The veil of rain gradually thinned. The Buddhist hall deep in the mountains remained as silent as when Xu Yuan and his companion had left, and the pool of blood before the entrance had already congealed.
Suddenly,
Two figures descended from the sky, landing in the open clearing dyed red by the blood of the dead.
A man and a woman, both clad in fitted martial attire, bore a striking resemblance to the dozens of uniformly dressed corpses strewn across the ground.
Black cloth with crimson borders, their robes embroidered on the back with a ferocious coiling dragon in gold thread.
Black martial boots stepped into the thickening blood, producing a sticky, squelching sound.
The man sported a scruffy stubble and carried a sword on his back. His flippant gaze swept over the surrounding carnage, and he covered his nose, lightly shaking his head:
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a mess. Looks like whoever abducted Third Young Master is no ordinary character."
The woman possessed a frigid countenance. Her waist-length hair was bound into a long, high ponytail swaying behind her. Her waist was slender, and her ample chest was tightly wrapped in form-fitting gear. Her eyes swept across the corpses on the ground:
"Can you tell who did this?"
Strolling casually among the dead as though taking a leisurely walk, the man studied the bodies and casually shook his head, his tone carrying a trace of intrigue:
"How could I tell? Every single wound is just a plain slash of sword qi—they didn't even bother using a sword technique."
The woman lowered her eyes slightly, taking in the positions of the corpses around them. She said in a low voice:
"They had formed an array."
The man nodded:
"I know. Hmm... the slash wounds on these men aren't deep. Every blow was just enough to be fatal, and it all happened in an instant."
*An instant?*
The woman frowned at his words and looked at him. "Could you do it?"
The man raised a hand to rub the back of his head, glancing at her with an amused smirk:
"Is that all you think of me?"
Pausing,
He gave a faint shake of his head and pointed toward a corpse slumping beside a dry well in the clearing before the Buddhist hall. Squinting, he smiled:
"Though you're right. I truly couldn't. At least, I couldn't kill someone the way Zhou Yuan died."
As the words fell, the woman focused her gaze.
The corpse beside the dry well was a middle-aged man with a full beard. Even beneath his clothes, one could vaguely discern his burly, explosive muscles. Yet at this moment, his sleeves hung empty—both forearms had been severed cleanly at the base. The fatal wound was a faint, slender sword mark across his throat.
The scene before his death was plain to see.
A burst of sword qi had shot out from the main hall. As the core of the array, the middle-aged man had tried to block it with his hands, but the sword qi pierced straight through his protective astral qi, shearing off both of his arms before the remaining energy neatly slit his throat, killing him on the spot.
Not a single ounce of excess force had been used.
"I could kill him with one strike, but against a martial expert like Zhou Yuan, I couldn't be so precise."
Saying so, the man mimed drawing a sword, chuckling as he made two sweeping motions in the air toward the corpse:
"If I made a move, his head would have flown right off."
Having said that,
He let out a soft sigh and cast a dark, penetrating glance into the pitch-black interior of the Buddhist hall:
"Besides, without using Source Qi, I couldn't have cleaved that spiritual Buddha statue in one blow either."
A hint of gravity crept into his expression:
"That person might be stronger than me."
The woman fell silent.
The man languidly ruffled his messy hair and sighed:
"Because of what happened to Third Young Master, Eldest Young Master rushed from the Imperial Capital to Jingjiang City on his own initiative. Quite a few people have already died in the city. You head back first and report to him. The one responsible this time is very likely a Grandmaster."
The woman stared at him and asked:
"What about you?"
The man rubbed his stubbled chin and grinned:
"Keep pursuing, of course. Even a Grandmaster won't be able to run fast while lugging Third Young Master along. I'll leave markers along the way. Make sure you come back quickly, or by the time you catch up, I might have turned into a corpse~"
With that,
He patted her on the shoulder and, without waiting for a reply, leaped forward, vanishing from the blood-stained clearing before the Buddhist hall.
The woman stood silently for a long time before she, too, turned into an afterimage, speeding off in the opposite direction.
***
Two days later.
The curtain of rain had long since ceased. Sunlight broke through the clouds, casting a golden glow. Beams of light filtered through the canopy into the woods, carrying the scent of fragrant grass and fresh earth.
"Hah... whew... hah... hah..."
With hands on his hips, Xu Yuan propped himself against a towering tree, struggling to squeeze two words past his lips:
"R-Rest."
Hearing him, the black-clad woman walking ahead glanced back at his pale, utterly depleted handsome face. Without a word, she stopped, sat down on the ground, and closed her eyes to rest.
Xu Yuan collapsed straight onto the dirt, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
He had never imagined a person's body could be so frail, let alone that this body would belong to him.
Even over flat ground, after walking a mere few kilometers, his legs would begin to tremble uncontrollably, his steady breathing would turn ragged, and a searing sensation would gradually spread across his chest.
Whenever they walked for just a bit longer, a dull ache would start throbbing deep in his lower back.
Over the past two days, Xu Yuan genuinely felt that even if Ran Qingmo hadn't kidnapped him, his predecessor wouldn't have survived more than a few years before dying on top of some woman's belly.
Not only had he lived a life of total indulgence, but he hadn't done a damn bit of exercise either.
And worst of all, a restless craving would occasionally flare up in this body—resembling nicotine withdrawal, but several times more intense.
This made Xu Yuan nearly certain that the original Third Young Master was definitely popping illicit pills.
Transmigration hadn't reset the body to factory settings; instead, all of its flaws had been inherited by him, poor bastard that he was.
And this litany of physical ailments caused their pace through the forest of the Wanxing Mountain Range to border on a snail's crawl.
As they rested, Xu Yuan's breathing gradually stabilized. He looked over at the black-clad woman opposite him, resting with her eyes closed.
Sunlight dappled through the branches, illuminating her pale, fair skin.
Watching her, Xu Yuan suddenly spoke up:
"Mr. Ran, at our current speed, reaching Tianmen Mountain might take another whole month."
"I know." Ran Qingmo kept her eyes closed, her voice placid.
Xu Yuan pondered for a moment and said softly, "If this drags on, we could be overtaken at any moment."
"..." Ran Qingmo did not answer. She merely opened her eyes and quietly looked at him.
Xu Yuan gave a slightly awkward smile.
He was well aware that all of this was because of his physical limitations. Yet every time they stopped, he had pushed himself to his body's absolute physiological limit before resting; it was just that this body's limit was pathetically low.
Pausing, Xu Yuan hesitated slightly before offering a quiet suggestion:
"So... could you... catch a demonic beast? Um... something for me to ride?"
After weighing the thought for a long while, Xu Yuan had finally voiced the idea.
There was risk, but not much.
If the beast caused any trouble, someone of Ran Qingmo's strength could easily silence it before it could even make a move.
Ran Qingmo considered this for a moment and gave a slight nod. Grasping her sword, she rose and stood in place for two seconds. She then turned her gaze in a certain direction, and her figure vanished instantly.
While Xu Yuan was still staring blankly, a colossal tiger's roar erupted from a kilometer away.
"ROAAAR!"
Followed by a dull thud.
*BANG!*
"ROAAAR!"
*BANG!*
"Awoo..."
*BANG!*
"Whimper..."
Chapter 9