Translator: Myuu Editor: Myuu
“I remember you… You were with Sun Bingchen when Ye Tiancheng was taken down at Pingxi City last time! Why are you here?”
The female disciple from the Wise Ruler Sect only stopped crying after a long while. She lifted her head and looked at Yan Liqiang.
“It’s a long story. I remember you too. I didn’t actually expect to bump into both of you here…” Yan Liqiang pointed to the corpses on the ground and shook his head. “Can you move right now? It’s not safe to stay here for too long. There was quite a huge commotion here just now and since the Shatu people here and the Blackwind Bandits are a gang, I fear that the Blackwind Bandits might be here any minute now. When that happens, we won’t be able to escape even if we wanted to…”
The lady clenched her teeth and wiped away the tears from her face. She tried to stand up again, but could barely manage to do so. Her body swayed and her legs gave way beneath her. Just when she was about to fall, Yan Liqiang hurriedly took two steps forward and grabbed the lady by her arm to support her.
“Unhand me…!” With a determined expression, she tried to retract her arm, seemingly having an issue with Yan Liqiang touching her.
Yan Liqiang was extremely obedient. He instantly loosened his grasp and took a step back. The moment the woman pulled her arm back, her body involuntarily gave way and she crashed onto the ground again with a thud.
Everything went silent.
Yan Liqiang didn’t say anything. He just watched motionlessly at the side, allowing the lady to crash onto the ground.
The lady was prideful and obstinate, but Yan Liqiang had ways to deal with someone like her.
The lady made a few attempts to get up again. Yan Liqiang wasn’t sure if the poison in her body was still there or if it was the side effects of the detoxification, but her limbs were limp like noodles. After a few more attempts, the lady stopped moving. While panting heavily, she laid there on the ground and huge tears started rolling down her eyes again.
Yan Liqiang figured that the lady probably should not refuse his assistance at this point in time. While waiting for her to speak up, he didn’t expect that she would refuse to open her mouth at all. This lady was so stubborn to the point that she wasn’t ladylike at all.
The lady didn’t say a word. She just clenched her teeth and started struggling to get up by herself. Such a simple action was now extremely challenging for her right now.
Yan Liqiang shook his head and was at a loss for words upon seeing how stubborn this lady was. Just when he about to go loot the Shatu corpses, he heard Goldie’s barks from the hill in the distance.
The moment Yan Liqiang heard Goldie, his expression darkened. From Goldie’s barks, he knew that it had discovered that some people were making their way here.
On a night like this, the sounds of iron hooves reverberated far and wide. After Goldie barked a few times, Yan Liqiang heard the loud rumbles in the distance.
Without a doubt, the iron hooves that could only reach here at this hour would be none other than the Blackwind Bandits.
Yan Liqiang’s strength had yet to fully recover, and he had drawn his bow quite a few times. If he were to clash with such a large crowd of Blackwind Bandits, there was no way he would survive.
The lady managed to stand up again unsteadily. She picked up her longsword and stuck it in the ground to support her body, so that she wouldn’t fall down again.
“Let’s go, the Blackwind Bandits are coming…!” Yan Liqiang hurriedly told the lady.
The lady remained silent and unmoving. Her long eyelashes fluttered. She then calmly gazed in the direction of where the sounds of the thundering iron hooves were coming from with her deep eyes. She tightened her grasp on the sword hilt and moved a few steps. Standing in front of her senior martial brother’s corpse, she assumed a defensive stance. She started regulating her breathing while preparing to use every last ounce of energy left in her body to put up a desperate struggle with the incoming Blackwind Bandits.
“Are you thinking of battling those Blackwind Bandits here?” Yan Liqiang looked at the lady in shock.
The lady lifted her head and cast a cold glance at Yan Liqiang. The pride that ran deep in her bones showed no hesitation. Even death itself wouldn’t make her lower her head.
In her current state, any Shatu man on his rhinodrake steed could easily send her flying, let alone so many of them. Yan Liqiang didn’t expect this lady to be so strong that she could actually face death with equanimity.
Damn, Yan Liqiang had seen his fair share of capable women throughout his career in his previous life. Yet, they were nothing compared to the one before his very eyes. This lady was indeed manlier than many men.
The sound of iron hooves grew clearer over their short conversation.
Yan Liqiang clenched his teeth while looking at the lady’s face. He then made a prompt decision and suddenly chopped the base of the lady’s neck.
If the lady still had strength left in her, of course Yan Liqiang would be no match for her when it came to close quarters combat. However, the lady could barely stand up right now. So how could she even be a match for Yan Liqiang? Furthermore, she probably never expected Yan Liqiang to strike her. Thus, her body went limp after his attack. She shut her eyes as she immediately collapsed in a heap.
Yan Liqiang caught her in his arms this time instead of letting her crash onto the ground again. With the rope he found at the side, which had fallen onto the ground while the Shatu men were putting away the tents and their belongings, he tied her on his back. He swung the Horned Python Bow on his other shoulder, then started dashing toward the forest in the distance. After taking a few steps, Yan Liqiang stopped in his track. He turned his head around and looked at the lifeless male disciple from the Wise Ruler Sect. Clenching his teeth, he ran over to him again and grabbed his corpse before running back to the forest.
An ordinary person would have collapsed under the weight of a person on his back and another person in his arms. Fortunately, Yan Liqiang possessed a rather frightening amount of strength. The total weight of these two people was less than 140 kilograms, a weight he could still carry.
Goldie also popped out from the bushes and started running along with Yan Liqiang.
“Don’t follow me. The size of our target is too huge! Flee on your own and don’t let anyone catch you again…!” Yan Liqiang ordered Goldie while running.
Goldie seemed to instantly understand Yan Liqiang’s orders. It immediately jumped into the bushes at the front and vanished from Yan Liqiang’s sight.
By the time Yan Liqiang reached the edge of the forest, the sounds of the iron hooves and countless burning torches had already made it onto the plains where the corpses were scattered all over the place.
Yan Liqiang turned his head around when he heard the huge commotion from the Blackwind Bandits behind him. As soon as he did, he saw at least three hundred Blackwind Bandits rushing onto the plains. A few of them pointed in the direction he was headed towards and started yelling loudly on their rhinodrake steeds.
There was dried up needlegrass everywhere on the plains. When Yan Liqiang left, he had no choice but to go through the plains if he wanted to avoid meeting those Shatu men head on. Therefore, it was inevitable that he would leave a trail along the plains. The moment those Blackwind Bandits arrived, anyone among them with decent vision would be able to spot his footprints with just a single glance.
“Oh f*ck, gimme a break! I didn’t even lay a finger on your ancestral shrines…!” The Blackwind Bandits were so agitated, yelling in their strange language as they all dismounted from their steeds. Seeing the black mass rushing toward him with their scimitars raised as though they were hornets whose nest had been smashed, flattening the entirety of the needlegrass on the plains, Yan Liqiang was so scared that he quickly ran.
He fled for his life inside the forest, only relying on his memories.
However, running inside a forest with three people was more inconvenient than running alone. There was a limit to how fast he could go. As Yan Liqiang continued running, he realized that the footsteps, noises, and burning torches of the Blackwind Bandits pursuing him were drawing closer and closer. At this rate, they were going to catch up to him sooner or later. He might not even be able to outrun them even if he was escaping with just the lady on his back, let alone fleeing as three people.
No, he couldn’t go on this way!
Yan Liqiang recalled that he had seen a mountain cave up ahead when he first entered this forest. The cave was well hidden deep behind bushes and shrubs, and there were no ferocious beasts in there. Yan Liqiang clenched his teeth and dashed toward the cave.
A few minutes later, Yan Liqiang arrived at the small mountain cave. He put down the man he was carrying and the lady he had on his back and threw them into the mountain cave. He made sure to cover his trail well before quickly leaving the mountain cave and running off in another direction.
After running more than fifty meters, he saw the burning torches in the distance had drawn even closer. The distance between them had reduced to nearly a hundred meters.
Yan Liqiang abruptly stopped, retrieved his Horned Python Bow, nocked an arrow, and released it…
Following a swoosh, a Shatu man let out a blood-curdling scream and fell on the ground.
“Shatu dogs, come for me if you have a death wish…!” Yan Liqiang laughed loudly. Among the furious yells of countless Shatu men, Yan Liqiang turned around and started running into the distance. Countless angry Shatu men pursued him with their clenched teeth and reddened eyes…
