Chapter 386: Who Do You Want to Be?

Chapter 386: Whom Do You Wish to Be

"Huai Guo, one of the chieftains under the Honghu Sect's King Kamakura, holding the fifth-rank Agriculture Sequence command of the Spring Emperor. During the Edo Rebellion, you led nearly three hundred subverted garrison guards in an assault on the Brocade-Clad Guard's thousand-household fortress. Following your defeat and subsequent flight, you adopted the alias Shi Nan, concealing yourself within Okayama Castle as an underground physician."

"If that pack of turncoat guards had put up a slightly better showing in the street fighting back then, it is quite possible you might have truly become the first Honghu since the establishment of the Yamato Sector to breach a thousand-household fortress!"

Huai Guo watched the figure slowly stepping across the threshold of the clinic, bean-sized beads of sweat continuously rolling down his temples where blue veins throbbed violently.

Clearly, they had not yet exchanged blows, but the very instant his eyes fell upon the interloper, an unbidden sense of profound helplessness and intense dread welled up within Huai Guo’s heart.

This sensation was akin to a defenseless, ordinary mortal stumbling upon a ravenous tiger descending from the mountains in the dead of a howling, snowy night amidst towering peaks.

Powerless to resist, and equally with nowhere to flee.

As a member of the Agriculture Sequence, which was likewise renowned for its mastery over flesh and physique, Huai Guo understood almost instantly where this premonition originated.

Yet this flash of realization only caused him to clench his fists tightly in spite of himself.

When all was said and done, everyone here belonged to sequences that toyed with flesh and genes; who would willingly admit to being suppressed by another?

You Martial Sequence fools have stepped on the necks of the Agriculture Sequence for so many years, and now that your legs have been broken, you think you can just switch paths, concoct some new tricks, and mend those shattered bones?

What a ridiculous joke!

"Centurion of Inuyama Castle, the Lord of the Underworld?"

Huai Guo licked his somewhat dry lips. "I never expected Su Ce would actually deploy you. Isn’t he afraid of having his hopes severed, unable to close his eyes when it's time to enter the grave?"

"Whether old man Su can close his eyes or not, I cannot say."

Outside the door, a cold rain drifted as a biting winter wind brushed past Li Jun’s wrists, striking the razor-sharp edge of his Spring-Embroidered Saber and eliciting bursts of chilling blade-cries.

"But of one thing I am absolutely certain: today, it is your eyes that must be closed."

Huai Guo barked coldly, "Even if you completed your sequence in Osaka Castle, we are still of comparable rank. Who triumphs and who falls remains undecided!"

A fierce flame ignited within Li Jun’s eyes. "Then shall we clash?"

"Clash!"

Bang!

Huai Guo’s silhouette abruptly recoiled backward, overturning the operating table and the refrigeration units behind him. A dazzling array of surgical instruments and frosty organs scattered all over the floor.

His arms crossed defensively before his chest, revealing dark, greenish-black skin beneath his tattered sleeves—a hue far duller than the cold gleam of cybernetic prosthetics, yet conveying an impression of far greater rigidity and fortitude.

However, at this moment, a straight, crimson line of blood manifested along the position of his forearm bones.

Li Jun glanced at the chipped blade in his hand and laughed softly. "Quite tough, aren't you?"

"Yunmen, Tianfu, Taiyuan, Shaoshang."

Huai Guo’s countenance turned cold and stern, the muscles of his iron-clad arms swelling and expanding at a pace visible to the naked eye, his aura terrifying.

As for the bloodline upon his forearm, it had already been entirely covered by that iron hue.

Thud!

Huai Guo took a step forward, the ground within three inches of his toe suddenly sinking as dust erupted from the fissures in the masonry, dragged forward together by the raging, turbulent wind.

In this single instant, the speed Huai Guo unleashed through sheer physical power was not a whit inferior to Li Jun’s.

Li Jun’s expression remained unaltered as his blade slashed forward to meet the blow, violently colliding with Huai Guo’s fist, which had ignited the Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin.

Bang!

The snow-bright blade and the greenish-black knuckles crashed together, producing a sharp, ear-piercing sound of twisted metal.

The Spring-Embroidered Saber in Li Jun’s grip instantly shattered into a sky full of fragments, flying in all directions like a rampaging metal storm unleashed within this confined room.

Cabinets, windows, and doors were riddled with holes, while deep fissures spread across the walls.

A shard of the blade scraped past Li Jun’s face, followed immediately by a fist that expanded continuously within his field of vision.

Li Jun tapped his foot, his form drifting backward. Within his expanding field of view, he clearly discerned the triumphant smirk upon Huai Guo’s face!

Step.

Li Jun’s right foot planted firmly, lunge, waist straightened, wrist dropped, fist pressed.

These seemingly intricate movements transpired in the span of a heartbeat; Li Jun pressed his palm against Huai Guo’s greenish-black knuckles, his inner force erupting as he wrenched downward with savage force.

Crack.

Huai Guo’s right wrist bone snapped cleanly, the splintered bone wrapped in greenish veins puncturing through the back of his hand. A curdling scream rose up his throat, but just as it was about to force open his tightly clenched teeth and rush into the freezing air, it was suppressed by an even more tumultuous roar, leaving him unable to open his mouth.

Advancing to seize the space, he retracted his palm and drove his elbow forward.

Huai Guo was struck squarely in the chest by Li Jun’s elbow, his silhouette flying out of the clinic like a cannonball, smashing heavily against the thick wall directly opposite the shop entrance.

The shattered remnants of the clinic's main door lay scattered across the ground, and the signboard reading 'Harmony of Machine and Flesh' had flown off to parts unknown.

The dismal wind and rain swarmed down from the narrow sliver of sky left above, beating ruthlessly upon Huai Guo’s body.

Whoosh!

A massive dark shadow flew out from within the doorway; Huai Guo twisted his waist and lashed out with his leg, tearing the shadow directly to shreds.

The wooden medicine cabinet exploded into a sky of splinters, the herbs concealed within defying the raindrops as they soared toward the sky.

Though he had already sensed the danger and shifted his footing in advance, Huai Guo discovered to his horror that he simply could not evade the fist before his eyes.

Pfft!

Li Jun’s arm, like a long spear, impaled itself directly into Huai Guo’s chest, embedding deep into the wall behind him.

"Ugh..."

A great torrent of blood suddenly coughed from Huai Guo’s mouth and nose, his dilating pupils filled entirely with surging terror.

"Is this truly all your Agriculture Sequence is capable of?"

Into Huai Guo’s swaying, blurred vision entered a pair of eyes filled with disdain and contempt.

At this moment, Huai Guo unbiddenly recalled his very first encounter long ago with Su Ce, the Thousand-Household of the Yamato Brocade-Clad Guard.

The man's gaze back then had been identical to Li Jun’s now—a disdain that had nothing to do with status, but everything to do with sequence, originating from a contempt deeply embedded in the very marrow of their bones.

The Martial Sequence had never once looked down upon any other sequence with respect.

The Sect Martial Sequence was thus, and the Solitary Martial Sequence was even more so.

Unwillingness, humiliation, resentment—all manner of complex emotions rushed into his mind along with the agony of his wound, continuously breeding and magnifying.

Yet very quickly, these emotions were entirely suppressed by a wave of panic that reached the ultimate extreme.

Huai Guo suddenly realized that he did not seem as unafraid of death as he had claimed to be.

"I..."

"It is time for you to close your eyes."

Li Jun afforded Huai Guo no opportunity to speak; the palm thrust into the man's body directly clamped onto his spine. The force of dislocating joints and shattering bones rippled up and down the spinal column, grinding all organs, both organic and cybernetic, into complete oblivion.

"Ah!!!"

A heart-wrenching shriek tore from Huai Guo’s mouth, piercing toward the dark, narrow slit of sky formed by the tightly huddled buildings, resembling a pair of half-closed eyes.

The night was thick as ink, like the underlying hue of a human eye.

Suddenly, that lone slit of heaven widened, as though a furious gaze had opened its eyes.

A full moon rose through the black clouds, shedding light upon the sable horizon of the State of Hoi.

At the side of the medicine cabinet, the State of Hoi, drenched in sweat, gazed at the bright bulb dangling from the ceiling, drawing great, ragged breaths.

“Is it still a dream?”

Having survived a recent death, the State of Hoi's visage was etched with lingering after‑effects, and its mouth, unthinking, curled into a neurotic, rigid grin.

Yet in the next instant, that smile hardened again.

“Fear not, this time it is genuine; I have no leisure to linger playing with you here.”

At the clinic’s threshold, Li Jun drew his black umbrella close, fixed his gaze upon the bewildered State of Hoi, and spoke calmly: “Now answer me—do you intend to become South of the Room, or remain the State of Hoi?”

Bam!

The herbs grasped by the State of Hoi's hands scattered upon the floor, and his dazed pupils, after a long pause, gathered their focus anew.

South Chamber.