His despicable character was plain to see. Selling out his country for personal gain probably didn't seem like a big deal to him, either. As long as it got him what he wanted, he had no bottom line.
Lin Xuan had already planned to stay on Zhongnan Mountain a while longer, then visit the Ancient Tomb Sect to see Yang Guo and Little Dragon Girl.
Now, a secret letter from Qiao Feng had pulled his main quest away from Murong Fu, far off in Jiangnan, and back to the Quanzhen Sect, right here on Zhongnan Mountain. It would save him a great deal of time and effort, sparing him the exhausting trip back and forth. It was practically a godsend.
Besides, the last time he'd been at the Quanzhen Sect's practice grounds, he'd thoroughly humiliated Zhao Zhijing. That day, Lin Xuan had crushed him with overwhelming strength, leaving him utterly disgraced in front of everyone.
Zhao Zhijing was already narrow-minded and vindictive. After being humiliated so badly by Lin Xuan, he was bound to hate him to the bone. He might even be plotting revenge in secret right now.
Lin Xuan recalled Zhao Zhijing's face, twisted with rage, and sneered inwardly. He knew that Zhao Zhijing would do anything for power and status. Betraying friends and colluding with enemies were par for the course for him.
This time, he could take the opportunity to rid the martial world of this scoundrel once and for all.
"Looks like I'll have to visit the Quanzhen Sect again," Lin Xuan murmured.
Chapter Seven: Whipping Li Mochou
Lin Xuan returned to Zhongnan Mountain, slowly making his way up the winding, secluded mountain path.
Following a hidden trail blanketed in fallen leaves, Lin Xuan ventured deeper into the mountain's remote backlands.
Ancient trees towered overhead, their massive crowns blocking the sun and breaking its light into fragments. Thick vines coiled around their trunks like giant pythons. The air was heavy with the damp, rotten scent of vegetation, lending the woods an even greater sense of chill and desolation.
Relying on senses far sharper than an ordinary person's and the uncanny Lightness Skill from the Nine Yin Manual, he moved like a wisp of weightless smoke.
About half an hour later, a dense bamboo grove appeared before him, thick enough to seem almost solid.
The emerald bamboo swayed in the breeze with a soft rustle. Its shadows danced, shrouding a small clearing in shifting patterns of light and shade.
Lin Xuan stopped.
After searching for days, he had determined that the Ancient Tomb Sect's entrance was probably somewhere nearby.
Yet just as one of his feet was about to step into the clearing, an intensely sharp, bone-chilling aura swept through the whole area without warning, like an ancient Siberian cold front.
It wasn't pure killing intent. Instead, it carried a cold, resolute indifference that kept everyone at a distance.
Strangest of all, mixed into that icy killing intent was a faint, cloyingly sweet fragrance, scented with rouge.
Like red plum blossoms in winter, the scent was cold and alluring—and deadly.
Lin Xuan's heart tightened, and he stopped at once.
"Quit sneaking around and come out!"
A crisp, sweet shout rang out like ice beads falling onto a jade plate. The voice was pleasant to the ear, yet filled with undisguised impatience and coldness.
As the words fell, a stunning figure in an apricot-yellow Taoist robe emerged slowly from the depths of the bamboo grove, like a fairy walking beneath the moon—or a ghost come to claim a life.
A smile appeared on Lin Xuan's face.
The woman before him was beautiful.
Her hair was piled high, with a few loose strands falling playfully by her temples and lending her a languid charm.
Her skin was as fair as snow and so smooth it seemed water might bead on it. It glimmered faintly in the dim woods.
Her beauty was cold and peerless, her brows like distant mountains, her eyes like autumn waters, her nose finely shaped, and her lips red as rouge. Hers was a face that could drive any man wild. But those eyes, which should have been clear as water, were now filled with icy killing intent and undisguised loathing.
In her hand she held a horsetail whisk. Its white strands trembled lightly in the breeze, as if they might turn into countless deadly swords at any moment.
She was exceptionally tall, slender and graceful. Though her apricot-yellow Taoist robe was loose, it did nothing to hide her exquisitely curving figure.
Her full, lifted breasts rose and fell beneath the robe with each agitated breath, tracing a breathtaking curve. They seemed as ripe and plump as peaches, almost ready to burst forth.
A dark leather belt cinched her slender waist, accentuating its strength and flexibility.
Below it, her rounded hips formed a perfect curve, leading down to long, straight legs that were hidden beneath her robe but easy to imagine.
In the backlands of Zhongnan Mountain, an apricot-yellow Taoist robe, a horsetail whisk, peerless beauty, formidable martial skills, and an undisguised, deep-seated hatred of men...
The answer was obvious.
The Crimson-Chained Fairy, Li Mochou!
It really was her!
As Lin Xuan sized her up, Li Mochou's icy eyes fixed on him.
She didn't know the man before her, and couldn't be bothered to find out who he was.
She simply couldn't stand the sight of him, gripped by an instinctive loathing that ran to the depths of her bones.
His handsome features, unruffled bearing, and deep eyes that seemed able to see through people's hearts reminded her of the man who had left her with a lifetime of regret, turning her love into hatred.
What she hated most were "good men" who seemed upright but were really the best at manipulating people's hearts!
"What are you staring at?!"
Li Mochou snapped, her voice sharp and cutting.
"Your eyes are disgusting! Look at me one more time, and I'll dig them out!"
Instead of getting angry, Lin Xuan's lips curled into an amused smile.
"A beauty like you shouldn't hide herself from the world. That would be like wearing brocade at night—a waste of Heaven's kindness."
His voice was warm and resonant, with a faintly teasing edge.
"Smooth-tongued bastard! You're asking to die!"
Li Mochou hated men who grinned and joked with her. Lin Xuan's words instantly lit the fuse inside her.
Before she'd even finished speaking, she was already striking!
Her horsetail whisk shot out like lightning!
With a soft swish, its countless silver strands stiffened under the force of her Internal Energy, turning into a sky full of lethal needles. They tore through the air and swept toward every vital point on Lin Xuan's body!
The strands were as fine as hair, yet infused with the icy Internal Energy she had cultivated for years. They could cut through metal and stone; once they wrapped around a person, they could slice flesh to pieces in an instant. They were almost impossible to guard against.
Watching Li Mochou attack without a word of warning, Lin Xuan remained calm.
She really was fierce, proud, and utterly unreasonable.
He didn't panic in the slightest. His expression was as still as an ancient well, and there was even a faint amusement in his eyes, like a hunter watching his prey.
He didn't draw his sword or try to meet the web of whisk strands head-on.
Just as the countless silver strands were about to reach him, his figure shifted almost imperceptibly, and his feet touched down lightly on the fallen leaves.
He used the "Snake Creeps, Lizard Rolls" technique, one of the Nine Yin Manual's most ingenious forms of Lightness Skill.
Like a fish slipping into the air, or a weightless leaf, he slid backward more than half a zhang at an angle no ordinary person could imagine.
The movement was smooth and effortless. He escaped Li Mochou's lightning-fast lethal strike without a scratch.
"Hm?"
When her strike missed, a hint of unmistakable surprise finally flashed through Li Mochou's cold eyes.
She had assumed the handsome young man was nothing but an empty shell, all looks and no substance. She hadn't expected him to dodge her killing move so easily.
Such footwork and composure were rare even among first-rate experts of long-standing fame in the martial world.
"Why are you so angry, Fairy?"
After dodging the attack, Lin Xuan didn't counter. He simply stood with his hands behind his back, still speaking with easy composure and teasing her.
"Someone as beautiful as you shouldn't spend every day fighting and frowning. You'll age quickly."
"Shut up! You lecher! I'll make sure you die without a grave!"
Lin Xuan's words enraged Li Mochou. Her killing intent surged, almost palpable!
"Whum!"
She moved like lightning, leaving an afterimage behind, and swung her horsetail whisk once more. This time, the attack was even fiercer and more merciless!
The countless silver strands blurred into a mass of white phantoms, like poisonous white snakes filling the sky. They rushed toward the pressure points all over Lin Xuan's body, carried on a bone-chilling gust.
The whisk strands twisted and coiled, their movements impossible to read. One moment they were blades, the next restraints, sealing off every avenue of escape.
This time, Lin Xuan didn't dodge.
Just as the countless whisk strands were about to wrap around his arms, his right hand shot out like lightning.
His fingers were long and strong, curling like hooks. With an exquisite, unfathomable technique, he found the whisk's main shaft among the countless phantoms and clamped down on it precisely.
He didn't try to wrench it away with brute force. Instead, his fingertips gave a subtle tremor.
"Whum—"
A surge of pure Yang Internal Energy poured from his fingertips like a bursting river, rushing along the whisk and attempting to disrupt Li Mochou's Internal Energy with sheer force.
Li Mochou felt an overwhelming force rush through the whisk. The Yang energy was so domineering that it instantly scattered her own cold, yin energy. Her Internal Energy reversed course, and a tearing pain shot through the base of her thumb.
She was stunned!
How could this brat's Internal Energy be so deep and so powerful?!
She quickly changed her move, twisting her wrist and tugging on the whisk, trying to knock Lin Xuan away with skill rather than force.
But once Lin Xuan had caught the whisk, he clung to it like a burr, with no intention of letting go.
His footwork shifted again. He moved left and right, shadowing her as he closed in, practically humiliating her with how closely he stuck to her.
He pushed the Yin Yang Deficit Supplementation Technique's precise control of the body to its limit. Every movement and every breath was measured to the slightest degree, as if he held complete command over the surrounding space.
The whisk was Li Mochou's weapon of choice. With Lin Xuan holding it fast, she was like a beast with its limbs bound. She could barely use half of her refined martial skills.
With no other choice, she was forced into a perilous close-quarters fight, striking back with her palms.
"Die!"
Li Mochou's left palm shot forward, its gusting force carrying a bone-deep chill as it aimed straight for Lin Xuan's chest.
A faint, cloying fragrance drifted from her palm. Her attack was clearly laced with the deadly poison of her signature Ice Soul Silver Needle.
Lin Xuan narrowed his eyes. This was the opening he had been waiting for.
He didn't block the attack. Instead, he shifted slightly to the side, narrowly avoiding the poisonous force of her palm.
At the same time, the five fingers of his right hand shifted on the whisk. With blinding speed and effortless precision, he lightly tapped a pressure point on the inner side of Li Mochou's pale, jade-like palm.
"Hiss..."
Li Mochou felt a sudden numbness in her palm. A strange, electric tingling softness raced up her arm, and the force she had gathered in her palm abruptly dissipated.
She was horrified. How did this brat know the human pressure points so well? This definitely wasn't Quanzhen Sect martial arts!
Lin Xuan pressed his advantage.
His left hand darted out like a spirit snake and swiftly caught Li Mochou by her slender, snow-white wrist.
He used no brute force. Instead, he took advantage of her unsteady footing, twisting and pulling her wrist in the direction of her forward momentum.
"Ah!"
Li Mochou cried out as a piercing pain shot through her arm, as if it were about to break. She lost her balance and stumbled helplessly to the side.
Lin Xuan moved with her, giving her no chance to recover.
His left hand turned into a palm blade. With a sharp rush of wind, he struck with unerring precision at the vital point at the back of Li Mochou's pale, slender neck.
That point lay where the soul returned to its root. A strike there could knock her unconscious—or kill her.
Li Mochou was, after all, a first-rate martial artist with years of fame behind her. Faced with death, she let out a piercing scream and unleashed her Internal Energy in an instant, forcing her body around to narrowly evade Lin Xuan's potentially fatal strike.
She avoided the back of her neck, but not the entire attack.
Lin Xuan's palm blade carried a thread of pure Yang Internal Energy. At a tricky angle, it landed squarely on her full, rounded, astonishingly firm buttocks!
"Smack!"
The crisp, loud crack rang through the silent bamboo grove, with an almost suggestive quality to it.
Li Mochou's body jerked. Even the bamboo leaves around them seemed to tremble at the sound.
A fierce, searing pain exploded across her buttocks, racing through her limbs like an electric current.
Worse, the domineering force seemed to carry a strange, tingling numbness. A sensation she couldn't name welled up deep inside her body, beyond her control—an awful blend of pain, shame, and tingling that nearly drove her mad.
She stumbled, unable to stay upright, and pitched forward.
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