Chapter 18: A Bloody Battle

Within the forest, Su Chen ran like he was on fire.

He knew that he had gotten himself into big trouble this time. Having heard the other person’s secrets, they would definitely not just simply let him off the hook.

Lin Xie was a second-generation disciple of the Lin Clan. Although he was only a branch descendant, he had still entered the Qi Drawing Realm. In addition, even if Su Chen’s eyes had completely recovered, he was still not an Origin Qi Scholar’s match, not to mention his current blindness.

Su Chen had seen the attacks of an Origin Qi Scholar. They were not existences on the same plane of thought as a regular martial scholar. They could really use Origin Energy to release attacks that exceeded the physical limits of the human body.

He must think of a way to get out of danger!

Su Chen yelled loudly in his heart as he ran furiously.

However, the more he panicked the more he confused he became. Although he could see the trees themselves, his eyes had no way of seeing the tree roots beneath his feet.

A tree root that had suddenly appeared caused Su Chen’s body to go flying, leaving him flat on his face.

Just as he wanted to crawl back onto his feet, a foot had already landed on his back.

Lin Xie’s grating and cold voice sounded out, “Run, keep on running! Why did you stop running? I want to see how quickly a blind person can run.”

“Perhaps you should see how quickly I can hit!” Su Chen clenched his teeth and let out a low growl, using his elbow to smash backwards.

However, in the end there was still a foot on his back. Both the power and angle of this elbow were all doomed to be limited. Lin Xie blocked Su Chen’s elbow attack with a casual grab. However, a wrathful light ignited in his eyes, “Hit back? You actually dare to hit back?”

A Body Tempering Stage blind man actually dared to retaliate against him instead of bitterly pleading for mercy!?

This sent Lin Xie into a rage.

He grabbed Su Chen’s right hand and applied some force. With a “crack”, Su Chen’s right hand fractured into two.

“Ah!” Su Chen let out a pained scream.

Lin Xie continued to lift Su Chen off the ground. His right hand glowed with a faint light before forming a fist and smashing into Su Chen’s midsection.

This punch was nothing if not powerful. Su Chen felt like his entire being was going to split in two.

“How is it, my Mysterious Iron Fists are pretty good, huh? This is my Origin Energy Skill, and I only used three-tenths of my strength. If I were to truly use all my force, your small body would be in pieces!” Lin Xie darkly chuckled.

Origin Energy Skills was the biggest difference between an Origin Qi Scholar and a regular martial scholar.

The same fist techniques, when used by Origin Qi Scholars, would have surpass those by martial artists by many folds simply because they were supplemented with the strength of Origin Energy.

This technique of applying Origin Energy to skills became known as the Origin Energy Skills, or Origin Skills.

There were many kinds of Origin Skills, each with their own unique aspects. Naturally, their comparative strengths and hierarchies also differed. Lin Xie’s Mysterious Iron Fist Origin Energy Skill was without a doubt one of the lowest grade techniques where some didn’t even consider it as a Origin Skill. By their estimation, only only abilities that surpassed what was humanly possible, including flying, invisibility, or the control of fire could be considered Origin Skills. Skills like the Mysterious Iron Fist that even regular martial artists could use at best could be considered skills that had been augmented with Origin Energy. At best, they could be named Battle Skills.

Regardless, whether one called them Origin Skills or Battle Skills, they were all more than enough to deal with a Body Tempering Su Chen. An attack with only three-tenths power was more than enough to suppress an all-out attack from Su Chen.

However, even as his life hung from Lin Xie’s hands, Su Chen weakly whispered, “It seems as if there’s nothing great about it.”

Lin Xie’s expression changed, “You certainly have guts! Then I’ll just give you another one.”

Another fist smashed onto Su Chen’s body; the force of that heavy fist left Su Chen unable to stifle a cry. Unfortunately, the cry was accompanied by a large mouthful of fresh blood.

However, the direction that this fresh blood was spit in was wrong. It actually landed directly on Lin Xie, splattering all over his face.

Lin Xie rage was completely unleashed..

“You actually dare to dirty me - are you looking to die!?” Su Chen’s body was like a ragdoll as it trembled from the repeated onslaught of punches.

At this point, Lin Xie was purely venting his rage, wanting to thoroughly beat Su Chen to death. Thus, he decided not to use any Origin Energy, instead using his own martial strength to ceaselessly send out fist after fist.

Despite this, the heavy attacks of each fist were still something that Su Chen could not withstand. His vision worsened from the dizziness, and he was constantly spitting out blood.

If things were to continue in this way, he would definitely be beaten to death by Lin Xie.

At this moment, his right hand was broken, and his eyes still could not see. In addition, he was being beaten by Lin Xie and suffering serious injuries.

Even under this kind of circumstance, his mind was completely clear.

Although he could not clearly see Lin Xie, he could very clearly sense the rage and craziness that was being directed at him.

He was venting!

At the same time, Lin Xie had also lost any intention of defending himself.

But at that moment, in his eyes Su Chen had already completely lost the strength and capability to counterattack.

Even if there was, it would likely only be a very weak attack, one not even worth mentioning.

But he was wrong!

He was destined to be wrong!

Su Chen kept his eyes locked on Lin Xie even as his body was battered by the storm of fists.

He stopped sending Qi towards his chest, leaving his vital organs defenseless. Instead, he gathered all of his energy to his left hand, gradually raising it.

Lin Xie completely disregarded Su Chen’s movements. He was completely immersed in attacking Su Chen’s body. Since he had entered the Qi Gathering Stage and could release Origin Energy, he could also sense Su Chen’s physical condition. As such, he was relatively precise in controlling his strength in order to bring Su Chen the most pain while at the same time not beating him to death in one blow.

“You bastard that deserves to die, hold on a little longer. I, your father, have not finished teaching you a lesson!” Lin Xie let out an angry roar, “What genius of the Su Clan; aren’t you only just so!? Why don’t you kneel down in front of my feet and beg for me to spare you?”

“If I kneel, will you let me go?” Su Chen suddenly asked.

Lin Xie was startled for a moment before laughing, “Of course not, but it would feel great!”

“What a coincidence. It’s the same for me,” Su Chen said.

He lifted his hand.

Two of his fingers shot towards Lin Xie’s eyes like lightning.

Using every bit of meager strength he could summon!

“Ah! My eyes!” Within the small forest, an earth-shaking wail echoed.

Lin Xie’s eyeballs had actually been dug out by Su Chen.

The hand holding onto Su Chen suddenly let go, and Lin Xie unsteadily stumbled backwards. His hand covered his face, and large amounts of blood flowed between his fingers.

Su Chen, taking advantage of the moment he wasn’t being held up anymore, rolled to the ground.

With a “whoosh”, a cold intent surged above his head, and a beam of dagger light flew past his head.

Lin Xie pulled out a Cicada Dagger from behind his back, screaming madly as he waved it. “Bastard! You…. bastard! I’ll kill you!”

Dagger Qi swept through the air in waves as they flew one after the other.

Lin Xie was still crazily waving around his Cicada Dagger. There was no way he would continue to hold back, unleashing everything he had. He forced the Dagger Qi to create a criss crossing net across the forest, sending it flying forward. A wretched scream tore its way out of his throat, “I’m going to kill you!”

Lin Xie had completely gone crazy.

He had become blind!

He had actually become blind!

His eyes had been dug out by a blind person!

He had no future anymore. Everything was completely finished.

He wanted revenge, wanted to kill Su Chen.

Even if I cannot see, I am still an Origin Qi Scholar. That’s more than enough to kill you!

Lin Xie wailed in his heart even as he crazily swung his dagger.

The dagger strikes wove a net in the air as they flew across the forest. Even though Su Chen continued to dodge, his eyesight was still lacking. He was unable to dodge one of them, and dagger Qi had already brushed past his body, leaving a frightening wound on his midsection.

“Mmph.” Su Chen let out a grunt.

When Lin Xie heard that noise, he focused his swings in Su Chen’s direction.

Whoosh whoosh!

Su Chen’s back and left arm each were struck by the blade.

Su Chen fell on the ground, temporarily unable to crawl back to his feet.

Not far away, Lin Xie continued to stand there crazily waving his dagger. As an Origin Qi Scholar, he already possessed an abundant supply of energy. His rage also made it so that he did not bother conserving his strength. It honestly seemed as if he would have no problem maintaining this crazy pace for a while.

Could it be that he, Su Chen, would still die in this place?

Even though he had taken advantage of his only opportunity, was he still fated to lose because of the disparity in realms?

Even though it was a blind man against another blind man, was he still not the other person’s match in the end?!

Su Chen began to bitterly laugh in his heart.

His vision was already feeling blurry and stars appeared before his eyes. He knew those stars appeared because he had already lost too much blood.

Su Chen knew that he was about to be unable to hold on for much longer.

Wait a moment!

Stars in his eyes!?

Su Chen suddenly started.

The scene before his eyes had changed!

The originally vague, hazy scene had come into focus; Su Chen’s vision was no longer obscured by a fog, instead gradually becoming clearer.

The clear, blue sky above his forehead, the floating white clouds, the towering trees near him, as well as the dark green grass and the crazy Lin Xie not far away from him.

So his face was that long; he really did look like a donkey.

Su Chen was speechless that such a pointless thought would actually surface in his brain at this critical moment. Immediately afterwards came the delayed surprise and joy.

I can see!

I CAN SEE!

Su Chen almost began to yell out loud in happiness.

The hope that he had never been willing to let go of, the recovery that he had been bitterly waiting for, the breakthrough recovery that he had anticipated, truly appeared in this moment!

Su Chen was so excited that he wanted to cry, wanted to laugh, wanted to lift his head and howl.

However, now was clearly not the time for him to be celebrating.

Even before he was able to soak up this excitement, he saw a streak of dagger light cutting its way towards him.

Fhis time, he could see it clearly; all of the dagger lights were headed in his direction.

Just before the dagger light could touch him, Su Chen activated the Snaking Mist steps. His body flew into the air as nimbly as a snake. Unfortunately, even with his newfound eyesight, he was unable to completely evade the dagger light, only avoiding the fatal one headed for this throat. The dagger light struck his chest, carving a deep wound into it and releasing a spray of blood into the air. Thankfully, Lin Xie had only entered the Qi Drawing Realm for a short period of time. For him to be able to release dagger Qi was already pretty good, but he wasn’t to the point where he could chop Su Chen in half.

Even so, stars appeared in front of Su Chen’s eyes again. However, he forcefully resisted the impulse to make a noise. Instead, he slowly backed up, escaping the range of Lin Xie’s attacks.

The recovery of his vision seemed to have caused Su Chen’s strength to recover as well.

He quietly picked up a sharp bamboo that had been sliced off, then activated the Snaking Mist Steps, making his way around to Lin Xie’s back. This was when the Snaking Mist Step’s Congealed Water Film came into use, as each of his steps were silent even though he was walking through a forest floor covered with leaves.

Now, he was a person with sight, while Lin Xie was a blind man.

Lin Xie was still crazily swinging his dagger, completely unaware that his enemy had already arrived behind him.

Goodbye!

Su Chen said in his heart as he thrust the sharp bamboo forwards.

Pu!

The sharp bamboo pierced through one side of Lin Xie’s neck and emerged from the other side.

Lin Xie’s entire body froze.

However, he had not died. His body trembled before he suddenly let out a loud shout, turning around and waving the Cicada Dagger in his hand.

Unfortunately, his movements had been completely captured in Su Chen’s vision.

Right when he swung the dagger, Su Chen had already used the Snaking Mist Steps to agilely avoid it. The Cicada Dagger had not hit Su Chen, but instead provided the impetus for the cut on Lin Xie’s neck to tear open. Lin Xie’s throat turned into a gaping maw as it spurted fresh blood like a newly exposed spring. The neck still connected to the spine had no more strength to hold up the head, and Lin Xie’s head drooped, dangling in front of his chest.

Like that, Lin Xie died.

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