Chapter 5124 — That Sets My Mind at Ease
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
But his present situation was anything but reassuring. Blinded by lust, he had fallen prey to Hongniang's biochemical agent, and the true qi in his body had turned stagnant. Now he could barely even stand—how much strength could he possibly have left?
"Who exactly are you people?" Jing Taiyang forced the words out again with difficulty.
"Still refusing to give up, are you? At a time like this you still hope to buy time with idle talk, still think of escaping from under our hands?" Hongniang paid his question no mind at all and simply signaled for everyone to move together. Though the plan had reached the point where success was all but certain, this Jing Taiyang was, after all, an early-Foundation expert—who could say what formidable, lethal trump card he might still be hiding? Until the very last moment, there could be no slackening whatsoever.
As the ace squad most prized by the central headquarters of the mundane world, every member of the Hunter Group was the elite of the elite. Heaven-rank consummate strength was merely the minimum threshold; in every other respect as well they had to be the very pick of the crop, and among the most important criteria was temperament. To expect them to underestimate an enemy and so commit some grave blunder was a fool's dream.
Seeing these men attack without the slightest hesitation, Jing Taiyang's heart sank at once. Just as Hongniang had said, that was indeed what he had been thinking. He did not know what this biochemical agent she spoke of actually was, but he could roughly guess: it must be some kind of poison—and one that could not kill outright, only block the circulation of true qi within the body.
Of course, for an early-Foundation expert like him, this poison was in effect no different from a fatal one. With his true qi obstructed he could not unleash his strength at all; before these people he was a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
But he had no intention of surrendering so tamely. His stalling tactic seen through, Jing Taiyang ground his teeth and suddenly swept his hand toward Hongniang, the nearest of them—and in his hand, who knew when, there had appeared a soft sword, neither long nor short.
In such a state he could not muster much true qi, yet this single thrust was still enough to turn the tables. Every disciple of the Thousand Blades Sect was a master of weapons, and the sword is the lord of all arms. Jing Taiyang's swordsmanship might not be that of a grandmaster, but it had certainly entered the halls and ascended the heights. Most crucial of all: this thrust came utterly without warning!
The biochemical agent was the chief culprit behind his present desperate strait—yet in this moment it also became his perfect cover. However stout the psychological fortitude of these central Hunter Group men, faced with a target already poisoned, they would inevitably relax a little without thinking. That was human instinct.
"Fine swordsmanship—a pity it is not fast enough." In the final instant Hongniang caught the blade with one bare hand. She seemed to wear only a pair of ordinary gloves, yet these were among the central headquarters' newest achievements, sufficient to withstand any cold-weapon attack.
Jing Taiyang's face fell. Had the true qi in his body circulated normally, Hongniang would long since have been a dead woman. But alas, there are no ifs in this world; stripped of the all-important augmentation of true qi, his swordsmanship—however fine—was useless, far from sufficient in either speed or power. His opponent was, after all, a Heaven-rank consummate master, no ordinary person.
His last desperate gambit thus calmly dissolved by the enemy, Jing Taiyang's spirits sank at once, and he seemed to have accepted his fate... (To be continued.)