There was no change in the surrounding scenery, nor any unusual movement. It was completely silent. The water in the distance was totally calm, and the surface of the lake was like a smooth mirror without any ripples.
However, Evil Moon’s black onyx-like eyes narrowed slightly.
Its pupils shrank to the size of pinholes, sparkling with strange brilliance. It leaped silently off the back of the ancient crocodile, and the fur on its neck stood on end like steel needles, resembling a white male lion assuming a vigilant posture.
Beside it, that ancient crocodile seemed to have sensed some extremely horrific presence. It shivered incessantly and buried its head in the sand, not daring to move an inch.
Wisps of white mists, seemingly tangible, shot out of Evil Moon’s pupils like light columns, as it stared at the sky above the lake.
Under its strange gaze, ripples started to appear in the void.
In the ripples, a pale black shadow streaked past and disappeared.
“My pet, come out now!” Evil Moon said in human language.
There was no response from the other side.
Evil Moon’s forelimbs crouched down slightly, and the next moment, it had disappeared on the spot.
A white flowing light flashed across the sky in an instant.
A muffled groan rang out.
Blood splattered in the air.
When Evil Moon returned to the shore, there was a trace of dark crimson blood on its white claws, falling drop by drop on the shore, coagulating and shimmering like scintillating scarlet pearls.
Evil Moon suddenly dodged to the right as fast as lightning.
“Swoosh, swoosh!”
Two silent gusts of wind hacked down on the spot where Evil Moon had been standing, sinking into the sand. The ancient crocodile’s outer skin, as tough as steel, was severed into two like tofu by the two gusts of remnant energy.
The wings on Evil Moon’s back shook, instantly turning into flowing silvery streams of light, dancing wildly in the void.
“Bam!”
A bloody body fell from the void, landing heavily on the shore.
“You…” It was a warrior in a tight silvery suit.
However, his tight silvery suit had been shredded into fluff by Evil Moon’s sharp claws, and his skin ripped apart. Staring at Evil Moon in disbelief, he mumbled, “Demon… how… how did you find me?”
“You’re the demon, not me! Your whole family are demons!” Standing by the lake, Evil Moon bared its fangs, licking off the blood on its claws, saying at the same time disdainfully, “You’re camouflaging yourself in the void using a demon’s hide. You can’t even disguise your own odor. Trying to deceive me with such a child’s trick—you really overestimate yourself!”
The warrior struggled and stood up.
The tight silvery beast hide suit he was wearing was indeed made from the skinned hide of a demon in the void. It could shuttle through space for a short distance and camouflage his body. Moreover, he had cultivated the Mutant Space Qi and the technique of camouflaged assassination. He had always succeeded in the past. A Martial Emperor had even died at his hands.
As for his own odor, he was certain that it had been completely disguised, with no slip-up anywhere. Yet it was a little strange that this cat-shaped demon could have discovered him so quickly.
Moreover, this cat was too insanely fast. Its claws were as sharp as divine weapons, and he could not fend them off.
A top king-level assassin from the Netherworld Hall was defeated by a mere cat?
It was an absolute disgrace for someone like him.
“Who ordered you to kill me?” A calm voice suddenly rang out from behind him.
The assassin was shocked. When he turned his head, he found the youth originally sleeping soundly on the lake had already put on a long robe, standing a dozen meters away on the shore by the lake, looking at him quietly.
The feeling of being enveloped by that gaze was like being stared at by an ancient divine dragon.
The assassin wanted to escape.
But he could not.
A strand of invisible pressure was enveloping him and freezing his body, so that he could not even bend his fingers. The Qi inside his body was completely suppressed, stagnating instantaneously like ice, unable to course around his inner meridians.
He had never felt such a strand of indescribable pressure before.
Even though he was a Martial Emperor, it was impossible for him to suppress his opponent to such a degree using only his aura.
Could he be… a peerless Martial Grand Emperor?
The true strength of this young swordsman from the Northern Region was actually that of a Martial Grand Emperor?
The assassin felt a chill in his heart.
There was a vast gap between reality and the information he had collected.
If that was the case, he had been completely defeated today.
“The notices demanding your head have been posted everywhere in several dozen provinces. Scores of families and sects all want to devour your flesh and skin you alive. They spend a lot of money offering a reward for your head. I just want to earn that bounty.” The assassin’s breaths were getting disordered, and he spoke with difficulty.
Ding Hao frowned slightly.
This was his customary habit.
Whenever he pondered or felt surprised, his thick eyebrows would hang like long swords over his starry eyes, giving them an air of awe-inspiring astuteness.
“A reward for my head from several dozen families and sects?” Ding Hao stared at the assassin and asked word by word, “Why are they doing this?”
The assassin was stunned. “Don’t you think they should have put you on the wanted list? Over the past 20 days, you have killed so many descendants and chiefs of these families, as well as hundreds of other masters. Wherever you went, you massacred everyone. You now have countless enemies in the surrounding many dozen provinces. They all want to avenge their murdered kin, offering lots of money for your head. They don’t need any other reason, do they?”
Ding Hao’s eyebrows began to knit even more tightly.
After a momentary shock, he finally understood something from the assassin’s words.
What he had experienced these few days had indirectly confirmed his earlier suspicion.
Although he did not know what was happening and who had killed those people, one thing was clear—someone had framed him behind his back, setting him up.
In addition to the hundreds of people who died above Dreamy Cloud Swamp near Jin City that night, in that mysterious Miaoyu Bordello’s Golden Boat explosion, it also appeared that a lot more had died after that, and he was also thought to be their killer.
Ding Hao sat down on a rock by the lake, staring at the baffled killer and asking thoughtfully, “If that is the case, tell me, who have I killed over the past few days?”
Obviously, the assassin was confused.
“Don’t you know the people you have killed yourself?”
But since he was a captive at Ding Hao’s mercy, he did not dare slight him. He immediately told Ding Hao the names of those said to have been slain by his sword—their identities and statuses—one by one.
Those killed were all descendants of martial arts families or sects, or the heads of clans—all prominent figures in their own provinces.
“It sounds like most of them were related to those who died in the Golden Boat explosion.”
After listening to him, Ding Hao had keenly grasped the inner logic.
Since he had been pursued everywhere and could only travel by fits and starts to the Southern Land, it was clearly impossible for Ding Hao to have killed them. Yet from the information revealed by the assassin, there seemed to be all kinds of witnesses and material evidence proving himself the killer.
It seemed that even if he stood out to explain, no one would have believed him.
This was really strange.
He had only been in the Divine Central Continent for less than two months, stopping at each individual place for only three to five days. He had been traveling post-haste all this time, without having time to rest or to provoke anyone. Although he had encountered experts of the Divine Central Continent twice, he could count those men with the fingers of one hand. Yet why was someone framing him?
There was only one explanation.
This must have something to do with Miaoyu Bordello.
Because only Miaoyu Bordello had a feud with him.
Although the Moonlight Fairy was as lovely as a flower, her heart was as vicious as a viper’s and full of wily schemes. He and Golden Cicada had ruined one of her secret plans by saving Sweet Sound. Did she wish to take revenge on him?
Given the power of Miaoyu Bordello, it was not difficult for them to kill those people.
When he thought of this, a ball of raging fire burned fiercely in Ding Hao’s heart.
“Demon woman, I don’t care what you’re plotting in secret, but since you’re scheming against me, you must be prepared to be scorched by my anger.”
Ding Hao quickly made a decision.
He would not leave the Divine Central Continent for the time being.
He must completely resolve this thorny problem first, before leaving for the Southern Land to find his sister Ding Ke’er. He could not bring his feuds and disputes to the Southern Land. Otherwise, his sister, whom he had never seen before, would most likely be implicated.
Slowly letting out a vexed sigh, Ding Hao looked at the assassin and suddenly asked, “Are you really here to kill me just for the bounty? Or did someone secretly order you to kill me?”
The killer gnashed his teeth and said, “Of course it’s for the bounty. Everyone in the Divine Central Continent now wants your head, in exchange for that hefty bounty.”
Ding Hao suddenly smiled and said, “You’re lying.”
The assassin’s complexion changed.
Ding Hao’s eyes suddenly shot out a frosty ray of light as keen as a blade, staring intently at the assassin.
Ding Hao only enunciated each word carefully after the assassin felt goose pimples all over. “I have only stopped by the lake for less than an hour, and you can locate me so precisely? Don’t tell me it was a coincidence. Obviously, you came prepared. You have been following me secretly all this while, haven’t you?”
The assassin was stunned and felt breathless for a moment.
“Tell me, how did you find me?” Ding Hao’s tone was now severe.
The assassin was shocked and felt as though Ding Hao had seen through him.
He tried to forcefully exert his Qi and break free but found that he could not overcome Ding Hao’s imperious aura at all.
“If you don’t tell me, I will let this ferocious fat cat rip your flesh bit by bit.” Ding Hao pointed to Evil Moon and continued, “I forgot to tell you that it likes devouring the soul the most. If you die devoured by it, you will disappear forever.”
Evil Moon complemented Ding Hao by making an extremely vicious gesture.
It looked as if it was pretending to be cute.
The assassin’s body trembled.
For an expert, the destruction of the soul was the most terrible thing. It would imply one could never resurrect oneself again, since the soul and body were completely annihilated. During his fight with Evil Moon just now, he had been scared stiff by this cute-looking fat cat.
