Chapter 29: Laughing at the Group of Confucianists, Nie Wields His Knife
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Lu Fan knew Chen Beixun was up to no good.
But he never expected that he would actually devise such a… foolish plan.
He felt a little disinterested now.
Chen Beixun was using Drunk Dust Court as his bait. He would use the Confucianists’ philandering nature against them in order to make them all angry at Lu Fan and turn on him. His plan was to attack Lu Fan psychologically, and break him mentally.
If he were the Lu Fan of the past, he would’ve fallen into Chen Beixun’s trap and would’ve become depressed, since his mental state was unstable back then due to his disability.
Unfortunately for Chen Beixun, Lu Fan wasn’t the same Lu Fan from before.
Lu Fan remained seated in his wheelchair and slowly straightened his back. The wind blew back some of the hair that had fallen over his face.
Boat after boat were floating along the surface of the lake, and one Confucianist after another stood in their long robes, their hands behind their backs, as they looked coldly at Lu Fan’s little fis.h.i.+ng boat.
Their words were like a torrential downpour, and their Righteousness Qi stood the test of time.
Because the Imperial Advisor was in charge of Great Zhou, Confucianism had gained a large following, and its disciples were thus treated with great respect.
Wongggg…
Lu Fan narrowed his eyes.
As the Confucianists continued shouting at him, the mist on the surface of the lake slowly started to swirl into a tornado.
Nie Changqing placed one hand on his butcher knife and stayed by Lu Fan’s side, his expression becoming more and more grim.
Lu Fan watched the mist swirling into a tornado, and his eyebrows raised slightly.
“Confucianism talks about ‘Qi,’ but this ‘Qi’ is different from Spirit Qi,” Nie Changqing said hoa.r.s.ely as he looked at the formless flow of Qi gus.h.i.+ng out of the Confucianists’ mouths, forming a tornado of mist. “What Confucius talked about was Righteousness Qi, which is in the heart. As the saying goes, a great Confucianist can make millions of soldiers retreat with one word. It’s a hyperbole, but it refers to the power of Confucianist Righteousness Qi. G.o.ds have no form, but Qi does.”
“Qi can kill a person without leaving a trace,” he continued as he wielded his butcher knife. “The Hundred Schools of Philosophy’s three major moves, which everyone knows, are the Mohist City of Traps, Confucianist Righteousness Qi, and Yinyang Dream Killing Technique… Righteousness Qi is one of the reasons why Confucianism is one of the leading schools among the Hundred Schools of Philosophy. But, of course, these scholars are a far cry from the true great scholars of Confucianism…”
Lu Fan slightly nodded his head at Nie Changqing’s explanation.
The swirling mist above his head pressed down on his body, but… this sort of pressure was much weaker compared to the Spirit Pressure cultivators could produce.
“This is perplexing.” Lu Fan smiled, but he wasn’t smiling on the inside. He had underestimated this Low Level Martial World.
“What are we going to do?” Nie Changqing asked as he held his knife tightly in his hand.
“Young Master, let your maid here kill all of them and cut off all their Righteousness Qi,” Ning Zhao said, a frosty expression on her face. “If you argue with these men, you won’t be able to defeat them.”
“We can’t kill them. These Confucianists are well-known for their achievements… and they’re the Imperial Advisor’s students,” Nie Changqing said. He was Daoist after all, and obviously knew more than Ning Zhao. “Besides, even though you have Spirit Qi, you’re only a First Resonance Grandmaster. You might not be able to completely cut off the Righteousness Qi of more than a hundred Confucianists.”
“We can’t outwit them, and we can’t kill them… so what can we do?!” Ning Zhao said angrily. “We’re Grandmaster level martial arts pract.i.tioners, and yet we have to suffer such injustice?”
Lu Fan laughed, then patted Ning Zhao’s slim, supple waist. “I may have a good temper, but that doesn’t mean I’ll allow them to step all over me and do
whatever they want.”
“No.” He glanced at the twenty-odd recreational boats, a cheeky smile on his face. “Kill them all.”
He would only reason with people who were on the same level as him. For those who weren’t, he would only talk with them after he’d torn them to pieces.
BOOM!
The moment Lu Fan said “kill,” Nie Changqing’s eyes suddenly lit up like fire, and a wisp of Spirit Qi flowed out of his dantian.
The Qi and blood in his body flowed rapidly as six consecutive blasts loudly rang out.
Nie Changqing didn’t advise Lu Fan otherwise. He’d said everything he should’ve said, but in the end, Lu Fan still decided to kill the Confucianists.
Since that was the case, he would carry out his orders.
In actual fact…
Nie Changqing’s heart had also swelled with indignation.
The Confucianists could only rely on their words to put pressure on the Grandmaster martial arts pract.i.tioners, who had spent so much time and energy training themselves and transfusing their blood and Qi.
So why was he afraid?
So what if there were a hundred Confucianists here?
So what if they had Righteousness Qi?
Today, he, Nie Changqing, was going to use his knife to his heart’s content!
On the fis.h.i.+ng boat, the old man had already hidden himself in the cabin and had left the paddle at the end of the boat.
Nie Changqing leapt up and threw the paddle with such force that it instantly shot out of the boat like a javelin stick.
He held his butcher knife in his hand and used his feet to stomp hard against the floor. The boat sank briefly, then rose up, and Nie Changqing was catapulted out of the boat.
Pak!
The bamboo paddle floated horizontally on the lake’s surface, and was drifting away.
Nie Changqing skidded across the water to the paddle, which was barely three fingers wide, and landed on the tips of his toes. He held the butcher knife as he stood on the bamboo paddle and glided along the surface of the lake, his clothes flapping loudly in the wind.
“A martial arts pract.i.tioner! The gall!”
“Young Master Lu, how dare you instruct a subordinate to wield his knife before us?!”
“All of us here have achievements recognized by the court, and we have Righteousness Qi from the Imperial Advisor!”
Three Confucianists stood at the front of one of the recreational boats. When they saw Nie Changqing furiously heading toward them with a butcher knife in his hand, their eyes widened in anger, and they shouted at Luo Fan.
A large wind made their robes flap crazily and stick to their bodies, outlining their figures.
The mist made from Righteousness Qi had swirled into a huge tornado.
On the boat paddle, Nie Changqing glided across the lake, but it was becoming harder and harder to move across the water.
Like a fountain, the Confucianists on the recreational boats endlessly spouted their indignation.
There was a strange feeling in the air between the skies and the water, and it made the Qi and blood boiling in Nie Changqing start to cool down.
On the fis.h.i.+ng boat, Lu Fan looked on with interest.
This was probably the most fantasy-like scene he had seen in this universe so far. The scholars’ Righteousness Qi sure was something…
In reality, Righteousness Qi couldn’t really cause anyone any physical harm. It mostly worked by weakening a person’s confidence and mental state.
Lu Fan’s eyes flashed as he started to think. If he merged Righteousness Qi and Spirit Qi… what effect would that have?
Spirit Qi could cause physical harm, while Righteousness Qi could cause psychological harm. If Righteousness Qi was combined with Spirit Qi, would he be able to hold back millions of troops?
Could he turn demons to ashes with just a shout?
The more Lu Fan thought about it, the more interesting it became.
Holding back millions of troops would feel more fantasy-like than what he was witnessing now. The Righteousness Qi he was watching hold back Nie
Changqing was mere child’s play compared to that.
Nie Changqing had a grim expression on his face. The wind howled, and waves rippled across the surface of the lake.
He stood up straight on the paddle and faced the twenty-odd recreational boats, which held more than a hundred Confucianists. The pressure and fear he felt from their Righteousness Qi made his hand holding the knife tremble.
The paddle didn’t advance any further, and Nie Changqing wasn’t able to board the recreational boats and kill the Confucianists.
Suddenly, Lu Fan’s calm voice floated over to him, and he managed to hear it above the howling wind. It floated straight into his ears.
“Since your floating technique isn’t enough to get you there, let’s kill our enemies from a distance. Use Spirit Qi as your foundation, and control your knife remotely. Do you know how? Don’t worry about not having enough Spirit Qi.” Lu Fan said all this calmly. He had talked to Nie before about Knife Control Technique.
He wanted him to try out his knife, and to do that, he wanted him to perform… Knife Control Technique.
Nie Changqing slightly trembled.
Afterward, there was a brightness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before, and his eyes shone.
The Immortal had imparted the Knife Control Technique to him. He had consulted Young Master about it before, but he was unable to grasp the technique, as he didn’t have Spirit Qi.
But now…
He could try it out.
Nie Changqing looked up and stared straight at the hundred-odd Confucianists on the recreational boats.
Suddenly, he laughed heartily, and after he finished laughing, he closed his eyes.
He felt an inner peace like he had never felt before.
A wisp of Spirit Qi flowed out from his dantian and into his limbs and bones.
What appeared in Nie Changqing’s mind was Knife Control Technique, which was the improved version of Dispersed Knife Technique. This was the technique that the Immortal had imparted to him.
The Spirit Qi started moving according to the steps for achieving the Knife Control Technique.
His heart suddenly quieted down.
And the sound of the Confucianists’ endless scolding disappeared.
The sound of the wind, the sound of the water, and the sound of the frightened birds flapping their wings all vanished, and the only thing on his mind was the butcher knife in his hand.
The practical, unsophisticated, and simple butcher knife became a part of him.
Man and knife had become one!
A light blue wisp of Spirit Qi swiftly followed the technique’s trajectory.
Nie Changqing stood on the paddle with the help of his martial arts abilities.
He suddenly opened his eyes.
His hair flew upward.
He raised his butcher knife high.
The next moment, a wisp of Spirit Qi surrounded the knife, and Nie Changqing slowly released his grip on the knife…
The wind blew hard, and his hair flew back.
The simple black butcher knife was in front of him…
and floating in the air!
n.o.body was controlling it! It defied gravity!
On the fis.h.i.+ng boat, Lu Fan watched, his lips curling upward.
He took the Spirit Pressure Chessboard from Ni Yu, who was still shaky from puking, and elegantly placed it on his legs.
Then, he calmly opened the box of chess pieces.
He used one hand to hold his sleeve, while he used the other to take out a gleaming white chess piece.
…
There was a mixture of shock, fright, and amazement on Nie Changqing’s face.
“Knife Control…”
Nie Changqing suddenly laughed loudly and stepped hard on the paddle.
BOOM!
He flew up into the sky.
The boat paddle was now vertical. It stood vertically on the surface of the lake like a pillar holding up the heavens.
Nie Changqing stood high up on the top of the paddle.
He crossed his arms, then violently spread them apart.
The butcher knife floating in front of him started spinning fast, with the handle as its fulcrum.
Nie Changqing’s loud laughter boomed across the surface of the lake.
He swung his arms, and the spinning butcher knife suddenly stopped, its blade pointing down at one of the exquisite recreational boats.
Through the blurry mist, the Confucianists could make out a magical shadow surrounding the butcher knife.
The knife could be controlled by command, and it could slash enemies from afar!