Chapter 1 Sword's Edge and Rainy Night

A three-foot Qingfeng sword is unsheathed, chillingly, and the martial world's night rain is filled with murderous intent.

The sword blade sliced through the air with a shrill whistling sound. Inside the dilapidated temple, cries of agony echoed, startling a whinnying horse outside, carrying far into the dark night.

The flickering firelight cast the shadows of a group of people onto the walls, locked in fierce combat.

Among them, a figure wielding twin swords moved like a phantom, weaving through the many shadows. The sword blades slashed across necks, and wherever it passed, people collapsed to the ground one after another.

In the end, only two figures remained. All the others had fallen, and the temple was filled with splattered blood, staining the Buddha statue red.

"Who are you?!"

Shen Sanqiu held his sword, his tone shocked, staring intently at Duan Yunfeng opposite him, a chill running down his spine.

This man's skill was elusive and unpredictable. Despite Shen Sanqiu's entanglement, he had rapidly killed a squad of government soldiers.

Although Shen Sanqiu was still injured, this man's martial arts were among the highest he had ever seen... If he hadn't witnessed Chen Feng's inhuman strength not long ago, this man would almost be the most formidable expert he had ever encountered.

This person had suddenly attacked. Could he really be an assassin sent to kill the emperor?!

Shen Sanqiu's heart leaped, fear and excitement rising simultaneously.

He had failed to kill Chen Feng on this trip, suffering a crushing defeat. If he could capture the assassin, it would still be a great achievement, perhaps even more rewarding!

It was truly a case of when one door closes, another opens. If he hadn't lost to Chen Feng's divine spear and happened to stay overnight in this dilapidated temple while escaping, he wouldn't have been so lucky as to encounter this assassin.

A blessing in disguise!

These thoughts flashed through Shen Sanqiu's mind in an instant. He made his decision: even with his injured body, he would seize the opportunity and capture this man.

Fortunately, he still had the Yanggong Pill (Merit Enhancement Pill) as his trump card!

On the other side, Duan Yunfeng had expended a lot of internal energy in his swift massacre of the squad of soldiers, and his chest rose and fell slightly.

He had noticed that Shen Sanqiu's martial arts were not bad, but without saying a word, he quickly regulated his breathing, his face cold. He charged straight at Shen Sanqiu with his twin swords, intending to leave no one alive.

"What a scoundrel!"

Shen Sanqiu activated his lightness skill and retreated rapidly, taking the opportunity to reach into his pocket, pull out the Yanggong Pill, and throw it directly into his mouth, swallowing it and circulating his internal energy to dissolve the medicinal power.

Having done this, Shen Sanqiu felt confident and turned to meet the enemy, his steps agile, the long sword in his hand weaving a sheet of clear light, the Shuiyun, Zhouyu, and Wujiang sword techniques of the Wu Mountain School spreading out freely.

Shen Sanqiu's swordplay was light and agile, dense and nimble, with intricate moves, adopting a defensive posture, clearly the result of years of painstaking training. Duan Yunfeng's twin swords, on the other hand, were ruthless and swift, strange and cunning, each strike aimed at vital points, all killing moves, without any embellishment, and more lethal.

Both were swordsmen, but their styles were completely different. As soon as they exchanged blows, they had already made twenty or thirty moves in an instant.

Shen Sanqiu felt a heat in his lower abdomen, and streams of internal energy filled his entire body. He knew that the Yanggong Pill was gradually taking effect, and he was secretly delighted, constantly urging his inner strength, gradually turning from defense to offense, wielding his sword faster and faster, dazzlingly.

Duan Yunfeng frowned slightly, having noticed the change in his opponent's power, but he remained focused and unmoved.

After a few more moves, Duan Yunfeng suddenly deflected Shen Sanqiu's sword and turned as if to flee, deliberately creating an opening.

"Don't even think about it!"

Shen Sanqiu quickly caught up, thrusting his sword straight at his opponent's back.

Duan Yunfeng was prepared. He shifted his feet, dodged sideways, and his twin swords stabbed out from a strange angle like venomous snakes.

"Hmph, wishful thinking!" Shen Sanqiu was also experienced and saw through his intention. He shook his sword, changing position to slash at Duan Yunfeng's wrist, trying to force him to withdraw his move.

However, at that moment, Shen Sanqiu's expression suddenly changed drastically. He felt that his high-speed internal energy was like a wild horse that had lost its reins, suddenly running wildly through his meridians.

This unexpected change directly caused him to lose control of his strength, and his body instantly became weak and powerless, his sword stance suddenly going awry.

In a fight where victory or defeat hung by a thread, this kind of mistake was fatal!

"Crap!"

Shen Sanqiu was shocked.

Before he could figure out what was happening, Duan Yunfeng's twin swords had already crossed in a scissor-like motion.

Swish!

Blood splattered, and the severed hand holding the sword flew into the air.

Duan Yunfeng's expression remained unchanged, and he continued his movements, stepping forward and brushing past Shen Sanqiu.

Two cold lights flashed in Shen Sanqiu's vision.

Pfft!

Fresh blood spurted out.

A fine head, frozen in an expression of astonishment, fell to the dust.

Behind Duan Yunfeng, a headless corpse with a severed hand swayed a few times before collapsing to the ground, lifeless.

The dilapidated temple returned to silence, with only the crackling sound of burning firewood.

Duan Yunfeng shook off the blood from his swords, sheathed them with a clang, frowned at Shen Sanqiu's corpse, and was somewhat puzzled.

"This man's skill wasn't bad. How could he suddenly court death?"

He couldn't figure it out, so he stopped thinking about it. He squatted down to search the corpse, his movements not very skilled, obviously not someone who often committed murder and robbery.

Before long, he found some loose silver coins and several bottles of pills from Shen Sanqiu's pockets, as well as a secret manual, *Flowing Cloud Fine Rain Skill*.

Duan Yunfeng casually flipped through a few pages and then put it in his pocket.

He had his own martial arts masterpiece and didn't care much about this secret manual.

"This trip is to find Chen Feng anyway, so I'll offer this skill as a gift... and see if this Chen Feng's character is any different from the rumors."

Duan Yunfeng's eyes flashed.

He didn't dare to stay long. He hastily dug a pit, threw all the corpses into it, and buried them, then took two horses and left in a hurry, cloaked in the night rain.

Inside the dilapidated temple, only the dried bloodstains and sword marks everywhere witnessed the life-and-death struggle that had just taken place.

...

Time passed day by day, and the failure of many martial arts experts gradually fermented.

Twenty-eight renowned martial artists from Jiangchun and the surrounding area joined forces to pursue Chen Feng, but more than half were killed, and the rest fled in disgrace. The news had spread throughout the southern martial world, causing an uproar.

So many experts joined forces, yet they suffered such a crushing defeat. The reputation of these martial arts masters was greatly damaged.

A lifetime of fame, on the contrary, served as a wedding dress for Chen Feng, adding bricks and tiles to his illustrious reputation.

The martial world already circulated various stories of Chen Feng's previous strength, and now he could deal with established martial arts masters as easily as chopping melons and vegetables. With such a brilliant record, the public's call for him to be the number one martial artist in the Green Forest became even louder.

Yan Hanjun, An Dafeng, Lu Xilin, and other martial arts masters who were fortunate enough to survive returned to their sects, living in fear every day, afraid that Chen Feng would come to their door.

However, after the news spread, Chen Feng did not take any action and continued to roam the counties, punishing evil one place after another. This led the surviving martial arts masters to believe that Chen Feng had no intention of visiting them, and they couldn't help but feel lucky, celebrating their escape from disaster.

The Ning Tian Prefecture's aristocratic family's plan to kill Chen Feng had failed, and they wanted to gather forces to launch another crusade.

However, after this battle, the people in the southern martial world understood that Chen Feng was an extremely tough nut to crack. Many sect leaders near Jiangchun were killed or crippled by Chen Feng. The remaining famous experts were either from small families or were lone wolves. None of them were willing to take action, even if it meant offending the powerful.

The aristocratic family of Ning Tian Prefecture had no choice but to temporarily extinguish this thought. The officials and gentry of the counties in Jiangchun suffered, and they couldn't control them for the time being.

In the eleventh year of Xinghe, in late autumn.

The weather was damp and cold. In a certain wilderness forest where fallen leaves had accumulated, Chen Feng and his group were making a fire. Many people had already wrapped themselves in cotton-padded coats and fur jackets.

In the battle with the martial arts masters a few days ago, the team lost about ten people. Later, along the way, as they punished evil, some poor people followed to replenish the ranks. At this time, the number of people had reached forty or fifty again.

The number of Green Forest experts traveling with them had risen to fourteen, more than before.

"Second Brother, it's been so many days. When are we going to set off to find trouble with those Jianghu sects?"

Fang Zhen sat in front of the fire, his tone eager.

"Wait a little longer."

Chen Feng replied casually, his spear resting across his knees, still in his single layer of clothing, as if he didn't feel the cold at all.

"Second Brother said the same thing a few days ago. When will we have to wait until?"

Fang Zhen muttered.

He was thinking about going to find trouble with the Jianghu sects, and he had to ask a few times every day.

Chen Feng closed his eyes and did not answer.

At this moment, his body suddenly shook, and he reopened his eyes. There was light in his eyes again. It was Zhou Jing who had switched over.

"Phew, it seems like nothing went wrong..."

Zhou Jing received the experience log, quickly reviewed it in his mind, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Killing corrupt officials and local bullies in various counties and evading the pursuit of government soldiers was not difficult for Apostle No. 4. The only thing that caused some casualties to the gang was the joint assassination by the martial arts masters.

"It's a pity that I didn't descend in person at that time. Otherwise, I would have taken the lead as soon as we met and twisted off the heads of this group of Jianghu people."

Zhou Jing shook his head secretly.

When he didn't descend in person, an apostle's intelligence didn't refresh the information it had mastered. In the placement mode, the apostle acted a little rigidly. When encountering Shen Sanqiu, he didn't immediately take action, otherwise there would have been fewer casualties.

Moreover, if he had taken action himself, most of this group of Jianghu people would not have escaped. It seemed that the current not-so-high apostle synchronization rate still affected his performance in battle.

The placement plan for Apostle No. 4 is currently mainly to punish evil in various counties, and not to leave the gang too far.

Zhou Jing had specially adjusted it before. Conquering Jianghu sects was not in Apostle No. 4's current sequence of tasks. Therefore, after a group of people were attacked, although Apostle No. 4 said that he would seek revenge, he did not take action for a long time. This time, the placement plan slightly prevailed, suppressing the apostle's actions to develop his personality.

Zhou Jing opened the panel and took a look, and found that after this period of actual combat, his martial arts skills had improved significantly, and his resistance and energy attributes had reached the standard for breakthrough.

The *Slaughter Ten Thousand to Become a Hero* milestone was steadily progressing, and at the same time, because of the assistance of various Jianghu celebrities, the progress of *Number One in the World* suddenly soared a lot.

In addition, accumulating defeating fifty masters of martial arts also earned a new achievement [*First-Class Master*], earning 2,500 Star Realm Points and a [*Qualification Enhancement - Martial Arts (Small)*].

Since Chen Feng debuted, he has been doing quite influential things, and the income of information-state particles is not small. Now the progress of clearing the level has reached nearly half.

If he continues to brush at this efficiency, he may be able to meet the 240-point clearance requirement before the goal of life is achieved.

But this is just the standard for the most basic evaluation. With Bill's example in front, to obtain a higher clearance rating, the cumulative income of Apostle No. 4's information-state particles should exceed the standard as much as possible.

But having said that, the difficulty of Apostle No. 4's life goal is indeed a higher level, and none of them have been achieved so far. Currently, the closest to being achieved are the simpler [*Acting for Heaven*] and [*Gathering in the Mountains*].

If he doesn't care about the consequences, he can revolt now, and he also has the opportunity to achieve [*Rebellion and Uprising*]. It's just that the current team is limited, and he plans to develop first... Although the current behavior of killing officials and punishing evil everywhere is not much different from rebellion and treason, as long as the anti-flag has not been formally erected, there is no qualitative change.

Zhou Jing put this matter aside for the time being, reopened the attribute interface, and chose to break through the ranks.

Both resistance and energy attributes were upgraded to Tier 2, and a page for choosing characteristics popped up. After he selected them, he chose [*Thick Skin and Flesh*] and [*Quick Qi Recovery*].

The former makes his skin and muscles more defensive and tough, making it more difficult for sharp weapons to break through.

The latter accelerates the natural recovery efficiency of various energies, even if his strength is exhausted, he can slowly recover, improving his continued combat power. Coupled with Apostle No. 4's physical characteristic [*Long Endurance*], he can stand firm for a long time and have super-long standby time.

After sorting out the results of the placement stage, Zhou Jing turned off the panel.

He looked around and suddenly said:

"The time is almost right. Our next stop will be the Wu Mountain School to seek their misfortune."

Hearing this, everyone suddenly perked up.

"Haha, are we finally going to do it?" Fang Zhen was overjoyed, and didn't doubt him.

"This place is not far from the Wu Mountain School. We can take a boat there, which will take at most two or three days."

Guo Hai nodded.

"Does Brother want to go through the main entrance or take a small path? I know a small path that can enter the Wu Mountain School from the back mountain. But I hope Brother won't start killing indiscriminately. After all, this is only the head's doing, and my fellow disciples haven't provoked Brother..."

Lin Song offered a suggestion.

He has also accepted his fate now, and simply offered advice, hoping to use this to ask Chen Feng to spare the lives of some familiar fellow apprentices.

"Don't worry, we will definitely spare your lover's life." Fang Zhen joked.

Lin Song felt ashamed and angry when he heard this, but he didn't dare to provoke Fang Zhen, so he simply buried his head in the fire.

Everyone was very interested, and they made suggestions and discussed.

At this time, a strong young man asked curiously: "Brother, after we finish this matter, what are we going to do in the future? Are we going to stay in Jiangchun to find a mountain to gather, or are we going to continue doing this in other places?"

Zhou Jing looked at this person, secretly searched the logs, and the person's name appeared in his mind. It seemed to be called "Cloud-Reaching Eagle" Zhang Lei. This person also had a younger brother, called "Sky-Soaring Falcon" Zhang Zhen.

The two brothers had only recently come to join them. They were very skilled. They were the two most powerful Green Forest experts who had taken the initiative to join them during this period. They were outstanding in foot strength, had extraordinary lightness skills, were good at using single sabers, and could also use hidden weapons such as flying locust stones and acupoint-striking darts.

Brother Zhang Lei could fight Fang Zhen to a tie, and his martial strength was also about 88, while his younger brother Zhang Zhen was slightly weaker, with a martial strength level of about 85.

However, the Zhang brothers had worshiped famous teachers and knew a set of formations. When the two sabers were combined, their power suddenly increased, and they could fight Guo Hai for fifty or sixty rounds without distinguishing the outcome, which was very impressive.

Hearing Zhang Lei's question, Zhou Jing touched the stubble on his chin and said:

"There are countless experts in the twenty-four provinces of the north and south, and there are also endless corrupt officials and local bullies. We will continue to punish evil everywhere, and it will not be too late to gather in the mountains when the time is ripe."

Now his reputation in the Green Forest is amazing, and people come to join him from time to time, proving that his approach of eliminating traitors and punishing evil everywhere and acting for the heavens is very popular among the people, and this route is feasible.

He plans to be a bandit for the time being, acting flexibly, snowballing to pull the team, and does not want to guard a mountain so quickly.

Just as the group was talking, Zhang San, who was watching the wind outside the forest, came back and called out:

"Brother, another hero is coming to join us outside."

Zhou Jing's attention turned to the past and smiled, "Quickly invite him over."

Zhang San nodded and went out to spread the word.

Before long, a heroic man carrying twin swords walked into the forest. It was Duan Yunfeng.

He looked around and his eyes fell on Chen Feng, who was the most eye-catching. He knew at a glance that this was the master, and he cupped his fists and said in a deep voice:

"I am Duan Yunfeng from Yanbei. I have heard of the strong man's deeds of eliminating traitors and punishing evil, and I admire him very much, so I came to join him."

Everyone looked at each other, but they had never heard of this person.

Fang Zhen looked at Guo Hai, and Guo Hai also shook his head, saying that he had never heard of this person's name in the Green Forest.

Zhou Jing stood up, stepped forward to welcome him, and laughed loudly: "Brother Duan is also a hero. Since we have the same aspirations, then let's be together."

He recognized this person's figure. He seemed to be the guy who assassinated the emperor that night.

However, this person doesn't seem to have any intention of revealing this matter, and is probably observing whether they are reliable.

Zhou Jing doesn't intend to expose this person's details at this time, so he pretends not to know.

"I am willing to serve Brother Chen."

Duan Yunfeng replied in a deep voice, paused, and then said:

"Since I am here to join you, it is not good to come empty-handed. This time I brought a greeting gift."

"Oh? I wonder what it is?"

Zhou Jing was curious.

Duan Yunfeng took out a secret manual from his arms and handed it to Zhou Jing.

"I heard that twenty-eight Jianghu celebrities intercepted and killed Brother Chen. By chance, when I was on the road, I happened to meet Shen Sanqiu, the head of the Wu Mountain School, so I took action and killed this person on the spot. Afterwards, I found this *Flowing Cloud Fine Rain Skill* from him, which seems to be the Wu Mountain School's treasure, so I will give it to Brother as a greeting gift."

"The head is dead?!"

Lin Song opened his mouth wide with a dazed expression.

He thought that Shen Sanqiu would definitely be able to escape back to the sect and declare him a traitor, but he didn't expect that the head, although he escaped from Chen Feng's spear, died unexpectedly on the road.

"Hey, the Wu Mountain School is a famous sect, and the Shen's kung fu is profound. Brother Duan was able to kill him, and his martial arts are really good."

Everyone was shocked and didn't dare to underestimate him.

*This guy can even break into the palace, and can open Wushuang in the Imperial Guard. Killing a seriously injured Jianghu master is not a simple matter... If you really fight, I'm afraid he is more powerful than my eldest brother Guo Hai.*

Zhou Jing thought to himself, but did not expose him.

He took the secret manual, glanced at it a few times, then turned to look at everyone and said, "Since this skill is so powerful, then all the brothers will study it together."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

Zhang San pointed to himself and said in surprise: "Can we practice it too?"

"This is natural." Zhou Jing nodded as a matter of course, and added: "Not only this secret manual, but in the future we will go to the Jianghu sects in Jiangchun to seek revenge, and everyone can practice whichever martial arts masterpiece they ****."

He doesn't intend to cherish himself, and prepares to pass on all the martial arts he wins. One is as a benefit to follow him, used to cultivate the team.

The second is to break the barriers between portals and the monopoly of advanced martial arts, so that these advanced martial arts can be passed down to the people, so that everyone has kung fu to practice, triggering the Jianghu involution.

The more people in the folk who know martial arts, the more help he will have in the future when he rises up.

Moreover, even if everyone can practice, with his own qualifications, he is also the fastest to practice.

Everyone immediately became energetic, excited and excited, and called him great.

They didn't expect that Chen Feng was willing to share this town sect's masterpiece, and this kind of spirit made everyone more convinced in their hearts.

Zhou Jing turned his head and patted Duan Yunfeng on the shoulder:

"Brother, this greeting gift is really generous. I thank you on behalf of all the brothers."

"... I have always heard that Brother Chen is forthright, and after seeing him today, he really lives up to his reputation."

Duan Yunfeng couldn't help but take a high look at him, and nodded his approval secretly.

This Chen Feng, it seems, is someone worth serving...