Chapter 68: Flame Sword

The adventurers reacted very quickly.

Even though most of them were immersed in the depths of dreams filled with the aroma of alcohol.

When Xia Nan rushed out of the room with the Halfling, countless sounds of clothing rubbing and metal clashing also sounded in the rooms on both sides of the corridor.

The hilt in his hand became increasingly hot, and his heartbeat accelerated along with it.

The sense of urgency that emerged inexplicably in his heart made Xia Nan's attention incredibly focused at this moment.

His gaze swept across the empty corridor, capturing the clues hidden within;

He swung the wooden sword in front of him, carefully feeling the change in the hilt's temperature.

Suddenly, he froze.

His gaze stopped on a room door in the middle of the corridor to the south, which was incredibly silent amidst the restlessness.

"This is... Jeff's room?"

He clearly remembered that the other, like himself, had basically drunk no alcohol last night, and his face showed no signs of drunkenness when they parted.

And with the quality the other had shown on the road these past two days, facing his warning, it was absolutely impossible to be so careless.

Something's wrong!

The thought was just a flash, and his legs had already started moving the moment his gaze paused.

Without hesitation.

"Bang!"

Wood chips flew!

The door was kicked open fiercely under the impact of strong force!

The night was deep, and the only light in the entire room was the dim oil lamp at the head of the bed.

But it was precisely because of this that Xia Nan saw the bloodless, painful face of the caravan captain, Jeff, on the bed.

As if trapped in a nightmare, his pale lips were pressed into a line, his eyes closed tightly, and sweat had almost soaked the pillow beneath his neck.

And what was even more hair-raising was.

Jeff's left leg was held high by a palm reaching out from the darkness,

Metatarsal bones, fibula and tibia...

Pale bones, emitting cold light, silently separated from the flesh and blood, slowly spreading upward, crossing the knee and climbing onto the thigh.

Standing by the bed was a thin, down-and-out man.

He was wearing a worn-out scale armor covered in dirt and dust, holding Jeff's leg bone in his left hand, while his right hand gripped a short sword with obvious rust.

Most eye-catching were the dead-gray eyes that were almost entirely filled with whites, and the pale, cyan, rotten-wood-like skin that didn't look like a living person.

The shocking scene before him instantly reminded Xia Nan of the strange things mentioned by the adventurers at the dining table today that had happened in Kalanfur recently.

His expression sank.

He raised his sword, his palm burning hot.

Thick leather boots landed heavily on the wooden floor, dust splashing.

The impassioned, high-pitched sound of a lute began to ring out from behind, though no one knew when it had started.

In the next second, Xia Nan rushed straight toward the other.

Usually hidden, often without the deceased even noticing, their skeletons were already stripped, and they died in their sleep.

The thin man clearly hadn't expected his perfect operation tonight, amidst the heavy rain and dark clouds, to be so abruptly detected by the young man before him.

The short sword stained with rust slashed hard, and Jeff's left lower leg, from below the knee, was severed at the root.

Strangely, although the blade was dull, the process of cutting through bone and flesh was extremely smooth.

The wound was exceptionally smooth, as if some invisible force was attached to it, blocking even the blood and preventing it from flowing out.

On the bed, Jeff, whose lower leg had been severed, still had the same silent, painful struggle as before, as if he couldn't perceive the change in his body at all.

At the same time, Xia Nan, who had rushed over amidst the surging lute music, had already brought the enemy into his attack range.

"Bang!"

His right leg stepped forward suddenly, stepping a small pit into the floor.

He raised his sword and twisted his wrist.

Without any intention of holding back,

It was all-out from the start.

【Spinning Slash】

Buzz—

What sounded in his ears was the shorter, denser whistling of the wooden sword compared to metal.

The temperature that surged due to approaching the target caused countless tiny water droplets to condense in the air around the sword body.

As if returning to the Mist Forest, stirring the mist.

The black-brown sword body turned into a dark arc of light,

Whistling past!

Having just severed Jeff's lower leg and still holding the leg bone in his left hand, the thin man could only awkwardly block with the weapon in his hand.

"Clang!"

Sparks flew.

A small section of the rusted sword spun and inserted itself into the ceiling.

The wooden sword 【Green Pine】, which only resembled an ordinary weapon in normal times, finally displayed its power as a "blue" quality weapon when facing this evil creature stained with undead power.

The scorching blade, rolling with water mist, suddenly burst with hot, fiery red flames at the edge the moment it touched the rusted metal.

There was absolutely no possibility of blocking!

The rusted sword was sliced off, and the metal scale armor, which was dilapidated on the surface but still possessed a metal core, didn't possess the ability to resist at all.

In extreme contrast, the black-brown wooden sword, flashing with fiery red flames, cut into the depths of the metal scale armor as smoothly as cutting tofu.

Through the power transmitted from the scorching hilt, Xia Nan could clearly feel the smoothness of the blade after a moment of stagnation.

Zzz—

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Completely failing to anticipate the power possessed by the wooden sword 【Green Pine】.

The thin man's face revealed an expression of disbelief.

Then, the intense white smoke that rose from the wound, as if under scorching, made him scream in pain.

Discovering that the sword tip had already penetrated deep into the other's body, Xia Nan, not being rigid, flexibly changed his posture.

He twisted his hands gripping the hilt, his body leaning forward sideways.

In an instant, he changed his slashing posture to a thrust that was convenient for frontal force.

Exerting force in his hands, he was about to pierce the man, whose skin was as cyan-white as a dead person, right through the chest.

But he hadn't expected the other, facing the intense pain like scorching, to still retain a trace of sanity.

Wailing in pain, his lips parted, and he spat out a mass of gray-white, dense mist.

As if mixed with some obscure and deep light, it made the already dim light in the room even darker.

Swaying and shaking, it revealed a hint of dangerous aura.

Trailing a long tail of smoke, it flew straight at Xia Nan's face!

The force stopped instantly, and he halted his steps.

He instinctively pulled the wooden sword out of the other's body and slashed upward at the misty light.

"Buzz-boom."

As if encountering some natural enemy, the mist collapsed in an instant under the scorching of the wooden sword's flame light.

The sword body swung, and countless tiny smoke particles vanished into the air.

The thin man's sudden counterattack caused Xia Nan's offensive to slow down.

Knowing he was no match.

When he looked over again, the other had already fled to the window.

Behind him, the hurried footsteps of the adventurers arrived.

The man glanced back at the crowd, clutched the wound on his chest, and jumped out.

Xia Nan naturally had no intention of letting the other go, and the adventurers beside him had also arrived in the room.

Several people held their swords in vigilance and chased to the window.

But they only saw a darkness bathed in drizzling rain.

On the distant horizon, dawn seemed to be breaking, reflecting a little brightness.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 69 =====

On the distant horizon, a glimmer of dawn seemed to break, reflecting a faint, hazy light.

(End of chapter)