Chapter 36
The sun's majestic golden light slowly descended on the horizon, bringing with it its glory and brilliance. What followed was a blanket of darkness that slowly engulfed the entire land. In a corner of a village camp, two young women were surrounded by a group of people wearing black cloaks. In front of them stood a young man with an evil grin, clearly setting up an ambush but confidently showing his face to his targets. This young man was Xing Meng, the prodigy of the Floating Lotus Alchemy School, and the two young women were Qin Lou and Susu Ling.
"Xing Meng! You shameless bastard… How dare you use such a sneaky, underhanded method? You're no better than a thief!" Susu Ling shouted, pointing her finger at him.
"Haha… This junior sister is truly beautiful and fearless. I didn't believe the rumor about you, but now I see it. I'd love to see how brave you can be when I rip your clothes off and fuck you myself like crazy. Hehe," Xing Meng said, his eyes filled with lust as he looked at Susu Ling.
"Truly a spineless and shameless person. I wonder how your master could have chosen a wastrel like you as his disciple," Susu Ling said with disdain.
"Enough talk! I'll show you just how shameless I can be when I'm all over your body. Haha!" Xing Meng said, raising his hand.
Suddenly, two shadows appeared in front of Xing Meng, facing Qin Lou and Susu Ling. The two newcomers were carrying long shotel swords on their backs. They removed their hoods, revealing two long, square-shaped, manly faces. Upon seeing them, Susu Ling's body involuntarily shuddered. Even Qin Lou felt a little scared as she knew their infamous reputation.
They were known as the Twin Tigers, one of the top five fighters in the entire Er Kingdom. A rumor said they sometimes worked as assassins for hire, but no one could prove it, as they always left a bloody trail when hunting their targets. This made them infamous, but with no concrete evidence of their crimes, both brothers still roamed free.
Seeing them, Qin Lou hardened her resolve and decided to face them to give Susu Ling a chance to escape. She wasn't sure if she could survive, but deep in her heart, she knew she had to do her best.
At that moment, Qin Lou didn't feel fear. Instead, she felt calm and a little excited. She had discovered something unique about the crystal covering her eyes. When the two men leaped from their hiding place, she clearly saw where they would land, as if everything was in slow motion. She wasn't sure how to use this ability yet, so she wanted to test it. If it was useful, she could possibly use it to fight these ruffians.
"Hehe, I want that little woman unharmed. Just subdue the masked one and extract the information we need," Xing Meng commanded, waving his hands arrogantly.
The twins nodded and unsheathed the shotels from their backs. Qin Lou also unsheathed the sword that Susu Ling had given her, holding the scabbard in one hand and the sword in the other. She stood there, preparing to face the deadliest enemy of her life so far.
As both parties faced each other, time seemed to stop. Qin Lou could feel her heart beating wildly, but on the outside, she maintained a calm expression. She saw her two opponents nod to each other, and with an unspoken mental connection, both men rushed toward her, their weapons ready to strike.
Upon seeing this, she was dazed again. It was happening again. She could clearly see their actions about three seconds in advance. She knew this wasn't an ability of her eyewear but her own ability affecting it. She didn't have time to analyze it further, so she decided to just block the two strikes. Then, she realized she had underestimated the two incoming shotel swords. The powerful force sent her flying backward, and her hands shook as if she'd been hit by two large boulders. She didn't crash into the wall but regained her balance after being flung about ten meters.
"Their strength is clearly greater than mine. At most, both of them are almost at the middle stage of the gold core realm. If I fight them defensively, I'll be completely outmatched in strength and Qi reserves. Right! How could I forget what Shin Jiao taught me? Sometimes I think he saw this happening to me, that's why he taught me those moves," Qin Lou said to herself, analyzing her situation.
"Still able to fight, eh? This one is truly a worthy opponent."
"Yes, a worthy opponent indeed."
Both brothers said in unison as they prepared to launch another attack. This time, they planned to finish things as quickly as possible. They stood side-by-side and attacked Qin Lou simultaneously. Their flurry of attacks was slow at first, then began to increase in pace as the twins felt that something was off.
Qin Lou now had a better understanding of what her new skill could do. Her mind could read her opponents' next moves before they made them. She tested her theory by not fighting back and simply doing some basic evasion. The first sword strike was a stab aimed at her neck, and she slightly tilted her head to avoid it. The second was a two-sword combo, a stab going to her shoulder and right thigh, and she simply stepped sideways. This dangerous situation became her training ground. Even though she was able to evade most of the strikes, the blades were coated with Qi, so Qin Lou still received some minor damage.
"Haha, is that all you've got, senior sister? All you've done is evade. Are you that scared?" Xing Meng laughed contemptuously upon seeing Qin Lou's bloody appearance.
"You!..." Susu Ling wanted to rebuke him, but seeing the situation, she couldn't argue. Her heart ached as she saw the blood from Qin Lou's body staining her clothes red.
"But I'm getting bored now. I want the recipe for the Rapid Haemostatic Pill. Either you give me the recipe, or I kill your mortal… boyfriend. Hehe…" Xing Meng said.
The twin brothers suddenly stopped attacking and stepped back. Their shoulders rose and fell, clearly having spent a lot of energy. Seeing this, Xing Meng felt a little irritated, so he decided to interfere and use threats.
"Wait… I will… I will give you the recipe, but you must promise to release him in front of me," Qin Lou put forth her condition.
"Okay, then show me the recipe first."
"No! I need to make sure he is alive before anything else," Qin Lou said stubbornly.
"Tsk, such a stubborn woman. Tell the others to send that mortal here," Xing Meng shouted.
But then someone whispered something to him, and his face contorted. He had forgotten that he had already commanded his men to get rid of the mortal. Seeing his reaction, Qin Lou had a bad premonition and suddenly shouted, "Where is he? Show him to me now!"
Xing Meng suddenly had an idea and stood up. He whispered something to another man behind him. After the man moved out, Xing Meng leisurely walked toward Qin Lou.
"I had my men get him. Show me the recipe now! My patience is running out," Xing Meng said with an annoyed face.
Before Qin Lou could say anything, she saw a person walking from behind Xing Meng with his head covered by a dirty sack. She recognized his clothes and heaved a sigh of relief. She wanted to scan Shin Jiao but was suddenly interrupted by Xing Meng.
"Na, hah… The recipe first…" Xing Meng said, holding out a hand toward Qin Lou.
With no other choice, she tossed him a palm-sized scroll. Xing Meng opened it and checked the contents. With a wave of his hand, the recipe disappeared, and a blade suddenly appeared in his hand, indicating he had a spatial tool. Then, without a word, he slashed at Qin Lou, who was standing nearby.
"Sister Qin, look out!"
When Shin Jiao was begging for his life, he had an idea of what the command this group had received was. He just let himself be carried to the back of the house, where the young man unsheathed his sword.
"Any last words, mortal?" the young man asked with a bloodthirsty aura as he lifted his sword.
"Ah… can you not kill me, please!?" Shin Jiao said in a begging tone.
"Haha… Is that your last word? Then die!"
"Wait! Wait! Okay, my last word… umn… Can you blush?" Shin Jiao said with a smile.
"What? Are you insulting me?" the young man shouted in annoyance but decided to swing his sword downward, attempting to cut Shin Jiao in half.
But the young man found he had hit nothing but air. From behind him, he felt the cold hands of someone holding his neck like an immovable clamp. Cold sweat trickled down the young man's spine. He didn't know what had happened. He wanted to say something, but words wouldn't come out as if something was blocking his throat, making his face turn red with anger.
"Oh, it seems you can really blush. But it's too late. I told you to spare me, but you wouldn't agree. Is it because I'm just a mortal that you think my life is no better than a bug you could just casually crush?" Shin Jiao said, feeling a little annoyed.
Before Shin Jiao could react, he heard footsteps. Someone was approaching. The young man in his hand also heard this and suddenly gathered his remaining strength and swung his sword sideways toward Shin Jiao. He hoped this would buy him time for his companions to rush in and help him. But as he swung his sharp sword, a person suddenly appeared and entered the door. That person didn't have time to react and was decapitated by the sword. His head flew high, and his body spurted a large amount of blood. The expression on his face was one of disbelief, his eyes wide, as all he had wanted was to check why it was taking the young man so long to kill a mortal. He didn't expect this to be the last moment of his life.
Shin Jiao squinted awkwardly and almost said sorry, but it wasn't his fault. He had only evaded the sword. Although he knew a man would come through the door, he didn't expect it to happen this way. The loud 'thud' of the falling body was heard by their companions outside. Shin Jiao then heard footsteps running toward the room.
"Sigh, I have to get rid of them somehow while making sure they don't make me the prime suspect," Shin Jiao thought.
An idea popped into his mind, and his eyes lit up. He looked at the man in his hand, and an evil grin appeared on his face.
"You wanted to kill me, right? Then, let me show you a unique way of killing others… It's killing with borrowed hands," Shin Jiao said as he dragged the young man toward his incoming comrades.
He then used the young man in his hand as both a sword and a shield. Shin Jiao began assaulting the other cultivators, who were startled as they didn't understand what was going on.
From their perspective, it looked like the young man was protecting the mortal while trying to attack his own comrades. To do this, Shin Jiao had already disabled the man's pressure points, making his body soft like jelly and susceptible to Shin Jiao's manipulation. The clashing of swords and the sound of flesh being cut could be heard inside the house. Shin Jiao didn't have a hard time defending himself, as he would always use the young man's body to block any incoming swords, leaving him with frightening wounds all over his body.
After some time, Shin Jiao found that the young man in his hand was covered in wounds. Although he was already weak, his hand still held his sword tightly, and his eyes glared daggers at Shin Jiao. Shin Jiao glared back at him, then diverted his gaze to the ground, where six people lay. If someone checked this scene, they would conclude that a brawl had happened and the group had killed each other in an internal dispute.
"This is what you call karma. This is what you get for disturbing my peaceful life. If you had just spared me, you and your group would still be drinking and enjoying your lives. Sigh, I guess this is what you chose to be… right?" Shin Jiao noticed that the young man's pulse was getting weaker.
He let go of him, and the young man slumped to the floor, his sword burying itself into the person who had acted as their leader. Then, the young man with a bloodthirsty aura slowly closed his eyes as his heartbeat gradually stopped.
Shin Jiao dusted himself off, then carefully checked the area for anything that would point to him as the culprit. Seeing that everything seemed almost perfect, he walked out of the old house.