Chapter Sixty-One: Success Beyond the Palace

Yu Canghai, humiliated and furious, lunged at Yang Wenhao with bared teeth, but Yang Wenhao easily sidestepped his attack and, with a casual kick, struck Yu Canghai squarely in the back.

Yu Canghai tumbled forward, landing upside down.

“You!” Yu Canghai’s face was already bruised and battered. He glared at Yang Wenhao, as if wishing he could devour him whole.

“What are you all standing around for? Get him!” he shouted.

His disciples, stunned moments before, finally snapped to attention, each brandishing a longsword and charging at Yang Wenhao.

These disciples of the Qingcheng Sect—even their leader, Yu Canghai—were no match for Yang Wenhao, let alone these pampered youths.

In just a few exchanges, all the Qingcheng disciples lay slain on the ground.

Seeing his disciples, whom he had raised for years, fall so easily at Yang Wenhao’s hand, Yu Canghai’s face twisted with rage. “You’re ruthless!”

“So what?” Yang Wenhao shrugged, utterly unconcerned. “If you must blame someone, blame them for following the wrong man.”

Yu Canghai spat a mouthful of blood, clutching his chest as he stared at Yang Wenhao. “With your reckless behavior, the righteous factions of the martial world will never let you go.”

“That’s not something you need to worry about, Master Yu.” Yang Wenhao stepped in front of Yu Canghai, the blood of his disciples still dripping from his sword.

Yu Canghai was out of options; the young man before him was far too powerful, utterly beyond his reach.

“Even if I die, don’t think you’ll have it easy!” Yu Canghai suddenly lunged at Yang Wenhao in a desperate, final bid for his life.

A man, facing the brink of death, can sometimes summon unimaginable strength.

Yet, despite Yu Canghai’s last surge of courage, the gulf between them was too great for him to alter his fate.

A cold sound split the air—

The longsword pierced Yu Canghai’s heart, extinguishing his last hope.

Blood welled up; Yu Canghai’s bloodshot eyes locked onto Yang Wenhao, pain rendering him unable to speak.

With a thud, Yang Wenhao withdrew his sword, and Yu Canghai’s corpse collapsed lifelessly to the floor.

He flicked his sword, sending the blood spattering onto the ground.

Sheathing the blade, he saw the figure of Invincible East leap down from the rooftop, where she had been watching.

“This Qingcheng Sect is truly unlucky, to have caught your eye,” Invincible East remarked, her face calm as she gazed at the corpses.

“Yu Canghai would have met his end soon enough, even if I hadn’t killed him,” Yang Wenhao replied. “Someone else would have done it.”

---

“Oh?” Invincible East looked at Yang Wenhao with interest. “And who might this person be?”

“A man doomed to die,” Yang Wenhao’s expression did not change.

“By the way, they seemed to be searching for the Evil-Resisting Sword Manual,” Invincible East said. “Should we join the fun?”

She had never been particularly interested in the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique, but Yang Wenhao’s words had sparked her curiosity.

She cultivated the Sunflower Manual, though hers was incomplete. She wondered if the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique might help her perfect it.

“Let's go, then,” Yang Wenhao said indifferently. The Evil-Resisting Sword Technique would be of great use to him, after all.

---

Outside the ancestral house, Yang Wenhao and Invincible East concealed their presence.

“There are people inside. Should we just kill our way in?” Invincible East asked Yang Wenhao.

“Kill our way in?” Yang Wenhao’s lips twitched; Invincible East was truly herself, always so quick to resort to violence.

Yang Wenhao shook his head slightly. “Hold on, wait for my signal before you enter.”

“Alright,” Invincible East nodded.

Yang Wenhao slipped over the obstacles to the outside of the old house. Inside, there were two people.

If Yang Wenhao’s guess was correct, they would be Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan.

He listened for a while, confirming that the two had not yet found the Evil-Resisting Sword Manual.

But just as Yang Wenhao was about to act, Lin Pingzhi suddenly cried out, halting him.

Lin Pingzhi exclaimed joyfully, “This must be the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique!”

“Really?” Yue Lingshan was equally delighted. “Wonderful, we’ve finally found your family’s manual!”

Lin Pingzhi nodded, unable to hide his joy after such a long search.

At that moment, the door to the old house moved.

“Who’s there!” Lin Pingzhi called out warily.

Several shadows flashed; Lin Pingzhi’s vision went dark.

Moments later, Yang Wenhao emerged from the old house and gestured to Invincible East.

She leapt down, and together they entered.

Looking at the man and woman lying on the floor, Invincible East said, “Those must be Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan, disciples of Mount Hua.”

Yang Wenhao nodded. “I sealed their sleep acupoints. They won’t wake up anytime soon.”

“That must be the famed seventy-two techniques of the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique,” Invincible East’s gaze fell on the bundle atop the table.

Yang Wenhao reached out and opened the bundle, revealing a box within. He opened it, and inside lay the Evil-Resisting Sword Manual.

“Detected seventy-two routes of the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique. Spend one hundred points to fuse?” The system’s voice sounded, prompting Yang Wenhao’s curiosity. “Isn’t the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique supposed to require self-castration to learn?”

“This condition is void for the host. Simply spend points to acquire the complete technique, with no side effects.”

Hearing this, Yang Wenhao nodded. “Alright.”

Originally, he didn’t have enough points, but after killing Yu Canghai and his followers, he had accrued seven or eight hundred.

“Spent one hundred points to fuse Evil-Resisting Sword Technique…”

“Ding… Congratulations, host has fused Evil-Resisting Sword Technique.”

The Evil-Resisting Sword Technique emphasized speed, precision, and ruthlessness—so swift that the sword’s movement was nearly invisible.

But because only eunuchs could master it, the Lin family ancestors decreed that their descendants must never open it.

“May I take a look?” Invincible East asked. “I’m curious about this sword technique that’s so legendary in the martial world.”

Now that he had fused it, the manual was of little further use to Yang Wenhao. He only needed to deliver it to Yue Buqun.

Whether Yue Buqun would learn it or not, Yang Wenhao was certain he would. Yue Buqun was ambitious and unwilling to remain behind others.

He sought to become the leader of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance, to rule the entire martial world.

Yet with only his Purple Mist Divine Skill, he could never achieve such goals; he needed the renowned Evil-Resisting Sword Technique to do so.

Invincible East studied the sword manual for a while, then shook her head; she found nothing she needed. In other words, the Evil-Resisting Sword Technique was of no use to her.

Just then, a commotion sounded outside the old house.

(End of this chapter)