Chapter 235

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

"Who are you people, daring to cause chaos in Shanglin Park!" Rui Ze demanded sternly.

Answering him was a youth standing firm with a Mo Blade in hand, yet calling it an answer was more like a meticulous announcement: "By the command of the Di Zhi Mountain Spirit, execute the treacherous Rui Ze, take his life as an offering."

The youth's voice held no emotion whatsoever, nor any feigned mysterious tone, simply informing with incomparable calm and directness: "Others may leave."

So devoid of feeling, like a fool who had lost all emotion, like a monster of unknown true form, under the rendering of mask and mountain mist, it instead gave people an indescribable eeriness.

As the guards exchanged vigilant glances, Rui Ze let out a cold laugh: "A mere three ants and beasts who only dare play god and ghost, actually managed to bluff their way before this Marquis!"

Those who choose to play god and ghost throughout history are nothing more than lacking in strength themselves — not daring, or lacking the ability to deploy too many men in this Royal Garden, therefore using these ghostly tricks to bluff and bolster courage, truly naive and laughable!

Rui Ze grew even more fearless: "Tear off their beast faces, strip their skins, whoever takes a beast head gets a hundred gold!"

"Yes!"

Twenty elite guards answered in unison, their voices deep and powerful, reverberating through the mountain hollow.

The initial chaos from startled horses was only temporary; seeing only these three people behind the exhausted crossbows, now engaging head-on, the side with greater numbers was naturally unafraid.

These guards were all one in a hundred, coordinating with each other in an orderly fashion; that deep answering voice had not yet dissipated when four guards leapt up, rushing out beyond the range of those three, occupying high rocks or large trees, swiftly spanning crossbows and nocking arrows.

The guards around Rui Ze also began shifting positions, seemingly about to form some kind of offensive-and-defensive military formation.

And at the same time as they moved, that assassin dragging a long staff had already stepped forward.

The iron staff dragged over dead leaves, making a whooshing rustling sound, like sharpening a blade.

Shanglin Park is the grandest hunting ground; the hunting of all beings is tomorrow, Shaowei's hunting is today.

Before tonight's Great Sacrifice officially begins, she must personally collect the offering she long ago selected.

Amidst the vast mountain forest, all things are tiny; sharp crossbows fly like needles, piercing the mountain mist disturbed by uninvited guests in the hollow.

The instant arrows left crossbows, the figure dragging the long staff suddenly accelerated pace, not retreating or dodging, but fiercely rushing forward, dead leaves flying beneath her feet, she lifted the heavy iron staff in hand, exerted arm strength, sweeping from front to back, blocking falling arrows from the side, feet not stopping, eyes not glancing sideways, staring at that prey surrounded in a tight circle.

The eyes beneath the mask could not be seen clearly; with the approach, Rui Ze only saw a pair of pupils distinct in black and white, seemingly carrying long-accumulated killing intent, exploding as they rushed forth.

Instinct preceded reason; his feet involuntarily retreated slightly, in a trance it seemed yet another tiger was pouncing at him.

Another base beast attempting to usurp and offend its superior, such base beasts should only be slaughtered!

Rui Ze steadied his steps, gripped the blade in hand; before him four guards already advanced with blades, two rushing in front, the other two behind, splitting left and right to encircle.

However the front two had not yet closed in when the comer suddenly lowered her body, the long staff in hand sweeping horizontally from below, momentum like a long rainbow piercing the sun, cold wind rising, force like moving mountains and overturning seas, striking the two men's abdomens — originally a simple Sweeping Thousand Armies move, yet because the staff-wielder's strength was fiercely formidable, it immediately swept those two men along with their blades flying backward, both men curled up and fell with a thud, both choking out bloodlines from their mouths.

As the staff momentum settled, the staff end was tilted and inserted by Shaowei into the mud covered with dead leaves, borrowing this one support, Shaowei gripped the staff end with one hand and lifted her body up, soaring to mid-air, waist and legs exerting force, rotating and heavily kicking the left encircler's skull under the jaw, that man dizzily slumped sideways, as Shaowei nimbly landed she immediately switched to gripping the staff with both hands —

The staff end inserted in the mud was pried up by Shaowei, like a black dragon emerging from the earth, splashing mud, bringing afterimages, approaching with her steps, stabbing into the right encircler's chest, a handful of blood mist swayed out against the wind.

Shaowei had not yet pulled out the staff when the left fallen man forcibly shook his head, roared, and actually raised his blade again to chop from behind, Shaowei sidestepped to avoid, that man's movements slightly slow from dizziness, while Shaowei was extremely fast, she flashed behind that man, leapt up, one arm horizontally embracing the enemy's neck, the other hand quickly pushing back his skull, only hearing a "crack" sound, the man's neck bone was forcibly snapped.

The broken-neck man's head tilted, blade left hand, person was kicked flying out, the blade was caught by the empty-handed killer bending over.

Shaowei held blade in one hand, pulled out the bloodied iron staff still inserted in the corpse's chest with the other, once again advancing to kill, that spoils-of-war large blade used by her as a vanguard, thrown horizontally with great force to clear a path, several guards surging up all dodged.

The fastest-dodging guard met her with his blade; Shaowei gripped her staff with both hands, leapt up, and delivered a full-force straight chop. This ferocious bloodlust forced the oncoming blade-wielder to urgently switch from offense to defense, crossing his blade before his face to block. With a "clang," the iron implements rang piercingly to the ear; the guard's blade was dented and deformed, and he used all his strength just to keep it from flying out of his hand, his tiger's mouth splitting open and bleeding.

Yet before he could rejoice at dodging this blow, another identical blow smashed down again, this time what dented and deformed was his skull, red and white things seeped out, flowing over shocked brows and eyes, this look of shock before death like a swift sickness, instantly infecting and attaching to the remaining guards' faces.

That stature not as tall as them, needing to leap to twist necks, the staff-wielder should be a young girl, yet beneath this girl's stature and bones, what lay hidden seemed a fierce beast with strength to swallow the heavens!

Crossbows had stopped; those remaining two were like some kind of sheep-herding dogs, clearing the outer "sheep" for her, the four crossbowmen died in various ways, that Mo Blade-wielding youth's killing moves like cutting melons and vegetables, after killing he inexplicably picked up the crossbows to curiously examine.

The remaining sword-wielder, even across the mask, even amid the blood mist, actually gave a sense of extremely stable tranquility, different from the staff girl's fierce bravery, he was like autumn wind, carefree; having finished off the crossbowmen, he now scraped toward them.

Encountering blockers along the way, his feet shifted sideways extremely fast, movements basically invisible, instantly avoiding long blades, flashing to enemy's rear half-step, head not turning, backhand pushing long sword into enemy's back heart, as he drew the sword the person had simultaneously left, body technique even more carefree than the blood mist behind.

A house slave like wind swept toward Shaowei, the two in this matter of few against many had long cultivated supreme tacit understanding, no communication needed, each was the other's blade behind the back, and shield before the body.

Back in Taoxi Township slaughtering ten-odd cruel officials and Embroidered Guards, Shaowei and the house slave both suffered not light injuries, and since then Shaowei has gained much practical combat experience, today adding Mo Li as a helper, the three wearing Mo Family soft armor under their robes, though still needing to go all out, Shaowei was ultimately not as wretched as during her first trial, the house slave saw this, swinging sword and killing while thinking with satisfaction: an outstanding and mature knight-errant has been raised.

This hunting operation was personally devised by this mature knight-errant.

After retrieving Jiang Fu from Lingxing Terrace, Shaowei was like a tiger escaped from a cage with no more scruples, only because she simultaneously retrieved Mother, the plan's heart-path changed, wanting to make Chang'an her home, plus Jiang Fu repeatedly admonishing "now family and business are great, good Li should be slightly more smooth", only then did Shaowei suppress the thought of immediately settling accounts with Rui Ze.

After the Nanshan assassination, Rui Ze became exceptionally vigilant, daily outings and near his residence Ju Yuan all had elite guards at his side, wherever he appeared was always a place with many people and mixed eyes, rashly killing him would be very difficult to clean up afterward.

Shaowei's killing intent has no possibility of being dispelled, even though Rui Huanghou gave her a reason to reconcile, but the pain and anger she endured truly exist, for this kind of matter she judges both deeds and heart, the medicine she took that day, in Rui Ze's view was poison, in her view was poison, then she may not betray that self who suffered humiliation and took poison, this person Rui Ze, she must kill.

And soon selected the autumn hunt's Shanglin Park as the hunting ground.

The house slave infiltrated multiple times in advance to scout the path, afterward Shaowei also brought Que'er to record routes and draw maps, selecting multiple locations as beast-trapping traps, only to see which one was more convenient at the time —

Everything only for this smooth hunting revenge at this moment.

The house slave also deeply felt this move was very smooth, recalling when they first left Taoxi Township the child went all the way killing wildly with blade, not calculating consequences, such tremendous progress, could not help but make him gratified.

The smooth hunt in the two's eyes was in the hunted's eyes a heaven-and-earth color-changing shock, abruptness like a natural disaster.

As guards continuously fell, Rui Ze was no longer the initial calm disdain.

His guards were already more than half dead or injured, while those two only suffered minor injuries, that vanguard's mask was full of blood, in close combat the staff had been replaced by a seized blade, she brought no blade when she came, that rough unsharpened iron staff once made people want to laugh, yet looking now, she simply fundamentally believed she would never lack a blade to use…

She walked forward carrying a blade, that sword-wielder had already reached behind them, the two combining to encircle, to conduct a final strangulation kill on them.

That fool monster-like youth was responsible for blocking and cleaning up guards attempting to escape and bring reinforcements.

Everywhere were severed limbs and fresh blood, blood-stained dead leaves blown by wind rolling, the sunken mountain hollow seemed to have become a flowing blood lake.

In the eyes of the red-eyed person, even the mountain mist turned shallow red, mist became gorgeous poisonous miasma, inhaled into mouth and nose, inducing the fear of death.

Rui Ze finally felt fear, but still struggled to prop up and not show cowardice, he looked at the approaching girl, already clearly distinguishing she was the mastermind, thus spoke to ask her: "... Who are you, ultimately working for whom! What do you want!"

Having already announced at the start she would take his life as offering, that girl did not answer empty words, also completely without negotiation intent, lifted foot to kick away a guard pierced through by her long blade, once again swung blade to approach, wholeheartedly harvesting her prey.

Rui Ze's eyelids trembled, behind him a guard also groaned in pain and fell.

He clearly felt the scale armor formed from power being peeled away layer by layer.

A piece of the shattered scale armor in Rui Ze's eyes struggled to crawl into the grass bush, muttering incessantly: "Mountain Ghost Mountain Spirit Ghost-Demanding Wine! Mountain Ghost Mountain Spirit Ghost-Demanding Wine!"

The beast-faced ink-blade youth responsible for encircling, herding, and harvesting approached.

A bizarre encounter, a bizarre killer, a bizarre mountain hollow and mountain mist, a bizarre Execute Evil sacrificial declaration that seemed to have seen through the Marquis's ulterior motives in advance...

The guard, whose heart and gall were both shattered by this bizarre everything and who had a broken leg, grew even more manic at the sight, crying out in a lost voice: "Please, Mountain Spirit Envoy, spare my life, spare my life!"

The youth who had raised his blade hesitated for a moment, then said: "You believe it? Then fine, you can go."

The guard kowtowed in thanks, quickly crawling outward, falling down, then crawling again.

Rui Ze, whose scale armor had also been completely peeled away, had collapsed in the dry grass bush; he was hugging one arm that wouldn't stop bleeding, sitting propped up, shifting backward.

Most of his guards were dead; the few severely wounded were clinging to life, emitting death moans that catalyzed fear.

Rui Ze kept retreating, staring fixedly at that girl who had somehow switched back to a long staff, walking toward him step by step.

Her accomplice had already finished fighting; one had actually climbed a tree to pick fruit, the other was squatting not far away, wringing out the hem of a robe soaked full of blood.

The excessively absurd everything made Rui Ze suspect he was in a dream; however, the next instant, that approaching girl suddenly bent down, driving the iron staff into his left shoulder blade with one hand; the immense pain made him cry out, yet he did not wake from the dream — not a dream... not a dream!

"You... you..." Rui Ze's voice trembled violently: "Who exactly are you?!"

"Haven't guessed yet?"

Rui Ze's pained, ferocious expression froze for an instant — this voice...

The girl maintained her body-leaning-forward posture, one hand gripping the iron staff embedded in his shoulder blade, the other hand pushing the beast mask up toward the top of her head.

The face that appeared before his eyes looked especially clean in this bloody heaven and earth — not a trace of bloodstains, only fine sweat from exhaustive hunting; her originally spirited brows and eyes shone bright, soaked by sweat.

Rui Ze could not believe it.

"You..."

How could it be her? Just how could it be her!

Under the enormous shock, the brows and eyes before him suddenly overlapped with those from that day in the Xiwangmu Temple, peeking out from behind the Lu Marquis.

Rui Ze thought of that day's corpse bloodstains... So the killer that day was not the Lu Marquis; the true terrifying culprit had been hiding behind the Lu Marquis!

Inexplicably, he thought of Cang Mountain, his people — back then in Nanshan, just how had they died?!

"I told you who I am." Shaowei ignored his emotions, issuing a command in a fair tone: "Then you must answer me one question."

"The matter of the Ling Empress Dowager, mother and son, and the Marquis back then — did your hand play a part behind the scenes?"

She had once promised Liu Qi to help him find the enemy; naturally she had to keep her word. This time hunting Rui Ze, she asked in passing, no trouble at all.

Rui Ze merely trembled as he stared at her.

Shaowei's face was expressionless; she switched hands, pulled out the iron staff, and drove it through his other shoulder blade, to help him clear his mind.

Rui Ze spasmed and twisted in pain all over, like a snake pinned to the ground, his crimson mouth gaping, answering in a trembling voice: "Not me... not me! I was just a minor figure back then, how would I dare scheme against the Empress Dowager, Crown Prince, and Marquis..."

"But I know... I know Guo Shi and Zhu Zhi and them had a hand in it!"

"Zhu Zhi is dead! Guo Shi, go find Guo Shi!"

With a "pu" sound, the iron staff was pulled out, then stabbed toward one of his wildly kicking legs.

One blood hole after another, piercing through the power he took pride in, severing the ambition he was determined to obtain.

Body in agony, mind buzzing, Rui Ze felt it shouldn't be...

It shouldn't be like this; he still had such an important matter to do tomorrow, how could he die on the eve of putting it into action? How could such a thing happen?

"I know you want to commit regicide." Shaowei saw his unwillingness: "Rest assured, I only want your life; I won't erase your crime of rebel heart."

Rui Ze's eyes widened.

She knows? Why does she know?

What does she still plan to do?

He heard that girl's words were domineering and rude, not orderly at all; she seemed like an anomaly outside everyone's plans, nor did she answer his doubts; everything she did followed only her straightforward will:

"You just need to think about it; no need to actually do it."

"I can only let you live until today; otherwise you'd always be looking for trouble."

Shaowei's mind flashed with that scene of chaotic times arriving, and this man always lingering by Liu Cheng's side, clutching power tightly, arrogant and uncaring whether the people she cared about lived or died; finally she said: "You really are no longer suited to be alive."

?? Good night everyone.