“What a beautiful woman...” Ning Qingzhu thought to herself. Looking at the woman's face, a beauty that could provoke envy even from the heavens, she could not help but feel a tinge of inferiority.
In truth, she herself could be considered a striking beauty, her slender figure appearing delicate and fragile against her long dress.
Yet, compared to the woman before her, she still lacked that extra touch of breathtaking allure.
Li Lu squinted. The woman emitted a colorless, odorless vapor that could leave weak-willed men utterly infatuated, dissolving any resistance they might have toward her.
“This is a Charm Physique. A constitution like this requires being soaked in medicinal vats from a young age, gradually cultivating a natural allure over time,” Li Lu analyzed slowly.
Hearing his words, the woman's body stiffened slightly. The movement was minuscule, but Li Lu caught it nonetheless.
“A Charm Physique?” Fengqingzi fell silent at the mention. After a brief pause, as if confirming something, he spoke, “In recent years, five people have held the most prominent reputations in the jianghu. One of them is skilled at bewitching minds and fond of using charm arts.”
“Legend has it that this woman possesses a face of divine beauty, captivating and seductive, with a natural allure that leaves countless men deeply infatuated.”
Fengqingzi looked at the woman and confirmed once more:
“Delicate Demon Blade, Hu Mei'er, am I correct?”
The air instantly seemed to freeze as an oppressive atmosphere pressed down upon the woman. Her eyes flickered slightly, and she cast a deep look at Fengqingzi and Li Lu.
After a moment, Hu Mei'er smiled faintly. “Indeed, it is I.”
With a flick of her sleeve, a red silk ribbon flew out, wrapping around Mo Lin's neck. Before he could react, she yanked it hard, ignoring his terrified expression.
The fat man was instantly dragged over, crashing heavily in front of Jiang Moran's group.
“I was unaware of the grudge between this man and you gentlemen. Now that I know, he is entirely at your disposal.”
Hu Mei'er said with a smile. Her words left no room for fault. However, she could not quite read either of them—not the white-clad swordsman, nor the man in the bamboo hat whose face was obscured.
On the other hand, she could roughly guess the identity of the handsome man sitting in the carriage, casually leaning against the window.
He was most likely some playboy from an influential clan, accompanied by two first-rate masters specifically assigned by his family to protect him.
At this thought, Hu Mei'er felt a sigh of relief. If a conflict arose, she was confident she could seize this playboy and use him to threaten the other two.
...
...Jiang Moran cast a strange look at Hu Mei'er. Why did this woman keep staring at him? She must be sick in the head.
If he knew what Hu Mei'er was thinking, he would probably suffer internal injuries today—from laughing too hard to breathe.
“I... I don't...” Mo Lin fell to his knees, his lips trembling so violently he could not even speak coherently.
Xu Qing walked up, holding his twin blades, and looked down at him coldly. “You fat bastard, I told you that the next time I saw you, I'd give you a slash.”
Mo Lin shivered all over, looking at him in utter terror.
“Xu Qing, stop scaring him.” Fengqingzi walked over. Unlike Xu Qing, who was radiating murderous intent, Fengqingzi had an air of righteous integrity about him.
He said to Mo Lin, “Xu Qing did say he would give you a slash when he met you. So, just turn around and let him cut you once to vent his frustration.”
“You can just apply some medicine when you get back.”
Just a slash to vent his frustration? Hearing this, Mo Lin was instantly overjoyed. His suffocating despair vanished in a flash.
“Yes, yes! Thank you, Senior, for pleading on my behalf! Thank you, Senior!” Mo Lin said, weeping with gratitude. He quickly turned around, exposing his back.
Compared to dying, what did a single slash matter?
“He's ready. Go ahead and give him a slash.”
Xu Qing nodded to Fengqingzi, stepped forward, and gave him a slash.
His head fell off.
A lingering hint of joy remained on Mo Lin's face, but it had frozen completely, devoid of life.
Fengqingzi slowly squatted down with a medicine vial and poured some powder onto the corpse's neck. The wound on the neck began to rot, eventually dissolving into a pool of bloody water.
“What the hell... You bastard surnamed Li, you gave me Corpse-Dissolving Powder!” Fengqingzi spun around and cursed angrily.
When Li Lu had given it to him, he had claimed it was a healing powder made from various herbs. It was only after pouring it out that Fengqingzi realized it was Corpse-Dissolving Powder.
“My bad, I grabbed the wrong one.” Li Lu shrugged. He had too many medicine vials in his bag; grabbing the wrong one was only natural.
“My bad, my ass!”
While Li Lu and the others were having a lively bickering, the onlookers felt a chill rise in their hearts. They had not expected these people to strike so decisively and ruthlessly. Even Hu Mei'er had believed they actually intended to spare him, having secretly labeled them as kind-hearted in her mind.
“Let's go, let's go. How boring.” Jiang Moran yawned. Since a fight wasn't going to break out, what was the point of lingering here?
Seeing their core leader speak, Fengqingzi and the others stopped bickering. They packed up their things, preparing to resume their journey.
“Wait, please wait a moment, Young Master.” Seeing everyone about to leave, Hu Mei'er hurriedly called out to Jiang Moran.
“Hmm?” Jiang Moran looked over, tilting his head.
“My carriage is broken. Would you be so kind as to give me a ride, Young Master? I would be endlessly grateful!” Hu Mei'er said, lowering her gaze to project an image of fragile helplessness.
Jiang Moran clicked his tongue inwardly. Didn't she know that a lion's territory allowed no encroachment?
“Take one step in, and I'll break your legs.”
Hu Mei'er's expression froze. Her hand tightened secretly around her sleeve, and she kept calming herself down: 'Don't get angry, don't get angry. Playboys are just like this, treating everyone with the same attitude...'
“Young Master, I'm a bit tired from walking...”
“Tired of walking? Then get in and massage my shoulders.”
Right after Hu Mei'er had managed to soothe her own temper, Ning Qingzhu hopped onto the carriage as a matter of course, even tossing her a pointed glance as she passed by.
“Hmph! That little vixen actually wants to seduce my young master!”
Hu Mei'er was utterly dumbfounded. For the first time in her life, she began to doubt her own looks. Could she not even compete with a mere little girl??
Unwilling to give up, she walked toward the man in the bamboo hat and spoke in a sweet, charming voice, “Excuse me, brother, the wheel of my carriage is broken. Might I travel alongside you?”
Li Lu scanned her, the interest in his eyes growing more intense. A physique nurtured through medicine was truly rare.
It would be great if I could take her back and study her...
Seeing the spark of interest in his eyes, Hu Mei'er's doubts about her own beauty finally dissolved.
It seems my beauty is still highly appealing, she thought to herself triumphantly, entirely unaware of the perilous idea brewing in Li Lu's mind.
“Little girl, you had better stay far away from him,” Old Chen walked over and warned. “Go back, don't linger here.”
With that, Old Chen ignored her, and the group resumed their journey, leaving her behind.
Looking at their receding backs, Hu Mei'er's confusion ran deeper than her irritation. She could not help but mutter,
“What a bunch of strange people.”
Once Jiang Moran's group was far enough, the man carrying the long-shafted great saber spoke up reluctantly, “We lost two of our men. Are we really just going to let them off?”
Hu Mei'er shook her head.
“There's no need. It is not worth taking risks for those two, and they are not simple to deal with anyway.”
“Let's fix the carriage wheel first and get moving as soon as possible.”
...
At the same time, outside that city marked on the treasure map, quite a few jianghu figures had already gathered. Those who were luckier claimed spots sheltered from the freezing wind and snow under the Chinese pines, while the less fortunate could only endure the elements beating down on them.
“Old man, at your age, what are you doing joining the excitement for a treasure map?” a man under the Chinese pine joked.
Beside him under the pine was an old man as thin as a withered branch, yet his posture remained as straight and upright as a pine or cypress.
Elder Li merely chuckled at his teasing.
“Just here to have a look around.”
Rate on N.U.
