The serrated blade whistled through the smoke, its venom-soaked tip inches from Senior Brother Bai’s unprotected spine.
Ye Chen did not hesitate. Dropping the rusted iron broadsword, he lunged across the bloodstained floorboards, thrusting his open right palm into the path of the strike.
Squelch!
The blackened steel drove through Ye Chen’s palm, the jagged edge grinding against bone as dark venom hissed against his flesh.
Before the dying mercenary captain could twist the hilt, Ye Chen stepped into the strike, his left boot crushing downward like a falling boulder onto the man’s skull.
CRACK!
The captain’s head caved into the floorboards, blood and bone shards splattering across the burning ash before his limbs went limp forever.
Ye Chen wrenched the blackened dagger from his hand,
