Chapter 269: Zheng Yi

*Swish!

Zheng Yi thrust her sword out, instantly creating a series of sonic booms in the air, the tip of the sword aimed directly at the old man's face. She held nothing back in this strike, filled with killing intent, vowing to behead the culprit!

*Clang!

The long sword was a foot away from the old man's panicked face when another sword suddenly thrust out from the side, precisely hitting the weak point of Zheng Yi's strike, instantly breaking the move.

"Tsk!"

Zheng Yi's willow-leaf eyebrows arched, her feet never stopping as she continued to chase the two fleeing ahead.

The two ahead were both wearing tight night-traveling clothes and were masked. But just from the exposed eyebrows, eyes, hands, and feet, one could tell that one was a decrepit old man and the other a young woman in her prime.

Judging by their Wu Gong foundation, the man should have been first-rate in his youth, but now he was at the end of his life, his True Qi and blood almost exhausted, having slipped to the level of a second or third-rate expert.

If it were just him, Zheng Yi could kill him in an instant.

But the trouble lay with the woman.

In terms of Wu Gong alone, although she was a solid Heaven-Human expert, she was definitely no match for Zheng Yi. What made it tricky for Zheng Yi was her identity.

Although Zheng Yi didn't know the conclusion Li Miao had reached, now that the person was right in front of her, even masked, she could recognize at a glance that the other's appearance and stature were sixty or seventy percent similar to her own! And the other's Wu Gong was undoubtedly the direct lineage of Penglai!

How could she not guess the other's identity?

She was hesitant, but the opponent held nothing back, even using her own body to block the old man, making it impossible for Zheng Yi to strike.

They had actually managed to escape for dozens of miles.

"Can't delay any longer!"

Zheng Yi gritted her teeth, her True Qi surging, her figure suddenly darting forward, instantly reaching behind the old man, raising her sword to slash diagonally at the back of his head!

But Zheng Yi's peripheral vision was subtly scanning the side.

Sure enough! Seeing her move, the woman's eyes flashed with panic, and she flashed over, raising her sword to block Zheng Yi's move.

"Well done!"

Zheng Yi shouted, and the change in her move, already prepared, was completed instantly! Her long sword swirled in mid-air, deflecting the woman's sword!

And then—she raised her hand and struck with a palm!

It slammed fiercely into the woman's chest!

"*Pfft! —"

The woman flew backward, blood gushing from her mouth!

Taking this opportunity, Zheng Yi kicked the old man's knee; with a crisp *crack*, white bone shards broke through his pant leg, exposed to the air.

The old man let out a cry of pain, and just as his figure tilted, his other leg was also kicked; both his legs were completely crippled, and he collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

"Save—"

Just as he opened his mouth to beg the woman for help, Zheng Yi's hand grabbed the back of his head, pressing him into the dirt. Her long sword was thrust into the ground beside his neck, ready to decapitate him at any moment!

"Don't move!"

Zheng Yi said coldly, looking up.

The woman had taken a palm strike with eighty percent of her strength and was not lightly injured, but she didn't care about herself at all. Seeing Zheng Yi's long sword thrust beside the old man's neck, her eyes turned red, and she was about to rush over to fight to the death.

"Move an inch, and he dies."

Zheng Yi said coldly.

The woman finally slowed her steps, gripping her sword hilt tightly, looking at Zheng Yi with gritted teeth.

"Take off your mask, let me see your face."

Zheng Yi ordered.

The woman complied, raising her hand to remove the mask, revealing a beautiful young face. Sure enough, her appearance was sixty or seventy percent similar to Zheng Yi's.

"What is your name?"

Zheng Yi asked.

"Xue Hanmeng!"

The woman's tone was filled with anger.

"Indeed."

Zheng Yi nodded.

"You are Xue Bangzhu's daughter."

"So what! You bunch of Yingzhou animals!"

"They say 'born of the same root, why the rush to fry each other,' yet you animals are biting at our heels! You killed my mother, and now you want to kill my uncle!"

The woman gritted her teeth.

"I swear to heaven, if you harm my uncle's life today, even if I spend my whole life chasing you to the ends of the earth, I will—"

"Smash! You! Into! Ten! Thousand! Pieces!"

Zheng Yi choked.

She was truly choked by Xue Hanmeng's nonsensical words, with a thousand thoughts not knowing where to begin. Her lips twitched, and she almost cursed "brain-dead."

She truly never expected that the first Penglai peer she found would think she was from Yingzhou! Li Miao's words that her Penglai peers might turn their swords on her had actually come true in this way!

Is Xue Hanmeng brain-dead? Their sword techniques came from the same master; couldn't she tell?

If she were from Yingzhou, she would have killed Xue Hanmeng with one sword strike long ago! Why would she need to chase so far before striking hard! Did the other not know how much strength she had held back in that palm strike just now!

But just as she was about to say these words, she heard Xue Hanmeng snort coldly: "Shameless! Yingzhou and Penglai share the same origin; what's strange about you knowing Penglai's sword techniques!"

"Besides, aren't you trying to keep me alive to force out our Penglai secrets—phooey!"

She arched her eyebrows and said righteously.

"If you were really my peer, let my uncle go! Otherwise, no matter how flowery your words are, I won't believe a word of it!"

"I—"

Zheng Yi almost cursed again.

Let me add a sentence here: after the survivors of Penglai fled to the Great Ming, they each hid themselves. Some hid in the mountains, some in the temples, some in the markets; their choices were all different.

Zheng Yi's mother chose—to become a bandit.

Before the Yingzhou people came to her door, Zheng Yi's mother was already one of the twenty-eight leaders of the Jiangnan waterways, and could be considered famous in the greenwood path.

And Zheng Yi grew up among a group of water bandits. Although her mother had tried hard to correct her speech and behavior, the foundation was hard to change.

Before, she had acted cold in front of the Yingzhou people and played the lady in front of Li Miao, partly because she was afraid of losing face for Penglai and her mother, and partly because she was used to "putting on airs" after her mother's training.

But now, she truly couldn't hold it in anymore.

This Xue Hanmeng... was simply more disgusting than the Yingzhou people!

This fool's logic was self-consistent!

If she let this old man go, Xue Hanmeng would definitely take him and run for her life at the first opportunity; on the way, the old man would add a few more "settings," and Xue Hanmeng would definitely believe it deeply; no matter how she explained it, it would be useless.

By then, if Zheng Yi wanted to capture the old man again, she would probably have to take Xue Hanmeng's life—what the hell was the point of all this tossing and turning all night!

But if she didn't let him go, Xue Hanmeng wouldn't believe her. If she killed the old man, Xue Hanmeng would probably rush over with red eyes to fight to the death.

Numb... truly numb...

From body to heart, Zheng Yi was completely numb.

For a martial artist, the most disgusting enemy is not a master you can't beat, but a brain-dead ally.

Can't scold them awake, can't kill them, can't fight them.

And can't ignore them!

Zheng Yi now wished Xue Hanmeng wasn't from Penglai... then she could just skewer this bad seed and this idiot together and be done with it!

Seeing Zheng Yi's expression shifting and her hand seemingly relaxing some of its strength, Xue Hanmeng's eyes rolled, and she suddenly changed her expression, saying to Zheng Yi with a sincere face.

"If you really are my peer, we shouldn't kill each other; that would only benefit Yingzhou... I just didn't dare to believe you for a moment, if you let him go first—"

"Shut up, you idiot."

Zheng Yi said weakly.

"Your act of hypocrisy is enough to fool a three-year-old; your face changes like flipping a book, do you think I'm as stupid as you?"

"Damn it—sigh!"

Zheng Yi finally completely lost it.

After putting on airs in front of Li Miao for over a month, with a "damn it," it all instantly collapsed.

"I really admire you, I don't know what kind of dog shit your mother fed you when you were little that even your brain got fed bad. Just now your mother's corpse was on the table, rotting just like your brain, and you didn't even look at it, but ran over to save your mother's killer. I really don't know what sin my Zheng family committed to give birth to such an unfilial, unrighteous, unwise, death-seeking, ungrateful idiot like you, you—"

"Shut up!"

Xue Hanmeng had lived in the mountains and forests with Xue Bangzhu since she was little; where had she ever seen this!

Just in the moment of her astonishment, she was insulted from head to toe by Zheng Yi two or three times, and instantly became angry and ashamed, raising her sword to rush over and fight to the death!

"Idiot, don't move."

*Crack—*

With a crisp sound, Zheng Yi broke one of the old man's arms; the old man, his mouth buried in the dirt, instantly let out a "woo-woo-woo" wail, stopping Xue Hanmeng's steps.

"What exactly do you want!"

She shouted angrily.

"Nothing, just wait."

Zheng Yi said without looking up.

Xue Hanmeng was on one path, she was on another; the gap wasn't large enough to firmly handle the other. To be honest, she had no way to break this situation now.

But she had seen Yin Suqin leave, and she knew exactly who Yin Suqin was going to find.

To deal with an idiot, fists are far more useful than logic.

Since the hardest pair of fists in the Great Ming was about to arrive, she had no interest in arguing with Xue Hanmeng anymore... let's just drag it out!

On one side was "numb" and didn't want to move, on the other was hesitant and didn't dare to step forward, so the situation remained deadlocked.

Since neither side was making a move, according to Jianghu rules, greeting each other's parents and eighteen generations of ancestors was inevitable.

Thus, on the vast wilderness, two extremely similar female voices began to curse.

"Yingzhou dog thief!"

"Your mother is dead."

"Jianghu scum!"

"Your uncle is about to die too."

"You're not human!"

"You're an idiot."

"Ahhhhhh—you!"

————————

When Li Miao followed the trail to the vicinity, he heard the two voices cursing from far away.

Li Miao raised his eyebrows, not in a hurry to appear, and with a flash, he silenced his footsteps, quietly creeping toward the direction the cursing came from.

"You, you—"

Xue Hanmeng's face was flushed, her chest heaving, her lips pale, trembling uncontrollably.

"You are a lemon-head, rat-eyed, hawk-nosed, arched-browed, wind-catching-eared, big-lipped, buck-toothed, wick-necked, uneven-shouldered, long-and-short-legged, shifty-eyed, wolf-hearted and dog-lunged wretch."

Zheng Yi said calmly.

"Unfilial, unrighteous, unkind, ungrateful, death-seeking, poor Wu Gong, bad brain, and even your tongue isn't sharp; from top to bottom, from inside to outside, there isn't a single part of you that is worthy of my Zheng family bloodline."

"Every word you say now is called 'shameless,' every breath you take is called 'brazen,' and every thought that pops up is an insult to the pig you ate. If I were you, I would have slapped myself twenty times just to feel at ease, yet you still have the nerve to breathe."

"Tell me, what face do you have to still be alive?"

Li Miao raised an eyebrow in the shadows.

"Whoa! Good fellow! What a sharp tongue!"

"Before, she acted cold with Zheng Ming, and acted like a lady with me; it turns out it was all an act!"

"With this mouth, even if it were me, other than tearing her head off, there would be no other way to solve it... although it's not the same path as Little Anzi, it's at least a master with over ten years of foundation—interesting!"

To be honest, Li Miao hadn't really had any good feelings toward Zheng Yi before. He disliked people who put on airs the most; if Zheng Yi had died in the hands of the Yingzhou people while acting like a lady, he wouldn't have felt anything.

But Zheng Yi's current appearance made Li Miao feel some interest—of course, not the kind between a man and a woman. After all, they were related, and although Li Miao was from the Shuntian Prefecture, he had no interest in playing ethical games.

In this short time, Xue Hanmeng had been scolded into a state of total defeat, and now she couldn't even say a complete sentence, only shouting "You, you."

Zheng Yi opened her mouth, ready to "pursue the fleeing enemy with remaining courage": "You idiot thing, eat your—"

"Alright, alright."

A hand rested on her shoulder.

"If you keep scolding, this idiot child is going to go into Qi-deviation. We've been tossing and turning all night, Yan Fan and Xue Bangzhu are dead; if she dies from your scolding, we've come for nothing."

Zheng Yi's face turned pale.

Li Miao had actually arrived!

Given his personality, there were only two ways he would appear—either crashing into the ground like a meteorite, or holding back his malice and watching the fun for a long time, likely having eaten half a handful of melon seeds!

Which meant—everything she said just now had been heard by Li Miao.

Heavens... Penglai's face had been completely lost by her!

Zheng Yi fell into deep self-doubt, blankly being lifted by the back of her neck by Li Miao and placed to the side.

The "No-Trace" who had been pressed by Zheng Yi for half a day suddenly felt his back loosen, and he violently raised his head to catch his breath; before he could open his mouth, a massive force came from behind, pressing him into the dirt.

Li Miao didn't care about Xue Hanmeng's feelings.

"Mmph mmph mmph mmph! "

With a series of cracking sounds, "No-Trace" was stepped into the ground by Li Miao. The part of his spine in contact with Li Miao's sole had completely collapsed; even if he were saved, he would be a cripple.

"Uncle!"

Xue Hanmeng let out a cry of grief, anger rising in her heart, and no longer caring about anything else, she drew her long sword and thrust it at Li Miao!

*Slap!

A sonic boom rang out in the air!

Li Miao had no intention of being gentle, flicking his hand and delivering a slap, along with the sword, onto Xue Hanmeng's face.

With a *pfft* sound, Xue Hanmeng spun like a top in mid-air, spitting blood as she flew backward, rolling several times after landing, rolling quite neatly.

After a while, she moved, barely managing to stand up, looking at Li Miao in despair.

"Why, not convinced?"

Li Miao looked at her with a smile, raising his foot; just as "No-Trace" was about to raise his head to catch his breath, Li Miao stepped down again, this time on the back of his head, heavier and heavier, forcing his entire skull into the dirt.

"Don't!"

Xue Hanmeng let go, her long sword fell to the ground, and she collapsed to her knees with a thud.

Just from that one move of Li Miao's, she understood she could never be Li Miao's opponent. And unlike Zheng Yi, Li Miao had no intention of arguing with her; he was just going to torture "No-Trace" to death right in front of her!

She could still curse a few times with Zheng Yi, but against Li Miao, Xue Hanmeng had no bargaining chips left, and could only beg with tears in her eyes.

"Don't, I beg you, I beg you to spare my uncle's life!"

"My mother already died in the hands of you Yingzhou people; if you want to cut the weeds and pull up the roots, just kill me! My uncle has nothing to do with Penglai; he only adopted me for a few years, he has nothing to do with these things!"

"I beg you, I beg you! Let him go!"

Xue Hanmeng seemed to suddenly remember something and said urgently.

"How about this, how about this, as long as you let him go, my mother left me something before she disappeared, I will give it to you right now, okay?"

"Don't you Yingzhou people want the secret inheritance of Penglai? I will give it all to you, okay?"

She begged with tears streaming down her face.

Li Miao raised an eyebrow and suddenly laughed.

"You really need to practice; the look you gave me just now was full of killing intent, and when you speak, your eyes dart around, as if you've written 'hypocrisy' on your face."

"How should I put it... I'm not a person who likes to waste time on idiots."

Li Miao raised his foot, reached out, and lifted "No-Trace," who was embedded in the ground, grabbing him by the neck and holding him in front of him.

"I do have a good idea."

Li Miao's other hand slowly gripped "No-Trace's" left upper arm.

*Rip—*

"Ahhhhhh! "

Blood sprayed out, Li Miao casually threw the severed arm to the ground, then raised his hand and grabbed "No-Trace's" wound, his fingers slowly tightening.

With a series of cracking sounds, the wound was kneaded into a mass of blurred flesh by Li Miao, the gushing blood stopped by this extremely brutal method, only dripping down bit by bit.

"No-Trace" had already rolled his eyes back and fainted.

Xue Hanmeng's face was pale, trembling as she looked at Li Miao, who revealed a ferocious smile from behind "No-Trace."

He said with a smile.

"He has a moment of life, you have a moment of time."

"Run, run forward."

"If I don't see what your mother left you in a quarter of an hour, your so-called 'uncle's' life won't be saved, oh."

Xue Hanmeng didn't hesitate for a second, turning and running in one direction.