Wuxia: Starting Off With 60 Years of Inner Strength

”And who might you be?”

Gu Mosheng looked at the man before him, his head already starting to ache.

He’d only come to Feiyun Stronghold tonight, so why were all these uninvited guests showing up?

First, there was Li Tianxin, a youth in black with a mysterious background who seemed to know all their secrets.

And now, some bladesman had appeared out of nowhere.

’When did he hide himself nearby?’

’How much of our conversation did he hear?’

Jiang Ran smiled faintly, ignoring Gu Mosheng’s question. Instead, he glanced at Li Tianxin.

”How are you holding up?”

But Li Tianxin was frantically slapping at Jiang Ran’s hand.

His face was turning purple, his tongue was lolling out, and his eyes were bulging slightly.

He was breathing in but not out.

Jiang Ran silently loosened his grip.

”Oh... My mistake. My apologies, my apologies.”

There was some apology in his voice, just not much.

Li Tianxin couldn’t help but glare daggers at Jiang Ran.

”You did that on purpose...”

’Grabbing me by the collar from behind, choking the life out of me, and then asking how I’m doing?’

’Am I supposed to be grateful you haven’t silenced me for good?’

”It was an accident,” Jiang Ran explained.

”...Why did you reveal yourself?”

Li Tianxin gave Jiang Ran a cold look.

”They didn’t know you were hiding nearby. After I died, you could have spread the word of what happened today... Perhaps that would have been enough to keep Cangzhou Prefecture safe.”

”But now... you’re just one more person throwing your life away.”

Jiang Ran glanced at him and shook his head gently before his gaze shifted to Gu Mosheng and his men.

”Now then, I also have a few questions for you gentlemen. I wonder if you’d be so kind as to enlighten me?”

Gu Mosheng’s expression darkened.

”Kill him!”

Several men in black exchanged a look and immediately attacked.

Whether one person stumbled upon their business tonight or two, the only solution was to kill them and leave no witnesses.

But to be safe, Gu Mosheng didn’t rush in blindly this time.

Before he fought Li Tianxin, he never would have imagined that someone so young had mastered the Great Transformation Divine Blade technique.

If he hadn’t used the Blood Cauldron Scripture at the critical moment...

...he would have been dead long ago.

Now, he planned to observe this newcomer’s style first...

But in the time it took for him to take a single step back and look up again, the subordinates who had charged forward had all frozen in place.

The techniques they were about to unleash, brimming with Inner Strength, were all suspended in mid-air.

The young man in the center of the clearing slowly sheathed his blade with a soft CLICK.

As if on command, the men in black collapsed. Only then did their heads go rolling across the ground.

Gu Mosheng was dumbfounded.

’What kind of blade technique is that?’

’He hadn’t seen a thing, so how could this have happened?’

But Jiang Ran was already stepping over the corpses, walking toward Gu Mosheng.

Gu Mosheng’s face changed. Without a second thought, he activated the Blood Cauldron Scripture within him. Strands of blood-red True Qi gathered around his body, and a crimson glow flickered deep in his eyes.

But when he looked up again, Jiang Ran was gone. So was his blade.

He saw only a flash of light!

The light seemed to pierce his eyes and sway his consciousness. When he came to his senses, his body felt lighter than ever before.

He turned his head and saw that both his arms had vanished.

A scream was still caught in his throat, but before it could escape, he saw the glint of a blade by his feet.

Stunned for a moment, he felt a hand grab the back of his neck.

The next moment, his two legs flopped to the ground, but he himself didn’t fall, held up by the hand on his neck.

In a mere instant, before he could even use his martial arts, before he could unleash the Blood Cauldron Scripture he relied upon...

...the man had severed both his arms and legs.

The hand on the back of his neck tightened. The next moment, Gu Mosheng was dragged forward by it, forced to look at Jiang Ran.

The young man smiled.

”From what I overheard, this Blood Cauldron Scripture sounds pretty terrifying.”

”I originally didn’t plan to treat Gang Leader Gu this way. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to seal acupoints. And if I used ordinary methods to restrain you, I was worried you might break free with your Divine Techniques.”

”After thinking it over, this was the only way I could feel at ease. I truly am sorry.”

Jiang Ran even had the gall to look shy... as if he were genuinely embarrassed.

”You...”

Gu Mosheng’s eyes were bloodshot, not from channeling his Demon Skill, but from utter despair.

He had never imagined that he, too, would one day face such a hopeless situation.

Jiang Ran didn’t pay him any more mind. With a flick of his hand, he tossed him next to Li Tianxin.

Li Tianxin wasn’t dead yet, just completely drained of strength.

Seeing Gu Mosheng land in front of him, the two stared at each other. Li Tianxin, finally remembering to close his jaw that had dropped in shock, spoke.

”Gang Leader Gu, are you alright?”

’Are you blind?!’

Gu Mosheng wished he could devour the man before him alive.

’Which of your eyes sees anything that’s ”alright” about me?’

But the intense pain only allowed him to make weak grunting sounds.

Seeing Gu Mosheng’s miserable state, Li Tianxin felt a lingering fear. He looked back at Jiang Ran, a hint of terror now in his eyes.

He saw that Jiang Ran had already sheathed his blade.

He was taking out a small vial, opening it, and sprinkling a powder from within onto the corpses.

A SIZZLING sound immediately rose, accompanied by a foul stench. The bodies shriveled and dissolved before his very eyes, and even their clothes melted into puddles of liquid.

The liquid soaked into the soil, leaving no trace behind.

After he was done, Jiang Ran clapped the dust from his hands.

”This ’Effort Saver’ really does save effort.”

”Effort Saver” was the name of the medicine Jiang Ran was using.

Although it could dissolve bones and melt flesh, the old drunkard who gave it to him didn’t call it ”Corpse Melting Powder” or anything like that. He just called it Effort Saver.

Because you didn’t have to dig a hole or move a body, it saved a lot of effort.

Jiang Ran thought it was a great name, very down-to-earth.

It was, however, his first time using this particular medicine.

Walking back over to Li Tianxin and Gu Mosheng, Jiang Ran took out another vial and asked Li Tianxin:

”Can you still move?”

Li Tianxin nodded.

”I can manage...”

”Then help me seal his acupoints to stop the bleeding.”

”...”

Li Tianxin’s expression soured. ’And here I thought you were asking if I could move so you could help me leave...’

After letting out a long breath, he forced himself to focus, pressing several acupoints near the stumps of Gu Mosheng’s four limbs.

Seeing that the bleeding was no longer as severe, Jiang Ran began applying medicine to the wounds.

After that, he stripped off Gu Mosheng’s black clothes and tore them into strips.

He used some of the strips to bandage Gu Mosheng’s wounds and the rest to bundle up the weapons that couldn’t be destroyed, which he then slung onto his back.

Finally, he cleaned up the blood Gu Mosheng had spilled.

Only then did he grab the front of Gu Mosheng’s robes with one hand, place his other hand on Li Tianxin’s shoulder, and stride away.