Chapter 74

On the treetop, Feng Baobao had already left; in the small grove, a bead of cold sweat trickled down Balun's forehead. Before him, Xia Liuqing, face flushed red, was chasing Zhou Shuo. His originally elderly body was more agile than a monkey's, leaping up and down, his right hand's sword finger repeatedly pointing at Zhou Shuo.

"Bang." A finger-force shot past Zhou Shuo's side, striking the tree trunk with a strange sound; bark and wood chips flew out, leaving two deep finger indentations.

"Damn it, old man, if you come again I'll really turn hostile." Zhou Shuo looked at the finger indentations bursting out on the tree trunk, his expression slightly changing; this old man's Infinity Finger struck from afar with such force, it was actually still that strong, not at all inferior to his own Ruyi Force!

"Kid, if you don't make things clear today, old man, I won't let this rest." Xia Liuqing stopped, huffing and puffing, his eyes glaring straight at the blabbering kid.

"I just said it offhand, do you really need to react like this? I tell you, I'm not afraid of you, Balun—judge for yourself, what did I say about him?" Zhou Shuo looked at the fuzzy old man, couldn't help but jump and draw his sword, "Damn it, you keep letting him have his way, and you're actually getting out of breath!"

"Not bad, Balun, you say—is this kid even human? After he says that, how am I supposed to face people? Little thief, today picking a day is no good; let's just clash now and have a proper fight." Xia Liuqing looked at the sword-drawing kid, his temper flaring, and he took a stance.

"Come on, fight—let's see who's afraid of whom." Zhou Shuo looked at Xia Liuqing's stance, flicked his right hand to make a flower, and a sword qi hissed out.

"You really mean it…" Xia Liuqing leapt over the sword qi, swaying his body into the woods.

"Old man, don't run." Zhou Shuo brandished his sword and charged into the forest, while Balun hurriedly followed.

The three instantly disappeared, leaving only the scattered All Nature members hiding in the woods; they, male or female, had been knocked to their knees together by Feng Baobao in the earlier fight, now each suffering some degree of injury, and a few had even been killed by friendly fire.

"Those All Nature folks are really interesting." A man with red eyes beneath his forest glasses, holding a string of prayer beads in his hand, stepped out.

"Hehe, All Nature isn't all bad people, just occasional troublemakers." A few strands of messy hair covered the bald head of the Mediterranean-looking man behind him, who watched a slightly opened-eyed All Nature member crawling up and laughed.

"What about these guys?" The red-eyed man looked at the sturdy man crawling up from the ground.

"They're no good sorts; you handle them." The Mediterranean-looking man smiled faintly, while the red-eyed man also showed a hint of a smile as he walked toward the sturdy man who had regained consciousness and was crawling up from the ground.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The sturdy man looked at the figure approaching, shadows gradually covering his companions, his eyes showing alarm.

"Hey, hey."

"No, save me, please…"

"Ah!"

Scattered cries of misery drifted from afar; Zhou Shuo lightly patted the back of his head, then glanced over at Xia Liuqing beside him.

"I say, Elder Xia, is it really alright to do this? Leaving those comrades behind."

"Whether good or not, that's their fate; under normal circumstances the company wouldn't kill people indiscriminately." Xia Liuqing stood with his hands behind his back, waist bent, shaking his head. As a veteran of All Nature, he knew exactly what sort of people were in his organization—disrupting order, even doing all kinds of evil; those who died were clean.

"Alright then! Pretend I never said it—by the way, leave a phone number so we can stay in touch." Zhou Shuo heard the distant cries, pulled out his phone from his pocket; this was clearly not an ordinary situation, but it wasn't his concern.

"No WeChat? Where are you headed? Might as well just go down the mountain." Xia Liuqing pulled a touchscreen phone from his waist, popped up a QR code on the screen, and handed it to Zhou Shuo.

"Really don't have it—just give me the phone number!" Zhou Shuo glanced at the familiar old man, grinning; in this world, he'd only just gotten his phone and ID, so where would he have QQ or WeChat?

"Alright, got it—151……" Xia Liuqing looked at the youngster, his longevity brows twitching slightly; this kid was either real or fake—he himself, around a hundred years old, had WeChat and QQ, yet this guy didn't even have that?

"Well then, Elder Xia, let's leave it here—let's chat again next time!" Zhou Shuo saved the phone number, smiled and bid farewell to the little old man, then turned and headed toward the front mountain.

"Xia, what are you thinking about?" Balun looked at the old man staring straight after the youth's departing figure, and couldn't help but ask.

"Nothing much, just feeling that the times are different—on this jianghu, the new generation surpasses the old!" Xia Liuqing gazed at the youth receding into the distance, and couldn't help but sigh.

"You really don't need to feel that way." Although Balun was a foreigner, he could still understand Xia Liuqing's meaning.

"Hehe, you foreign devil, you actually know how to comfort people?" Xia Liuqing gave a slight sideways glance, his eyes holding a hint of amusement; this foreigner was rather interesting.

"Because on this trip I've seen quite a few interesting things, I'm really grateful to you—oh, right, that liquor—I'll give it to you when I get back. I lost this match, as you said, that girl's combat instinct comes from instinct." Balun curled the corner of his mouth.

Not mentioning Balun and Xia Liuqing, Zhou Shuo had run all the way out of the rear mountain; as he neared the front mountain, he suddenly felt the noisy sounds up there cut off abruptly, followed by a confused clamor, faintly hearing someone shout the titles "Old Heavenly Master" and "Master Venerable". He lifted his head slightly and saw, in the darkness, a burst of golden light flare up at the mountain base, almost illuminating half of the Heavenly Master's Residence.

"Damn it, is that the Heavenly Pass Daoist?" Zhou Shuo looked at the blinding golden light in the night sky, his eyes widening; this golden light, I'm afraid even someone who doesn't understand qi could see it.

Techniques used by outriders usually carry a strong atmospheric signature—for example, the golden light of the Golden Light Mantra; ordinary people who don't understand qi cannot perceive the atmospheric manifestation of an outrider's ability, at most sensing something subconsciously. But the golden light appearing now inside the Heavenly Master's Residence is absolutely visible to ordinary people—being able to project qi to this extent and release it freely, probably only that sixty-fifth generation Heavenly Master could do so.

The madmen of All Nature were causing trouble on Longhu Mountain, which would provoke the head of the Heavenly Master's Residence, the Heavenly Pass Daoist Zhang Zhiwei, to come out—this wasn't strange—but Zhou Shuo hadn't expected this sixty-fifth generation Heavenly Master to be so perverse; that golden light within his spirit was like a sun shining in the mountains, terrifying indeed.

"Linglong, save me! Hurry and save me, save me."

A shrill, desperate cry rang in his ears; the golden light on the distant mountainside dimmed. Zhou Shuo turned his head toward the sound's direction; in the distance from where he stood, a fight was underway—a fat man pressing down on a girl, seemingly doing something improper, the girl wailing miserably as she called for help to another girl being besieged by three men, while two onlookers stood nearby.

"Indeed…" Zhou Shuo listened to the commotion while rushing to the scene, taking in everything with his eyes, and unwittingly felt a headache, because the two women at a disadvantage were not All Nature members; his nominal companions, meanwhile, held the upper hand by numbers, while the two girls were on the losing side.

Nominal companions are still companions; they held the advantage, so Zhou Shuo should have been pleased, yet he couldn't feel any joy—although he didn't know either of those girls, the captured girl had her hands and feet pinned to the ground with black thorns, a fat man wearing a gold necklace pressing on her, pulling open her collar to expose a patch of white, provoking her to call for help from her companions.

Although the gold‑necklace fat man's gesture was merely a threat—just exposing the girl's shoulder—his intent was unmistakable from his eyes. Zhou Shuo already knew from Lu Liang that All Nature members basically had no limits, but today he truly witnessed what it meant to have no limits; now he faced two choices: either uphold justice, or pretend he hadn't seen anything.

"Linglong, hurry and save me, hurry and save me." The captured girl was about twenty years old, in the prime of youth and beauty; having been stripped by a stranger, her heart was utterly devastated, her anguished cries throwing her companions into disarray. Her companion, a cute girl of about fifteen or sixteen named Linglong, had a rather steadfast personality—she merely kept silent while fighting the opponent, showing no tendency to surrender.

"Damn it, I say, you guys…" The fat man with the gold necklace, who was pressing down on the captive girl, grew impatient and glanced at his companion; mid‑sentence his voice caught in his throat, a chill swept over his throat, his forward gaze narrowed slightly, and in his pupils reflected the silhouette of a sword‑wielding figure.

Blood instantly spurted from the neck of the gold‑necklace fat man like a fountain, his massive body crashing down; the girl beneath him first let out a shriek, which then cut off abruptly, as if she had fainted.

"So that's why I despise orthodox sects—if they can't win, they just gang up, acting as if All Nature has no one!" Zhou Shuo flicked the blood droplets from his long sword; although he wasn't exactly a gentleman, in this situation, between righteousness and his own comfort, clearly his comfort mattered most.

"I, I damn it…" Facing the fat man whose throat had been instantly sealed and who then collapsed, an All Nature member who had been watching the fight without intervening let out a national curse.

"Still dare to curse people." Zhou Shuo looked at the man uttering the national curse, his eyes narrowing slightly; there were still five All Nature members present—four men and one woman—and if he took out all five, he wouldn't have to worry about any consequences; it would just be like waving a hand and doing a good deed.

"Wait…" The man looked at Zhou Shuo, his eyes involuntarily narrowing; before he could speak, Zhou Shuo, standing before him, vanished in place, a violent gust rushing toward him; a flash of cold light appeared in the wind, a long blade of cold light dragging from between the man's features, the breeze subsided, and Zhou Shuo stood firm, sword in hand.

"So I really dislike you lot, these orthodox sects." Zhou Shuo fixed his gaze on the four retreating individuals.

"Damn it, wait, you've got it wrong—we are All Nature, we are the real All Nature!" The All Nature member with dyed‑red hair felt his brow twitch, but before he could finish speaking, a flash of cold light slicing his throat cut him off.

"You think I'm a tiger?" Zhou Shuo swept his sword to wipe away the non‑mainstream, his gaze locking onto the next All Nature member—a woman whose hair was neatly tied into a ponytail at the back, a strand of hair hanging from her forehead, her face bearing narrow, elongated eyes, wearing a red short‑sleeve shirt, denim shorts, and long boots covering her slender legs.

"Run." The woman, upon being looked at by Zhou Shuo, let out a shriek and abruptly turned to flee; the other two All Nature members, without saying a word, simply turned and ran.