Unexpectedly

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 remembered the woman's ruthless savagery when she killed, and that nearly deranged, teasing smile!

He couldn't play by the rules!

He jerked his head around, instantly forcing a twisted grin onto his face—a mix of terror, infatuation, and a hint of madness. In an almost coquettish, utterly reckless tone, he howled:

"Not your little tail—your little darling!"

Huh???

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

Before the woman could react, Xiao Fan tilted his head and kissed her without another word!

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

"Mmm..."

A short, sweetly breathy sound of disbelief spilled from her throat.

That warm touch, carrying the scent of a young man, was like a faint electric current, making a minute stiffness and numbness run through her body despite herself!

In that instant of hesitation, Xiao Fan rolled off and charged into the bandit camp. He snatched up a machete, ran to the tree trunk, hacked through the hemp rope, and slung the unconscious noble over his back!

The whole outrageous sequence flowed like water, without a single superfluous movement.

Based on everything he had just seen, he judged that this black-clad woman had at least a touch of madness in her. To deal with a madwoman, he had to be even madder than she was!

Of course, he had no confidence in it either. But with the arrow already on the string, he had no choice but to fire. Only by catching her off guard could he have a chance of 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—and never expected it to work so well...

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

A thread of icy killing intent flashed through the darkness. A dagger flew toward his throat from who knew where!

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

Whoosh!

The black-clad woman indeed withdrew her blade in haste!

Seizing the opening, Xiao Fan sent the woman flying three zhang with a kick, then turned and continued fleeing.

That kick did not harm the black-clad woman in the slightest, but it instantly opened up some distance between them.

"Sorry, noble sir... 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. The noble gave no response, still unconscious. "Not awake? Then it's fine..."

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

Like a phantom darting through a shuttle, the black-clad woman was incredibly fast. She caught up and slashed at him again.

"I'm just an innocent melon-eating bystander! Please, big sister, spare my life!"

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

A melon-eating bystander?

Though the black-clad woman did not understand what a melon-eating bystander was, the word "innocent" was absolute nonsense.

Xiao Fan's only advantage now was that this woman seemed afraid to harm the noble—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 harming the noble would not be easy.

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

One chased while the other fled; one stabbed while the other blocked—with the noble... Like a cat chasing a mouse, they twisted and darted through the night.

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

Xiao Fan unleashed every trace of extraordinary spiritual resonance within him, even triggering the calamity transformation of his body!

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

No... I can't shake her off at all. If this keeps draining me, I'm dead for sure.

The icy dagger struck again from an incredibly vicious angle. He couldn't dodge it!

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

What baffled the black-clad woman was that Xiao Fan's lips curled upward, revealing a wicked smile that had no business appearing at such a moment...

"Fire Element Art!"

Boom!!! His blood erupted into flame!

The black-clad woman's arm and cheek were splashed with Xiao Fan's blood. Caught completely off guard by the sudden eruption, she flipped backward and retreated ten zhang!

"You know sorcery?!"

She had never imagined that this brat, clearly a martial artist, could actually wield the Five Elements arts of the sorcerous path!

In truth, Xiao Fan, being a martial man, had naturally never studied the sorcerous path. The reason he could use the Fire Element Art was the Xiao Family's inherited secret technique: Blood-Burning Flame!

Unlike ordinary arcane arts, this secret technique required no cultivation in the arcane path. Even a martial man like him could pick it up quickly.

Of course, it had its drawbacks—chief among them, it burned through blood like crazy...

"Bleh, bleh, bleh! Farewell, big sis!"

The burning blood quickly ignited the surrounding vegetation, setting off a roaring blaze...

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

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

"Hmph... brat, my dagger was coated in poison. Let's see how far you can run!"

With a cold snort, the woman in black melted into the night like a phantom and vanished.

"Setting fire to a mountain... enough to rot in prison... Good thing this world doesn't have environmental protection laws..."

Xiao Fan kept changing directions as he fled through the night, using his own blood along the way to create numerous misleading markers.

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

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

As long as the sun rose, he could finally stop worrying about the danger of Night Erosion for the time being.

"I can finally catch my breath..."

In the span of one short night, he had escaped death twice... no, strictly speaking, three times!

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

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

To keep the woman in black from tracking him down, he deliberately avoided the several villages near the main road. Instead, he took a roundabout route to a remote mountain village called Cloud Hidden Village.

Villages like this were usually hard to find. To ensure the mission went smoothly, Xiao Fan had scouted the area in advance and knew the route and surrounding terrain like the back of his hand, 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 through transmigration, but a peculiarity the original owner had possessed since childhood.

According to his father, their old Xiao Family possessed a rare blood type. Not only could they learn a bit of the Blood-Burning Flame secret technique, they also naturally possessed the ability to neutralize toxins.

Thus, under his father's guidance, the original owner had undergone poison-resistance training from a young age, consuming all kinds of weakened poisons to awaken his bloodline's toxin-neutralizing ability.

By now, his body was immune to most poisons, neutralizing the toxins before they could take effect.

When it mattered, the old Xiao Family's signature skill was still the reliable one!

Xiao Fan's thoughts wandered as he finally found the village's only inn.

Most of his travel money had been taken by that band of ruthless bandits. All he had left was two taels of loose silver tucked on his person.

BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG!

At the first light of dawn, before the innkeeper had even woken up, the knocking dragged him out of sleep.

"Who is it? Knocking like you're trying to kill someone this early in the morning! If you want a room, come back later! Even the roosters haven't crowed yet..."

Creak—

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

The innkeeper rubbed his eyes, about to start cursing, when his gaze fell on the two people outside. His sleepiness instantly vanished, and his fat face turned deathly pale with fright!

"Good heavens above!!!"

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

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

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

"Innkeeper... do us a favor. Open a room, the most secluded one... and... boil some hot water..."