Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Blood Battle (Part 1)
Translator: 549690339
"Huh? He's still alive!" Li Ming frowned.
"Young Master, this man has mastered the ruler technique, and our first surprise attack failed. Relying on arrows to kill him will not be so easy now." The elder named Cang expressed his admiration.
"Iron Ruler Ninefold" is a widely circulated skill, easy to learn but hard to master. Especially when using a pair of rulers, it becomes even trickier.
Shen Zhui, who managed to attain mastery after only three years of practice in a rudimentary training system without a dedicated teacher, had to be considered a genius by the elder.
"No wonder Yang Wu warned me about the threat this man poses... however, without attaining the Innate, he is still useless."
As he finished speaking, Li Ming noticed that Shen Zhui was advancing towards the two squads of archers despite the ongoing barrage of arrows. He suddenly grew interested: "Elder Cang, order the archers to halt their attack, and have Ah Da and Ah Er kill this man."
"Yes, Young Master."
.........
As Shen Zhui approached the position of the archers, the arrows ceased.
"Chi~"
The two squads of archers, under the command of two ninth-rank leaders, discarded their bows and uniformly drew their long knives.
Following a silent sign, twenty men quickly formed a circle, slowly encircling Shen Zhui.
Seeing this, Shen Zhui's heart sank.
Among these archers, there were ten warriors at the sixth rank of the Postnatal realm, seven at the seventh rank, and three at the eighth rank, in addition to the two at the ninth rank!
The enemy's strength was beyond his expectation!
Moreover, their coordinated actions revealed well-trained competency, not comparable to common bandits. They didn't even bother to hide their identities, proving that they had no fear of his governmental status, and had no intention of letting him live!
"Only the Li Family and the Yang Family possess the resources to maintain a combat unit of this caliber, deploying two ninth-rank warriors as the opening gambit. Someone has obviously leaked my whereabouts!"
Shen Zhui felt a chill in his heart, remembering the plight of his comrades.
Despite his caution, he had still been targeted!
"Activate judgment of guilt!" Shen Zhui silently recited in his heart.
A glint of determination flashed in his eyes, and the world before him seemed to shift slightly.
As he cast his gaze upon these opponents…
Numbers formed by grey clouds appeared over each of their heads.
For these twenty men, their numbers were all above 5000.
And for those two ninth-rank warriors, there were two glaringly crimson 9000s over their heads!
This signified that these men were soaked in blood, and their guilt was beyond the point of decapitation.
This was the advantage of the system, the evidence of guilt that the Decapitation Order in Shen Zhui's possession could not detect, was made clear with the ability granted by the system.
"Kill!" In this situation, Shen Zhui had no room for hesitation. With a ferocious shout, he charged at one of the ninth-rank warriors.
"Form the Formation!"
Upon hearing the command, 20 men immediately moved into a figure-eight formation, closing in for the kill.
The team maintained their formation amidst movement, using the wide part of their formation to face Shen Zhui.
Although small and dispersed, their formation was meticulous. Each person only struck once, regardless of the outcome of their attack, they would move on to reform the formation, not lingering in battle.
At the start, he only faced two sixth-rank warriors on either side of him.
However, as the battle continued, the number of swords coming at him increased, and their force became more potent.
Then came the seventh-rank, eighth-rank…
Until he reached the end of the figure-eight formation, he would then face the all-out attack from two ninth-rank warriors.
This figure-eight ambush was designed to wear down enemies with continuous attacks, and the attacks got stronger the further he got.
If Shen Zhui tried to turn around and kill the sixth-rank opponents, he would essentially be putting his back towards potential attacks!
This seamless, relentless ambush was highly effective against outnumbered opponents and was initially designed to deal with Innate warriors.
Of course, in order to hunt Innate warriors, this formation was still lacking. It would need to consist purely of ninth-rank warriors with a peak-rank warrior to lead the formation!
The execution had to be in perfect sync to avoid presenting an opportunity to the enemy. Otherwise, if the rhythm of the attacks faltered, it would give the enemies a chance to break them one by one, rendering the formation pointless.
Even when hunting rabbits, the lion gives it his all. No doubt, such formations against Shen Zhui, an eighth-rank warrior, reflected the combat quality of these soldiers and the ruthlessness of the puppet master pulling the strings.
Atop the hill, Li Ming, seeing Shen Zhui beginning to fall into the trap, asked with a smile, "Elder Cang, do you think this man can withstand the onslaught?"
"Given that Yang Wu said this man can kill a ninth-rank warrior and his blade technique has achieved Great Accomplishment, this old servant believes he can at least withstand one round!"
Li Ming, fondling his ring, responded with surprise, "Elder Cang, do you rate him that highly? I thought you'd say he wouldn't last twenty strokes and would fall before reaching Ah Da and Ah Er. This formation, even for a peak-rank within our family, would exhaust them by the third round if they didn't explode with vital essence. As for this Shen Zhui, he's just an eighth-rank, needing to pay attention to both sides and guard his back..."
"This man did practice the 'Blood Ignition' technique, his vitality is stronger than an average warrior, and you can't compare him with a typical eighth-rank. Furthermore, when he fights desperately, exploding with vital essence, we can't overlook him."
"Elder Cang, he's just an eighth rank..."
Li Ming was about to refute when he suddenly widened his eyes in surprise, staring at the scene unfolding below.
"What?!"
......
At the foot of the hill, Shen Zhui wielded his pair of iron rulers, closing the ten-foot gap to confront the two ninth-rank warriors in the blink of an eye.
With his watertight ruler defense, he successfully resisted twenty strikes, even severely wounding three of the seventh-rank warriors in the process!
His ruler technique had reached the Great Achievement Realm, a fact well known to all. However, no one expected that his movement skills had also reached this level!
The evasion efficiency of a Great Achievement Realm movement technique is so high that one can evade seventy-five out of a hundred strikes at the same level. Can you imagine how efficient that is?
So the enemy was destined to miscalculate!
"Die!" Blocking an attack from a post-natal ninth rank with his left-hand iron ruler, Shen Zhui's body leaned at a weird angle against the ground. His right hand stabbed straight into the abdomen of another post-natal ninth rank martial artist.
"What?! Blocked it!" Ah Da was shocked to his core, and when he saw Shen Zhui's other ruler thrusting towards his brother, his eyes almost burst out of their sockets!
"No! Ah Er!"
He tried to draw his knife to block Shen Zhui in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, he was one step too late!
"Ugh!"
With the ruler penetrating his abdomen, Ah Er, the other post-natal Ninth Rank martial artist, was immediately impaled, spewing a large amount of blood from his mouth.
And the knife that was initially aimed at Shen Zhui deviated its direction due to the injury and only weakly chopped at Shen Zhui's left chest, being blocked by the silver scale armature.
"Captain!"
"Captain!"
The rest of the martial artists were equally dumbfounded. They had not expected the formidable captain to be severely injured by Shen Zhui!
"Ah! You deserve to die!" Ah Da had also gone crazy. He and Ah Er were real brothers and shared a deep bond. He couldn't have imagined that his brother would fall victim to a post-natal eighth rank Shen Zhui.
With his dantian in his lower abdomen destroyed, even if Ah Er could survive, he would likely be left disabled.
"Whoosh~" At this moment, countless blades flashed, aiming at Shen Zhui.
All in disarray! Their entire formation was in disarray!
"Damn it! Idiots! What's this chaos! Maintain the formation!" On the hillside, Li Ming was first startled and then furious.
The essence of this combined attack formation lied in the last two Postnatal Ninth Rank martial artists. If any of them failed, the formation could simply shift, sidelining the injured ones and carry on.
As long as the formation remained intact, they could persist in besieging and restrict Shen Zhui's performance.
Even a Postnatal Ninth Rank martial artist could be worn down to death by such repeated attacks!
Yet he ignored the fact that martial artists are people and not puppets. People have feelings, especially between real brothers.
Furthermore, it was rare to encounter enemies who had reached the Great Achievement Realm in both movement and martial technique when executing this kind of siege, even when facing Ninth Rank martial artists. Not to mention Shen Zhui who had reached the Great Achievement Realm in both!
Caught off guard and with the leader severely injured, the formation of the two teams instantly crumbled due to panic and concern.
"Whoosh~" Ah Da swung his broad sword, creating bursts of sword shadows and aiming at Shen Zhui, seeking to avenge his brother.
It seemed slow but happened quickly in reality. Shen Zhui's left hand suddenly dropped the iron ruler, grabbed Ah Er's neck with one hand, twisted his waist and, coupled with the iron ruler still lodged in Ah Er's body, turned sharply!
The sword hovered in mid-air, just inches away from the heavily injured Ah Er's face.
Seeing this, Ah Er, who was already severely injured and vomiting blood, was drenched in a cold sweat. His face turned red, and he vomited up another mouthful of blood.
Ah Da, having nearly struck down his brother, quickly withdrew his sword, attempting to grab Shen Zhui with one hand.
"Don't move! If you come any closer, he's dead for sure!" Shen Zhui, holding Ah Er as a hostage, backed away a few steps to maintain distance.
"Release him!" Ah Da bellowed ferociously, pointing his long blade at Shen Zhui. His eyes reddened as he glared at Shen Zhui.
"You can draw your sword!" Shen Zhui backed away as he said this, maintaining a calm voice.
"Release him!"
"Make your move."
"You won't escape."
"Are you from the Li Family or the Yang Family?"
"You will die a horrible death."
"Back off."
The vegetation was dry and yellow and fallen leaves covered the ground. The setting sun shone over this ruined valley, casting a blood-red hue, suffusing the atmosphere with a suffocating showdown. Sword lights, crossbow arrows, iron rulers, and the severely injured hostage.
Ah Da roared, radiating a ferocious aura. Around him, over ten men formed a semi-circle.
In comparison, several feet away, Shen Zhui seemed to be heavily outnumbered, but his hand was tightly gripped on Ah Er's throat, as he coolly stared at the others.
Threats echoed one after another as the surrounding martial artists grimaced, each ready to pounce.
Yet Shen Zhui just kept back stepping and asking questions.
"Keep your distance, don't come any closer!"
"If my brother dies, so will you!"
"If you stay there, he won't die."
"You won't be able to run!"
"Tell your people to back off a hundred feet."
"Release him first!"
"Then, kill all the horses, leaving only one."
"That's impossible!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone