“Old man, what are you playing at?”
Ye Qiu hadn’t expected Master Longbrow to stop him at the critical moment. One stomp, and Crow Taoist would be dead.
“Little brat, leave this bastard to me. I want to kill him myself.”
Master Longbrow stepped forward, mercilessly stomping on Crow Taoist’s chest.
“Pfft!”
Crow Taoist spewed blood, glaring at Master Longbrow with eyes full of boundless hatred.
As the leader of Tianji Sect, a peak Venerable Realm master, he had never suffered such humiliation.
If he could still fight back, there was no doubt he would slaughter Master Longbrow, tearing him to pieces.
“What’s with the glare? Never seen a handsome guy?” Master Longbrow stomped again.
“Urgh!”
Crow Taoist spat more blood.
“You were so arrogant, so cocky, wanting to kill me. Hmph, and now? You’re under my foot.” Master Longbrow stomped again.
Crow Taoist kept spewing blood.
In mere moments, he had lost several litres.
Yet Master Longbrow wasn’t satisfied. He began slapping Crow Taoist’s face.
“This slap is because I don’t like you.”
“This one’s for being ugly and disgusting people.”
“This one’s for your tasteless clothes.”
“This one… I haven’t thought of a reason yet, but it just feels right.”
Slap, slap, slap!
Crisp slaps landed on Crow Taoist’s face, soon swelling it like a pig’s head.
Master Longbrow’s hand hurt from slapping. He shook it, then sneered coldly. “Old guy, didn’t expect this day, did you?”
“High cultivation, huh? Still got your face slapped by me.”
“Your pathetic Tianji Sect? Trash.”
Master Longbrow grabbed Crow Taoist’s hair, yanking hard, tearing off a chunk of scalp.
“You made me bald, so I’ll make you bald too.”
Master Longbrow cursed, then said, “Weren’t you curious why I know Longhu Mountain’s secret techniques?”
“Now I’ll tell you. I’m not some Wudang leader. I’m the current leader of Longhu Mountain, Taoist name Longbrow.”
What, this guy’s the Longhu Mountain leader?
Crow Taoist’s eyes nearly popped out, his face full of disbelief.
Master Longbrow said, “You mentioned earlier that Longhu Mountain and your Tianji Sect have a blood feud. I don’t know the details, but I trust our ancestors’ actions were just.”
“Today, you fell into my hands. You brought this on yourself.”
“I don’t know if Tianji Sect has others left, but if there are, I’ll uproot your sect completely.”
“I’m a kind man, not fond of torture, so I’ll send you on your way!”
Master Longbrow raised his foot to stomp on Crow Taoist’s face.
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
Crow Taoist, summoning all his strength, raised his right hand. A black light flashed from his sleeve, shooting towards Master Longbrow’s throat.
This was his desperate, final strike. Master Longbrow hadn’t expected Crow Taoist, so gravely injured, to still attack. By the time he reacted, the black light was already at his throat.
In the critical moment.
Ye Qiu’s two fingers shot out like lightning, clamping the black light.
Only then did Ye Qiu and Master Longbrow see clearly that the black light was a strange sword.
It was strange because the blade was thin as a cicada’s wing, black as ink, light in hand yet radiating peerless sharpness.
Ye Qiu, holding the blade between his fingers, could clearly feel the chilling sword qi seeping into his skin.
“This is the sword that injured my fist earlier? Looks like it’s no ordinary weapon.”
Just as Ye Qiu thought this, Master Longbrow stomped hard on Crow Taoist’s face.
Pfft!
Crow Taoist’s face was smashed to a pulp, transforming from a living crow to a dead one.
“Damn it, you dared ambush me? See if I don’t stomp you to death.” Master Longbrow stomped a few more times.
“He’s already dead. Why keep venting?”
As Ye Qiu spoke, he tugged at the sword with his fingers, trying to examine it, but the blade wouldn’t budge.
“Hm?”
Ye Qiu raised an eyebrow, finding it odd. After a closer look, he bent down and lifted Crow Taoist’s sleeve.
Only then did he see that the strange sword had no hilt. Its other end was tied to Crow Taoist’s wrist with a red cord.
Ye Qiu released a sword qi, cutting the cord, and took the sword in hand.
It felt ice-cold.
Ye Qiu noticed the sword’s material was unusual, not forged from common metals like copper or iron, but seemingly from beast bone.
One side was engraved with ferocious beasts and birds, the other with two inscriptions.
After studying them for a while, he recognised the inscriptions.
“Demon Refiner!”
Meanwhile, Master Longbrow had looted a dozen or so pills from Crow Taoist’s body.
They were identical to the pill Crow Taoist had shown before the battle.
Master Longbrow, cautious, said, “Little brat, you’re skilled in medicine. Check if these pills can really boost cultivation.”
Ye Qiu picked up a pill, sniffed it, and said, “These pills are made from herbs over five hundred years old. They can indeed enhance cultivation.”
“Perfect!” Master Longbrow said excitedly. “Little brat, these pills are mine. I don’t want anything else.”
Master Longbrow had thoroughly searched Crow Taoist’s body. Besides the pills, only the sword in Ye Qiu’s hand remained.
“Old man, know anything about the Demon Refiner Sword?” Ye Qiu asked.
“Of course,” Master Longbrow said. “Legend has it, in the pre-Qin era, a powerful qi refiner killed an evil dragon and forged a sword from its bones.”
“That sword is the Demon Refiner Sword.”
“Though not as famous as your Emperor Sword, it’s no weaker. But it was lost centuries ago, its whereabouts unknown.”
“By the way, little brat, why ask?”
Ye Qiu said, “I know where the Demon Refiner Sword is.”
“Where?” Master Longbrow asked.
Ye Qiu grinned. “Far in the horizon, near in my hand.”
Master Longbrow realised something, his eyes falling on the sword in Ye Qiu’s hand. He exclaimed, “That’s the Demon Refiner Sword?”
“I take back what I said.”
“Little brat, you’ve got to give me that sword.”
Ye Qiu asked, “What about the pills?”
Master Longbrow said, “The pills are mine.”
Ye Qiu: “…”
