Chapter 298: Uncertain Fortunes

A Mo looked at Fan Hanzhou, who lay dead amidst a cloud of dust. She panted heavily, sweat dripping down, and the brutality in her eyes faded away like a receding tide...

A Mo caught her breath, then suddenly looked up and scanned her surroundings.

Her eyes held a hint of anxiety.

But seeing only the vast wilderness and the swaying shadows of trees, she did not know for a moment where Lv Qingzhu was...

A Mo leaped, arriving at the edge of a dense forest. She held her breath and listened, hearing the faint sounds of fighting coming from within. She immediately leaped again, heading in the direction of the sounds.

Just as A Mo flashed into the dense forest, she suddenly saw a black shadow flickering between the gaps in the trees not far away.

The place where the faint sounds of fighting came from seemed to be quite a distance away, while the spot where the black shadow flickered was only about a zhang away. A Mo shifted her form and darted toward where the shadow was flickering.

A Mo darted past a thick mulberry tree and saw, under a large tree not far away, a beggar crawling on top of a naked young girl...

Xia Shuangshuang's Lightness Skill was quite good; the moment the carriage exploded, she had darted out from the black smoke and landed at the edge of the dense forest beside the wild field.

Just as Xia Shuangshuang moved away from the black smoke and poisonous mist and landed gracefully, she heard a rustling sound above the dense forest not far to her side. Then, a black shadow descended from the sky and landed before her.

It was a beggar, leaning on a hard bamboo pole, dressed in rags, his hair covered in grease. His eyes swept wantonly over Xia Shuangshuang's chest and waist, and he laughed greedily and lewdly, revealing a mouthful of disgusting yellow teeth...

Xia Shuangshuang looked at the drool at the corner of the beggar's mouth, a wave of disgust rising in her heart.

Her weapon, the Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix Spear, had originally been placed under her seat. But the moment the carriage exploded, her weapon had rolled into the black smoke and poisonous mist. She had no time to retrieve her weapon, so she had no choice but to use her movement technique and leap out of the black smoke...

Empty-handed, Xia Shuangshuang looked at the beggar before her, her heart filled with panic.

After all, she was a child of a noble family, pampered since childhood. Although she had good talent for martial arts, she had never experienced the world of the jianghu.

Let alone killing a person, she had never even killed a chicken in her life.

At this moment, in this desolate wilderness, an explosion had suddenly occurred, and then she had encountered a strange, disgusting beggar. With her usual weapon not by her side, how could she not panic?

Xia Shuangshuang leaped, wanting to flee the scene, but how could the beggar, having finally encountered such a beautiful creature in this desolate forest, let her go?

The beggar executed his movement technique, and the yellow shadow of the hard bamboo pole in his hand flashed as he thrust toward Xia Shuangshuang's chest.

Xia Shuangshuang retreated violently, throwing a horizontal punch at the hard bamboo pole thrusting toward her.

As the saying goes, the spear and the fist share the same origin; in her desperation, Xia Shuangshuang used a technique of turning the spear into a fist!

Xia Shuangshuang's Internal Breath was infused into her fist as she smashed horizontally into the hard bamboo pole the beggar was thrusting at her chest!

With a "snap," the moment Xia Shuangshuang's fist struck, the hard bamboo pole suddenly burst apart!

Xia Shuangshuang clearly felt a powerful force that tore the skin and flesh of her fist. She saw a black shadow flash from within the shattered bamboo pole, and a hard object struck her chest.

Xia Shuangshuang retreated two steps, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth. That strike from the beggar had already broken a rib in her chest and bruised her lungs.

At this moment, the hard bamboo pole in the beggar's hand was gone; what he held was an iron rod that had been hidden inside the bamboo pole.

That iron rod was sharp at one end and blunt at the other; the beggar had just used the blunt end to injure Xia Shuangshuang.

The beggar gripped the other end of the iron rod, with the sharp end positioned near his elbow...

The beggar cackled with a strange, grating laugh; if he had used the sharp end, a single strike just now would have pierced through Xia Shuangshuang's body.

Xia Shuangshuang was at the Small Success Realm, while this beggar was at the Great Success Realm; the two were already worlds apart in cultivation, not to mention that Xia Shuangshuang was empty-handed...

Having finally encountered such a beautiful creature as Xia Shuangshuang, how could the beggar be willing to take her life at the first encounter? Besides, if he pierced her chest with a sharp blade, leaving it all bloody, how could he play with her?

Xia Shuangshuang's internal organs were shaken, and she immediately understood the beggar's cultivation realm. At this moment, the gaze the beggar fixed upon her became even more insane.

Tears streamed from the corners of Xia Shuangshuang's eyes; she felt she was going to die...

Just then, the iron rod in the beggar's hand flickered, and he actually flipped it around, holding the blunt end and pointing the sharp end at Xia Shuangshuang.

The beggar flashed forward, and the iron rod in his hand stabbed toward Xia Shuangshuang. Xia Shuangshuang dodged to the side, but the beggar seemed to be more formidable than her in Lightness Skill. His form flickered, and with a flash of cold light, the sharp end of the iron rod picked open two buttons on Xia Shuangshuang's collar.

The clothing below Xia Shuangshuang's shoulder hung loose, revealing a patch of white flesh...

A crazy desire danced in the beggar's eyes. He gnashed his teeth and leered, "My sweet thing, wait until I strip you bare bit by bit... and then let you have a good time..."

The beggar moved again, the iron rod in his hand flicking. Xia Shuangshuang struggled to dodge, but the clothing on her right shoulder was still slashed open, the torn fabric fluttering in the wind, with skin and flesh vaguely visible.

The beggar cackled strangely again, but his smile suddenly stopped; he saw a shallow bloodstain on the skin beneath the torn clothing on Xia Shuangshuang's right shoulder...

The beggar shook his head with a look of regret and said, "Injured... injured... I was too heavy-handed... haste makes waste..."

As the beggar spoke of his regret, the iron rod in his hand flashed again, and another piece of Xia Shuangshuang's clothing was torn...

Xia Shuangshuang's clothes were in disarray, her eyes filled with tears, feeling ashamed and indignant. Since she was a child, when had she ever suffered such humiliation?

But at this moment, she could not outrun the beggar, nor could she defeat him, and being in the desolate mountains and wild ridges, there was truly no one to call for help!

Xia Shuangshuang suddenly broke down and screamed, "Help! Help!"

"Don't bother screaming! Not only will you die, but all of them will die too!"

Looking at the beggar's livid and ferocious face, and faintly hearing the sounds of iron weapons clashing from deep within the forest behind her, she understood that the beggar was not speaking empty words to frighten her!

Xia Shuangshuang suddenly raised her hand to wipe the tears from her face, spat at the beggar, and shouted, "A maggot-like creature like you wants to touch me! I would rather bite my tongue and die than let you succeed!"

After saying this, Xia Shuangshuang's expression turned fierce, her cheeks puffed out, and she looked ready to bite her tongue. The beggar was startled, his form flickering as he stood before Xia Shuangshuang, his right hand reaching out to pinch her chin and cheeks.

Just then, Xia Shuangshuang shook her right sleeve, clutching a dagger, and thrust it fiercely toward the beggar's chest.

That was the location of his heart; if this stab pierced through, the beggar would lose his life on the spot.

However, although the beggar was blinded by lust, he was exceptionally agile and cunning. The moment Xia Shuangshuang raised her hand, he sensed the danger. Just as Xia Shuangshuang's right hand, clutching the dagger, pierced half an inch into the beggar's body, the beggar's large hand gripped her hand holding the dagger.

Seeing he had almost been stabbed through the heart, the beggar was furious. Infusing his Internal Breath, he exerted force to snap it, and with a "crack," Xia Shuangshuang's right hand instantly went limp as if boneless, and the dagger fell.

The beggar grabbed Xia Shuangshuang by the neck and threw her under a large tree.

Xia Shuangshuang, her hair disheveled and her clothes in a mess, seemed to feel nothing of the excruciating pain of her broken right hand. She suddenly laughed crazily a few times, and with sorrow in her eyes, bit off her own tongue.

The fresh blood from the severed root of her tongue instantly filled her mouth, flowing out like a spring from the earth...

Xia Shuangshuang's vision went black, and she collapsed under the tree.

The muscles on the beggar's face twitched; he had not expected that the erotic fantasy he had imagined would end like this. He leaped in front of Xia Shuangshuang and shouted viciously, "You stinking bitch, do you think I'll let you go just because you're dead?"

As the beggar spoke, he crawled onto Xia Shuangshuang's body and began to tear at her clothes...

Although Xia Shuangshuang was already dead, as the beggar looked at the warm, fair corpse before him, the desire in his eyes became even more insane...

But just then, a huge figure like a mountain of flesh suddenly flashed out, a large fist like a peck measure, fast as lightning, striking the beggar crawling on Xia Shuangshuang and sending him flying away with a single blow.

The beggar was struck and became wedged in the fork of a large banyan tree not far away; a large, bloody hole had been punched through his chest, piercing him front to back, his heart and lungs completely pulped.

Dense blood-filaments writhed within the bloody hole, but the hole was simply too large, and with the beggar's cultivation at barely the first layer of the Filthy Blood Divine Art, it was impossible to heal.

The beggar's mouth was full of fresh blood and fragments of organs; within a single breath, he had already ceased to breathe.

A Mo glanced at the beggar hanging from the banyan tree, dripping blood, her eyes filled with disgust. She turned her head to look at Xia Shuangshuang beneath the large tree, crouched down, tested Xia Shuangshuang's breathing, and pressed against the pulse at Xia Shuangshuang's neck.

Xia Shuangshuang's pulse had stopped and she had ceased to breathe!

A Mo's expression did not change; she reached out a large hand and closed Xia Shuangshuang's wide-open eyes, then picked up the clothing from the ground nearby and covered Xia Shuangshuang's naked corpse.

After finishing this, A Mo's figure leaped, and she darted toward the other side of the dense forest, where the faint sounds of weapons clashing were coming from...

Jiang Qingyu was sprinting wildly through the dense forest; there were already several wounds on his body, his expression panicked, his breathing rapid.

Just then, a figure suddenly flashed before his eyes, followed by a cold light stabbing toward his chest; Jiang Qingyu turned his body to dodge, but the Blade Shadow was incredibly agile, immediately changing the thrust into a slash, sweeping horizontally toward his waist.

Jiang Qingyu had no choice but to swing his Long Sword to block, but the moment the weapons met, with a 'Bang!', the powerful Internal Breath shattered his grip, causing his Long Sword to fly out of his hand.

A bloated woman, caked in powder and rouge, stood before Jiang Qingyu with a blade in hand, smiling as she said, "Little Young Master, if you have a good time with me, I will leave you a complete corpse, how about that?"

Jiang Qingyu turned to run again; he was only at the Small Success Realm, while this woman was already at the Great Success Realm, but this woman did not seem very skilled in Lightness Skill, so he had relied on his agility to weave through the dense forest and delay her until now.

If not for his some skill in Lightness Skill, he likely would have already died under that woman's blade.

However, even so, his Internal Breath was heavily depleted from exerting his movement to the limit, and having been repeatedly intercepted and ambushed by the woman, his energy was already in chaos and his speed had slowed by several degrees.

That woman was one of the pair of twin sisters who had been arguing with Fan Hanzhou in the clearing of the dense forest; seeing Jiang Qingyu turn to flee again, she said with an angry expression, "This brat, he only knows how to run!"

That woman was not poor at Lightness Skill; she was simply playing with Jiang Qingyu. She was somewhat reluctant to kill such a little young master. She wanted to keep him, wait for her sister to come over, let her take a look too, and then kill this brat.

But she waited and waited, yet her sister never appeared; her brows furrowed slightly, and she muttered to herself, "Could something have gone wrong?"

As Jiang Qingyu ran, he suddenly realized that he had only been circling within this area the whole time; once he ran too far, he would be intercepted and turned back by the woman.

Just then, the corner of Jiang Qingyu's eye caught a black shadow flashing behind him.

That woman had always intercepted him from the front before, and had never snuck up on him from behind.

Jiang Qingyu suddenly felt a pain in his back, and then he saw a bloody blade tip protruding from his chest; at this moment, a wave of hot air surged against his ear, and a sweet, delicate voice said, "Little Young Master, Big Sister doesn't have time to play with you anymore. Big Sister loves you so much, when you get to the King of Hell, you surely won't complain about Big Sister, right?"

As the woman spoke, she giggled, and with a forceful tug, she pulled the blade out from behind Jiang Qingyu.

Jiang Qingyu clutched his chest, half-kneeling on the ground, his eyes full of unwillingness and fear, murmuring, "I only just became a Sect Registered Disciple... everything was fine... how could it end like this..."

Before Jiang Qingyu died, he suddenly thought that at the Hero Selection Assembly, because of his good luck, he had eliminated Gui Zong and Yue Feng, and without shedding blood, had advanced to become a Registered Disciple.

But now he was about to die, while Gui Zong and Yue Feng were still living well in the world; looking at it this way, which one of them was actually the lucky one?

The human world is desolate; fortune and misfortune are unpredictable.

Jiang Qingyu lay on the ground, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth; after a few breaths, he had already ceased to breathe.

Seeing that Jiang Qingyu was dead, the woman cut off Jiang Qingyu's head, stripped off Jiang Qingyu's jacket, and wrapped his head in it.

She carried the head, her gaze fixed, and exerted her movement, darting away rapidly in a certain direction in the dense forest.

Just before, when lying in ambush for the enemy, she and her sister had been hiding in one spot. When her sister was leaping through the treetops, she had seen with her own eyes that she had headed in a certain direction in the dense forest...

In a certain part of the dense forest, Xiao Yu held the Qingling Saber, her gaze cold; the Blade Shadow flashed before her, and the sound of weapons clashing rang out chaotically, like heavy rain hitting banana leaves, *pitter-patter*.

The person fighting fiercely with Xiao Yu was also a bloated woman, the very twin sister of the woman who had killed Jiang Qingyu.

Cold sweat beaded on the woman's forehead; the information Ge Qingchuan had given her indicated that this girl named Xiao Yu was only at the Inner Breath Realm Small Success.

But once they exchanged blows, she discovered that Xiao Yu was actually the same as her, at the Great Success Realm, and her sword technique, while appearing plain and unremarkable, was both offensive and defensive, with a perfect balance of feints and reality; after a fierce battle, Xiao Yu was gradually gaining the upper hand.

If the fight continued like this, she would die in this dense forest...

Just as she was feeling anxious, a familiar voice that had been nagging in her ears for years suddenly sounded not far away.

"Big Sister, what is going on with you? You can't even suppress a little girl? I think, Big Sister, you are only brave when bullying your own. You only know how to bully me at home, but when you meet an outsider, you wilt..."

As she spoke, a burst of giggling followed.

The woman had been anxious and fearful, but upon hearing her sister's flirtatious and shrill voice, a habitual disgust and a joy at the current situation surged in her heart simultaneously.

"When is this? You're still there talking nonsense? Why don't you come over and help me kill this troublesome little girl!"

The moment Xiao Yu heard the voice, she saw a bloated woman standing by a large tree in the dense forest; looking at her appearance and build, she was exactly like the woman before her, as if printed from the same mold.

The two were clearly twin sisters.

Xiao Yu's heart sank instantly; she could handle one opponent of the same realm, and after some probing, she even had the confidence to kill her after a bitter struggle.

But unexpectedly, at this moment, another one had come.

Xiao Yu's mouth felt bitter; she felt that her chances of surviving against the two of them working together were truly slim.

(End of chapter)