Chapter 108: Steel Sword of the Gentleman
Sila slowly exited Grea City and opened the map only to find out that he had made a blunder by exiting the wrong gate. For him to travel to Madmen"s Valley, it would be best to exit from the north gate or at least the west gate. However, he was in such a hurry and had exited from the gate he had entered with Sangdao, which was the south gate.
Sangdao...
Whenever he thought about Sangdao, an incomprehensible feeling stirred within his heart. For the matter regarding the Wulin Masters a.s.sociation, it seemed Sangdao knew something but didn"t tell him. Actually, he could just simply contact her and inquire about it. However, the system window only floated in the air without him daring to touch it. Despite him being a click away from contacting Sangdao, he didn"t do so. He didn"t feel like talking with her right now.
Going back into the city and then exiting through the north gate seemed to be a foolish decision as Kawin might be tracking him. Thus, Sila decided to go a roundabout route. He walked along the edge of the city"s outer walls to reach the west gate.
The walls of Grea City weren"t made of brick like the ones in Colossia City; they were made of metal. The height of the walls wasn"t consistent as some walls seemed to be around ten meters while some were so high that he couldn"t see the top. Sila couldn"t see any players on the path he was using as this route wasn"t a common one.
He traveled while thinking about many things. Sila had promised Bow that he would bring her out from the Slime Kingdom when he arrived at the next city, however, he decided not to do so as Grea City wasn"t a safe place for him. He thought that it would be better to let Bow out when he reached Madmen"s Valley.
He wouldn"t be able to visit the Mansion of Secrets nor the Bamboo Hut since if he did so, he would appear in the center of Grea City when he exited. He had just fought against Kawin, so it was highly likely that he would encounter his enemies there. He didn"t want to visit the Bamboo Hut anyway as there was a chance he would meet Sangdao who he still wasn"t ready to see yet.
He had walked for ten minutes but next to him was still the city"s walls. Grea City was one of the biggest cities in Monster Soul so walking around naturally took a long time. While he was walking, Sila tried to clad his hands with qi reinforcement while waving them back and forth. He was trying to comprehend the new way to utilize Genesis Punch.
"Umm, it would be better if I had a chance to use it in real combat," Sila thought. He could try what he was doing a hundred or thousand times but Sila still wasn"t sure that he could actually make use of it when the time comes.
There was a saying that was quite relevant: beware of what you wish for, as it might be granted unexpectedly.
Sila found that there were players standing ahead of his route, blocking his path. He wasn"t vigilant so he noticed them too late. Upon seeing them from afar, Sila immediately activated Galaxy Eclipse and discovered that there were more players following him from behind, though they were very far away.
The opposing side was blocking his way. Sila walked closer until he was five steps away from them before stopping his feet.
"Could you please let me pa.s.s?" Sila tried to be nice despite guessing that these players would definitely pick a fight with him.
The players of the opposing side began to whisper to each other. "Are you sure? This guy doesn"t seem like him."
One of them nodded while pointing his finger at his own clothing then pointing at Sila"s. Five pairs of eyes followed the finger. They began to whisper among themselves again.
Finally, they ended their discussion. Sila didn"t force his way through as he was wondering who they were and what would they were trying to do.
"Who are you!?" One of them shouted at Sila.
Sila was confused. "Eh? Don"t you already know that? Isn"t that why you were waiting to ambush me?"
Another one of them unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Sila. "Quit quibbling! Tell us your name!"
Sila scratched his head. The members of the Heavenly Dragon Guild might be searching for him inside the city at the moment so he didn"t want to give his name away.
"I have some circ.u.mstances so I"m not comfortable with giving my name away. Anyway, you seem to be searching for someone else. So, I think I will take my leave."
Once he finished speaking, Sila stepped forward as he intended to pa.s.s through the five players in front of him. However, the one who had unsheathed his sword clad the sword in qi reinforcement and slashed at Sila.
"Don"t move!!" The slash was aimed at Sila"s head. Sila frowned when he noticed this.
He didn"t particularly mind the attack as he clad his feet with qi while making irregular movements to evade the slash without any difficulty. He simply walked past the attacker as if nothing had happened.
In the blink of an eye, the remaining four scattered around him and unsheathed their swords. Just seeing their stances was enough for Sila to discern that these five weren"t ordinary. Sila might be able to overwhelm one of them, but not if they combined their power. It seemed they excelled in fighting as a team.
"I"m not the person you are looking for. Can"t you just let me go?" Sila made another attempt to persuade them.
All five players looked at each other. One of them pointed his sword at Sila while the remaining four took their stance accordingly. Sila could somehow guess that these five had all received the same training.
"It won"t be a problem if we kill the wrong person. All suspicious people need to be killed."
Sila"s expression turned grave. "How unreasonable."
At first Sila thought that, since it was a misunderstanding, he might as well try to avoid getting into a fight. However, as he held back, the opponents instead thought that they could freely abuse him. Despite Sila knowing that these players didn"t have a personal grudge against him, he had already changed his mind to fight them for real.
"These players aren"t weak, but their abilities aren"t too high. They are suitable as practice targets for my new move."
Sila clad himself with qi reinforcement without concealing his power. Once his clothing fluttered from the aura, the swordsmen rushed at him.
All five swords slashed at Sila. Each of the strikes supported each other and perfectly blocked Sila"s escape route.
Sila"s guess wasn"t off the mark. These players weren"t mere thugs or common bandits. At the very least, they should belong to the same dojo and had trained martial arts together to some degree.
Sila quickly moved his feet, using the footwork of Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps within a limited s.p.a.ce. It appeared to others as if Sila had split into multiple bodies.
Although the five were surprised, their swordsmanship was still firm. Every one of them slightly shifted the trajectory of their sword to aim at the different bodies as if they had practiced doing so for years.
Activating Universe Reversal, Sila redirected all the swords to slightly away from their original paths and pulled them together for them to collide into themselves.
All five players lessened their qi reinforcement out of fear of bringing harm to their comrades. Witnessing a chance, Sila rushed at one of them. Both of his hands were clad with his self-made power and struck at the swordsman.
The man defended by cladding himself with qi reinforcement. The impact caused him to take three steps back.
Two of his comrades jumped in to block Sila from continuing his attack. However, Sila didn"t try to do so. He just stopped and attentively stared at the man he just hit.
That man seemed to be fine. Even he was surprised at his condition himself. He had expected Sila"s strike to deal more damage to him.
"Too shallow, is it?" Sila thought to himself. Immediately afterward, he lunged toward the opponent on his left.
At the sight of Sila jumping at their comrade, the remaining four reacted. They rushed at Sila, to which Sila threw a Flash Bomb at them without looking back.
Although his speed was superior to the four, he needed to slow down the four as he required concentration to attempt to use his new move again.
A bright flash of light emerged behind Sila. The four players closed their eyes and clad themselves with qi reinforcement as their speed decreased.
As for the one who Sila was rushing to, he lifted one of his hands up to block the light while squinting his eyes. The remaining hand thrust the sword to counterattack Sila.
Once again, Sila put his self-made power into his palms. His speed didn"t change. One of his hands landed on the sword-wielding right arm of his opponent and pushed it down. As for his other hand, he heavily stamped it on the opponent"s chest.
The swordsman flew five meters away. His arm bone had ruptured and was poking through the skin. His chest was noticeably flattened as he was coughing out blood and squirming in pain on the ground.
Sila halted his movement and looked at the condition of the injured man. One of the man"s comrades rushed to take care of the him while the remaining three kept their eyes on Sila to ensure that he wouldn"t make another move.
However, Sila didn"t pay any attention to them. His mind was focusing on the symptoms of the man he had just hit.
"This time it"s too severe. I need to control the power output to not be too low to not have an effect while not being too high to leave a visible injury on the opponent. It is indeed very difficult to come up with my own move."
This nameless move was something he came up with by adapting the skills he possessed to become his own move. The basis of his move was Poluk"s Genesis Punch. Genesis Punch was a powerful move but there was a limit to how many times he could use it per day. So, Sila planned to lower its power consumption to the point where he could continue using it without worry.
Nevertheless, a problem arose. When he lowered the power consumption, the powerful might which was the prominent point of Genesis Punch would be gone. If he left it like this, it wouldn"t be much different from a normal punch.
Regardless, the battle he had against Aramut gave him an idea. It was the first time he successfully used his own version of Genesis Punch.
When he was meditating after the battle, he was in a trance where he was focused on coming up with his own way to utilize Genesis Punch. His plan was to separate the great power behind Genesis Punch into smaller parts and add them into his basic attacks. In conclusion, he planned to inject the reduced power of Genesis Punch into his foe"s body and attack from the inside.
The power output must not be too low, otherwise, the attack would have no effect.
It mustn"t be too high either or the energy consumption would be too great.
It mustn"t be too shallow, because the opponent would easily block the attack.
It mustn"t be too deep as well, since the opponent would notice the invading power.
Currently, Sila was lacking timing, distance measurement, and insight for this new move. All of them would be acquired by acc.u.mulating experience, time, and practice. They weren"t something one would gain in a short time.
The concept of this move was simple: the move to obstruct the opponent"s utilization of profound arts. Sila thought that, if he encountered profound pract.i.tioners who possessed powerful offensive arts like Poluk or a firm defensive art like Kawin, he would utilize this move to weaken the opponent"s moves. The goal was to cease the opponent"s movements for a brief moment.
In a battle, just a brief moment was significant. In the instant where his opponent lost the tempo, Sila could take his time to continue his attack.
Nevertheless, his idea was still far off from reality. Sila still couldn"t measure the right amount of power he should put into his strike. The amount of power he had to use would change depending on the situation and the type of opponent he faces. It seemed he still had a long way to go.
"Who exactly are you?" One of the three swordsmen keeping their eyes on Sila shouted at him.
Sila put his hands behind his back. He had finished testing his move and decided to spend time practicing it in seclusion before trying to test it out again. The time for him to leave this place had come.
"At the very least, I"m not the one who you"re looking for. Can I go now?"
Another man shouted back, "You have injured our friends. Do not expect to leave this place easily."
Sila replied indifferently, "You guys tried to harm me without a proper reason. It was natural that I defended myself. Did you really expect me to be your punching bag?"
"Shut up. You will have to die here today."
Sila knew the reason why these people suddenly had more confidence. Their comrades who had been following from afar earlier had caught up.
More than thirty players joined the battle and scattered around Sila, separated into several layers. Their battle formation was well-organized, as if they had been trained to do something like this many times. Every one of them unsheathed their swords and clad it with qi reinforcement.
Sila was now very certain that they indeed belonged to the same school or dojo. They were by no means weak.
Well, Sila still didn"t feel too pressured. Although he admitted that it would be a hard task for him to kill all the players in this place, escaping was still within his capability.
Even though teacher Mora had never taught Sila the martial moves of their dojo, he had imparted unto Sila the concept "Attack is the best defense". Be sure to attack the opponents in the place where they absolutely need to block.
Whether he was up against a single person or a group of people, this concept always applied.
Do not show mercy and always aim your attack at the weakest part of the opponent.
Sila quickly clad himself with qi reinforcement and charged at the injured person who was lying on the ground. His objective wasn"t to aggravate the person"s injury but to aim for a tiny gap which was created by the fact that the two players around this person were tending to his wounds.
Two shurikens flew from Sila hands and curved around two of them, aiming at the injured person.
The shurikens weren"t fired using Sila"s top speed as he intended for the two players to take notice of them. Just as he planned, the two noticed the shurikens and intercepted them to protect their injured friend. Thus, the gap widened.
Sila intensified his qi and used his top speed to pa.s.s through the gap in the blink of an eye. He exited the encirclement. With his current speed, no one in this place should be able to catch up to him.
However, there was an unexpected development. Once Sila was a few meters outside of the encirclement, a slash made of qi suddenly flew toward him from the front. It was too urgent and Sila was in mid-air so he couldn"t evade it. In the end, he had to clad himself with qi reinforcement and strengthened his body with Formless Soldier.
The impact of the slash pushed Sila back into the encirclement. Sila took his stance and looked at the one who had just attacked him.
The encirclement was parted by a certain middle-aged man. He wore white wuxia clothing and there was an ordinary-looking steel sword in his right hand. Once he stepped inside the encirclement, everyone raised their hands to greeted him.
"Greeting, Honored Master."
The man who had just arrived nodded at the sight of everyone and stepped closer to Sila before coming to a stop once the distance between him and Sila was less than ten meters.
"Your ability is not half bad. Who are you?" The man asked.
Sila realized that this man was stronger than him. This realization came from his intuition. Sila decided not to answer the question while keeping up his guard.
"Honored Master has asked you a question! Answer immediately!!" One of the men who seemed to be the leader of the team shouted.
"It"s fine. You don"t need to tell me who you are. Just tell me, what is your relationship with the Shadow Emperor?"
Sila was confused by the man"s words. "Shadow Emperor? You mean Mister Zero?"
The man nodded, "That"s right. You seem to personally know him, don"t you? Are you Zero"s disciple?"
Finally, Sila could connect the dots and realize that these people should be enemies of Zero. He was currently wearing the same outfit as Zero"s so he was misunderstood.
"I know him. Mister Zero is my friend," replied Sila indifferently.
The man nodded. "That"s good. Can you tell me where Zero is?"
"I don"t know," Sila replied brusquely. "If that"s all you want to ask, I will take my leave now."
One of the disciples behind the middle-aged man shouted, "You can"t do that! Honored Master, this man has harmed one of our Junior Brothers."
Sila didn"t even glance at the man. "You guys intended to kill me without a proper reason, so I just defended myself. It was already kind of me to not kill him."
"You!!" The man who spoke just now readied his sword and was about to come at Sila. Nevertheless, the middle-aged man raised his hand to stop him before saying something.
"Since it was a misunderstanding, why did you have to harm my disciple?"
Sila was at a loss for words. The opposing side was actually the first to pick a fight with him, but this man"s statement was implying that he was in the wrong because he had been heavy-handed.
"You people were the first to attack me. Why are you trying to imply that I"m the one in the wrong?"
"Who attacked first isn"t important. The result is that one of my disciples was harmed. How do you plan to take responsibility?"
The more he talked, the more he seemed to be put in the wrong. The middle-aged man"s appearance was like a kind man, but his speech had driven Sila into a corner. As Sila wasn"t good at debating, he decided to shut his mouth and started to think about how to escape from this place.
"Since you stopped talking, am I correct to a.s.sume that you have accepted your mistake? That"s good. Today, I, Paiyuan, who hold the t.i.tle of the Sword Gentleman, the master of the Heartless Steel Sword dojo, will be your opponent. This is not me bullying the weak nor me taking revenge for my disciple. I find that you are quite skilled so I want to teach you swordsmanship."
Sila heard the man"s illogical reason and sneered.
"What if I don"t want to learn swordsmanship from you?"
The steel sword of Paiyuan was pointed at Sila. His qi circled around the tip of the blade, creating a vortex.
"I"m afraid you aren"t in the position to decline."
The disciples scattered around to block Sila"s escape route. The current encirclement was more complete than the previous one.
Sila had no choice. Shapeless Qi circulated within his body. He readied himself for the battle against the foe in front of him.Author: What is righteousness? If someone asked me, I would give this answer: Righteousness is the majority. Being right or being wrong doesn"t matter. And unjustness refers to when someone is trying to do something that the majority doesn"t agree with.We are back to Sila, before Burapha stole the MC spot.The character Paiyuan remind me of "Yuè Bùqún" in the novel "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer". Although I disliked this character, I have to admit that this character brings liveliness to the story. The villains have to be unique for the MC to stand out.P.S. You may think that character with this kind of personality exists only in the novel, but I can ensure you that there are people like this even in real life.