High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

Chapter 107 Shadow Blade

Song Chen gripped the jade pendant tightly and put it into his pocket.

He looked at Zhou Wangyue and said, "Teacher, I will not die."

Zhou Wangyue looked at him and smiled.

"Go on, the boat leaves at eight o'clock tonight, don't be late."

Song Chen nodded and turned to walk towards the door. When he reached the door, he stopped but did not look back.

"teacher."

"Um?"

"Thanks."

Zhou Wangyue paused for a moment, then burst out laughing, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkling together like a folding fan.

Song Chen didn't turn around, but he heard laughter.

He pushed open the door and walked out, his footsteps echoing in the corridor, growing fainter and fainter until they finally disappeared at the top of the stairs.

After Song Chen left, the temperature in the office seemed to drop a few degrees.

Zhou Wangyue sat in the chair, looking at the closed door. The smile on his face gradually faded, like the receding tide revealing the black rocks beneath.

Footsteps came from outside the door, very light and steady, as if deliberately trying to keep their presence to themselves.

There was a knock on the door twice.

"Come in."

A person pushed open the door and walked in.

The man was in his early fifties, thin, and wearing a military uniform with a silver badge pinned to his left breast pocket. This badge was the insignia of the Intelligence Department of the Tianhai City Defense Command, featuring an eye and a key crossed.

His name is Liu Fu, the director of the intelligence department of the Tianhai City Defense Command, a fourth-level upper-stage martial artist, and he has followed Zhou Wangyue for more than 20 years.

"Principal." Liu Fu stood in front of the desk without sitting down. He looked unwell, with deep bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept for several days.

He was holding a sealed brown paper bag. There was nothing written on the bag, but the seal was stamped with a red top-secret stamp.

"You got the question out?" Zhou Wangyue looked up at him.

Liu Fu placed the brown paper bag on the table and took a step back.

"Shadow Blade, the fourth-tier human traitor who assassinated Song Chen at the East Fortress of Tianhai, confessed everything under the Soul Devouring Technique."

"His superior is a man in Tianhai City called Uncle Hai, whose real name and identity are unknown. They meet in different locations each time and never leave any trace."

"Not offline."

"Song Chen has already been listed as target number 005 by those traitors. Judging from their past habits, if this assassination fails, Song Chen's ranking will rise significantly."

"I suggest we stop letting Song Chen go out and keep him at school. With you here, those traitors won't be able to pull any tricks."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Wangyue put down his pen and looked out the window.

Outside the window was the beautiful campus of Tianhai University. His gaze went beyond the campus walls, beyond the skyline of Tianhai City, beyond the coastline, and landed on the vast blue sea.

"He can't stay in the greenhouse forever."

Zhou Wangyue's voice was very soft, as if he were talking to himself, or as if he were explaining to Liu Fu.

"He is a knife. A knife needs to be sharpened on a stone to become sharper. If you leave it in a cabinet, it will rust."

"I knew those people wanted to kill him, and he knew they wanted to kill him, but he wasn't afraid. What he was afraid of was having no opponents, no battles, and no chance to become stronger."

He turned around and looked at Liu Fu.

"Song Chen's trip to the Yunbo Island base will give those lurking in the shadows a chance to make their move."

"Because they know that if they can't kill Song Chen now, they'll never have another chance."

"Go ahead, I'll take care of things on Yunbo Island."

Liu Fu saluted, turned and left the office.

Zhou Wangyue was the only one left in the office.

The old man sat in the chair, looking at the unsigned document on the table. Then he picked up his pen and continued signing.

The pen tip scratches across the paper, making a soft, rustling sound, like autumn leaves being blown across the road by the wind.

He signed the last document, closed the folder, and put it aside.

Then he opened the drawer, took out a small, black communicator, and pressed the call button.

"Shen Tie, my only disciple has gone to you. Take good care of him, but don't let him know that you are taking care of him. He doesn't need protection, but he needs someone behind him."

A rough voice, tinged with the salty smell of the sea, came from the other end of the communicator: "Don't worry, Principal, the island is our lifeline."

Zhou Wangyue turned off the communicator, put it back in the drawer, and closed the drawer.

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked out at the campus.

The sun was shining brightly, and psionic particles floated slowly in the air. Not far away, several students were taking pictures, and their laughter drifted from afar, clear and youthful.

The old man looked at the students with a complicated expression.

He thought of his three disciples, all of whom had died on the battlefield, before him, and he didn't want to lose another one.

But he knew that Song Chen was not the kind of person who could be kept in a greenhouse. What he could do was not to hide the knife, but to sharpen it even more, and then stand behind him to help him up when he was about to fall.

……

Tianhai City, Nangang Wharf.

Song Chen stood on the dock, looking at the boundless sea before her.

This was the first time in his life he had ever seen the ocean—not a video, not a photograph, but a real, living, boundless ocean.

The seawater was deep blue, shimmering with golden light in the afternoon sun, stretching all the way to the horizon and merging with the sky.

The sea breeze, carrying a salty, fishy smell, rushed towards him, ruffling his hair and the hem of his clothes. The waves lapped against the concrete piers of the dock, making a rhythmic splashing sound, like the ocean breathing.

He grew up in Anning City, which is inland and surrounded by mountains and wilderness.

He knew the sea was vast, but he didn't know it was this vast, this deep, and this blue.

Several seabirds circled above the sea, their white wings shimmering in the sunlight.

In the distance, several huge cargo ships slowly sailed by, their psionic shields gleaming pale blue in the sunlight.

Further away, where the sea meets the sky, a small black dot can be vaguely seen. That is an island, Yunbo Island, the outpost established by Tianhai City in the near sea, and his destination.

The dock was bustling with activity. Fishing boats, cargo ships, patrol boats, and passenger ships of all sizes were moored at various berths, and the flags on board fluttered in the sea breeze.

Fishermen were tidying their nets, workers were loading and unloading cargo, and soldiers were patrolling. Everything was normal and busy.

These are days without beast tides; everything is normal.

But one ship is not normal.

The ship was moored in the VIP berth at the dock, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding fishing boats and cargo ships.

It is about fifty meters long, with a streamlined hull, and is entirely silver-white, shimmering in the sunlight, like a giant silver whale floating on the water.

The ship was painted with the logo of the Tianhai City Defense Command and several large blue characters: Yunbo Island Base.

This is a psionic warship, one of the most advanced near-shore combat vessels in Tianhai City. It is equipped with a psionic main gun and an anti-missile system, and its speed is three times that of ordinary warships. Its hull armor can withstand the frontal impact of sea monsters below the fifth tier.

Warships of this class normally only carry out the highest-level military missions and will not appear at passenger terminals.

But today, it has appeared here.