Chapter 1062 - 287: English Forces Sweep Through the Nether Path, Jade Shadow Alone Seeks the Secret Classic (Part 2)

Three days later at 5:45 AM, Shi Feiyang returned, stepping on shattered jade, with his dark cloak crystallized like armor, and the dragon-patterned scabbard striking the green brick floor, sparking flames.

He slammed the yellowed secret report onto the sandalwood desk heavily, shaking the ink remnants in the porcelain brush wash into ripples: "Hidden Dragon Village on the West Bank of Taihu Lake sealed the village and closed the market since the twenty-seventh of the twelfth lunar month. The day before yesterday, a merchant ship carried ten black coffins inside. These coffins likely don’t contain the dead."

Xue Li’s fingertips caressed the half jade pendant in her embrace, the Kunlun totem flowing cerulean in the morning light, resembling the eternal cold moon in the Celestial Snow Cave of Tianshan Mountain.

She remembered her master’s blood-sputtering admonition before dying, her throat tightening involuntarily: "Such actions closely resemble the Blood Moon Cult’s ritual precursor of ’live sacrifice.’" Shi Feiyang nodded and then accompanied Xue Li to investigate the Hidden Dragon Village on the West Bank of Taihu Lake.

By dusk, the two had reached the Taihu Lake shore. The wind of Hidden Dragon Village carried a heavy fishy smell, and the tilted lantern on the old locust tree at the village entrance seeped dark red candle tears, swaying ghostly halos in the wind.

Shi Feiyang suddenly felt a vibrating hum underfoot from the green stone. Swiftly, he spun around, held Xue Li by the waist, and employed the wondrous lightweight technique "After finishing, wipe the clothes and leave" to retreat swiftly three yards.

"Boom!" Three shadows burst from the soil, as putrid earth scattered, iron claws gleaming ink-green lunging straight for his face.

"Thousand Spider Poisonous Hand!" Xue Li’s jade sword unsheathed, blue light cascading like stars to the ground, swiftly deploying the Kunlun Sect’s masterpiece "Snow Shadow Splitting Light Sword."

Seven sword shadows interwove into a net, yet the masked man laughed eerily, abruptly shifting to the robust style of Kongtong Sect’s "Seven Injuries Fist." As the fist wind passed, the green stone slabs cracked inch by inch, and the raised stone chips carried blood streaks.

Shi Feiyang swung the Celestial Frost Blade horizontally, emitting a three-foot chilling light: "Petty tricks, dare boast in front of I!" He wielded the Celestial Frost Blade, performing "Raging Sea Storm," the blade momentum reversed like the Yangtze River, collided with the fist wind, producing explosive sounds that snapped lake reeds.

"Hand over the jade pendant, spare your corpses whole!" The leading masked man removed his black cloth, revealing half his face patterned like snake scales, his scimitar ebbing with cerulean flames, "White Bone Sect allied with Blood Moon Sect, who in the world can block us?"

Xue Li’s pupils contracted; this Blood Moon Sect was the infamous Western Region sect rumored to sacrifice boys and girls, cultivating evil skills!

Amidst intense battle, Taihu Lake’s surface suddenly surged as if boiling. Over twenty shadows rushed along the crest of waves, scimitars forming a silver net in the dusk, the "Blood Moon Thirteen Kill Array!"

Xue Li’s left and right were difficult, her shoulder suddenly struck by a Bone-Piercing Nail, the toxin slithered through her meridians like a venomous snake, causing her jade sword to slip from her hand.

"Xue Li!" Shi Feiyang’s eyes widened in rage, the Bright Jade Technique True Qi stirred like a tempest, the Celestial Frost Blade wove heavy blade curtains.

He enclosed her trembling form with his left hand, the blade shimmering fiercely in his right, deploying the "Hundred Victories Saber Technique" with the ultimate kill "Heaven and Earth Conserve Together."

Where the blade reached, the air pierced with ear-splitting bursts, three enemies along with their scimitars were cleaved into six segments, blood gushed like fountains staining reeds, dismembered limbs twisted eerily on the ground.

In the brink of crisis, dragons’ roars and tigers’ growls suddenly echoed from the sky, as six master warriors of the Heroic Sakura Association descended like divine soldiers.

"Water Dragon" Jin Liufu skimmed the waves atop a Water Dividing Needle, wielding the Eight Trigrams Golden Saber in an impenetrable dance, blade gleaming fiercely, displaying the family secret "Eight Trigrams Body-Traveling Saber," waves aroused to a yard high, directly attacked the "Blood Moon Thirteen Kill Array’s" left wing.

Two in the array swung their blades to meet but Jin Liufu’s blade course turned, executing "Gua Image Chain Slash," instantly shattering the scimitars, blood surged from their throats, plunging them into the lake. "Centipede" Gongsun Ren smiled sinisterly, clutching a pair of Wu Yue Hooks like a spiritual snake revealing from its hole, hook tips coated with dark purple poison, his famed "Hundred-legged Soul-breaking Claw."

He targeted a person in the array, wielded the Wu Yue Hooks drawing eerie arcs in the air, aiming directly for the opponent’s eyes.

That person raised a blade to block, yet unaware Gongsun Ren flicked his wrist, the steel claw on the Wu Yue Hooks maneuvered like a living thing, bypassing the blade edge, viciously clawing into the face, blood and flesh blurred, collapsing with spasms, black blood oozed from seven orifices.

"Flying Eagle Detective" Xie Wen moved like lightning, those Bone-Piercing Nails within his sleeve shot like meteors versed in lunar travel, striking crucial points around the enemy’s body.

He executed the "Feixu Qingyan Technique," performing lightweight techniques, twisting several times mid-air, Bone-Piercing Nails successively fired, "ding, ding, ding" resounded, nailed into the Blood Moon Cultists’ crucial "Dazhui" and "Quchi" points.

The cultists’ bodies jolted, falling limply like puppets with snapped strings, watching helplessly as their vitality swiftly depleted. "Large Barrel" Lu Dechu held a liquor gourd in his left hand, tilted it back guzzling a swig, and then roared, unleashing the Celestial Spirit Palm with his right hand, wine splashing transformed into Ice Blades, the palm wind flung stones flying.

He demonstrated the "Celestial Spirit Ice Soul Palm," wherever the palm force reached, the air instantly congealed into frost.

A Blood Moon Cultist struck with a blade, yet the Ice Blade entangled the blade edge, allowing Lu Dechu to advance, palm printing onto the enemy’s chest, instant ice flowers bloomed on the chest, bleeding from seven orifices, and the corpse crashed to the ground.

"Bamboo Pole" Jiang Huotian brandished a branching iron rod, agile like a bamboo pole darting through attacks, focusing on foes’ lower region.

He executed the "Ground-lunging Chain Poke," the iron rod slithered like a venomous snake, targeting enemies’ leg joints. Only heard "crack, crack" sounds constantly, numerous foes screamed falling to their knees, clutching their crotches wailing, blood coursed through pant legs forming dark red streams on the ground.

"Cyan-faced Beast" Yang Feng wielded the Mountain-Cracking Saber among enemy ranks, slashing left and right, wherever he reached, blood showers and stormy winds prevailed. He demonstrated the "Mountain-Opening and Mountain-Crushing Saber Technique," every chop carried immense force, the blade flashed, enemy heads flew off.