Why do I have so many masters?

After An Zhaofeng closed his eyes, the young man withdrew the joyous smile from his face, which had inadvertently revealed a sinister killing intent. With a blank expression, he felt comfortable, flicked his sword with his finger, producing a clang, then slightly tilted the blade to look at his reflection on the sword, frowning slightly.

"Could it be that I actually resemble a woman?"

"That shouldn't be the case..."

He lowered his gaze to his own plain clothes, simple to the extreme, clearly just the attire of a boy from a typical farmyard. Frowning, he had only intended to pose as some 'shepherd boy', never expecting to be mistaken for a girl, leaving him no choice but to go along with it.

Wondering if it was due to his long hair, flowing like a ponytail, he raised the short sword in his hand, ready to cut some off, but as the Sword Edge touched his warm, gentle hand, he couldn't bear to do it.

He looked again at An Zhaofeng, whose eyes remained open in death, feeling a rise of disgust, and couldn't help but spit on him, saying:

"You fool with eyes yet cannot see, blind man."

"Who is the girl?! It must be your lust... it must be your blind eyes that made you see a man as a woman."

"May your whole family, young and old, be women."

"Cough...pheh!"

Feeling satisfied after speaking, he sheathed his sword and hid it behind his back, leisurely pacing about, showing no urgency to leave. Instead, he was content admiring the tranquil scenery of the valley, liking its serene nature but displeased at the thought of others visiting in the future.

Thinking for a moment, he suddenly drew his sword and, with a sweep of Sword Qi, sliced through the vines, carving a line of words on the stone wall, then re-sheathed the sword, nodding slightly in satisfaction after looking it over.

He couldn't be bothered with the fool who couldn't see, but seeing the grill for roasting fish on the ground irritated him, so he controlled it with Inner Qi and sent it flying, not even sparing the small fish bones. Having restored the valley's peace, he finally felt satisfied.

After playing around for a while on his own, he left, ignoring the corpse, knowing that even if he returned much later, perhaps years later, he might never come back, so he was unconcerned.

His earlier actions were on a whim, and with that whim gone, he couldn't be bothered to care further.

He leaped into the air, lightly tapping twice on the rock face, not wasting any Qi Mechanism, proceeding directly with Lower Third Rank movement technique, extremely swift, without the ruthlessness of swordsmanship or martial arts, walking with hands behind his back, appearing ethereal, frowning slightly, muttering to himself:

"Who should I seek next..."

With these words, his movement technique unfolded, and he disappeared far away.

The valley was left with only the dead-eyed Commander of Troops from the Sword Forging Valley, and the gradually rising sound of insects, intermittent, the wild charm of nature couldn't be more than this. After less than half an hour, the sound of insects quieted down again.

From afar, a figure rapidly approached like a moving star, exhibiting advanced Light Body Technique, stopping on a piece of Bluestone protruding from above the valley, carefully and vigilantly looking down.

His right hand rested on a knife, his left hand holding a small incense burner, engraved with an intricate scene of Exotic Beasts contesting for an Embroidered Ball. Wisps of green smoke drifted out as if guided by invisible strings, directionally moving into the valley.

Though it floated lightly, it remained unbroken; after about ten finger-flicks, it coalesced into a long line, untouched by the wind. His eyes brightened, displaying joy, whispering:

"Got it, right here!"

He kept his voice very low, filled with caution, and placed the incense burner on Qingyan, clearly valuing it greatly, then drew his knife. Just before he acted, he paused briefly. He had a large, conspicuous nose, almost twice the size of an average person.

At this moment, his nose twitched twice, his expression changed dramatically. He suddenly lunged forward two steps, in disbelief, saying:

"Dead, dead ball?! "

"Such a strong smell, and this chaotic Qi, stabbed in the throat with one sword? Who's enemy is this, and why are they messing with my business? If the body has already been searched, what will old Sun do?"

"What kind of person is this! Ruining my business!"

"I can't live like this!!!"

At this moment, on this rock face, at least fifty yards above the ground, coupled with the dense trees and layers of herbal scents covering below, the odor was complicated, yet he remained unaffected, accurately identifying the scent of blood.

With a marvelous Dharma, he not only determined the person below was dead from the bloody scent but also accurately guessed how they died, a skill even Martial Arts masters struggle to possess, evidently an expert with rare skills from Jianghu.

He groaned repeatedly in complaint, turning left and right, suddenly stamping his foot fiercely, about to plunge into the valley, but stopped abruptly. Relying only on the tip of his right foot on the Qingyan, he maintained balance without strain, unaffected by any Qi Mechanism fluctuation, purely using skilled movement technique.

He took a deep breath, spun in the air, fell back onto Qingyan, immediately grabbed the incense burner, dispersed the smoke, twisted the Embroidered Ball, engaging a hidden mechanism that rotated, covering the engravings to prevent the loss of its medicinal properties.

He grinned and exclaimed twice, "What a great treasure, what a great treasure," and stuffed it into his bosom. Then, moving like an ant crawling in a serpentine path, he displayed the Gecko Wall-Climbing Skill, descending along the wall.

In the Jianghu, skills like Gecko Wall-Climbing Skill and Qinggong of flying over grass number in the hundreds, and there are at least seventy to ninety. Most are mere rubbish meant to fool hot-blooded young men who don't understand martial arts. Taken out into the Jianghu, they'd only cause others to laugh.

Yet, when this person displayed it, there was a sense of making light of heavy. Pure muscle contractions along the spine allowed him to adhere to the wall as he moved downward, not only agile but completely silent. As he descended, if martial skill hierarchy in the Jianghu had ancestral origins, this technique would be the ancestor of the Gecko Wall-Climbing Skill.

He always prided himself on this skill. As he 'swam' downward with this method, there was no abnormality at first. He even had the leisure to use green vines to conceal himself.

But after descending several more feet, the once densely woven vines suddenly broke. Immediately, he felt a sharp pain in his spine, as if thousands of steel knives pierced and twisted into his body, making him cry out softly in agony and fall a few feet.

Then he inhaled sharply, his body suspending in mid-air, dog-paddling as in water, using hands and feet to extend a few feet. When he landed on the ground, he rolled forward to dissipate the force, holding a blade in one hand and staying alert, thinking he had fallen into a trap and that someone was already waiting on the side to capture him.

At the same time, he wiped his left hand on his back, finding it covered in blood. He grimaced in pain, looked up, and saw no ambush or master. Before him, several dozen feet away, a stone wall, the vines cut by a single sword. The green stone protruded from the wall, and he hadn't been able to see it clearly.

On the stone wall was a line of writing, not well-done but filled with intertwining sword qi and killing intent. It was a murderous skill of the highest order, hidden, wounding him without notice. If not for his ability to escape, he might have been shredded by the sword qi, dying neatly.

This oddly handsome man was fearful yet extremely curious. His gaze skimmed over it, reading aloud:

"Xue Qingjun was here; Youfrost Valley is mine."

"Beyond the limits of the human realm, trespass if you dare risking your life."

"Hiss... so domineering."

The man inhaled sharply, his mouth twitching involuntarily. He glanced left and right but saw no sign of the master named Xue Qingjun. Then he straightened up completely, rushed forward a few steps to a corpse on the ground, pulled back the white cloth, and saw An Zhaofeng, who had died with wide eyes, prompting another sharp intake of breath, and said:

"Such ruthless means, such straightforward swordsmanship."

"How the hell did such a ferocious god appear in the Jianghu again?! I wonder how this guy provoked Xue Qingjun to die so miserably."

He shook his head and sighed twice, seemingly regretful, lamenting and mourning. Yet his hands moved skillfully over the corpse, quickly patting and searching An Zhaofeng's body. When he found a Jade Pendant, his eyes gleamed with joy, pulling at it outward but failing to remove it.

It turned out that although An Zhaofeng was dead, his grip remained tight on the plaque, used to store the Spiritual Rhyme Mechanism. The peculiar-looking man pulled several times to no avail, glancing at the stone wall. He felt a terrifying dread, fearing the return of that sinister god.

Not daring to delay, he drew his short sword and, with a quick chop, severed the fingers of An Zhaofeng gripping the Jade Pendant.

Then he stood up abruptly. While major events require composure, how could he remain calm at this moment?

His rash rising disordered his clothes, revealing an inner lining. Though plainly dressed outwardly, inside was a luxurious garment, white with embroidered azure dragons, vividly lifelike, impressively majestic. In such thick vegetation, it seemed a dragon might burst from underwater, unforgettable at first sight.

Confirming this was indeed the item he sought, he paid no mind to his disheveled clothing, leapt up, and fled as if escaping, sprinting five or six hundred li before entering a city. Feeling safe, he obtained Silver Coin from wealthy households on the street and rented a guest room.

Drinking and eating meat needs no elaboration, nor spending several taels of silver to hire the errand boy to fetch two plump women for company from the brothel.

After nightfall, alone in his room, he studied the translucent Jade Pendant by candlelight, feeling the Qi Mechanism Spiritual Rhyme within. He sighed, his entire being relaxing.

By now, he had changed out of his outer garments, inside still dressed plainly—in a black vigorous attire, with a sleeve attached to the right arm, on the white wide sleeve embroidered a pattern of Azure Dragon surfacing, quite imposing.

He clasped the Jade Pendant, exhaled a deep breath, and murmured:

"This is good, this is good."

"An entire piece of Jade Marrow, how valuable this is!"

Then he closed his eyes briefly.

"With this, I can exchange with the master for the second form of Shaolin's Maha-cakra Finger Technique..."

"Taking on this task wasn't a loss, wasn't a loss..."

PS: Presenting today's first update...

Three thousand one hundred words