For some reason, teleportation wouldn’t work again. Tie Ci suspected she had already been poisoned when she smelled the old monster’s scent.
The old monster behind them wasn’t pursuing as fast as expected either, his body swaying unsteadily in the fierce wind. Tie Ci said softly, “This guy seems injured?”
Feiyu made an “mm” sound.
Tie Ci had a realization, “You did this? This person originally came to assassinate me? You struck at him first? So you’re injured too?”
Feiyu smiled without speaking and raised her hand to brush the hair blown by wind away from Tie Ci’s eyes to behind her shoulders.
Tie Ci’s heart shook for a moment, but she still had many unresolved doubts. Only this really wasn’t the time for conversation. From the corner of her eye, she saw the old monster seemed to be enraged by something and suddenly exerted force, getting closer and closer to them.
Even the fierce wind couldn’t dispel that corpse oil smell.
Tie Ci had now confirmed the opponent’s identity and understood Feiyu’s reason for choosing to flee against the wind. They had to occupy the upwind position—once downwind, that old fellow had ten thousand ways to poison everyone within a ten-li radius.
Speaking of today’s fierce wind, it was heaven’s assistance. The wind prevented the old monster from spreading poison in the air; otherwise, they might have collapsed at first sight.
Legend spoke of Poison Maniac and Medicine Maniac as twin brothers, one skilled in poison and one in medicine, both figures among the famous “Three Maniacs and Five Emperors” of the martial world. Medicine Maniac could still be called half-righteous and half-evil, but Poison Maniac was truly a villain with all five poisons. It was said his poison practice methods were utterly inhumane. The brothers had a falling-out years ago, nearly taking each other’s lives, thus disappearing from the martial world. But everyone knew such figures wouldn’t die easily—they just had too many enemies restraining each other. Once most of their enemies died off, they could emerge to cause trouble again.
Now hadn’t someone dug him out from the corpse oil?
Legend said this old monster’s poison use was impossible to guard against, and his poisons had spreading properties. With one release, he could poison a large area. In his prime, it was said he could spread poison ten li in an instant, leaving nothing alive in his wake.
No matter how skilled a master you were, if the entire ten-li area around you became poisonous in the blink of an eye, you couldn’t escape. This was where Poison Maniac’s power lay.
But today’s wind was too strong. Moving against it was like hitting an iron wall head-on. Tie Ci suddenly remembered when Shen Mi saw off Shen Mother that day, Shen Mother said there would be bad weather recently—wasn’t this exactly what came to pass?
Was this coincidence or did Shen Mother have some abilities?
Ahead came a crack as a wrist-thick tree was blown down by the wind. Tie Ci swept past with Feiyu in her arms, dodging it. As they passed, she kicked the tree trunk, sending it straight toward the old monster.
This kick delayed the old monster enough for Tie Ci to escape, but the old monster suddenly said eerily, “She’s already been poisoned by me. Are you rushing back to bury her?”
Tie Ci paused.
Feiyu: “Don’t mind him! I’m fine! Go quickly!”
Tie Ci said nothing.
Feiyu became somewhat anxious, “Really, I’m not afraid of poison. He can’t poison me to death. Go quickly!”
But in this pause, the old monster was already close at hand. With strange laughter, he flicked his finger.
Where his finger pointed, a long tree branch was enveloped by rolling black qi that flowed to the tip in an instant, turning the entire branch a ghostly blue color.
Tie Ci was about to land on this branch.
Cold light flashed from Feiyu’s fingertip, and the branch broke and fell. Tie Ci’s foot stepped into empty air, and at this moment the fierce wind swept up, pushing both of them backward.
The old monster was right behind them. His fingertips flicked repeatedly with sharp sounds. In the blink of an eye, countless silk threads gleaming with blue-black light crisscrossed the trees behind him, like a great net swaying in the wind. He himself was like a giant spider positioned at the center of this web.
The fierce wind howled, but the net was extremely flexible and completely intact. The old monster laughed loudly and spread his arms wide.
At this moment, fierce wind came head-on while behind them was the old monster and his net. The two were surrounded front and back, like walking into a trap.
Charging forward, there was no way to gain leverage underfoot, and Tie Ci was still holding someone.
Fleeing backward, touching that net would surely mean death.
In an instant, Tie Ci pulled Feiyu in front of herself.
But Feiyu firmly grabbed her and wouldn’t let go.
Without hesitation, Tie Ci reached out and pinched her ankle.
Feiyu cried out and her whole body went limp.
Tie Ci took the opportunity to hold her, bent her back, curled them both into a ball, then adjusted the angle and gathered her strength.
She mobilized all her true qi. That originally magnificent and bright true qi, under impact, circulated once through her dantian, then suddenly reversed, flowing backward and downward. Tie Ci’s whole body shook. She felt like a flood flowing backward, like a giant mountain being uprooted. Three shock sounds rang within her body—pop, pop, pop—and suddenly her body felt light as a feather yet heavy as Mount Tai.
She shot backward like a cannonball.
Straight toward the old monster with his arms spread wide.
The Crown Princess had always been ruthless, unafraid of mutual destruction.
If she couldn’t touch the net, she’d ram into him.
Even if she died, she’d drag him down with her.
But that old thing was poisonous all over. Ramming into him would certainly mean poisoning, so she had to protect Feiyu first.
The old monster hadn’t expected anyone in the world would dare ram into him. Before he could react, there was a bang. He felt as if a mountain had struck his chest. Crackling sounds like firecrackers rang out continuously—who knew how many bones in his body broke. His whole person flew out like a kite with a broken string.
A hand appeared silently, like frost and snow descending in the night, a horizontal blade stroke.
A scream, and blood flew out like a rainbow ribbon.
In this instant, Feiyu struck with her blade, blinding both his eyes with one cut.
She felt somewhat regretful.
Because Tie Ci was blocking, she could at most injure the old monster’s eyes. Otherwise, this blade should have cut his throat—that would have solved everything once and for all.
The old monster spurted blood as he flew backward, silk threads breaking one after another, raining blood in midair.
In this instant while airborne, he billowed his wide sleeves. On the ground, insects and ants ran frantically and grew large, tree leaves suddenly turned black, tree bark continuously peeled off, branches withered and became rigid like knife points stabbing toward the sky, and a colorful brocade ribbon spread through the air.
In the blink of an eye, this place became a poisoned domain.
Feiyu suddenly spread her wide sleeves, protecting Tie Ci within them.
The two were now falling. Feiyu’s movements were impaired, and after Tie Ci rammed the old monster, her body began to stiffen. No matter what, they couldn’t escape that entire poisoned area.
Suddenly an object floated over, completely transparent and dome-shaped, like a jellyfish or umbrella, suddenly covering the two of them.
At the same time, a reverse wind blew, pushing hard against the current fierce wind, shoving the two several zhang away, out of the poisoned domain’s range.
With a thud, Feiyu and Tie Ci crashed down. Regardless of what was underneath, Feiyu immediately held Tie Ci and rolled, instantly rolling quite far.
Until she suddenly bumped into a pair of feet.
Those feet wore white boots but were covered in mud, and immediately stepped back in disgust.
Feiyu: “…”
Your boots are dirtier than mine, okay?
However, she immediately smiled and slightly raised her head.
At this moment, fierce winds filled the sky with sand and stones rolling chaotically. She was disheveled with grass leaves hanging in her hair, yet those eyes gathered starlight and clear radiance, pale and shining, reflecting the Milky Way.
Messy hair fluttered, a few strands brushing across slightly upturned red lips.
The man looking down at her unconsciously froze and unnaturally turned his gaze away.
Feiyu also froze.
This guy was dressed too strangely, wasn’t he? Wearing only pants was one thing, but why were the pants tightly wrapped around his legs? And only half-length, with something on his calves—a thin layer of gauze with thick leg hair stubbornly poking through the gaps. The upper garment was also strange, with shoulders puffed up like flower buds, and something round like a big pancake around his neck that looked suffocating. Why was his hair curly, undulating like waves?
She stared at this blooming oddity before her, obviously having some difficulty accepting it.
Being stared at like this, the man first turned away, then coughed once. Glancing at Tie Ci whom Feiyu was tightly protecting, he reached out to lift Tie Ci up.
Feiyu smiled cheerfully as if unconcerned, but a small blade emerged from a tricky angle, slashing backward toward his fingers.
The man pulled back his hand and stared at her in surprise.
Feiyu smiled, “What are you looking at? Looking because I’m too beautiful?”
The man snorted and was about to speak when blade light was already between his eyebrows. He had to step back again, frowning, “Is this how you treat your lifesaver?”
“Mm, you can make requests for me to repay. The person—you can’t touch without my consent.”
The man raised an eyebrow, “What if I insist on touching? What can you do?”
He reached out again to lift Tie Ci. Feiyu flicked her finger, and countless blue poison droplets shook from the transparent umbrella covered in poison overhead, about to fall on the man’s head the next moment.
The man seemed amused by anger and chuckled, slapping toward the umbrella while saying, “What are you to interfere with my business? This is my mast…”
Just then, Tie Ci struggled out a sentence, “…Senior Brother.”
Feiyu: “…”
She only froze for a second, then very naturally smiled, turned her finger to move the umbrella away. The blade and blade-like eye waves disappeared too, and she called out intimately and sweetly, “Senior Brother!”
Tie Ci: “…”