Night Battle

What the hell, what was going on?

At a moment like this, why was he thinking of all this random nonsense?

Lu Zi'an shook his head, doing his utmost to purge those images—clear yet somehow hazy—from his mind, and refocused on the cave entrance.

His body tensed slightly against the cave ceiling, like a leopard poised to pounce on its prey at any moment.

The campfire still burned, crackling sharply now and then.

Crack, crack-crack, crack-crack-crack...

A scene surfaced before Lu Zi'an's eyes, and he let out an involuntary low grunt. Yet he did not realize it himself, still immersed in that scene.

Ping Gu's waist really was like a snake's. Should he simply marry her?

But she was a widow, no longer untouched. He had a Foundation Establishment Pill now, and his future was boundless...

That twisting body suddenly coiled around him. Lu Zi'an felt his face burn and his head grow heavy while his feet went light; for a moment, he could not tell dream from reality.

Then his waist moved on its own, as if he wanted to give it a crack—followed immediately by a heavy thud as he fell solidly from the cave ceiling.

The sound of his landing was crystal clear outside the cave. In truth, his rough panting before the fall, even those satisfied sighs, had already carried out. Had they not known the circumstances, Zuo Gaofeng, Tan Bazhang, Western Mountain Hermit, and the others would almost have thought that something tender and indescribable was happening inside the cave.

They looked at Liu Xiaolou, who still crouched by the cave entrance in that strange posture, and their eyelids could not help twitching. This fellow was truly uncanny!

But this was no time for exclamations. Wei Hongqing, who knew Liu Xiaolou's methods best, had already made his move. He knew this was roughly the extent of Liu Xiaolou's incense drug; they could not ask for more. This was precisely the perfect chance to strike.

As three iron darts shot into the cave, they brought a sharp rush of wind that jolted Lu Zi'an awake from his delirium. Startled, he tilted his head slightly, and his true essence erupted to form a feeble force field of true essence, knocking aside the dart flying straight at his forehead. It skimmed over Lu Zi'an's head, shearing off several strands of hair.

He could not evade the remaining two. One struck each shoulder, burying themselves deep.

Lu Zi'an circulated his true essence and forced the two iron darts out from his shoulder sockets. With two sharp "thunks," they flew out of the cave and vanished from sight. Two jets of blood sprayed forth, instantly staining half his clothes red.

"Where did these thieves come from?" Lu Zi'an roared as he opened his mouth and spat out his flying sword. The short sword gleamed with cold light above the campfire, then shot toward the cave entrance.

At the Qi Refining tenth layer, he could not truly control a flying sword through the air, but he had already begun to show the form of one. In battle, it gave him an enormous advantage.

The flying sword targeted the thief on the left side of the cave entrance. In Lu Zi'an's judgment, that man had the highest cultivation and had to be eliminated first.

Before the short sword reached the entrance, a figure suddenly appeared. Wei Hongqing had yanked the woman up and shoved her directly into the sword light's path.

Lu Zi'an was horrified and forcibly halted the short sword's momentum. It abruptly veered away from before the woman's face and slashed into the stone wall, scattering sparks.

"Ping Gu!" Lu Zi'an cried out, staring at her in a daze.

It was not only the miserable sight of Ping Gu's face covered in sweat and tears that pained him. Another unbearable scene surfaced in his mind—within it, Ping Gu's appearance eerily overlapped with how she looked now.

She really looked so alike...

Lu Zi'an again felt his breath surge chaotically, his entire body burning hot.

In that brief lapse of attention, another dart struck his left leg!

With Ping Gu held hostage, Wei Hongqing immediately left Lu Zi'an fettered hand and foot. Fearing he might injure her by mistake, Lu Zi'an could no longer use his flying sword. Gritting his teeth, he charged at Wei Hongqing, who dragged Ping Gu backward again and again, always hiding behind her.

As Lu Zi'an rushed out of the cave, two streaks of silver light danced from the cave's left side, sweeping toward him like silver wheels. It was Zuo Gaofeng, who had hidden there.

Though Lu Zi'an's mind was somewhat muddled, he had not forgotten the thief lurking here. He turned toward Zuo Gaofeng and flicked his tongue. The short sword shot from his mouth, ringing twice as it knocked Zuo Gaofeng's twin axes flying.

The flying sword spun swiftly through half a circle, instantly gathering enough true essence. Just as it was about to cleave Zuo Gaofeng apart with one stroke, repeated crossbow twangs rang out from a distant tree. Three bolts came shooting in one after another. Left with no choice, Lu Zi'an had to spare Zuo Gaofeng and send his flying sword to meet them, severing all three arrows.

Without warning, a great net dropped from the sky and enveloped Lu Zi'an completely. Tan Bazhang leaped down from Cliff Top, swung his iron staff sideways, and savagely smashed it into Lu Zi'an's waist. "Take that, you stumbling about in the dark!"

Unable to dodge, Lu Zi'an concentrated his true essence around his waist and abdomen and took Tan Bazhang's iron staff head-on. The impact sent the staff rebounding backward, but Lu Zi'an also spat out several mouthfuls of bloody foam.

The rebounding iron staff struck Tan Bazhang square in the face, and a bruise immediately rose across his forehead. He grimaced in pain. "This target's tough as nails!"

Lu Zi'an's flying sword circled back and desperately tried to cut through the net's cords. But the net was no ordinary object. Though it possessed no particularly powerful divine abilities, its ropes were made of some unknown fine material. How could they possibly be cut apart in such haste?

Liu Xiaolou repeatedly thrust his Three Xuan Sword at Lu Zi'an through the net, but Lu Zi'an's flying sword knocked every strike aside. The shock tore open the injury in Liu Xiaolou's palm, which had not yet fully healed.

Though the Three Xuan Sword returned without success, it prevented Lu Zi'an from cutting the net cords. Lu Zi'an finally recognized Wei Hongqing, who was holding Ping Gu across from him, and shouted, "Wei Hongqing, Ping Gu is your sister-in-law too. I'll entrust her to you for now—look after her in my place for a few days!"

With that, he curled downward into a ball and rolled off into the distance, still wrapped in the net, moving with astonishing speed.

"Stop him!" Wei Hongqing shouted.

He did not need to say it. Everyone knew they absolutely could not let Lu Zi'an escape. Otherwise, the reward would be gone—wouldn't all their effort have been for nothing?

Zuo Gaofeng's twin axes whirled around the net cords like two silver blossoms. Tan Bazhang chased close behind, repeatedly leaping up to strike viciously with his staff. Wei Hongqing was a little slower, but his iron darts never ceased. Whenever he found an opening, he drove them into the net, leaving wound after wound on Lu Zi'an's body.

As for Liu Xiaolou, he remained firmly at the rear of the group. Though he kept up, his Three Xuan Sword never found another chance to strike, leaving him able only to glare helplessly in anxious frustration.

They pursued him for five or six li. Seeing that they still could not catch up, Zuo Gaofeng threw his twin axes once more, sending them straight toward the back of Lu Zi'an's head. He had used this move several times already, and Lu Zi'an had evaded it every time. This time was no different; all that could be said was that Zuo Gaofeng had done his utmost.

Feeling the wind behind his head, Lu Zi'an repeated the old trick, shifting slightly as he rolled. In an instant, he was about to dodge the twin axes.

At that moment, a pebble suddenly skimmed in close to the ground and silently struck his temple.

Stars burst before Lu Zi'an's eyes, and his mind went blank.

The twin axes chopped squarely into his body.

The great net finally came to a halt. Lu Zi'an stared wide-eyed toward the direction from which the pebble had flown, but all he could see was darkness.

A few breaths later, Lu Zi'an breathed his last.