Rain quietly scattered down on Clear Distant City.

The rainwater was extremely cold, pattering down. However, since it was rain and not snow, it signified that Yunqin Empire’s winter was almost over.

Lin Xi’s numb and itchy feeling of countless bugs crawling through his body had already decreased considerably a few days ago, but this type of numb and itchy feeling came from his body’s hidden injuries to begin with. In Jadefall City, many of his bones and flesh had been broken.Green Luan Academy didn’t hesitate to pay the price of spiritual medicines, and he also received treatment from Tang Yuren and the others who might be this world’s most powerful doctors. However, after living as almost a human vegetable for close to half a year , his flesh and bones finally recovered, able to endure some stronger activity, the areas where his flesh and bones ruptured, these parts that had connected once more were all new. Right now, his body’s new flesh and bones were adapting to his body, the new bones becoming ‘old bones’. That was why under this type of gloomy rainy day, the numb and itchy feelings within his body instead became even clearer than a few days ago, becoming even more uncomfortable.

However, this type of numb and itchy feeling, apart from making Lin Xi feel a bit of impatience, it instead made him feel a bit of mysterious excitement, even a bit of a desire to fight someone.

In the end, he was a cultivator, moreover a powerful cultivator who already reached the State Knight level.

If he wanted to kill Wenren Cangyue and his powerful subordinates, the only choice was to become better at fighting through combat, become stronger.

Even though he had previously faced Su Zhongwen, that was only a breath of two of time, just to test out Su Zhongwen’s strength. He didn’t have any intention of truly fighting him.

This was an interaction where he couldn’t go all out, instead serving as a kindled flame, igniting the unrestrainable desire to fight.

Right now, he was precisely waiting to meet an opponent he could fight to his heart’s content, that ‘Master Painter’ who came for Chen Feirong.

He was sure that this ‘Master Painter’ would definitely come today.

It was because he and Chen Feirong both moved to ‘lingering garden’, a secluded courtyard Flourishing Heights purchased in Clear Distant City. Moreover, with the reason of favoring peace and quiet, Chen Feirong made it so that there were only a few servants inside. This place was also a bit further from some local encampments, so it was the best chance to take action.

This ‘Master Painter’, despite being forced to enter the assassination business due to his cultivation and lifestyle, Lin Xi knew that after not doing what one enjoyed for many years, once they did it, regardless of whether they were forced or if they took the initiative, the wildfire within their mind would definitely rage powerfully. It would be extremely difficult to hold himself back for another day or two in this type of perfect opportunity.

The pattering cold rain beat against the eaves and courtyards’ plants, releasing quiet and beautiful sounds.

Lin Xi closed his eyes, as if he was sleeping, quietly sensing his surroundings.

He seemed to vaguely hear some faint dog barks in the distant alley.

Suddenly, Lin Xi opened his eyes. His figure moved like an arrow that left a bowstring, moving to the front of the door. However, just when his hand landed on the door, the door was already silently pushed open. In another breath of time, he already entered the black brick corridor.

After moving through a full moon-like corridor, the one who stood on the other side of the rainy corridor was a guest dressed in brown clothing. On his face was a mask that didn’t have any facial organs, the colors rather mottled, painted over at will.

“Friend, may I ask who you are? At this type of time, coming uninvited is definitely not a good thing.”

Even though Lin Xi understood who this uninvited guest was clearly, he brought his hands together, giving off the appearance of a humble cultivator follower. He calmly looked at the other party while asking.

The other party didn’t immediately move, calmly looking at Lin Xi and saying with a bit of praise, “Who would have thought that even in this small place… there would still be an expert like you who can sense my arrival.”

“What is the matter?” Chen Feirong’s voice sounded from a side room in the courtyard Lin Xi was at, shaking a bit, as if she was just getting dressed.

“Friend, regardless of who you are, this is a private residence. We do not wish to cause trouble. If you leave, we won’t look into it further.” Lin Xi said with a quiet voice.

“With a jade-like beauty, if I don’t see her for myself, in this type of rainy night, how can I just leave like this?”

This brown clothed masked Master Painter heard Chen Feirong’s voice, a faint smile appearing on his face. When his chuckle just sounded, the tip of his toes already pressed lightly against the ground, directly leaping towards Lin Xi.

What rested between him and Lin Xi was the rainy main courtyard. There were two banana trees with flourishing leaves in it. However, the boundless aura his body surged with and the winds that stirred about instead blew all of the raindrops approaching him away, making the banana trees’ leaves all fly to the sides and shatter into pieces.

He passed through the courtyard in a single breath of time, crossing the full moon passageway and charging towards Lin Xi.

When facing this Master Painter’s ferocious charge, Lin Xi released a light grunt, finally releasing the restlessness and desires that had accumulated within his body for a long time. Right now, he didn’t retreat but instead pressed forward. Two waves of powerful soul force erupted from beneath his feet, making his entire figure shoot out in a type of diagonal manner, facing Master Painter.

In that instant, Lin Xi already drifted to this brown clothed mottled masked Master Painter’s side. His right arm’s cotton clothes exploded with a pa sound, every inch of his arm’s flesh erupting with shocking power. He drew the longsword on his back in the time it took for sparks to fly off a flint, a blade aimed at Master Painter’s throat.

This blade was like early spring thunder and lightning, indescribably swift and ferocious.

However, when facing this sword, a hint of disdain instead flashed past Master Painter’s eyes. His right hand seemed to have shrunk backwards a bit, but what appeared under his wrist instead was a streak of blade radiance.

With a turn of his hand, a light brown short blade hacked towards Lin Xi’s sword gripping wrist.

The blade radiance was extremely fast, far exceeding Lin Xi’s lightning-like sword radiance, as if Lin Xi offered up his own wrist to be hacked at.

However, right at this moment, the air in front of Lin Xi seemed to suddenly tremble. Lin Xi’s figure actually suddenly stopped in the air, his blade barely missing, not hitting anything!

Lin Xi raised his head at this time.

His madness, all of his suppressed negative emotions, as well as powerful killing intent seemed to erupt from his eyes at this moment, turning into heaven surging sword intent.

His right shoulder’s cotton clothes released a chi la rupturing sound. It instantly erupted with soul force, making his entire right arm seemingly suddenly become longer, thrusting outwards viciously. His sword stance that originally became a bit sluggish, as if his energy withered, suddenly became even more swift, hacking at the space between Master Painter’s brows domineeringly.

This was the strike that Lin Xi released to his heart’s content, decisive to the extreme!

Master Painter’s eyes also instantly erupted with an expression of inconceivable shock.

He wasn’t shocked because of Lin Xi’s State Knight level cultivation and control over soul force, but rather because of the shocking speed at which Lin Xi transferred soul force.

Exquisite soul force transferring, if one fought many many battles, then there was a chance of reaching Lin Xi’s state. However, transferring the soul force within one’s body in such a short amount of time, this quickly, was completely something impossible.

Even if he had cultivation that was a level higher than his current self, it was still something impossible.

This completely defied the conventional concepts of a cultivator’s soul force and body.

Under extreme shock, Master Painter’s left hand quickly reached upwards.

These were two well-maintained, jade-like fingers which looked as if they wanted to clamp down on Lin Xi’s longsword. However, the moment his two fingers had just reached upwards, a wave of domineering aura already surged out crazily from these two fingers.

A blast of tremendous power seemed to be raging as it surged from his fingertips.

Boom!

The air between him and Lin Xi seemed to once again fiercely explode. The power surging from his body instantly turned into a red flame bird shape, smashing into the longsword in Lin Xi’s hands.

In this split second of time, blood scattered out from Lin Xi’s hands, his longsword directly leaving his fingers.

Tremendous power poured outwards, battering his body until he momentarily froze in the air. His cotton clothes exploded into strips as his figure flew backwards.

Zhang Lingyun’s previous anticipation of Master Painter’s strength wasn’t mistaken. Master Painter was indeed an expert who was approaching the peak of State Master level, moreover a cultivator who already successfully completed soul merging.

The reason why there were so many different divisions between levels was precisely because the difference in strength between each level signified a great disparity in strength.

State Master level cultivators’ soul force power was still far more powerful than a State Knight’s. Just the instantaneous eruption of one’s soul force into great power was enough to send a State Knight level cultivator flying.

Moreover, this was merely the strength of State Master cultivators. If it was a Sacred Expert who erupted with all of their strength, ordinary cultivators couldn’t get close at all. A single meeting would result in being blasted into dregs.

Before overwhelming power, all techniques were futile.

A cultivator at the initial stage of State Knight level, in the view of the world of cultivators, had absolutely no chance of crossing levels and defeating a cultivator at the peak of State Master level.

Clear Distant City was, after all, just a small city. There might not have been any State Master level cultivators in all of Clear Distant City. That was why Zhang Lingyun had such confidence, that was why Master Painter dared come and do this type of thing.

…

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Master Painter’s blade continued forward, hacking towards Lin Xi’s underbelly.

Even though in terms of absolute strength, he completely broke down Lin Xi’s strike, the strength the other party displayed made Master Painter a bit nervous. Moreover, according to the information he received before, Auspicious Virtue’s great shopkeeper was also a cultivator. If she was a similar leveled expert, if the two joined hands, then it would pose great threat to him. That was why he had to get rid of this person in front of him as soon as possible.

In the perception of these two cultivators, right now, this world was comparatively much slower. Lin Xi was currently flying backwards, but his left hand instead fiercely pressed towards Master Painter’s blade gripping left wrist to block this strike.

Master Painter didn’t change his blade form.

It was because he could also feel that Lin Xi’s soul force transferring was extremely strange, the intent of this strike only to seriously injure him, not to directly kill him. In his eyes, even if his wrist faced Lin Xi’s hand, his power was enough to seriously injure Lin Xi.

However, right at this time, this situation that was originally supposed to be clearly decided due to an absolute difference in strength, underwent an extremely subtle and strange change.

Master Painter sensed that the soul force within Lin Xi’s body once again erupted with astonishing speed..

A wave of soul force quickly surged from Lin Xi’s hand. In the amount of time where he couldn’t react at all, it turned into a wave of golden lightning, blasting against his hand.

Master Painter’s eyes widened in disbelief. The intense scorched and numb feeling made his soul force transferring stop momentarily. However, before his brain emptying shock and numbness disappeared, he saw that Lin Xi’s light green flying sword that already left his hand, currently flying out flickered with silver radiance, stopping in the air powerfully. Then, like a leaping streak of silver lightning, it hacked out in reverse!