save the bachelors

Chapter 4322 [Shadow Swordsman]

Xiang Nan returned to the courtyard from the Duke's Mansion and continued to practice martial arts with Xu Ziling.

They practiced until late at night before going to bed.

But at four o'clock in the morning, when the night was even quieter, Xiang Nan suddenly heard a very slight sound of "shashasha".

As soon as he heard it, he knew that someone was demonstrating superb lightness skills.

He used his X-ray vision to look outside the house and immediately saw a man in black landing in the yard and walking towards the house.

The man in black was obviously a man, and the most obvious feature was that he had a half mask on his face, which covered half of his face, making it impossible to identify his appearance.

But even so, Xiang Nan easily recognized his identity.

It was Hou Xibai, nicknamed the Amorous Young Master, but this was only his public identity. He also had another hidden identity, the shadow swordsman Yang Xuyan.

Yang Xuyan's father, Yang Yong, was the eldest son of Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, and was once made crown prince. Unfortunately, he lost the emperor's favor due to the schemes of his younger brother, Yang Guang, and was eventually demoted to a commoner.

After Yang Guang ascended the throne, in order to eliminate future troubles, he forged Yang Jian's will and sentenced Yang Yong to death. Yang Xuyan was rescued by Shi Zhixuan, who accepted him as his disciple and promised to help him restore the throne in the future. Yang Xuyan was naturally grateful.

But unfortunately, Shi Zhixuan chose to freeze himself twenty years ago, and his whereabouts are unknown, which naturally makes Yang Xuyan very worried.

Because without Shi Zhixuan's martial arts and the strong support of the Demon Sect, he would never be able to overthrow Yang Guang and take back the throne that rightfully belonged to him on his own.

So he worked hard to find Shi Zhixuan. Until recently, he heard the rumor that "The Secret of Immortality" could find the tomb of the Evil King and release Shi Zhixuan, which made him interested.

……

"In the play, you pretended to be a good person and deceived many people. Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes. You won't get away with it this time." Xiang Nan thought to himself, and flashed to Xu Ziling's room, cast a daydream spell on him, and then quietly guarded the door.

In the play, Yang Xuyan uses Hou Xibai's identity as a cover, and nominally helps Shuanglong fight against Kankan, Zhu Yuyan, Yu Wenzhi, and the four major bandits of the Demon Sect.

In fact, he wanted to use the power of the two dragons to find Shi Zhixuan, obtain the evil emperor's relics, and destroy the He Shi Bi. In the end, he exposed his ambition and cooperated with Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji to compete for hegemony over the world and seize the throne.

Shuanglong was deceived by him at first and thought he was a good person, but ended up being deceived by him.

But in fact, in the book, Hou Xibai and Yang Xuyan are two completely different people. Although they are both disciples of Shi Zhixuan, their martial arts styles are completely different.

Because Shi Zhixuan was proficient in martial arts from both the Huajian School and the Butian Pavilion, his two disciples only learned martial arts from his one school each.

Hou Xibai is the successor of the Huajian School. He learned the martial arts of the Huajian School and emphasized "introducing art into martial arts". He is good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and songs.

His school has a long history and belongs to an organization of small craftsmen with artistic attributes. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and songs were all privileges enjoyed by the upper class.

But those who are responsible for painting, playing music, writing, and collecting poetry are subordinates of the big men. They are both dependent on the mainstream society and marginal figures in it.

The Analects of Confucius said, "Even if it is a minor discipline, there must be something worth observing in it. If it is pursued too far, it may become bogged down. Therefore, a gentleman will not pursue it." It means that poetry, calligraphy, painting, astrology, divination, medicine, agriculture, and mathematics are all minor subjects that have no benefit in governing the country and ensuring the people's well-being. Therefore, a gentleman will not waste his energy on these useless subjects.

Therefore, these small craftsmen who possessed certain talents and lived outside the mainstream society united together to form the Huajian Sect, one of the two sects and six paths of the Demonic Sect.

Yang Xuyan is the descendant of the Butian Pavilion, and he learned the art of assassination. The Butian Pavilion is the descendant of the knights-errant and assassins of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

During the Han Dynasty, all schools of thought were abolished, and Confucianism was the only one respected. The knights-errant broke the law with force, so the knights-errant and assassins were also among those to be punished, so they jointly founded the Butian Pavilion. Because they were not orthodox and were heretical, they were also classified as demons.

In the book, Yang Xuyan also secretly joined the Daming Zun Sect and became one of the atoms. He practiced the Daming Zun Sect's secret book "The Wisdom Sutra of the Origin of All Things", and combined it with the "Immortal Seal" to create the "Black Hand Magic", making him a very difficult character.

However, in order to simplify the plot, Hou Xibai and Yang Xuyan were merged into one person. Hou Xibai also changed from a close friend of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling in the original novel to a sinister, cunning, two-faced and treacherous villain.

……

Yang Xuyan came to the door, drew out the sharp knife, picked up the bolt, then gently pushed the door open and flashed into the house.

His movements were extremely light and there was almost no sound during the entire process. He was truly worthy of being called a "Shadow Swordsman".

But after he entered, he suddenly found that Xiang Nan was standing at the door, looking at him with a smile.

Yang Xuyan was immediately surprised.

Because he didn't notice Xiang Nan at all just now.

As the world's top killer, his five senses are actually very sharp.

Not to mention if there is someone nearby, even if someone passes by a few hundred meters away, someone is peeping, or someone is taking action, he will be able to sense it.

This is the killer's instinct.

But Xiang Nan was clearly right in front of him just now, but he knew nothing about it. It was really scary.

"Doesn't he have any breathing, any heartbeat, or any body temperature?" Yang Xuyan was extremely surprised, but out of his killer instinct, he still stabbed Xiang Nan with a sword.

The sword is as fast as a meteor, and its murderous aura is so strong that it makes people tremble. It is worthy of being an assassin's sword, killing one person every ten steps, and bleeding every five steps.

But there was a clang, and the sword pierced Xiang Nan's body, but it was like piercing a piece of steel, not even penetrating the skin. Looking at Xiang Nan again, he turned into a golden man shining with golden light.

“……”Yang Xuyan was shocked again.

He had never heard of or seen such martial arts before, it was really unexpected.

At this moment, his hands were grasped by Xiang Nan, and his martial arts were absorbed by Xiang Nan continuously.

"The power-absorbing technique?!" Yang Xuyan was shocked.

The Qi-absorbing Dafa was also an evil martial art that he practiced hard. To practice this evil skill, he needed to absorb a large amount of corpse Qi. For this reason, he had to go to many tombs and battlefields to practice by absorbing the Qi of the dead.

It was with this skill that Yang Xuyan was able to quickly accumulate considerable strength at a young age. You know, when Shi Zhixuan was in seclusion, he was only seven years old.

Therefore, he was nominally Shi Zhixuan's apprentice, but in fact Shi Zhixuan did not teach him much martial arts personally. There is still a big difference between one-on-one personal teaching with famous teachers such as Kankan and Shi Feixuan.

But his strength is not weak at all, and is even stronger than that of Kankan. He relies on the power-absorbing technique, which allows him to absorb the power of others and grow rapidly.

However, this kind of martial arts is too evil. Even if you master it, your life span will be greatly shortened. It is like drinking poison to quench thirst and draining the pond to catch fish.

But he didn't expect that Xiang Nan could do it too.