No matter how formidable her martial arts were, she still hadn't reached the point where she could easily defeat Young Master Yun. Moreover, this noble young master was clever enough not to fight her one-on-one. He merely held her back together with his subordinates, and Lin Xiao could clearly see the anxiety on her face.
An assassin's greatest strength lay in ambushes. Fighting head-on was already a disadvantage, and this was enemy territory besides.
As more and more members of the Great River Gang arrived, several hundred people had already surrounded Tianxiang Tower. Seeing the expression on Yin Sha's face, Lin Xiao knew they were probably planning to break out. He moved away from Tianxiang Tower without leaving a trace, lest he get caught in the fallout.
"Boom!"
A tremendous crash could be heard even four buildings away. Then shouts erupted outside in a continuous roar. Lin Xiao poked his head out from the alley four small buildings away from Tianxiang Tower and saw that one corner of the three-story building had been smashed through and was slanting down. It looked as though it would collapse at any moment.
At that moment, a figure burst through a window. Someone shouted, "Kill!" and the dozen or so Great River Gang members closest by swung their sabers at once. But the figure nimbly twisted twice in midair before landing. With a turn of her body, a ring of shockwaves exploded outward. The surrounding lackeys shuddered violently, spat blood, and were sent flying.
It was the female assassin. After easily killing the lackeys around her, she made a grasping motion with her empty hand, swept several sabers off the ground, and flung them into the battered Tianxiang Tower as she shouted:
"Old Yang, split up and run! Meet at the old place!"
Without bothering about her erhu-playing husband, who was still being besieged inside the building, she turned and leaped more than ten meters onto the second floor of a nearby two-story building. But before she could steady herself, a bald, burly man suddenly walked out of the room at the edge of the second floor and laughed loudly.
"Su Youyu of the Great River Gang has been waiting here for you!"
He raised his hand and struck down with his palm. This Great River Gang expert had been waiting here for a long time.
Yin Sha remained calm in the face of danger. She swept out her bare hand to meet his palm, borrowing his force to spring away. Relying on her exquisite Lightness Skill, she actually curved through the air and circled around to the rear of the building.
But just then, a long howl suddenly rang out from the rooftop. A burly man in a cloak leaped from the roof, holding a great bow with its string already drawn. He loosed an arrow downward, striking Yin Sha in the chest while she was caught off guard. It pierced straight through her body.
Yin Sha let out a shriek and fell. Below, a crowd of Great River Gang members eager to claim credit had long been waiting, sabers raised for her descent.
Yet even an injured expert was no prey for petty lackeys. She kicked off the wall, rebounded to the other side of the alley, landed on the protruding end of a wooden beam jutting from another building, then borrowed its force to shoot toward the street behind her like lightning.
But the Great River Gang's experts had gathered by then. Su Youyu, master of the Elite Hall—the same burly man who had launched the sneak attack from the second floor—rushed from the front of the building to the back, smashed through the rear window with one palm, and pursued her. On the rooftop, the archer, Great River Hall master Zhuang Jing, leisurely drew another arrow, nocked it, and slowly pulled the bowstring toward the fleeing beauty. But he did not fire.
Only when Su Youyu swooped from the second floor like a great roc and struck down with his palm did Yin Sha have no choice but to turn and meet him. At that moment, Zhuang Jing loosed his arrow. The young woman twisted her body strangely and dodged it, but several Elite Hall members dressed in black happened to rush over just then.
Those admitted to the Elite Hall were basically outstanding, gifted elites. The gang spared no effort in cultivating them, and every one of them possessed considerable strength. The three also worked well together, advancing and retreating as one. Taking advantage of the moment when the young woman was exhausted from dodging the attacks of the two hall masters, they struck. Three slashes opened across her body at once. The longest cut ran across her lower abdomen, slicing open her skirt and exposing her smooth, flat lower triangle, with a small tuft of black hair faintly visible.
The young woman screamed and spun around violently. A cloud of white dust burst outward. Afraid it was poisonous, the three men immediately retreated. Su Youyu descended from above and struck down with his palm. Forced to counter, the young woman raised her palm to meet him. With a muffled bang, she was flung more than ten meters as if she had been blasted away. In midair, she spat out a mouthful of blood and crashed into several Great River Gang members who happened to rush out from between two houses behind her.
The lackeys were overjoyed and swung their sabers at once. The next second, they all screamed and collapsed in a heap. The young woman charged forward into the gap between the two houses. The moment she vanished, an arrow stabbed into the ground where she had stood, sinking nearly a foot deep.
"Pursue her! Don't let her escape!"
But this Yin Sha, who looked like a young girl, possessed truly marvelous Lightness Skill. Even while wounded, she forcibly escaped the grasp of the two Great River Gang experts. Su Youyu could only chase her distant silhouette, while Zhuang Jing leaped from rooftop to rooftop after her. They soon reached a place several hundred meters from the battlefield. Farther back, away from the main street, lay nothing but low residential buildings. Once she slipped inside and hid in any house, finding her would be as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.
But there was nothing they could do. They had arrived in haste, not knowing in advance that they would be mounting a siege. Caught unprepared, they had not only failed to gather all the gang's experts, but had also brought too few men. Even the gang members within Linshui City had not all arrived. With the enemy's Lightness Skill, catching her would be extremely difficult.
Just then, Yin Sha, having fled to a broad alley at the boundary between the commercial district and the residential area, happened to encounter a squad of Great River Gang members passing through. Su Youyu immediately shouted:
"Block her!"
A small squad of Great River Gang members immediately drew their sabers and surrounded her, but she knocked them all down in a few moves. That brief obstruction was enough for Zhuang Jing to arrive first. From a distance, he loosed an arrow and shouted:
"Old Fish!"
Su Youyu, who had just rushed over, understood at once. He raised his hand and struck toward the young woman. But when their palms met, he suddenly withdrew his force, changed his palm into a claw, and seized her hand in a death grip. The young woman was startled and twisted her wrist, quickly breaking free. But in that instant, Zhuang Jing's long-planned arrow struck her right shoulder. She grunted, her body tilting backward, and Su Youyu seized the opportunity to pounce forward and strike her chest three times in succession, sending her flying. As luck would have it, a dark alley in the residential district lay behind her. A figure was hiding inside. Looking up at the body tumbling toward him, Lin Xiao cursed:
"Fuck, even hiding here didn't work?"
To avoid being caught in the aftershocks of the experts' battle, he had deliberately retreated far away. Yet he had never expected that even from this distance he still wouldn't be able to avoid it. The fight had come straight to his doorstep.
Su Youyu's three palms sent the young woman flying toward him. In midair, he could still see the weakness and pitiful delicacy on her face, which stirred an impulse in him to cherish and protect her. Then the young woman's soft, pleasant whisper rang in his ears:
"Young master, please save me. I'll offer myself to you and serve you for the rest of my life."
There was a hint of seduction in her voice, provoking a rush of hot-blooded excitement. If he had truly been some young man, he might have agreed on the spot.
Lin Xiao was a young man himself. To make matters worse, the young woman's skirt had been badly damaged. Su Youyu's three palms had shattered the fabric over her chest, and a large, round, pendulous breast spilled out, making her several times more alluring.
He put on an expression of utter lustful infatuation, his gaze repeatedly scanning her body, especially her upper half, as though his soul had been stolen and he had been completely won over. Then he said:
"Come with me quickly. I know somewhere safe in the city."
After saying that, he pulled her by the hand and ducked farther back, looking every bit like someone who knew the area by heart.
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