I Was Once a Legend, Chapter 5: Temporarily Disconnected

Cui Zuojing walked into the front yard just as Henry’s figure emerged from the mist. The knight and his war horse were fully armored. The rust on the armor and longsword had completely fallen off, and there were now fresh pieces of flesh sticking to the sword. He wondered which unlucky egg had just been killed.

With no legs, the whole person seemed to have grown on the horse from below the hips, making it look very uncoordinated. The outline of the man’s face was vaguely seen under the helmet, but except for the scarlet eyes, the rest of his face still looked unclear.

The organ inside the hallowed chest pulsed. After the third iron hoop was shattered, Henry’s appearance had changed from a rotting zombie knight to a human being, though it was barely recognizable.

Cui Zuojing vaguely remembered what he had looked like.

Henry was German and was one of the first people Cui Zuojing had encountered when he came to the Pure White Realm. It was him and Fu Zhe who initially taught Cui Zuojing how to survive when he was most helpless.

He died just a month after Cui Zuojing knew him.

In that box, they’d failed to find Henry’s body, but now Cui Zuojing knew what his death method was—being cut at the waist.

The warhorse made a combative hiss, and its four hooves stamped on the ground, emitting dull thuds. The knight did not act rashly. He held his longsword with one hand, seemingly fearful as he faced the weak-looking youth. He was looking for a weakness so that he could kill with a single strike.

Cui Zuojing didn’t have much time to waste. No matter what happened in the past, Henry was now a monster and had forgotten everything.

He had to hurry up and get out of this box to join Victor.

So he took the lead in attacking.

Cui Zuojing kicked the ground with his left foot and flew toward Henry. At the same time, the longsword swung at his head. He raised his hand, using the spoon handle to block the strike. With the sound of “ping”, the longsword cracked, and the spoon instantly shattered into countless pieces. Cui Zuojing used the tremendous impact to once again leap forward and quickly caught the warhorse’s bridle with one hand!

It was hard to believe how a slender youth could carry such a powerful force. His five fingers curled into the horse’s helmet, leaving deep finger grooves on the steel armor. At the same time, he stabbed with the chopstick!

But Henry blocked it.

The longsword traveled to his chest at an unimaginable speed, blocking the heart wrapped in black gas, and allowing him to escape Cui Zuojing’s fatal blow.

The chopstick scraped sideways along the sword’s surface before Cui Zuojing decisively shifted the attack and used the remaining force to tear into the armor. Cui Zuojing fell to the ground and glanced at the cut on his right hand, where blood dripped slowly. It was scratched by the projectiles that emitted when the armor was shattered.

He looked at the knight and took a deep breath.

The longer the weapon, the more difficult it would be to recover from. This was something that everyone who was experienced in combat knew clearly. Such a long sword could be recovered in an instant while providing an effective defensive shield. The speed was also definitely beyond anyone’s imagination.

Henry had become stronger.

The iron hoops imprisoning the heart seemed to act as a seal. Once broken, the knight’s power would become stronger.

In order to confirm his conjecture, Cui Zuojing pulled out another chopstick, clenched it in his hand, and rushed up again.

This time he aimed at the face. Aside from the heart, this was the only place on Henry’s body not protected by armor.

The chopstick that was no more than 20 centimeters long turned into a deadly weapon in Cui Zuojing’s hands. The youth held the chopsticks with both hands. As he approached Henry, he suddenly changed course and directly stabbed the chopstick straight into the war horse’s eye.

The chopstick pierced the solid helmet like sliding through tofu. It punctured the skin and shot straight into the brain. The war horse shrieked in agony. Drowned by the immense pain, the two front hoofs suddenly reared back. The horse stood on its hindlegs, seeming almost half-crazy.

If it weren’t for the fact that he was connected to the horse, Henry would have definitely been thrown out. Cui Zuojing took advantage of this opportunity. He swiped fiercely with his right hand. The movement was unseen. Afterward, he kicked the horse’s flank and immediately retreated after delivering that single blow.

Withdrawing from the offensive, Cui Zuojing stood aside and tried to calm down. It’d been a long time since he’d fought with such intensity. He still needed some time to recover his past rhythm.

The warhorse was still screaming in agony, regardless of how Henry reprimanded it. The chopstick in Cui Zuojing’s hand turned into powder, but it did not seem to cause any injuries to the knight.

However, three seconds later, a smooth crack appeared slowly at the junction of Henry’s left arm and torso. Suddenly, black gas sprayed out like blood, and the whole arm fell on the ground.

The sound of the dismembered limb falling on dead leaves was the last straw.

The knight screamed angrily up at the sky. Like a drumbeat, his heart pounded frantically, as if on the verge of splintering. The second layer of iron hook shuddered, then completely shattered.

But that wasn’t all.

There was another layer of shackles. As the heartbeat quickened up another level, the cracking sound of metal accompanied it. Finally, the last iron hoop also burst, allowing the heart to beat unscrupulous at last.

Two layers actually broke in succession!

The black gas emanating from the wound of the dismembered limb formed the shape of an arm, and the face underneath the knight’s helmet finally became clear. The skin and face was exactly like Henry, but the eyes that should have been blue were still a scarlet red.

The mysterious and complicated patterns on the armor and the longsword faded away completely, leaving only gleaming silver.

Henry finally had an expression on his face, and it was a look of pain. He stared at Cui Zuojing. The muscles on his cheeks trembled, and he seemed to almost recognize who he was. He looked as if he wanted to say something.

But in the end, he raised his sword again.

Cui Zuojing once again flew up to meet him.

It took two minutes for the battle to end and the final seal to be lifted. Henry was indeed more than a bit stronger. The black gas on his left arm had a strong corrosive effect, and Cui Zuojing had to take care to avoid being touched.

Henry’s sword moves became faster and faster, such that Cui Zuojing’s eyes couldn’t even capture the speed at which he moved his sword. But, it didn’t matter. From a long time ago, he no longer needed vision to fight. At the moment of life and death, everything relied on instinct and intuition.

The moment the knife was inserted into the beating heart, all sounds disappeared.

No blood spurted out, as if that heart had long dried. The painful look on Henry’s face disappeared, replaced by a twisted…comfort.

Cui Zuojing covered the bleeding wound on his flanks, released his hand, and left the unenhanced knife in Henry’s heart.

The true knight should die under the sword, not other ridiculous weapons.

That was why he took this knife that was not as good as chopsticks.

The black gas scattered from the gaps within the armor, as if it was the biological breath gradually dissipating. The red light in his eyes dimmed, and Henry’s eyes finally reflected the youth standing in front of him. At the end of his life, he finally recognized Cui Zuojing.

That youth who’d entered the Pure White Realm many years ago, afraid of dying, pretending to be indifferent but desperately wanting to live.

It’d been a long time ago.

He hadn’t…gone out yet?

Henry’s eyes gradually darkened. After the heart stopped beating, the war horse beneath who shared the same life system as him could no longer support his heavy body. It fell to its knees. At this time, the knight stabbed the last sword in his life.

He tried his best to insert the sword straight into the ground, thus supporting the body. He greeted death on his knees but, in the end, he did not fall.

A true knight never falls.

“You’re welcome,” Cui Zuojing said softly, looking at Henry’s body.

—Now, you can be free as you wish.

Finally, he relaxed, and an inexplicable exhaustion instantly swept across his body. The scratch at the back of his hand no longer bled, but his stomach was red with blood. Cui Zuojing staggered, feeling that his hands and feet were no longer in his control, as if they were floating lightly on clouds.

He was familiar with all the rules of the Pure White Realm, and he understood that this was not actually his body at fault. The prisoner’s exertion and the length of time away from the “owner” depended on the owner’s spiritual power. He used too much when fighting Henry. The exertion of so many abilities was difficult for Dong Zheng, a newcomer without any reinforcements or training, to sustain.

What’s more, he’d just returned. His control of his body and his power was still very rusty; otherwise, he would not have been hit by Henry at the last moment. The him of the past would have easily avoided it.

Cui Zuojing sighed, somewhat helplessly.

He was once the best knife, the deadliest blade, the sharpest sword, the strongest killer.

But now, the names of those years seemed completely irrelevant.

The youth’s body gradually dissipated and finally turned into an invisible energy wave, which was instantly sucked back into Dong Zheng’s left hand by an irresistible force.

The plain grass pattern appeared on the back of Dong Zheng’s hand for a moment and disappeared. Only the unusual heat told Dong Zheng what had happened just now.

At this time, the two Dong brothers were walking on a dark path. They vaguely heard the horse’s blood-curdling shrieks coming from the direction of the cabin. Through the blood contract, Dong Zheng could sense that Cui Zuojing wasn’t in serious danger, but he couldn’t help but still be a little worried.

The blood contract was only a one-way connection. The passive party [the prisoner] will not have any impact on the active party [the owner] if injured, even to the point of death. Of course, if anything bad were to happen to him here, it wasn’t as if Cui Zuojing would care. He would probably treat his companion’s death as if it was just a cold drink of water, just like how he’d scolded Dong Zheng earlier.

But now, he was back. Dong Zheng released the worries in his heart and touched the mark on his left hand. He suddenly felt an indescribable exhaustion of the soul, making his vision swam.

“What’s wrong?” Dong Linhai asked.

“It’s nothing.” Dong Zheng shook his head, bolstered his spirit, and continued to move forward with Dong Linhai toward the unknown southeast.

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