Chapter 305: Zheng Yi

*Shua! *

Zheng Yi thrust her sword out, instantly creating a series of sonic booms in the air, the tip of the sword aiming straight for 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 from the side, precisely striking the point where Zheng Yi's force was weakest, instantly breaking the move.

"Tsk!"

Zheng Yi's willow-leaf brows arched, her feet didn't stop, and she continued to chase the two fleeing ahead.

Both of the two ahead were wearing tight night-traveling clothes and were masked. But just from their exposed eyebrows, eyes, hands, and feet, one could see that one was a frail, elderly man, and the other a woman in the prime of her youth.

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

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

But the trouble lay with the woman.

Speaking of Wu Gong alone, although she was a solid Heaven-Man Realm 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 before her, even masked, she could recognize at a glance that her appearance and stature were sixty or seventy percent similar to her own! And the other party's Wu Gong was undoubtedly the direct lineage of Penglai!

How could she not guess the other party's identity?

She was hesitant to act, but the other side 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, the true energy in her body surged, her figure suddenly darted forward, instantly reaching behind the old man, and she raised her sword to slash diagonally at the back of his head!

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

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

"Well come!"

Zheng Yi shouted, and the move she had been preparing instantly completed! 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 fragments broke through his pant leg, exposed to the air.

The old man let out a cry of pain; as soon as his body tilted, his other leg was also kicked, and both his shins were completely shattered, causing him to collapse to 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 and pressed it into the dirt. Her long sword plunged into the ground beside his neck with a *shua*, ready to sever his head 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 plunged beside the old man's neck, her eyes turned red, and she prepared to rush over and fight to the death.

"Move an inch, and he dies."

Zheng Yi said coldly.

The woman slowly stopped her steps, her hands gripping her sword hilt tightly, looking at Zheng Yi through gritted teeth.

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

Zheng Yi ordered.

The woman obeyed, raising her hand to remove her 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 tightly at our heels! You killed my mother, and now you want to kill my uncle!"

The woman said through gritted 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! To! Pieces!"

Zheng Yi was choked up.

She was truly choked up by Xue Hanmeng's nonsensical words, not knowing where to begin. Her lips pursed, and she almost blurted out "brain-dead."

She truly never expected that the first Penglai fellow disciple she found would think she was from Yingzhou! Li Miao's words about Penglai fellow disciples potentially turning their swords against her were actually coming true in this way!

Was Xue Hanmeng brain-dead? Their sword techniques were from the same lineage; couldn't she tell?

If she were from Yingzhou, she would have killed Xue Hanmeng with one sword long ago! Why would she need to chase so far before acting ruthlessly! Didn't the other party know how much strength she had held back in that palm strike just now!

But just as she was about to say these things, she heard Xue Hanmeng sneer: "Shameless! Yingzhou and Penglai are of the same origin; what's strange about you knowing Penglai's sword technique!"

"Besides, aren't you trying to keep me alive to force out the secrets of our Penglai—I spit on you!"

She arched her brows and said righteously.

"If you were really my fellow disciple, release my uncle! Otherwise, no matter how flowery your words, I won't believe a word of them!"

"I—"

Zheng Yi almost let out another curse.

Let me add a sentence here: after the surviving members of Penglai escaped to the Great Ming, they hid themselves. Some hid in the mountains, some in the imperial court, some in the marketplace; their choices were all different.

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

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

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

Pretending to be cold in front of the Yingzhou people and acting like a lady in front of Li Miao was partly because she was afraid of losing face for Penglai and her mother, and partly because she was used to "putting on airs" after being trained by her mother.

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 released the old man, Xue Hanmeng would definitely take him to flee immediately; if the old man added a few more "settings" along the way, Xue Hanmeng would definitely believe it deeply, and no matter how she explained, 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—then what was the point of all this trouble tonight!

But if she didn't release him, 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 an expert they can't beat, but a brain-dead ally.

Can't curse 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 pig-headed fool with one sword and be done with it!

Seeing Zheng Yi's expression shifting and her hand seemingly relaxing 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 fellow disciple, we shouldn't kill each other; that would only benefit Yingzhou for nothing... I just didn't dare to believe you for a moment, if you release him first—"

"Shut up, you idiot."

Zheng Yi said powerlessly.

"That trick of yours is enough to fool a three-year-old; your face changes faster than flipping a book, do you think I'm as stupid as you?"

"Damn it—sigh!"

Zheng Yi finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

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

"I am truly impressed; I don't know what kind of dog shit your mother fed you since you were little that even your brain was fed rotten. Just now, your mother's corpse was lying on the table, rotting just like your brain, yet you didn't even look at it and 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, reckless, and ungrateful stupid thing 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 being stunned, she was insulted from head to toe by Zheng Yi two or three times, and instantly flew into a rage, raising her sword to rush over and fight to the death!

"Don't move, idiot."

*Crack*—

With a crisp sound, Zheng Yi twisted one of the old man's arms, and the old man's mouth, buried in the ground, let out a series of "woo-woo-woo" wails, stopping Xue Hanmeng's steps.

"What exactly do you want!"

She shouted angrily.

"Nothing, just wait."

Zheng Yi said without lifting her head or opening her eyes.

Xue Hanmeng was at the second level, and she was at the second level; the gap wasn't large enough to easily control the other party. To be honest, she had no way to break this deadlock either.

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

For dealing with idiots, fists are far more effective than reason.

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

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

Since neither side was acting, 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 going to die soon too."

"You are not human!"

"You are an idiot."

"Ahhhhhh—you!"

————————

When Li Miao followed the trail and arrived, he heard the two voices cursing each other from far away.

Li Miao arched his eyebrows, not in a hurry to appear, flashed to erase the sound of his footsteps, and quietly crept toward the direction the cursing came from.

"You, you—"

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

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

Zheng Yi said calmly.

"Unfilial, unrighteous, unbenevolent, unjust, ungrateful, reckless, mediocre in Wu Gong, bad in the brain, and even your tongue is not sharp; from top to bottom, from inside to outside, not a single part is worthy of my Zheng family's 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 if I committed suicide even a second late, yet you still have the nerve to breathe."

"Tell me, what face do you have to keep living?"

Li Miao arched his eyebrows in the shadows.

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

"Acting cold in front of Zheng Ming before, acting like a lady in front of me, it turns out it was all an act!"

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

To be honest, Li Miao really didn't have a good impression of 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; although Li Miao was from Shuntian Prefecture, he had no interest in playing ethical games.

In this short time, Xue Hanmeng could be said to have been cursed 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, eat your—"

"Enough, enough."

A hand rested on her shoulder.

"If you keep cursing, this silly child is going to go into Qi deviation. We've been through all this tonight, Yan Fan and Xue Bangzhu are dead, if she gets cursed to death by you, we've come for nothing."

Zheng Yi's face turned pale.

Li Miao had actually arrived!

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

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

Heavens... the face of Penglai was 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 a long time suddenly felt a release behind him, lifted his head to catch his breath, but before he could open his mouth, a massive force came from behind again, pressing his whole body into the dirt.

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

"Woo-woo-woo-woo! —"

Only a series of *cracking* sounds of tendons and bones were heard, and "No-Trace" was stepped into the ground by Li Miao. The part of the 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 sorrow, rage rising from her heart, no longer caring about anything else, she drew her long sword with a *clanging* sound and rushed toward Li Miao!

*Slap! *

Only a loud explosion was heard in the air!

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

Only a "Pfft—" sound was heard, and Xue Hanmeng flew backward in mid-air like a spinning top, spitting blood, rolling several times after landing, rolling quite neatly.

After a long while, she moved, barely supporting herself on the ground to stand up, looking at Li Miao in despair.

"What, not convinced?"

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

"Don't!"

Xue Hanmeng let go, the long sword fell to the ground, and she knelt to the ground with a *thud*.

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

She could still curse a few times with Zheng Yi, but facing 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 has already died in the hands of you Yingzhou people; if you want to cut the weeds and eliminate the roots, just kill me! My uncle has nothing to do with Penglai; he only adopted me for a few years, he is unrelated to these matters!"

"I beg you, I beg you! Release him!"

Xue Hanmeng seemed to have suddenly remembered something and said urgently.

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

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

She begged with tears streaming down her face.

Li Miao arched his eyebrows and suddenly laughed.

"You really need to practice; there was killing intent in that look you gave me just now, and your eyes were darting around when you spoke, as if you had written 'deceit' on your face."

"How should I put it... I am a person who doesn't like wasting time on idiots."

Li Miao lifted 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.

*Sshhh—*

"Ahhhhhh! —"

Fresh blood sprayed out; Li Miao threw the severed arm to the ground, then raised his hand to grab "No-Trace's" wound, his fingers slowly tightening.

Only a series of *cracking* sounds were heard, and the wound was kneaded into a mass of blurred flesh by Li Miao; the originally gushing blood was stopped by this extremely brutal method, only dripping down bit by bit.

"No-Trace" had already rolled his eyes 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 quarter of an hour of life, and you have a quarter of an hour of time."

"Quick, run, run forward."

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

Xue Hanmeng didn't hesitate for a second, turned, and ran in one direction.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 306 =====