188: Lu Wudi, what does the world of martial arts look like in your mind?

“Poof!”

A faint sound, like melting ice and snow, echoed.

Qi Zhi’s body stiffened abruptly, and his retreating movement came to an abrupt halt.

He lowered his head, staring in disbelief at his chest.

There was no wound, no bloodstain.

Only a tiny, imperceptible ice crystal was rapidly melting.

But an indescribably extreme cold had instantly exploded from his heart, wildly spreading to his limbs and bones!

His heart, his blood, his Internal Energy, and even his thoughts seemed to be frozen at this moment!

The horrified expression on his Face solidified, his eyes quickly lost focus, and a thin layer of white frost visibly condensed on the surface of his body.

“Second Brother!” Lian Tianyun exclaimed in shock.

Li Changqing’s heart also trembled violently, and his sword momentum involuntarily slowed down further.

It was in this instant, when his old strength was exhausted, new strength had not yet emerged, and his mind was unguarded due to Qi Zhi’s sudden severe injury,

Lu Jiuyuan’s movements showed no pause whatsoever.

His left hand, which had been gripping Lian Tianyun’s wrist, suddenly exerted force, and the extreme cold Internal Energy instantly transformed into scorching flames.

Ice and fire clashed, causing Lian Tianyun’s entire body to tremble violently, his movements completely frozen.

As for Lu Jiuyuan himself, using the force of that flick, his body drifted up as if weightless, precisely passing by the rapidly lunging Li Changqing!

In the moment they passed each other, his right hand rose again.

His middle and index fingers were pressed together, the other three fingers slightly bent, with a faint blue light contained within his fingertips, yet emitting a more condensed and more lethal chilling aura of death than the previous flick.

Li Changqing felt an extremely terrifying chill lock onto him, not targeting a specific acupoint, but engulfing his entire Qi flow!

The pure Sword Qi he had Cultivated his entire life, in the Face of this pure, icy aura of death, involuntarily became sluggish and trembled!

He wanted to recall his sword to block, wanted to dodge, but found his body seemed to be caught in an invisible quagmire, his movements slowed by far more than a fraction!

He could only watch as those two fingers, carrying the meaning of determining life and death, irresistible, pointed towards his glabella.

Fast! Indescribably fast!

Beyond the capture of sight, it was as if with a thought, the fingers had already pressed down.

There was no earth-shattering collision.

Lu Jiuyuan’s fingers gently touched Li Changqing’s glabella.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

All of Li Changqing’s movements, all of his Sword Qi, instantly dissipated.

He stood frozen in place, his pupils dilated, his Face filled with extreme shock and a hint of bewilderment.

Lu Jiuyuan drifted gracefully to the ground, his back to Li Changqing, not even looking at the result, for it was already predetermined.

He released Lian Tianyun’s hand.

Lian Tianyun staggered backward, disregarding his own condition, and looked with horror at Li Changqing and Qi Zhi.

Qi Zhi still maintained his frozen posture, his entire body covered in frost, his life already extinguished.

Li Changqing stood blankly, a faint ice-blue mark slowly appearing on his glabella, spreading out in delicate ice patterns.

He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but no sound came out.

“Clang.”

His long sword, known as the “Undefeated,” slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

Immediately after, the light in his eyes completely dimmed, and his body fell straight backward.

“Second Brother! Eldest Brother!”

That “Undefeated Divine Sword,” the Great Manor Lord of Renyi Manor, who had once contended with King Kuaihuo in the Jianghu in his youth and was renowned in the Jianghu for decades,

Had died silently in this courtyard without even being able to unleash a single true killing move.

Died under that understated finger.

If the King of Hell wants you dead by the third watch, who dares keep you until the fifth!

“Your strength is still very ordinary! Even weaker than many renowned masters.

You came to find me, not to kill me, but to seek death.”

“That’s right!” Lian Tianyun looked at his two brothers, a hint of sadness flashing in his eyes.

“Eldest Brother’s martial arts were originally first-rate in the human world, but unfortunately, he suffered a severe injury fifty years ago, and his martial arts were less than one-tenth of what they were. Over the years, he slowly recovered, but due to old age and infirmity, he couldn’t unleash even five-tenths of his Peak power.”

“The three of us are already seventy years old, with one foot in the grave. Coming here was indeed to seek death!

Your methods are too cruel, and your existence, for the Jianghu, is a calamity, not a blessing!”

“You want to use your deaths to create a reason for Shen Lang to emerge from seclusion!” Lu Jiuyuan said indifferently.

A hint of surprise flashed in Lian Tianyun’s eyes: “That’s right,”

“Grandmaster Shen has long since ceased to involve himself in worldly affairs, living in seclusion on an overseas immortal mountain.

Unless the world is overturned and the common people suffer, he will never again step into this tumultuous Jianghu.”

He turned to look at the corpses of his two sworn brothers on the ground, and slowly said: “The three of us have lived our lives without doing a single unjust deed, saving countless people, helping countless people, bringing countless people to life, and eliminating countless evils.”

“Only our deaths, dying at the hands of you, this ‘Invincible in the Human World,’ can prove that the Jianghu has reached a point where his intervention is indispensable!

Only then can he believe that another King Kuaihuo, no, a Devil Head even more terrifying and powerful than King Kuaihuo, has already descended!”

“Trading three old lives for Shen Lang’s emergence from seclusion.” Lu Jiuyuan’s tone was flat, without the slightest ripple, “That’s a good plan. Unfortunately…”

He shook his head slightly, his gaze falling on Lian Tianyun:

“Do you think that if Shen Lang comes, he can change anything?”

Lian Tianyun gritted his teeth, the clashing and surging ice and fire Internal Energy within his body continuously causing his body to break down, and he said proudly:

“Grandmaster Shen’s martial arts are unfathomably profound, long since transcending the mundane and entering the sacred!

How arrogant was King Kuaihuo back then, yet he ultimately lost to him! And at that time, he was only twenty years old.

To this day, no one knows what level his martial arts have reached.

Although you, Three Wonders Young Master Lu Jiuyuan, are strong, you are not invincible!”

“Heh.” Lu Jiuyuan let out a soft laugh, but there was no warmth in his laughter, only endless self-confidence,

“King Kuaihuo is King Kuaihuo, and I am I. How can he be compared to me?”

“His defeat does not mean I will be defeated.”

“What’s more,” he changed the subject, with a hint of mockery, “How do you know that I am not waiting for him?”

Lian Tianyun’s pupils suddenly contracted: “You… what did you say?”

Lu Jiuyuan stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the distant sky, as if gazing at some unknown far-off place.

“Don’t you think your intrusion was too simple? This is the main altar of the World Society, yet you were allowed to reach me so easily.

Then wouldn’t my World Society, which dominates the world, be a joke?”

A Fei and You Longsheng appeared at the doorway, holding their swords, quietly watching the scene inside.

When Shen Lang was mentioned, his eyes were exceptionally bright!

“If I hadn’t agreed, the three of you would never have been able to make it here alive.”

Upon hearing this, Lian Tianyun’s entire body trembled violently, the clashing Internal Energy of ice and fire within him surging even more fiercely, causing a trickle of blood to spill from the corner of his mouth.

He widened his eyes, looking at Lu Jiuyuan in disbelief, then at A Fei and You Longsheng, who stood like door gods at the entrance, their aura cold.

“Your second brother should have also guessed this, but he is a smart person, and what I dislike are smart people.” Lu Jiuyuan smiled softly.

“So, I left you half an incense stick’s time to speak. Don’t worry, the three of you are good people. Although we are adversaries, we will give you a grand burial.”

“That’s right, this is the core of the World Society, where experts are as numerous as clouds, and security is tight.

Although their martial arts were impressive, their journey here was indeed too smooth; they encountered almost no decent resistance or scrutiny.

It turns out that it wasn’t their stealth skills that were superb, but rather that this young man before them had already seen through everything and deliberately opened this path to death for them!”

“You… you already knew our plan?”

Lian Tianyun could feel his life rapidly draining away, but he still asked.

“Renowned Jianghu figures always need someone to keep an eye on them. From the moment you came here, I already guessed such a possibility.”

“The great hero Shen Lang, the legend of the undefeated, such a legendary figure, I am also very curious.”

“I don’t know if he will truly emerge from seclusion, but since you have this confidence, I will go with the flow and help you out.

Let’s give this a try.”

“To be honest, I don’t quite believe that your status in his heart can reach the point of making him return from overseas, but since things have come to this, let’s consider it a casual move.”

With that, Lu Jiuyuan took out three silk handkerchiefs from his In my arms, tossing two of them to cover the Faces of the two men on the ground.

The last silk handkerchief was directly thrown to Lian Tianyun. The notorious habit of Lu Wudi, the Invincible in the Human World and Martial Forest myth, was well known. Few renowned figures in the world had the qualification to have their Faces covered with a silk handkerchief; this was truly giving Face.

Lian Tianyun reached out to catch it, walked to his two brothers, and straightened them.

Then he lay down, covered his own Face with the silk handkerchief on the ground.

Then he lifted a corner, revealing his mouth, and asked: “Lu Wudi, what does the Jianghu in your heart look like?”