Chapter 35: Double Ninth Tower

Chu Danqing finished listening to Cheng Wei's description and realized that Guo Ming and Cheng Wei had clearly misunderstood the true identity of Fierce Fist.

In their eyes, he was a blade wielded by the mastermind behind the scenes, but in reality, he was nothing of the sort.

As for the Blood Shadow Chapter of the Military Dao Martial Classic, Chu Danqing also had a rough understanding of its situation.

The reason it was considered unorthodox was because practicing only a single chapter of the Military Dao Martial Classic instead of the complete text would lead to a severe deficiency of vital Qi and blood.

Although the blood shadow was generated from a shadow, it required blood qi for sustenance; the more blood shadows there were, the greater the depletion.

Day in and day out, problems were bound to arise, which necessitated daily heavy nourishment of vital energy and blood.

Secondly, the reason it had to be kept hidden within the imperial palace was because it allowed for the rapid mastery of heretic arts, which would cause profound disaster if allowed to spread outside.

Only thoroughly trusted white-gloved agents deep within the palace would be groomed in this legacy to carry out certain unspeakable tasks.

This led Chu Danqing to consider a distinct possibility: the top three items in the faction store likely harbored certain quests as well.

For instance, if he were to acquire the Lu Family's Scorching Heaven Scripture, he should be able to unlock another hidden quest with a high reward.

The low stats of that group of blood shadow soldiers were due to the fact that they could only inherit half of the main body's attributes and a tenth of the equipment effects.

This made Chu Danqing genuinely envious, but upon further reflection, it wasn't very suitable for him.

The stats, skills, talents, and even equipment of the blood shadow soldiers all originated from the Weapon Master.

If they could inherit everything completely, their value would naturally be extremely high. But with limited inheritance, the summons generated by the equipment of the blood shadow soldiers became a rabble...

Especially with only a tenth of the equipment effects, a summoned repeating crossbow soldier would be left with a mere 0.6 in stats, the equipment carried on its body would probably be unwatchable, and its skills would also plummet to a tenth.

Such a weak foundational summoning could not be saved, making the technique far more suitable for non-summoner builds to counter crowd combat, as they possessed skills to enhance their own combat prowess to make up for the deficiencies of the blood shadow soldiers.

As for the notion that in the mid-to-late stages, once Chu Danqing's strength grew, it would become stronger—that was yet another paradox.

By the time he possessed greater strength, why would he choose to limit himself to an elite-grade legacy skill?

He could completely use a legacy skill of much higher quality.

"Brother Chu, we must proceed with caution from now on," Guo Ming muttered in a low voice. "This Commander Fierce Fist has an extraordinary background."

"Keep Dabao on high alert. Make sure he doesn't stray too far from the three of us, and retreat at the very first sign of trouble."

In his view, the other party obviously knew that he and the others were going to look for Bai Yao, which was why he was waiting along the way.

Since Chu Danqing was going to handle the cleanup, they didn't need to get involved, and if danger arose, they could smoothly slip away.

"That's right, stay away from him and let him play the hero by himself," Cheng Wei chimed in.

As the battle came to an end, the two of them quickly shut their mouths. Fierce Fist recalled his blood shadow soldiers and hurried back over.

"What's wrong?" Fierce Fist sensed the odd atmosphere and asked.

Chu Danqing smoothed things over, "Nothing, we're just shocked by your strength."

Fierce Fist still felt that something was amiss, but he had no time to dwell on it because Cheng Wei was already leading the way ahead.

With corpses lying in the street, taking a carriage was no longer appropriate.

Besides, the remaining distance wasn't far, and clearing a path passable for a carriage would take too much time, so it was better to simply walk.

"Lord Chu Envoy, what's wrong with these two?" Fierce Fist was baffled, but he could clearly read the attitudes of Guo Ming and Cheng Wei.

"They're not familiar with you, so it's awkward and they're short on words," Chu Danqing replied.

In truth, he was speaking the literal truth, but there was a deeper meaning beneath his words.

Fierce Fist didn't pay much attention to the explanation; to him, they were merely two indigenous locals.

With Cheng Wei leading the way, they soon arrived at a restaurant.

The plaque above read "Chongyang Pavilion".

Chu Danqing recognized it; wasn't this the very restaurant where Guo Ming had intended to treat him to a meal earlier?

They had come all right, but unfortunately, it wasn't to dine.

Fierce Fist kicked the front doors open and strode aggressively inside.

However, he stopped in his tracks the moment he stepped through, his gaze locking onto a figure sitting in a slouching posture on the grand master chair at the back of the hall, whose appearance was obscured.

"Second Young Master Guo, Eldest Young Master Cheng," the figure turned and sat upright, speaking in a complex tone, "Why did the two of you bother to muddy yourselves in these murky waters?"

Guo Ming's gaze turned sharp, "Bai Yao, it's not us meddling in murky waters; it's you who refuse to let us go."

This figure was precisely Bai Yao whom they had been searching for. The man was sitting quite safely at the back of the hall, eating food and drinking wine.

Judging by his demeanor and appearance, he was by no means kidnapped as they had previously guessed.

Hearing this, Bai Yao was stunned for a moment, then twisted his face into a ferocious snarl as he violently smashed the wine cup in his hand onto the table.

"I refuse to let you go? It is clearly you who are blindly seeking your own deaths."

"As things stand now, none of us are going to walk away alive."

With those words, Bai Yao stood up and walked out.

Only then did they manage to clearly make out Bai Yao's appearance in the moonlight.

His body was still human, but it was bloated to several times its normal size, his skin a sallow yellow while covered in writhing, tadpole-like script patterns.

"Have you lost your mind!" Cheng Wei was also startled. "You actually used heterodox arts to defile the Son of Heaven, and even used yourself as a vessel to forcefully seal and extract his power."

"Such gross blasphemy, how can you face the cultivation bestowed upon you by the Supreme Peace Master and the Human Duke Master?"

Fierce Fist ignored the personal grievances and entanglements among the three, directly summoning his blood shadow soldiers to initiate combat.

"How can I face them? Ha." Bai Yao looked with utter disdain at Fierce Fist and the blood shadow soldiers, forming a spell seal with his hands.

A piercing wail echoed from within his body, causing his skin to crack along the pattern lines as sallow, blood-red flesh bulged outward.

Wind and lightning intertwined, forming a massive area of effect damage.

Dabao reacted with extreme agility, grabbing Chu Danqing with his left hand, scooping up Guo Ming with his right, and—most unluckily—clamping Cheng Wei under his armpit, before rapidly retreating out of Chongyang Pavilion.

Fierce Fist and his blood shadow soldiers, still trapped inside Chongyang Pavilion, didn't manage to escape in time.

A gale swept past, shattering his military formation, while golden lightning leaped among the blood shadow soldiers, dealing massive damage.

This sight made Fierce Fist's eyes split with fury.

Wide area and high damage, combined together, proved too much for the blood shadow soldiers to sustain. Many of them dissolved into dark red, shadowy figures and vanished amidst the howling winds and golden lightning.

Chu Danqing decisively cast an appraisal spell; the bad news was that the target didn't even have a name, consisting entirely of question marks.

"Dabao, hurry back to the Lu Mansion, don't stop for a single moment." Chu Danqing could confirm one thing: even the Grievous Mother at the height of her power was probably no match for Bai Yao.

Boom~

Fierce Fist was sent flying backward out of Chongyang Pavilion, tumbled to his feet, spun around, and fled, simultaneously pulling two health-restoring consumables from his storage space to swallow.

However, instead of fleeing in the same direction as Chu Danqing and the others, he chose a completely opposite path.

"The greater the commotion, the safer my father will be." Bai Yao's gaze fell upon Guo Ming and Cheng Wei.