He wanted to retreat, but the weapon that had wounded him would not allow it. Fu Tianlin reached out, hooking him in, and slashed his other weapon horizontally to take his head.
Once the fighting started, there was no room for mercy.
At that moment, He Lingchuan slipped past two or three of the out-of-town guards in succession, moving as swiftly as a specter.
The men scrambled to defend themselves. With a few crisp clangs, two dropped to the ground, while another was kicked two zhang away.
Before dealing with Fu Tianlin, He Lingchuan first relieved the pressure on his brothers.
Others were just reaching out to intercept him when he was already before Fu Tianlin, practically eye to eye.
Fu Tianlin was inwardly startled. *So fast!*
Both saw the surging killing intent in each other's eyes.
Seeing a streak of dark light lunge toward him, Fu Tianlin checked his decapitating strike and turned his arm without hesitation to parry.
His weapons were called folding-flick sabers, forged from the forearms of an ancient mantis demon blended with materials such as dark gold and Shao silver. Usually stored within his body, they could be summoned instantly with a single thought.
The blades were lined with barbed serrations, and the folded blades at their tips could even spring out abruptly to slash—deadly weapons capable of maiming without a trace.
Seeing these blades, He Lingchuan immediately understood how his subordinate had been injured.
Clangs and crashes rang out as they exchanged six or seven blows. The sparks from their clashing weapons seemed ready to ignite the dense killing intent between them. None of the onlookers could intervene, forced back several paces by the fierce saber gang.
Fu Tianlin wielded his pair of strange weapons with consummate skill, pulling off bizarre moves one after another. In contrast, He Lingchuan's technique was remarkably simple: sweeping, wide-open hacks, slashes, and upward slashes.
After taking only a few exchanges, Fu Tianlin's arms ached and went numb, as though he were standing alone before a raging tidal crest where every effort to resist was entirely futile!
How could people who had appeared out of nowhere be this formidable?
Such tempestuous killing intent, such relentless, surging offense—this was something only a figure who had clawed their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood could possess!
He Lingchuan even spoke as he fought, completely unconcerned about leaking his killing intent:
"The bear demons will be here soon. If you don't stop now, you'll surely die on Xuefeng Mountain today."
His voice was steady. If bystanders closed their eyes, they wouldn't even be able to tell he was in the midst of fierce combat.
It showed just how measured his breath was and how composed his state of mind remained.
Most importantly, he had not even gone all out!
Gritting his teeth, Fu Tianlin dismissed his words as nonsense. The folding-flick sabers in his hands shifted through myriad variations, leaving afterimages with every flick.
In the past, opponents faced with such an unorthodox weapon would always probe cautiously first. Yet now, Fu Tianlin could not seize the initiative at all. He Lingchuan broke finesse with sheer force, fighting faster and harder with every strike. Fu Tianlin's men saw only two flashing silhouettes and could not even get close.
Fu Tianlin, who had likewise been tempered on the battlefield, was battered backward repeatedly until he could no longer hold his footing.
Finally, he was half a beat too slow, exposing a slight opening at his chest.
He Lingchuan lashed out with a kick that slammed hard into his chest, moving almost as fast as a snail-toad snapping its tongue.
With a tremendous bang, Fu Tianlin was kicked three zhang away, slamming back-first into the cliff face as two flashes of light gleamed from his body.
Two protective magic artifacts had spent themselves completely.
Even so, he vomited blood before he even hit the ground, at least two ribs snapped.
Even if Meng Shan took a roundhouse kick like this from He Lingchuan head-on, he would have been sent flying and needed half a day to recover before getting up. Lacking a monster's physique, Fu Tianlin felt his internal organs roiling in agony, knowing all too well that his strength was indeed inferior.
His subordinates cried out in alarm, "Young Master!"
In direct combat, Fu Tianlin had never been overwhelmed like this before!
He Lingchuan stood on one foot and slowly drew back his leg, noting that a piece of his boot's edge had been sliced away.
At the instant Fu Tianlin was kicked away, his folded blade had sprung back in a remarkably swift counter. He Lingchuan had never encountered such a weapon before; had he not been a fraction faster, what got shaved off wouldn't have been his boot sole, but his entire foot!
Yet a miss is as good as a mile. If Fu Tianlin's attack was fast, He Lingchuan simply made sure to outpace him.
Right then, He Lingchuan suddenly heard a rustling noise—something was moving swiftly through the woods, brushing against leaves and grass, heading straight for this spot.
"Move!" He tilted his head toward his teammates behind him.
Having worked alongside him for years, Door Plank, Hu Min, and the others understood without needing further explanation. The entire squad turned and departed, vanishing into the forest after several leaps, more nimble than grasshoppers.
Even Old Liu was scooped up by Hu Min in passing and carried away.
Fu Tianlin and his men were bewildered, but soon heard low barks and panting sounds approaching from the distance.
"Not good, wolves are coming!"
His guards quickly helped Fu Tianlin hide back behind the boulder array.
No sooner had they hidden than over forty giant wolves darted out of the dense forest, running forward with tongues lolling and drool dripping.
The largest among them was the size of a lion.
Yet seven or eight of them were wounded. The worst off was missing its left leg, hopping along on only three, while another had a blinded eye that was still dripping blood.
As two wolves rushed past the stones, they suddenly paused and sniffed. Likely catching the scent of living humans, they turned toward the boulder array, their eyes glowing green.
However, the alpha running at the very front let out a timely low growl, and the wolves abandoned any thought of living prey, hurrying to keep up with the pack.
After a dozen or so breaths, the pack was gone.
Fu Tianlin and the others stepped out from behind the boulder array, feeling only the bleak mountain wind. With the wolves' interruption, He Lingchuan and his group had long since vanished.
"It's over," Fu Tianlin muttered, his face pale. "What do we do now?"
Without retrieving the Bright Lantern Cup, his father could not be saved.
The guards were silent; none had an answer.
...
Having evaded the wolves a step ahead, He Lingchuan and his squad moved rapidly down the mountain.
With the Bright Lantern Cup already in hand, there was no reason to linger.
Their descent was not smooth either; they encountered demons and wild beasts several times along the way. He Lingchuan had poor luck, finding it far less easy than slipping away from the wolves the first time. The demons charging at them all looked consumed by bitter hatred. The Panlong squad fought two genuine, grueling battles, killing seven or eight demons, not counting the ordinary beasts.
As they neared the edge of the mountains, a thick mist drifted through the woods.
Fog was a common sight in the mountains, but this vapor was dark red, resembling the peach blossom miasma that struck terror into the hearts of hunters.
Fortunately, A'luo took two sniffs and said, "It's not miasma, nor is it poisonous. It's just fog."
After walking for another two-quarters of an hour, the sounds of horse hooves and human voices came from the mist ahead.
He Lingchuan could tell at once that their numbers were substantial.
Before long, more than three hundred armed men parted the tall grass and came face-to-face with He Lingchuan's party.
Fully equipped, they visibly relaxed upon seeing that the group before them was also human. "Friends, did you happen to see three white bears and a wolverine pass through here?"
"We saw them, and we killed them," Hu Min said, dangling a black-and-white-banded wolverine tail in his hand.
The Panlong squad had not wanted to complicate matters, but those demons had seen red at the sight of humans, leaving them no choice but to kill. With rich experience hunting demons, they could tell at a glance that these creatures had been driven to desperation and half-madness by pursuers behind them, mistaking He Lingchuan's group for part of the hunting party.
Chapter 1123