At the beginning, the Chongyun Blood Nail only had the power of a small-caliber pistol bullet, but now it has probably reached the level of a rifle.
"My energy and blood have been almost used up..." She prepared to go back to the spring to rest.
The warrior's Qi and blood endurance is quite poor. Even though she has used the Life-Taking Spell many times, in a fight she can only use about thirty Qi and blood sword techniques at most.
With ordinary hidden power, I'm afraid I can only use twelve or thirteen moves.
If one is old and his qi and blood have passed their peak, it is considered good if he can use five or six moves... This is true even for martial artists with Hua Jin.
"Perhaps this is why a warrior cannot defeat an entire army alone?" Xi Heng said to himself.
"Even a Hua Jin master can only maintain an advantage in the first ten moves against an army. Even if his moves have a wide range and can kill dozens of armored soldiers at once, after ten moves, he will no longer have any Qi, blood, or strength in his body, and will still be slaughtered by spearmen and crossbowmen..."
"If one could have endless energy and blood, or if one could recover as one uses it... perhaps a Huajin warrior would be able to fight against an entire army of enemies alone."
Xi Heng walked slowly, thinking in his heart.
On the way, suddenly a black figure came towards her from a distance.
The girl shifted her attention from her thoughts back to reality and looked at the person who came.
Surprisingly, this person was not Senior Sister Hong Miao, nor was he anyone from the Hongxian Sword Academy.
The other person was wearing a veiled hat with a black veil left behind him. His face was slightly hidden by the brim of the hat. The first thing you noticed was his graceful lines like jade carvings, his relatively thin chin, and his light pink lips.
Xi Heng stopped.
The figure in front of her was staring at her with calm, dark eyes beneath the brim of her hat.
"What's the matter?"
When faced with this strange stranger, Xi Heng turned back into the cold and indifferent person he was when he was the emperor.
"Zhao Xiheng, the legitimate daughter of Zhao Qianyuan." The person in front of him called out her name softly: "You said that Senior Sister Qianqiu was murdered by Zhao Qianyuan. Do you have any evidence?"
Xi Heng frowned, having never expected the other party to ask this.
"No?" The person in front of him still had a calm tone.
She gradually remembered that this person was the female swordsman who came to the Sword Academy in a black carriage two days ago.
She replied: "I heard it directly from Zhao Qianyuan's mouth. Where is the physical evidence?"
The other party just turned around and left.
"Wait a minute." Xi Heng still hadn't figured out the current situation: "Who are you? Why are you asking this?"
The other party turned around, paused for a moment and said:
"You and Zhao Qianyuan seem to have a grudge, so it should be okay for me to tell you. I am a member of the 'Blood Son', an organization founded by the survivors of the original Bloodline Sword Sect. Now, we are secretly accepting murder and intelligence orders in the underworld. If you need it, you can go to some big cities or Qinyunxuan in Huangmei Mountain to find the shopkeeper who calls him Blood Son. The price is different for different people to be killed."
“……”Xi Heng blinked.
"The Assassin's Order?"
The other person nodded.
"Who are you here to kill?"
"Xuezi will do his best to avenge Senior Sister Qianqiu."
………………
Chapter 52: Dark Clouds
"Revenge for Zhao Qianqiu... doesn't that mean killing Zhao Qianyuan?" Xi Heng blinked. This development was completely beyond her expectations.
"The emperor is also a flesh and blood body. Even if his head falls off and his heart is pierced, he will die." The other party licked his thin lips:
"We have a spy in the imperial city. She once reported that Zhao Qianyuan's Dantian was shattered and he was not allowed to practice martial arts. Now he is just an ordinary mortal. Maybe it is easier than assassinating the injured Huajin."
"It is indeed very easy to kill him..." Xi Heng held his forehead with his hand:
"But he is barely a pillar supporting the Great Zhao. If he is cut down, the Great Zhao might become even more chaotic."
"This has nothing to do with us."
The other party said briefly and turned away.
But...Xi Heng still wants to live a few more years of peace.
After two years, Zhao Qianyuan will wake up from his fantasy of becoming an immortal and start to govern the country seriously. Maybe he can really extend the stability of the Great Zhao for more than ten years...
If one wants to seek immortality or martial arts without encountering all kinds of troubles, it is better for the Great Zhao to be peaceful.
After thinking for a moment, Xi Heng looked up, only to see that the mysterious female swordsman had disappeared.
After scanning the area but failing to find the other person, she could only shake her head:
"Forget it. These people may not succeed. After all, there are two Huajin masters protecting the palace..."
"It doesn't matter even if it succeeds. It doesn't matter whether Zhao Qianyuan dies or not."
After talking to herself, she went to rest by the spring, then returned to the sword training ground to continue practicing day after day.
In the blink of an eye, time went from afternoon to dusk.
Xi Heng sheathed his sword, calmed himself down for a while, and prepared to go find Senior Sister Hong Miao for another sparring match.
But when I looked around the sword training ground, I didn't see the other person.
"Senior Sister?" she called out softly.
The senior sister did not sit by and watch her practice sword like she usually did, nor did she go to teach other junior sisters to practice...
Seeing this, Xi Heng went to the house where the other party practiced internal skills to look for him.
I knocked on the door, but no one answered, and there was no smell of incense to aid in practicing martial arts.
"Where is it..."
Today, she tried hard to overcome the two flaws that her senior sister had discovered yesterday, and she wanted her senior sister to give her more guidance.
But now I can't find the other person.
He called out softly, then walked around the flower bed and ran to the front yard of the sword courtyard.
After looking carefully, I finally saw my senior sister at the gate of the courtyard.
Xi Heng breathed a sigh of relief and took small steps closer to say hello, but he saw his senior sister walk out of the courtyard gate, help the elder of the Sword Academy outside the gate, and slowly get into a tall carriage.
After being helped to walk up, Hong Miao clasped her fists and bowed behind the carriage curtain.
In just a few seconds, the driver in front cracked the whip and urged the two black horses to walk away slowly.
Hong Miao stood in front of the empty courtyard gate for a long time, until the vehicle was far away and out of sight. Then she sighed and returned to the Sword Courtyard.
When I turned around, what I saw was Xi Heng's delicate face.
"Senior Sister, what was that just now...?"
"The elder went out for some business and has left the Sword Academy." Hong Miao hesitated for half a second and gave an official explanation.
"Are you going to do something dangerous?" Xi Heng thought of the assassin he met this afternoon.
"Who knows..." Hong Miao looked away:
"But I don't know when the elder will return. Maybe he will never come back..."
"I'm in a bad mood today, so I won't use the sword."
……
A few days after the elder left, Xi Heng and Senior Sister Hong Miao returned to their usual peaceful life.
Practice sword, eat, and sleep.
From time to time, I would visit the new sisters who had just been admitted to the hospital and teach them some moves.
Because she was the only senior sister with dark energy, and could fight back and forth with the eldest senior sister in sword duels in the sword training field every evening, Xi Heng was admired by many younger sisters. Her fame in the sword academy was almost second only to that of senior sister Hong Miao.
During breaks in sword dancing, Xi Heng would sit by the spring and drink water from Senior Sister Hong Miao's small bamboo tube. A few new junior sisters who admired her would gather around her.
Some came to ask for advice on swordsmanship, while others simply came to chat and get close to her.
Even Yan Hongji, a girl who was not particularly outgoing and sunny, would jog over and lean beside her from time to time when she was resting.
As they chatted, Hongji's cheeks turned red, and she said hesitantly:
"Sister, when Sister Hong Miao tested me earlier, she said that there was a trace of Qi flowing in my body, and that I had the possibility of entering the realm of strength, but I don't quite understand what kind of Qi it was. I vaguely seemed to be able to feel it but also seemed not to be able to... Now I don't know if it is still there. Could you please help me sense it again, Sister?"
"A sense of energy?"
Relying on the good impression he had in previous lives and the other party's high looks, Xi Heng was naturally willing to help.
"The Qi sense that Senior Sister Hong Miao mentioned should be the slight fluctuations in Qi and blood as they are first increased through training... It's not difficult to sense it."
Xi Heng obediently closed his eyes and gently touched the other person's shoulder with his left hand, causing the other person's body to tremble slightly.
Yan Hongji's face turned even redder, and she lowered her head slightly to remind him:
"Sister, you didn't press my shoulders before, did you?"
"Qi and blood flow through the meridians. There is a large meridian in the shoulder, which should be similar to pressing the Dantian."
As Xi Heng spoke, traces of blood seeped out of his hands and stained the other person's skin under his clothes.
There was an inexplicable sense of fluctuation in the other party's blood flow, but it was extremely weak and abnormal.
With such a weak Qi feeling, it should be difficult to control the Qi and blood into strength...
But she was a qualified teacher and just encouraged:
"Practice diligently for the next two and a half months, and finally take the pill I gave you. The chances of gaining strength will be quite high."
"Really?" Yan Hongji really wanted to believe it.
But she had been practicing for so long that she realized that her talent was far behind those of her senior sisters who were able to get into the game, and she knew rationally that it would be difficult for her to achieve success.
But Xi Heng had seen Yan Hongji put in the effort himself, so he was confident that it would work: "You have some very special qualities, so you will definitely be able to put in the effort."
"special?"
Xi Heng nodded and hummed, recalling the scene when Yan Hongji was in the mood in his previous life.
"The sword spirit you realized afterwards was quite elegant." She said, "The transition between your moves was extremely smooth and natural, and all the techniques were at your fingertips. Even I can't be as graceful as that."
"Huh? How did you know, Senior Sister?" The other party was quite confused.
"Because you have an outstanding appearance and temperament, you will definitely achieve great things in the future."
Xi Heng made up a completely irrelevant excuse, and then stood up to pat his dusty clothes and advised:
"Go ahead and practice. As long as you try hard enough, you will succeed.
Yan Hongji remained where she was, watching Senior Sister Xi Heng approach the sword-practicing stone again and raise her sword.
"That's totally untrue," she whispered.
However, every time she heard her senior sister praise her for being beautiful or special, she always felt happy.
do not know why.
Yan Hongji held her chin and stared at her every move quietly, whispering to herself:
"But Senior Sister has said so... I can't let her down. I have to work harder."
……
Soon, another two months passed, the chilly autumn wind had passed, and was replaced by the cold winter wind and falling snow.
"The elder hasn't come back yet." Xi Heng stood by the window of the small pavilion, quietly looking at the empty ground in front of the sword courtyard, which was dyed white by the light snow.
In the sword training ground at the back, the sounds of swords chanting and moving could be heard continuously.
"She wanted to kill the emperor to avenge Zhao Qianqiu, and she also found a killer organization formed by the descendants of the Bloodline Sword Sect... She probably won't be able to come back."
"But how could the emperor be killed so easily... The two previous times I assassinated him easily, I relied on my status as the princess of the emperor, and I was able to succeed when Zhao Qianyuan sent his guards away..."
"It's been two months, maybe Elder Hong has failed." Xi Heng withdrew his gaze.
He turned around, walked past a screen, came to the long table outside the bedroom and sat down, opening the copy of the Red Line Sword Technique on the table.
She had read the manuscript she had written down from memory so thoroughly that the pages were curled. She had read the sword techniques in it dozens of times without missing a single word. She had memorized all the moves in her mind and practiced them into instinct.
