Chapter 173 - 114: One Man, One Sword, Annihilating Hidden Sword Manor

At Hidden Sword Manor, Ouyang Chuan had been restless for the past few days.

He had been sitting in his study all day. The tea on his desk had long gone cold, untouched.

The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the servants cleared away his uneaten meal.

Recently, many servants had inexplicably been punished by Ouyang Chuan.

Yesterday, a young maidservant serving tea had merely walked a little too loudly. Ouyang Chuan had berated her mercilessly and forced her to kneel in the rear courtyard for a full two hours.

This morning, someone practicing their sword in the courtyard accidentally broke a flowerpot. Ouyang Chuan had the person beaten with thirty strokes of a plank.

Now, no one dared to go near Ouyang Chuan.

Throughout Hidden Sword Manor, everyone knew the Manor Master was in a foul mood. They tiptoed everywhere and didn’t dare speak above a whisper.

However, this wasn’t due to some quirk in Ouyang Chuan’s temperament, but because the pressure on him was mounting.

It had been five full days.

’The Clan Elder still hasn’t returned?’

Five days ago, the Clan Elder left the manor to intercept and kill Zhang Su.

The only path Zhang Su could take back to the Guiyuan Sect was just a one or two-day ride by swift horse from Hidden Sword Manor.

A round trip would take three days at most.

But the Clan Elder still hadn’t come back.

There hadn’t been any word from him, either.

Ouyang Chuan was unwilling to consider the worst-case scenario.

In his heart, he already had a guess.

But that guess was so shocking that Ouyang Chuan wouldn’t dare believe it until the very last moment.

If Hidden Sword Manor truly lost the Clan Elder, then they would likely have to keep a low profile from now on.

Their former glory would be no more.

Hidden Sword Manor’s current standing wasn’t built upon its dozens of Huajin Martial Artists, nor its deep relationship with Medicine Valley, but on the Clan Elder, Ouyang Yin.

A powerhouse at the Peak of Pill Force was the Stabilizing Needle of Hidden Sword Manor.

With Ouyang Yin around, no one in the Jianghu dared to offend Hidden Sword Manor.

But if Ouyang Yin was gone...

Ouyang Chuan didn’t dare to think further.

’Impossible. The Clan Elder has been Nurturing his Sword for thirty years. How could a mere Huajin practitioner withstand a strike thirty years in the making?’

Ouyang Chuan muttered in a low voice.

As if trying to convince himself.

Thirty years of Sword Nurturing for a single draw of the blade.

Though Ouyang Chuan had never witnessed the power of that strike himself, he had seen the strike from Ouyang Pu’s three years of Sword Nurturing.

’If three years was that terrifying, what about thirty?’

Ouyang Chuan couldn’t imagine it.

’That strike should be enough to slay any Martial Artist below Gang Force.’

’Perhaps even a Gang Force Martial Artist couldn’t block it.’

Yet the Clan Elder had not returned, and he couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

’What if there was an accident...’

Ouyang Chuan shook his head, casting the thought from his mind.

’Impossible.’

’Absolutely impossible!’

"So, you did know that Ouyang Yin was coming to kill me..."

Suddenly, a chilling voice entered Ouyang Chuan’s ears.

Ouyang Chuan’s whole body trembled.

"Who’s there?"

Ouyang Chuan snapped his head up and looked out the window.

He drew his longsword, gripping it in his hand almost instinctively.

The moment his hand closed around the hilt, he felt a sliver of security.

He stared out the window.

Outside, the night was deep, and moonlight like water spilled across the green flagstones of the courtyard.

A few clumps of green bamboo grew by the courtyard wall, their leaves swaying gently in the night breeze, casting fragmented shadows.

And within those shadows stood a figure.

The person was dressed in black with a longsword at their waist, standing silently by the courtyard wall as if they had been there for a long time.

When Ouyang Chuan saw the figure standing outside clearly, his pupils contracted violently, and a storm raged in his heart.

He couldn’t believe his eyes.

Zhang Su.

It was Zhang Su!

He had returned to Hidden Sword Manor.

But the Clan Elder had not.

Five days ago, the Clan Elder left the manor to kill Zhang Su. Five days later, Zhang Su returned, and the Clan Elder did not.

There was only one answer...

The hand Ouyang Chuan used to grip his sword hilt was trembling.

He refused to believe that answer, but the truth was right before his eyes, leaving him no choice.

"You... How are you not dead..."

Ouyang Chuan’s voice trembled slightly.

He opened his mouth, his lips dry and cracked, his throat feeling as if it were blocked by something.

He stared at Zhang Su, scrutinizing him from head to toe.

Zhang Su stood there, completely unharmed. Even his clothes were undamaged.

Ouyang Chuan’s gaze suddenly fell upon the sword at Zhang Su’s waist.

The sword’s scabbard was black and unadorned, with a loop of dark red silk thread wrapped around the hilt.

That silk thread was worn smooth, gleaming with a dark red luster in the moonlight.

Ouyang Chuan was all too familiar with that feature.

’That’s the Clan Elder’s sword.’

"That’s... the Shadow-Stealing Sword, the Clan Elder’s personal blade!"

Ouyang Chuan’s voice was trembling.

The Shadow-Stealing Sword had been the Clan Elder’s personal blade thirty years ago. Though he rarely used it later on, it had always hung on the wall in his bedroom.

The day the Clan Elder left the manor, he had specifically taken this sword down.

The sword and its master are one. If the sword is lost, its master is dead.

Now that the Shadow-Stealing Sword was in Zhang Su’s hands, was there any need to guess the Clan Elder’s fate?

"No! The Clan Elder is a Peak of Pill Force expert! You’re just a Huajin! How could you possibly kill him? Impossible..."

Ouyang Chuan’s eyes turned bloodshot.

He didn’t believe it.

He didn’t believe the Clan Elder could die at the hands of a Huajin Martial Artist.

How could a dignified Peak of Pill Force master, who had spent thirty years Nurturing his Sword, possibly lose to a young man in his twenties?

But Zhang Su just watched Ouyang Chuan quietly, not saying a word.

He just stood there, his gaze calm.

There was no triumph, no mockery, not even a trace of any superfluous emotion.