A Glove Is a Covering Too

The maid was just about to activate the ghost soldiers lying in ambush at the corner of the steps behind her, ready to launch a stealthy attack from Xu Yuan's side.

Suddenly, something tightened around her neck. She instantly could not breathe, and her spellcasting was interrupted.

Xu Yuan gripped the rope and dragged the maid along as he swiftly retreated outside.

Saint Aunt snorted angrily and accurately slashed at the rope with the little knife in her hand.

Yet not only did the rope not snap, a supple but powerful force even knocked the knife away!

Saint Aunt was greatly surprised. This little knife was no ordinary weapon—cutting through the hardest skullcap was as easy as slicing tofu. How could it fail to cut through this rope?

Xu Yuan had already dashed out of the "stall's" range. With no time for any other response, Saint Aunt reached out and grabbed one of the maid's feet.

As the two sides tugged, the maid's eyes rolled back and even her tongue lolled out...

Saint Aunt hurriedly let go, and Xu Yuan dragged the maid beyond the "stall's" boundaries.

Without hesitation, Saint Aunt raised the Divine Mechanism Crossbow and, with a twang, fired its last arrow.

Whoosh—

Trailing a stream of golden flame, the crossbow bolt shot straight at Xu Yuan.

The Divine Mechanism Crossbow had several different types of arrows.

Saint Aunt felt that this last remaining one was precisely the kind best suited for dealing with Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan dragged the maid as he rapidly shifted directions several times, but the bolt behind him changed course right along with him!

The golden flame at its tail seemed alive. Whenever Xu Yuan turned, it swung in the opposite direction before continuing to propel the bolt onward!

Without hesitation, Xu Yuan raised the maid in front of himself as a shield.

Just as the bolt was about to strike the maid, it suddenly shot straight upward, grazing past her clothes.

The golden flame scorched a black line across the maid's clothing, but did not harm one of its own.

Xu Yuan seized the opportunity. His Gold Pellet short sword had been lying in wait behind the maid, and the moment the bolt passed over her head, the short sword struck it with a clang.

The bolt was knocked away, tumbling more than fifty yards before landing in the grass. But immediately afterward, golden flames flared up again with a whoosh. The bolt rose levelly from the grass, adjusted its direction, took aim at Xu Yuan once more, and with a burst of flame, shot toward him at high speed again!

A cold smile touched Saint Aunt's lips. What an ignorant fool!

How could this Saint Aunt's Divine Mechanism Crossbow be so easily dealt with?

Those two slutty foxes in Meihua Pool might have seemed able to withstand one of this Saint Aunt's shots with a mere open mouth.

That was because those two slutty foxes truly had no shallow cultivation.

What ability did you have?

Your Gold Pellet could only knock aside this arrow. Your best response now was to use that strange rope in your hand to entangle it.

But then you would have to release my maid.

And that rope would be as good as useless...

The bolt shot toward him in a blaze of golden light, but this time Xu Yuan did not use the Gold Pellet short sword to strike it again—since he could not cut it apart, there was no point wasting effort.

Facing the incoming bolt, Xu Yuan swiftly took the shield from his back.

The shield was pitted and battered. Saint Aunt recognized it as the weapon of one of her Martial Cultivator subordinates, and old and new hatred surged up within her at once. Clutching her little knife, she became an afterimage as she stabbed for Xu Yuan's neck.

Pfft!

The bolt struck the shield.

The shield, already covered in scars, did not hold out for long before it was pierced through.

The golden flame at the bolt's tail burst fiercely, and the shaft passed through the shield—then Xu Yuan suddenly released the shield and raised a hand, firmly catching the bolt with a slap!

Courting death! Saint Aunt sneered inwardly.

Each arrow of the Divine Mechanism Crossbow concealed nine blades within its shaft, hidden at different locations along the arrow.

The moment someone gripped the shaft, those blades would spring out and sever that hand!

Saint Aunt heard the mechanisms within the shaft click. The blades sprang out with a swish, yet Xu Yuan's hand remained completely unharmed!

Moreover, the blades in the other parts of the shaft had clearly all sprung out as well!

"What's going on?!" Saint Aunt was utterly shocked. She knew her own Artisan Cultivator creations best. Even an Eighth Stream Martial Cultivator's Iron-Clad Body could not withstand these blades.

Even the little knife in her own hand probably could not pierce his skin!

Saint Aunt immediately flipped backward and retreated, abandoning her ambush plan.

Saint Aunt thought Xu Yuan's entire body was covered in this kind of "tough skin," never realizing that he was merely wearing a glove.

Saint Aunt then activated the Merchant Law on the bolt.

She did not dare purchase Xu Yuan's life. Instead, she tried to buy the maid in his hand!

Just as she had bought passage from the foxes yesterday.

Saint Aunt had already prepared how to launch a fierce assault once the maid broke free—but the Merchant Law gave no response at all!

"What's going on?!"

Saint Aunt was utterly baffled. He had clearly caught the crossbow bolt, "Law Coin"!

Xu Yuan was wearing gloves—catching it was the same as not catching it.

The maid had been unable to catch her breath for quite a while and was already close to giving out.

A Divine Cultivator's physical body was inherently rather frail.

She saw stars swimming before her eyes. No longer able to care about any ambush, she immediately summoned all her Yin soldiers to charge out and kill.

All three Yin soldiers pounced on Xu Yuan at once. Xu Yuan was not surprised in the slightest—Yin soldiers had "lives" too. He had spotted them from so far away, and they still thought they could ambush him?

He opened his mouth and sprayed a burst of Inner Fire at the two in front.

Inner Fire restrained yin spirits. The two Yin soldiers instantly shrieked as black smoke poured from their burning bodies, their ghostly cries unceasing.

Yet the maid forcibly drove them to save her. The two Yin soldiers endured the flames and charged another zhang forward before being burned completely into a cloud of black smoke, leaving no trace behind.

The last Yin soldier, hidden in the shadow at the corner of the steps, was the strongest of the three.

And it was an old acquaintance of Xu Yuan's: the Pill Cultivator he had killed by Meihua Pool!

At the time, the maid had already expended several of her Yin soldiers and was running somewhat short, so she had seized the chance to replenish them.

This Yin soldier retained some of the abilities it had possessed as a Pill Cultivator in life. In the abdomen of its shadow-like body burned a cluster of emerald-green ghost fire.

Within that ghost fire, a tiny Gold Pellet had been condensed.

Everything was clearly visible.

That Gold Pellet had been refined from pure gold, its golden gleam dazzling to the eye.

The maid and Saint Aunt had no other metal to feed it, so they could only feed it their own gold hairpins, gold earrings, gold rings...

Xu Yuan silently cursed them for being such spendthrifts. Then, when the Pill Cultivator Yin soldier gave a puff and spat out the Gold Pellet, he raised the crossbow bolt in his hand and slashed down.

With a crack, the crossbow bolt collided with the Gold Pellet. The Gold Pellet had only just been refined, so both its weight and quality were somewhat lacking. It went spinning away after being struck aside.

Gripping the crossbow bolt, Xu Yuan reversed his hand and, without the slightest hesitation, stabbed it into the maid's heart!

With a hiss, it pierced through her back.

The maid's eyes flew wide open. All strength instantly drained from her body, while her Yin soldier let out a piercing shriek, as if dragged by some unseen force, turning into a sharp streak of black vapor that slammed heavily into her body.

In an instant, the maid's once tender, lovely body rapidly turned grotesque and strange! Her skin withered and blackened, and a layer of black fur grew over it, making her incomparably ugly and terrifying.

If a Divine Cultivator suffered a violent death, Yin soldiers not yet fully "refined" would turn on their master.

Xu Yuan let go of the rope in disgust and tossed the maid's corpse aside.

The maid's soul was still being devoured by her own Yin soldier.

Once the Yin soldier finished eating her soul, it too would die along with its master.

The two spirit forms tangled together, clawing and fighting.

The maid's soul cast Xu Yuan a look filled with vicious resentment. Even now, she found it hard to believe. I actually died at the hands of this insignificant little thing!

What right did he have to kill me!

Gradually, she could no longer hold out and was torn apart and devoured by the frenzied, out-of-control Yin soldier...

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