Chapter 381 - A Fatal-thrust

“You…” For a time, Su Lianyue seemed to be unable to respond. With a little anger on her face, Su Lianyue looked at him resentfully.

Only by a resentful look with a frown, she made Xiao Chen feel grieved in his heart. Then, Xiao Chen felt chill and uncomfortable as if a sudden bolt of lightning struck him. He thought, “Perhaps because of the rain just now, it is ice-cold outside, and she happened to pass by the cave. She may not necessarily come here with any conspiracy. Even if she is a member of the Devil’s Practice, she is only a woman. Why do you treat her like this?”

“Humph!” At just the perfect time, Su Lianyue snorted lightly and then tilted her head aside. She looked as if she was greatly wronged.

This time, Xiao Chen felt even more guilty and was about to take back the Unsullied Sword. However, on second thought, an idea came to his mind. “No, it is not right! What a strong enchanting power this demonic woman in the Devil’s Practice has! She tricked me!” With a cold voice, Xiao Chen asked, “Tell me, why are you coming here?”

Su Lianyue snorted lightly and said with a little angry voice. “You spoke either with your back to me or with your sword pointing at me. What is wrong with you?”

“I…” This time it was Xiao Chen’s turn to be speechless. Xiao Chen swung his sleeves and said with a cold voice, “You can say whatever you want to say. I have been irreconcilable with you members of the Devils’ sects from the beginning.” Perhaps, the thing that happened last time had brought Xiao Chen more hard feelings on Devils’ sects.

Su Lianyue hummed a little. She curved her mouth corners a little, showing a little proud smile as if she had finally defeated Xiao Chen. Then, she said, “You kept speaking ill of the Devils’ sects. Is the Orthodox Path that you have stayed in so perfect?”

Flicking his sleeves, Xiao Chen said coldly, “Not much better than you Devil’s Practice!”

“Hum, that’s right.” Twisting her waist, Su Lianyue walked over with short steps. She turned her wrist, and a turquoise blue lighter appeared in her hand. After she gave a slight puff to the lighter, it was immediately ignited with a sizzle. Then, the flames made the cave slightly warmer.

“On such a cold day, don’t you know that you can set fire to keep warm? You are such a fool…”

Xiao Chen’s eyebrows slightly wrinkled because he didn’t expect that she would say so. Right after that, he decided to totally ignore her words and prevent him from any impacts she might bring. However, to Xiao Chen’s surprise, he slightly shivered after hearing the next sentence of Su Lianyue.

“I suppose that your purpose of coming to the Miasma Mountain Range this time is not for the extraordinary treasure, right?”

When she said this, Su Lianyue’s look was already very serious. Slightly jumping, the flames on the lighter reflected in her eyes. The darkness in the depth of her eyes looked as deep as the night sky without stars. Xiao Chen could not figure out what was in her mind, so he asked with a cold voice, “What do you want to say, again?”

“Well, you must come here for another purpose…” Leaning gently against his ear, Su Lianyue uttered the words with fragrant breathings. Being so close to her, Xiao Chen could clearly smell the faint fragrance of her hair and see the amethyst earrings on her earlobes.

“What exactly do you want to say…”

…

After 30 minutes, Su Lianyue walked back to the entrance of the cave and said gently, “Then, it’s a deal. You must remember our agreement.” After giving Xiao Chen a sweet smile, she tiptoed and disappeared under the night sky. In the cave, her faint scent still lingered.

Xiao Chen gazed at the darkness outside where she disappeared, and he found that this woman from the Devils’ sects could even hide deeper than Xiaoyue. At most, he could only fight to a draw with her. Before Xiao Chen left, Qingluan specifically told him to watch out for this person.

Somehow, a gust of cold wind came in and made the flames before him shaking violently. And Xiao Chen saw that another turquoise blue lighter was left on the stone next to him by Su Lianyue. Suddenly, he flicked his sleeves and put out the fire. Once again, the cave plunged into cold and darkness.

Quite early next morning, it unexpectedly cleared up outside. A ray of sunshine came in sideways. After Xiao Chen meditated for the whole night, he opened his eyes and felt a little dazzling. At the entrance of the cave, the dew gathered on the leaves of the several green blades of grass. Twinkling in the sun, they looked adorable.

Xiao Chen breathed deep in and out for a few times and walked to the entrance of the cave. As the morning breeze swept over his clothes, he felt a bit of coolness. Gazing far into the distance, he saw these overlapped mountains and luxuriant trees under the blue sky and the white clouds. Though the mountains here were not towering, the mountain range here seemed to be vast and endlessly. And the mountains in the south were in an enshrouding mist. Xiao Chen guessed that it must be the entrance of the Ghost-wailing Hill.

At the moment, Xiao Chen had already made up his mind. After putting on his straw raincoat again, he walked toward the south. In his two hours of walking, he saw a lot of dead bodies, which were probably the result of the killings between the Orthodox Path and the Devil’s Practice. When Xiao Chen walked 500 meters further, a stenchy smell suddenly filled his nostrils. Slightly frowning, he leaned forward to check and spotted twenty more corpses lying in disorder in the wood.

Only by a glance, Xiao Chen recognized that the majority of these 20 more bodies were the Divine Mist Sect’s disciples who were in easily identified costumes. The rest bodies were disciples from the Yin-Yang Sect, which got well along with the Divine Mist Sect.

The Yin-Yang Sect was a well-known sect of the North Continent; the Divine Mist Sect praised itself as the top of all the sects in the Middle Continent. The strength of the two sects was enough to inspire awe throughout the country. Hence, the two sects could act as a counterweight to the top four sects of the Devils’ sects. But why would so many of them die here?

Thinking of this, Xiao Chen slowly walked over. Among the twenty more people, seven or eight persons died miserably—they were cut into pieces. It looked that the Seven Killings of the Bloodied Fiend Sect, who was called the God of Blood, chopped them. Weird expressions froze on the rest dozen bodies, on the throats of which got wounds made by swords. However, no blood overflew. Obviously, Yi Yeqiu from the Dark Shadow Hall killed all of them, by using his unique skill “Fatal-thrust.”

By using the Fatal-thrust, Yi Yeqiu could shoot a stream of Sword Qi to his enemy’s head at the moment when he launched his sword attack. The Sword Qi would enter the body through the neck, which could instantly smash the enemy’s soul. Meanwhile, the Mystic Power in this attack could immediately make the enemy’s heart stop beating, so the blood of the enemy would freeze right before he or she died. Hence, not much blood would spill.

Squatting down, Xiao Chen carefully examined the several corpses. Then, he found that the fatal wounds of these people were all the sword marks 1.5 cm down the throat. The sword cut precisely at the same place down each one’s throat. Before that, these people hadn’t been attacked. The killer could aim at the precise position and kill by one sword attack. It seemed that in this world, only Yi Yeqiu could do this.

However, Xiao Chen frowned again. “But with his strength, Yi Yeqiu could slaughter the dozen Core Forming Realm cultivators with ease. I can almost sure that he could kill all of them in a flash. Thus, these people should have the expressions showing that they felt terrified all of a sudden. But the fact is that each one of them looked confused as if they had fallen into some illusory land before they died.”

Stretching out his two fingers, Xiao Chen opened the wounds on the throats of some corpses and found that these wounds were very smooth. From right to left, the wound got larger, which indicated that the kill must send out his sword from the left. That night, Xiao Chen especially noticed that Yi Yeqiu wield his sword with his left hand. Thus, this fact tallied with Xiao Chen’s speculation. However, it seemed that a much weaker force than the force that Yi Yeqiu could exert made these wounds cut by the sword.

At a glance, Xiao Chen noticed that there was another corpse under a big tree. This person seemed to be a little different from the others. He was the only one with a frightened expression, and the five fingers of the person’s left hand were bent, which made its left hand look like a claw. Moreover, the nails of these five fingers were turned inside out. It seemed that this person had caught something before his death.

Xiao Chen frowned and walked over. He found that the soil under this big tree had loosened a lot. Beyond that, the trunk was slightly deflected, and few roots at the bottom were turned out of the ground. It seemed that the tree had suffered a huge impact. Putting his two fingers together, Xiao Chen pressed against the body’s wrist under the tree and checked further. Then, he knew that the internal organs of this person were all shattered. He seemed to have bored a violent slap. But this person still had a wound cut by a sword on his throat…

However, he inferred that this man should have died from the powerful slap, not the Fatal-thrust. As for the sword cut on the throat, it must be added there by someone later.

Xiao Chen stood up and looked at the corpses in the forest. The rain had washed the blood from those body pieces. Last night, it rained heavily, but no signs were showing that these people were hurrying on with their journey to take shelter from the rain. Therefore, they must have died before yesterday evening. As for who the real killer was…

Suddenly, a gust of wind came. It appeared that many people came toward him from a distance. Xiao Chen frowned and thought that it might now be too late for him to leave. Pressing his bamboo rain hat down a little, he turned around and looked at the group of people who were approaching quickly.

They were Yu Yifeng, Qin Shaoyang, and others. Seeing the mess of the corpses scattering around and the pieces of bodies, Liu Feiyan covered her mouth and screamed. Her heart pounding violently, she looked toward the man in a straw raincoat who was standing opposite them in the near distance in horror.

The cold wind swept across the woods, whining loud. Yu Yifeng watched the corpses all over the ground and then looked at Xiao Chen, who was now standing amid these corpses. Then, his face turned a little pale, and he murmured, “Lil Chen, you…”

Wearing a cold expression, Xiao Chen clasped his hands behind and remained silent. In silence, Luo Shangyan stared at him. She was speechless too. Landing on Luo Shangyan’s shoulder, Zhiluan also covered its mouth, showing a frightened look.

Qin Shaoyang’s eyes briefly stayed on Xiao Chen and then quickly moved to the twenty more corpses. He found that the rain had washed the blood on the ground. And judging by the signs, Qin Shaoyang inferred that these people died from Seven Killings’ usual killing skill and Yi Yeqiu’s Fatal-thrust. After Qin Shaoyang saw all of this, he said, “Senior Brother Yu, these people died yesterday evening. It must be Seven Killings and Yi Yeqiu that had killed them.”

Only then did Yu Yifeng come to his senses. At first, when he saw the corpses all over the ground and Xiao Chen who was standing in these corpses, the first thought that came to his mind was that Xiao Chen had fallen into the Devil’s Practice. Then, he began to take revenge on the sects that crossed him a year ago one by one.

At this moment, after listening to Qin Shaoyang’s words, Yu Yifeng immediately took a more careful look at these corpse on the ground and found that it was exactly as Qin Shaoyang had said. The signs on these bodies showed that Seven Killings and Yi Yeqiu killed them. After this, he finally felt a little relieved and asked, “Lil Chen, why are you here?”

With his hands clasped behind, Xiao Chen said lightly, “So what? All of you can come here, why cannot I?”

Luo Shangyan slightly trembled. Qingyu also felt mixed emotions and quite uncomfortable after hearing Xiao Chen’s indifferent tone. With a bitter look, she said slowly, “Junior Brother Xiao, you…”

“Miss Qingyu.” Before she could finish her words, Xiao Chen interrupted her. Qingyu was stunned a little, but immediately she knew what he meant. So she said, “Junior Brother Xiao, go ahead.”

Xiao Chen glanced at her and said faintly, “From then on, please don’t call me Junior Brother Xiao.”

Qingyu went blank for a while, without knowing what he meant. But the others understood in an instant. Now that Xiao Chen was no longer a disciple of the Jade Qing Sect. Moreover, almost all the people in the Orthodox Path considered him as one member of the Devil’s Practice. But she called Xiao Chen “Junior Brother Xiao” like the way she called him before. If someone with ill intentions heard it, the call “Junior Brother Xiao” might bring them endless troubles.