Chapter 134: Cloud Snake Step and Plum Blossom Needle

Duan Rong looked at Liu Ao and asked, "Escort Liu Ao, you were also taught by Xiao Lao personally; why would you defect to Luan Jingfu?"

The muscles on Liu Ao's face twitched. He had not expected that Duan Rong would guess so quickly that it was Luan Jingfu who had instigated him!

What made it even harder for him to endure was that Duan Rong, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old greenhorn, was not only showing no fear here in this desolate wilderness, but was also wearing a composed and steady expression, still calmly questioning him about why he had defected to Luan Jingfu!

Liu Ao said coldly, "I really do want to weigh your worth. Let's see what qualifications you have to be standing here and still talking sarcastically?"

Duan Rong sighed slightly in his heart; he was merely curious and had never expected that Liu Ao would actually answer him.

And Duan Rong's right hand had been hanging naturally and loosely by his right trouser pocket the entire way.

Liu Ao suddenly drew his Ox-Tail Saber, his body leaped, his Internal Breath surged, and he slashed toward Duan Rong.

Duan Rong's figure suddenly became elusive. The Proficiency-level Cloud Snake Step was even more exquisite. As Duan Rong unleashed it, a afterimage flashed, and he circled to Liu Ao's side!

This was also the reliance Duan Rong had for daring to come out with Liu Ao; with the Proficiency-level Cloud Snake Step, even if he were not a match, escaping with his life would certainly not be a problem.

"Cloud Snake Step?!" Liu Ao was greatly shocked in his heart.

Xiao Zongting had actually passed the Cloud Snake Step to Duan Rong. He also knew that the Xiaojia possessed this Lightness Skill. He considered his own talent to be not bad, but Xiao Zongting always told him that he had too much brute force and insufficient comprehension.

Although he was infatuated with Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu had always been as cold as frost toward him, keeping him at a distance of a thousand miles.

He had already been at the Yuanshun Escort Agency for over ten years, and until now, he was still just an Escort. He did not want to be like this forever, which was why he had defected to Luan Jingfu!

Now, seeing Duan Rong unleash the Cloud Snake Step and thinking of Xiao Yu's attitude toward him, he was suddenly consumed by jealousy. Weren't these things that Duan Rong had obtained the very things he had dreamed of day and night but could not have?

Liu Ao was both jealous and angry. His face had become distorted, his muscles bunched together, and his nose tip trembled incessantly. Ugly and ferocious like an evil ghost, he swung his saber in a sweep, his Internal Breath erupted, and the saber light enveloped the elusive Duan Rong!

Duan Rong's figure was elusive as he flashed to Liu Ao's side. His right hand waved strangely, and a Plum Blossom Afterimage bloomed at his side, from the center of which a Poison Needle shot out, aiming straight for the space between Liu Ao's eyebrows!

Fortunately, it was the afternoon and they were in the wild; the sunlight was scorching, and the moment the Poison Needle was shot, a cold light flashed.

Liu Ao dodged it by leaning his body in a narrow escape!

But Duan Rong's figure was elusive, moving left and right, circling around Liu Ao...

And at his right hand, Plum Blossom Afterimages bloomed one after another!

Every time a Plum Blossom Afterimage bloomed, a Poison Needle would fly out from within it!

As his figure drifted, Duan Rong shot needle after needle, the speed getting faster and faster, and the angles becoming increasingly tricky!

Although Liu Ao was at the Small Success Realm of the Inner Breath Third Layer, he was exhausted from dealing with it and was completely unable to attack!

But Liu Ao was, after all, someone tempered between life and death. Moreover, the sun was bright at this moment, and the sunlight reflected the cold light of the Poison Needles, giving him reaction time. Duan Rong shot more than ten needles in a row, yet they were all blocked by him.

Duan Rong changed his tactics on the fly; the Poison Needles no longer aimed at Liu Ao's lethal spots, such as the space between the eyebrows, eyeballs, throat, or heart, but instead shot toward the harder-to-defend shoulders and thighs.

Sure enough, once the strategy changed, although Liu Ao still dodged with flashes of saber light, after more than ten needles, he had already been hit by three.

Left shoulder, right calf, left thigh—three places hit by needles!

Duan Rong suddenly stopped shooting needles and stood there panting. Shooting nearly thirty Plum Blossom Needles in high-frequency succession, while simultaneously unleashing the Cloud Snake Step, had consumed quite a lot of his energy!

Liu Ao stood there, looking at Duan Rong, and sneered, "What? Are you out of needles? Then it's my turn!"

Liu Ao suddenly flashed his saber and sliced three pieces of flesh off his own left shoulder, right calf, and left thigh!

The three pieces of flesh landed almost simultaneously on the wild grass beside Liu Ao. In the sunlight, one could see the bloody chunks, only the spots in the middle where the needles had struck were faintly turning black.

Duan Rong was greatly shocked in his heart; this Liu Ao was actually this ferocious!

Liu Ao had sliced off three pieces of his own flesh, yet his movements seemed completely unaffected. He leaped and swung his saber to slash at Duan Rong!

Duan Rong unleashed the Cloud Snake Step again, his figure retreating violently, and with a *shing* sound, he drew his Ox-Tail Saber, preparing to engage!

Although the Cloud Snake Step was exquisite, Liu Ao had infused his legs with Internal Breath; the leap just now was speed converted from pure power!

Duan Rong's figure swayed, still relying on dodging left and right, and became entangled in a fight with Liu Ao.

Duan Rong knew that his Internal Breath was far inferior to Liu Ao's; as long as their weapons clashed, his Ox-Tail Saber would inevitably be knocked away.

Therefore, Duan Rong kept using his strange movement techniques and exquisite moves to entangle with Liu Ao...

Liu Ao was greatly shocked in his heart. Duan Rong's saber technique was actually quite mixed. Having walked the Jianghu for many years, he could recognize several different types of saber techniques, such as the Abi Saber Technique, the Asura Saber Technique, and the Reckless Bull Saber Technique.

"What kind of freak is this person? How could he know so many saber techniques?"

"Did he start practicing while still in his mother's womb?"

However, although Duan Rong's saber technique was mixed and exquisite, he avoided the solid and struck the weak everywhere!

Liu Ao also discovered that Duan Rong always missed his blade edge to attack him!

As soon as his blade edge arrived, Duan Rong would immediately retreat!

Liu Ao sneered in his heart; with such a fighting style, wasn't Duan Rong just being flashy without substance?

Liu Ao became more and more confident as he fought!

Liu Ao suddenly took the opportunity to leap and use a move: Leopard Drills the Forest!

Liu Ao knew that Duan Rong had already learned this move, Leopard Drills the Forest, when he was a Miscellaneous Disciple.

After all, he had also been selected from among the Miscellaneous Disciples.

However, Liu Ao's Leopard Drills the Forest had been fused with another move during actual combat, making significant changes to this Leopard Drills the Forest!

He used this move to make Duan Rong have a misconception, to respond with the ordinary Leopard Drills the Forest, and then take the opportunity to catch him off guard.

But, as luck would have it, the Ox-Tail Saber that Duan Rong had digested and absorbed was the one Liu Ao had discarded. As soon as Liu Ao unleashed this move, Duan Rong knew exactly what he was going to do.

Duan Rong had long since mastered the Five Tigers Flock of Sheep Saber that Liu Ao had improved based on his own experience.

Liu Ao thrust his saber out. The moment he made his move, Duan Rong played along, following the routine he had learned as a Miscellaneous Disciple, and began to dodge!

But Liu Ao suddenly turned his wrist and tilted his body slightly; the direction of the blade edge changed abruptly, and with one strike, it pierced into Duan Rong's right waist!

This was Liu Ao's improvement, making this Leopard Drills the Forest even trickier and harder to dodge!

Seeing that his strike had landed, Liu Ao's eyes suddenly lit up!

But as the blade edge pierced into Duan Rong's body, Liu Ao's expression changed, because his hand felt empty; it was not the feeling of piercing a human body at all.

But at this moment, Duan Rong's eyes were fierce. His right hand bloomed with a Plum Blossom Afterimage in mid-air, and two Poison Needles shot out diagonally from the afterimage, at a distance of mere inches, aiming for Liu Ao's eyes!

The moment the Poison Needles were released, Duan Rong retreated violently. Almost simultaneously, the Poison Needles struck Liu Ao's eyes; the eyeballs were fragile, and the needles sank straight in!

But Liu Ao's eyeballs did not explode into a bloody mist, because he had the protection of the Third Layer of Internal Breath; the Internal Breath that Duan Rong had infused into the Poison Needle could not enter his body, collapsing and dissipating the moment it made contact!

But even so, the toxin had already entered Liu Ao's eyeballs!

This was, after all, Corpse Rot Poison!

(End of chapter)