This Woman Is Suspicious!

"This trip to the Hundred Thousand Mountains has already been completed. I hadn't wanted to work overtime, but unfortunately, you brought this on yourselves." Bai Lan shook her head slightly and slowly pressed save.

She couldn't beat them in one fight.

But after fighting them a hundred million times and figuring out their moves, even if she couldn't win, escaping safely from their hands would be easy enough.

They were all in the Qi Refining stage. No matter how strong they were, the gap could not be so vast as to form an insurmountable divide.

Two talismans, wrapped in spiritual power, came hurtling toward her. Bai Lan retreated just before the Fireball Talismans exploded. Before she could steady herself, one of them had already slipped behind her and launched a flying blade-shaped spirit artifact at her back.

The two worked together seamlessly. Their combat instincts surpassed those of ordinary cultivators, and every move was lethal—they intended to kill.

Twisting aside to evade the flying blade, Bai Lan wrapped spiritual power around her feet, stepped off a tree trunk, and leaped onto the crown of another tree, quietly waiting for their next attack.

Seeing a Qi Refining level two cultivator evade their attack, the two Qi Refining level five cultivators exchanged glances, both seeing the surprise in the other's eyes.

Bai Lan's heart sank slightly as well.

They had first used talismans to force her back, then taken the chance to ambush her as she dodged. Both the talismans and flying blade were formidable; if either struck her, she would lose most of her ability to move.

For the past half month, Bai Lan had been fighting Whirlwind Tortoises. During that time, she had not only fought demonic beasts.

Bai Lan's fighting habit was to observe her enemies—their expressions and movements—because whether they were demonic beasts or cultivators, they would reveal flaws before attacking.

For example, before a demonic beast attacked, it would make obvious motions to exert force, and its spiritual power fluctuations would become unusually pronounced.

Cultivators had similar little tells: reaching toward their Storage Bags to take out weapons or talismans, raising their hands to form seals, and so on.

If she waited until an enemy's attack was right before her eyes to dodge, it would already be too late. Therefore, she had to judge the enemy's intent one step ahead, look ten steps ahead for every step she took, and only then could she place herself in an undefeated position.

On the first reload, Bai Lan did not attack. She only used Lesser Maze Steps to keep dodging, while observing the fighting methods of these men and learning their attack habits and thought processes.

Then came countless saves and reloads. Bai Lan gradually began trying to counterattack, searching for Mystical Techniques that could restrain them.

When her strength was lacking, she naturally could not fight them fairly head-on. She could only break them one by one, unraveling the enemy's strength bit by bit.

"Big Brother! Something's wrong with this woman! Third Brother and I can't even get close to her!"

After Bai Lan perfectly predicted his attack for the thirteenth time and counterattacked in turn, one of the men cried out miserably, loudly calling for help.

"Yeah, Big Brother! This woman must know us! She seems to have figured out all our moves. If this keeps up, something's bound to go wrong sooner or later," the other added.

Of course she knew them. She had already reloaded seventeen times. She had their faces memorized.

Frowning slightly, Bai Lan secretly took out a Spirit Stone and held it in her hand, beginning to replenish the spiritual power in her body.

She could not let that Qi Refining level seven cultivator come over. Otherwise, facing three people attacking her together, even with unlimited reloads, she would be hard-pressed to handle it all.

She still had to restart this round. She could not fight too perfectly; she had to expose some flaws.

If necessary, she would have to take some injuries and make them think she was still manageable, so these two would not call over the Qi Refining level seven cultivator in the distance to join the battle.

Only after dealing with the two Qi Refining level five cultivators before her could she focus on the Qi Refining level seven cultivator.

Those two Qi Refining level five cultivators were only slightly harder to deal with than Whirlwind Tortoises. The Qi Refining level seven cultivator was the true threat.

There were ultimately still too few Mystical Techniques available to a Qi Refining level two cultivator. Fireball Technique, Golden Sword Technique, Entanglement Technique, Earth Spike Technique—they were all the most basic techniques.

Yet even so, when used in coordination, low-level techniques could still unleash considerable damage.

After reloading again, she acted weak at the start. Only after the two lowered their guard did Bai Lan begin using her trump cards to strike at their vital points.

A few breaths later...

When Bai Lan, feigning weakness, successfully closed the distance with them, the Wood Spikes she had prepared long ago burst up from below in an instant. Immediately afterward, a golden sword thrust straight through one man's throat.

Though Golden Sword Technique was a low-level Mystical Technique, Bai Lan had poured nearly more than half the spiritual power in her body into this strike. Its power was enough to pierce a Whirlwind Tortoise's abdomen—and likewise, enough to pierce through a cultivator's throat.

The woman who had been steadily retreating a moment ago, whose attacks had consisted only of Fireball Technique, suddenly killed one of his companions. The other man's eyes widened in shock as he tried to retreat, but Bai Lan seized the moment and hurled the spear in her hand, wrapped in spiritual power. A second later, she was rewarded with a scream.

"The host is so strong!" the system exclaimed in delight. "This time, after eighteen reloads, the host successfully counter-killed these two bad men who robbed people on the road!"

When the host had killed the Whirlwind Tortoise before, she had reloaded seventy or eighty times at the start, nearly driving the system mad.

"Don't praise me yet. This was a case of injuring the enemy by a thousand while damaging myself by two hundred. I'm injured too." Bai Lan took a deep breath, holding a Spirit Stone in each hand.

There was no time to treat her injuries.

That commotion just now had not been small. The Qi Refining level seven cultivator in the distance had definitely heard it.

Originally, Bai Lan had been able to sense the aura of that distant Qi Refining level seven cultivator. Yet in that instant just now, the other party had concealed his aura and hidden in the dark to observe Bai Lan.

If he launched an attack from the shadows, she would be unable to guard against it.

"Fellow Daoist, you truly have remarkable skill. To silently deal with two Qi Refining level five cultivators in such a short time," came a young man's gnashing voice from somewhere unknown.

Bai Lan chuckled. "You flatter me."

"I wasn't praising you!" The furious voice was clearly enraged beyond measure.

"Where is that fellow Senior Brother of mine from Azure Origin Sect? Where is he now?" Bai Lan changed the subject, while the speed at which she absorbed spiritual energy gradually increased.

"What, you care so much about your fellow Senior Brother? You want to save him?" The voice sneered. "You should worry about yourself first. You killed my men—do you really think you can leave unscathed?"

Bai Lan shook her head, her expression sighing. "At the foot of Azure Origin Sect, you dare behave so recklessly. Aren't you afraid that once the sect finds out, it will issue a kill order?"

"Hmph, are you changing the subject?" the young man sneered.

Bai Lan laughed softly, tossing away the two depleted Spirit Stones in her palms. Then she slowly said, "Villains die from talking too much. Didn't you know?"

"Y-you actually absorbed the spiritual energy directly from Spirit Stones!? What a waste of heaven's gifts!" Only then did the young man notice the Spirit Stones in Bai Lan's hands. She had been absorbing their spiritual energy.

Directly absorbing the pure spiritual energy within Spirit Stones could indeed restore the spiritual power in one's body very quickly, but it was an extravagance beyond extravagance. Even those second-generation immortals would not dare squander resources like that.

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