"Save... save me..."
Listening to the young man's agonized pleas, Lian Youming felt a pang of pity, yet was powerless to do anything. All he could do was crouch down and press his hand over the neck that bubbled with blood and wheezed with escaping air. Even though they were complete strangers who had never met before, since the man had spoken, Lian Youming was willing to lend a hand.
Lian Youming respected every life. Beneath his cynical smiles and banter, whether toward himself or others, he gave others sufficient respect whenever he could. Even when facing future adversaries—mortal enemies and peerless rivals—he would grant them a dignified death.
Just like saving the girl beside him, Lian Youming might doubt her identity, but he had never regretted coming to her rescue.
He truly could not stand by with cold detachment and watch a helpless person suffer humiliation and torment before his eyes.
Even if he had harbored doubts before intervening, Lian Youming would never remain indifferent.
Because so long as it was merely suspicion, there was always the chance he had guessed wrong.
Between right and wrong, good and evil, he wanted to choose the good.
Such was his true nature, something that could hardly be changed.
Living across two lifetimes had by no means given him a sense of superiority or detached rationality that placed him above ordinary people. On the contrary, Lian Youming cherished everything he had now all the more. He loved life with sincere, passionate enthusiasm, refusing to be ruled solely by cold calculations of profit and loss.
Unfortunately, the injury was too severe.
He could cover the wound, but he could not stem the ebbing of life.
The young man lay on the ground, the light in his eyes dimming rapidly.
"Sigh, what a pity!"
Lian Youming closed the young man's eyes with a sigh, then took the two large gold bars from the man's bosom.
That these people were able to break in ahead of him could only mean something had gone awry on Li Da's end.
Lian Youming even had reason to believe that during the two months he had spent waiting, Li Da might have already dispatched people inside to scout the place.
Only, judging by appearances, those who had entered met with grim fates.
The young woman beside him, Xiao Li, took in everything he did, watching with utmost earnestness—the pity in her eyes, the sigh slipping from her lips, and an undisguised kindness.
She let out a soft sigh of her own. "Ah..."
Lian Youming turned to glance at her. "I honestly don't know whether you're faking it or putting on an act, but to keep it up this long, you really are something. If you take the college entrance exams in the future, apply to an acting department—you'd win awards for sure... That bastard Li Da really screwed us. This godforsaken place is too terrifying."
Seeing that the girl did not reply, Lian Youming was about to keep exploring ahead, but he suddenly noticed the change in her expression. Her face was deathly pale and drained of blood, her eyes staring straight past him, her pupils trembling as if she were scared out of her wits.
"Don't mess with me, I scare easily."
The corner of Lian Youming's eye twitched. Her look was an exact mirror of Liu Dabiao's expression the night he saw the Asian golden cat.
There was something behind him.
In the very instant he spoke, Lian Youming didn't even hesitate: he aimed the muzzle of his gun backward while gripping his military dagger in his left hand, spinning around to slash behind him.
A cold gleam flashed through the air. His eyes darted about, but nothing was in front of him—save for half a torn hem of clothing fluttering to the ground.
Above him.
In a fraction of a second, Lian Youming raised his gun to shoot, simultaneously pulling the terrified girl behind him with his left hand.
So fast!
In the flickering torchlight, a human figure scuttled across the ceiling with blinding speed, hands and feet shifting like a giant gecko clinging upside down to the overhead stone. Disheveled hair hung wild about his face, and his eyes glinted with a chilling gleam. Shifting nimbly in midair, he lunged downward with a single thrust, slapping down Lian Youming's gun-bearing right hand.
The gunshot missed. Hanging upside down from above, the strange figure struck out with his other hand like lightning; in a single flick of clawing reach, the screaming girl on the ground was scooped under his arm and hoisted into midair, fleeing swiftly toward the far end of the tunnel.
"Stop!"
Shocked, Lian Youming hurriedly holstered his pistol. With a tiger-like roar, he gathered his qi, leapt into the air, and clamped down hard on the strange figure's right leg.
"Hmm?"
Yet no sooner had his grip locked on than he felt an extraordinary, spiraling force erupt beneath the person's flesh—fierce and violently domineering. With a single shake, it bounced Lian Youming's right hand right off.
"Silk-reeling force?"
Lian Youming cried out in astonishment.
Could this person be an expert of the Taiji School?
Yet he was not about to give up. Channeling power into both fists, he kicked off the wall and vaulted upward, swinging his fists like twin sledgehammers as the whistling gusts beat against the air like pounding drums.
Hearing his cry, the strange man glared back viciously. With a sweep of one arm, he parried and drew in, warding and sealing—seemingly soft and boneless, yet relentless as a steel whip. Weaving left and right, conquering hardness with softness, he actually deflected both of Lian Youming's fists.
Such technique undoubtedly belonged to an expert of the Taiji School.
With a grim expression, Lian Youming couldn't help shouting, "Stop fucking acting! This guy's a tough customer—hit him with everything you've got!"
Yet when he looked at the girl under the strange man's arm, she had actually fainted dead away.
Lian Youming's heart sank cold. Had she gotten so lost in her act that she knocked herself out? How could she just faint like that? Wasn't she an expert from the White Lotus Sect?
And looking at this freak—if he was the one who drank blood to cultivate his arts, the consequences would be unthinkable.
After exchanging barely a dozen moves, Lian Youming was left with his blood and qi churning from the ferocious impacts, forcing him to retreat several steps.
Just as he tried to catch his breath, a blast of fierce wind came right after him, striking straight for his chest. The strange man's arm wound forward like a coiling serpent; with his fingers clenched into a Phoenix-eye fist, he slipped past Lian Youming's guard and tapped lightly against his chest, like a chick pecking at rice.
With that tap, an indescribable force rippled outward from a single point, spreading from Lian Youming's chest to his limbs and penetrating his bones and sinews, leaving his entire body numb and rigid.
"What kind of technique is this?!"
Staggering back, Lian Youming felt as though his acupoints had been struck. His limbs went sluggish and numb, and he fell straight toward the ground.
His expression shifted slightly. Exhaling softly, he quickly mobilized his muscles and internal breath, for that punch had driven a strange force into his body.
This force was exceptionally peculiar, snapping and plucking like a bowed string, sending tremors through all the sinews and flesh of his body and leaving him weak and tingling, as if he had been struck on a funny bone. It seemed similar to the silk-reeling force the Old Man Who Guards the Mountain had taught him, yet differed slightly; nonetheless, it was equally capable of destroying an opponent's balance and was terribly bizarre.
Fortunately, his Golden Bell Shield had begun to take shape, strengthening his bones and sinews while keeping his muscles constantly drawn tight inward; with a slight tilt of his body, he regained his mobility.
The strange man's eyes flashed with surprise, but he did not linger. Tucking the girl securely, he turned and darted toward the other passage.
"Put her down!"
With an ugly expression, Lian Youming gave hot pursuit, now wishing Xiao Li really was some White Lotus Sect expert.
The wind whistled past his ears as the chase unfolded. To his dismay, the tunnels branched out in all directions; twisting and turning in pursuit, he soon found himself losing all sense of direction.
Right when he was burning with anxiety, three figures suddenly darted out from a side passage.
"You little brat, you slipped away earlier, but let's see what you do now."
They were none other than the three White Lotus Sect heretics who had pursued him on the mountain.
Instead of being alarmed, Lian Youming was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Something's wrong! That little girl was snatched away—go save her quickly!"
The three exchanged glances before one of them, a woman dressed like an aristocratic lady, spoke up: "What kind of madness has gotten into you, boy? That little wench has nothing to do with us—she's just some random girl we snatched at the foot of the mountain."
Hearing this, Lian Youming couldn't help taking a deep breath, his face going inexplicably pale.
"You weren't deliberately putting on an act?"
The woman scoffed mockingly. "What do you take yourself for, some prized treasure? An act? Young as you are, your head is full of wild fantasies. For a greenhorn wet behind the ears like you, would we really go through all that trouble? All we had to do was follow you. As for why he ended up in your cabin, it was only because this lecher was a step late and didn't know you were inside. It was nothing more than a pure coincidence."
She glanced at a burly man beside her—the very one who had kidnapped Xiao Li.
Lian Youming's expression darkened and flickered.
"So you're saying... it was all a coincidence?"
The woman replied with a smile, "Of course it was a coincidence."
Lian Youming stood rooted to the spot.
I guessed wrong?
Xiao Li really was an ordinary person all along.
"Fuck!"
Cursing furiously, he spun around, wanting to resume his search for the strange man.
But the three beside him moved in unison, closing in around him.
The woman arched her willow brows, her expression curious—part sigh, part mocking amusement. "Boy, you can barely save your own skin and you still have the heart to worry about someone else? Be a good boy and lead the way for us. For the sake of your kind heart, once we get what we want, we'll take you out with us. There's a formidable presence in this place; wandering alone, you're practically guaranteed to die. Besides, with those treasures, make sure you don't end up having the life to take them but not the life to spend them."
"Hold on there, we want a piece of that too. This blasted place has so many twists and turns, ghost knows where the way out is."
More people emerged from the passageway, drawn by the voices.
Among them were three familiar faces—the very three who had tried to surround and kill him on the truck earlier.
The woman warned him again, "Boy, I advise you not to harbor any funny ideas. Take a single wrong turn, and I'll tear off one of your arms."
Surrounded in the center, Lian Youming could only sigh in resignation.
When all was said and done, he simply wasn't strong enough.
Chapter 45