The Angry Black Man (Part 2)

Suspected Heavenly Step Lightness Technique and confirmed Heavenly Step Lightness Technique.

They are completely two different concepts.

However, lightness techniques do not equal martial arts. When Hei Shanke thought there was still hope to fight again, Zhang San had already thrown a handful of black poison powder towards him.

Although Hei Shanke reacted very quickly to shield his face with his arm to block the poison powder, it was unknown what kind of poison Zhang San had concocted. The moment the powder touched his long sleeves, it immediately showed signs of corroding the fabric.

It was likely some fierce poison like 'Corpse Corrosion Poison'!

No wonder he had to wear the Snow Silkworm Gloves!

Realizing the immense danger, Hei Shanke swung his knife behind him and immediately cut open the sleeves where the poison powder had landed, narrowly escaping harm.

The relieved Hei Shanke immediately stamped his foot on the ground and leapt backwards, wanting to regroup. But this time, Zhang San’s figure flashed and disappeared again!

Like before, Zhang San’s ‘disappearance’ was not some immortal arts but an extremely fast lightness technique. Thus, Hei Shanke was still able to catch traces of his movement from the corner of his eye.

To the left!

Glancing back, Zhang San’s Heavenly Step Lightness Technique had already reached the point where Hei Shanke could barely track his movements. By the time Hei Shanke turned his head, Zhang San had already closed in on him.

Zhang San’s right arm was raised high with the poison-free Snow Silkworm Glove while his left hand held a dagger by his side.

However, by exposing his right wrist and elbow joints, Zhang San was clearly giving Hei Shanke an opportunity!

In that split second, you only had time to make one choice.

Having discovered his opponent’s Heavenly Step Lightness Technique, Hei Shanke was extremely reluctant to miss such a good opportunity!

Hei Shanke wielded his saber with all his inner strength and hacked straight at Zhang San.

But having deliberately revealed this opening, Zhang San was well prepared. No matter how fast Hei Shanke’s saber was, Zhang San had already lowered his right arm first before he met Hei Shanke’s black saber with his chest!

Hei Shanke immediately realized it was his opponent's sinister scheme, but it was already too late to pull back his attack.

With a bang, the black saber slashed down.

Yet Zhang San's chest remained completely still.

On the contrary, Zhang San took this opportunity to slice open Hei Shanke’s right arm with his dagger.

In pain, Hei Shanke stamped his feet and forcefully pushed Zhang San far away despite being unable to cut open his chest.

Zhang San was sent flying to the door. Although none of the Corpse Corrosion Poison had spilled onto Hei Shanke, one glance at his dagger showed that more than half of the purple venom on it had disappeared.

This proved that large amounts of the poison had entered Hei Shanke’s body through the wound.

Hei Shanke’s form was somewhat unsteady as waves of numbness spread from his right arm to every part of his body. However, he did not dare to circulate his inner power to resist it.

The reason was simple. From losing twenty percent of his inner power at the start to fighting until now, Hei Shanke’s inner power kept diminishing.

If his inner power diminished any further, he would even lose the chance to counter attack.

There was a saying in the jianghu that specifically referred to some extremely skilled roaming bandits. That was: Lightness techniques do not equal martial arts.

Despite having very strong inner power, his opponent was not even thirty years old and still at the peak of the Earth Rank. No matter how Heavenly his lightness technique was, how long could he keep that up while maintaining an iron cloth shirt at the peak of Earth Rank?

If they compared their inner power, there might still be a chance of winning!

With this thought, perhaps the last glimmer of hope, Hei Shanke charged at Zhang San.

And after heavily poisoning Hei Shanke, Zhang San was even more eager to continue the fight to quickly activate the effects of the poison inside Hei Shanke's body and swiftly end the battle.

But in the clash that followed, Hei Shanke was utterly disheartened.

Because having learned from his lesson, Zhang San became even more cautious. The joints were undoubtedly fatal weakness, but conversely, as long as the joints were not injured, it did not matter where his opponent slashed.

No matter how formidable Hei Shanke’s saber techniques were, they only left ticklish scratches when hitting Zhang San’s body.

When Hei Shanke finally managed to find a rare opportunity to attack the joints with his rich experience and exquisite moves, his opponent only had to exhibit his Heavenly lightness technique to escape!

And that left hand with the poisonous dagger would stab you whenever there was an opening.

The right hand with the Snow Silkworm Glove would keep pulling out Corpse Corrosion Poison from hidden pouches, sprinkling poison powder in your face whenever convenient so you had no choice but to dodge.

If you did not want to fight and wanted to flee instead, that was still impossible. His lightness technique could easily catch up no matter where you ran.

After roaming the dark world for over thirty years and making a name of himself for over twenty years, Hei Shanke, top assassin in the black market, had never seen anyone fight so shamelessly!

And worst of all, he had absolutely no scruples, making up for what he lacked in martial arts with poison. From poisoning their well water three days ago to secretly poisoning everyone, he had used toxins non-stop from the very start even in this supposed duel!

His weapon could not cut through the defenses and his inner power could not dominate either. He could not even run.

How was this a death duel?

This was clearly shameless roguery!

Thus, Hei Shanke had completely despaired.

It was not because Hei Shanke lacked strength as one of the strongest blademasters at the peak of Earth Rank. It was because his opponent was strangely mighty yet ridiculous, utterly shameless and unscrupulous. Coupled with the current unconscious state of his eight subordinates, Hei Shanke truly saw no chance of winning left.

It seemed this time his death was inevitable.

Even someone like Hei Shanke could not help thinking so. This powerhouse who dominated the black market for over twenty years finally seemed to have accepted his fate of dying in the hands of this apparently not even thirty-year-old nobody in the dark world.

Since death was inevitable, at least he could not let himself die like this.

Contrary to many other underground organizations, Li Lou was an assassination agency started three hundred years ago! In other words, they were the oldest assassin organization in Da Wu Kingdom with the longest legacy.

Having undergone Li Lou’s assassin training since a teenager, Hei Shanke crushed the “death” poison pill hidden between his teeth that symbolized his identity.

...

Zhang San panted heavily.

As Hei Shanke expected, forcefully maintaining the iron cloth shirt while occasionally exhibiting Heavenly ranked lightness techniques greatly sapped Zhang San who still only had inner power at the peak of Earth Rank. If Hei Shanke could have kept going, Zhang San had no idea how much longer he himself could have persisted.

But obviously, as Hei Shanke was drained of his inner energy and perhaps also overwhelmed by the toxins inside his body, weakly kneeling down before him, it was clear to Zhang San that victory was now his.

Still, to be safe, Zhang San did not approach and simply stood still.

Who knew if the sly Hei Shanke was pretending to have lost?

Only when Hei Shanke who knelt on the ground was unable to rise and coughed heavily several times, each cough bringing up black blood, did Zhang San truly let down his guard.

Because coughing up black blood matched perfectly. Although the poison he had coated on his blade, ‘Black Flower’, was purple, once assimilated into the blood vessels it would become black before spreading through the veins to the whole body.

Coughing up black blood was proof that Hei Shanke had reached the critical point of complete depletion.

He had finally won. Even Zhang San could not help but feel excited at this moment.

But precisely at the instant when Zhang San finally relaxed his guard, after crushing the death pellet in his mouth yet still wary of Zhang San’s Heavenly lightness technique, Hei Shanke finally found the last opportunity. His final and only opportunity!

Suddenly raising his head, a pair of bloodshot eyes made one easily mistake that Hei Shanke had already turned into an evil spirit.

Without waiting for Zhang San to react—

"A Line of Momentum, Separate!" Hei Shanke's dying roar was deafening.

A blade aura abruptly shot out, directly hacking at Zhang San's knee.

That brief moment of relaxation caused Zhang San to react a beat slower.

And because he reacted one beat slower in addition to his inner power already greatly diminished, Zhang San was another beat slower.

While Hei Shanke was one of the top blademasters at the peak of Earth Rank in the jianghu. At this moment after crushing the deadly pellet in his mouth, his inner power had temporarily soared to Heaven Rank. His saber speed was several times faster than before.

This slash, Zhang San did not manage to evade in time with the White Crane Flies.

The blade aura solidly struck his knee, shattering the inner strength powered iron cloth shirt!

Zhang San spat out blood and knelt down on one knee.

"Tiger Bite Stance!"

Having swallowed the death pill, doomed to only live for ten breaths more, Hei Shanke leapt up with a roar. He decided to use his strongest slash, the same one that killed Xiu Wang Chou in the past, to end Zhang San!

Or rather, he was going to perish together with Zhang San using that strike!