Mysterious Woman

Wen Xi's swordplay was sinister and deceitful. The soft sword in his hand twisted and surged like a venomous snake, slipping past the fist and striking straight for Xia Qi'an's wrist.

With that strike, Xia Qi'an's arm would surely be crippled.

Seeing this, a cold smile appeared at the corner of Wen Xi's mouth.

However, with a sharp clang, the sword tip struck Xia Qi'an's wrist, only to bounce straight off.

"...An Iron Body expert... No wonder you're so arrogant..." Wen Xi exclaimed in astonishment.

Xia Qi'an had never feared such sinister, tricky moves. He shifted with the momentum, changing his fist into a claw. He seized the soft sword's blade and shook it violently. The soft sword wound around his palm like a hemp rope.

Then he gave it a hard yank. Wen Xi lost his balance and staggered toward Xia Qi'an.

Bang!

A massive fist struck Wen Xi in the face like an iron hammer.

The Snake Guard mask on his face shattered, sending several teeth flying out amid the fragments.

With a scream, Wen Xi was sent flying and slammed headfirst into the stronghold's fence.

"Big brother..." Caught off guard, Wen Ye cried out and hurried forward to check on Wen Xi.

He had never expected Wen Xi to lose so quickly.

Wen Ye picked Wen Xi up and saw that his elder brother's face had been battered beyond recognition by Xia Qi'an's punch.

His eyes immediately reddened. He roared, "You brat surnamed Xia... You... You hit far too hard!"

Xia Qi'an snorted coldly. "Fists and feet have no eyes. Since your skills are inferior... don't blame me for hitting too hard."

Then he turned to Lin Luo. "What? Do you still want to fight?"

"No... You brat surnamed Xia, you're not leaving today..." Wen Ye had completely lost his reason.

Furious, Wen Ye swung the great spear on his back. A cold gleam shot toward Xia Qi'an's chest like lightning.

Yet Xia Qi'an remained unmoved. His hands, wielding Iron Claw Skill, clamped down on the shaft like iron pincers. The force was so great that the spear in Wen Ye's hands could not advance even an inch.

Then he abruptly twisted the shaft in reverse. A tremendous force spread along it.

Wen Ye's body spun through the air like a top, turning twice before he crashed face-first into the ground.

Seeing this, Xia Qi'an stepped forward and was about to punch him when Lin Luo called out to stop him. "Enough..."

"Today, we were indeed in the wrong... But you beat Wen Xi into this state... The Wen family won't let you off!" Lin Luo's expression shifted between gloom and anger.

Xia Qi'an's brows furrowed slightly, and disdain curled at the corner of his mouth. He said coldly, "The Wen family? Never heard of them... If they want revenge, have them come find me at Si Nan Manor in Jinling."

Upon hearing this, Lin Luo's face instantly turned deathly pale. He cried out in terror, "Si Nan Manor? You're from the Si Nan family?"

Xia Qi'an did not explain. Instead, he turned around with an air of unfathomable mystery, leaving Lin Luo and the other two with his cold back.

Seeing this, Leng Changqing pursed his lips, desperately suppressing the laughter that was about to escape.

Lin Luo was at his wits' end. He could only grit his teeth and say viciously, "We of the Xiaoxiang Wei Dao Si will remember what happened today."

After leaving them with that threat, Lin Luo helped Wen Ye and Wen Xi, the two brothers, away. Like stray dogs driven from their homes, they fled in disgrace.

Afterward, Xia Qi'an spent a fortune in a nearby village to buy three mongrel packhorses and a wooden cart. He loaded the tiger hide, tiger flesh, tiger bones, and everything else onto it.

He drove the cart and slowly left the tiger demon's stronghold.

As for the gold and silver treasures in the mountains, they could not be taken away for the time being. Su Changqing would have to hire people to return and transport them back to Jinling later.

A while after Xia Qi'an and the other two had left.

The tiger demon's stronghold.

The space above the stronghold suddenly twisted, as though kneaded by an invisible giant hand. A mass of Turbid Qi appeared from thin air, gathering like ink and slowly forming a black-hole-like portal.

Then a woman whose face was as pale as white paper, without the slightest trace of color, slowly emerged from the Turbid Qi.

The woman was extraordinarily tall, standing half a head taller than Xia Qi'an. She towered like a majestic mountain, measuring a full six feet two, nearly six feet six.

Her features were breathtakingly beautiful and cold. A few strands of black hair danced in the wind like celestial maidens. Two white-bone earrings hung from her ears, glimmering with a chilly radiance. Her black robe had an ancient design and exuded a mysterious, weighty air, as though she were a goddess who had walked out of primordial times.

The black-robed woman stood suspended in the air, her sash fluttering in the wind like a mysterious, tattered painting, giving her a dreamlike, illusory beauty.

The woman's face was expressionless, her eyes weathered by the ages. That melancholy, shattered air made people instinctively imagine that some ancient, mysterious, sorrowful myth lay behind her—like the brightest star in the night sky, drawing all eyes toward it.

Suddenly, the woman slowly extended a pale finger and lightly pointed toward the distant mountains, as though plucking the notes of a mysterious melody.

Then a scarlet serpent dozens of yards long was dragged out of the mountains. It coiled through the air like a red dragon. Looking closely, one could see that the crimson serpent was wrapped in countless blood-colored threads, bound into a tangled mass and utterly unable to move.

Had Xia Qi'an been present, he would have recognized this serpent as the one he had encountered beside the pool in the Burial Ridge Mountains. He would never have guessed that the serpent was so cunning as to follow him all the way here, clinging to him like his shadow.

It was likely because Xia Qi'an had drunk its snake blood, causing his body to emit a scent that only the great serpent could detect. The crimson serpent had not expected that, upon reaching the area, it would fail to encounter Xia Qi'an—

and instead run straight into the mysterious black-robed woman.

The scarlet serpent's life or death was now truly impossible to predict.

The woman had remained expressionless and silent from beginning to end. Even after seeing the tiger demon she had secretly raised killed, she did not care in the slightest.

Seeing that the crimson serpent possessed some cultivation, she dragged it into the black hole of Turbid Qi, and no one knew where she went.

Several days later, Xia Qi'an and the other two returned to Jinling.

After entering the city, more than a dozen Su family servants came forward to help Su Changqing unload the neatly packed spoils from the cart and transport them back to the Su residence.

After parting with Su Changqing, Bata drove the cart back to Xia Manor.

On top of the cart, the enormous tiger head, still spattered with blood, looked as horrifying as a Rakshasa.

Along the way, it drew sidelong glances from passersby, who clicked their tongues in amazement.

"My heavens!... That tiger is huge. It must have become a spirit, right..."

"Good lord! Just looking at that tiger head makes my legs go weak..."

"Who's sitting inside the cart?..."

"See that hulking driver? Isn't he the High Mountain Slave that Lord Xia of the Wei Dao Si bought a few days ago? Do you even need to ask who's inside?"

"Lord Xia... He's incredible! He even killed a tiger that big..."

By the roadside, the onlookers marveled endlessly, whispering and discussing among themselves.

The children in the city were even like a flock of twittering birds, following after the cart all the way and chattering without pause.

Only after the cart entered Xia Manor through the back gate did the children scatter like birds and beasts.

After returning to the manor, Xia Qi'an washed up.

Then he carried over a hundred pounds of tiger meat and a tiger bone as thick as a grown man's thigh and headed to Si Nan Manor to report.

Si Nan Manor.

The instant Xia Qi'an stepped into the main hall, he froze on the spot.

He saw the guard Si Nanzhai Xing, Si Nanyue, and Hong Xian, the head shopkeeper of the Treasure Pavilion, either sitting or standing as they discussed something.

Si Nanzhai Xing glanced at Xia Qi'an, who was carrying a tiger bone and a bundle of tiger meat, then withdrew his gaze and lowered his head to drink his tea.

Seeing Xia Qi'an swagger in while carrying all that, Hong Xian looked amused.

Si Nanyue coughed lightly. "You came at just the right time! Father, Shopkeeper Hong Xian, and I are discussing expanding the refined-salt and Scented Soap businesses!"

Afterward, Xia Qi'an handed what he was carrying to the servants summoned by the maid Dong'er, then found a seat and sat down.

Yet the atmosphere in the hall made Xia Qi'an sit up straight. Before he knew it, he had straightened his back.