I Can See Your Combat Power

Sword rain washed over the land, with nowhere to escape. Thousands of invisible Innate Hollow Body sword qi’s carrying a piercing howl rained on top of everyone’s head.

The first to die was a beast with pitch-black fur, named Cloud Chaser, whose massive body made it impossible to dodge the sword rain. The invisible Innate Hollow Body sword qi easily tore open its skin to reveal its white bones. Cloud Chaser screamed in pain and tried to escape the sword-ridden area, but any movement just allowed more sword qi to pierce its body.

With a pitiful howl, Cloud Chaser was slain.

Next were the martial artists who thought that their protective techniques and armour could block the sword qi. Their body was covered with differently colored energies, and the swallowing of Spiritual Power made them seem like celestial beings. But in the face of this all-encompassing sword qi, their once undefeated defensive techniques didn’t last for even a second. They were shattered, and then the sword qi struck their armour.

Armour comes in different qualities. Mortal Realm armour is also divided into three grades: upper, middle, and lower. The upper grade one is made of fine steel mixed with spirit iron. The mid-grade one is cast from refined steel. The low-grade one is made from ordinary fine steel.

Yellow Rank armour, on the other hand, is created entirely from Spirit iron, also in three grades.

The martial artists gathered by the mansion mostly wore Mortal Realm armour of the upper or middle grade. Not even one had Yellow Rank armour.

With such protection yet daring to confront such dense sword qi, I didn’t know whether to admire their bravery or laugh at their foolishness.

Upon being struck by the sword qi, each piece of armour was left with a tiny dent or had a piece of scale armor knocked off, forcing the martial artists to react quickly and deploy their strongest moves against the sword rain.

Fortunately, they had the opportunity to respond thanks to their armour. Otherwise, this round of sword rain would have reduced their number significantly.

The killing moves that whistled out collided with the sword qi in mid-air, and the halo of Spiritual Power exploded in the sky. Layer upon layer of spirit energy shook the air into trembling.

Under the martial artists’ efforts, they finally withstood the first wave of attack from Xu Laoying. But before they could cheer, a dozen differently colored Spiritual Swords were aimed directly at them. The martial artists who had just launched killing moves couldn’t possibly block these Spiritual Swords from the superior Sword Artistry!

At the same time Xu Laoying landed, the martial artists who had surrounded Gong Zheng were either beheaded or cut in half, their bodies scattered all over the ground, a sight of extreme horror.

Even the two top Mortal Realm martial artists were reduced to one. Only Ding Gaolang and Li Shaoyuan stood together, covered in blood.

Li Shaoyuan’s survival was purely because Xu Laoying didn’t direct any sword qi towards him. Otherwise, this strategist who had not yet reached the Mortal Realm would probably have been the first to die.

As for Ding Gaolang, it could only be said that he was cunning as hell. He had actually thought to use the corpse of Cloud Chaser to block the sword qi, protecting both Li Shaoyuan and himself.

Li Shaoyuan’s face was full of defeat. Looking at Xu Lao Ying, his eyes were filled with despair.

Even if you are a master strategist, what can you do when you meet such an unreasonable martial artist? Besides waiting for death, what other ways do you have?

“Impressive!” Tang Luo admired in his heart. He slowly floated down from the air and stood on a intact wooden stake. Blood was everywhere on the ground; he really had nowhere else to step.

Even though it wasn’t the first time seeing Xu Laoying in action, but such an extreme sword qi was one aspect of battle that he admired immensely. It was simple, brutal yet not losing any aesthetics.

If it wasn’t for his unrecoverable spiritual power, this mode of fighting was probably one that he would often use.

Give and take, equally suitable for dueling or group fighting.

Seeing Tang Luo, Li Shaoyuan’s face turned even paler. He said helplessly, “So, it was the genius who set me up. Li admits his defeat willingly.”

Tang Luo just smiled and didn’t reply. He turned to Ding Gaolang and said, “Go back and tell your master to bring Gong Zheng’s wife and daughter here for an exchange at noon tomorrow. Otherwise, let him come and collect the corpse of his first minister.”

Ding Gaolang’s face changed, and his body stiffened. This was because Xu Laoying was watching him. Having seen the rain-like sword intent of the other party, he had no confidence that he could survive under the other’s hand.

Xu Laoying stepped forward, grabbed Li Shaoyuan by the collar and just walked towards Tang Luo, totally ignoring the top-ranking martial artist behind him.

Li Shaoyuan had already understood Tang Luo’s aim. He wanted to use him to exchange for Gong Zheng’s wife and daughter, which meant he was no longer in danger. So even though he was grabbed by the collar, he had already regained his composure.

Tang Luo stood on the wooden stake, looking down at Li Shaoyuan, and casually asked, “I thought you would bring a hostage over. You could use tactics like slashing hands and legs to force Gong Zheng. You didn’t do it. Aren’t you too egotistical?”

“Gong Zheng is concerned about his family after all, so it doesn’t matter whether I bring them or not.” Li Shaoyuan responded confidently, “But I am very curious as to why the genius would be so interested in helping a mob boss like Gong Zheng.”

In his impression, Tang Luo was a very arrogant person. Even when confronted with the Young Master Shen and his Evil Phoenix Chariot, he was bold enough to issue a Death Challenge. It was determined by Martial Saint Mountain that he was an Innate Hollow Body, and his Dao Heart was firm, leading to his breakthrough to the Mortal realm.

Such a person should be as arrogant as a dragon. No matter what benefit Gong Zheng offered in exchange, he shouldn’t have set up this plan for the sake of the latter’s wife and daughters.

Of course, Tang Luo would not answer such a question. He turned to Gong Zheng and said, “Gag him and make him understand how a captive should behave.”

“Yes!” Gong Zheng, with reddened eyes, complied. He tore off a piece of his clothing, rolled it into a ball, held Li Shaoyuan’s neck with one hand, and stuffed it into his mouth, forcing him to only issue pitiful cries.

“You keep him and find a place to hide. Come back here at noon tomorrow?” Tang Luo said to Gong Zheng, who nodded and grabbed Li Shaoyuan by the neck, darting off into the distance.

Watching the two leave, Tang Luo finally sat down on the wooden stake, looked at Xu Laoying and asked, “It seems you have something to tell me?”

Xu Laoying nodded. Just now, it was inconvenient with Gong Zheng present, but now that the man was gone, he naturally had to ask, “Gong Zheng’s matter is solved, what about Old Bai?”

“What to do?” Tang Luo looked confused.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” Xu Laoying looked indignant, “Of course, it’s about how to make him a calligrapher!”

“But aren’t you already helping him?” Tang Luo shrugged.

Xu Laoying waved his hand, declaring that it “Wasn’t enough!”.

Real calligraphy shouldn’t be buried just because of its background. He wanted to make Mi Bai famous for his art. This was not only for Bai’s sake but also to prove the purity of the path of calligraphy and painting.

However, he was not good at this type of strategy, so he wanted to ask Tang Luo, the clever one.

Even though they hadn’t been together long, he was already completely confident in this cousin’s wit.

Of course, Tang Luo understands Xu Laoying’s stubbornness, but making a plain civilian become a calligrapher is not an easy task.

So, he said, “It’s a bit troublesome.”

At the news, Xu Laoying was thrilled, hurriedly asking: “That means it can be done, right?”

Why was he so quick to understand now!? You weren’t pretending to be naive just to ridicule me, were you!? Tang Luo looked at Xu Laoying, his face full of disbelief, wondering to himself..