Chapter Ninety-One: The Death of Yang Hai (Please Add to Favorites)

Yang Hai’s face drained of all color. He had never imagined his luck could be so poor: the ship had exploded, and he had been blasted straight into the Chuiyu River. After immense effort, he had finally managed to haul himself ashore, believing he had clawed his life back from death. Yet the moment he emerged, he saw Yang Ze.

Between the two of them, a deadly enmity had long been forged. Yang Hai had tried more than once to kill Yang Ze and suppress him. In Yu Yang City, with Yang Yuanzhen protecting him, Yang Ze had not dared to retaliate. Along the journey, with the martial academy’s people present, Yang Ze had likewise been unable to act.

But now, at a glance, the only living people in sight were Yang Ze and himself. If Yang Ze truly meant to kill him, then Yang Hai would have nowhere to turn, no one to hear his cries.

“Yang Ze, for the sake of all those years we were brothers, can’t you spare me this once? Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.” Yang Hai ignored the fact that he now had nothing left on him and shamelessly begged for mercy.

At those words, Yang Ze could not help but laugh aloud. “Yang Hai, Yang Hai, do we still have any brotherly bond between us? Ever since I was old enough to remember, you’ve been bullying me, suppressing me, even trying to kill me. And now you want me to spare you? Where did you get the face to ask that?”

Yang Hai panicked at once. He hurriedly said, “No, no, it wasn’t me. Yes, that’s right, do you remember Yang Deyi? It was that bastard. He kept tempting me, saying you were a bastard and didn’t deserve a share of the Yang family’s estate. He urged me to kill you. I was deceived by him, which is why I did something so vile, turning brother against brother. If you want to kill anyone, go kill him. Spare me.”

As he spoke, Yang Hai lowered his head and began knocking it to the ground again and again.

“You disappoint me too much. If you were even a little more like a man and admitted that all of this was your doing, I might have thought somewhat better of you. But the way you are now only makes me see you as trash. Worthless trash.”

Yang Ze slid the wooden plank beneath him a little farther forward. The distance between them was now less than five zhang. Standing on the board, he looked coldly down at Yang Hai.

Yang Hai stared at him in despair and cried out in panic, “No, you can’t kill me. I’m the eldest legitimate son of the Yang family. I’m already a disciple of Wuyang Martial Academy. I’m going to enter the academy. I’m going to become a heaven-blessed prodigy. I’m going to become an unrivaled expert. You can’t kill me. If you kill me, you’ll be expelled from the academy!”

By the end, Yang Hai had become almost hysterical. In the midst of his rambling, Yang Ze took a step forward, his toes tapping the surface of the river, the long blade on his back unsheathing itself.

A flash of steel split the air. Yang Ze’s blade swept across Yang Hai’s neck, opening a wound there, and blood burst forth in a violent spray.

Yang Hai’s eyes were wide open, filled with deep and bitter unwillingness, as he toppled into the river. The blood that gushed out dyed the water red.

Yang Ze sheathed his blade. His hand was quick, and not a trace of blood remained on it.

The bundle Yang Hai had carried was already nowhere to be seen, so Yang Ze did not bother to recover the body. He let it sink into the river, saving himself the trouble of hiding the evidence.

With Yang Hai dead, one burden in his heart was finally gone. Having severed ties with the Yang family and now killed Yang Hai as well, the karma left behind by the former Yang Ze had at last been settled. From this day on, he would be only himself.

Before he could fully savor the satisfaction of eliminating Yang Hai, Yang Ze suddenly felt someone’s gaze fixed on his back. He turned around and saw Zhang Yongxu.

A look of shock flashed through his eyes, but Yang Ze suppressed it with the fastest of reactions and put on a smile. “Greetings, Senior Brother Zhang.”

Zhang Yongxu stood on the surface of the river, the soles of his feet apparently supported by some unseen force that kept him from sinking.

Seeing Yang Ze greet him, Zhang Yongxu’s expression remained utterly unreadable, cold to the bone. He said flatly, “You killed someone?”

Yang Ze did not answer right away. Looking at Zhang Yongxu, he slowly said, “Does Senior Brother think I killed someone?”

“Your blade technique is very fast. For a low-level secular martial artist, being able to cultivate swordsmanship like that is no easy feat.” Zhang Yongxu did not answer Yang Ze. Instead, he said this.

By now, Yang Ze understood that Zhang Yongxu had seen everything. He had been too careless, underestimating Zhang Yongxu’s abilities. He had not expected to act so quickly and still be seen.

But he did not regret it. If Yang Hai did not die, Yang Ze would never be at ease. After all, so many times, the one Yang Hai had wanted dead was him. Keeping such a man around would only leave future trouble. Yang Hai had had to die before entering the academy.

“So you’re not going to argue?” Zhang Yongxu asked again when Yang Ze remained silent.

“Since Senior Brother has already seen it, why keep asking me? I just don’t know how Senior Brother intends to deal with this matter,” Yang Ze said calmly, showing no panic at being exposed.

Seeing how composed Yang Ze was, a subtle change passed through Zhang Yongxu’s icy expression, though it quickly disappeared.

“I was originally going to arrest you and report you to the elders so they could deal with you according to the academy’s rules. After all, Yang Hai did pass the examination and now counts as a disciple of our academy. Since you killed him, that makes it a disciple killing a fellow disciple, and the rules naturally apply. But now, I have a completely different idea.”

“What idea does Senior Brother have?” Yang Ze asked.

“I can see that it wasn’t easy for you to reach your current level of cultivation. I’ll give you a chance. As long as you can take one palm strike from me at one-tenth of my strength, I can pretend I saw nothing today and let you off. But if you fail to take it and die beneath my palm…”

“Then it would simply be my bad luck, and I could not blame Senior Brother,” Yang Ze cut in.

“Good. Very good. You’ve got some spirit. So you’re agreeing?” A teasing smile appeared on Zhang Yongxu’s face.

“At this point, do I have any better choice?” Yang Ze understood that this was his final chance. If he were taken into the academy by Zhang Yongxu, his fate would surely be miserable.

A mere nominal disciple was of no consequence to Wuyang Martial Academy. If he died, so be it. What use was there in keeping him?

Thus the method Zhang Yongxu proposed was indeed the best available now, and also Yang Ze’s last chance.

He drew the blade from behind him and took it in hand. Standing on the wooden board as the river currents shifted beneath him, his body swayed slightly, but he still closed his eyes. In his mind rose one scene after another from the Black Tiger Blade Technique, and his spirit and blade gradually merged into one.

The instant they fused, Yang Ze’s aura changed. Seeing this, a glint appeared in Zhang Yongxu’s eyes.

Yet Zhang Yongxu still slowly raised his right hand. Force moved through the meridians within his body, gathering little by little in his right palm until a crushing pressure had fully taken shape.

As for Yang Ze, feeling the oppressive force before him, he placed both hands on the hilt of his blade. His true energy circulated, and a tremor seemed to ripple from the blade. He was gathering his momentum, preparing to unleash the strongest strike of his life.

But just as Zhang Yongxu was about to send that palm strike flying, a thunderous explosion suddenly erupted over the Chuiyu River, shattering the aura both men had built up.

Yang Ze’s eyes flew wide as he looked toward the direction of the Redwater Black Python. He saw nothing there except surging waves and monstrous billows crashing toward him.

The waves came faster than expected, but even faster than the waves was the shockwave.

Ring upon ring of shockwaves spread out from Elder Ma’s direction, sweeping in all directions. They reached Yang Ze and Zhang Yongxu before the waves did.

The moment the roar sounded, Zhang Yongxu had already unleashed his protective force, shielding himself. He also reached out to seize Yang Ze, but Yang Ze reacted first, throwing himself flat against the wooden board and narrowly avoiding the grasp.

In that split second, the shockwave struck. Zhang Yongxu met it head-on.

His protective force was instantly blasted apart by the shockwave. Yang Ze saw Zhang Yongxu’s body hurled backward, and then a wave crashed down, swallowing both of them whole.

Only a tremendous force pressing down upon him remained. Yang Ze could not resist at all, and his body was slammed into the riverbed.

Once in the water, he had no chance to rise. The Chuiyu River had become a frenzy of waves, and his body was tossed about by wave after wave, battered endlessly from every side.

Yang Ze was holding his breath at this point, but the repeated impacts were so savage that he felt as though his body itself would be torn apart by them.

One wave after another surged in his face. His body was driven far, far beneath the water, and he had no idea where he was being carried. After enduring dozens of such collisions, he could no longer hold on and fell unconscious.

At the same time, Elder Ma and Elder Wen had already suffered numerous wounds. Both were in a miserable state, their auras having plunged to their lowest point.

Yet the Redwater Black Python had vanished at that moment.

“At last we’ve driven off this beast. Junior Brother, hurry and search for the disciples. If any of them are still alive, then even if we preserve the inheritance shard and the beast crystal, the academy master will still punish us severely.” Elder Ma had no time to rest and immediately began searching the river for the disciples.

Yang Ze, now unconscious, had even his awareness sink into a blurred state.

In that haze, he felt the world around him grow icy cold. Only at his chest was there a tiny point of warmth. It was that warmth alone that kept his consciousness from fading away completely.

Yet as time passed, even that last fragment of warmth seemed on the verge of vanishing.

Just as the cold around him was about to engulf him entirely, Yang Ze’s consciousness suddenly jolted. It was as if something had struck him, and in that instant, the dim haze of awareness snapped clear.

He opened his eyes wide and immediately felt seawater surging into his head. In his groggy state, something behind him seized him and hauled him upward toward the surface.