single word—I can guarantee that. But I will never act against my own people as you have.”
Inside the room, Xue Keren listened with tears clinging to her lashes. For one brief moment, she had truly feared that Zheng Jian would suddenly rush inside. Now, however, she felt reassured. Though Zheng Jian was always bullying her with his words, he would never hurt her. To Xue Keren, who had never possessed any real sense of security, that warmth was worth more than any spoken promise.
Lei Zhenhu fell silent for a moment before saying, “Very well. I will not force you. If I defeat you and kill you, where else could she run?”
Zheng Jian said, “Rest assured. I will not die. The one who dies will certainly be you.”
“Good!”
Lei Zhenhu said no more. The joints throughout his body began cracking once again.
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Lei Zhenhu unleashed the divine power of Chain Whip and suddenly drove a fist toward Zheng Jian. In that punch, he poured every ounce of strength he possessed.
Zheng Jian’s Tear-Marked Sword flashed out in response, stabbing forward in an instant.
Just as sword and fist were about to collide head-on, the tip of Zheng Jian’s sword suddenly quivered and struck precisely the third joint of the middle finger on Lei Zhenhu’s fist.
The sword point did not pierce the skin of Lei Zhenhu’s fist. Instead, his true energy passed through the tip and entered his hand, traveling in through that joint and surging straight up to his shoulder blade.
“Shattering Palm Form”—a technique designed to counter all forms of fist, kick, finger, and palm arts!
Lei Zhenhu stood utterly motionless. Within his body, a series of resonant cracks followed the flow of Zheng Jian’s true energy. Every joint in his body rang in turn, all the way down to the final joint of the little toe on his left foot.
Lei Zhenhu’s face suddenly turned deathly pale. Then it abruptly flushed red. In the next instant, blood began seeping from all forty-eight thousand pores across his body.
“What is this technique called?” Lei Zhenhu had become a man drenched in blood, yet he forced himself to ask the question.
“It is called Shattering Palm Form. It is specifically meant to break fist and kick techniques,” Zheng Jian replied indifferently.
Lei Zhenhu had never heard of the technique, but he knew Zheng Jian had no reason to deceive him. The moment his spirit collapsed, his towering body, massive as a giant’s, toppled like a golden mountain falling or a jade pillar collapsing. Every bone in his body shattered, leaving him like a mound of mud.
His manner of death was almost identical to Iron Hand A-Yong’s.
Zheng Jian had not used force in that sword strike. On the contrary, he had borrowed Lei Zhenhu’s strength and turned it against him, identifying the sole flaw hidden within his formidable external kung fu and breaking it with a single thrust.
The third joint of the middle finger was the point where strength changed from its peak into weakness. Zheng Jian had struck precisely there, breaking Chain Whip in an instant. Lei Zhenhu had been killed by the backlash of his own overwhelming power.
That was why his death had mirrored the death he had dealt Iron Hand with a single punch.
Zheng Jian sheathed his sword and stood upright. That inspired strike, delivered in a moment of sudden enlightenment, had deepened his understanding of the Nine Swords of Dugu.
So this was what it meant for the Nine Swords of Dugu to grow stronger in the face of strength!
To be honest, even if he had forcibly broken through Lei Zhenhu’s technique, Zheng Jian would still have been able to defeat him—but certainly not so effortlessly.
Lei Zhenhu was no match for the Black Killers. He was even stronger than Ouyang He, Cao Bing, and the others Zheng Jian had encountered before. He was a true master who had entered the innate realm through external cultivation. After all, how could someone who had survived beneath the Thirteen Swords of Yan be weak?
When facing opponents with different martial characteristics, one had to choose different methods. Sometimes victory could be achieved through swordsmanship; at other times, a subtle application of force was enough to break the enemy. The mysteries within were difficult to put into words.
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Only after the courtyard had fallen completely silent did Xue Keren quietly open the door. She immediately saw the courtyard filled with corpses, each dead in a different manner. It was not that Xue Keren had never seen the dead, but this scene was simply...
Xue Keren: I usually do not vomit unless I really cannot help it.
Zheng Jian raised a hand to his forehead and pondered for a moment. “Keren, are you... with child?”
Xue Keren: “...”
Resentment points from Xue Keren: +1,999.
Xue Keren: Could you please act like a decent human being? I would certainly like to be with child, but you have never even touched me. How could I possibly be pregnant?
Looking at Xue Keren’s expression, Zheng Jian sighed. “Ah, being the boss is truly difficult. I have to protect my employees, and I even have to clean up all these corpses...”
...
Zheng Jian carried all the bodies to the mass grave outside the town, dug pits, and buried them. His movements were so practiced that it was almost heartbreaking.
By the time he returned to the tavern, the eastern sky was already glowing pale.
But Zheng Jian had something more important to do: exchange for the Undying Seal Technique!
The resentment points in the system interface had climbed past thirty-one thousand. He had finally accumulated enough.
The Shepherd had worked hard for so long—teasing Murong Qiudi, relentlessly harvesting Xue Keren’s resentment, provoking the Great Boss and Bamboo Leaf Green, and dealing with wave after wave of people who had come to throw away their lives. It was finally enough.
Sitting cross-legged in his room, Zheng Jian opened the exchange system. After adjusting his emotions, he solemnly selected the exchange for the Undying Seal Technique.
...
End of Chapter