Ambush

Lu Lin sat quietly in the tavern, regulating his breathing, until another hour and a half had passed. Calculating that it was nearly the hour of Hai, he finally rose, paid the bill, and made his way unhurriedly toward Lingyuan Pavilion.

When he arrived, he found several fellow martial laborers already waiting at the entrance.

A short while later, all eleven had arrived.

The group entered Lingyuan Pavilion and stated their identities, whereupon an elderly man who looked like the shopkeeper immediately brought out two heavy bundles and handed them over.

"The two hundred Blood Qi Pills, one hundred Tendon Refining Pills, and one section of Blood Flame Deer antler ordered by your esteemed sect are all here. Please count and inspect them, honored sirs." The old man's tone was respectful, yet measured.

Lingyuan Pavilion was clearly a place dedicated to pill refinement.

Although the Blood Baleful Demon Sect had alchemists of its own, the number of martial laborers under it was vast, spread throughout its mines, medicinal gardens, and beast parks, amounting to no fewer than a hundred thousand people in total. The low-grade pills refined by the sect itself were nowhere near enough to meet demand.

Moreover, most of those lofty immortal masters focused their energy on refining spiritual pills and wondrous medicines. Why would they be willing to spend all day refining "mundane" pills used by martial men? Thus, the majority of Blood Qi Pills, Tendon Refining Pills, and the like had to be purchased from outside.

Someone opened a box lid, and a rich medicinal fragrance immediately rushed into their noses. Inside the box, round, smooth pills were arranged neatly, their luster enticing.

In that instant, several gazes became incomparably heated. If they could obtain such pills...

But the thought only flashed through their minds. Whoever dared touch the Demon Sect's belongings would be seeking their own death.

"Strange. For such a large batch of precious pills, why would the sect only send ordinary martial laborers like us to escort it?" Lu Lin felt suspicious, faintly sensing that there was something unusual about this matter.

After confirming the count was correct, they closed the box lids and packed everything up properly again.

The two martial men with the highest cultivation, both at the sixth layer of Body Tempering, each carried one bundle on their backs.

After signing the receipt, the group left Lingyuan Pavilion and hurried in silence toward the Demon Sect's stronghold in the western part of the city.

The night grew deeper, and there were fewer and fewer pedestrians along the way. After they had walked several li, the surroundings had become utterly silent. When a small alley several hundred meters long appeared ahead, pitch-black and deep like the throat of some giant beast, there was not a single person to be seen.

"Wait," Lu Lin suddenly said, stopping in his tracks.

"Why are we stopping?" Shi Xiao's brows knitted tightly as he questioned him coldly, a trace of hard-to-detect impatience in his voice.

Lu Lin's expression was grave as he looked toward that dark alley, which seemed capable of swallowing all light. An inexplicable sense of palpitating dread seized him, as if stepping inside would bring calamity down upon his head.

"Everyone," he said in a low voice, "why don't we take a detour?"

"A detour? Why would we take a detour?" a young martial man asked, puzzled.

"Kid, what game are you playing? Deliberately stalling for time and taking the long way around—could it be that you're harboring evil intentions?" Shi Xiao barked sharply, slapping a big hat straight onto him.

Lu Lin paid no attention to his accusation and continued analyzing calmly. "Think carefully, everyone. Isn't there something odd about this mission? With such a quantity of pills, in the past it would at least require a steward at the ninth or even tenth layer of Body Tempering to personally escort them. Why have they specifically assigned ordinary laborers like us this time? Within the Demon Sect, anything strange is often extraordinarily dangerous. If we get caught up in it, one careless step could mean our bodies smashed to pieces and our bones ground to dust. Only by being careful can a ship sail for ten thousand years."

Hearing this, everyone's expressions chilled, and when they thought it over carefully, it was indeed so.

In the Demon Sect, once martial men of their status became involved in matters they should not have touched, it often meant they had become discarded pieces or cannon fodder.

"This brother speaks sense. I also feel this matter is strange. Taking a detour may take a little more effort, but safety comes first." The bald, burly man carrying a bundle was the first to voice his stance.

"Fine, then we'll take a detour!" After a brief moment of thought, the others also nodded in agreement one after another.

Shi Xiao's face instantly sank like dark water, and killing intent flashed explosively in his eyes. The blood qi around his body erupted with a boom, and without the slightest warning, he threw a fierce punch straight at the center of the bald man's back beside him!

"You...!" The bald, burly man had never imagined that a companion would suddenly attack him, and in his haste, he had no time to dodge at all!

Crack!

The grating sound of bone splitting rang out with particular clarity in the silent night sky.

The bald, burly man looked as if he had been struck by a heavy blow. He flew several meters forward, blood spraying wildly from his mouth.

"Shi Xiao! What are you doing!"

"Have you gone mad?!"

The others were both shocked and furious. They retreated violently one after another, pulling away from Shi Xiao. Their weapons left their sheaths in an instant as they stared at him warily.

"Do it!"

Almost at the same time, a low command came from the dark alley ahead, and several agile, ferocious figures pounced out like hunting leopards!

Immediately afterward, four more figures leaped down like ghosts from the high walls on both sides behind the group, completely sealing off their retreat!

"Damn it! They're road robbers! Scatter and run!" The other young man carrying a bundle was so furious his eyes nearly split. With a loud roar, he leaped up, trying to break out to the side.

However, the other side had long been prepared. Two men immediately split off, their figures like lightning, blocking him in an instant with attacks that were incomparably fierce.

At the same time, a large man with a face full of bulging flesh and a vicious, fiendish look charged straight at Lu Lin. His alms-bowl-sized fist carried a howling evil wind, like a thousand-jin sledgehammer, smashing down viciously!

Lu Lin gave a low shout, channeled all his strength, and threw both fists out together to block!

Bang!

Their fists collided, producing a muffled boom.

Lu Lin felt a vast, powerful force surge along his arms, shaking the bones of both arms numb. His body staggered backward uncontrollably.

The large man pressed his advantage without mercy. He stepped forward, and his other fist was already like a venomous dragon emerging from its cave, driving straight toward Lu Lin's chest!

The punch was astonishingly fast. There was no avoiding it!

"Block it for me!" Lu Lin's eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins. The Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art and Iron Elephant Body techniques within him were pushed to their limits. His blood qi boiled, surging and roaring, while the muscles all over his body writhed violently, becoming as hard as if cast from iron.

Bang!

Another heavy, muffled thud rang out! That punch landed solidly on Lu Lin's chest!

Lu Lin spat out a mouthful of blood, his body as if struck by a savage elephant charging at full speed. He flew backward off his feet and smashed heavily into the earthen-stone wall beside him.

Rumble!

That wall was actually knocked down outright. Broken stones and bricks sprayed in every direction, and dust billowed through the air.

Lu Lin lay in the ruins and coughed up another mouthful of blood. Then his head lolled to the side, and his breath vanished completely, as if he had already died.

This, naturally, was an act.

The one who had attacked just now was roughly at the sixth layer of Body Tempering, and his strength was indeed a large cut above Lu Lin's.

But the Iron Elephant Body excelled at defense to begin with, its muscles far tougher than those of others at the same level. Coupled with the robust blood and qi reinforcement of the Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art, though he was only at the fourth layer of Body Tempering, his actual defensive power was comparable to, or even surpassed, that of an ordinary sixth-layer Body Tempering cultivator.

Forget the sixth layer of Body Tempering—even someone at the seventh layer would have no chance of killing him in one punch.

But at this moment, the situation outside remained unclear. He had sensed no fewer than several powerful auras, among them even existences above the seventh layer of Body Tempering. If he did not play dead now, once the other side surrounded and attacked him with their full strength, he truly would not be far from death.

He circulated the Breath Concealment Art with all his might, and the aura around him instantly withdrew until it was no different from that of a dead man.

The burly man with a face full of fleshy lumps glanced at the utterly silent Lu Lin in the ruins and, sure enough, suspected nothing further. With a cold snort, he turned and pounced toward the other martial men who were still resisting.

"We are men of the Blood Baleful Demon Sect! Who are you? How dare you be so wildly bold as to intercept and kill us!"

"Shi Xiao! You traitor! The Demon Sect will never let you off! They'll make sure you can neither beg to live nor beg to die!"

The few remaining servant martial men roared in shock and fury, fighting like trapped beasts.

But all of it was futile. Since the other side had dared make a move, they would never leave any survivors.

Only by killing them to silence them, then fleeing far away at once, could they enjoy those pills.

Among the other group, a brawny man with a face full of bristling beard and a height of nine feet was especially terrifying. His strength had shockingly reached the ninth layer of Body Tempering.

Every time he pounced, he was like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, and someone was certain to die.

Even the martial man who had cultivated the Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art to the sixth layer was no match for him in a single exchange. He was struck in the chest by one palm, and the berserk force burst straight through his body, instantly shattering his heart!

In barely a dozen breaths, aside from Lu Lin, who was playing dead, and the traitor Shi Xiao, the other nine servant martial men had all fallen in pools of blood, not a single one left alive.

"Brother Leopard!" Two men quickly removed the two bundles filled with pills and respectfully handed them to the bristling-bearded brawny man.

Brother Leopard took the bundles and quickly opened them for a glance. Greed and wild joy that he could not suppress instantly burst from his eyes.

He swiftly tied the bundles shut and slung them onto his back, then shouted in a low voice, "We got them! Go! Leave Blood Baleful City at once, and get away overnight..."

"Go?" A crisp and pleasant voice, yet carrying a trace of coquettishness and icy killing intent, suddenly rang out, cutting off Brother Leopard's words. "You killed people of my Demon Sect, took things of my Demon Sect, and still want to just walk away? Truly... adorably naive."

Brother Leopard and the others turned deathly pale with horror and jerked their heads up, looking toward the sound.

They saw that on the ridge of a roof to the side stood a young girl of about sixteen, though no one knew when she had appeared there.

She wore a black gauze dress, and beneath the hem showed a pair of long, fair, exquisitely translucent jade feet. Moonlight scattered down, draping her whole body in a layer of clear radiance.

Her appearance was so beautiful that no worldly thing could compare, but those eyes of hers were cold and indifferent as she looked down at them from above, as if she were watching a swarm of ants.

"An... an immortal cultivator?!" Brother Leopard's face instantly turned as white as paper, and his voice trembled.

"Your eye isn't bad." The girl's voice was cold, her tone without the slightest ripple. "In recent months, servant martial men of our sect have repeatedly gone missing within Blood Baleful City, neither seen alive nor found dead. One senior brother speculated that there must be a moth eating the house beams from within. This time, we merely set a small trap, and sure enough, we fished up you few stupid fish."

At this point, her icy gaze swept over the ashen-faced Shi Xiao. "Those who betray the sect shall suffer extreme punishment."

Shi Xiao's legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

Brother Leopard and the others were likewise bloodless in the face, their whole bodies turning cold.

"Don't be afraid!" Brother Leopard forced himself to calm down and shouted sternly, trying to raise their morale. "This little wench is so young. Even if she's an immortal cultivator, her cultivation can't be that high. Immortal cultivators are people too, not undying bodies! Attack together! Kill her, and we'll have a path to live!"

The two seventh-layer Body Tempering brawny men exchanged a look, fierce light fully revealed in their eyes. At the same time, they roared, their blood and qi erupting around them as they pounced toward the young girl on the eaves like two arrows loosed from the string.

"Inferiors offending a superior, vainly attempting to slay an immortal? You deserve execution."

The girl's vermilion lips parted lightly, her tone so indifferent it carried not the slightest trace of mortal warmth.

She gently raised her delicate jade hand. In her palm, a ball of dark-black flame formed from thin air, flickering restlessly. As she lightly swept her hand, that black flame suddenly stretched out, transforming into two long fire blades as thin as cicada wings yet radiating an aura of destruction, silently cleaving through the air.

Pfft! Pfft!

After two soft sounds, the two seventh-layer Body Tempering experts who had been lunging through midair, their blood and qi vigorous, abruptly froze in place.

The next moment, their bodies split neatly in half down the middle. The cuts were charred black and smooth, without even the slightest spray of blood. Their ruined bodies fell weakly to the ground, twitched a few times, and then there was no more sound.