Chapter 21: Never Underestimate a Youth

Qin Haoxuan wanted to rush forward and interrupt him, but the technique was clearly designed to account for its long casting time. The moment the art was activated, a tortoise-shell-like barrier of protective energy had already formed around Yuan Shanxiang.

“Myriad Slashing Blades!” An old-timer who recognized the technique cried out in alarm. The Art of a Thousand Cuts was one of the more powerful spiritual techniques that menial disciples could learn, and it had very high requirements for the caster. It demanded precise control over every wisp of spiritual energy to be executed perfectly.

At its highest level, the art could manifest a thousand daggers, their power increasing with the user’s strength. At his current level, Yuan Shanxiang could only manifest 50, but that was more than enough to deal with Qin Haoxuan.

In the flickering, dim firelight, the daggers condensed from spiritual energy glinted with a cold light. Even the other prisoners couldn’t help but shiver, all of them certain that Qin Haoxuan was about to die.

An unprecedented sense of crisis washed over him. Qin Haoxuan’s heart pounded in his chest. The 50 daggers hovering silently in the air were like 50 death warrants. One wrong move, and he would be turned into a sieve.

A playful smile touched Yuan Shanxiang’s lips. With a flick of his right hand, he sent a single dagger shooting toward Qin Haoxuan as a test.

The dagger was incredibly fast, but under Qin Haoxuan’s intense focus, he could faintly make out its trajectory. Just as it was about to pierce his heart, he leaned sharply to the left, narrowly dodging the blow.

Yuan Shanxiang didn’t give him a moment’s rest. As soon as he dodged the first, three more daggers shot out from the left, right, and center. The two on the sides curved in wide arcs, aiming for his ribs, while the one in the middle went straight for his heart.

“What incredible control! To make the daggers turn at such high speeds!”

Hearing the old-timer’s gasp of admiration, the smile on Yuan Shanxiang’s face widened. It seemed there were some knowledgeable people here after all. This was the first time he had revealed this trump card, and it had immediately won him praise. Three years of secret, bitter practice had not been in vain.

Three cold lights shot towards him from three directions. Qin Haoxuan could barely see their paths but had no good way to dodge. He immediately dropped to the ground in a clumsy roll. Though he was covered in dust, he had once again narrowly escaped.

The three daggers stabbed into the rock wall, which was harder than iron, sinking an inch deep with a sharp hiss.

“Let’s see you dodge this!” Having missed twice in a row, Yuan Shanxiang was growing annoyed. He thrust his arms forward, and the forty-plus daggers hovering in front of him began to spin at high speed, creating a low hum. They then shot towards Qin Haoxuan from every conceivable angle, leaving the onlookers dumbfounded.

To simultaneously control 46 daggers along 46 different trajectories—some straight, some curved, some arcing high into the air to strike from above—was to create an inescapable net. Not even with wings could he escape this.

This level of control was monstrous. The onlookers’ gazes toward Yuan Shanxiang were now filled with a new level of admiration. It was not easy for a burly, rugged man to cultivate such fine control. For most people, controlling 20 at once was already a remarkable feat.

Yuan Shanxiang’s display of skill not only stunned the prisoners but also the two enforcers peeking through the door. They were also at the Fifth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm, but they knew that with their level of control, they could at most manage 30 daggers in a straight line. To make each one follow a different curved path like Yuan Shanxiang would be twice as difficult, meaning they could only control 15.

Amidst the glinting of the daggers, Qin Haoxuan’s focus became sharper than ever. He had only one thought in his mind: he had to dodge this inescapable attack. He had to live. If not for himself, then for his parents. As long as he was alive, even as the lowest menial disciple, his parents would continue to receive their annual stipend of 200 taels of silver and would not have to worry about their livelihood.

I must live! I must live! I want to live!

Driven by this intense will to survive, all distracting thoughts vanished from his mind. His Sea of Consciousness suddenly pulsed, and the golden light he had seen before exploded in his mind once again. His spirit soared, and it felt as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes. The world became clearer than ever before; he could even see a single speck of dust on the distant floor.

In his eyes, the 46 daggers hurtling towards him were now moving as slowly as a turtle’s crawl. He could clearly see the trajectory of each one. However, he also knew that while he could see them, his body was still too weak to dodge them all.

And so, his gaze once again fell upon Yuan Shanxiang.

As his mind focused with incredible intensity, an imperceptible glimmer flashed in his eyes. He sensed the golden light in Yuan Shanxiang’s mind—it was a small seedling, much thicker than Yuan Shanhu’s, but still no match for the vast, river-like golden light in his own mind.

He focused his will, and after countless attempts, he managed to flick a strand of his own golden light out. It instantly pierced into Yuan Shanxiang’s mind and completely engulfed the smaller light within.

In that instant, Yuan Shanxiang felt a splitting pain in his head, as if time and space had frozen. His thoughts and consciousness went blank, and he stood there in a daze.

At that critical moment, the 46 daggers that were about to turn Qin Haoxuan into a sieve lost their control, halted in mid-air, and then fell, dissipating into ownerless spiritual energy before they even hit the ground.

If it had been even a fraction of a second later, Qin Haoxuan would have truly become a sieve.

To the onlookers, it seemed as though Yuan Shanxiang, influenced by the terrified and seemingly frozen Qin Haoxuan, had also suddenly gone into a daze. And then… then they couldn’t understand what happened next.

The prisoners wracked their brains but couldn’t figure out why Yuan Shanxiang had suddenly stopped his attack.

Did he run out of energy? No, he looked perfectly fine.

Was he afraid of being expelled for killing someone? That was a joke. Once an arrow is loosed, it cannot be recalled. Forcibly stopping an attack like that would cause a backlash of spiritual energy that would, at best, shatter his meridians, and at worst, kill him.

None of the explanations made sense.

While the prisoners and the two enforcers were trying to figure it out, a shocking scene unfolded.

Qin Haoxuan, who had been moments from death, suddenly shot up like an arrow and rushed to the stunned Yuan Shanxiang, landing a heavy punch on his nose.

The dazed Yuan Shanxiang’s nose gushed with blood as he collapsed to the ground, his massive body kicking up a cloud of dust.

The tables had turned in an instant. Qin Haoxuan mercilessly pounced on him, raining down a flurry of punches on the defenseless Yuan Shanxiang.

Without his consciousness to guide his spiritual energy for protection, Yuan Shanxiang was only slightly stronger than an ordinary man. Under Qin Haoxuan’s assault, his body was covered in bruises, and his face became even more swollen than Old Ye’s had been.

The two enforcers, having witnessed both of Qin Haoxuan’s fights, looked at each other in disbelief. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they would have thought it was a joke.

A Fifth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm cultivator was being beaten so badly by a mere mortal. And it wasn’t that he couldn’t fight back; he had just inexplicably frozen, becoming a living punching bag.

After landing a dozen punches, Qin Haoxuan remembered that this man was a Fifth-Leaf expert. He would still be a huge threat when he woke up.

Since I’ve started, I’ll finish it. Qin Haoxuan’s blows became heavier, specifically targeting his wrists and ankles.

With a series of sickening cracks, Yuan Shanxiang’s legs were broken.

If you are not benevolent, then I will not be righteous. This was the principle Qin Haoxuan lived by. To be merciful to an enemy, especially one who wanted him dead, was to be cruel to himself.

As he was enjoying the beatdown, after breaking Yuan Shanxiang’s legs and left arm, he was about to break his right arm when he felt Yuan Shanxiang’s consciousness begin to fight back. Spiritual energy started to flow through his meridians, protecting his body. Now, his punches felt like hitting a stone slab, and his fists throbbed from the impact.

He’s waking up!

From the notes Xu Yu had brought, Qin Haoxuan was now even more certain that his previous attack was a Spiritual Sense Assault. But because his own cultivation was still weak and he didn’t know the proper techniques, he couldn’t unleash its full power. Otherwise, Yuan Shanxiang would not have woken up so quickly. If he knew the proper methods, he could have directly erased his soul, turning him into an idiot, if not killing him outright.

Just as Qin Haoxuan leaped back, Yuan Shanxiang regained consciousness. Yuan Shanhu had taken nearly a hundred breaths to recover, but he had recovered in just 20. It seemed that the stronger the opponent’s soul, the faster they recovered. Against an even stronger enemy, his unrefined Spiritual Sense attack might only be a momentary distraction.

The awakened Yuan Shanxiang felt a searing pain all over his body. He looked down and saw the bruises, his face swollen like a pig’s head. His left arm and both legs were screaming in agony and wouldn’t move. He had actually had his bones broken by this mortal!

What happened? He remembered a sudden, excruciating pain in his head, and then it was as if he had fallen into a bottomless abyss, losing all consciousness. When he finally came to, he was in this state.

A dignified Fifth-Leaf cultivator, who was in the upper echelons of the menial disciples, had been beaten to a pulp by a brand-new disciple in front of so many people. He had lost all face. If word of this got out, he would become a laughingstock. How could he ever establish himself in the sect again?