It was as if darkness came rushing at them head-on.

"Who goes there!" In the instant of shouting, sword light had already flashed out in the darkness along with the charging figure. Yet it was only a glimmer of light—he couldn't see clearly where the sword light passed, only heard three sharp sounds—pap, pap, pap—as it crossed past him. That figure seemed to intersect with the galloping horse ahead for an instant, borrowing force from the horse's body. The second step landed on the carriage shaft, already sweeping past his side. Then the horse ahead flew up—the carriage wheels left the ground and began tilting. The third step landed on the tilting carriage compartment before departing into the distance.

The horse's long neigh—

Song Xian yanked open the carriage curtain with a crash. Firelight swept across his vision as his constricted pupils reflected the scene ahead. In this instant, the front carriage's axle was spinning wildly, already tilted in midair, with one of the galloping horses also tumbling with all four hooves flying. Sword light had swept past the beast's flank from the front, extending through the soldier driving the carriage. Blood light was already shooting skyward, and at high speed, it looked as if it were rushing straight toward them. At the forefront was still that black figure who had borrowed force from the tilting carriage body. That figure enlarged in the air, gripping the sword with both hands in a posture of full-force slashing, leaping across twenty-odd meters—the distance closing instantly as the carriage raced forward!

The driver beside Song Xian had already drawn his blade with full force, but before he could assume a proper blocking stance, metal met metal. Sparks flashed as the impact drove back into his chest in an instant.

With a thunderous crash, the figure punched through the carriage like a cannonball. Half the compartment shattered and flew across the long street. Two figures tumbled to the ground, rapidly distancing themselves from the carriage. One female figure rolled several times before standing directly up, gripping her weapon and striding forward. The other body had been completely deformed by the massive impact—bones broken, flesh pulverized—left far behind on the road as thick blood spread outward.

The two carriages were still racing forward, but the horses had panicked. Half the body of one horse pulling the front carriage had even been cleaved open, while the other horse was also affected, tumbling thunderously. Relying on massive inertia, the fallen carriage compartment still scraped forward along the long street, rumbling as it overturned various small stalls that vendors used for business during the day, wooden frames, and remaining garbage. The carriage axle broke in the middle, one wooden wheel flying directly backward to collide viciously with the carriage shaft. The carriage still raced on under inertia, continuously disintegrating and falling apart. When the two carriages' effects finally stopped, what remained was nearly a hundred meters of wreckage along the long street.

The disintegrated carriage compartments, undercarriages, axles, wheels, various wooden frames and miscellaneous items originally on the street that had been affected, blood traces dragged across the ground, garbage like vegetable leaves, dead horses, internal organs, and people trying to rise from the ground with injuries both light and severe.

Wind blew from the end of the long street. The woman dressed in black clothes let her sword tip hang low as she walked leisurely forward. This was summer—the night breeze stirred her garments, her figure as gracefully slender as any ordinary woman's, showing no hint of the fierce power with which she had nearly shattered two carriages in a single strike. Her face was covered with a black cloth, and above it, her gaze toward Song Xian was detached and ice-cold. After a moment, she lightly flicked the sword blade with her finger. The sword rang out with a clear tone, trembling slightly.

Ahead, Song Xian stood up holding his long saber. His martial arts were high after all, and he wasn't badly injured at this point. He just looked at this detached figure and tilted his head slightly.

"Song Xian, I told you last time." Under the night sky, her voice was cold and clear. A wounded personal guard nearby who had lost his weapon grabbed a wooden stick and charged at her with an "ahh!" The sword blade danced, making a sound like rapidly tearing silk as lines of blood crisscrossed in the air. The woman simply walked forward like that.

"I will definitely kill you!"

"Lu! Hong! Ti—"

On the long street, Song Xian roared in a deep voice. Then sparks shattered as the violent clash of metal began lighting up the street...

Racing all the way to overtake others and return to the Su family's side gate didn't take much time. As Ning Yi got down from the carriage, Xiao Chan looked bewildered: "Young Master, what's wrong?"

"Xiao Chan, you go back first. I still have some matters."

"Uh..."

After Ning Yi finished speaking and turned to leave, Xiao Chan suddenly grabbed his clothes: "Y-Young Master, what matters..."

Xiao Chan was clearly flustered about Ning Yi trying to send her away. Ning Yi turned back and hesitated, then patted her shoulder: "Don't worry, it's nothing... Be good, I'll be back very soon..."

"But, but..."

Ning Yi walked toward the carriage. Xiao Chan anxiously fidgeted for a while, not knowing what to say. She walked a few steps toward the gate in distress. As she stepped over the threshold, the gatekeeper uncle came out from the side: "Ah, Miss Xiao Chan, you've returned with the Young Master... Uh, where's the Young Master?"

The gatekeeper looked outside—the carriage had already slowly started moving. "Young Master, he... I don't know either..." Her mind couldn't sort through her thoughts, remembering some things the Young Miss had said a few days ago. Had the Young Master left her behind to meet some vixen... But this was just a momentary confused thought—she naturally couldn't say this to the gatekeeper.

"Young Master..."

The little girl turned around and ran out from the gate. On the road outside the side gate ahead, the carriage had already begun accelerating. Xiao Chan clenched her fists and lifted her skirts to chase after it. At the intersection ahead, the carriage suddenly slowed down, then stopped.

A troop of men and horses appeared from the T-shaped intersection, rapidly running past the road ahead of Ning Yi. These were over ten personal guards of the Ardent Wu Army, hurrying toward the other end.

How could it be so fast...

Ning Yi muttered to himself while sitting on the carriage, then turned the horse's head to chase in the direction those dozen riders were heading.

Xiao Chan also saw the dozen or so riders racing past at the intersection. Then the Young Master drove the carriage to follow them. She chased to the intersection, her face still complex and anxious, a strange feeling vaguely arising in her heart. But Ning Yi's carriage had already raced away, disappearing around the corner.

"What is Young Master going to do..."

Actually, thinking carefully, she rejected the idea that the Young Master was running off to meet some brothel woman at this time. The Young Master wasn't that kind of person, and even if he really wanted to meet someone, he wouldn't be in such a rush. But she really couldn't figure out the reason for this sudden change. The girl who had carefully dressed up to go watch the performance today returned to the mansion gate with low spirits and sat on the steps hugging her knees, occasionally turning to look at one end of the road, hoping the Young Master's carriage would come back from there. When the gatekeeper called her from behind, she stood up again. Just as she was about to turn around, a burst of fireworks lit up the night sky.

The place where the fireworks rose wasn't extremely far away, but they also weren't celebratory fireworks. She vaguely understood their meaning and subconsciously took a step forward at this moment, looking up at that direction. The gatekeeper also walked over. A few seconds later, the girl murmured: "Uncle Bing, that's... what happened..."

"Oh, that seems to be the signal flare arrow¹for the army to catch criminals. Probably some thieves taking advantage of tonight to cause trouble... How wicked..."

"Yahhhhhhhhhhhhh—"

Saber wind howled, and the sound of clashing metal was like rain beating on banana leaves, resounding through the long street, dense and chaotic. This night, the area around this long street suffered disaster. Some shop doors had been smashed open by flying carriage fragments, and in rooms where people lived, they first lit lamps, then quickly extinguished them. In the street below, figures chasing and fighting were like a chaotic dance. Metal clashes drew startling sparks in the air. Sometimes with a thunderous sound, a body would be driven into a pile of debris on the street, unable to move. Blood spotted and dotted, flowing in patches. Several corpses were already arrayed on the road. The brave man wielding a saber shouted hysterically, weaving his blade light like a net, striving to survive under the massive pressure bearing down on him.

His martial arts would originally have been considered first-rate in the jianghu, but at this moment, the woman's swordsmanship was truly too formidable. Swift yet not lacking in fierce power, like a great wind and thunderstorm in summer rushing at him head-on. He exhausted all his strength to block but was still clumsy on the left and strained on the right, sparks blooming chaotically before his eyes. From time to time, an extremely forceful move would appear in that swordsmanship, as if wind and thunder roared, forcibly smashing aside his fully extended long saber.

The opponent's attacks weren't limited to just that somewhat clumsy-looking sword either. She sometimes held the sword single-handed, sometimes slashed with both hands—the changes swift and natural, dazzling to behold. Sometimes just as the long saber was smashed aside, the woman's left palm had already pushed through the gap in the blade light with a "pap," striking at his face, stabbing at his eyes, or suddenly clawing toward his throat. That fair wrist and dancing fingers looked like a dance, making it hard to understand that this was such a vicious and deadly attack. Awkwardly turning sideways to avoid it, sword light stabbed again. Blocking with his saber, the woman's toe had already soundlessly flicked up a broken bamboo pole from the ground, stabbing toward his waist and ribs like a cobra that had been lying in wait. This woman could actually use various objects around her as weapons at any time, making one feel as if facing three or four people rather than just a single opponent.

There had only been a few personal guards in the two carriages to begin with. By now, the dead were dead and the wounded were wounded. Those with lighter injuries who charged over to intervene in the battle between the two were expelled the next moment as if they'd been through a meat grinder. Song Xian fought while retreating, but the woman followed him like a shadow—he couldn't shake her off at all. Wounds had already appeared one after another on his body, and in the short time after normal combat began, they were driving his life force to its limit at an alarming speed.

At this point, he could only continue swinging his saber amid constant shouting. At one moment, he grabbed a broken wooden table nearby and swung it over. In the thunderous crash, the entire table shattered into flying wood chips. The slashing sword light suddenly shifted from hard to soft, silently stabbing into his arm before withdrawing.

Song Xian couldn't care about his injuries. Taking advantage of the still-flying wood chips, he pushed off with both legs to rapidly retreat. The woman's black figure burst through the flying debris with a crash, pressing close without yielding an inch. With a "ping," another burst of firelight exploded. Song Xian's bloody figure was sent flying. They had reached a street corner when horse hooves thundered and rolled, engulfing them both.

Ping ping, ping, ping—

Horse hooves flew past thunderously as firelight continuously lit up where the woman had been. Then a galloping horse neighed sharply—it had collided with the body blocking its path and reared up on its hind legs. Under the massive impact, the woman's figure was already dancing in midair, but that figure seemed to stick to the warhorse's front neck for an instant, making a few swift movements before departing with the horse's charge. The woman had actually grabbed the warhorse's reins single-handed in that instant.

The dozen or so riders swept away with the woman as if carrying her off, already charging far away in the blink of an eye. The woman's figure looked as if she'd been knocked flying by the warhorse, flying toward an Ardent Wu Army personal guard on a horse to the side. That person swung out his long saber, and the two figures merged together, tumbling toward the ground nearby. The one who stood up afterward was only the black-clothed woman. The sword blade dripped with blood—the rider she'd grabbed had already become a corpse.

Another corpse had also fallen on the road behind—that was the rider who had initially driven his warhorse into the woman. When the woman grabbed the reins while flying through the air, she had swung out two sword strikes: one cutting open his throat, the other cleaving his chest.

Two riderless warhorses galloped toward the end of the long street. The remaining dozen or so riders surrounded the woman, drawing their sabers with murderous intent. The woman stood there, turning her gaze toward Song Xian, who was now at the distant street corner.

Song Xian was covered in wounds large and small, but at this time still maintained combat strength. He hadn't received any serious or fatal injuries—he just looked wretched. At this moment, holding his long saber, he spread his arms wide, his whole body covered in blood.

"In the end, I still won, Lu Hongti." He laughed. "The jianghu? You martial artists will never understand how narrow-minded you are. Having a bit of cleverness, you think you've calculated everything? Did you think I didn't know you wanted to kill me... While you were racking your brains trying to separate the people around me, countless people behind me were scheming, preparing to calculate against you in return..."

He paused, then raised his head proudly: "This is true power!"