420 The Blade That Did Not Fall

Since the opening of the battle, this had been the first chance that Wang Po'sblade had to approach Zhu Luo. It was precisely at the moment where Zhu Luo had been sneak attacked, his bodyheavily wounded, his phantasm crumbled away, and he was forced out of his Moonin Water technique and back into his original body. The blade rose up in the storm, incredibly straight and incredibly powerful. Wang Po simply didn't care about all those things that had happened before. Heignored the bright moon in the rain, that assassin's two sneak attacks, and theunified clashing of Chen Changsheng's ten thousand swords. He just slashed downat Zhu Luo in front of him. It was like he was cutting firewood, or even more like he was settlingaccounts, performed with absolute devotion. This moment was perhaps his greatest opportunity to defeat Zhu Luo. It wasperhaps even the only opportunity he would have while he still had not steppedinto the Divine Domain. Zhu Luo raised his palm to the sky and the dark clouds obscured the moon. Nobody knew whether it would be the blade with Wang Po's full strength behindit or the palm that Zhu Luo hurriedly raised up after being heavily injuredthat would be stronger. In the next moment, still nobody knew. Because Wang Po's blade did not fall. His metal blade paused in the air above Zhu Luo's body. Zhu Luo's palm was also paused in the air. The two did not meet. The torrential rain had gradually come to a halt, but the street was stilldark and gloomy, silent beyond compare. It was like the scene had paused in time. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard. Zhu Luo stared at Wang Po in silence, but his complexion suddenly turnedabnormally pale. Countless powerful strands of Qi shot from the edge of his palm and hisclothes and dispersed into the drizzle. It was his remaining true essence after his heavy injury that he was nowforcefully dispersing. Originally, it should have rested on Wang Po's blade,but he did not expect Wang Po to actually renounce his final chance and pausehis blade in the air. With a muffled hum, Zhu Luo's true essence was completely dispersed into theair, his Qi completely given over to the world. He could not imagine that Wang Po would stay his blade because he was acompletely different person from Wang Po. Wang Po had restrained his blade not because he could calculate how thesituation would develop, nor was it because his battle sense was so powerfulthat it could pierce through those dark clouds obscuring the moon. He had doneso for a very simple reason. Zhu Luo was injured. He did not want to take advantage of Zhu Luo in his timeof difficulty. He did not care about the best opportunity. He believed that as long as hecould survive, there would be a day when he would step into the Divine Domain.And then, he would honorably defeat Zhu Luo and those other experts of theDivine Domain. Thus, Wang Po restrained his blade. And thus…Zhu Luo had suffered severe injuries, even worse than if you took LiuQing's and Chen Changsheng's injuries and added them together. Blood oozed out from the corner of his lips and flowed out from his body,flowing out faster and faster. In this world, there were many things that happened without any sort of reason. But in fact, when you examined them very carefully, there were many reasons. Under the gentle caress of the rain, the long street was silent. Both the people present on the scene and the spectators of the battle saidnothing. Seeing the scene of Zhu Luo covered in blood, it was very difficult foranybody to say anything. In these past several centuries, had anyone seen a powerful figure of theStorms of the Eight Directions lose at the hands of mortals? Was there anyone that had seen Zhu Luo, this peerless expert, so miserable, soheavily wounded? Zhu Luo's head was lowered, his long hair soaked by the rain and draped overhis shoulders. Looking at the sword in his hand, he saw that only the hiltremained. This sword of moonlight was forged from a great amount of refinedessence steel and secret silver and was incredibly tough, but now it had becomethe dust in the cracks on the walls and the ground. He lifted his head and looked through the light rain at Chen Changsheng. Heasked, "An innate sword heart?" At these words, the spectators that had been previously shocked by thatsimultaneous clashing of ten thousand swords were even more shocked. Zhu Luo then turned to Wang Po and said, "Admirable." In the entire continent, the number of people that could make Zhu Luo say theword 'admirable' was not more than five. Yet he had said it to Wang Po. Becausein this battle today, Wang Po had displayed a powerful will and a battlestrength that far surpassed his age. It was also because of the fact that WangPo’s final strike that did not fall was actually far more powerful than if hisblade had actually struck. Lastly, Zhu Luo turned to that end of the street where the blood-coveredassassin stood in front of the horse. Today in Xunyang City, the three people that defended Su Li had all beenoutstanding. If one were to discuss their contribution to injuring Zhu Luo,Chen Changsheng contributed roughly twenty percent, Wang Po's final strike thatdid not fall was fifty percent, and this assassin called Liu Qing contributedthirty percent. Considering the entire battle, Wang Po was the foundation, ChenChangsheng was the final unexpected opponent, but Liu Qing was the crucialperson that had caused Zhu Luo's plans to collapse. The job of an assassin was to kill, so they naturally were not involved inanything constructive. In the annals of history, they had always appeared inthe role of collapsing plans. The spectators in the distance followed Zhu Luo'sgaze and rested on the assassin. When they thought about how both suddenchanges in this battle had been because of this person, they were all extremelyshaken. They thought,just what is going on here? Just who is this assassin?Just who would cultivate to the upper level of Star Condensation and still bewilling to play the role of an assassin in the night? And just which assassincould actually calculate the details of the entire battle and successfullybreak Zhu Luo's control over Xunyang City? Perhaps Zhu Luo had been too confident, or maybe it was because Wang Po wastoo strong and was not an opponent he could hold back against, but Zhu Luo didnot care that he could easily kill Wang Po, as this would even allow him toavoid a few problems in the future. However, he could not allow Chen Changshengto die. This assassin had counted on this point, so he launched his sneakattack in the pouring rain, every one of his attacks drawing blood, pushingChen Changsheng to the precipice. The Zhu clan was a major power of Tianliang County and its clansmen werenumerous. Zhu Luo was not concerned about the Mount Li Sword Sect's retaliationnor the vengeful gazes of the southerners, but he had to consider the future ofhis clan. In the end, he also had to consider his reputation as well.Therefore, he did not want…to personally kill Su Li, so he had chosen toexecute his Moon in Water technique and appear on that end of the street totake Chen Changsheng away. He thought he could utilize the simplest trick tocreate the most ideal situation, leaving the assassin the opportunity to killSu Li. Yet he had not imagined that the assassin had made him create thisopportunity. This was not an opportunity for the assassin to kill Su Li. It was…anopportunity for the assassin to kill him!  The minds of people, love and hate, pros and cons, aristocratic families,reputation, divinity—all of this had been accounted for in the assassin'scalculations! Chen Changsheng stood in front of that assassin, and so he naturally began torecall the words from Su Li's lessons. If an Intellectual Sword really didexist in this world, then shouldn't this be the true Intellectual Sword? Zhu Luo's cold voice rang out in the cold drizzle, "Liu Qing, you actuallydare to attack this elder?" The crowd could not suppress their cries of surprise. Some of the people, whohad planned to use the cover of the rain to continue attacking Su Li,subconsciously halted their steps. The people who knew of Liu Qing's name werenot many, but those who knew of it knew what this extremely ordinary namerepresented—on the Ranking of Assassins, Liu Qing was the terrifyingthird-ranked assassin. Discounting that unpredictable and ghastly assassin onthe top of the list, it could be said that Liu Qing was the most terrifying manon the continent. All along, this assassin had been the legendary Liu Qing! No wonder he even dared to assassinate Zhu Luo! Zhu Luo looked at Liu Qing and said, "Did you really believe that there was noone in the world that could discover your background? Since you would actuallydare reveal your own background, don't find it strange when this elder sendssomeone to Mount Li to dig deep!" Liu Qing's mask was already torn. Pieces of skin and congealed blood could beseen all over it, making for an abnormally frightful appearance.