I Can Devour Spirits

Chapter 182: Plum Blossom Willow Leaf Saber

It’s not just because Ximen Yong is Ximen Kankan’s father that he cannot stand idly by.

By the end of the year, he planned to participate in the selection and registration for registered disciples of the Taiyi Sect. If something happened to Ximen Yong in this assassination incident, wouldn’t his registration have to be entrusted to someone else?

Even if he wanted to entrust someone else, would anyone, like Ximen Kankan, be willing to persuade their own father to help him?

Even if willing to help, the father-son relationship must be good enough. He had heard that Jiang Qingyu and his father Jiang Heng had a very tense relationship.

All these factors prompted Duan Rong to finally decide to intervene in this matter.

Of course, more importantly, Duan Rong analyzed the strength contrast of both sides in detail within the carriage.

With his current level of the Third Level of Inner Breath and Great Success in Saber Technique, along with his Plum Blossom Needle Technique and Cloud Serpent Step, once he intervened in the battle stealthily, Duan Rong felt there was a great probability of reversing the outcome.

This was the most crucial point in Duan Rong’s decision-making.

One’s own strength is the foundation of everything.

Duan Rong returned to Liu’s House and continued standing post until midnight before sleeping.

The next morning, after breakfast, Duan Rong went to a weapon shop on West Main Street.

This weapon shop on West Main Street is the largest in Xianggu County.

Blacksmith shops usually make things like hoes, shovels, and some ordinary weapons with ease, but this weapon shop is fully scaled with as many as two or three dozen skilled blacksmiths.

Several major forces in the county, including the government office, place costly orders at this shop every year.

The Nine Provinces honor martial arts, and many profitable industries have developed around this concept.

Weapon trading is naturally one of them.

Duan Rong came to this weapon shop to buy some weapons like flying daggers or throwing knives.

After all, unless it’s a life-or-death situation, it’s best not to use the Plum Blossom Needle carelessly anymore.

In the case of Jie Lei, even Jie Daohan had dug up the Corpse Rot Poison, let alone hidden weapons like flying needles. Although he collected the fired flying needles from the scene, truly skilled individuals could likely deduce what he used from traces.

Duan Rong lingered at the stall for throwing weapons in the weapon shop for a long time before finally settling on the Willow Leaf Saber.

These willow leaf sabers, used as throwing knives, are only one-third the size of a throwing spear, barely larger than a real willow leaf.

This saber is small in form, but with moderate thickness, it doesn’t appear thin.

Through repeated selection, Duan Rong determined that this flying knife was the most suitable for him, with the best feel.

Big shops are indeed big shops; although the price is higher, the service is good, and they are well-equipped.

If you buy forty willow leaf sabers, they come with a knife pouch.

The knife pouch is like a belt, with openings inside and outside, allowing willow leaf sabers to be placed on both sides, twenty on the inner layer, twenty on the outer layer, staggered, for a total of forty.

When Duan Rong walked out of the weapon shop, his waist was wrapped with a knife pouch like a girdle.

Duan Rong returned to Liu’s House, closed the gate, and suddenly flashed his figure in the courtyard...

In the midst of moving through the courtyard, there gradually appeared afterimages behind him...

Duan Rong leaped, slanted, turned, or sidestepped, moving as swiftly as a phantom, and as he flashed his figure, plum blossom afterimages began to emerge from his hands...

One after another, the willow leaf sabers shot out from the plum blossom afterimages, with a barely audible whooshing sound cutting through the air... akin to the bursting of bubbles in water... that barely audible "puff" sound was the silent whisper of nature, not perceivable by human ears.

After achieving the Third Level of Inner Breath, Duan Rong’s Flying Knife Skill became even more phantom-like, devoid of the short, sharp whooshing sounds, only followed by the quiet rupture of bubbles, like a voiceless phantom reaping souls...

As the flying knives passed, willow leaves fluttered from the treetops, only to be pinned to the trunk by the following knives...

Duan Rong rapidly emptied the flying knives from the pouch, executing it smoothly.

After all, these willow leaf sabers are flying knives forged by the weapon shop, and as the saying goes, a specialist excels in their field. The knife’s tail had slip-resistant patterns, clearly polished, not only aesthetically pleasing but also offering a great hand feel once held.

Truly incomparable to embroidery needles.

However, flying needles are ultimately slender and nearly invisible, making them the most stealthy and sinister among hidden weapons, killing silently.

Duan Rong did not find any hidden weapons like flying needles in the weapon shop.

"Perhaps this world’s forging craft can’t yet produce slip-resistant patterns on the tail of something as slender as a flying needle," Duan Rong speculated as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, his gaze flickering.

Then Duan Rong suddenly flashed, retrieving all the willow leaf sabers embedded in the willow trees.

Afterward, Duan Rong practiced several more times until he felt very proficient, then put away the knife pouch.

After practicing with the flying knives, Duan Rong made some preparations, then went to a vehicle shop to rent a horse. He rode out through the East City Gate; Black Tiger Ridge was still some distance from Xianggu County. Duan Rong started riding at full speed in the morning, and by dusk, he estimated that he was five or six miles from Black Tiger Ridge.

While escorting goods to Ruyang Prefecture, he would pass by Black Tiger Ridge, so Duan Rong was quite familiar with the route’s length.

Seeing nightfall approaching, Duan Rong tied his foaming Chestnut Horse by the roadside in a wilderness area.

Then Duan Rong retrieved night clothes from his backpack, put them on, and used a black cloth to cover his mouth and nose. He neatly folded his changed clothes back into the package, then soared upward like an ape climbing a tree, tying the package to the treetop of a nearby birch.

Duan Rong set his foot on the birch, and upon jumping, he floated to the ground like a willow leaf riding the wind from the treetop.

Duan Rong then displayed his skills, leaping through the wilderness like a ghost. The master-level Cloud Serpent Step was fully unleashed, much faster than the Chestnut Horse, which was already exhausted and foaming at the mouth.

In about a stick of incense’s time, Duan Rong reached Black Tiger Ridge.

By now, night had already fallen, and the ridge was pitch black, with not a finger visible. Upon reaching the edge of Black Tiger Ridge, Duan Rong slowed his pace, and simultaneously, his Divine Sense abruptly extended.

His projected Divine Sense immediately enveloped the surrounding hundred meters with him at the center.

Hiding among the trees beside the official road, Duan Rong moved his steps slowly, ensuring he made no noise.

After walking a certain distance, his Divine Sense suddenly detected two people tying a thick hemp rope full of iron thorns to a tree beside them.

The two men were also dressed in black, and they were at the edge of a hundred meters from him.

Upon sensing these two, Duan Rong immediately stopped.

Although he was now in the pitch-black wilderness, with his Divine Sense projected, complemented by the Plum Blossom Willow Leaf Saber, he was virtually invincible.

Yet, Duan Rong was aware that Huang Gaizu might already be among these people.

If he reaped souls in the dark, he might expose his position, and with Huang Gaizu’s excellent Lightweight Skill, once targeted, it would be troublesome.

The best plan was to conceal himself here and secretly wait for Ximen Yong’s group to arrive.

At that time, when Huang Gaizu and Yuan Shouzhi engaged, it would be his chance to strike.

Upon completing his train of thought, Duan Rong dashed and hid within the lush crown of a nearby tree, and at the moment he concealed himself, he retracted his Divine Sense.

Extended periods of Divine Sense Projection would be unbearable for his Divine Soul.

Now, he needed to retract his Divine Sense to conserve his Divine Soul’s energy, ready to rely on Divine Sense Projection combined with the Cloud Serpent Step and Plum Blossom Willow Leaf Saber when he struck.