The night wind drifted gently, causing the forest leaves to rustle and sway. The assassins from Linlan Mountain had their magical techniques charged and ready, the silver light of their spells intermingling with the orange-yellow firelight among the trees.
However, the man and woman before them showed no panic whatsoever—in fact, their expressions even revealed a hint of anticipation. The woman was so leisurely that she blatantly placed the paper and pen in her hands neatly back into her robes and patted them down.
The several disciples exchanged glances, somewhat uncertain about what to do.
“Is it him?”
“The information we got from questioning the prisoners should be correct.” The lead disciple gritted his teeth. “Better to kill wrongly than let him escape. Attack!”
At his command, from the silver light formation that had accumulated power, several silver light arrows suddenly shot forth, charging straight toward Meng Ruji and Mu Sui’s hearts.
The moment the arrows moved, both Meng Ruji and Mu Sui reacted swiftly. Both shouted “Be careful!” in unison, but Mu Sui directly turned around to embrace Meng Ruji, clearly intending to use his own body to block the light arrows for her.
Mu Sui glanced sideways at the trajectory of all the light arrows, having already calculated that from his current position, he would only suffer what appeared to be frightening but ultimately superficial flesh wounds.
Meng Ruji, held in Mu Sui’s embrace, had her vision completely blocked by Mu Sui’s chest. She couldn’t see the positions of the light arrows coming from all directions, but her ears heard the sounds from around them.
She wasn’t idle either. Immediately, she hooked her foot below and kicked at Mu Sui’s hem, raised one hand to press on Mu Sui’s shoulder, and made a motion to press him down to the ground!
While Mu Sui had calculated the attacks from behind clearly, the assault from within his arms caught him somewhat off guard.
With a “bang,” Mu Sui was directly pressed to the ground by Meng Ruji. Meng Ruji sat astride him, leaning forward slightly, and the two of them dodged all the arrows of the first wave.
Mu Sui stared at Meng Ruji sitting on top of him, but saw that even though she was sitting perfectly steady, she insisted on pretending to be delicate as she fell forward against his chest. With one hand braced beside his ear and the other pressed against his chest, she gasped with poor acting skills, breathing against his ear:
“Oh my, I can’t hold on anymore!”
She made as if to press her lips against his mouth!
This woman!
Shameless!
Her scheming was written all over her face! Who couldn’t see what she was trying to do!
Mu Sui’s eyes widened slightly, as if facing a great enemy. He raised both hands, having to resist not only Meng Ruji but also his current “fate”—he didn’t want to kiss her!
He couldn’t kiss her!
If he kissed her, he’d be dragged away to get married!
Fortunately, the second wave of attacks was already close at hand!
Mu Sui’s hands directly passed through Meng Ruji’s waist, embracing her entire form and pulling her down forcefully. Meng Ruji was caught off guard and crashed into Mu Sui’s chest with a “thud,” directly producing a muffled “mm!” groan…
Mu Sui held Meng Ruji and rolled on the ground, dodging the incoming light arrows. Before the third wave of attacks could charge up, Mu Sui quickly flashed away while holding Meng Ruji, running to the back of the small broken wooden hut.
Meng Ruji didn’t want to come behind the wooden hut! The large bag of raw flour she had bought was still in front of the hut!
But now wasn’t the time to worry about that bag of flour.
Meng Ruji held back.
She turned to look at Mu Sui, only to see him with his back to her, breathing heavily and cold sweat beading on his forehead—he seemed quite frightened.
Well, that made sense. With his complete memory loss, where would he have seen such magical attacks before? Meng Ruji immediately rolled her eyes and hatched another plan. She took Mu Sui’s hand with one hand and touched his face with the other: “Little Sui.”
“Little Sui” looked at Meng Ruji as if he’d seen a ghost, with even more cold sweat on his forehead, but he immediately suppressed the shock on his face and cooperated: “Elder Sister.”
Meng Ruji looked at Mu Sui with sincere eyes: “With me here, don’t be afraid. I already consider you my future husband, and I will protect you well.”
Mu Sui’s expression was complex. Setting aside the matter of protection, he was still somewhat afraid of Meng Ruji’s current state.
What made Mu Sui even more afraid was that while the front was exploding with “crackling” sounds, Meng Ruji pulled out the marriage contract paper and pen from her robes again: “To make my protection more legitimate, why don’t you sign this first?”
Why don’t you listen to what you’re saying first?
Mu Sui had already cursed Meng Ruji thoroughly in his heart, but all his words became: “No, I want to protect you.”
Meng Ruji didn’t back down, practically shoving the paper and pen into Mu Sui’s face: “Either way is fine. If you sign the marriage contract, it’ll be more legitimate for you to protect me! From now on, you’ll be the only one who can protect me!”
Mu Sui’s hand instantly rose, directly grasping the pen that Meng Ruji handed over!
Mu Sui’s eyes widened, and just at that moment! As if sent by the heavens, a silver light directly penetrated the wall they were hiding behind, striking the rear end of the pen.
Mu Sui took the opportunity to let go, allowing the pen to break into two pieces and fall to the ground.
Mu Sui withdrew his hand, and as he pressed down on his right hand with his left hand again, he thought: Why not break this hand? A disobedient hand is better discarded!
Meng Ruji let out a cry of alarm and immediately crouched down to pick up her broken pen.
The pen had broken into two pieces, but it could still write. Meng Ruji was somewhat uncertain: “Can this still write when it’s broken? Would it still count if I wrote with it?”
Before Meng Ruji could get an answer, yet another wave of attacks—who knew which number—struck.
The increasingly powerful silver light arrows could now penetrate the small wooden hut. Dust and fragments of brick, stone, and wood from the hut were shattered by the attacks and scattered everywhere.
“Tsk…” Meng Ruji’s scheme having been interrupted, she finally focused her attention on the people from Linlan Mountain. I rather underestimated Linlan Mountain’s magical techniques. They look rigid and crude, only able to attack from a fixed position, but each attack is stronger than the last…”
Mu Sui glanced at the broken pen she had tucked back into her robes and temporarily breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that at this rate, the small broken wooden hut wouldn’t hold for much longer. If he ran away with Meng Ruji, they would soon be caught up by the Linlan Mountain people with their silver pearls, and then they’d face the same predicament.
So Mu Sui spoke up: “Elder Sister, if I could use the power of my Inner Core, I might be able to break this deadlock.”
Mu Sui stared at Meng Ruji, observing the expression on her face.
At this moment, making such a request was perfectly normal, but there was no guarantee that Meng Ruji wouldn’t become suspicious…
“Deadlock?” But Meng Ruji’s response was in a direction Mu Sui had never anticipated. “Not really.”
Mu Sui was stunned, then saw Meng Ruji pull out four copper coins from her robes.
Mu Sui: “…”
Why did she still have money!?
The food in the package she brought back should have cost ten wen, shouldn’t it? Why did she still have more!?
“Four wen—how am I supposed to take down eight people in one go?” Meng Ruji was somewhat troubled. “These copper coins can hold too little magical power…”
Mu Sui’s voice was somewhat hoarse as he advised: “Four copper coins are still too risky…”
“Indeed.”
Mu Sui’s hope rekindled: “So why don’t we…”
“I’ll go rob some money to use!”
Mu Sui: “…?”
She wasn’t going to rob him, was she?
The next instant, Meng Ruji directly drew a formation on a copper coin. Using the minimal cost to activate one copper coin, the coin spun rapidly as it flew out, circling the wooden hut and striking like lightning from the side, passing directly in front of one of the Linlan Mountain men. Right before the man’s eyes, she used the copper coin to sweep away the silver pearl in front of him.
The formation in front of that man immediately extinguished. While he was still in shock and hadn’t reacted, Meng Ruji had already returned with the copper coin carrying the silver pearl, laughing aloud: “I didn’t expect it would be so easy to rob.”
Mu Sui also hadn’t expected…
This former Demon Lord used both her mind and magical techniques quite cleverly.
With the silver pearl, in both Meng Ruji and Mu Sui’s view, today’s battle was already decided.
Mu Sui didn’t mention the Inner Core matter again, and Meng Ruji decided to set aside the marriage matter for now and deal with the people outside first.
But just at that moment, suddenly, an enormous pressure descended directly from overhead.
A completely different kind of pressure swept away even the magical attacks the Linlan Mountain people were still launching at them.
The small, broken wooden hut immediately crumbled under the enormous pressure. Meng Ruji only barely managed to use the silver pearl to create a barrier before the pressure could crush her and Mu Sui, resisting the pressure the opponent was applying.
Golden light. Meng Ruji looked up despite the pressure and saw a figure standing in the night sky, dressed in magnificent robes, casually playing with a golden pearl in his hand.
Without needing to guess, Meng Ruji knew that was the legendary “One Gold.”
And this person who possessed One Gold…
“Master!”
“We respectfully welcome Master!”
The eight Linlan Mountain disciples all knelt.
As expected, it was the Master of Linlan Mountain.
“The formation is quite exquisite.” The Master of Linlan Mountain stood in the air, not caring at all about wasting the spiritual power in his expensive formation. He looked down at the two people wrapped in the silver light circle below. The golden light on his body was too intense, far exceeding the light below, so he couldn’t see the faces of the people below.
Even so, behind Meng Ruji, Mu Sui still lowered his head slightly, hiding his face in the shadows.
The Master of Linlan Mountain—an old adversary. They had all met before.
To encounter him in this remote backwater…
“No wonder you were able to kill my dear brother.”
His dear brother?
Both Meng Ruji and Mu Sui were stunned at this moment.
Only now did Meng Ruji realize—it couldn’t be, could it? His sworn brother couldn’t be that bandit by the Nai River who wanted to eat people, could he? That bandit was a bandit chief!
This matter was related to her!
Mu Sui also realized at this moment that this Master of Linlan Mountain was named Luo Yingfeng. He was face-conscious and most particular about that set of jianghu brotherhood ideals, having sworn brotherhood with quite a few people. Usually, he didn’t pay much attention to these “brothers” of his, but he cared greatly about his reputation.
Mu Sui briefly reviewed the three people he had killed that day in his mind and finally determined that the person who had sworn brotherhood with the Master of Linlan Mountain should be the one who had been frightened to death upon seeing his face.
No wonder he’d been frightened to death… Only someone who had seen him together with the Master of Linlan Mountain would have had such a strong reaction on the spot.
Mu Sui’s eyes grew slightly cold. He hadn’t expected that killing a petty thief would lead to provoking Luo Yingfeng at this time. Now that Zhuliu City’s treasury was empty, he should be keeping a low profile…
However…
For some reason, the image of Meng Ruji sitting in front of that broken inn by the Nai River with blood streaming down her face suddenly flashed through Mu Sui’s mind.
Thinking of the scar on Meng Ruji’s forehead, two words still faintly crossed his heart—”deserved death.”
Even after weighing the pros and cons, and felt that this conclusion was quite untimely and inappropriate.
But that bandit chief was still…
Deserving of death.