The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 584 Flesh and Blood Sheath

Within arm's reach, the black sun spun violently, like a black hole, drawing in massive amounts of blood and air, along with the chilling light unleashed by the four sword saints with all their might, before pulverizing and spraying it behind them.

The sword saints of Hachiman Palace were thrown off their stance the moment they came into contact with the black sun, and then their bodies were forcibly pulled towards it.

The weapons and stones scattered on the ground were pulverized the moment they came into contact with the black sun. The sword saints' expressions changed drastically. They could no longer care about anything else and used all the skills they had learned in their lives to clash with the blade light that made up the black sun, using the force of the recoil to slow down the momentum of being pulled.

Dang, Dang, Dang, Dang——

The blades clashed, creating countless dazzling sparks that formed the corona of the black sun.

"wrong!"

"His strength is wrong!"

"This force... sticky! When the blades collide, they can't be torn apart; instead, they'll be pulled even deeper—ah!"

A scream abruptly stopped. The Hachimangu Sword Saint, who had been speaking, was the first to be engulfed. In an instant, he was swallowed up and turned into tiny pieces of flesh and blood that sprayed out from behind the black sun.

"Don't clash with his blade!"

"If we don't crash, we'll get dragged in!"

"What should we do!"

Three loud roars, filled with anger and helplessness.

Li Miao, who was watching the show from a distance, twirled his fingers and chuckled softly.

"The combination of Wudang Tai Chi strength and this so-called Two Heavens First Rank Sword Technique has such a miraculous effect that I'm even tempted to learn it."

"Speaking of which, the founder of the Two Heavens First Style is Master Jianzhen, while Tai Chi Jin is the lineage of Master Zhang Sanfeng. What does this mean... Buddhism is the Tao?"

"Moreover, it is not the superficial inheritance of Wudang, but the true celestial inheritance belonging to Master Sanfeng... Master Ji is as generous as ever to hand over such a good thing to this Japanese."

Ji Tianrui chuckled softly.

“If you want someone to be willing to risk their life for me, you have to offer enough incentives. Simply restoring him to his condition is not enough to get him to cooperate with me in all this.”

"Moreover, I also gained something from it."

Li Miao scoffed.

"The leader of the Ji sect is used to persuading people to willingly die. It's nothing new to the Pupa Girl, the Yang family, and Lan Lechuan."

"But Master Ji should know that's not what I care about. What I want to ask is—"

Li Miao suddenly raised his hand, grabbed Ji Tianrui's shoulder, forcibly turned her around, stared into her eyes, and asked in a deep voice.

"You met Master Sanfeng at Ise Grand Shrine? Otherwise, where did you get the Tai Chi strength passed down from heaven and man?"

Ji Tianrui blinked and smiled.

"Of course I haven't seen him. To put it bluntly, if I had already established a partnership with Master Sanfeng, why would I look up to Lord Li?"

"It's much better to cooperate with the founder of martial arts than with a ruthless and heartless man who only holds grudges and doesn't appreciate kindness."

The two looked at each other for a long time.

Even Li Miao couldn't find a trace of emotion in Ji Tianrui's eyes. Her smile was fake, but so fake that she didn't seem to have any of her own thoughts. Only such a bewitching woman in the world could do that.

"never mind."

Li Miao released Ji Tianrui.

Ji Tianrui smiled and subtly moved half a step to the side, creating a slight distance between herself and Li Miao.

His expression remained calm and composed, only the Gu worm in his sleeve twitched its tentacles slightly before settling down and remaining still.

Suddenly, a joyful shout rang out from the front lines of the battle.

"behind!"

"His strength is not smooth and controlled, and his back is an opening!"

Upon hearing their companion's suggestion, the other two sword saints did not hesitate and made a decisive move. Despite having half of their arms and half of their faces torn apart by the black sun, they forcibly rushed towards the back of the black sun.

Clang clang clang clang! —

Weapons clashed.

"That's right!"

"The closer you get to the back, the smaller the impact becomes!"

A swordsman roared, and behind him came the sounds of his companions clashing as they shielded him from attacks. He lunged forward with all his might, finally disappearing behind the black sun. There was no more force to hinder him there.

Moreover, Kurama Heihachi's vest was right in front of him!

Without the slightest hesitation, he unleashed dozens of sword beams at Kurama Heihachi's back!
*Swoosh—Splash!*
Blood splattered.

The black sun suddenly dissipated, and Kurama Heihachi rushed forward half a step, staggered and almost fell to the ground, his back covered in blood, his left hand hanging limply.

With a broken left collarbone and ribs, a damaged left lung, and a spinal injury, his straight back involuntarily bent over.

"what!"

Seeing that he had finally severely injured Kurama Heihachi, the Hachiman Palace sword saint laughed loudly and glanced to both sides, attempting to join forces with his companions to kill Kurama Heihachi in one fell swoop.

But when he scanned the room, he couldn't find a second person besides Kurama Heihachi. He suddenly realized something and reached behind him.

It's sticky and greasy.

The blood was still warm.

It turned out that the moment he rushed behind Kurama Heihachi, the other two sword saints had already been engulfed by the black sun, turned into blood, and splashed onto his back.

"Hehehe——"

Ahead, the hunched-over Kurama Heihachi let out a mocking laugh, turning his head like a wolf to look at him.

"Keep laughing, you idiot."

"Do you feel like you've won?"

He took a deep breath, slammed his long sword into the ground with his left hand, and forced his upper body upright. Then—he slammed the sword into his body.

By self-mutilating himself and using his katana to support his spine, he finally straightened his back and looked down at the sword saint with his tall stature.

"You think you're worthy of making me bow down?"

"joke!"

"You think you've won if you cut half my body in half?"

"idiot!"

He reached out his left hand, grabbed his right wrist, and twisted it sharply. With a crack, it dislocated. Then, with another twist, it popped.

He gripped the short sword and the severed hand bound to it in his left hand, calmly looking at the last remaining sword saint of the Hachiman Palace.

"The swordsmanship of Kurama-ryu is to fight to the death."

"Come."

"I'm only ten feet away from the person behind you. Come on, let's see if you can stop me—come on!"

Before the last swordsman of Hachiman Shrine could react, he slammed the katana embedded in his body and used the recoil to lunge forward.

"Ugh!"

The Hachimangu Sword Saint's face flushed red as he mustered the last bit of strength in his body and unleashed his most proficient sword technique, slashing towards Kurama Heihachi's blade.

clang!
With his spine and collarbone injured, Kurama Heihachi lost almost all of his strength, and the blade was immediately pushed back towards his forehead.

The Hachimangu Sword Saint grinned as he stared at Kurama Heihachi. The outcome of the battle was about to be decided in the blink of an eye, and he wanted to find a trace of fear in Kurama Heihachi's eyes.

but no.

Kurama Heihachi's eyes once again revealed that repulsive sarcasm.

"idiot."

He suddenly raised his right hand, which he had twisted off, and stabbed it at the long knife that had been inserted into his body and replaced his spine.

"Who gave you the courage to not guard against the other sword of a second-rate swordsman—just because your hand is broken?"

puff.

The severed arm, like a scabbard, took the hilt into it. The muscles, harder than fine steel, suddenly contracted, clamping the hilt, pulling it out, and thrusting it towards the other side.

puff.

puff.

Kurama Heihachi collapsed onto Hachimangu Kensei, and the two fell to the ground together, remaining silent for a long while.

(End of this chapter)