The silver-haired girl smiled at Mu Chen's reply. Her crystal-clear eyes sparkled with delight, and even the corners of her exquisitely beautiful eyes curved like crescent moons.
"Luo Li, since we're already good friends, why don't we get a little closer?"
Mu Chen poked at the nearly spent bonfire and made the suggestion.
The silver-haired girl in the black dress paused for a moment, then pressed her lips together and smiled. "All right," she said, rising to walk toward the human boy with his arms spread wide.
One step, two steps, three steps.
When they were mere inches apart, just about to embrace, the pair suddenly sprang into action. Like hares bolting and falcons diving, they darted into the darkness behind each other, summoning their respective divine-grade spirit weapons.
After a flurry of clanging weapons, the two vanished figures reappeared.
Each held two corpses, their lives long gone and a trace of terror lingering on their faces. Every wound was a fatal puncture, delivered in a single strike.
After disposing of the bodies, the young man and woman sat back down beside the bonfire. They asked in unison, then looked at each other and smiled. "Do you have any enemies?"
Though the Spirit Road was a merciless place of slaughter, where no one cared about grudges and only profit mattered,
the two-year trial was nearing its end. The Black and White Duo, the notorious pair of King Mu and King Luo, had already become famous across most of the planes. Even their portraits had spread far and wide.
Under the circumstances, few fools would dare pick a fight with them.
The four or five ambushers they had just dealt with had been formidable fighters, all possessing Level 5 or Level 6 spiritual bodies. Logically, they shouldn't have been so stupid.
The only explanation for their unreasonable actions was an old grudge—and an attempt at revenge.
"I've made too many enemies to count. I must have at least eight hundred, if not a thousand."
"Who knows which old friend, feeling nostalgic, wants to catch up with me? If I knew, I'd certainly return the favor."
Mu Chen said he'd made too many enemies to tell which one was behind this.
"I've killed at least several hundred people myself. I've lost count, too."
The silver-haired girl shook her head along with him, her eyes clouded with confusion.
Little Luo Li might have been as beautiful as a celestial being, with an ethereal air and a clear, melodious voice,
but the ferocious words spilling from her red lips were every bit as fierce as those of His Highness the Heir.
"Forget it. Who cares? Whoever comes, we'll beat them all to death."
Mu Chen waved his ancient battle staff, sending out a series of explosive booms.
"You go rest. I'll keep watch."
"Mm."
The silver-haired girl murmured assent, gathered up her long skirt, and hugged her divine sword. As nimble and silent as a leopard, she sprang up into the ancient tree and closed her eyes against its thick roots.
Beneath the moonlight, the corners of the beauty's lips seemed to lift ever so slightly. Perhaps it was only an illusion.
Over the next half-month, Mu Chen and Luo Li were attacked by more than a dozen groups of powerful foes. Some ambushed them on the road, others tried to assassinate them in secret, and still others dug pits and set traps. They stopped at nothing.
The two gradually realized that none of the recent events had been a coincidence.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
A dense flurry of metallic clashes rang out, then the fighting in the forest came to an abrupt halt.
Amid the corpses strewn across the ground, the silver-haired girl held the Luo God Sword in her slender hand. Its long black blade rested against the last survivor's neck, leaving him not daring to move a muscle.
Mu Chen appeared, dragging along someone who had passed out. "Luo Li, leave one alive."
As he spoke, a cold flash of swordlight swept across the man's neck. The blade cut deep, and blood sealed his throat.
A long stream of blood sprayed into the air, announcing the unlucky man's death.
Luo Li stood with her sword lowered, shaking the crimson droplets from its blade.
Mu Chen clicked his tongue at the sight.
Good grief, the Luo God Clan Princess was even more bloodthirsty than he was.
He'd meant to keep two survivors and question them separately, comparing their answers to prevent them from coordinating their stories.
Forget it. One survivor would do. He casually slapped the unconscious man awake.
"Mu Chen, you can't afford to offend the people behind me."
"If you know what's good for you, let me go right now."
The human boy in the gray robe slowly came to.
As soon as he remembered what had happened, he sneered at Mu Chen and Luo Li, who were watching him with displeasure, and threatened them viciously. "Otherwise—hiss!"
"What are you doing?"
The human boy had been going on and on about how powerful the forces backing him were when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg.
He looked down and saw Mu Chen holding a dagger, cutting into the muscles of his leg.
"Ah, it's nothing. Just passing the time. Go on."
Mu Chen replied without looking up.
He continued slicing at the wound, widening it as blood streamed out.
The excruciating pain triggered a violent reaction in the gray-robed boy. Sweat poured from him, his face flushed, his whole body convulsed, and he sucked in breath after breath.
"Haha! You think a little torture like this will make me give in?"
"Hmph. Dream on, you—"
The gray-robed boy, convinced he had iron bones, kept sucking in breaths as he put on a show of defiance. "I, Wang Ze, would rather die from the pain than—hiss! What are you doing now?"
The pain throughout his body intensified, and his words became halting.
His voice grew increasingly irritated. What was wrong with this guy?
What other method was he going to use to torture him?!
Mu Chen crouched beside the boy's leg and took a jade bottle from his storage artifact. From inside, he released a black insect with wings as thin as a cicada's, letting it flutter around his fingertips.
Black Fire Flying Ants were low-grade spirit beasts.
A single one might not seem like much, at most matching a martial artist in the early Spirit Movement Stage. But they always appeared in swarms, by the thousands upon thousands, and their attacks were ferocious.
Even high-grade spirit beasts could be reduced to piles of bleached bones when they encountered them.
"Oh, your thigh's covered in blood. I don't know what villain did this to you, and I couldn't bear to see you suffer. So I thought I'd find a spirit beast to lick your wound for you."
"It's fine. Keep talking, keep talking."
Mu Chen guided the spirit insect, carefully lowering it into the open wound.
The delicious taste of blood clearly stirred the insect. The Black Fire Flying Ant, its body pitch-black, was instantly roused. It opened its mandibles, tore into the flesh, and burrowed desperately deeper.
"Black! Fire! Flying! Ants!"
The gray-robed boy recognized the spirit insect at once, his face filled with horror.
His pain reached its peak. Grimacing and grinding his teeth, he yelled each word separately.
"It's only a low-grade spirit beast."
After saying that, the gray-robed boy felt as though he'd used up every ounce of strength he had.
But the next moment, his gaze went blank.
Mu Chen released a dense cloud of tiny spirit insects from the jade bottle. They gathered into a black cloud and surged toward the wound.
"It's fine, it's fine. Just bear with it, just bear with it."
Noticing the boy's gaze on him, Mu Chen looked up and soothed him gently.
Then he suddenly waved his hand, and the swarm went wild.
"Ahhh! It hurts, it hurts!!!"
The instant the black cloud descended, an indescribable agony swept through his entire body. The gray-robed boy curled into a ball, his voice hoarse and choked with sobs as he begged for mercy:
"Don't release any more! I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
"I, Wang Ze, will tell you everything!!"
Before you continue