Power Soared

Yin Sha felt the man before her deliberately kneading her hand, acting so unruly, and felt a little more at ease.

Lin Xiao was of course unfamiliar with Linshui City. This was his first time here—familiar, my ass—but that did not stop him from darting randomly through the alleys. He carefully noted his current position, appearing to wander aimlessly while actually planning to lead her around in a circle and back to the alley they had been in before.

He was not stupid. Why should a Great River Hall disciple like him help her for no reason? Besides, he feared that after rescuing her to safety, she might kill him with a single palm strike. It would be better to find a way to send her back into the hands of the gang's experts. Whether they captured or killed her, he would save himself—and might even earn merit.

Unfortunately, the houses in this residential area stood very close together, with barely four feet between them. Zhuang Jing, the Great River Hall Master, kept leaping from rooftop to rooftop, but because of his limited angle of sight, he failed to discover them for the moment.

Large numbers of Great River Gang members also rushed in. They should have been able to find them, but Yin Sha's cultivation was formidable. She always detected the pursuers in advance and directed him to turn aside and evade them. Lin Xiao had no way to refuse. Though this young lady was gravely wounded, killing him was still effortless for her. He could only obey her and wind through one dim, crisscrossing alley after another until, damn it, he no longer knew where they had ended up.

Lin Xiao did not know where he had run to, either. He only knew that he had not encountered any pursuers for quite some time, which made him curse the gang's two experts for their uselessness.

What he did not know was that, in this short while, the gang's two experts had already mobilized a large number of members who had rushed over after receiving the news. They had surrounded a broad stretch of the nearby area—in other words, the entire residential district. Great River Gang members were entering from every street entrance and searching the houses one by one.

Only after repeatedly encountering several teams searching through the dark alleys did Lin Xiao realize this, and his heart naturally leaped with delight.

"Are you very happy?"

The sudden voice behind him extinguished the joy on his face like a splash of cold water. Turning around awkwardly, he saw the young lady looking at him with a pale yet still exquisite face and an ambiguous smile. He hurriedly waved his hands.

"You jest, miss. If I had such thoughts, I wouldn't have rescued you."

Yin Sha continued looking at him with that same ambiguous expression.

"What exactly you're thinking can't be hidden from me. Take me out of here obediently, or else..."

Just then, a powerful, surging whistle suddenly came from the distance. It seemed to have come from the direction of Tianxiang Tower. The voice sounded like Yang Sha, the erhu player. He was actually still alive.

His gaze suddenly swept toward Yin Sha, only to see that her expression had become terribly ugly, with a trace of fear faintly showing through. Apparently sensing his gaze, she suddenly turned to him and scrutinized him from head to toe several times before speaking in a low voice.

"Young sir, an opportunity to become a renowned martial arts expert is right before you. Do you want it?"

Lin Xiao replied expressionlessly.

"Little lady, stop joking around. Kill me or cut me up as you please."

Now that she had seen through him, he had no intention of continuing to lead the way. Putting himself in Yin Sha's position, if he were the one being deceived by this brat, he would absolutely kill him with a palm strike. Even if he did not kill him now, he would do so once he escaped. Since death was inevitable sooner or later, he would not continue cooperating.

Yin Sha stared closely at his expression, seemingly trying to determine whether he truly did not fear death. At that moment, another vigorous whistle rang out from the distance. Yin Sha gritted her teeth as though she had made up her mind, seized his hand, and turned into a nearby civilian house that appeared unoccupied.

After pulling him inside, she turned to look at Lin Xiao. Her pretty little face was utterly solemn.

"Old Yang is coming. When he arrives, I'll entangle him. Take advantage of the opportunity to attack the Heavenly Pillar acupoint at the back of his head. That is his fatal weakness. Strike it, and he will certainly be injured."

Lin Xiao... His face filled with confusion.

"Isn't he your husband? Why do you want to kill him?"

Her bitten, rosy lips were extraordinarily alluring as she replied.

"He isn't my husband. I'm merely his Bridal Tunic. We cultivate a special Two-Star Mid-Grade divine art. He is yang and I am yin; he is the master and I am the assistant. His cultivation art suppresses me severely. Every month, he must transfer true qi to me, or I will suffer cultivation deviation and die. Once our mental arts reach perfection, he will drain away all my cultivation. By then, he will be able to break through in one stroke and become a top expert of the martial world."

"Isn't this the Bridal Tunic Divine Art?"

Lin Xiao asked in surprise.

"Have your mental arts already reached perfection?"

"No."

She shook her head.

"Although we haven't reached perfection, we're already close. And after this disastrous setback, he must have been badly wounded and urgently needs to absorb my cultivation to break through."

At this, she lifted her head and looked at Lin Xiao with her large, sparkling eyes.

"I don't want to die yet."

Emm... she makes it sound as if I want to die.

Speechless, he spread both hands.

"My cultivation is too low. I can't help you."

"I can transfer my cultivation to you."

"Uh!"

Lin Xiao rapidly calculated the gains and losses in his mind, considering whether he should... Suddenly, his eyes widened as he looked at her, then slowly lowered his head. Her soft little hand was gripping his lower half as she gradually crouched down. He immediately drew in a deep breath and let it out...

As the saying went, the spring colors filling the garden could not be contained; crimson waves flew as mandarin birds cried.

In truth, it took less than five minutes. He had originally intended to press the petite, delicate young lady beneath him and have his way with her, but she had smacked him into submission. He obediently lay on the floor, letting her bite her red lips and slowly sit down. Then, an inner force as turbulent as raging waves surged into his body from where their bodies joined. It flowed along every meridian before finally converging in his Dantian.

During that time, three long whistles came from outside in succession, each more urgent than the last, as if urging her on. The power she poured into him also grew increasingly hurried, as though she could not wait.

Three minutes later, when her soft body went limp against him like water, the inner force in Lin Xiao's Dantian had already surpassed sixty years. Nearly all of her sixty years of pure yin-attribute inner force had been transferred to him.

It was actually real.

With a complicated expression, Lin Xiao helped her sit up. Only then did he notice the bloodstains on the weapon he had just drawn out. She was still a virgin.

At that moment, she was truly weak beyond compare. Leaning against him, she could not move at all. Pressing a slender hand to his chest, she said:

"Circulate it according to the cultivation art. He will sense it and come over. When he does, you hide while I draw his attention. Then you ambush him from behind."

Lin Xiao nodded. At this point, even if he did not believe her, he had no choice but to. She truly intended to cooperate with him to kill Yang Sha. Yet there was one thing he did not understand, so he could not help asking:

"Why did you choose me? The Great River Gang has so many experts. Why not find someone stronger than me to cooperate with? Wouldn't that give you a greater chance of success?"

She lightly tapped his chest with her jade-green finger.

"This little woman's reputation in the martial world is not very good. Any expert capable of helping me wouldn't believe what I say."