Seeking His Own Death

Neither of them had expected the brash young kid they'd just met to be so astonishingly fast—not a whit slower than the White Sable, famed for its speed.

"Miss, what do we do?"

"Follow him..." The two women didn't hesitate. They channeled their spiritual power and chased after Sanbao.

They crossed two mountain ridges. The White Sable had slowed considerably, and Sanbao was exhausted too. The distance between them hadn't changed much: the White Sable couldn't shake Sanbao, but Sanbao couldn't catch up either.

Once he activated the Nine-Turn Golden Body, his speed did increase dramatically, but his spiritual power drained just as quickly. Without spiritual power to sustain him, Sanbao couldn't keep up the pace.

Just then, the White Sable abruptly changed direction and raced up a mountain. Sanbao was taken aback. That White Sable was clearly seeking its own death. If it got surrounded at the peak, wouldn't it be a turtle trapped in a jar?

The two women finally began catching up in the distance.

"I'll go up first. You two follow!" Sanbao called from afar, then chased toward the summit.

The mountainside was thick with shrubs and uneven ground. That posed little trouble for the small White Sable, but it hindered Sanbao considerably. By the time he reached halfway up the mountain, the White Sable had vanished.

But the White Sable couldn't have gotten far with its stamina. It must have hidden somewhere again.

"Hiding won't help. There's nowhere you can disappear from my sight." Sanbao slowed down, regulating his spiritual power as he searched.

After that burst of speed, nine-tenths of the spiritual power in Sanbao's body was already gone. Now he could only make his way slowly toward the summit.

"Are you going to tell me or not? Otherwise..."

"Senior Brother, I really don't know!"

The faint voices drifting down from the summit made Sanbao pause. There are people on this barren mountain—and more than one.

Perhaps because of his innate bloodline, Sanbao had found that as he grew older, not only was his body much stronger than other Spirit Cultivators of the same rank, but his eyesight and hearing were far beyond ordinary people's too.

The summit was at least several kilometers away, yet he could hear the voices coming from it. It was truly remarkable.

"Junior Brother, if you still don't come clean, don't blame your senior brother for being ruthless..."

Sanbao listened closely, and the voices grew clearer. Someone was going to be killed? He forgot about the White Sable and quietly crept toward the summit.

"Senior Brother Zhao, if you insist on twisting the facts, I'll have no choice but to fight to the death!"

Whoosh, whoosh...

Sanbao cautiously poked his head out from behind a scorched boulder. Two men were fighting desperately on the summit, and one was in dire straits, retreating step by step.

"Wang Liang..."

Sanbao never would have guessed that one of the two fighters was Wang Liang, a fellow entry-level disciple of the same rank whom he knew.

Only a few months had passed, yet Wang Liang's arm had completely healed, and he had even advanced to the Spirit General realm. Sanbao thought that the other man truly had exceptional talent.

Even so, Wang Liang was at an absolute disadvantage. His opponent was a young man who was a three-star Spirit General. If the man hadn't held back out of some concern for Wang Liang, Wang Liang would probably have been dead already.

"Junior Brother Wang, I'll ask you one last time. If you still don't tell me, I'll have to kill you. You can't hide it from me—the secret is somewhere near this summit. Even after I kill you, I'll find it sooner or later..."

"Fine, Senior Brother Zhao. Stop for a moment and I'll tell you. But you have to swear never to tell anyone else this secret!" Wang Liang had been wounded in several places and didn't dare keep resisting.

"That's more like it. I swear I won't tell anyone about what happened tonight. If I do, may I die a horrible death!" The man lowered his sword, his expression softening.

"The secret is that little pool. Every full moon, a monster comes to bathe in it. After it's done, the water turns milky white and smells wonderful. I thought it might be beneficial, so every time the monster left, I'd soak in the water. That pool healed my hand, and my cultivation improved by leaps and bounds. Senior Brother, you absolutely mustn't tell anyone about this secret..."

As he spoke, Wang Liang quietly put some distance between himself and the man, positioning himself squarely with his back to the boulder behind which Sanbao was eavesdropping.

Wang Liang really hadn't wanted to tell anyone the secret, but he'd been cornered on the summit today. If he didn't reveal it, he'd die. To save his own life, he had no other choice.

"Don't worry. I definitely won't tell anyone. But I'm worried you'll let it slip. To protect this secret, you'll have to die!" The first thing the man did after learning the secret was try to silence Wang Liang. His gleaming long sword became a streak of white light and slashed toward Wang Liang.

Sanbao sighed at Wang Liang's poor judgment. If he hadn't told the man the secret, he might still have had a chance to live. Now that he'd revealed it, death was certain.

"Clang!"

A flying stone suddenly shot out of the shadows at the swordsman. The man had no choice but to pull back his sword and defend himself.

"Who's there?"

While the man was distracted, Sanbao grabbed Wang Liang.

"Run!"

"Sanbao, why are you here?"

"Not now. Run!"

Wang Liang had already been planning to escape. With Sanbao pulling him along, he ran even faster, and the two of them raced down the slope in a flash.

Taken by surprise, the man hesitated. But when he realized the newcomer was only a lowly Spirit Scholar, he sneered. His body turned into a streak of light as he swiftly chased after them.

"Miss, do you think that boy ran off halfway, or caught the White Sable and left? We haven't seen him for a while, and he didn't even say anything."

Meanwhile, the two women waited impatiently at the foot of the mountain, but Sanbao still hadn't called out to them.

"No way. He'll definitely come looking for me!" The Light-Clad Woman was full of confidence.

"Senior Sister, I'm over here!" Just then, Sanbao shouted as he came racing down from the summit.

His voice carried all the way down the mountain, reaching the two women's ears.

"Quick, let's go up!" The two women assumed Sanbao had found or caught the White Sable and flew uphill.

"Let's see where you can run!"

The man surnamed Zhao was extremely fast, right behind Sanbao and Wang Liang. When he heard Sanbao call to his companions, his heart tightened. He hadn't expected there to be others. To keep the secret safe, he had to kill Sanbao first; he could deal with Wang Liang later.

If the secret reached the elders or even the sect master, there'd be nothing left for him. At the thought of it, the man surnamed Zhao cursed Sanbao's arrival.

"Die!" When he was only a dozen meters away, the man surnamed Zhao leaped into the air and thrust his sword after them. Like a silver serpent, it stabbed toward Sanbao's back.

"Go!" Sanbao shoved Wang Liang aside, activated the Nine-Turn Golden Body, and darted behind a nearby dwarf pine.

Crack!

The dwarf pine snapped cleanly in half, and half of Sanbao's sleeve was sliced away by the sword's edge. His arm was streaked red against white.

"Where do you think you're going? Swimming Fish Sword..." After that strike, the man surnamed Zhao surged with even greater momentum. His mid-grade Spirit Skill, the Swimming Fish Sword Technique, unleashed layer upon layer of enormous waves that poured down toward Sanbao.

Swish, swish...

Sanbao was struck twice more, but both blows only grazed him, barely scratching the surface. At that moment, the Nine-Turn Golden Body proved immensely effective. Though his opponent was a three-star Spirit General, he couldn't kill Sanbao in one blow.

"Damn it, run!"

Seizing the narrowest gap in the sword light, Sanbao broke through and bolted downhill. His scalp felt cold; as he fled, even most of his hair had been sliced off.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye: the two men had charged down from the summit, and Sanbao had been driven into a desperate escape.

"Senior Sister, help! Someone's murdering a fellow disciple!"

At last, the two women came into view.

Ignoring how battered he was, Sanbao charged toward them. When the man surnamed Zhao saw the women, his expression darkened too. He thought the secret couldn't be kept anymore.

But when he got a good look at the women, his expression turned strange instead. He didn't rush to kill Sanbao; he simply followed at a leisurely pace, perhaps knowing that he couldn't kill Sanbao today.

"Senior Sisters, please save me!" Seeing the man surnamed Zhao give up the chase, Sanbao finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the women had arrived. Otherwise, he'd truly have been in danger today.

"Junior Brother, come over here." The Light-Clad Woman smiled and beckoned to Sanbao.

"Okay!"

Overjoyed, Sanbao rushed toward the two women. The Light-Clad Woman beamed, but the maid beside her wore a strange expression.

Pfft...

A long sword plunged into Sanbao's chest. He fell to the ground, one hand clutching the wound, and stared at the Light-Clad Woman in disbelief.

Sanbao never would have imagined that the Light-Clad Woman who had set his heart racing would suddenly strike him down.

"Sorry, you offended Brother Hong. I had no choice." The woman looked a little apologetic, but quickly composed herself and smiled at the man surnamed Zhao coming up the mountain.

"Hahaha! Many thanks, Meier, for helping me out today. Boy, you brought this on yourself!" A hearty laugh came from behind Sanbao. He instantly understood: the two of them were in league.

"Brother Hong, what's going on? I've captured him for you! How are you going to thank me?" The woman called Meier spoke with a beaming smile. Unlike when she'd spoken to Sanbao, there was now a note of intimacy in her voice.

Sanbao never would have imagined that he'd escaped one den of wolves only to fall into a tiger's lair. The man and the woman knew each other, and their relationship seemed far from ordinary—they were either close kin or lovers.

"Good, good, good. Once I finish off this fool who brought death upon himself, I'll thank you any way you like..." Zhao Hong let out a long howl as he charged down, raising his sword to stab Sanbao.