Chapter 167: Shura!
The street was filled with close to five or six hundred people. All of a sudden, everyone stood up, holding sabers and swords. The chilling glint on their blades gleamed as they charged towards Yun Yang from every possible direction.
All of them wore a consistent look of menace, a murderous aura gushing from their very beings.
Yun Yang was like a lone island amidst the deluge and suddenly he was being hit by ferocious waves.
The blades shone with their metal luster.
Ju Chen was fast, quickly stepping away, yet she had only taken three steps back before she realized with a start that her rapidly retreating body was being held tight.
Turning her head back, Yun Yang's handsome face twisted into one of confusion as he asked her, "Ju Chen, what is going on here? There's no excitement here, only danger..."
His grip on Ju Chen's shoulder was tight as a vice, the girl was unable to move at all. Her pretty face paled she screamed, "Let me go!"
"Stop your nonsense. I am protecting you!" Yun Yang's gaze was icy. "I have the most tender heart for women. The situation has turned terribly treacherous, how could I leave you alone and in danger?"
Besides the surging crowd around them that screamed murder, teams of men all in black attire appeared at the roofs surrounding them as well; they held bows and arrows in their hands, the icy arrowheads pointing in their direction.
Petrification colored Ju Chen's eyes as she cried, "Let me go! Let me go quickly..."
Yun Yang's face was stoic as he said indifferently, "As I said, I have a soft spot for women - as long as you tell me who asked you to do this. Just give me a name and I'll let you go. You see it too, they don't care about your insignificant life; they're probably releasing the arrows even as we speak."
Indeed, a cold voice could be heard in the air, "Shoot!"
At the same time, Ju Chen's eyes widened in disbelief as fear filled her orbs.
As far as the eye could see, the sky was entirely covered by countless black-feathered arrows. Even the last rays of sunset were blocked as the arrows brought the color of death with them, filling one's entire sight!
Ju Chen could not help screaming, a cry which held the knowledge of her impending doom.
The opposite party had not cared about her at all!
Yun Yang pushed Ju Chen behind him and stretched his other arm out; it looked like a blur in the air but he had actually drawn a dozen circles at an impossibly furious speed.
A magical flow of mystical Qi emanated from his palm. His hand made circles in the air as his body turned around; the mystical Qi engulfed his entire being.
Pow, pow, pow.
More than a thousand feathered arrows fell before Yun Yang's feet, their arrowheads aiming downwards, deflected the moment they came within three feet of Yun Yang.
Instantly, a dense layer of arrows filled Yun Yang's surroundings. The sight was frightening and alarming to behold.
Countless arrows pierced the ground deeply, forming a prison made of arrow-lengths.
"You won't have the chance anymore if you don't speak now." Yun Yang's expression was cold as he shook Ju Chen and said softly, "Ju Chen, this is the one last chance you'll have."
Ju Chen's pretty eyes were already bleary with fear now as nervously said, "It... it was people from the Residence of Grand Tutor, the top aide of Grand Tutor, Cheng Menghan, who found me and wanted me to..."
"Cheng Menghan? Residence of the Grand Tutor?" Yun Yang's gaze flickered as he said faintly, "If you can survive this day, remember to never return to Cirrus House. If I ever see you there, I will kill you."
Just as Yun Yang completed his warning, his right arm jerked as Ju Chen screamed. Her weak body had been flung away.
The toss sent Ju Chen flying several thousand feet away, like she was riding a soaring cloud, out of the ambush area.
Ju Chen's tears dropped then, as she turned her head in midair while her voice came weakly through the wind, "Sorry..."
However, a glint of steel split the air and was gone in a flash.
Before Ju Chen could even gasp in surprise, the sword stroke had chopped her into two!
Blood filled the air.
Yun Yang's gazed coldly towards the direction where both halves of the body was falling out of the air, but there were no emotions behind his eyes.
"Kill him!"
All around him, countless people held blades in their hands while they charged Yun Yang.
Yun Yang sucked in a breath, facing the sky as a gentle smile pulled at the corners of his lips, murmuring, "It's been so, so long... that I've come across something like this!"
"Nobody strikes!" Yun Yang shouted commandingly.
Then, with a flick of his right hand, a luminous ray of saber radiance illuminated the dim street!
A saber had found its way into Yun Yang's hand.
When the saber appeared, it was not accompanied by the usual, menacing aura. On the contrary, everyone who saw it felt like they were looking at a gentle splash of colored rays.
It felt like one had fallen into a beautiful dream, where all your eyes could see were iridescent splashes of colors.
The front half of this saber seemed to be made of illusion, difficult to be described in detail. In comparison, the latter half that was concrete looked intricately designed despite the ethereal feeling it gave off, rousing one's innate desires.
"First style, Merciless Blade!" Yun Yang's saber gleamed in the twilight.
The thirty to forty people who were charging over saw a ray of luminous saber light - there was only a single ray, yet it bore towards the center of their brows from far away.
Looking at the advancing ray of light, everyone experienced the same thought - it was impossible to defend against or block!
The radiance of the saber had long attracted the attention of all those who would be struck but still ran helplessly towards it.
Swoosh!
A thin red line appeared, beginning from the center of the brows of the twenty-odd people in front; their bodies were still charging forward as they were abruptly torn into two.
Yun Yang's attack did not stop there. Spinning around, the same gentle smile hung on his face as he cast his second style.
"Merciless Dao!"
Unlike the prior merciless blade, this style manifested itself in the form of a glowing ball of light, scintillating brilliantly before it exploded, rays of radiance shooting outwards in every direction with Yun Yang as it's center.
Ploo! Ploo! Ploo!
A string of heads flew into the air like balls of meat being spurted from a fountain.
After the first style, Merciless Blade, and the second style, Merciless Dao of Destiny's First Form, more than fifty people had been slashed into two, their heads ending up at different places from their bodies.
In spite of the horrible end of these men, there were still plenty in the ambush. They disregarded their fallen comrades as they charged over after one another, bravely launching themselves at Yun Yang.
In just a blink of an eye, several dozen people materialized before Yun Yang again.
With a glide and a flash of purple, Yun Yang ran into the charging crowd, alone with his saber, without any intention to avoid the incoming attacks.
His purple robe fluttered alongside the radiating saber light in his hands, his face was cold but gentle; his saber slashed left and right for the kill - a slash to the left split a man into half who died with a scream while a chop to the right sent another man's head flying into the air.
A step forward with his gleaming saber light broke dozens of weapons simultaneously. Concurrently, another string of heads flew into the air while the moist, sloshing sounds of blood became a constant hum in the background.
Yun Yang's stride was wide as he moved forward; his steps were unrelenting, so was the saber light that seemed to have merged into one with any direction that it was heading.
When the airborne heads touched down, Yun Yang's left hand softly slapped them, sending them flying off again like cannonballs. Whoever got hit on their bodies would vomit blood while those who were unlucky enough to get struck on their heads saw their skulls exploding like a blooming flower, a result of the terrible impact with the human 'cannonballs'.
Yun Yang had not spoken a word since the beginning of the ambush, he was calm and collected but each step he took required him to shed even more of his humanity and soak in increasing bloodlust.
Where he had passed, only corpses and limbs remained.
Killing people right now came easier to him than chopping vegetables.
All the enemy's men who had arrived before him were ended with a simple slash before they could even land a strike. Since the beginning of this massacre, Yun Yang had already shifted three hundred feet. Each step he took held a constant distance, like a professional dancer who landed her steps precisely with every beat; he looked like he was dancing and gliding through the blood storm with peerless grace.
Instantly, Yun Yang's body drifted like a cloud as his purple robe fluttered, his feet stepping on six men's head in his stride. Just as the six heads exploded like six crushed watermelons, Yun Yang landed airily and chopped down another three people who wanted to flee with a flash of his saber.
Blood jetted like streams of liquid rainbow, vibrant yet bloody...
Pow!
Yun Yang sprung up again and stepped on another man's head with a slight crouch. It was not that he was inconsistent in his skill, it was an intentional deviation. The unfortunate man's head was crushed all the way into his chest from Yun Yang's crouched step and went flat as Yun Yang made a cushioned landing from the leverage. His purple robe flapped in the night breeze, the saber light glided around like a drifting dragon and dropped the last seventeen assassins to the ground, their heads parted from their bodies.
The ground was littered with dead, unfeeling meat.
The broken sabers and swords that pitter-pattered like raindrops were gently hooked up by the delicately feminine fingers of Yun Yang's extended left arm and tossed out like a bunch of blooming blossoms.
Plow, plow, plow.
Shards of broken blades changed their direction in mid-air, shooting away like meteorites chasing the moon while the belching sounds echoed loudly.
Those assassins who were petrified and were now running for their lives ran wherever their feet brought them. They fell face down with blood spurting from their backs, hearts punctured and stopped.
Flickers of black filled the night - the feathered arrows that were embedded in the ground had mysteriously uprooted themselves and now hovered in the air.
The archers by the roof and wall had just pulled their bows when all of them collapsed with a swooshing sound that accompanied the feathered arrows.
The street of the red-light district resembled a bloodied slaughterhouse. At least four hundred men were dead, lying on the ground and leaving behind pin-drop silence.
No one was left injured in this battle; all of them had died with a single strike, departing to the underworld together.
Wiped out!
Plow!
The last archer fell from the wall. He had intended to flee after witnessing the disaster, half of his body already ready to hop down from the wall but an arrow had gone through the back of his neck, killing him in a single stroke.
Yun Yang's purple robe danced as he stood still in the middle of the street. His robe was still impeccably spotless after the massacre. The tip of his saber in his right hand pointed towards six different directions in the dark before it pointed upwards towards two higher spots by the roof corner; he said faintly, "Come out!"
The last ray of the setting sun illuminated Yun Yang's face; it was still the calm and gentle smiling expression that he had been wearing just now.
Yun Yang looked like a wealthy young master who had come out for a night of carousing; a naturally relaxed air oozed from him while the corners of his lips were raised slightly to form a soft smile, like he was exclaiming the beauty and radiance of this world while facing the setting sun.
The scene was full of an inexplicable sense of sadness and pride.
Yet under his feet was a crimson sea of blood from over four hundred dead bodies.
The handful of men hiding in the dark felt a chill shooting up from their feet, their scalps going numb with goosebumps rising on their skin.
This... this is the popinjay Grand Tutor has asked us to kill?
If he's considered a popinjay, what are we then?