Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

Guo Lie swung his sword down, and Fu Qing raised his sword to block. With a loud "clang," Guo Lie felt as if he had struck a mountain with his sword.

Not only did it fail to break through, but the enormous recoil tore his hand and made his entire arm go numb. He was thrown back and crashed into the stone pillar in the center of the yard with a loud bang, causing the pillar to tip over.

Guo Lie climbed out of the pile of rubble, his face filled with disbelief.

Fu Qing stood still and stretched his wrist holding the knife. Before taking Guo Lie's knife, he had already allocated all 980 plunder points.

His current panel looks like this:

[Cultivation Level: Body Tempering Level 6]

【Strength: 772】

[Endurance: 767]

[Agility: 769]

[Plunder Points: 0]

He was only a little over 200 points away from the seventh level, and he also had a bonus from his stats, a 12% increase that made the difference in their levels almost negligible.

Guo Lie stood up from the pile of rubble and looked at Fu Qing as if he were looking at a monster.

He fought his way up from a nobody to become the leader of Blackstone Ridge. He had seen all sorts of ruthless people, but he had never seen anyone break through from the sixth level of Body Tempering to the seventh level on the spot.

"you--"

Guo Lie had just opened his mouth when Fu Qing's knife came slashing down.

Guo Lie raised his sword to block. With a clang, the two swords collided, and Guo Lie felt a tremendous force coming from the blade, almost causing his nine-ringed broadsword to fly out of his hand.

He took four or five steps back, crushing two pottery jars under his feet.

Fu Qing slashed relentlessly, giving Guo Lie no chance to breathe. Each strike was powerful and heavy, forcing Guo Lie to retreat continuously.

Guo Lie's tiger's mouth was already festering, and both arms were numb from the shock, but he was a seasoned veteran with a solid foundation in swordsmanship, and he blocked Fu Qing's killing moves at the last second each time.

The two exchanged blows for over thirty rounds in the courtyard.

Fu Qing had seven or eight more cuts on his body—his shoulder, arm, ribs, and thigh—each one oozing blood.

But his sword strikes grew heavier and more ferocious with each blow.

The effects of the debuff continued to take hold; for every ten percent of health lost, combat power increased by half a percent. Fu Qing grew stronger and fiercer with each battle, all his injuries transforming into even more ferocious attacks.

Now, his score is close to 1000.

Guo Lie's situation was the opposite; he had fewer injuries than Fu Qing, but his physical strength was declining rapidly.

Each swing of the nine-ringed broadsword was lighter than the last, and each parry resulted in retreating half a step further.

He looked at Fu Qing with shock and anger, completely puzzled. Despite being covered in injuries, Fu Qing's strength was increasing instead of decreasing, and he was fighting harder and faster.

With his thirty-fifth strike, Fu Qing cleaved the blade of the nine-ringed broadsword.

With a "crack," the nine-ringed broadsword broke in two, and the nine copper rings scattered all over the ground, jingling and rolling everywhere.

Guo Lie held the broken half of the knife, glanced down at it, then looked up at Fu Qing, his eyes filled with fear.

The second blow followed immediately, slicing into Guo Lie's neck, splattering blood everywhere.

Killed bandit leader Guo Lie (seventh level of Body Tempering), plunder points 887+, current plunder points 887.

Guo Lie's body fell backward and hit the ground with a thud. His bald head was tilted to one side, and his mouth was still open.

Fu Qing stood beside the corpse, leaning on his knife, panting heavily. His body was covered with more than a dozen knife wounds.

After the effect of the amulet wore off, a strong feeling of exhaustion washed over him, and his vision began to blur. The depletion of his vital energy was real, and he suffered greatly after the amulet faded.

He used the knife to support himself on one knee and knelt on the ground, taking several breaths to recover.

"Sixfold?"

He gritted his teeth, spat out a mouthful of blood, and stabbed the knife into the ground. "I'll settle this score with Zhou Tie when I get back."

Footsteps came from the direction of the front yard. Fu Qing was startled and quickly stood up, leaning against the stockade wall, supporting himself with his sword.

Han Yue rushed out of the firelight, his narrow-bladed sword still dripping blood. Behind him were Lao Zhao and Xiao Lu, both of them with cuts and bruises.

Seeing that they were his own people, Fu Qing breathed a sigh of relief and almost knelt down again.

He saw Fu Qing standing against the wall, and then he saw three corpses on the ground, two deputies, and Guo Lie.

He paused for a moment, walked over and kicked Guo Lie's corpse. After confirming that he was dead, he turned to look at Fu Qing and narrowed his eyes slightly.

That was the instinctive alertness a veteran felt when he saw something beyond his comprehension.

"Did you kill Guo Lie?"

"Yes."

"You killed your two deputies too?"

"Yes."

Han Yue stood there for a while. Old Zhao walked up from behind him, squatted down to examine Guo Lie's neck, and then looked at the wounds of the two deputies, cursing under his breath.

Then he looked up and asked Han Yue if he wanted to go back and report to Commander Zhou now.

"nature..."

Han Yue looked at Fu Qing, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"The first thing I'll do when I get back is ask Zhou Tie where he found this monster. Damn it, with such a formidable guy, why did he even make me captain?!"

Xiao Lu squeezed out from behind Han Yue and saw the corpses lying haphazardly in the yard. He then saw Fu Qing standing there, covered in blood and leaning on a knife, his mouth agape, wide enough to fit a fist.

He looked at Fu Qing with admiration, "Brother Fu...you're fucking amazing!"

Fu Qing grinned, "Practice hard, and you can do it too."

Old Zhao searched Guo Lie's body, pulled out a deerskin bag from his waist containing a few pieces of gold and a token, and tossed it to Han Yue.

"Take this back and hand it in; Boss Zhou owes us a drink."

Han Yue took the token, looked at it, and put it in his pocket.

He told Lao Qian to go to the front yard to see if there were any bandits hiding there, Xiao Lu to search the warehouse for anything he could take, and Lao Zhao to gather any usable weapons and horses in the front yard.

There were still many supplies in the mountain stronghold that couldn't be taken away, so they let the bandits burn them for a while first, and then burned them all themselves.

...

On the way down the mountain, the six men rode horses or walked. Xiao Lu led two good horses that he had snatched from the mountain stronghold. One horse carried the wounded and a bag of spoils, while the other was left for the brothers to switch horses.

Han Yue walked to Fu Qing's side, and the two walked side by side for a while. They remained silent for a long time before speaking.

"Guo Lie is at the seventh level, not the sixth. Zhou Tie's intelligence was wrong. Guo Lie broke through during the half month of the siege, but the news was kept secret and not even Zhou Tie knew."

He turned to look at Fu Qing, "You, a sixth-level cultivator, killed a seventh-level cultivator and two fifth-level cultivators."

Fu Qing flipped the demon-headed broadsword in his hand, which was already dulled from cutting, over. "I'm at level seven now. I just leveled up after defeating him."

Han Yue was taken aback, looked at him with a complicated expression, and then took his sword from his waist and handed it to Fu Qing.

"Use my spare knife first; you should switch to yours."

Fu Qing took the knife and weighed it in his hand. It felt excellent, even better than the hundred-refined steel knife with the character "Han" engraved in the weapon shop.

...

It was noon the next day when Han Yue returned to Ironblood City. He went to the military camp to hand in his mission and made plans to drink with Fu Qing that evening before leaving.

Fu Qingxian returned to Shen's Pharmacy. Song Yawei was sitting in the courtyard shelling peanuts. When she saw him enter, she overturned the bamboo sieve in her hand and scattered peanut shells all over the ground.

She walked over quickly and looked at the strip of cloth wrapped around Fu Qing's shoulder. The cloth was a rag that Old Zhao had haphazardly wrapped around Fu Qing's shoulder with, and the blood that had seeped out had already dried.

Song Yawei pushed him to sit on a stone stool in the courtyard, untied the messy strips of cloth on his shoulders, and cleaned, applied medicine, and bandaged him again.

Her movements were very gentle, and she kept muttering to herself.

"This time it was your shoulder, last time it was your hand, and the time before that it was your back. Next time, are you going to risk your life?"

Fu Qing squeezed her hand and chuckled softly.

"This time I can finally move into a new house. The bounty plus the cash from the Black Stone Village will be enough to buy a small courtyard near the market. Don't worry, I'm a cheat code, I won't die."

With tears welling up in her eyes, Song Yawei turned his hand back and continued bandaging.

"Who cares about a house?"

...

As expected, Han Yue arrived in the evening, carrying two jars of wine, followed by Lao Zhao and Xiao Lu.

As soon as Lao Zhao entered, he clamored to drink with Fu Qing. Xiao Lu was carrying a bag of braised beef, saying he bought it from the best braised meat shop in the market.

The four people sat down at a stone table in the backyard of Shen's Pharmacy, each with a bowl, and Han Yue poured wine for everyone.

After a few rounds of drinks, Han Yue put down his wine bowl and said, "Boss Zhou asked me to pass on a message to you."

Fu Qing looked at him.

"In this campaign to clear out Black Stone Ridge, you killed Guo Lie, along with two deputies, one at the seventh level of Body Tempering and the other at the fifth level, as well as a dozen or so henchmen on the periphery. According to the merit system of the border army, you deserve the greatest credit."

Han Yue counted on his fingers, "Besides the bounty, the military merit points are enough for you to be promoted directly from recruit to squad leader. The centurion has approved it. Report to the military camp tomorrow and get your squad leader's badge."

Xiao Lu, holding his wine bowl, chuckled.

"Brother Fu will be a squad leader from now on, shouldn't you treat him to a drink?"

Fu Qing raised his wine bowl and clinked it against theirs. "Alright, I'll leave once I've recovered from my injuries."