Retreating

Lu Luanli was currently setting the bone and treating Chu Xisheng's injuries.

The injury was to Chu Xisheng's collarbone, and if the bone could not be set in time, it might leave a massive hidden danger.

When Lu Luanli heard the muffled sound from the cavern in the distance, her mind instantly grew sharp, and she directly flew over with her saber in hand, "Who is it?"

However, when she rushed over, the surroundings were empty, and only the stone wall on the right had collapsed, with some gravel still rolling on the ground at that moment.

Lu Luanli's expression relaxed slightly, and she sheathed her saber. She returned to the side of the hot spring and continued helping Chu Xisheng set his bone.

Chu Xisheng's face was twisted in pain; this woman's bone-setting craftsmanship was extremely unprofessional, and had nothing to do with her self-praise from just a moment ago.

However, in this cavern, there was no one else who could help him set his bone.

Chu Xisheng could only endure it hard and try to distract himself, "What's wrong? Why was there a sound over there?"

"It's nothing." Lu Luanli shook her pretty head, "Just a section of the stone wall collapsed over there."

The Firebone Cavern was formed from the remains of a Giant God, and the overall structure was relatively stable, but collapses could occur occasionally.

Especially since she and that sword-wielding youth had fought fiercely here just now, with saber qi and sword gang shooting out, which might have loosened the nearby rock layers.

She was obviously overly vigilant.

Lu Luanli finally set Chu Xisheng's bone, then took out a talisman and struck it heavily onto the fracture, pasting it on top.

"Alright, as long as you don't engage in strenuous activities afterwards, this bone will feel as though it was never broken."

Chu Xisheng was struck by her with pain piercing to his heart, and he let out a miserable scream.

However, strangely enough, as soon as this talisman was pasted on, he felt his bone improve quite a bit.

The collarbone that had clearly just been set was actually not broken a second time by Lu Luanli's palm strike.

Chu Xisheng cast a sidelong glance at Lu Luanli, somewhat suspecting that she had done it on purpose to vent her anger on him over the matter of her identity being exposed, but he had no evidence.

Chu Xisheng got up, put his clothes on, and carried Tie Xiaosheng on his back again.

Because of his injuries, this person had plunged into a deep sleep once more.

Perhaps the talisman-infused water they had fed Tie Xiaosheng, along with some internal and external medicinal treatments for injuries, had taken effect, and Chu Xisheng felt that Tie Xiaosheng's condition had already improved.

The physical constitution of a sixth-rank martial cultivator was already astonishing.

Within such a short span of time, a trace of bloody color had returned to Tie Xiaosheng's face.

"Let's go!"

Chu Xisheng used two looted belts to bind Tie Xiaosheng securely.

"The people of the Long Clan might search for us at any moment, so it's not very safe here."

Lu Luanli also felt that they could not stay long by this hot spring.

She sighed, barely mustered her spirits, and followed by Chu Xisheng's side.

However, after they walked a few miles, Chu Xisheng let out a light gasp of surprise and used his eagle-eyed night vision to look ahead.

"What is it?" Lu Luanli also followed his line of sight to look, and then her expression froze in a daze.

She saw three jackals glowing with gray fire ahead, currently gnawing on a corpse.

That seemed to be the sword-wielding youth who had escaped from beneath her saber; this person's head had somehow been smashed into a pulp of meat, but the clothes he wore and the sword he had dropped to the side were both recognized by Lu Luanli.

She immediately flew over, cleanly split the three jackals in two from head to tail, and then inspected the corpse while enduring her nausea.

Lu Luanli's eyes gradually brightened, and the decadent aura on her face was swept away entirely.

She recognized the wound on this person's chest as the exact result of being pierced by her saber.

This person really was that sword-wielding youth.

Although she did not know who had made the move and been so ruthless and forceful, since this person was already dead, did that mean she could continue lurking in the Zhengyang Martial Academy?

At this time, Chu Xisheng also walked over and silently extended his hand toward her.

"What are you doing?" Lu Luanli's face turned dark.

"What do you think?" Chu Xisheng wore a smile that was not quite a smile and curled his fingers.

What he wanted, of course, was the fifteen taels of demon silver that had been demanded back by Lu Luanli.

Lu Luanli could not help clicking her tongue and had no choice but to return the silver.

However, she was in a good mood right now, so she did not care about this little bit of money.

"I also don't know if the person who made this move is a friend or an enemy. This practitioner of the Divine Eagle Sword didn't even manage to draw his sword when he encountered him. We still have to be extremely careful."

As Lu Luanli spoke, she pulled out a porcelain bottle, poured a drop of yellow liquid from it, and dripped it onto the corpse of the sword-wielding youth.

In merely an instant, the corpse began to emit green smoke and corroded rapidly.

Chu Xisheng immediately knew that was the legendary "corpse-dissolving water," which was an essential item for Jianghu martial artists committing murder and robbery, and traveling at home.

Lu Luanli's purpose in doing this was to destroy the corpses and erase all traces. The saber marks on this corpse might expose her identity.

This lass was actually quite cautious.

Earlier, the several Long Clan tribesmen who had died at her hands near the hot spring had been dissolved by her with corpse-dissolving water.

Lu Luanli had even deliberately spent time scraping away all the saber marks she had left at the battle site.

Chu Xisheng also put away the precious sword from beside them, and at this very moment, a large-sized firework burst open within his field of vision. This caused his Martial Dao Points to rise in one bound to 19.

His mind stirred slightly, and he turned his head to look backward, an unfathomable luster appearing in his eyes.

At the very same time, Long Heng, the eldest young master of the Long Household, led a group of people to the vicinity of the hot spring, the location where Chu Xisheng had successively beheaded sixteen men.

Long Heng looked at the corpses on the ground, his brow deeply furrowed and his expression solemn.

Beside him, the Long Clan elder "Long Shifei" was also observing the remaining traces on the surrounding battlefield.

When they arrived, these corpses had already been gnawed beyond all recognition by the evil entities in the Firebone Cavern.

Fortunately, Long Shifei was experienced and could still deduce part of the truth from the clues.

"The person who killed them should be at the Ninth-Rank Upper, and used the Wind-Chasing Blade. Barring any accidents, the killer should undoubtedly be Chu Xisheng. Look at this throat wound-the angle of the blade's entry is exactly the same as before, only with greater force and faster speed. He must have found medicine inside the cavern to elevate his cultivation."

Long Shifei clicked his tongue in praise, "This boy not only has remarkable saber techniques, but his wits are also quite impressive. He lured our people until the front and back were disconnected, then first killed the tribesmen, and next eliminated the armored guards. He actually used the strength of one person to forcefully crush these sixteen men."

The second young master, Long Sheng, who was behind him, wore an expression of sheer incredulity upon hearing this.

That sickly weakling-he now possessed this kind of capability?

His elder brother Long Heng, however, furrowed his brows and remained troubled, "Then what about Du Hong? That Senior Brother Du of mine is a swordsman of the Seventh-Rank Upper Tier. Where was he when the battle broke out?"

Right at this moment, an armored guard wearing heavy iron armor hurried over, "Eldest Young Master, we found some traces near the hot spring ahead."

Long Heng and Long Shifei did not hesitate and led the group straight to the hot spring.

After searching around here for a while, their expressions grew even heavier and harder than iron.

"Du Hong should have fought a great battle with someone here, and fled in defeat after engaging for an hour and a half."

Long Shifei walked with his hands behind his back, deep in thought, "That person's strength should be on par with Du Hong's, yet the Divine Eagle Sword had no room to be deployed within this cavern, and thus he was defeated. However, I have no way of knowing this person's identity or the martial dao he used. The battle traces here were wiped away, making it impossible to judge."

The second young master Long Sheng's expression shifted slightly, "Could it be Tie Xiaosheng? Tie Xiaosheng is heavily injured, and his strength might temporarily be only at the seventh rank."

As soon as he uttered these words, the expressions of the crowd present tightened slightly.

"It's possible." Long Shifei stroked his long beard, his expression puzzled, "But if it were Tie Xiaosheng, why would he wipe away the traces here and put on a mystery?"

Long Heng, on the other hand, felt an extraordinary tightness in his chest; he realized that no matter which scenario it was, it was extremely troublesome.

This meant that beneath the cavern, there was a powerful entity whose strength reached the seventh rank.

And the people in their Long Household who could currently contend with such a person numbered only a scant few.

He thought again of the previous reports from his subordinates, stating that a mysterious person had killed several tribesmen in succession and broken into the Firebone Cavern.

Long Heng pondered for a long time, and finally let out a long breath, "Pass down the order, gather the men back in, and we return to the commandery city. Then commission some reliable herb-gatherers to come in and have them find Senior Brother Du's whereabouts as soon as possible."

The second young master Long Sheng was taken aback, "We're not searching anymore? Just let Tie Xiaosheng go like this? Just let that Chu Xisheng go?"

Long Heng couldn't be bothered to reply and walked toward another direction with his hands behind his back.

Long Shifei, however, gave a bitter smile as he explained, "We have no choice but to return to the city; Tie Kuangren, the leader of the Iron Banner Gang and the 'Ironblood Pagoda', has already returned to Xiushui City this afternoon!"

Long Sheng's pupils constricted. Upon hearing the four words "Ironblood Pagoda," his breathing choked, and he almost failed to catch his breath.