C8 Battle

The newcomers all struck the same pose.

Blades gripped in both hands, they advanced with a slow, deliberate pace, their eyes dark with menace.

Their footsteps were uniform, betraying specialized training.

Lin Xiaoqiang gripped his blade in his right hand, its edge facing outward, held horizontally across his chest.

The Azure Dragon Blade hummed, its spirit eager for battle after recently tasting blood.

"Um, could there be some kind of misunderstanding here?" Lin Xiaoqiang offered a sycophantic grin before turning on his heel to flee.

He knew he was no match for so many adversaries.

The expanse of pristine snow in the distance was his ticket to an upper hand. Once he reached it, he'd have his advantage.

With a single bound, Lin Xiaoqiang covered more than a hundred meters, his form vanishing into the snowy white.

His speed was so astonishing it was almost unbelievable, likely an effect of the red energy he had absorbed.

Without it, he wouldn't have been nearly as swift.

To his surprise, those rascals followed him into the snow.

But they couldn't see Lin Xiaoqiang, stabbing wildly into the white.

After several futile attempts, the leader signaled, and the group dispersed into three teams of five, encircling his position.

Lin Xiaoqiang chuckled and fired up his navigation system.

He pinpointed the central team with precision.

As the last man passed, Lin Xiaoqiang emerged, the Azure Dragon Blade slashing the man's throat, blood spurting forth.

But then, something miraculous occurred.

The blood, rather than staining the snow, was absorbed by the Azure Dragon Blade, along with the man's shadow, consumed by the blade's own spectral image.

Upon closer inspection, Lin Xiaoqiang realized the 'little snake' on the blade was, in fact, an immature Azure Dragon.

Small as it was, its scales and claws exuded a formidable presence.

And it seemed to have grown slightly.

Lin Xiaoqiang recalled a detail from the golden foil paper about blade nurturing: The Azure Dragon Blade thrived on the blood and souls of humans or animals.

With every villain or savage beast he dispatched, the blade would automatically extend by a centimeter.

A sinister grin crept across Lin Xiaoqiang's face.

Today, these scoundrels would serve to feed his blade.

There were three groups, each consisting of five individuals.

Fifteen in total, likely sufficient for the blade's nourishment.

Lin Xiaoqiang swiftly eliminated four members of the central squad.

At that moment, the lead person realized something was amiss.

He had spoken to the person behind him, yet there was no reply.

Turning around, he was met with the sight of Lin Xiaoqiang standing right behind him.

Both men were startled, but before the other could cry out, Lin Xiaoqiang swiftly silenced him with his blade.

The blade now measured a full thirty centimeters, stained entirely with blood.

Pleased, Lin Xiaoqiang turned and made his way toward the team on his left.

This group, sensing danger, had not formed a line as the others had.

They stood in a circle, faces outward, on high alert.

Lin Xiaoqiang smirked and unleashed a swift strike from below.

He executed the first technique of the thirty-six forms of the Azure Dragon Blade, known as White Tiger Leaps Across the Ravine.

This technique comprised six swift movements, executed in a blink.

Five men fell instantly, the sixth move superfluous.

Lin Xiaoqiang pursed his lips and sighed, musing that offering a 'buy five, get one free' deal was quite generous of him.

The Azure Dragon Blade grew slightly more, though less noticeably than before.

The Blade Soul, seemingly sated, dozed off.

Lin Xiaoqiang then set out to locate the final group.

To his surprise, they were nowhere to be found.

Damn...

Something felt off to Lin Xiaoqiang.

Failing to eradicate them completely would surely lead to future troubles.

Blade in hand, he gave chase.

But for reasons unknown, despite covering considerable ground, Lin Xiaoqiang still couldn't locate the missing men, leaving him puzzled.

At the base of Green Cloud Mountain, thirty kilometers from the Dead Shallows, five people sat gasping for breath, their chests heaving with each pant. The landscape here was devoid of snow, much like the Dead Shallows, revealing patches of bare rock where the white had once been.

Each person bore an invisibility talisman on their forehead. "We need to move quickly," one urged. "The talisman's effect lasts only an hour. After that, he'll easily track us down. Once we reach Cherry Blossom Valley, we'll be on our turf and can breathe easy."

"Alright, I'll call forth the unicorns now," another declared, forming intricate hand seals. Soon, five robust unicorns charged toward them from the distance. Without a word, the group mounted the creatures and vanished from sight.

Lin Xiaoqiang, having arrived at the same spot, was exhausted. As dusk approached, he conducted another fruitless search and reluctantly abandoned the pursuit. He was irked by the absence of his promised reward: fifty catties of white flour and a hundred iron coins. Moreover, he hadn't just killed one person; his count was eleven. Surely that warranted extra compensation?

Dismissing the mission as rubbish, he consoled himself with the thought that at least his Azure Dragon Blade now resembled a proper weapon, and he had managed to invigorate his kidneys and bolster his vitality. The purpose of the red bead in his stomach, however, remained a mystery. Shaking off his concern for the provisions, he decided to rest there for the night and head back the following day.

As Lin Xiaoqiang settled in, a distant clamor of battle reached his ears. He instantly thought of the peculiar group he had encountered earlier, suspecting their return. Grabbing his Azure Dragon Blade, he dashed toward the commotion.

To his surprise, he beheld two factions engaged in combat. One group, a band of women clad in red, was strikingly beautiful, as if they had stepped out of a painting. Each wielded a long sword, their movements creating a mesmerizing spectacle that left onlookers gaping. The other faction, dressed in black, consisted of burly men with notably dark complexions, each towering around two meters in height.

Armed with steel forks, the men drove the women back, pushing them to the brink of defeat.

Lin Xiaoqiang watched from his hiding spot behind a rock, struggling to make sense of the chaos.

In truth, he had no interest in those women.

They were stunning; any one of them would make a better wife than Zhang Lili.

But who could say what these people were up to?

It was wiser for him to avoid getting involved.

Silent, Lin Xiaoqiang waited for the fight to conclude.

Soon enough, the conflict ceased. The ground was strewn with bodies, both male and female.

The women who had survived were taken captive.

Once the men had departed, Lin Xiaoqiang emerged from his rocky concealment.

He discovered an array of valuable items scattered about.

Weapons, garments, and perhaps more.

As he rifled through the belongings for money, a ghastly pale hand suddenly seized his foot.