Caught Off Guard

The woman's soft, seductive voice sounded in Xiao Fan's ears like the King of Hell calling roll!

Life and death hung by a thread! In that lightning-flash instant, Xiao Fan's mind filled with the woman's ruthless savagery when she killed, and that nearly deranged, teasing smile!

He couldn't play by the rules!

He whipped his head around, forcing a twisted smile onto his face—a jumble of terror, obsession, and a touch of madness. In a tone that was almost coquettish, utterly reckless, he howled:

"Not your little tail—your little sweetheart, Sister!"

Huh???

The woman froze on the spot... This utterly unexpected response clearly caught her off guard, and her gaze beneath the hood instantly went still.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than, before the woman could react, Xiao Fan tilted his head and kissed her!

The instant his lips touched her blood-stained cheek, the woman let out an involuntary soft moan, and her entire body went numb as though struck by lightning.

"Mm..."

A short, disbelieving, sweetly nasal sound slipped from the woman's throat.

That warm touch, carrying the scent of youth, was like a faint current, making her body stiffen and tingle ever so slightly against her will!

In that brief moment of hesitation, Xiao Fan flipped down and rushed into the bandit camp. He casually picked up a machete, ran to the tree trunk, cut the hemp rope, and hoisted the unconscious nobleman onto his back!

The whole outrageous maneuver flowed like drifting clouds and running water, without a single unnecessary motion.

From everything he had seen earlier, he judged that this woman in black had at least a touch of madness in her. To deal with a madwoman, he had to be even crazier than she was!

Of course, he had not been certain it would work. But with the arrow on the string, he had no choice but to fire. Only by catching her off guard could he find a chance to escape.

His life had been hanging by a thread just moments ago, leaving him no time to think. So he had simply pulled this stunt, never expecting it to work so well...

Yet before he had even taken three steps, his warrior's instincts began screaming warnings.

A thread of icy killing intent flashed through the darkness. A dagger had somehow already shot toward his neck!

Xiao Fan's face drained of color. It was too late to dodge, so he simply spun around and used the nobleman on his back as a shield...

Whoosh!

The woman in black indeed hastily pulled back her blade!

Seizing the opening, Xiao Fan launched a flying kick that sent the woman soaring three zhang away, then turned and continued fleeing.

That kick did not harm the woman in black in the slightest, but it instantly widened the distance between them.

"Sorry, Your Excellency... If I die, no one will be left to save you. You won't blame me, right?"

Xiao Fan fled for his life as he asked guiltily, but the nobleman gave no response and remained unconscious. "Still not awake? Then it's fine..."

"You little brat, after provoking your big sister, you still think you can run?"

Her alluring shadow darted like a shuttle. The woman in black was astonishingly fast, catching up and slashing at him again.

"I'm just an innocent bystander eating melons! Please, Sister, spare my life!"

Xiao Fan begged for mercy while using the nobleman as a shield to force her to withdraw her blade, fleeing wildly all the while.

An innocent bystander eating melons?

Though the woman in black did not understand what "eating melons" meant, the word "innocent" was utter nonsense.

At present, Xiao Fan's only advantage was that this woman seemed unwilling to harm the nobleman—or rather, she had to capture him alive.

Even if this woman's martial rank was likely far above Xiao Fan's, subduing him without injuring the nobleman would not be easy.

For a moment, it was impossible to tell who was saving someone and who was harming someone...

The two chased and fled, she stabbed and he blocked—with the nobleman—like a cat chasing a mouse as they twisted and leapt through the night.

Calamity Poison Value... +1... +1... +1...

Xiao Fan stimulated every trace of extraordinary spiritual essence within his body, even triggering the calamity transformation of his flesh!

Yet even so, he still could not shake the woman in black's pursuit. The gap between their ranks was too great; no amount of flashy trickery could make up for it.

No... I can't shake her off at all. If this keeps draining on, I'll definitely die.

The icy dagger struck again from an exceptionally vicious angle. He could not evade it!

Xiao Fan could no longer worry about anything else. He used his bare hand to block the blade, his palm pierced through as blood sprayed everywhere!

What baffled the woman in black was that Xiao Fan's lips curled up, revealing a wicked smile utterly unsuited to the moment...

"Fire Element Art!"

Boom!!! His blood burst into flames!

The woman in black's arm and cheek were splashed with Xiao Fan's blood. This sudden eruption of flames caught her completely by surprise, and she flipped backward ten zhang away!

"You know sorcery?!"

She had never expected this brat, clearly a martial artist, to also be able to use the Five Element arts of the sorcerous path!

In truth, as a martial artist, Xiao Fan naturally had never cultivated the sorcerous path. The reason he could use the Fire Element Art was the Old Xiao family's inherited secret technique: Blood-Burning Flame!

Unlike ordinary sorcerous spells, this secret technique required no sorcerous cultivation. Even a martial artist like him could quickly learn to use it.

Naturally, it had its drawbacks too. It consumed an especially huge amount of blood...

"Bleh, bleh, bleh! Farewell, Sister!"

The burning blood quickly ignited the surrounding vegetation, raising a raging blaze...

Having failed this time, the woman in black completely lost her target.

The clamor and thick smoke from the mountain fire severely disrupted her senses. In the vast darkness of night, trying to pursue him again was like fishing for a needle in the sea.

"Hmph... You little bastard, my dagger was poisoned. Let's see how far you can run!"

The woman in black snorted coldly, merging into the night like a ghost and vanishing from sight.

"Setting fire to the mountain... straight to prison... Good thing this world doesn't have environmental protection laws..."

Xiao Fan constantly changed direction as he fled through the night, even using his own blood to create numerous misleading markers along the way.

Pursuit... Night Erosion... He had not stopped moving for an entire night... until a streak of rosy dawn stained the horizon.

It was summer now, and dawn came early. The sun was about to rise, and the darkness was about to recede!

Once the sun rose, he would finally be free from worrying about the danger of Night Erosion, at least for the time being.

"I can finally catch my breath..."

In a single short night, he had escaped death twice... No, strictly speaking, three times!

This had been the most absurd night he had ever experienced in both this life and his previous one combined.

Following the mountain path, Xiao Fan dragged along his exhausted body, still carrying the unconscious nobleman on his back.

To avoid letting the woman in black track him down, he deliberately bypassed several villages near the official road. Instead, he took a winding detour and arrived at a remote mountain village called Cloud Hidden Village.

Such villages were usually hard to find. But to ensure the mission went smoothly, Xiao Fan had scouted ahead and was thoroughly familiar with the route and surrounding terrain, allowing him to find this place.

He examined the black-clad woman's dagger and brought it close to his nose for a sniff.

"As expected, it was poisoned..."

Xiao Fan was neither surprised nor panicked. Instead, he remained rather calm, because he was not afraid of poison.

This constitution was not something he had gained after transmigrating; it was a peculiarity the original owner had possessed since childhood.

According to his father, the Old Xiao family possessed a rare bloodline. Not only could they learn the secret technique Blood-Burning Flame, they also had a natural ability to neutralize toxins.

Thus, under his father's guidance, the original owner had undergone poison-resistance training since childhood, consuming various weakened poisons to awaken the bloodline's toxin-neutralizing ability.

By now, his body could resist most poisons, neutralizing the toxins before their effects took hold.

When it counted, the Old Xiao family's special skill was still reliable!

His thoughts wandering, Xiao Fan finally found the village's only inn.

Most of his travel money had been taken by those fierce bandits. All he had left on him were two taels of loose silver.

Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!

The sky had only just begun to brighten. Before the innkeeper had even woken up, the knocking at the door roused him.

"Who is it? Knocking like death's at dawn! If you want a room, come back later! Even the chickens haven't crowed yet..."

Creak—

The door opened a crack, revealing a sleepy, unshaven fat face.

The innkeeper rubbed his eyes and was just about to curse when his gaze fell upon the two people outside. His drowsiness instantly vanished, and his fat face turned deathly pale with fright!

"My dear mother!!!"

The innkeeper sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes bulging round as he pointed at Xiao Fan and the unconscious nobleman on his back, dressed in fine clothes yet covered in blood, mud, and filth. Even his voice changed pitch:

"Y-you... where did you come from? Did you... did you run into ghosts? Or were you robbed by mountain bandits?!"

Xiao Fan wearily stuffed the two taels of loose silver into Wang Laowu's hand and forced out a smile uglier than crying.

"Innkeeper... do me a favor. Open a room—the quietest one... And... boil some hot water..."