Volume 1 Chapter 6: Blade's Step

  "Little girl, your life is now in my hands. Bai Cangdong was very interested in the martial arts that Li Xiangfei had mentioned, but as for that knight, he didn't have any interest at all."

  "You don't know the value of that martial art. If you don't make a contract to become my knight, I won't give it to you no matter what, even if I die." Li Xiangfei turned her face away and struggled free from Bai Canghai's hand grasping her chin.

  "Is that so? You won't give it to me no matter what?" Bai Cang's eyes swept over Li Xiangfei with ill intent, and every time his gaze touched her exposed skin, it made Li Xiangfei feel a burning sensation on her body.

  "What do you want?" Li Xiangfei was a bit scared and wanted to back away, but she had already leaned against the tree trunk and had no space to retreat.

  "What do you think I want to do?" Bai Cangdong reached out and lifted up Li Xiangfei's outer armor skirt, placing his large hand on the fair and tender thigh skin that was exposed due to the broken armor, and said with a smile.

  Li Xiangfei's body suddenly stiffened, the warmth of his large hand on her thigh making her whole person tremble, her pores standing on end.

  "You can't... you can't..." Li Xiangfei wanted to struggle and resist, but due to severe physical exhaustion, she didn't have much strength left. Staying under the quilt and moving her palms made her body even softer and weaker.

  The more she struggled, the greater the range of motion of those large hands. Li Xiangfei's cheeks were flushed red, and her voice trembled as she said: "You win, let me go, I'll give you that martial skill."

  Bai Cangdong withdrew his hand and took a step back, looking at Li Xiangfei.

  Li Xiangfei gazed at Bai Cangdong with a mixture of anger and pleading, biting her lower lip as she said: "How can you guarantee that after I hand over the martial arts to you, you won't... do bad things again?"

  "Don't worry, I'm not interested in little girls who haven't developed yet."

  In the world of Guang An Wu, people's physical appearance would be fixed and unchanging by the age of twenty. Li Xiangfei was only sixteen years old and still in development, so Bai Cangdong would say she was a little girl.

  For some reason, Li Xiangfei, who should have been at ease, was furious and blurted out: "Who are you saying hasn't developed well? I'm the one with D..."

  Here is the translation:

  At this point, Li Xiangfei suddenly stopped and hastily changed her words, saying: "You remember, this is the oral formula of that martial skill, I'll only say it once, if you can't remember it then forget it."

  "I guarantee you'll be saying that a lot more times, or else I'll verify whether you really have it." Bai Cangdong seriously looked at the armor on Li Xiangfei's chest.

  "You..." Li Xiangfei's face turned red with anger and embarrassment, but in the end she didn't dare say anything else, fearing that Bai Canghai would really lose control. She could only grit her teeth and recite the martial arts incantation word by word, sentence by sentence.

  Bai Cangdong concentrated on memorizing, and after Li Xiangfei recited it once, Bai Cangdong had already remembered everything. However, he still made her recite it three times to confirm that it was exactly the same as the first time, without a single mistake. Only then did he begin to carefully ponder this martial skill.

  This is a martial art called "Knife Blade Step", the main feature of which is a single word "danger". It's like walking barefoot on a knife edge, dancing on the tip of a knife. Every step requires careful consideration, seeking to achieve maximum effect in the smallest movement distance. In the midst of a dense army, finding a thread of life between people, it can also be described as "sewing with a needle".

  "Blade Step... Blade Step... why does it sound so familiar..." Bai Cang Dong muttered to himself with his head down, suddenly his eyes lit up: "Blade Step, isn't that the famous martial skill of Duke Kailuo, the one with the reputation of 'unsheathing a blade, unparalleled in beauty' - 《Blade Step》?"

  "What is your relationship with Earl Kiren?" asked Bai Cangdong, looking at Li Xiangfei. Anyone who can understand the "Blade Step" must have an extraordinary connection with Earl Kiren.

  "Count Dalberg is my father." Li Xiangfei proudly raised her chin slightly.

  "Alright." Bai Cangdong nodded and didn't say anything else, seriously starting to study "Blade Steps".

  No matter how powerful Count Dolren is, he can't break through the seal and enter the altar area. So whether Lee Hyang's father is Count Dolren or not makes no difference to Baek Sang-eong; if he wants to escape alive, he still has to rely on himself.

  "The Blade Step" is easy to learn but difficult to master, emphasizing details and mental calmness. Coincidentally, these two points are White Can Dong's strongest suits. During the years of hunting down the Small Knife Demon, White Can Dong's greatest gain was calmness and endurance, striving for a single strike to kill. When cultivating the Painful Blade Technique, what is most emphasized is the subtle changes, which happens to be exactly what "The Blade Step" needs.

  In less than an hour, Bai Cangdong had already mastered the basics and was able to perform "Knife Blade Steps" with ease, the only difference being in its practical application.

  Li Xiangfei watched Bai Caoer practice the "Blade Steps" from the side, and at first, she didn't think much of it. She said that the main reason for thinking of the "Blade Steps" was still a bit afraid of being alone in the forest, but Bai Caoer gave her an inexplicable sense of security, so she would think of a way to stay by his side.

  In fact, Li Xiangfei didn't think that Bai Canghai could master the "Blade Steps" in a short period of time. She herself spent a year to bring the "Blade Steps" to small success, and be able to apply it in actual combat. Even her talented father, Dao Lun Bo, took half a year to be able to use the "Blade Steps" in real battles, this was not a martial skill that could be mastered quickly.

  But after watching for a while, Li Xiangfei's face gradually became strange. It had only been half an hour, but Bai Cangdong was already performing the "Blade Step" smoothly, looking as if he had practiced it for several months. If she hadn't seen him stumble and almost fall when he first started practicing, Li Xiangfei wouldn't have believed that he had only been practicing the "Blade Step" for half an hour, and would even suspect that he had learned it before.

  At a certain moment, Li Xiangfei felt that her young heart was deeply hurt. Bai Cangdong's knife steps had already reached the point where they could rival hers after years of bitter practice.

  "It's just a superficial resemblance, the most important thing about knife steps is to focus on actual combat, and he only learned for an hour, it's impossible for him to apply knife steps in real combat." Li Xiangfei thought.

  "It's time to go." With time being of the essence, Bai Canghai stopped practicing as soon as he entered the door.

  "Where are we going now?" Li Xiangfei asked.

  "It's not us, but you going east and me going west." Bai Cang said lightly.

  "How can you be like this, don't even keep your word......" Li Xiangfei suddenly became furious.

  "When did I ever agree to go with you?" After a pause, Bai Cangdong continued: "I'm going to the altar, and if you follow me, you'll only get in the way. I came from the east, and most of the beheading ghosts on that side have been killed. Be careful, hide for a while, and after I rush up to the altar and shatter the Eternal Crystal, go back to Kui Lun City directly."

  "It sounds like you can shatter the Eternal Crystal, but what if you end up getting your head chopped off by a Splitting Ghost?" Upon hearing Bai Cangdong say this, Li Xiangfei felt a thrill of excitement in her heart, but she didn't let it show on her face.

  "That's not exactly avenging you, you should thank the skull-splitter instead." Bai Cangdong said as he slipped into the thicket and crept towards the altar.

  "You haven't told me your name yet!" Li Xiangfei shouted from behind, but after waiting for half a day, there was no one to answer.

  "Don't let me meet you again, next time I meet you, I must make you look good." Li Xiangfei secretly made a ruthless vow in her heart.

  Bai Cangdong suddenly heard the roar of a group of fierce ghosts coming from the direction he was leaving, and Li Xiangfei's heart tightened for some reason, she didn't think twice and ran towards there.

  Not far away, I saw a dozen or so splitting ghosts surrounding Bai Cangdong, with over a dozen giant axes chopping down non-stop amidst the raging wind.

  Li Xiangfei was about to rush over, but after seeing the situation in front of her, she froze there.

  Bai Cang Dong swung his sword, and with each step, the silk-robed swordsman would strike a splitting ghost at an unbelievable angle, then that splitting ghost's body would suddenly twist, without any reaction, being pierced through the heart by the second sword and vanishing into thin air.

  White clothes fluttered like a butterfly in the midst of a flower cluster, flying through the middle of more than a dozen splitting ghosts, without looking back, continuing towards the altar. Those more than a dozen splitting ghosts all turned into light spots and dissipated, not one escaped.

  "He really mastered the 'Blade Step' in just a short hour!" Li Xiangfei's face was complex, and she didn't know what to feel inside.

  The Cow Knife's trial was a success, and the effects of both the Blade Step and the Brocade Sword pleased Bai Cangdong greatly. With the Blade Step, he had a glimmer of hope against the densely packed Bone-Headed Ghosts, while the Brocade Sword's lightness and sharpness made it more suitable for prolonged battles and quick beheadings of the Bone-Headed Ghosts.

  "I must be able to leave here alive." The closer he got to the Undying Altar, the more cautious Bai Cangdong became. Along the way, he couldn't see any corpses of humans or other creatures that had been beheaded by the ghostly executioners, but the air was filled with a nauseating bloody smell that reminded him of the fragility of life.

  "Halt." Bai Cangdong was walking along a stream when several people suddenly jumped out from the side and surrounded him.

  "What kind of people are you?" Bai Cangdong didn't expect to meet a living person here, as this place was only seven or eight miles away from the Undying Altar.

  "Less nonsense, if you want to live, follow us." One of them waved his hand impatiently.

  Bai Cangdong also wanted to see what they were going to do, and without resisting, he followed them along the stream upwards. Not far from there, they arrived at a mountain valley, where surprisingly many people were hiding, roughly looking around, there were nearly a hundred or more.

  "We've brought back water and found another one by the stream." One of those people handed out water bags to everyone, pointing at Bai Cangdong.

  "Take off your mask." A man with a crest on his forehead, who was of baronial status, said to Hakuren.

  "When I was young, a great fire destroyed my face, making it quite frightening to look at. Since putting on this mask, I've never taken it off again." Bai Cangdong said calmly.

  "How dare you!" The baron was enraged and rushed over, punching Bai Cangdong in the face.

  With a swift and agile sidestep, his eyes fixed on the baron's fist as it brushed past his cheek, he countered with a quick finger thrust to the baron's throat, causing him to clutch at his neck in pain and stumble backward, coughing repeatedly.

  "Next time you lay a hand on me, it won't be fingers that appear at your throat." Bai Cang said coldly to the baron.

  The baron's face changed color, wanting to get angry but also somewhat fearful, just staring viciously at Bai Cangdong, but didn't say anything.

  "Alright, we've gathered here to discuss how to rush up to the altar and shatter the Eternal Crystal, so that everyone can live on and stop killing each other. I'm Du Changlong, Iron Sword Baron, what's your title?" Another baron walked over, blocking the two of them, and said to Bai Cangdong.

  Bai Cangdong had seen this person before, one of those who were with Li Xiangfei at that time.