Chapter 29
Falling back two hundred meters as a result of the rotten swordsman’s attack, Lin Sheng was amazed by the strength and fearsomeness of his attacker . After the incident, he no longer saw the mercenary’s combat strength the same way again .
“I was so lucky to be able to forge this special intuition at that moment of life and death . This trip has helped me discover the true potential of this ability . ”
Lin Sheng stood there in the same spot to get some rest . It seemed like he recovered faster in the dream world than in reality . Still completely exhausted a while ago, he had fully regained his strength in only a little over ten minutes .
With the black sword planted in the ground, Lin Sheng squatted down and dug up a handful of soil in his hand . Black, cold, and soft, the soil contained a large amount of grass, root-like black stuff, and gravel . He squeezed the dirt in his hand, placing it close to his nose and smelling it . Immediately, a disgusting stench, much like rotten-meat, assaulted his sense of smell . He quickly discarded the dirt . Getting back to his feet, he rubbed the soil residue off his hands and retracted his sword from the ground .
“I wonder if I can find out who this guy is from the memories of the city gate guards . ” While he thought of this, a few names flashed across his mind, and he fell silent . “Let’s see… Since the rotten swordsman stopped his pursuit, there’s a high probability that one of these names belong to him . ”
Holding his black sword in hand, Lin Sheng slowly stepped out . And as soon as he went past the column with the black eagle flag, he heard hurried footsteps in the fog up ahead . His pupils contracted, black sword pointing down and forward at an angle . All his muscles tensed up as if he was ready to release all his stored energy . This stance, called Central Irongate, may have appeared like an attack posture, but in reality, it was the most widely used defense posture of all basic structures .
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Within the span of a few breaths, a shadow with a black sword pointing downward at an angle lunged out from the fog like a mad ox . Only a second passed from the moment Lin Sheng saw the shadow until the sword approached . He quickly raised his sword in riposte, swinging it upward with all his strength . Their two swords collided in the air, and Lin Sheng successfully deflected the rotten swordsman’s attack . But it did not manage to cause the attacker to lose his composure . Leveraging on the remaining momentum he had, the rotten swordsman immediately performed a three-sixty turn and bounced back with his black sword .
Meanwhile, Lin Sheng felt numb all over and quickly took a step back . In that split second, the rotten swordsman’s black sword came down from above again . It barely missed Lin Sheng by one centimeter before it plunged into the black soil below, a third of its sharp blade buried in the ground .
“This is it!” A light flashed in Lin Sheng’s eyes as he leaped and thrust his sword forward with all his strength . The rotten swordsman tried to retract his sword from the ground, but it was stuck too deep . There was no way could he pull it out in time . The window of opportunity quickly closed, and before the rotten swordsman could react, Lin Sheng’s sword had pierced through him . The long blade penetrated his heart and half of the blade came out of his back . Black blood oozed from the wound and dripped down from the blade .
“Hurrah!” Lin Sheng’s calculated move had worked out well; the black soil had caught the attacker’s sword . He felt somewhat relieved, even overjoyed . The trick worked only because the attacker was a brainless monster . Those in their right minds would not have fallen for his trap . However, Lin Sheng’s celebratory mood was short-lived as he began to feel a sharp pain in his abdomen . Loosening his grip on his sword and taking a couple of steps back, he looked down at his belly . A crooked dagger with a grip in the shape of a snake had pierced his stomach . The pain was growing stronger, in addition to a hint of numbness . Thanks to the soldiers’ memories, Lin Sheng quickly knew that some nasty poison had begun to spread throughout his body .
“Sh*t… I was too careless…”
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Enduring the excruciating pain and taking a clue from the method that he learned from TV dramas, he grabbed the dagger and pulled it out in a swift motion . Blood instantly spattered onto his hands as well as the ground .
“Oh sh*t, that made things worse! I think I’m going to die!” It felt like his stomach had a puncture with air leaking out continuously . “No, this isn’t just something in my head, it’s real!” he reminded himself .
Applying pressure on his abdomen with his hands, Lin Sheng dropped to the ground and sat there . A meter away ahead of him, the rotten swordsman had fallen dead on the ground with black mist slowly rising from him, condensing into some black thread . It flew toward Lin Sheng before it plunged and disappeared into his chest .
“At least, I’ve got something…” A familiar headache struck as numerous footages started to overload his mind . The unbearable headache combined with the agonizing pain of the wound in his stomach was killing him . “That’s it, I’m dead this time . ”
Without hesitation, Lin Sheng grabbed the dagger that he had pulled out from his stomach earlier and killed himself by cutting his throat . A suffocating pain ensued and quickly spread across his body . His vision dimmed, and he quickly blacked out .
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When he opened his eyes again, he could see nothing but darkness . He was suffocating because he was wrapped inside a blanket . Yanking the blanket away, Lin Sheng gasped for fresh air . Instead of sweating profusely, he felt strangely cold that night even though the weather was anything but chilly .
“I thought that the mercenary’s method of treating his wound was too old-fashioned, and he should have followed the way of modern medicine . But I was wrong! I won’t believe those TV dramas again!” Lin Sheng could not hold back his anger when the scene of him pulling the dagger came to mind . Although he knew that he would have still died from the injury no matter which method he followed, he still thought that he could have hung on for a little longer had he used the other method .
Lin Sheng sat in bed, panting . He then picked up the alarm clock by the bed; it was sixteen past four in the morning .
“It’s still early . I can still get some shuteye . ”
However, what surprised him was that he did not suffer the same listless side effect as before .
“Hmm, I feel pretty normal . ” Lin Sheng was suspicious, and he began to observe himself carefully . Getting out of bed, he switched on the table lamp . “The best method to test my mental condition is to solve mathematical questions . ”
He quickly took out a math exercise book and randomly picked a question . The time he took to answer this particular question was more or less the same as he did on other days . “Nothing’s changed . It looks like I’m okay . ”
He quickly worked on a few more questions just to be sure . The results were all the same; he could solve all the equations in almost the same length of time in one go . “But hey, something’s wrong . I haven’t died for a long time . ” Lin Sheng thought . “Could it be that death is something adaptive?”
He began to suspect that there was some pattern in what he was experiencing . “Perhaps, it has something to do with the absorption of the black thread?”
He took note of the thought in his mind, turned off the light, and lay back down in bed . There were no worries since the experience did not affect him mentally . Otherwise, he would have a problem preparing for the coming college entrance exam . With the doubt removed, Lin Sheng started to recall the memories he had just acquired . The latest rotten swordsman, who was very different from the others, should be able to offer something different, Lin Sheng thought .