Yet now, they trod with far greater caution than before. Every step was measured, their eyes scanning not only the path ahead but also seeking out any hiding places above or to the sides, leaving the entire group twitchy and on edge.
That rogue, Xing Chen, truly hasn't changed his ways! He always loves playing these petty tricks, Long Xin muttered inwardly. Still, the man is undeniably formidable! With just himself, he’s managed to turn this whole troupe into a flock of startled birds!
At that moment, Long Xin's heart was soaring to the heavens! If her composure hadn't been ironclad, she might have burst out laughing uncontrollably by now! The gloom of the preceding days seemed to vanish instantly!
The situation now felt more like watching an amusing farce. Her occasional jests and sharp barbs only served to drive the tightly wound elite experts of Moluo to near madness with shame and fury, yet they remained utterly helpless.
Several times, Moluo Yin Zhi and the others desperately wished they could cleave Long Xin in two with their swords!
But in the final moment, they managed to restrain themselves!
Not for any other reason, but because Long Xin held a crucial map—to enter the Land of Heroes, Long Xin’s life absolutely had to be spared!
Long Xin had keenly recognized this advantage, growing increasingly reckless.
Her objective was simple: keep the group so unsettled that even if they didn't completely crack under the strain, they would be mentally exhausted, creating the perfect opportunity for Xing Chen to strike!
The group could only endure Long Xin’s sonic assault while simultaneously moving forward under constant guard!
Swish… rustle… A startled snow fox suddenly darted out from a clump of withered grass.
This sudden noise jolted Moluo Yin Feng and the others, who had already been reduced to jumpy wrecks!
They instinctively drew their swords across their chests! Adopting defensive stances, looking as if they were facing an imminent catastrophe!
"Hahahaha." Long Xin could hold back no longer, shaking with unrestrained laughter. "To be scared stiff by a mere fox, I simply cannot stand it."
"Shut your mouth, you wicked woman! Believe it or not, I’ll seal it for you!" Moluo Yin Zhi finally exploded in frustration.
"Oh! Is that all you've got?" Long Xin showed no fear whatsoever!
Moluo Yin Zhi was so enraged he was speechless, his face cycling through shades of green and white!
How could he not detect the mockery in Long Xin's words!
But Long Xin was stating a fact: a group of self-proclaimed masters were nearly driven insane by a fox! If this got out, how could they ever save face!
Of course, they’d have to survive this ordeal first before worrying about reputation!
Right now, the most pressing issue was how to silence Long Xin’s razor-sharp tongue; otherwise, even before the mysterious assassin made a move, Long Xin alone might just provoke them to death!
Having made up his mind, Moluo Yin Zhi sneered darkly, "You asked for this; don't blame me!" As he spoke, he reached into the satchel at his waist and pulled out a strip of adhesive tape!
He intended to slap it right over Long Xin's mouth!
"No! Don't tape it!" Long Xin finally panicked. "I won't talk, alright?"
"Hmph! That’s not for you to decide anymore," Moluo Yin Zhi ground out through clenched teeth!
It could be said that over these past few days, Moluo Yin Zhi had fully experienced just how troublesome this energetic woman could be! Especially that mouth of hers, sharper than any blade!
This time, he absolutely had to ensure she remained utterly silent!
With a swift grasp, he pinned Long Xin’s head firmly!
"Ah! I’m going to die," Long Xin shrieked in exasperation. "You damn bastard, hurry up and do it!" With that, she opened her mouth wide and savagely bit down hard on Moluo Yin Zhi’s right hand, which was holding the tape and nearest to her face!
"Ah! That hurts..." Moluo Yin Zhi never anticipated that the delicate beauty Long Xin would dare to bite, and with such precision! Such ferocity!
Even more unbelievably, Long Xin seemed to have thrown caution to the wind, clamping down and refusing to let go!
His fingers felt like they were about to snap!
Instinctively, he channeled energy, intending to violently shake Long Xin off!
And at that precise instant!
Hoo...
A faint, almost inaudible sound suddenly pierced the air!
By the time Moluo Yin Zhi registered it, a streak of electric light had already shot towards his vital throat area!
Ah! Such speed!
Moluo Yin Zhi was utterly horrified!
It was him!
No one could have predicted that Long Xin’s single sentence would actually summon that terrifying god of death! And at this most critical juncture!
But everything had been within Long Xin’s calculations. While biting Moluo Yin Zhi, she executed a strange twist of her body, leaning against Moluo Yin Zhi’s left arm which held his sword!
Everything unfolded too suddenly, too rapidly!
Moluo Yin Zhi, caught completely off guard, instinctively flashed backward! Simultaneously raising his sword to block!
However, he forgot that his hand was still clamped in Long Xin's jaws!
Even worse, Long Xin's body somehow wedged itself inside the grip of Moluo Yin Zhi’s sword arm!
This prevented the Kaitian Greatsword in his left hand from quickly guarding his chest!
Not only that, but as he retreated, he was involuntarily pulled closer to Long Xin against his will!
This cascade of events caused Moluo Yin Zhi's backward momentum to momentarily stall!
But in that briefest fraction of a second, the icy blade swept past like lightning! Accompanied by a piercing chill!
Thwack thwack...
The crisp sound of a sharp weapon penetrating flesh and shattering bone instantly echoed!
No one could have expected the turn of events to be so sudden!
It seemed as if everything had been meticulously planned, executed with flawless synchronicity!
In fact, this was precisely what Long Xin had orchestrated!
Once Moluo Yin Zhi was dead, the remaining Moluo Yin Feng would be easier to deal with!
It must be said, Long Xin understood Xing Chen profoundly!
And Xing Chen had, in turn, anticipated Long Xin's intentions!
Their coordination was seamless, fooling even the normally meticulous Moluo Yin Feng!
Under normal circumstances, Xing Chen would never have succeeded with a sneak attack, but this sequence of forced errors actually made Xing Chen's plan to assassinate Moluo Yin Zhi succeed!
Splat!
A blue shadow flashed, and mist of blood sprayed outward!
"Ah! Yin Zhi!" The phantom afterimage that suddenly appeared slashed clean through Moluo Yin Zhi’s head!
The scene before him was something Moluo Yin Feng simply could not process!
It had all happened too fast, too unexpectedly! Moluo Yin Zhi was killed in the very first exchange!
But the nightmare had only just begun!
The mysterious assassin gave Moluo Yin Feng no chance to react!
In the instant he passed through Moluo Yin Zhi's body, he shot forward like a projectile towards Moluo Yin Feng, the darkened blade sweeping toward his chest!
"Roar..."
Moluo Yin Feng’s reaction was lightning-fast!
He instinctively braced the Kaitian Greatsword!
Simultaneously channeling energy to protect his body!
Boom! The blackened blade slammed violently against the broad surface of the Kaitian Greatsword! It was immediately repelled!
Boom! Whoosh!
The figure of the mysterious assassin, knocked back, surged towards Long Xin like a cannonball!
Before anyone could even process what had happened, the phantom shadow swept Long Xin up like a whirlwind and vanished into the nearby thicket! Gone without a trace!
"Ah!" Only then did the rest of the men react to the astonishing sight, their faces slack with shock!
Long Xin was gone, and Moluo Yin Zhi lay headless!
Everything that just transpired felt like a nightmare! The entire sequence, from start to finish, took less than a second!
"It was him!" Moluo Yin Feng tightly gripped the Kaitian Greatsword in his hand, staring fixedly at the direction where the blue shadow had disappeared!
His entire body seemed frozen, gasping for breath with desperate effort!
And his eyes, filled with utter terror, seemed to have witnessed the most horrifying thing imaginable!
"How is this possible... it's him." In that brief moment of engagement, Moluo Yin Feng had finally glimpsed the opponent's strange, pitch-black irises!
They were eyes that seemed both dreamlike and real, filled with an evil, captivating power—more like a mysterious spell that awakened the deepest, darkest, most terrifying memory buried within Moluo Yin Feng's heart!
The heart-stopping battle on the city walls of Mancheng, the terrifying figure on the Byron Prairie, like a Asura God of Slaughter!
Although a full twenty years had passed, upon seeing those familiar black eyes, that memory he had deliberately suppressed now almost caused Moluo Yin Feng to collapse on the spot!
In Moluo Yin Feng's entire life, there had only been one person capable of instilling this feeling of being haunted by an evil spirit!
No wonder he had that strong sense of déjà vu earlier!
Yet, Moluo Yin Feng could never have imagined that the demon who vanished twenty-five years ago would suddenly reappear at this moment!
Even though his cultivation had soared to the pinnacle of the Seventh Heaven Gate over these twenty-five years, Moluo Yin Feng sorrowfully realized that there seemed to be an uncrossable chasm between them!
No matter how hard he tried, no matter how high his power grew, that phantom-like specter remained eternally out of reach!
"Jiu Yao Shen Zhen, I will never let you go." The sudden blow nearly shattered Moluo Yin Feng! But beneath that was an unspeakable depth of despair and unwillingness!
Everyone was stunned by Moluo Yin Feng’s abnormal reaction! He didn't even spare a glance for the dismembered body of Moluo Yin Zhi lying nearby!
"Marshal!" Qing Ming seemed genuinely terrified by Moluo Yin Feng’s frightful appearance!
"Everyone, scatter and flee now." Moluo Yin Feng seemed to realize his lapse, forcing down the terror in his heart: "Run as far as you can. Rendezvous at Camp Seven after you clear this forest."
"What, scatter and flee?" Qing Ming’s expression changed drastically; he seemed unable to believe what he heard.
"This is a military order," Moluo Yin Feng practically roared. "Otherwise, none of us will survive."
"..." Qing Ming and the others were stunned. None of them had ever witnessed Moluo Yin Feng in such a state of panicked disarray!
"Whoever survives and reaches Camp Seven must pass this message back to headquarters: Jiu Yao Shen Zhen has returned."
"..." The others looked bewildered!
However, the veteran generals like Yin Nu, Qu Lei, Man Cang, and Qin Dian all had drastic changes in expression: "Impossible, wasn't he already dead?"
No one knew better than them what a terrifying entity Jiu Yao Shen Zhen truly was. If he were alive, no one could imagine the level of growth his talent and comprehension might have achieved!
"I absolutely cannot be mistaken," Moluo Yin Feng ground out through gritted teeth. "Those black eyes, they are unmistakable."
"Has this demon returned?" Man Cang Qin Dian clenched his fists tightly. "No wonder that person earlier was so ridiculously strong! Perhaps only Jiu Yao Shen Zhen could possess such cultivation!" Although Man Cang Qin Dian and the others were deeply shocked by Jiu Yao Shen Zhen's reappearance, they were not surprised by his incredible power!
"Given his ruthlessness, he would never let any of us leave alive," Yin Nu Qu Lei stated gravely.
"That's why we must scatter and flee. He is only one person; he cannot kill all of us," Moluo Yin Feng stated firmly. "No matter what, you must protect the Night Pearl."
"Yes!"
............
I ran a full hundred li without stopping!
Only then did I finally halt.
Then, I carefully helped Long Xin and leaned her against the trunk of a large tree.
"Ugh! I'm exhausted!"
Having tracked those fellows for days, I hadn't managed a proper rest! Finally rescuing Long Xin, my whole body felt like it had fallen apart!
Long Xin was also drenched in fine sweat! She moved her weary limbs slightly with some difficulty, then stared at me without blinking!
Her appearance hadn't changed much over the two decades, but now she looked somewhat battered, bearing several scars of varying depth!
Her crimson magic robe was slashed in multiple places!
Faintly visible beneath the tears were streaks of greenish bruises on her snow-white skin, causing a pang of heartache just looking at them!
However, those expressive, large eyes still shone with vitality. At this moment, her unwavering gaze made my heart inexplicably begin to pound harder!
"Is it really you, Xing Chen?" Long Xin asked hesitantly.
"Who else would it be?" I quickly removed my helmet.
"Wonderful! I knew it had to be you." Long Xin seemed overcome with excitement, stumbling over her words! She then threw her arms around me, refusing to let go. "Am I dreaming?!"
"Of course not." I felt awkward, yet my arms naturally circled Long Xin’s waist. "You seem to have suffered quite a bit, looking like this."
"It's nothing; those fools didn't dare do much to me," Long Xin said, but she quickly realized the atmosphere felt strange—their current posture was rather intimate!
"You little brat, daring to take liberties with this old lady!" Before I could react, two sharp raps landed on my head!
"Ouch! Boss!" I quickly released her. "You were the one who threw yourself into my arms."
"Hmph!" Long Xin looked slightly embarrassed.
"Did I make you suffer?" I didn't know why my tone sounded so gentle; the most obvious difference was the unusual feeling that now accompanied seeing Long Xin, something that hadn't been there before.
"At least you have a conscience, knowing to come rescue me," Long Xin maintained her usual bold demeanor, then leaned against the tree trunk to sit down.
A reunion after a long separation naturally involved a surge of emotion and reflection!
However, I knew this wasn't the time for lingering.
Moreover, I was deeply worried about the safety of the others!
"How did you fall into their hands?" I pressed on. "And what about Yan Luo, Xing Ye, and Xing Zhan? How are they doing?"
"That's a long story," Long Xin sighed deeply, then continued. "I suppose I should start from when we reached the Snow Region two years ago..."