Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 136 Thrust
As the sun set, the sky over Longxiao City began to darken.

But in this narrow alley, the clanging of metal rang out alternately, and flashes of sparks illuminated the two men locked in fierce combat!
"clang!"

Cohen gritted his teeth, crouched down, and raised his sword at an angle, relying on instinct to narrowly block the opponent's slash once again.

No!

I couldn't sense the direction of the opponent's attack when they drew their sword.

Continue like this.

We're going to lose.

Cohen took a deep breath, then took two steps back to increase the distance between himself and the enemy.

By this point, the guards' swords had clashed with the enemy's six times.

Cohen stared intently at the enemy's half-sword, pondering the effect of the opponent's finishing power concealing the direction of the attack.

But that wasn't what worried him the most.

The guard's right hand trembled incessantly, and the brilliance of the stars shimmered on his skin with silver light, desperately trying to neutralize the violent, annihilating power that had invaded his arm during the fierce battle.

Really bad.

Just like before: that power of termination would actually be transmitted through the force of the sword on its own.

It invades, infiltrates, and destroys all human tissues that can harbor the power of termination without warning.

Cohen tightened the muscles in his right arm, his face as cold as ice.

“A fine sword, but unfortunately not suited to this terrain,” the young man said, a pleased smile spreading across his face as he looked at Cohen’s black-hilted silver sword in the narrow alley. “Does it have a name?”

The young man was very confident: the narrow alley restricted Cohen's sword, while his own half-sword was flexible and unhindered, plus his terrifying finishing power—the young man gritted his teeth slightly.

In this battle, he had the upper hand in terms of environment, strategy, strength, and skill.

And these are the people sent by the Tower of the End to hunt us down?

The young man looked at Cohen in front of him, smiled and shook his head inwardly.

“Cohen Karabyan,” Cohen replied coldly.

Like Groudon in Red Street, the young man's finishing power was also filled with a suffocatingly violent aura. In addition, he even gave the guard a real needle-like pain during the sword fight.

This severely impacted Cohen's movements.

Therefore, violence and madness are common characteristics, while the stinging sensation and the ability to obscure direction are individual attributes of the power of termination.
In that case… Cohen sighed and clenched his fist.

“Oh, I’m not asking your name,” the young man narrowed his eyes, pointing his sword between Cohen’s eyes. “I’m asking the name of your sword.”

My spoils.

Under the young man's gaze, Cohen sighed, his left hand supporting the blade, and said helplessly, "You just asked about this sword? Oh, it's a family heirloom, as for its name..."

Cohen's expression turned serious.

It will tell you!

The next instant, the silver sword was already piercing the young man's eyes!
This was Cohen's first offensive move after two rounds of defense: a dangerous thrust.

The young man banished his doubts, confidently raised his arm, and the power of termination, almost one with him, surged forth with a needle-like ferocity. In a strange sensation of pain and exhilaration, his half-sword met Cohen's attack.

A smile appeared on his face.

The young man knew that his power of termination far surpassed that of those so-called Terminator swordsmen who clung to outdated practices—whether they were trainees who had walked through the Tower of Terminator or powerful swordsmen who had been immersed in this art for many years.

Its destructive power and amplifying force—the pain of the young man feeling the power coursing through his body—is almost unimaginable, especially when it surges into the opponent's body like a savage beast, rampaging and crashing.

The outcome will be decided then.

But the young man's face suddenly froze.

He realized that this time his opponent was different!

"Ding!"

Cohen's longsword touched the young enemy's hand and half of the sword.

There was no intention whatsoever to parry, deflect, clash, or lock the blade; instead, there was no force whatsoever, and they separated at the first touch!
The young man frowned, and Cohen struck again with his next sword.

Another thrust!

The young man parried the dagger aimed at his lower abdomen, watching incredulously as Cohen once again deftly deflected his half-sword, showing no intention of engaging in a direct sword-to-sword duel or entanglement.

This guy… The young man gritted his teeth in surprise: What’s going on?

hateful!

"come!"

The suppressed young man roared, unleashing his violent, annihilating power to its peak. Cohen immediately felt a faint stinging sensation on his skin: "Afraid to fight me with your sword?"

But the latter showed neither panic nor excitement.

He simply continued to calmly unleash one attack after another...

Thrust!

"Did you think you could distract your opponent with a surprise finishing move?" Cohen said coldly as he launched another thrust!
The young man, filled with shock and anger, swung his sword, attempting to use the "sword lock" technique from his finishing stance to ensnare Cohen's sword.

But the guard's sword was always drawn back as soon as it touched the ground.

They gave the enemy absolutely no chance to exchange sword blows.

Not even a second!

"Relying on the power of termination—is this your tactic?" Cohen calmly interrupted his opponent, his feet quickly following up: "I told you, you're not the first sword of calamity I've encountered!"

"I had already made countless predictions, considered and practiced how to deal with the sword of calamity again, and how to cope with that violent power of termination while I was recuperating!"

"The destructive effect of that kind of finishing power also takes time, transmitted through contact, right?" Cohen said coldly, "Like sword duels and sword fights?"

The young man stared at Cohen in shock.

The next second, Cohen, who had just sheathed his sword, changed his expression and quickly turned to leave!

"Compared to Groudon, compared to your predecessor who fought on the battlefield and experienced life and death..."

Cohen roared and launched another thrust!
You still have a long way to go!

The young man had nowhere to avoid it, so he could only take a step back and block with his sword.

"Hiss..." A slight and brief metallic scraping sound, which appeared and disappeared in an instant!
The young man parried Cohen's sword, watching helplessly as it pierced past his left ear, creating a sharp whistling sound. He then watched as the enemy's blade once again evaded the clash and flew away like a triumphant falcon.

Waiting to launch the next thrust!
"As for using the terrain to suppress my overly long sword?" Cohen's voice sounded especially hateful to the young man: "What a childish tactic."

"One thrust will solve it."

"Simple, direct, and effective."

The narrow alleyway limited Cohen's swordsmanship and swordsmanship, but it also prevented the young man from displaying his agility. Faced with straight thrusts that he could usually dodge easily, the young man could only raise his sword to intercept and defend again and again.

The young man had considered abandoning defense and going all out on offense, forcing Cohen to face him in swordsmanship. The problem was that his hand-and-a-half sword was shorter than Cohen's scabbard!
If he forces his way in, he might be pierced through the heart by Cohen's sword before he can unleash his killing move.

The hand-and-a-half sword, which is more suitable for wielding in narrow alleys, suddenly became a weakness for young people.

Damn it. The young man looked at the opponent's rapier with resentment: I... I've actually become the one on the defensive?

With his advantage, Cohen calmly turned to the side, his right foot forward, and quickly followed up, his wrist twisting, his sword movements never ceasing.

Another thrust!
The young man, struggling to defend himself, retreated in disarray.

What a lucky guy.

Cohen chuckled to himself: In this narrow alley, a moment when one cannot strike or draw the sword... Teacher Kuradel, thankfully you haven't forgotten your swordsmanship.

One of the eight inheritors of the Tower of the End, Stink Kuradel, from the Thornland Kingdom, specializes in the "Rapier Technique".

The art of rapier originated in the final imperial era, with southern knights engaging in elegant duels wielding light swords. This fencing technique, which emphasizes probing footwork and a single, fatal strike, was once widely popular in the south—even though it was ridiculed by many generals and knights as "the sword of a maiden."

Now, Cohen abandoned the usual sword style in the narrow alley and instead adopted the "rapier technique," turning the disadvantage of the sword's length into an advantage, and avoiding sword fighting, thus sealing off the possibility of the enemy gaining the upper hand with the finishing move.

In the next thrust, the young man struggled to maneuver and managed to avoid Cohen's attack by using a protruding window.

“Every finishing power is different,” Cohen sheathed his sword once more, calmly walking past the window that had clearly been lengthened by its owner, his gaze resolute as he looked at his enemy: “Even the same finishing power varies from person to person; in different people, it will undergo different subtle changes…”

The young man looked at the narrow alleys on both sides and at the exit that was still far away, feeling extremely anxious.

"I don't know what the effect of your finishing power is, that it can conceal the direction of a sword strike during a fierce battle," the guard scoffed. "But you must have heard of my finishing power..."

Cohen grinned, flashing what he considered his most handsome smile:
"The Radiance of the Stars!"

The young man's expression changed.

The brilliance of the stars.

The four primordial transcendents... no, the power of termination?
The next moment, Cohen roared forward, and a faint blue light shimmered from the skin of his arm.

The guard's sword thrust out in rapid succession, without pausing!
The young man gritted his teeth and twisted his wrist to the maximum extent, trying his best to block the endless thrusts with a fan-shaped covering sword stance!
Damn!

He must be one of the eight seeds from a certain generation in the Tower of the End.

A young being who carries the hope of the Tower of the End's future!
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" The fleeting, sharp sounds fell like raindrops, never ceasing.

“My Radiance of the Stars can balance the rhythm and regularity between movement and stillness, between breath and action within my body,” Cohen pressed forward amidst endless thrusts, and despite being in the midst of a high-speed attack, his words flowed surprisingly smoothly, as if he didn’t need to breathe: “Like the brilliant stars in the night sky, shining one after another, rising and falling!”

"Ding! Ding! Ding!"

The sword flashed, its thrusts and retractions flowing smoothly and naturally.

The young man frowned, retreating only as the blade in his hand trembled repeatedly!

"It seems to have no pattern, it seems to exist but not exist..." Cohen pressed on, his words as deadly as the ferry bell on the River of Hell to the young man, "but in reality it is continuous and never stops!"

Cohen's expression remained unchanged. He deflected the young man's sword strike and, to the astonishment of the other man, relentlessly thrust out the most threatening next strike!
"laugh!"

Amid the young man's angry roar, his left shoulder was finally bruised.

Affected by the attack, he lost his balance and was instantly struck again in the right rib!
Then the left leg, right elbow, and side of the neck!
Under Cohen's relentless onslaught, the young man painfully staggered back six steps amidst the blood and gore, desperately trying to create distance.

The young man, covered in wounds, gasped for breath, his face filled with disbelief as he stared at Cohen, who was walking towards him step by step.

"This is my power to end things."

"Compared to your despicable, rebellious, destructive, and meaningless force..."

“The brilliance of the stars is like another sword to me, fused deep within my body, making my movements seamless and without pause,” Cohen sighed, “thus unleashing the most dazzling and unstoppable offensive.”

The young man braced himself against the ground with his sword, watching Cohen approach in despair.

"You've ended Kroeshe, ended the sword career of a 'seed'," Cohen said calmly. "It's time to pay the price."

He raised his sword at the enemy with a blank expression.

“Or,” Cohen said slowly with a friendly smile, “would you like to tell me: why did you want to assassinate the Prince of the Stars?”

"And...which grand duke or their subordinate nobles do you serve?"

But the young man, covered in blood, laughed out loud.

“It’s ridiculous… We never serve anyone,” the young man laughed hoarsely, blood streaming down his deepest wound in his left shoulder, staining the snow red. “Even if it’s just a brief cooperation, we only follow our own will…”

Cohen frowned.

Cooperation?

Why would they cooperate with a duke of a country?

For power? Wealth? Status? Survival? A common goal?
Or something else?
"As for you, you think you've won? You old academics..." Before Cohen, the young man trembled, a sinister smile spreading across his face. "In this short time, my teacher had already eliminated your companions..."

“I know perfectly well that you’re here to stall me!” Cohen interrupted him calmly. “A super-level rookie!”

The young man's face froze.

"So that your companion... that seemingly more powerful old guy, can quickly take care of the weaker enemy and then come to support you, right?" The guard sighed helplessly, like a battle-hardened warrior. "But what exactly gave you the illusion that 'that girl is weaker'?"

"That girl," Cohen chuckled and shook his head, noticing the young man's surprised gaze, "she was one of the final test takers for the Tower of the End in our year..."

"One of the eight 'seeds'..."

"chief!"

--------

When Thales finally met Putila and the others in the room specially prepared for him in Valhalla, the second prince of the Stars and his followers breathed a sigh of relief.

"You mean, on their territory, you unhesitatingly rejected the option of cooperating with King Nuen, and are prepared to use your own methods to help him find the murderer?" Putila frowned, standing by the window, gazing at the snow scene outside, his thoughts racing.

Is it audacious or simply reckless?

When no one else was around, Putilai was never polite to him, and he didn’t even bother to address him as His Highness—but this overstepping of authority seemed to have improved a lot after the Dragon Fortress, at least the sarcasm of him being called “Little Prince” had lessened considerably.

"More or less." Thales slumped awkwardly in his chair, looking exhausted. "What I just experienced tells me that the gloomy old man in the crown doesn't have any good plans—like pushing me to the five grand dukes to see if anyone wants to kill me behind my back..."

"Anyway, I've come to fully appreciate the brutality and directness of the Northerners," Thales sighed.
"To find the murderer by observing the dukes' attitudes and reactions to my killing—how could he even think of that!"

"Now that you're in charge of this task, what are you going to do?" Putilae turned around smoothly and walked past Rolf, who was adjusting the splint on his fractured arm and reattaching a spare hidden blade to the mechanism in his wrist.

“From the five ancient, regionally powerful, cunning, and influential families, whose influence surpasses even the six great families of the stars, and who are all potential candidates for the throne…” Putila pondered:

"Find the conspirator who murdered Morar and also tried to assassinate you?"

“Good question,” Thales said with a friendly and sincere smile.

"do not know."

Why wasn't there an update yesterday?

Because I went to see the martial arts master of the squid.

Yes, that's it.

And...

Why do I receive no donations when I keep updating, but receive donations when I stop updating?

Wu Jian is very heartbroken...

Have I reached the point where I can only make my existence known by stopping updating? (drawing circles~)...

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(End of this chapter)