Li Chaofeng's motion of retrieving the blade was dazzling—so graceful and effortless that Hu Tiehua stood there, stunned.
Throwing a knife was easy. Retrieving it—without using inner energy—was something else entirely. That was practically the work of a celestial being.
In this world, there was no such thing as sword control by willpower. Even Li Xunhuan's famed flying daggers required true qi to guide them.
Hu Tiehua swallowed hard. Tonight had been filled with too many extraordinary events. The young culinary genius turning the tables and killing Jiang Qin—he could understand that. In a narrow den like this, life and death often came down to a single thought.
And the cooking? That needed no explanation. If Fourth Master Jin himself had offered to gift a restaurant, then it must have been truly exceptional.
But this blade… this divine blade—what was the story behind it?
Recalling how Li Chaofeng had demonstrated the knife's return before him, Hu Tiehua finally voiced his confusion.
"This knife… what exactly is it?"
Li Chaofeng didn't answer directly. Instead, he squinted at Jiang Biehe's corpse, a faint, enigmatic smile playing at the corner of his lips.
"Aren't you curious what that guy meant earlier—about something even better than the 'Wedding Garment Divine Skill'?"
Hu Tiehua blinked. Most of Jiang Qin's tempting offers had been filtered out by his brain—he hadn't even registered the details.
Now, thinking back, and looking again at the short blade in Li Chaofeng's hand, realization dawned.
"It's the knife?"
He began pacing the cave, muttering to himself.
"So that's why… he suddenly stopped talking—it was because you were controlling the knife, warning him in secret not to say another word. Right?"
Li Chaofeng nodded. "That's right. When he started talking, he looked straight at me. And the most valuable thing on me… is this knife."
Hu Tiehua halted in his tracks, glancing at Li Chaofeng with suspicion in his eyes, his guard instinctively rising.
"But if you stopped Jiang Qin from revealing your secret, why show it to me now?"
If this blade truly was divine, then Li Chaofeng had even less reason to display it—at least not to him. There was no need.
Li Chaofeng smiled. "A secret? What secret?"
He turned his gaze to Jiang Biehe's body and laughed heartily.
"That was just his assumption—that I would guard this secret with my life."
Li Chaofeng wasn't naive to the treachery of the martial world. But he understood Jiang Biehe all too well. With men like that, even if you imagine the worst, they'll still think of something worse. And what's more—they believe everyone else is just as treacherous as they are.
Hu Tiehua wasn't convinced by Li Chaofeng's mockery of Jiang Biehe's scheming mind. He issued a warning instead.
"But this is a divine blade—one that people across the world would fight to the death to obtain."
Li Chaofeng replied calmly, "I know. But I also trust that you have no intention of taking it."
Hu Tiehua narrowed his eyes. "And your reason?"
Li Chaofeng casually flicked the short blade, letting it spin gracefully between his fingers.
"Because once you have it, you'll realize that this knife is nowhere near as powerful as the 'Wedding Garment Divine Skill.'"
"Its only true merit is its sharpness—sharp enough to pierce through true qi and straight into someone's skull. And after that, it can return to me through a special method that only I know."
"You passed up the chance to claim the Wedding Garment Divine Skill—so it's even less likely you'd want this blade. Even if killing me would let you take it."
He met Hu Tiehua's gaze directly, his tone clear and unwavering.
"But you won't. Will you?"
Hu Tiehua eased up a little, the tension leaving his shoulders. Then, as if something had occurred to him, he rubbed his belly and chuckled wryly.
"True. If you'd really wanted to deal with me, you had plenty of chances back when we were eating meat and drinking wine."
Whatever Li Chaofeng had sprayed from his little flask earlier—Hu Tiehua hadn't the faintest clue. If he'd wanted to poison him, he could've done it at any time.
Clapping his belly with a hearty smack, Hu Tiehua broke into a laugh.
"Well then—since you're willing to trust me, I'll trust you too!"
The short blade came to a stop between Li Chaofeng's fingers, and he slid it neatly into a sheath at his waist. Casting a glance at Jiang Biehe's corpse, he gestured toward the stone where the Wedding Garment Divine Skill had been inscribed.
"This so-called 'Wedding Garment Divine Skill' he wrote—interested in taking a look?"
Hu Tiehua turned to look. Of course he was interested. Who wouldn't want to see it?
But Jiang Qin was a cunning man, and Hu Tiehua remained wary. Tilting his head, he studied Li Chaofeng, curious about his take on it.
"You really believe that's the real Wedding Garment Divine Skill?"
Li Chaofeng smiled. "If I were here alone, I wouldn't believe a single word. But with someone like you—whose martial arts are so advanced—there's no way you'd be fooled by a completely fake manual."
"It's definitely a fake… but I doubt it's that fake. At most, a few sentences might be scrambled or miswritten."
"If Jiang Qin had the ability to forge a manual that could deceive someone like you, he wouldn't have needed to betray his master just to climb the ranks."
Li Chaofeng didn't know martial arts—Jiang Biehe had probably guessed that. So when he wrote the Wedding Garment Divine Skill for Li Chaofeng, there wasn't a word worth trusting.
But Hu Tiehua was a master of lightness skills. If Jiang Biehe wanted to deceive him, the deception had to pass Hu Tiehua's eyes first.
A truly profound martial arts manual had to contain real martial principles. And for Li Chaofeng, practicing this skill was impossible.
But reading it—and comprehending a few genuine martial insights from it—that, he could do.
Jiumozhi mastered fingertip sword energy through a fake Six Meridians Divine Sword technique. Ouyang Feng became the top martial artist in the world by relying on a counterfeit Nine Yin Manual.
Though Jin Yong and Gu Long's martial worlds followed different systems, the underlying principles remained the same—even a fake manual, if read with understanding, could still reveal truths of martial cultivation.
But swallowing it whole without discernment… could be fatal.
Hu Tiehua heard the subtle acknowledgment in Li Chaofeng's tone, yet he frowned, scanning Li Chaofeng up and down before sighing and shaking his head in disappointment.
"So you really don't know martial arts. At my level, the worst thing I could do is read a nearly real version of the Wedding Garment Divine Skill."
Li Chaofeng was taken aback. He had never tried to hide the fact that he didn't know martial arts—nor could he—but Hu Tiehua's words left him puzzled.
Seeing his confusion, Hu Tiehua raised his head and let out a long sigh.
"Martial cultivation is like Zen. The Wedding Garment Divine Skill, if it's even close to authentic, must be filled with truths—every word a revelation. For a warrior like me, reading one word would lead me to crave the next, and then the next—until I've read it all."
"And once I've memorized it, the itch sets in. I'd feel compelled to try practicing it. But if I get it wrong… there's no turning back."
"Whether I end up crippled or dead—that would depend entirely on whether Jiang Qin left a shred of goodwill behind."
Upon hearing this, Li Chaofeng finally understood what he meant.
Without a word, he walked over to where Jiang Biehe had painstakingly written the Wedding Garment Divine Skill and picked up the scattered pages from the stone. Weighing the paper lightly in his hand, he turned to Hu Tiehua with a teasing smile.
"You sure you don't want to read it?"
Hu Tiehua closed his eyes, answering firmly.
"No."
Whoosh!
Just as Hu Tiehua's eyes shut, he heard the sound of fluttering paper and immediately opened them again—only to see countless pages flying through the air, drifting and scattering like leaves.
Li Chaofeng stood below, chin resting on one hand, watching the airborne fragments with an expression of theatrical regret.
"Well… now not only are the sentences scrambled, but the pages are completely out of order too."
Though Hu Tiehua had resolved not to read it, he was still a man of martial arts. Seeing a priceless treasure of the martial world reduced to drifting scraps before his eyes, his voice quivered with shock.
"What have you done?!"
Before the words even finished leaving his mouth, he leapt into the air, trying to gather the pages before they were lost.
But just as he did, Li Chaofeng drew the short blade from his waist and thrust it directly toward him.
Hu Tiehua, though a master, couldn't help but feel momentarily threatened. The cave was cramped, and even with his supreme lightness skill, he couldn't dodge so easily.
He knew how sharp that blade was—tonight had proven that much. This wasn't a true duel to the death, so he could only circulate his qi and retreat.
But while he backed away, Li Chaofeng kept charging forward, reckless and unrelenting.
In a matter of moments, Hu Tiehua had been forced all the way to the cave's entrance. By then, the pages had already scattered completely across the ground.
Li Chaofeng spun the blade smoothly, then sheathed it once more in its scabbard at his waist. Glancing down at the scattered mess, he turned to Hu Tiehua, face alight with satisfaction, and grinned.
"Well? Now… are you sure you still want to read it?"