This Woman Was an Immortal?

Outside the door.

The eight chiefs pricked up their ears at the clanging coming from the hall, their necks instinctively shrinking in time with the noise.

"What a sin! The Great King really can bring himself to do it!" Scarface, the third chief, wore an expression of bitter anguish.

One-Eyed Dragon, the second chief, shook his head even more sorrowfully. "What a waste of heaven's treasures!"

Behind the crowd.

The seventh and eighth chiefs, two ladies who still retained their charms, wiped tears from their reddened eyes and sighed mournfully.

"The Great King... there's really no keeping him here now..."

If he could bring himself to kill even such a beautiful woman, his heart must have long since abandoned worldly desires.

Sparks flew as Chun Xiaobai sawed away with the long blade in his hand, yet the red cord did not suffer so much as a scratch. Instead, the edge of his pointed knife curled first.

"If even a lousy red cord is this freakish, what must that purple jade bracelet be like?"

Chun Xiaobai's gaze returned to the bracelet.

The box was gone, and the necklace would not come off. How much could he get for just that jade hairpin and a dress made from some fabric he did not recognize?

Probably not even enough seed money for a journey of eating in the wind and sleeping under the open sky!

His gaze sharpened, a glint of resolve flashing through it.

I'll have to chop off her hand!

"Even thieves have their code...!"

"Miss, you'll have to put up with this for now. Once I succeed in cultivating immortality, I'll definitely find some miraculous elixir and come back to help you regrow your missing limb. While I'm at it, I'll find you a good family to marry into!"

Muttering this, Chun Xiaobai seized her wrist and raised the ox-ear pointed knife with its curled edge high in his other hand.

He lined up where the blade would fall, steeled his heart, and swung down!

"What... are you doing?"

A cool, ethereal voice abruptly sounded beside his ear. Chun Xiaobai shuddered in fright, and the pointed knife froze in midair.

He looked up.

The unconscious woman in red on the table had somehow propped herself into a half-seated position and was glaring at him with murder in her eyes.

"Ahem!"

Her glare made Chun Xiaobai's shameless face redden. He instinctively released her hand, slipped the pointed knife behind his back, and squeezed out a friendly smile.

"Beautiful lady, don't misunderstand. I just noticed your nails were a little long and wanted to trim them for you!"

The woman in red ignored his nonsense. Her indifferent gaze swept over him before she surveyed her surroundings.

Greasy animal hides, rusty scrap metal piled in a corner, and a sour smell of roast meat mixed with cheap liquor hanging in the air.

A pigsty.

She suddenly recalled what had happened by the stream before she lost consciousness. Her cold, beautiful face darkened, and the temperature around her plummeted with it.

"What the hell is wrong with the weather in these mountains? It turns cold just like that..."

Chun Xiaobai instinctively pulled his tattered hemp robe tighter, summoned his mountain-bandit king's imposing air, and spoke in a negotiating tone.

"Beautiful lady, could I discuss something with you?"

If he could get this woman to lose some weight and slim down her wrist, he could easily slide the bracelet off without having to chop off her hand.

An ant like him ordinarily did not even qualify to speak to her, yet today he dared presume to negotiate?

The woman in red did not so much as glance at him. She raised her fair hand.

An iron-spined spear on a distant weapon rack shuddered, then flew free and shot straight toward Chun Xiaobai's face!

"Holy shit!"

At this sight that defied the laws of physics, Chun Xiaobai leaped backward in terror. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head.

This woman was actually an immortal?

As the woman in red raised her hand, she happened to brush her sash and sensed that something seemed to be missing.

Her expression changed, and she immediately felt around inside it.

Her sash was empty!

The treasure she had risked almost certain death to bring out of that "unspeakable place"... was gone!

"Where are my belongings?"

As she spoke, the spear stopped three inches from Chun Xiaobai's forehead.

Whoosh!

His will to survive surging, Chun Xiaobai immediately pulled the emerald-green jade hairpin from his robes. Holding it in both hands as though making a sacrificial offering, he cautiously approached and gently set it on the table.

"B-beautiful immortal lady, I was only keeping it safe for you temporarily! I absolutely, absolutely had no intention of taking your treasure for myself!"

"That is not what I meant!"

The woman in red did not even glance at the jade hairpin.

"Not this?" Chun Xiaobai wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and forced himself to remain calm, putting on an innocent face. "I only took this hairpin. I really didn't see anything else!"

He knew the woman must be looking for that hard box.

If she learned he had lost it, he would certainly die!

Before an immortal who could summon clouds with a turn of her hand and rain with a flip of her palm, a worthless mortal had only one fate: death.

As long as he did not reveal the box's whereabouts, he still had a slender chance of survival.

"You still dare lie!"

Killing intent surged from the woman in red, and she was about to set the spear in motion.

Suddenly, her gaze locked on Chun Xiaobai's face, and her pupils contracted slightly.

"The Martial God's aura?"

"This... this is impossible!"

Without a moment's hesitation, she waved her hand.

Chun Xiaobai's vision blurred as an irresistible force seized him, sending his entire body flying toward her against his will.

A moment later, his forehead was pressed firmly against the soft palm of the very hand he had just been about to chop off.

"Um, fairy sister, we can talk this through. My soul's pretty impure and not worth much. Please don't rip it out."

Outside the door, the bandits heard the clattering inside abruptly give way to dead silence. They pricked up their ears and exchanged looks, but not one dared push the door open.

Their Great King possessed inborn supernatural strength. Handling a frail woman who lacked even the strength to truss a chicken should be as easy as reaching out and catching her, shouldn't it?

Inside the hall.

The woman in red pressed her palm against the crown of Chun Xiaobai's head. A faint light flashed at her fingertips as a thread of soul power attempted to enter his sea of consciousness.

However, the instant her soul power touched his scalp, an invisible barrier bounced it back!

"The Martial God Tower I obtained from the unspeakable place actually merged with his sea of consciousness?"

"This is impossible!"

She had spent years trying to refine it. Not only had she failed to subdue it, she had suffered a severe backlash. Otherwise, a few ants would never have been able to knock her out of the void.

The woman in red's exquisite face shifted once more. After two breaths of silence, she suddenly spoke.

"Is your... surname Wu?"

"Wu?"

Seeing her hand go still, Chun Xiaobai quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Damn it, how did I end up kidnapping an immortal?

That old saying really was right: walk by the river long enough, and your shoes are bound to get wet!

Enduring his numb forehead, he hurriedly set his mind racing in search of a way to survive.

He knew the key to his survival very likely lay in this surname, "Wu."

This person surnamed Wu was either a relative of hers or an enemy.

Chun Xiaobai discreetly turned his head and glanced at the woman's icy eyes. The answer came to him instantly, and he spoke at once.

"Beautiful immortal lady, my father died young without leaving any instructions. The elders on the mountain saw that I was pure of heart and kind, so they gave me the surname Chun-the word for pure."

At this answer, the woman in red fell silent for two seconds, then slowly released him. Her chilling killing intent also faded somewhat.

Only someone of the martial vein could make the Martial God Tower willingly recognize a master.

She straightened and looked Chun Xiaobai over again.

Then the faint suggestion of a savage smile appeared on her face.

"Ha ha!"

Her savage laughter made Chun Xiaobai's scalp prickle.

I'm done for. There seems to be something wrong with this woman's head!

Then a twisted gleam of mockery burst into the woman in red's eyes.

"Hmph! You creatures who are neither gods nor ghosts probably never dreamed that a descendant of the 'martial vein' would be hiding among the barren mountains and treacherous waters of this mortal realm..."

In that case...

The woman in red adjusted her seated posture. Though her aura remained weak, the commanding presence of someone long accustomed to standing above others had returned.

Looking at Chun Xiaobai, she spoke slowly in a tone that brooked no objection.

"I now give you two paths."

"The first... death."

Hearing the word "death," Chun Xiaobai felt relief wash through him. Life sprang from death; at least the second path would not be death.

"The second is to become my human slave."

"I choose the third!"

Chun Xiaobai blurted out his answer, mainly because he feared that one twitch of this madwoman's hand would end his little life right here.

After all, by the logic of such patterns, death was certainly the worst option; becoming a human slave lay somewhere on the border between life and death.

As for the third path, even if it did not lead to riches and honor, it should at least let him live!

"Hmm?" The woman in red was slightly taken aback.

For the first time, a trace of pure bewilderment appeared in those phoenix eyes that had witnessed countless momentous scenes.

Until now, she had only ever given others one path-death.

Making an exception today and offering the path of "human slavery" was already the greatest mercy she had shown in her entire life.

Yet this mortal who reeked of sweat actually dared bargain with her and ask for a third path?

This third path...

She had never even considered what a third path she could offer might be.