The Oriole

Mo Yun watched the battle with wide eyes and could not help sucking in a breath of cold air.

He noticed that Liu Niang's Tiger-Crouching Fist was ferociously powerful. Every punch seemed capable of cleaving mountains and shattering stone, and her fierce force energy made even the surrounding air roar violently.

Blood Qi like thunder, punches that ring out... With cultivation like this, she must have crossed the threshold of mid-stage Manifest Force. At the very least, she's a top expert at late-stage Manifest Force! Mo Yun silently judged from her aura and might.

This Spirit Herb Garden really does hide crouching tigers and hidden dragons... Mo Yun could not stop inwardly ranting. A steward casually filling in for someone actually possessed such formidable fighting strength!

The burly man in black apparently had not expected Liu Niang, whose despair should have left her guard down, to unleash such terrifying power.

Their fists and palms collided, force energy spilling in all directions. Several precious herbs nearby were instantly shaken to pieces.

After barely a dozen exchanges, the man in black began to falter. Liu Niang struck him squarely in the chest with a vicious Tiger Descends the Mountain.

"Pfft-" A great mouthful of blood sprayed out beneath the man's mask. Riding the immense recoil, his body flew backward like a kite with its string snapped.

He dared not prolong the fight. The moment he landed, he pushed off with his toes, force energy erupting, and turned to flee madly toward the pitch-black forest outside the garden.

"Trying to run? Leave your life behind!"

Killing intent blazed in Liu Niang's eyes. This was her only lead to clearing her name and saving her life. How could she let him go?

Without a moment's thought, she shot after him like lightning, her figure becoming a blur.

Yet, scarcely a few breaths after Liu Niang left the herb plots, another strange turn of events unfolded within them!

An eerie, fragrant breeze drifted past from some unknown source.

Then a woman in a vivid red dress, with a curvaceous, alluring figure and a thin veil covering her face, drifted silently into view like a ghost in the night.

The red-dressed woman's bare, delicate feet were whiter than frost and snow. Her toes lightly touched the ground without making the slightest sound.

Her soul-stealing eyes utterly ignored Mo Yun, who hid in a corner, quietly clenching his fists as though ready to fight for his life at any moment. She swept straight past the ordinary herb plots, heading with unmistakable purpose toward the very center of the Precious Herb Plot.

There stood the garden's crowning treasure, which had been stirring such intense desire in Mo Yun's Black Seal-the Fire Spirit Fruit!

The red-dressed woman approached the Fire Spirit Fruit tree. Gazing at the enticing berry that gave off a faint crimson glow, she let a flicker of greed show in her eyes. She extended a slender, delicate hand, preparing to gently pluck it.

Yet, at the very instant her fingertips were about to touch the Fire Spirit Fruit!

"Heh heh..."

An aged chuckle, laden with boundless mockery, exploded without warning beside the red-dressed woman's ear, making her eardrums tremble!

"Stealing fruit in the dead of night, little girl? Do you really take this old man for a corpse?"

With that voice, a limping, slightly stooped figure abruptly appeared before the red-dressed woman, as though he had teleported.

Zhou Bo!

Hiding in the distance, Mo Yun was so shocked his eyes nearly popped out.

He had never imagined that Zhou Bo, who had disappeared for days, would appear at this critical moment in such an uncanny fashion!

What made Mo Yun's scalp prickle and his soul quake even more was that, although Zhou Bo still leaned on that battered bamboo staff, the chilling, terrifying aura erupting from him resembled an insurmountable, towering mountain, weighing heavily over the entire Spirit Herb Garden!

Mo Yun had only ever felt such a breath-stifling presence from Commander Li, yet the pressure Zhou Bo radiated now seemed stronger still!

Force energy contained within, pressure as deep as an abyss... Zhou Bo is actually one of those legendary Hidden Force experts too, and his cultivation is even stronger than Commander Li's?! Mo Yun's mind reeled.

He had considered that Zhou Bo might possess some cultivation, but had never expected him to be this powerful.

Meanwhile, the red-dressed woman's face changed dramatically, as though she had seen a ghost.

The instant she recognized Zhou Bo's face, she stamped her toes against the ground without a second thought. Her figure became a red blur as she frantically retreated.

"You want to leave now? Too late!"

Although Zhou Bo limped on one leg, he moved like a phantom.

He merely tapped his bamboo staff lightly against the ground and crossed several yards in the blink of an eye, catching up with the red-dressed woman.

There were no flashy moves. Zhou Bo simply threw a casual punch.

"Thud!"

A dull impact sounded.

The red-dressed woman did not even have a chance to block. With a scream, she flew backward as though struck by lightning and slammed heavily into the dirt. Blood stained her veil as she coughed up blood violently and ceaselessly.

But this woman was clearly no easy mark. She was unquestionably a ruthless veteran who had licked blood from the blade's edge in the martial world.

Enduring the agony that felt as though her internal organs had been shattered, she suddenly flung a large handful of acrid white lime powder from her sleeve just as Zhou Bo moved to finish her off!

Holy shit! The Lime Martial Saint?! Mo Yun, peeking from his corner, nearly blurted it out.

"Cough, cough!" Zhou Bo frowned and swept his sleeve to disperse the lime.

Seizing that brief opening, the red-dressed woman bit the tip of her tongue and used some secret art that consumed her blood and vitality. She hurtled backward again, dragging her badly wounded body into the boundless darkness in a miserable retreat. She had actually escaped.

Zhou Bo stood where he was, his brows tightly knitted as he watched the direction she had fled, hesitating over whether to pursue her.

He knew perfectly well that Liu Niang's pursuit of the burly man in black had clearly fallen into the enemy's scheme to lure the tiger away from its mountain.

Their aim had been to create an opportunity for this red-dressed woman to steal the Fire Spirit Fruit.

If he rashly gave chase now, and a third oriole lay hidden in the darkness, the Spirit Herb Garden would truly be left defenseless.

Just as Zhou Bo weighed the gains and losses, a flurry of heavy, disordered footsteps came from outside the garden.

"Zhou Bo! Stay here and guard the place without worry. Leave that wicked woman to me!"

With a thunderous shout, Commander Li arrived just in time, clad in heavy armor like a god of war, leading an entire squad of fully armed household guards carrying torches!

Commander Li did not even have time to say another word. Taking several elite guards with him, he followed the blood trail left by the red-dressed woman and swept into the night like a gale.

Once everyone had left, Zhou Bo, who had been brimming with murderous intent, turned toward Mo Yun, who still held a defensive stance in the corner.

His terrifying aura vanished completely in an instant. The familiar, kindly smile returned to his aged face, making him seem like an entirely different person from the Hidden Force expert who had gravely wounded an enemy with one punch.

"Lad, why haven't you left yet?" Zhou Bo waved with a smile. "Go back. Things are a little unsettled tonight. Head to your dormitory early and get some rest. Don't wander around outside."

Mo Yun's head was still buzzing. He felt he had taken in far too much information tonight.

But he was a clever man. He asked no further questions and obediently nodded. "You should get some rest early too, Zhou Bo."

With that, he cupped his hands in farewell, turned, and strode quickly out of the Spirit Herb Garden.

Walking along the dark path back to the Servants' Court, listening to the cries of night owls in the surrounding woods, Mo Yun could not help grumbling inwardly.

This world is too dangerous. All for one spirit fruit, they're poisoning people and luring tigers away from their mountains, fighting and killing without a care for their own lives. A little Manifest Force weakling like me would die from the slightest brush if I got caught like a fish in a drained moat...

For the first time, he had a clear, firsthand understanding of this world's dangers.

Mo Yun quickened his pace, wanting only to reach his quarters safely. Please, don't let me run into any trouble. Just let me get back safely and have a good night's sleep...

Yet Murphy's law seemed to apply to this martial world as well. The more you feared something, the more likely it was to happen.

Just as Mo Yun hurried past a dense grove with his head lowered, about to turn into a narrow junction.

From the darkness, a slender arm, cold enough to chill the bones and drenched in thick, bright-red blood, suddenly reached out of the dense bushes!

That hand clamped tightly around Mo Yun's ankle. With astonishing strength, it gave a savage yank, dragging the completely unprepared Mo Yun straight into the dark depths of the woods!

Dragged to the ground, Mo Yun rolled twice through the dirt, his face smeared with mud.

Mo Yun: "???"

Motherfucker!