Beautiful Shadow VI

A short little dagger like that had actually smashed through two wooden walls in succession—walls made of special timber. Its blade carried the force of the blow onward and struck the White Clothed Man.

Riiip!! Like cloth tearing apart, Lu Sheng's eyes reddened and filled with bloodshot veins as he cleaved the White Clothed Man into two halves with a single slash.

The blade swung back, and with a hiss, it followed through to slice the wooden table beside him into two pieces.

His gaze swept across the room. The aura of the Black Fiend Skill raced through his entire body, savage and tyrannical intent churning endlessly in his chest, with nowhere to vent.

Bang! He kicked the Eight Immortals Table blocking his path aside. It slammed into the wall and shattered as it fell, but he could still sense someone watching him.

"Courting death!!" Lu Sheng roared, bringing down the Tiger's Ferocity strike of the Black Tiger Saber Technique.

"Get out here!!"

Blade Light crashed into the wall before him like muffled thunder. Amid the black tiger's roar came a deafening blast.

Boom!! Half the wall was shattered by Lu Sheng's blow, empowered by the Black Fiend Skill, turning into countless black splinters that sprayed everywhere.

Behind the third wall he had broken through stood a woman in a white dress, her long hair veiling her face.

Song Zhenguo and Ruler huddled in a corner, staring at her with despair and terror written across their faces. They had not expected to be found by Lu Sheng at that very moment.

They froze at first. Then, once they recognized Lu Sheng, joy surged through them. They watched as he burst forth like a god descending to earth and charged straight at the woman in white.

Song Zhenguo was about to rise and go over when Ruler abruptly grabbed him.

"Something's wrong! Wait!" Blood dripped from the corner of Ruler's mouth. It was unclear how she had been injured, but her beautiful eyes remained fixed on Lu Sheng. She could clearly sense that something was wrong with his state.

"What's wrong? That's Brother Lu, that's Brother Yue Sheng! I never thought he'd be this strong, this formidable. He must have come to save me!" Song Zhenguo's spirits soared as he explained urgently.

"Look more carefully!" Ruler reminded him in a low voice.

Song Zhenguo froze, then quickly looked again. Only then did he realize that something truly was off about Lu Sheng.

"Hee hee hee..." The woman drifted backward, while large clusters of oily green flames flew out from both sides and pounced toward Lu Sheng like human heads.

Dozens of green fireballs nearly covered every angle through which he could dodge.

The Black Fiend Skill surged at full force through Lu Sheng's body. His heart was filled with nothing but brutal, bloodthirsty intent. The dagger in his hand began to tremble violently as vast amounts of inner force gathered in his right arm. He swept the blade forward.

Roar!!

A tremendous tiger's roar rang out.

The silver Blade Light actually formed a massive, axe-like gleam and collided head-on with the incoming green flames.

A string of popping sounds, like bubbles being pierced, spread through the room. Great masses of green fire burst apart and scattered around them, igniting the hanging Red Lanterns within moments. Flames swiftly spread across the carpets and leather.

"A Martial World Expert? Cultivating both inner and outer disciplines? You've got some skill." The woman shrieked with laughter, her body floating lightly into the air as she waved a hand.

At once, a string of black spheres flew through the gaping hole in the wall of the cabin. Before Lu Sheng could react, dozens of them hurtled toward him.

"Tiger's Might!!" Lu Sheng gripped his dagger with both hands. His massive frame and the tiny blade made for a stark contrast, but that dagger was trembling at high speed, growing brighter and more dazzling in the firelight.

Whoosh! A rank wind like the stench-laden gust of a giant tiger swept up. Lu Sheng lunged forward, his burst of speed over such a short distance surpassing even the speed with which he had chased the White Clothed Man.

His figure flickered and dodged repeatedly. He somehow evaded every single sphere without exception, then, with the speed of thunder before one could cover one's ears, slashed at the woman's neck.

Pfft! Her head flew up. Lu Sheng reversed his grip and slashed again.

Squelch.

The woman in white was cut diagonally into two pieces, letting out a piercing scream.

The blaze grew fiercer and fiercer. Before long, the cabin's beams burned through and collapsed with a bang.

After exerting himself with all his strength, Lu Sheng had yet to recover any reserve power when the beam struck him. The surrounding flames seemed to come alive, sweeping over him and swallowing him whole. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from sight.

"Lu Sheng!!!"

Only then did Song Zhenguo and Ruler rush out from the corner of the cabin, trying to save him, but it was already too late.

The beam had fallen directly onto Lu Sheng's head. The raging flames instantly engulfed him, and his figure could no longer be seen.

"Go!" Ruler clutched Song Zhenguo tightly.

"Yue Sheng! Brother Lu!!" Song Zhenguo roared.

"You two should worry about yourselves instead."

The woman in white had actually appeared again. Her body was completely unscathed as she floated lightly beside the burning cabin, her gaze beneath that curtain of hair dark and sinister as it fixed on the two of them.

Song Zhenguo and Ruler hurriedly fled through the door without daring to look back.

"It was me! I'm the one who got Brother Lu hurt!" Tears filled Song Zhenguo's eyes, and grief and fury consumed him.

"Escape first!" Ruler said decisively.

Whoosh! The woman in white drifted out at high speed behind them, pursuing the pair.

"Trying to run?!" she screeched.

Roar!!

Just then, a thunderous roar erupted from the flames behind the woman. A sturdy figure still burning with fire shoved aside the beam and leaped out of the inferno.

A shower of sparks and fragments exploded outward. A huge hand shot from the flames and seized her viciously.

"You!!?" The woman in white turned around in horror.

Lu Sheng lunged out. Blade Light swept up the fire like an enormous crimson wave being raised, and he brought his blade down from the very center of her head.

Shhk! The woman was split in two once again, hacked into two halves by Lu Sheng.

Yet her divided body swiftly fused back together, restoring itself to its original state in midair elsewhere.

"A mere mortal! You dare—" she shrieked. Her black hair flew wildly as she crossed her hands and formed a strange gesture. The white dress around her suddenly divided into strips of white cloth that descended and swept toward Lu Sheng.

"Die!!" Ribbons of white silk shot down one after another, each tearing through the air with a sharp, cutting whistle.

Lu Sheng's eyes were bloodred. Flames still burned across his clothing, and white smoke rose from parts of his body.

After the chain of expenditures, the Black Fiend Skill had allowed him to regain a little clarity.

Sensing that much of his body had been burned, Lu Sheng rapidly accelerated the Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill within him. The enhanced Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill possessed powerful regenerative abilities, and before long, he could feel the searing heat inside his body ease considerably.

But the instant he switched his inner force, with the Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill and the Black Fiend Skill both racing at high speed, Lu Sheng immediately sensed an extraordinary change within his body.

Two currents of heat circulated through him at once—one violent, one tranquil.

He held his blade and stared fixedly at the woman in midair. A strange sensation suddenly arose in his heart.

The two streams of inner force surged into his left and right arms respectively, then converged and entwined around the dagger clenched in both hands, forming a vast and ferocious power.

Following that force, Lu Sheng's body bent slightly.

The visualizations of the black tiger and the immortal crane suddenly merged in his mind, circling and coiling around one another.

As though divine inspiration had descended upon him, a burst of red light exploded from Lu Sheng's dagger in an instant.

Roar! Cry! It was as if the resounding cries of a giant tiger and an immortal crane overlapped as they soared into the heavens.

Amid the tiger's roar and the crane's cry, Lu Sheng leaped into the air, his blade driving straight into the woman's body.

"Kill!!"

Boom!!

This time, the immense force did not split the woman in half. Instead, her body burst into countless fragments with a puff. As sparks scattered, the fragments ignited and fell into the blaze, never making another sound.

Bang! Lu Sheng landed heavily, shaking the entire painted pleasure boat. After panting violently for a while, he slowly straightened up. He lowered his head and lightly picked up a purple jade hairpin from the deck—the only thing the woman had left behind.

"Brother Song, it seems your romantic luck runs deep. You came through all that without a scratch." Seeing Song Zhenguo and Ruler on the deck not far away, Lu Sheng grinned, baring a mouthful of snow-white teeth.

"B-Brother Lu?" Song Zhenguo had witnessed the entire battle. He was beginning to wonder whether this newly made friend and brother of his was even human.

"Let's find Brother Chen. We should get off the boat. If we wait too long, we won't be able to leave." Lu Sheng raised a hand and saw that his clothes had burned and stuck to his skin. Fortunately, his resistance to heat was extremely strong because of the Black Fiend Skill. During the battle, his movements had been too fierce and rapid for the flames on his body to keep feeding themselves. Thus, his burns were not severe.

"Th-that female ghost, is she really gone just like that?" Song Zhenguo asked in astonishment.

"I don't know, but she should be gone." Lu Sheng shook his head and looked toward Little Ruler.

Little Ruler smiled and returned a gentle, grateful smile.

The three quickly found Chen Jiaorong unconscious in a corner of the cabin. Song Zhenguo carried him on his back, and the four of them disembarked via the dock. The moment they stepped ashore, the painted pleasure boat behind them turned into a fire ship, its blaze clearly visible upon the Pine Cypress River.

Strangely, they only then discovered that they were no longer on the river beside Yan Mountain City, but along a riverbank in a desolate wilderness.

After coming ashore, the four looked around and found no trace of homes or human habitation. There was only barren land thick with wild grass.

Lu Sheng took Song Zhenguo's outer robe and changed clothes.

After he tore away his own clothing, only a small portion of his skin had actually been burned. Most of it was merely charred black. His hair, beard, and body hair had all been burnt away, leaving him like one huge bald egg.

They watched as the painted pleasure boat slowly sank into the river amid the flames, gradually disappearing from sight. Only then did Lu Sheng turn to Little Ruler. Song Zhenguo also looked at Ruler. Both of them needed an explanation—one that only Little Ruler knew.

What exactly had happened?

Seeing their expressions, Ruler lowered her head and pressed her lips together in silence for a moment.

"Don't look at me like that. I don't know much about the painted pleasure boat either. The only thing I know is that we aren't an ordinary painted pleasure boat. There's an extremely mysterious and powerful leader above us. Most of the painted pleasure boats on the Pine Cypress River are under his control, and ours nominally belongs to him as well.

"That woman was the one who had always been in charge of our Boat Head before. I simply never knew about her. She actually..." Ruler gently shook her head and let out a soft sigh.

"Let's go back first." Lu Sheng glanced over the empty River Surface. "Does anyone know where this is?"

"I do." Song Zhenguo gave a bitter laugh. "If I'm not mistaken, this should be the lower riverway of the Pine Cypress River outside Yan Mountain City. It's more than ten li from Yan Mountain City. We just need to follow the river upstream."

He looked at Lu Sheng, whose entire body was charred black. Reaching out to stop Ruler, he suddenly gave Lu Sheng a deep bow.

"This time, I nearly cost Yue Sheng and Jiaorong their lives. Because of the matter between Ruler and me, I nearly dragged you both into it."

"This matter... probably isn't over yet." Lu Sheng merely shook his head slightly.

Song Zhenguo froze. Then he saw Lu Sheng's gaze fall upon Ruler at his side.

He swiftly turned to look at Ruler, only to see in horror that her once-solid body was slowly becoming translucent.