Chapter 37
Swoosh!
The sound of a sharp sword cutting through the air suddenly gave Qin Lou a fright. The face behind her mask hinted at panic as she quickly bent backward to evade the fatal slash aimed at her neck. Her fast reaction enabled her to evade the sharp blade by a hair's breadth. Although she managed to avoid the main attack, she was still hit by the Qi enveloping the sword, which brushed against and tore a portion of the white mask covering her face.
Qin Lou stumbled back a few steps, half of her lower face now exposed after Xing Meng's surprise attack. She was hit by the spiritual energy emitted by the sword, and blood slowly flowed from the corner of her mouth, dripping to the ground like red crystal pearls. There was a new wound on the lower corner of her chin.
She looked back at Xing Meng with angry eyes through her mask. Xing Meng, however, looked stunned. His sneering face was frozen, and he turned pale as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes were fixed on the lower half of Qin Lou's face where her mask was torn, leaving him unable to move. Seeing his and the other people's reactions, Qin Lou suddenly understood. Half of her lower face was exposed, and the people were stupefied at what they were seeing. The greenish blood vessels on Qin Lou's face were like webs of pulsating cracks, as if living worms were inside. Half of her face had a large, burnt-like scar. Although her lips looked fine, they were slightly deformed and dropped on one side.
Seeing that the people were stunned, Qin Lou seized the opportunity to strike back. With a flicker of her sleeve, she slashed toward Xing Meng's chest. Because of his stupor, it was too late for Xing Meng to evade, and the blade in Qin Lou's hand sliced directly through his clothes. But before it could reach his skin, it was stopped by a thin layer of fabric.
"That's a Heavenly Silk Mail!" Susu Ling exclaimed.
A Heavenly Silk Mail is a consumable armor that can protect its wearer at least three times before its spiritual essence runs out. It's like having the protection of a Nascent Cultivator's Qi. Although it's a consumable, it is a very valuable item to have, as it can be a life-saver.
Seeing that he had been hit, Xing Meng felt anger rush through his mind. This armor was a gift from his master, and he truly didn't want it to be exposed, but due to his carelessness, he had now lost his trump card. Before Qin Lou could do anything else, Xing Meng quickly countered her slash by stabbing directly toward her heart.
However, since Qin Lou was already in battle mode, she saw what Xing Meng was going to do and gracefully backflipped, evading the sword. This move had three purposes: to evade the incoming sword, to disarm Xing Meng, and to strike the person behind Susu Ling. One of her feet forcefully hit Xing Meng's hand, which was holding the sword. The force of the kick sent the sword flying toward a person behind Susu Ling. The person didn't expect things to go this way and, upon seeing the incoming sword, tried to evade, but it was too late. The sword found its way to his right shoulder, and the impact unexpectedly sent him flying backward, rendering him unconscious.
"Susu, run! Go and tell the elders what's happening here, now!" Qin Lou shouted as she moved toward Susu Ling and pushed her back.
Still stunned, Susu Ling was pushed and dragged by Qin Lou toward the hole in the encirclement that the unconscious man had created, giving Susu Ling a chance to escape and find help. Susu Ling snapped out of her daze and nodded at Qin Lou.
"Senior sister, wait for me… I'll come back with the elders," Susu Ling said as she quickly escaped.
Qin Lou didn't know why she trusted what Susu Ling said, but her gut feeling told her that Susu Ling would return with help, and all she had to do was buy some time.
"Don't let her leave!" Xing Meng shouted in exasperation, and a few people ran after Susu Ling.
Xing Meng was truly angry now. He didn't expect Qin Lou to counter his sword strike and let Susu Ling escape. He also lost one of his men. He felt hatred toward Qin Lou for this failure and wanted to kill her to vent his anger.
"You two kill her now! I already have what we came for," Xing Meng shouted as he suddenly stepped back. Although he wanted to continue fighting, he was still aware of what was important.
The famous Twin Tigers suddenly leaped toward Qin Lou and began their flurry of attacks once more. This time, their movements were more ferocious and aimed to take her life. But the difference this time was that Qin Lou was going to fight back and show them her resolve.
Looking at the two men rushing toward her like ferocious tigers, a sudden glint of killing intent appeared in her eyes. Although Qin Lou was always passive and would not usually fight with anyone, it was only when she was pushed into a corner that she would not hesitate to fight back and even take lives if necessary. In this situation, with her life in danger, she had no choice but to defend herself.
"It's time to die now, you ugly woman!" the twin brothers shouted in unison.
The shotel swords of both twins glowed with a red and blue hue. This was one of their killer moves that had the ability to cut through any object. The spiritual Qi on both blades emitted a high and intense heat that had the capacity to melt any metal.
"Let's see you evade this! Twin Tigers Crosscut!" they shouted in unison.
The two blades crossed together and rushed forward toward Qin Lou. Upon seeing the two glowing blades in their cross-cutting skill, she felt her heart shake. She didn't have time to relax as she could tell that this skill had almost a zero chance of evasion. But Qin Lou didn't give up. She gritted her teeth and analyzed her evasion route once more.
Then, in the last seconds, her eyes suddenly lit up. It was as if she saw a saving grace that gave her hope of escaping her predicament. Qin Lou swiftly jumped up and twisted her body at an angle that was enough to pass through the V-shaped gap before the glowing blades could adjust themselves and cut her. In the blink of an eye, she was able to evade the crisscrossing cut. But to fully evade that overwhelming skill, Qin Lou sacrificed her scabbard to block the attack. In that split second before the scabbard disintegrated into dust, it gave her enough time to pass through the opening.
Seeing that their skill was seen through and became ineffective, the twins decided to use another skill in their arsenal to take Qin Lou's life. But Qin Lou wouldn't let them. She already knew that their skills were too powerful and could kill her if she was careless and got hit just once. So, with a quick turn, since she was close to one of the twins, she did a simple slicing motion.
This action made that person sneer in contempt. A simple slash without using Qi would be like a sword made of clay facing one made of steel. All he had to do was raise his glowing shotel sword, and the weapon in Qin Lou's hand would be cut in half. So, without thinking twice, he lifted his glowing, hot sword to parry Qin Lou's attack. But he didn't know that when her sword was about to make contact with his glowing blue shotel sword, it would suddenly change direction and turn from a slash into a straight stab. He wanted to step back or evade, but it was already too late as the tip had already touched his forehead.
"No!... Brother!" one of the twin brothers shouted mournfully. He rushed to attack Qin Lou, but before he could move a step, he saw the sword in her hand piercing his twin brother's forehead, impaling it like butter in a hot knife. With a clang, the shotel sword fell to the ground, and its blue hue slowly diminished.
"You dare kill my brother! I will skin you alive, you ugly bitch!" the remaining twin raged in anger.
Qin Lou just looked at him with caution as she prepared for the man to attack. Meanwhile, Xing Meng was astonished and had a look of disbelief after seeing what happened. The twins were known as legends among cultivators in Er City. They were not only good at fighting solo, but when they worked together, no one was their match. Now he had just seen one of them get impaled by a woman they considered trash. He began to feel fear and decided to run and save himself.
"Everyone, attack! Kill her! Kill her!" Xing Meng frantically shouted while secretly taking a small pouch out of his spatial tool, which was hidden on his waist.
All the cloaked men suddenly rushed toward Qin Lou, brandishing their swords. With this many opponents, Qin Lou wasn't sure if she could survive, but she didn't cower. Instead, she held her sword and prepared to fight them all.
The first to rush was the remaining twin brother. The man had almost lost his mind and was just waving his sword without using any of his remarkable skills. This made it easy for Qin Lou to predict his movements. After just three moves, Qin Lou was able to stab the man, who was in a state of rage, from behind and directly pierce his heart.
"Everyone, attack at once! I don't believe she has the ability to go through all of us!" one of the cloaked people shouted.
Everyone nodded and suddenly rushed toward Qin Lou. But then, all of a sudden, one of them who was near Qin Lou fell to his knees on the ground, a bloody hole in his chest. This made everyone stop attacking and stare at the fallen man.
They then saw, not too far away, an elder standing behind the dead man, stroking his long white beard while holding a long whip. Beside him were two more elders and Susu Ling.
"Tsk, tsk. You all are truly an unruly bunch. I didn't expect that you would collude with people from the outside and let them enter this hidden area," said Hu Ao.
"Xing Meng, you truly disappoint this old man. I let you win the contest even though you cheated. I just wanted to preserve your master's prestige and didn't expose the truth about the pill you made, and now you are doing this behind our backs? You truly are a waste," Lu Hao Duang said, shaking his head.
Xing Meng's eyes went wide in disbelief. He didn't expect that Susu Ling could really escape the clutches of the people who chased after her. And now his crime was known to the two well-known elders of the school. But his resolve was set when he started to think about the reward his master would give him if he showed him the recipe he had obtained. This would balance his crime and would also gain him a great benefit.
"Give up now, young lads; it's no use resisting us," Hu Ao warned the group.
As Hu Ao said, no matter how much they wanted to resist, they wouldn't be able to fight against two peak-stage Gold Core realm experts and another one with an unknown cultivation level. So the group decided to lay their weapons on the ground, hoping to preserve their lives.
With a wave of his hand, the weapons on the ground were shattered. This caused all the people to be dumbstruck. Master Ju casually stepped forward and destroyed the weapons. He then flicked his sleeves, and multiple needles shot out, rendering all the men in black cloaks motionless. With this move, he sealed their acupoints.
But before Xing Meng's acupoints could be sealed, he broke a crystal-like object in his hand. And when his acupoints were sealed, his body suddenly vanished from where he stood.
"That's a teleport crystal!"
"That sneaky bastard, he just ran and left us here."
"I'll kill him if I find him someday."
The students in the group of cloaked men suddenly complained, realizing that their greed had been used by Xing Meng. This was especially true for Xian Jian Feng, who had thought he could use this opportunity to get Qin Lou's secret in an easy way.
Xing Meng was able to escape being caught by the three elders. But the rest of the group was gathered up as more elders from every school appeared in the area. The students who had committed this offense were taken by the disciplinary committee.
Qin Lou ran toward Xian Jian Feng and violently shook him.
"Where is my servant? Where did you put him?" Qin Lou's frantic voice echoed.
"I don't know… It was Xing Meng's men who took him… He may be… dead already," Xian Jian Feng said with uncertainty.
Suddenly, tears began to fall uncontrollably from Qin Lou's eyes, soaking her white mask. She didn't bother to cover the exposed area of her face as she just stood there, feeling helpless. The elders looked at her and just waited, knowing that she was feeling depressed by the loss of someone she cared about. After some time, Qin Lou stopped crying and decided not to believe what Xian Jian Feng had said. She would look for Shin Jiao no matter what.
Qin Lou, along with Susu Ling, went with the three elders and returned to the alchemist's building. Unbeknownst to them, one of the cloaked men had escaped and was hiding on the top floor of a house. This was the young man wearing a half-mask and a dark green robe with a touch of red on his collar. He had actually escaped earlier when Susu Ling was able to run away. He knew that something was going to happen, and now that everything was exposed, he wanted to save himself.
"That Xing Meng tricked us all… I will repay this debt to him after I get back to Er City," the youth said, gritting his teeth in anger. Then he turned around and decided to run out of the illusion mountain, but before he could take a step, he heard the sound of something falling.