Chapter 188 - 176: Vile Scoundrel

Chapter 188: Chapter 176: Vile Scoundrel

"Sir Soul Master, you speak too gravely! We don’t wish to trouble you with anything else. It is merely the matter of Qingshui Village that requires your attention. If you’ll just come with me, you will understand."

Shi Dazhuang stood ramrod straight, his words spoken with righteous conviction, as he made a guiding gesture toward Li Heng and Bai Shasha.

Li Heng, however, raised an eyebrow. Forget everything else; even if he knew nothing, he would never recklessly enter this dense fog. And that was to say nothing of the fact that every single one of these villagers now sported a ’big red name’!

Li Heng didn’t answer right away. He managed to keep his composure and refrained from drawing his sword to attack, instead glancing back toward Xiaoshi Village.

But in his peripheral vision, the path they had come from was shrouded in mist. Xiaoshi Village was gone. The gravel road and houses he had seen before were now nothing but dense fog!

"Whatever it is, you’d better be straight with me!" Li Heng said. Seeing this, although he didn’t know what was happening, he wasn’t the least bit panicked.

’Even if it came to a fight, the highest-level person here was just Shi Dazhuang, a Soul Warrior. After him was Zhao San, a Soul Apprentice. The other villagers were just ordinary people. This isn’t a huge problem.’

"You must be jesting, Soul Master! If you wish to rest for a while, by all means. The matter with Qingshui Village isn’t urgent."

!

’A moment ago, Zhao San was saying there was an irresolvable feud between Xiaoshi Village and Qingshui Village, and now it’s not urgent?’

’Li Heng wasn’t about to believe such nonsense. It wasn’t just that the conversation was fake—these people might be fake, too. The whole thing could be an illusion!’

Since things had come to this, and seeing the dense fog all around, Li Heng drew his sword without hesitation!

After all, the villagers’ names had been yellow before, which implied many possibilities, so he hadn’t dared to act rashly.

But now that their names were red and their words were full of blatant contradictions, there was no need to hold back.

Activating his Wolf Walk Technique, he unleashed a move from the Ghost Butterfly Illusion Sword. As the tip of the Empty Cicada Longsword arced through the air, bright, silvery butterflies materialized and took flight.

"Soul Master, what is the meaning of this?"

Shi Dazhuang’s arms and chest suddenly bulged with taut, powerful muscles. His linen clothes were now covered by a Black Film.

From prior information, Li Heng guessed this must be Shi Dazhuang’s Soul Energy Skill: Muscle Hardening.

CLANG~

His first swing of the Longsword produced a sound like scraping metal; the attack had apparently been blocked. Li Heng frowned slightly, then put more force into his grip.

"You scoundrel! Die!"

The moment Li Heng moved, Zhao San—who also sported a ’big red name’—reacted instantly, chopping at Li Heng with a long blade of Li Liang City make.

But Zhao San had barely assumed an attack stance, his blade raised for less than a second, when two curved blades glinting coldly slashed up toward his abdomen.

"I almost forgot about the little girl! Since you’re helping this scoundrel, you can die together!"

Zhao San’s original target was Li Heng, who was executing the Ghost Butterfly Illusion Sword. But after being attacked by Bai Shasha, he suddenly switched targets, his eyes locking onto her.

As for Bai Shasha, she had originally been holding back slightly, her first attack not aimed at any of his vital spots.

However, upon hearing Zhao San call her a ’little girl’, the flat-chested loli suddenly narrowed her eyes and crouched lower.

When Zhao San saw Bai Shasha take an offensive stance, he didn’t hesitate. Not wanting to waste such an opportunity, he raised his blade and launched into a wide, powerful jumping chop!

Seeing Bai Shasha frozen in place, a flash of glee crossed Zhao San’s face. ’To succeed in a single blow! I’ve killed the scoundrel’s accomplice, which should count as a great achievement.’

’Even though she’s just a little girl, she’s still a Soul Apprentice. The reward for this won’t be small!’

Lost in these thoughts, the edge of the long blade in Zhao San’s hand was already about to reach the top of Bai Shasha’s head.

"Fangs of Rage: Collapse!"

The moment she heard Zhao San say those two words, Bai Shasha had narrowed her eyes and crouched down. Although she showed no sign of attacking, she held her two curved blades at a bizarre angle, facing the leaping Zhao San head-on.

A blood-red glow suddenly appeared on the flat-chested loli’s two curved blades. As the light condensed, it formed one drop of blood after another. All this blood gathered on the edges of the blades, not a single drop trickling to the ground.

Zhao San’s long blade chopped down, aimed at Bai Shasha’s head. But just as the blood-red light condensed on her curved blades, Bai Shasha’s body began to move.

She crouched even lower, rising onto the balls of her feet. Then, when Zhao San’s long blade was just centimeters away, the flat-chested loli’s form blurred into an afterimage, disappearing from her spot. Only two indentations remained in the dirt, left by the sheer force of her push-off.

PFFT~

PFFT~

The flat-chested loli’s afterimage flashed through Zhao San as he was landing, and two sounds of blades piercing flesh rang out.

After the afterimage faded, Bai Shasha’s figure reappeared, standing perfectly still in a new spot. Her two curved blades were not only free of a single drop of blood, but even the blood-red glow had vanished.

Zhao San, who had been passed through by Bai Shasha’s afterimage, remained standing, his hand still gripping the long blade, frozen in mid-air. He made no other movements.

After turning around, the flat-chested loli didn’t even spare Zhao San a second glance. She shifted her attention to Li Heng and Shi Dazhuang, while her peripheral vision also caught the villagers who had not yet entered the mist.

Her two curved blades were no longer in an offensive posture; she simply stood at the closest point to Li Heng, remaining on guard.

CLATTER~

After a few seconds, the long blade fell from the hand of the still-standing Zhao San. Then, a line of blood appeared on his neck, and another on his head. Finally, he collapsed stiffly to the ground, blood gushing forth. He would never stand again.

Meanwhile, Li Heng, still fighting Shi Dazhuang, had used the moves of the Ghost Butterfly Illusion Sword to pierce the man’s Black Film. Blood now trickled from the corner of Shi Dazhuang’s mouth.

"Scoundrel! Your days are numbered! As long as a single person from our village survives, it will have been worth it!"

Li Heng and Shi Dazhuang continued to fight, and throughout the exchange, Li Heng kept hearing the man call him ’scoundrel’.

It was precisely because of this name that Li Heng didn’t kill Shi Dazhuang outright, merely injuring him, intending to get some information out of him.

"You keep calling me a scoundrel! As far as I know, I haven’t done anything wicked in your Xiaoshi Village these past few days. Why do you say such things?" Li Heng probed.

Shi Dazhuang spat out a mouthful of blood. His voice was muffled by the blood still in his mouth, but his tone was as resolute as ever.

"Scoundrel! Snow Feather Tower has a bounty of 50,000,000 Soul Crystal Coins on your head! Demon Sect Mountain, 30,000,000 Soul Crystal Coins! Flower Dream Pavilion, 45,000,000 Soul Crystal Coins! As long as one person from our village survives, any number of our deaths is worth it! You can’t escape! I’ve already notified the other villages and the Li Liang City guards!"