“Blade wounds cover his entire body, and there is a massive laceration on his abdomen. He's lost so much blood that any normal person would have died long ago.”
The man in the bamboo hat muttered to himself, his tone quickly taking on a hint of excitement.
“He took my medicine, didn't he?”
Hearing this, Qiu Zhiya's eyes turned freezing cold. She cracked her Bone-Cracking Whip, creating a sharp sonic boom. “Who exactly are you? What was that pill?”
The man in the bamboo hat completely ignored her questioning and simply continued to mutter to himself.
“He must have taken my medicine. But why isn't he waking up? Is the ratio of lethal poison too high? No, I must take him back and examine him thoroughly.”
Crack! The Bone-Cracking Whip lashed out viciously at him.
Yet, the man in the bamboo hat merely raised his hand casually and caught the whip in his grip, with only a few drops of crimson blood seeping from his fingertips.
Qiu Zhiya's pupils contracted. In the next instant, she felt a wave of numbness surge through her arm, causing the Bone-Cracking Whip to slip from her grasp and clatter to the ground. All he had done was swiftly tap a few acupoints on her arm.
As he drew closer, a faint medicinal fragrance wafted into the air.
It was very faint, yet it had the power to cloud one's mind.
Her head began to swim, and the strength was completely drained from her body, causing her to collapse helplessly onto the floor.
The man in the bamboo hat paid her no more attention. He turned back toward Xu Qing, but he had barely taken a single step before he was forced to stop.
He slowly lowered his head. Unbeknownst to her, Qiu Zhiya had crawled over to his feet, leaving a shallow trail of dirt behind her dragged body.
She bit down fiercely on the hem of his trousers, trying with all her might to halt his steps.
The man in the bamboo hat retracted his gaze and continued toward Xu Qing once more, dragging Qiu Zhiya along with him.
Her body was covered in mud, and her delicate, long hair was caked in dust. Her usual elegance was entirely gone; in this moment, she looked more like a crazed village woman.
Tear.
A piece of fabric tore away from the man's trouser leg, and Qiu Zhiya's chin scraped against the floor, drawing blood. But she paid it no heed, desperately crawling forward.
Yet now, she felt as though her bones had turned to mush. All her struggling did nothing but make her look even more pitiful.
Sob, sob...
Seeing the man in the bamboo hat about to reach Xu Qing's bedside, Qiu Zhiya broke down in absolute despair. Two streams of clear tears cut paths through her filthy face, looking exceptionally stark.
Save him, please... Anyone...
She prayed continuously, begging the heavens, the gods, and anyone who might appear to save them.
But the only response she received was the sound of retreating footsteps. Her heart grew colder and colder. She was so afraid—afraid that Xu Qing would be killed by him. Without her realizing it, loving someone had made her fearful.
Please, save him.
“Jiang Moran!!”
BOOM! Dust and wood splinters erupted into the air, completely obscuring the interior of the room. Yet, Qiu Zhiya could clearly make out that specific figure.
As the dust settled, Jiang Moran's slightly irritated face came into view.
“Why is there always so much trouble every single day?” he grumbled, frowning in annoyance.
He had thought he could finally enjoy a nice, long sleep after taking care of the Martial Alliance's business. Yet, here was another mess. It felt as though trouble was constantly knocking on his door day after day.
“Sister Qiu, are you alright!” Ning Qingzhu rushed in from outside. Seeing Qiu Zhiya splayed on the ground, she gasped in shock.
“No... Xu Qing...”
“He's fine. He's still lying on the bed, and his breathing seems quite stable.”
Fengqingzi stepped forward and spoke calmly. He glanced out of the room; rather than Xu Qing's condition, he was far more concerned about who that mysterious intruder was.
The man in the bamboo hat held his arm up. His forearm was broken right down the middle, bent into a sharp V-shape.
Confronted with the horrific state of his arm, only a brief flash of surprise crossed his eyes. He then grabbed his forearm and snapped it back into place with a sickening crack.
“What?!” Fengqingzi's pupils shrunk. A broken bone had been restored to normal with just a single snap?
What kind of bizarre technique was this?
Unlike the others' shock, Jiang Moran only grew more irritated. He looked at the man in the bamboo hat as if looking at an eyesore of an unkillable cockroach.
Right now, he just wanted to get some sleep.
Jiang Moran's figure vanished in an instant, causing the pupils of the man in the bamboo hat to constrict.
A large hand clamped down over his face with enough force to shatter his facial bones, but in the next second, those bones began to heal and reconstruct themselves.
BOOM!
The cloaked man was thrown violently backward, snapping several tree trunks as thick as a man's torso. By the time he came to a stop, his bones were almost entirely shattered.
Yet, his body continued to mend itself in a bizarre manner. The continuous cracking sounds echoing through the air were absolutely spine-chilling.
“You are very strong.”
The man in the bamboo hat took a step forward, his pace rapidly accelerating. Everywhere he passed, the surrounding flora withered and died, and a scorched, acrid stench began to fill the air.
Fengqingzi's pupils contracted. Quickly wrapping Xu Qing in a straw mat, he retreated into the distance, while Ning Qingzhu hurriedly dragged Qiu Zhiya away from the area.
“A poison of this scale...” Fengqingzi's brow furrowed. If an ordinary person were caught inside, they wouldn't last ten breaths.
Furthermore, this toxic mist seemed to manifest naturally. He hadn't seen the opponent employ any specific technique at all.
None of them spoke, as the man in the bamboo hat was already closing in on Jiang Moran.
They noticed that his arms had turned paper-white, covered in a dense network of writhing, green veins.
Ning Qingzhu's expression was incredibly solemn. At the Heavenly Pavilion auction two years ago, Zhu Shu had utilized poison. It was precisely because of this that his opponent's actions had been heavily restricted, ultimately leading to their defeat.
Yet the toxins currently lingering on this man in the bamboo hat far surpassed what Zhu Shu possessed back then.
The man in the bamboo hat curved his hand into a claw, thrusting it straight toward Jiang Moran's throat. Even from a distance, the others could feel the suffocating pressure of impending death.
However, a hand suddenly clamped onto his wrist, locking him in place.
“Hehe, my skin is toxic as well.”
“Is that so?”
Jiang Moran chuckled. Instantly, his killing intent surged into the man's wrist, ruthlessly shredding the meridians inside his body.
Ugh!
The man in the bamboo hat let out a muffled groan. This internal agony was countless times more intense than any external injury, feeling as though thousands of needles were repeatedly piercing his still-beating heart.
But Jiang Moran had no intention of stopping there. He delivered a direct kick straight to the man's chest, the sounds of fracturing bones crackling like a display of fireworks.
The man flew backward like a cannonball, the excruciating mixture of internal and external torment driving him to the brink of madness.
Thud! The man in the bamboo hat slammed heavily into a nearby hill, coughing up a large mouthful of blood.
Argh!
Jiang Moran was already standing before him. He kicked out once more, this time with a force that far eclipsed the previous strike. The hill centered around the man in the bamboo hat instantly shattered and collapsed.
Watching from afar, the others were utterly dumbfounded.
“I-Is he even human?”
“The guy in the bamboo hat isn't much of a human either... If it were anyone else, Senior's kick would have already desecrated their corpse.”
Ning Qingzhu swallowed hard. Previously, she felt that although her Young Master was one of the Four Supremes of the World and held a terrifying reputation in the jianghu, he hadn't officially been named the Number One in the World.
Looking at him now, if he wasn't the Number One in the World, then she doubted anyone else would ever dare to claim the title.
The man in the bamboo hat used his remaining functional right arm to block another strike, but the impact sent him hurtling high into the air.
At this moment, his eyes were filled with sheer terror. He had never expected to be pushed to such a desperate state. Suddenly, his pupils contracted violently, shaking like an earthquake.
An absolute, suffocating killing intent descended from above. He whipped his head up.
In the exact instant he looked up, a finger lightly tapped the space between his brows. Jiang Moran stared down at him blankly, the colossal waves of killing intent behind him taking the form of a terrifying, writhing dragon of red and black.
The dust in midair partially obscured Jiang Moran's face. The man in the bamboo hat stared blankly at him, catching the faint silhouette of a sinister grin through the haze.
Ghost-Mask...
A look of genuine fear finally surfaced in the pupils of the man in the bamboo hat. In this split second, he finally understood that he was going to die!
Rate on N.U.
