Lovesickness Tower

Amid the luxuriant branches of an ancient tree, Su Qingyang stood with his hands behind his back, looking down from above at the killing trap in the wooden stronghold below. He gave a quiet laugh:

"They really did expose the problem for us."

Liu Qingni stood on the branch beside him, her gaze fixed on the young man within the stronghold. Her expression changed several times before finally turning incomparably cold, frost gathering on her pretty face.

"That bowl of tea was tampered with."

Her gaze swept over the densely packed, silent figures standing in the stronghold. Her voice paused slightly, as if choosing her words. "These people aren't right either. They don't look like ordinary Black Cloud Sect disciples. They seem more like..."

"A pack of assassins," Su Qingyang said flatly.

At this moment!

The encirclement below had already begun. Cold, bloody battle cries exploded from every assassin's mouth, and in an instant, powerful auras surged up across the sky and earth.

A fierce battle erupted in the blink of an eye!

Song Long's face twisted savagely. Like a vicious tiger surrounded by wolves, his qi and blood surged throughout his body, then abruptly drew back in.

His long saber rang as it left its sheath!

Shielding the scholar behind him, he charged forward with his saber held crosswise, carving a bloody path straight through the encirclement.

Judging by the strength of his qi and blood, he had clearly reached the realm of the Second Qi-Blood Breakthrough!

With a thunderous boom!

Even from afar, the tremors shaking the ground were plainly visible. The earth cracked, dust billowed upward and blanketed a vast area, with only shadowy figures flickering through the smoke.

"Roar! You petty rats dare lay hands on me?"

The next instant, a terrifying soundwave burst outward, and the gale directly scattered the dust filling the sky.

Song Long's figure emerged. Every shred of clothing on his upper body had been torn apart, his knotted muscles bulging as qi and blood baked his flesh like fire, making him look as brawny as a giant bear.

In merely dozens of breaths, more than ten corpses had already piled up around him.

Yet those assassins seemed ignorant of life and death. They continued to stare coldly at Song Long as though looking at a dead man.

Song Long let out a wild laugh, his face savage as he pressed his advantage and charged in again. His comrades' deaths had enraged him greatly; he wanted nothing more than to smash the people before him into pulp with his fists.

But at this moment.

A sudden change arose!

The dozen or so assassins' corpses that had been piled together suddenly exploded all at once, turning into a skyful of blood mist!

But the mist was not blood-red. It was a strange, miserable green, flooding an area ten meters wide in an instant!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

The sound of corrosion rang without end. The green mist possessed horrifying corrosive power; wherever it passed, the assassins' severed limbs and mangled remains were corroded away completely.

Song Long could not dodge in time and was swallowed whole by the poisonous mist. At once, agonized screams echoed from within.

"Green Plague Corpse-Explosion Poison!!"

From the treetop, Liu Qingni blurted out the name when she saw that patch of sickly green poison mist. The next moment, her face became incomparably ugly.

"With methods this vicious and actions this ruthless, they..."

Yet Su Qingyang's attention was not on the poison mist. It had fallen instead upon the scholar, who had somehow already retreated far away.

At this moment, the scholar's dull, bashful appearance had long vanished, replaced by coldness and indifference.

His face was even filled with irritation and disgust.

He cast a cold glance at Song Long, who continued to howl within the poison mist, then snorted disdainfully. Without looking back, he plunged straight into the deep mountain forest and fled in panic.

The young man who had killed the woman earlier was named Ruthless.

At this moment, he narrowed his deathly still eyes. With a wave of his hand, a black shadow appeared behind him, like a shadow itself.

"Not one survivor. Catch that man and bring back his head to report," Ruthless ordered coldly.

Within the poison mist, Song Long had no idea that he had already been abandoned.

He might not even have known that the Sixth Prince he had guarded all the way was also hiding his true depths.

That scholar had likely harbored evil intentions from beginning to end.

The howls gradually weakened!

A bloodied, mangled figure struggled out from the roiling green mist. Song Long was already at death's door.

The Green Plague Corpse-Explosion Poison was horrifyingly corrosive. Though he had resisted it with his formidable qi and blood, all the flesh and skin across his body had still been eaten away by the poison mist.

Not an inch of intact skin remained on his body. Only bright-red, writhing muscles were exposed to the air.

The sight was horrifying beyond measure!!

Song Long could no longer see anything. Terror colored his voice as he said, "Have you gone mad? You actually dare attack me?"

"You are making an enemy of Duke Yuan. Duke Yuan will never let you off."

Ruthless turned a deaf ear to his roar. With a wave of one hand, several assassins stepped forward. As their blades rose and fell, they cleanly and decisively severed his head.

Once the corpse had been dealt with!

Ruthless gazed into the dark forest ahead, cold light glimmering in his gray eyes. They were strange and deep, sending a chill through one's heart.

With a rumbling explosion.

A cluster of demonic fire burst into the sky. When the flames dispersed, there appeared in the air amid the forest... a

Waning Moon!

The Waning Moon was cold and desolate, breathtakingly beautiful!

At first glance, it resembled half the tear-stained face of a beautiful woman, carrying three parts loneliness, three parts sorrowful resentment, and three parts longing!

As the Waning Moon faded, wisps of ash slowly drifted down, tragic and beautiful, yet terrifying!

Liu Qingni's gaze tightened when she saw this scene!

"An Inch of Longing, an Inch of Ash!"

"They truly are assassins from Lovesickness Tower!"

Liu Qingni's voice sank low. Clearly, she was deeply wary of the assassin organization known as Lovesickness Tower.

"Hm? They've found us."

Just then, Su Qingyang suddenly spoke. His gaze fell upon the drifting ash in midair, where a faint, unusual fragrance could be sensed.

An Inch of Longing, an Inch of Ash!

The ashes were beautiful, but they concealed murderous intent. This spectacle clearly was not created for beauty, but was a tracking art Lovesickness Tower used to detect those in hiding.

"Kill!" Ruthless was not surprised. He gave a cold shout and issued the command.

Countless assassins immediately surged forth, charging like mad toward the ancient tree where Su Qingyang and Liu Qingni were hiding.

Looking at the tide-like mass of figures rushing in below, a cold gleam flashed through Liu Qingni's eyes. "Young master, let me handle this!"

The next instant, her figure began to twist and turn illusory!

At some point, a black sword had appeared in her hand. She leaped down from the tree and, in an instant, swung the black sword in her hand.

With a ripping sound!

Several assassins around her had yet to react—or rather, had no possibility of reacting at all—before they were cut in half at the waist. Blood sprayed, and organs spilled out!

Liu Qingni moved like a ghost. To the others' eyes, only one frozen afterimage after another flashed past.

A flash of black light!

The longsword left its sheath!

She stepped forward and charged!

Every image was incomparably clear, yet only after seeing her could they realize she existed.

Before they saw her, there was only emptiness in that patch of air. There was not the slightest trace of Liu Qingni's movements.

"What exquisite footwork!" Su Qingyang praised involuntarily from the treetop.

Though she and Song Long were both Houtian martial artists, Liu Qingni's footwork alone was enough to set them as far apart as heaven and earth.

Although Lovesickness Tower's assassins feared neither hardship nor death, under such slaughter, they still began to tremble uncontrollably.

Because the sight of blood erupting and corpses flying everywhere!

Was simply far too terrifying!