Escape at Full Speed

Dawn was still dim, and a streak of fish-belly white appeared on the eastern horizon.

After a night of slaughter, the Overlord's Soldiers had set up camp in a mountain hollow thirty li from Shen Family Fortress. This was also the first time in recent days that the Overlord's Soldiers had stopped to make camp and rest.

Five men formed a group, five groups formed a squad, and five squads formed a camp. The Overlord's Soldiers' camp had been arranged into an exceptionally standard five-petaled plum blossom formation. Tiny campfires flickered throughout the camp. Each group of five Overlord's Soldiers surrounded one such small fire, assuming a strange posture with their five hearts facing heaven as they quietly digested the so-called "Demonic Killing Qi" accumulated from their recent slaughter.

Threads of blackish-red energy coiled around the Overlord's Soldiers' bodies, constantly flowing out through their nostrils and then being drawn back in. Their faint breathing gathered into a humming, tide-like roar that carried far, far through the dawn air. In the distance, Blood Armor Knights galloped past on horseback. They were the scouts dispatched by the Overlord's Soldiers.

At the very center of the camp, Lin Xiao gently held the shivering little girl in his arms and stared blankly at the small campfire before him.

The little girl's name was Shen Xiaobai. She was a collateral relative of the Shen family, separated by more than five degrees of kinship. Shen Xiaobai held no high position in Shen Family Fortress. Her parents merely held minor posts, managing an orchard and garden belonging to the fortress. As for Shen Xiaobai, because she was young, nimble-fingered, meticulous, and clever, she had been sent to work in the medicine storehouse. When the Overlord's Soldiers breached Shen Family Fortress, Shen Xiaobai's parents had been called upon by their clansmen to take up weapons and resist them. With no one left to care for her, Shen Xiaobai hid in the medicine storehouse she knew best.

Shen Xiaobai could never forget that nightmare-like scene. Standing at her doorstep, she watched her parents, armed with blades and spears, rush with a great crowd of clansmen past the street corner, only to be chopped into pieces by flashing blades and swords. Blood splattered across the sky. She had forgotten how she had even made it into the medicine storehouse. In her panic, she knocked over several medicine baskets. In the end, she hid behind a huge pile of them, praying only that those vicious enemies would not find her.

When Lin Xiao moved the medicine baskets aside and Xue Wu's saber was placed against her neck, Shen Xiaobai had nearly fainted from fright. At that moment, she clearly understood what death was. An icy despair engulfed her body and soul, and every pore on her body seemed to exhale cold air. Her vision repeatedly darkened, and she wanted to pass out, but that icy terror gripped her heart so tightly that she did not even have the right to faint.

Then, she heard that refined and handsome young man say something, and the great saber suddenly left her neck.

Two warm arms wrapped around her, driving away the cold and fear within her. Through her haze, she heard the youth muttering, "I can save a band of thieves, yet I cannot even save one little girl?" Dazed, she saw two trails of tears on his face, as well as the strange, unfathomable, complicated look in his eyes that she could not understand at all.

It was such a warm embrace, carrying a power that put one at ease. Though Lin Xiao looked frail and scholarly, Shen Xiaobai instinctively felt safe in his arms. So she closed her eyes in comfort and drifted off in a daze, casting the tragic deaths of her parents and the destruction of Shen Family Fortress entirely to the back of her mind.

Now, Shen Xiaobai had awakened. Only then did she suddenly realize that she and this youth with the warm embrace were in the camp of that pack of utterly vicious bandits.

She watched those Overlord's Soldiers, whose bodies were entwined with thin blackish-red mist, in terror, unable to understand what mysterious trickery they were performing. Especially Ling Batian and his eighteen Blood Guards less than ten zhang away—the blackish-red energy rolling off them was as dense as a sea of blood, and the heavy stench of blood nearly made Shen Xiaobai vomit.

Expressionless, Lin Xiao gently patted Shen Xiaobai's back and took a pill giving off a faint, exotic fragrance from his sleeve, stuffing it into her mouth. It was a Miasma Repelling Pill prepared by Spring Return Hall specifically to dispel wilderness miasma, but it also worked exceptionally well against the bloody stench coming from Ling Batian and the others. Shen Xiaobai pursed her lips and swallowed a mouthful of slightly sour, astringent medicinal liquid. At once, her mind cleared, and she could no longer smell that nauseating blood scent.

With a trace of worship in her eyes, Shen Xiaobai raised her head and secretly glanced at Lin Xiao, who sat with his eyelids drooping like a wooden puppet. Her little hands drew back, then stretched out forcefully to wrap around Lin Xiao's waist. Lin Xiao's body was warm, and a faint vitality that lifted the spirit seemed to drift from within him. Shen Xiaobai's senses were keen, and she liked Lin Xiao's scent very much.

That scent was like... like the smell of pine forests deep in the mountains after a summer rain, and like leaves baked beneath the sun. It was natural, tranquil, and comfortable.

Lin Xiao gently stroked Shen Xiaobai's head. This obedient, adorable little girl reminded him of a puppy he had kept several years ago. That fluffy, snow-white puppy had also liked to cling to his arms like this, its body trembling faintly as it made contented little snuffling sounds. Shen Xiaobai's body was just like that puppy's—small, delicate, warm, and soft as though she had no bones. And both of them liked to cling to Lin Xiao's embrace.

Lin Xiao decided that no matter the cost, he would protect Shen Xiaobai. Not only her life, but certain other things as well. He did not want Shen Xiaobai to grow up in a bandits' den, perhaps even becoming a scar-faced female butcher who could casually swing a blade and kill someone! He would never allow such a thing to happen, just as he never wanted to see the bloody, mangled hide of his little white puppy again!

That little white puppy, once so dearly beloved by Lin Xiao, had ultimately been beaten to death by Lin Yao and two servants right in front of him, then skinned alive!

"Xiaobai!" Lin Xiao gently patted Shen Xiaobai's head, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, "When I pinch your ear later, shout that you need to relieve yourself. Then don't care about anything else." The name "Xiaobai" also reminded Lin Xiao of his puppy. "Xiaobai, Xiaobai"—how many times had he called to that little white dog with boundless joy?

Shen Xiaobai froze for a moment, raised her head to look at Lin Xiao, then nodded gently.

Lin Xiao lowered his head, his eyelids drooping, but all his attention was focused on Ling Batian and the eighteen Blood Guards as they diligently cultivated the Blood Kill Demonic Art. Spring Return Hall's Evergreen Art did not possess much killing power, but nothing surpassed it for nurturing the body. In particular, the Evergreen Art had exceptionally mysterious effects when it came to detecting the flow of another person's true qi and treating internal injuries.

Lin Xiao was using this trait of the Evergreen Art to spy on the state of Ling Batian and the others' true qi circulation. Basically, Lin Xiao knew that whenever any cultivation art was being circulated, it would encounter one or two crucial gates of life and death. Especially after completing a certain number of Greater Celestial Circuits, when one was about to finish the cultivation session, it was a martial artist's most vulnerable moment and the time when their vigilance was at its lowest. If he acted then, Ling Batian and the others would likely give Lin Xiao enough time.

Slowly, slowly. Lin Xiao clearly sensed Ling Batian's breathing becoming increasingly long and drawn out, while the true qi revolving within his body grew ever more sluggish. The blackish-red mist around him was being drawn in thread by thread, no longer releasing even the slightest bit outward.

Lin Xiao gently rubbed Shen Xiaobai's ear.

Shen Xiaobai's large eyes rolled, and she immediately sprang to her feet, shouting, "I need to relieve myself!"

Having to shout such a private matter so loudly, the young Shen Xiaobai's face immediately flushed red. Embarrassment and a touch of strange irritation even made her forget her fear of the nearby Overlord's Soldiers. She looked left and right, only to discover that apart from a few sentry Overlord's Soldiers, no one was paying any attention to her.

Lin Xiao rose to his feet, took Shen Xiaobai's hand, and headed toward the edge of the camp.

An Overlord's Soldier stopped Lin Xiao and said quietly, "Doctor Lin!"

Lin Xiao glanced at the Overlord's Soldier and said flatly, "Xiaobai needs to relieve herself. Are you going to follow her over and watch? Or do you want Xiaobai to do it right here in front of all of you—"

The Overlord's Soldiers were a fierce, bloodthirsty, utterly vicious bandit army. Yet apart from their love of killing and plundering wealth, they had no other notorious reputation. At the very least, no one had ever heard of the Overlord's Soldiers humiliating women. The Overlord's Soldier blocking Lin Xiao's path blinked, shook his head, and slowly stepped aside. "Be careful, Doctor Lin. This area isn't exactly peaceful. The Black Blade Bandits' current hideout is not far from here."

The Overlord's Soldier's well-intentioned reminder made Lin Xiao's body suddenly stiffen. He nodded lightly, gave the soldier a faint smile, and led Shen Xiaobai toward a small patch of grass at the camp's edge. Shen Xiaobai keenly noticed the change in Lin Xiao's palm. For a moment, she seemed to understand something: the Black Blade Bandits and Lin Xiao must have some history between them.

"Black Blade Bandits!" Shen Xiaobai firmly engraved that name in her heart.

All the Overlord's Soldiers, just like Ling Batian, had reached the most crucial point in their cultivation. For roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, they needed to transform the Demonic Killing Qi refined that night into a thread of Blood Killing True Qi from the Blood Kill Demonic Path, then merge it into the Blood Killing True Qi already within their bodies. This newly born thread of Blood Killing True Qi had to race through the eight extraordinary meridians and twelve regular meridians, completing three Greater Celestial Circuits in all, before charging at high speed into their dantians with the tragic force of a battlefield drenched in slaughter, of survivors hardened through a hundred battles. Only then could it merge with their original Blood Killing True Qi, already thick as blood plasma.

It was an exceedingly complicated process. Even Ling Batian could neither afford nor wish to divide his attention at such a crucial moment. Those of the Blood Kill Demonic Path possessed a maniacal obsession with increasing their strength. They would never let go of even the tiniest opportunity to improve themselves.

Fang Wen did not know of Ling Batian and the others' obsession. He only knew from experience that he likely had the time it took to drink a cup of tea to escape with Shen Xiaobai.

Five hundred zhang ahead lay a stretch of forest that extended directly into the distant mountain ridges. If he could flee into that forest, his chances of escape would increase greatly. Once he escaped, he could find a way to take Shen Xiaobai to the Capital City instead of remaining among the Overlord's Soldiers, treating their wounded and committing the vile deed of helping a tiger grow wings.

But to cover five hundred zhang in the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Lin Xiao did not believe his cultivation was strong enough. Therefore, he pulled Shen Xiaobai into that patch of grass and, without pausing in the slightest, emerged from the other side. Tall grass reaching an adult's neck concealed Lin Xiao and Shen Xiaobai, and the Overlord's Soldier sentries in the camp did not notice anything unusual.

For the Overlord's Soldiers, this was an unforgivable oversight. But Lin Xiao had treated so many of their brothers in half a day that all the Overlord's Soldiers had unknowingly developed a sense of gratitude toward him, and their guard against him had weakened considerably. Thus, several Overlord's Soldiers looked toward the grass patch for a while, but none of them gave it much thought.

Five Blood Armor scouts happened to be riding past slowly. Lin Xiao led Shen Xiaobai out of the grass and stepped directly into their path.

The five scouts froze. The scout captain leading them asked in surprise, "Doctor Lin, what is this?"

Lin Xiao raised his hand, and a small paper packet shot toward the five scouts. Instinctively, the scout captain drew his saber and split the packet open with a slash. A great cloud of white medicinal powder burst from within, spraying over the heads and faces of all five scouts. "Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!" Without even a grunt, the five scouts toppled from their horses and crashed miserably to the ground. The five warhorses, meanwhile, threw back their heads and let out uneasy neighs. To their shock, they found that they could no longer quite control their minds. It was as though they had returned to the great grasslands where their ancestors had lived generation after generation, seized by the urge to stretch out their legs and run wildly to their hearts' content.

Lin Xiao had casually concocted this medicinal powder an hour earlier from herbs taken from Shen Family Fortress's medicine storehouse. To humans, it was a powerful sleeping drug. To four-legged livestock, it was the strongest stimulant. Cruel reality had forced Lin Xiao's mind to mature at a rapid pace. He had already begun learning to make use of everything he knew.

Grabbing the waist of the astonished Shen Xiaobai with one hand, Lin Xiao carried her as he floated onto the largest warhorse, then struck the horse hard on the rump.

"Hyah! Go, hurry!" Lin Xiao shouted. "Good horse, once we escape this place, I'll treat you to braised pork and the finest yellow wine!"

The warhorse, its blood surging from the white powder, threw back its head with a wild scream. With a flash, its eyes turned blood-red. Like a maddened bull, it stretched out its long legs and bolted forward, covering nearly twenty zhang in the blink of an eye.

"Doctor Lin! Stay!" The wind from the scout captain's saber slash had already alerted the Overlord's Soldier sentries in camp. Lin Xiao had barely ridden less than twenty zhang when three Overlord's Soldiers sprang from the grass like agile leopards. Their six-foot sabers tore through the air, trailing three streaks of light as they heavily chopped toward nonfatal areas of Lin Xiao's back.

Lin Xiao placed the shrieking Shen Xiaobai in front of him, wrapped one arm around her small body, and flipped his right hand out in a palm strike.

The breath of true qi he had cultivated bitterly since childhood surged forth. From Lin Xiao's palm, a faint azure aura several inches long actually burst out.

One Overlord's Soldier cried out, "Good lad! What cultivation!" Lin Xiao's palm wind was too fierce. The three Overlord's Soldiers, veterans of countless killings, instinctively unleashed their full power and slashed their strongest blows at Lin Xiao. Amid piercing hisses, bloody glimmers three inches long emerged from the edges of their three sabers. All three Overlord's Soldiers possessed the formidable cultivation to force out saber aura. No wonder they had been qualified to guard the entire camp while their comrades devoted themselves to cultivation.

"Yah—ha!" Sensing the sharpness and overwhelming force of the three auras behind him, Lin Xiao roared and forced out every last ounce of strength he possessed.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The three saber auras struck Lin Xiao's palm force. His palm force shattered, while the three sabers, separated by two chi, sent a distant strike toward Lin Xiao's heart from behind with their Blade Qi.

The warhorse was running too fast. The three sabers that should have chopped Lin Xiao into four pieces ultimately only struck him with Blade Qi from two chi away. Three tyrannical streams of Blade Qi entered his body. Lin Xiao felt as though three transparent holes had been torn through him, leaving his chest hollow and unbearably uncomfortable. Then he violently spat out a mouthful of blood, spraying it across Shen Xiaobai's worried little face.

Shen Xiaobai screamed, "Big Brother Lin!"

Lin Xiao slapped the horse's rump again and shouted, "Go faster!"

The warhorse's forward speed increased by another thirty percent. At this moment, it no longer ran like a warhorse, but instead bore some resemblance to the swiftest leopard in the mountain forests. Kicking up a trail of dust, it raced onward, gradually leaving behind the three Overlord's Soldiers who were also sprinting after it at full speed. The three soldiers looked at one another and stopped at the same time. Those of the Blood Kill Demonic Path never did something they knew was impossible merely to force it through. They were accustomed to conserving every shred of strength for the slaughter that might erupt at any moment.

"A bunch of trash! You actually let two children escape! Damn it, you've disgraced me completely!"

A muffled snort came from behind them. Carrying the Three-Pointed, Two-Edged Blade, Ling Batian charged over at nearly twice the speed of the warhorse ahead. In just a few leaps, he had covered almost a hundred zhang.

Lin Xiao opened his mouth and breathed rapidly without pause. Thick blood stench poured from his mouth, making Shen Xiaobai cough repeatedly. Shen Xiaobai was so anxious that her heart nearly leaped out of her stomach. Though she had only been with Lin Xiao for two or three short hours, she had already come to see him as the only sky above her.

Tears streaming down her face, Shen Xiaobai coughed as she stammered, "Big Brother Lin, sob... don't scare me!"

With no time to explain anything to Shen Xiaobai, Lin Xiao struggled to take a thumb-sized purple-gold pill from a hidden compartment in his belt and tremblingly tossed it into his mouth.

Spring Return Hall's secretly prepared Nine Dragon Life-Extending Pill was made primarily from the venom of nine highly poisonous long snakes. No matter how severe one's internal injuries, even if a person had only one breath left, taking this pill would allow them to remain lively as a dragon and vigorous as a tiger for another half hour. The pill's effects were immense, but so were its side effects. The damage it inflicted upon one's vital essence was simply outrageous. If not for this life-and-death juncture, Lin Xiao would never have taken this thing, which Spring Return Hall also called the "Nine Deaths, One Life Pill."

As soon as the pill entered his stomach, it turned into streams of heat that flooded his entire body. Boundless energy erupted rapidly from every limb and bone. Lin Xiao's eyes brightened, and that radiant gaze startled Shen Xiaobai so badly that she did not dare meet his eyes. Her own eyeballs even felt a searing pain. Lin Xiao let out a long howl. He felt his internal injuries heal completely, while his internal cultivation surged to more than ten times its usual level.

Behind them, Ling Batian charged forward with the Three-Pointed, Two-Edged Blade in hand, rage flashing in his eyes as he roared, "Brat Lin, I haven't treated you badly! I was even the one who collected the bodies of everyone from your Spring Return Hall! Damn it, I merely asked you to stay on as an army physician. Was that really such an insult to you?"

Lin Xiao looked back and shouted, "Overlord, those who walk different paths cannot make plans together. Lin Xiao comes from an upright household. How can I keep company with bandits like you?"

"Bullshit! Upright? Where in this world is there any uprightness left?" Ling Batian roared. "You look down on me because I'm a bandit? Then I'll make you a bandit too, no matter what! Damn it, when the time comes, I'll have you marry a bandit wife and give birth to a whole litter of brats. Every damn one of them will become bandits!"

Lin Xiao's facial muscles twitched. How could there be such an overbearing person in this world?

With a snort, Lin Xiao turned back and said, "Overlord, you buried the people of my Spring Return Hall. I, Lin Xiao, will surely repay that kindness someday. But today—"

"But today, you still have to go the fuck back with me!" Ling Batian had already closed to within five zhang of Lin Xiao. He gave a strange laugh. "Blood Eleven has a blood sister. She's nine chi three cun tall, with a waist six chi around and an ass as big as a bull's head. She's the best for bearing children. I've decided it! You'll marry her! Heh heh, handsome man and talented woman—you two are a perfect pair!"

Shen Xiaobai understood only half of it, but she vaguely knew that Ling Batian was saying nothing good. She clenched her little fists and shouted at him, "Evil bandit, I won't let any of you off!"

"Oh? Is the little girl jealous?" Ling Batian threw back his head and laughed wildly. "Good, jealousy is good! Hmm, being a little young doesn't matter. Blood Eleven's sister can marry Brat Lin as his wife, while you, little girl, can be his concubine. Just right!"

With a long howl, Ling Batian leaped five or six zhang into the air. Like a great eagle swooping upon prey, he let out a series of shrill cries, twisted through the air, and reached for Lin Xiao.

"All Things Renew!" Lin Xiao shouted as well. Azure qi poured from his palms, and he struck toward the sky again and again. His palms seemed incomparably slow, yet were actually swift beyond measure. His palm force condensed in the air into half-bloomed azure lotus flowers. Nearly a hundred lotuses gathered into a cluster and rushed to meet Ling Batian.

Ling Batian snorted disdainfully and swung his long blade. A howling blade aura shot out, cleaving toward that cluster of lotuses.

A muffled boom rang out. All four legs of the warhorse beneath Lin Xiao broke at once. A vast, razor-sharp Blade Intent blasted through Lin Xiao's thighs and entered the horse's body. The warhorse gave a mournful neigh before, with a crash, being cleaved into several pieces by the invisible Blade Intent. Steaming horse blood sprayed far and wide, splashing over Lin Xiao and Shen Xiaobai's faces and bodies. Shen Xiaobai cried out in horror again. This time, seeing those hot, writhing horse entrails, she could no longer hold back and vomited a mouthful of sour liquid.

Lin Xiao felt his body go empty. The heat brought by the Nine Dragon Life-Extending Pill had been completely exhausted, and he once again felt the agonizing pain from the three wounds on his back. He grabbed Shen Xiaobai and staggered forward at a run. Ling Batian, however, had been blasted more than ten zhang into the air. His body trembled faintly, and when he landed, he staggered several steps forward, nearly plunging headfirst into the steaming warhorse carcass.

The eighteen Blood Guards caught up as well. Seeing Ling Batian looking somewhat bedraggled, Xue Wu roared in anger and prepared to chase into the forest.

Ling Batian abruptly stopped him. "Fifth Brother, stay. Forget it. If he wants to leave, let him go. That brat probably doesn't have anything valuable on him anyway."

Shaking his head, Ling Batian narrowed his eyes at Lin Xiao's faintly visible back in the forest and muttered, "For the sake of the lives of those hundred-odd brothers, since he's willing to throw away his life to leave, let him be. Hmph, hmph! I don't know what wicked method he used to forcibly raise his cultivation by more than tenfold. Even I suffered a small loss!"

He swung the Three-Pointed, Two-Edged Blade forcefully and said blandly, "Let's hope the brat's life is fortunate enough! Forcibly raising his true qi tenfold? Heh heh, even we would burst apart and die from that. That brat..."

The Blood Guards exchanged glances. Xue Wu seemed to come to a sudden realization as he said, "So that's it, Boss. You knew he was bound to die, so you didn't pursue him?"

Ling Batian shrugged without saying a word, then turned and strode away with the Three-Pointed, Two-Edged Blade slung over his shoulder...