Cunning bandit cultivators

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Chapter 25: Cunning bandit cultivators

This... Chen Beiwu froze for a moment.

Although he had no idea what the other party was babbling about, he was, after all, a late Qi Refining cultivator. He could get the gist from her expression and gestures.

If Chen Beiwu was not mistaken, this female cultivator of unknown origins was asking him for help, even offering her charms in exchange.

"Woof, woof!" Iron Egg barked twice in warning.

The next instant, the lush forest exploded outward. An ancient tree as thick as a vat snapped, throwing up a cloud of dust.

A burly man with a scar across his face stepped over the fallen tree with a vicious grin. Behind him followed a cultivator with a sinister gaze.

The latter's robes were stained with blood, and he held a sword-shaped magic artifact.

"&***!" (You little wench sure can run!) the burly man laughed.

"*&*?" (Who is this?) The sinister cultivator looked at Chen Beiwu, surprise in his eyes.

At the sight of the two men, the panic on Lin Yu's face deepened.

"&...@@%!" (Save me!)

She tilted her head up, her jade-white, slender fingers clutching Chen Beiwu's hem. The pleading look on her face and the dark strands of hair stuck to the wound on her shoulder formed such a pitiful picture that it was hard not to feel compassion.

The burly man and the sinister cultivator exchanged a glance. As though realizing Chen Beiwu would be difficult to handle, hesitation flickered in their eyes.

Chen Beiwu gave Lin Yu a long look, circulated his magical power, and kicked her hand away. His expression calm, he retreated several yards, making it clear that he wanted no part in this bloody feud.

Lin Yu fell to her knees in the mud. The desperate hope in her eyes slowly turned to despair, and her face went deathly pale.

At this sight, the burly man and the sinister cultivator were briefly taken aback before vicious grins appeared on both their faces.

Naturally, one of the brothers was at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, while the other was at the sixth layer of Qi Refining. They ranked among the foremost bandit cultivators on Cangshen Mountain.

Their opponent was certainly strong, but any cultivator with half a brain would never fight to the death for a female cultivator with whom he had no ties.

The burly man lifted his chin toward Chen Beiwu in a friendly greeting.

Since the other party had shown them courtesy, he had no reason to stir up more trouble. That would seem too deliberate.

The sinister cultivator stepped forward and slashed open Lin Yu's clothes, exposing broad stretches of snow-white skin.

She seemed utterly bereft of hope. Having abandoned all resistance, she let the sinister cultivator grope her freely.

"&*|*?" (Fellow Daoist, care to join us?) He turned toward Chen Beiwu and extended the invitation with a lecherous grin.

Chen Beiwu's brows drew together slightly. With a light push off his toes, he vanished into the forest with Iron Egg.

Seeing this, the scar-faced man keeping watch breathed a sigh of relief. He walked over to Lin Yu, exchanged a look with the sinister cultivator, and joined him in a lewd chuckle.

Several minutes later, the misery on Lin Yu's face suddenly vanished. Instead, she slapped the burly man on the head.

"Was he a turtle in his past life? How can a cultivator put up with so much?" she complained bitterly.

The sinister cultivator gritted his teeth and said hesitantly, "Should we chase him? We finally ran into a fat sheep. It'd be a shame to let him slip away."

"Wouldn't that be too risky? Cultivators from the Five Great Sects have complete inheritances. If we fight him head-on, even all three of us together might not beat him," the scar-faced man said, losing his nerve.

"Forget it. We only have one life. Better not risk it." Tempted though she was, Lin Yu ultimately rejected the sinister cultivator's suggestion.

Strike a snake without killing it, and you invite disaster upon yourself.

This target was different from the rogue cultivators they had preyed on before.

Rogue cultivators had no backing. Even if they failed to kill one, offending them did not matter. They could simply dust off their backsides, run away, and set their murderous traps elsewhere.

But cultivators from the Five Great Sects were different!

Those from renowned sects might not be particularly powerful themselves, but they were second to none when it came to calling in reinforcements.

Without the confidence to pull up the grass by its roots, Lin Yu was unwilling to rashly ambush a late Qi Refining cultivator from the Five Great Sects.

"What a pity." The sinister cultivator sighed.

"Wait!" Lin Yu suddenly raised her head, revealing the swanlike curve of her neck. "Have you noticed something wrong?"

The burly man and the sinister cultivator exchanged a glance and asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Our act was perfect."

"Watch out."

Sensing a disturbance in the spiritual energy, Lin Yu shoved the burly man away and used the force to spring backward.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The moisture permeating the forest suddenly flowed together as though alive, forming three water chains.

One pierced the sinister cultivator's chest and bound him firmly in place. Another shot toward the scar-faced man, only to be blocked by the shield artifact he pulled out.

The final water chain struck empty air. Lin Yu, the first to react, twisted aside and dodged it.

"Damn it, that bastard's still here!"

The sinister cultivator flexed his wrist and swung his sword at the water cage binding him, oblivious to the fiery glow quietly appearing behind him.

"Tong Yu, watch your back!"

Before Lin Yu's warning had finished ringing out, Iron Egg sprang into action. Opening flame-wreathed jaws, he viciously bit toward the sinister cultivator's neck, catching him between the exhaustion of his last strike and the gathering of strength for his next.

Tong Yu's gaze sharpened. Ignoring the incoming attack, he immediately thrust his sword toward Iron Egg's belly.

"You're courting death! A mere low-tier monster dares to atta-"

Tong Yu's mocking laugh suddenly caught in his throat. He stared in terror at the water droplets bursting around him. "Senior, spare... my life!"

Chen Beiwu clenched his right hand. The defensive barrier surrounding Tong Yu shattered with a crash, and hundreds of water needles, each powerful enough to pierce stone, tore his body apart.

With the Water Prison Spell restraining his target and Iron Egg feinting an attack, he could crush a sixth-layer Qi Refining cultivator in just two moves.

"Hurry up and attack!"

Seeing the scar-faced man begin to falter, Lin Yu hurriedly took a Soul-Seizing Nail flecked with blood from a hidden layer of her undergarments and concealed it in her palm.

The Soul-Seizing Nail was a notorious second-tier venomous spirit artifact from the Southern Wasteland. Forging one required a blood sacrifice using the blood essence and wronged souls of dozens of cultivators who had died unjust deaths.

A Soul-Seizing Nail struck without sound or warning. Even cultivators whose divine sense surpassed the wielder's struggled to detect it. Once it pierced the body and bound the three souls, even a cultivator at the Qi Refining peak could no longer wield magical power.

With this venomous spirit artifact, Lin Yu had worked with Tong Yu and his brother to ambush and kill several late Qi Refining cultivators, including a rogue cultivator at the ninth layer of Qi Refining.

At her words, the scar-faced man stopped worrying about the expense. He pulled out a talisman and slapped it onto himself, then took out two more and aimed them at Chen Beiwu.

"Lightning, descend! Fire, come forth!"

In an instant, lightning rampaged and flames erupted. The two spell talismans unleashed an indiscriminate bombardment in Chen Beiwu's direction.

Chen Beiwu easily leaped backward, breaking the talismans' lock on him. His figure slowly melted into the thickening mist around him.

"Where is he?" The burly man scanned his surroundings, instinctively edging toward Lin Yu.

Tong Yu was already dead. If Lin Yu died as well, he would be left like a lone timber trying to hold up a collapsing roof.

One at the sixth layer of Qi Refining and one at the seventh layer remain. Hidden in the mist, Chen Beiwu continued searching for his next target.

Those who killed would, in turn, be killed.

Since these bandit cultivators had dared to set their sights on him, they ought to face death!

(End of chapter)