Chapter 2: Flying Sword

Flying sword!

Qin Sang opened his eyes abruptly, only to be blinded by the harsh sunlight and forced to shut them again.

His throat was parched and unbearable, and pain from everywhere washed over him like a tide. Qin Sang propped himself up with his arms, discovering that he had fallen out of the prisoner transport cart at some point and had been lying on the ground unconscious. His right leg was pinned under a broken cage; no wonder his lower leg hurt so much—it might have been broken.

How did the cart overturn?

Qin Sang struggled to recall his memories from before he lost consciousness. His head felt like it was splitting. He managed to sit up and looked around, only to see a scene of utter devastation.

The ancient trees on the riverbank were either toppled or snapped, and some looked as if they had been struck by lightning. A fire was raging in one of the trees, and the thick smoke blown by the wind was choking.

The vast stretch of yellow grass beach was also unrecognizable, as if it had been plowed through by wild boars. Many deep gullies were exposed in the ground, with white, tangled grass roots crisscrossing everywhere.

When the caravan had passed through, the riverbank had clearly been perfectly flat.

Qin Sang stared blankly at all of this, finally recalling fragments of memory.

A man in white descended from the sky, and those bandits knelt on the ground, shouting "Immortal Master"...

A flying sword pierced toward the black-clothed carriage, and the carriage exploded with a 'boom'. A man in a black robe flew out. The two seemed to have a grudge and started fighting the moment they met. Then, he seemed to hear a strange sound, and he lost consciousness.

What happened after he passed out?

The fact that both of them could fly was clearly abnormal. The bandits called them "Immortal Masters"—could they really be immortals?

When Qin Sanwa was a child, he had heard many stories about immortals. Qin Sang had thought they were just superstitions, like in his previous life, but now it seemed that was not the case.

Which of the two Immortal Masters won?

Qin Sang did not see any sign of the Immortal Masters. Scanning his surroundings, the prisoner carts were scattered in disarray, the cages on them mostly smashed to pieces. His fellow sufferers, who had been trapped in the cages, were lying on the ground in a jumble.

No wonder his hand felt so soft underneath; he had actually been pressing down on someone's stomach.

Qin Sang quickly lifted his hand, then froze slightly. He cautiously reached out to touch the person's wrist—there was no pulse.

Dead...

Perhaps because he had already died once, Qin Sang’s courage was much greater than in his previous life. Even with a corpse lying right beside him, he didn't feel much fear.

Was anyone else alive?

Qin Sang hurriedly looked at the others. Everyone was motionless on the ground, including the horses that had pulled the carts; there wasn't the slightest rise or fall in their bodies. The scene was eerie to the extreme.

Suddenly, Qin Sang caught sight of a group of people lying on the riverbank as well. Those bandits had been cutting trees to build a raft, and after the man in white appeared, they had all knelt down and shouted "Immortal Master." For some reason, they had also fallen unconscious.

Qin Sang’s expression changed abruptly. Those bandits were strong and sturdy, and they hadn't fallen from any height; it was very likely that, like him, they were just unconscious and not dead yet!

Thinking of this, Qin Sang hurriedly leaned forward and struggled to lift the wooden cage pinning his leg. He gasped sharply and couldn't help but groan in pain, but fearing he would alert the bandits, he swallowed the sound back down.

His leg must not be broken. Otherwise, even if he escaped, he would never make it out of these wild, desolate mountains alive.

Qin Sang prayed silently as he pulled his leg out to check it.

Fortunately, the bone wasn't broken.

But when he tried to put weight on it, another wave of sharp pain hit him. It was at least a hairline fracture; walking in the short term was out of the question.

Even if he had to crawl, Qin Sang was going to do it. He crawled over to a bandit, felt around his waist, and found a knife. He cut the ropes binding his hands and feet, then went down the line. At first, he tried to stab their hearts, but was blocked by their breastbones, which made his hand ache. So, he started by slitting their throats, then finished them off with a stab to the heart.

After staring blankly for a long while at his blood-stained hands, Qin Sang realized that the bandits hadn't made a sound when he stabbed them—they had already been dead. Yet, he had acted like a madman, stabbing them one after another.

He felt a bit of fear, not of the corpses, but of himself.

He threw the knife away, turned, and crawled to the riverbank, burying his face in the water. He only lifted his head to gasp for air when he was on the verge of suffocating, his emotions finally calming slightly.

If I don't kill them, they will kill me!

If he had realized this sooner in his previous life, would he have ended up in such a state?

Wait!

There was one more!

Qin Sang shuddered, cold sweat nearly breaking out. He only relaxed when he saw a corpse riddled with wooden splinters. When the black-clothed carriage exploded, the leader had been right next to it and died on the spot.

The bandits were all dead, but Qin Sang still didn't dare to relax. He used a wooden stick to prop himself up.

When he saw the full extent of the grass beach in the distance, Qin Sang couldn't help but gasp. Was this caused by the fight between the two Immortal Masters? The power was simply too terrifying.

Lying in the tall grass were two people, one in black and one in white.

Reason told Qin Sang that these two Immortal Masters were not normal people, unlike the bandits. Now was the best time to escape. Although he couldn't walk, the river wasn't fast, and there was a nearly finished raft nearby. If he tied the last two vines, he could leave this place of trouble.

After a brief internal struggle, Qin Sang picked up the knife and crawled over.

Only when he got close did he see clearly that the man in black had been cut in half at the waist by a sword. That flying sword must have been extremely sharp; the cut was smooth, and the sight was somewhat gruesome.

The man in white had a shocking, bloody hole in his chest, as if something had reached in and gouged it out. The flesh inside was a bloody mess, and his internal organs had been churned into a pulp.

They had actually killed each other.

Qin Sang felt a secret sense of relief, but also a bit of disappointment.

He cautiously lifted the black robe of the man in black and was startled by an old, ugly, and strange face. He then began to search the body. This Immortal Master seemed very destitute; there wasn't a single piece of silver on him. Finally, Qin Sang only found a piece of sheepskin-like material and a book on his chest.

He flipped through it; he could recognize most of the characters in the book, but they were obscure and difficult to understand. The sheepskin had nothing on it; apart from being unusually soft, it was just a piece of ordinary hide.

"Huh?"

Qin Sang suddenly saw something pressed under the body of the man in black. He moved the upper body aside and saw a black banner on the ground.

The banner was small, the flagpole only as long as his palm. It was pointed at the top and rounded at the bottom. Qin Sang picked it up to examine it closely. He didn't know what material the flagpole was made of, but it felt ice-cold to the touch. Three small characters were engraved on it—Yama Banner!

It didn't sound like a good thing, and combined with the scene of this demon sucking people into dried husks earlier, Qin Sang almost threw the Yama Banner away.

The flag itself was a long, thin piece of tattered cloth, slightly shorter than the flagpole, with many holes in it. One could vaguely make out the pattern of an evil spirit.

After staring at it for a moment, Qin Sang felt as if his consciousness was about to be sucked in, so he hurriedly looked away.

Truly evil!

There was nothing good on this demon!

Qin Sang wrapped the Yama Banner up haphazardly, bundled it with the book in the sheepskin, and turned his head to look at the man in white, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

(End of chapter)