"Yes, sir!"
Jiang Shi agreed crisply and went to wash the medicinal pots.
Rong Zhi was also busy. She inspected all the rooms again, scattering a layer of soft tendon powder in all possible hiding spots, just in case.
Later, Rong Zhi told Jiang Shi that she was going back to her room to rest and that Jiang Shi could find a room to sleep in. Jiang Shi agreed, but he only stood guard behind a room, constantly watching the movements outside. It seemed he had not let down his guard. He glanced at the main house and saw a silhouette vaguely illuminated by the moonlight through the window paper. He hid after just one glance, guessing that Rong Zhi had not slept either.
As expected of someone favored by the general, she possessed such vigilance and did not panic. It seemed she was a calm and reliable person.
He guarded until the middle of the night. As dawn approached, there was still no sign of activity.
Rong Zhi yawned, feeling a little tired. Before her eyelids could close, she suddenly heard a scream from the adjacent side room.
"Trouble!" She woke up immediately and rushed out to see that the door of the room where Jiang Shi was guarding was wide open. Jiang Shi was lying on the ground, blood seeping through his clothes.
"Hey!" Rong Zhi quickly went to check and found a large hole in his abdomen, penetrating from front to back. He was severely wounded.
Jiang Shi, sweating profusely, gritted his teeth and uttered a sentence: "Man, thin... around 30 years old..."
This simple sentence made his whole body tremble, and the intense pain caused him to convulse. Rong Zhi nodded, "I understand." She then took a pill from her person and gave it to him. Jiang Shi's eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
"Sleep well!"
Seeing that he had fainted, Rong Zhi tore open his clothes on the spot and found that the wound was too large for ordinary external wound medicine to heal.
She could only...
When Xia Yunting and Chen Xing arrived, Rong Zhi was just finishing the last stitch and began to clean the wound.
Chen Xing saw Jiang Shi's stomach exposed, his wound ghastly, and exclaimed in surprise, "Jiang Shi! How did he end up like this too?"
Rong Zhi paused her cleaning, "Too? Who else?"
"Several of our brothers have been inexplicably attacked. The attackers were extremely fast, and we couldn't even see who it was."
Speaking of this, Chen Xing felt a bit ashamed. They were originally the most elite secret guards under the general, and suffering these few defeats was too humiliating.
Rong Zhi instinctively glanced at Xia Yunting. Xia Yunting said, "I'm not injured, don't worry."
Rong Zhi's expression softened slightly. She pointed at the person on the bed and said, "He just told me that the attacker was a thin man around 30 years old. I suspect it's the patient who escaped that day."
"Perhaps it was him who attacked before," Xia Yunting mused. He then turned to Chen Xing and said, "Have everyone return to recuperate. Don't pursue them anymore."
"Yes, General."
Chen Xing glanced at Jiang Shi on the bed with concern before going to deliver the message.
Rong Zhi asked, "Are you going to deal with this person yourself?"
"Yes," he replied calmly, but a hint of ferocity flashed in his eyes.
Never in his life had anyone who attacked his subordinates met a good end.
"Take me with you."
"You..." Xia Yunting was slightly surprised. "Xiao Mo, you should be able to tell that the strength of this enemy far surpasses that of the hall master."
"I just want to see what kind of strength the person who escaped from under my nose possesses."
Under the dark and windy night, Xia Yunting and Rong Zhi pursued him to a wilderness outside the city.
Although the shadow running ahead was very fast, it remained within their line of sight, making Rong Zhi and Xia Yunting even more certain that he was intentionally luring them over.
It seemed this person also wanted to confront them head-on.
The two increased their speed, splitting into two paths to attack. Just as they were about to catch up, the fleeing person suddenly flashed and disappeared into the bushes.
Rong Zhi and Xia Yunting exchanged glances and then simultaneously pursued into the thicket. They heard rustling sounds in the darkness and chased after the sounds, like cats playing with mice.
"Is he playing us for fools?" Rong Zhi was a little angry.
"There must be an ambush ahead."
"Let's see what tricks he has!"
As they pursued, the trees on both sides became sparser, and then a clearing suddenly appeared. The rustling sound stopped abruptly, and with a whistling sound, countless hidden weapons shot out from all directions, covering the sky.
Rong Zhi ducked, dodging a wave of weapons while casually grabbing a handful of pebbles and shooting them out with her internal energy, repelling the next wave. She turned to see Xia Yunting raising his hand and throwing out a handful of hidden weapons, which flew back along the original path.
He had actually caught the hidden weapons with his bare hands.
"Be careful, there's more ambush."
Rong Zhi shouted. As soon as she finished speaking, even more dense hidden weapons attacked.
This continued for several rounds, but they were all repelled by Rong Zhi and Xia Yunting, leaving them unharmed.
The hidden weapons littered the ground, with only a circle within five steps of Rong Zhi and Xia Yunting remaining clean. The two stood back to back, looking around. Xia Yunting shouted, "Who exactly are you? If you want to oppose me, come out and fight openly!"
As soon as he finished speaking, there was no response, but the hidden weapons no longer flew outwards.
Rong Zhi cleared her throat and shouted in a clear voice, "You dare not confront us head-on, only dare to sneak attack from behind, you coward, you despicable, shameless, and vulgar scoundrel!"
As soon as she finished the last word, the sky above suddenly darkened. Countless crows flew past, obscuring the sun and moon, as if paving a path in the sky. A thin man in black appeared on the backs of the crows. He laughed twice, and in a flash, he landed on the ground.
"As expected of the general who struck fear into the hearts of men on the battlefield, you actually managed to kill all those people at Yanzi Mountain by yourself. It's a pity, you are still too young to have discovered me so late. It truly disappoints me. Otherwise, perhaps I would have invited you to join me out of pleasure."
He stood in front of Xia Yunting. Although he was not as tall as Xia Yunting's shoulder, the killing intent emanating from him made no one dare to underestimate him.
"You are... the master of the Blood Drinking Pavilion, Xueying?"
The other party was stunned, and a hint of admiration flashed in his eyes.
"It seems you are not too foolish. With proper training, you can still be of use to me."
"Why did you impersonate me and commit such heinous acts here?"
"Why? Of course, because it's fun." Xueying laughed heartily. "Do bad people need a reason to do bad things? I'm not like you, who always find excuses for everything you do and put on a halo of justice. If we talk about killing, you go to war and call it killing the enemy, but in reality, how many of your own people have died? The people who died for your war probably outnumber those I've killed. We're all the same, essentially just a type of person."
"Heretical reasoning." Xia Yunting snorted coldly. "Since I've discovered you, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
"Just as I wish." Xueying pulled open his clothes and looked down, saying in an almost intoxicated tone, "It just so happens that I want to see if this body can withstand the strength of the God of War."
The skin hidden by the clothes was scarred and bony, but with each breath, countless strong muscles were faintly revealed.
Rong Zhi couldn't help but be startled.
So, his pitiful state of starving to death that day was an act.
"Be careful, Xia Yunting."
As soon as she finished speaking, a gust of wind suddenly swept before her eyes. A muffled groan was heard, and a shadow instantly flew into the air, while Xia Yunting had already disappeared.
Rong Zhi saw that Xia Yunting had inexplicably appeared in Xueying's previous position, retracting his fist. Xueying was the one who had flown into the air.
What?
Rong Zhi's mouth dropped open.
Before she could react, Xia Yunting leaped up and brought his leg down from the air. Immediately, there was a thunderous boom, and the entire ground seemed to tremble. Xia Yunting stepped on Xueying, burying him deep into the ground, a full two feet deep.
Xia Yunting exerted force with his foot, and the sound of bones breaking came from below.
Xueying clutched Xia Yunting's leg and spat out a large mouthful of blood before he could even speak. Surprisingly, he was not angry and instead let out a hoarse laugh.
"Hahahahaha... You did not disappoint me. Only someone like you is worthy of fighting me!"
Had he only been testing Xia Yunting's skills just now?
"Next, I'm getting serious!"
Xueying roared, and the ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch. Xia Yunting retreated rapidly, and in a blink of an eye, Xueying was upon him. His every move was like lightning, leaving Xia Yunting with no time to attend to anything else.
Rong Zhi had originally wanted to fight alongside Xia Yunting, but seeing the situation, she didn't even have a chance to intervene.
Xia Yunting was already superior to her, and Xueying was his equal. If she forced her way into the fight, it wouldn't end well.
Therefore, Rong Zhi sensibly chose to observe from the side.
Neither of them used weapons. Their punches and kicks were incredibly fast. In a single breath, they had exchanged dozens of blows. The surrounding leaves fluttered down, and the branches of several towering old trees fell like snow due to their punches and kicks. The forest was filled with cracking sounds.
Rong Zhi stared intently at the two, and gradually discovered something unusual.
When Xueying attacked, he completely refrained from dodging. He would take the blows from Xia Yunting, and sometimes even deliberately move to meet Xia Yunting's punches. This completely abnormal behavior made Rong Zhi feel very strange.
"Could he be a masochist?"
To subdue him, she needed to find his weakness, but looking at him, he seemed to feel no pain at all. Rong Zhi decided to wait and see.
She watched for three days and three nights.
Rong Zhi sat on the ground, watching as the surrounding trees were broken by their kicks, some even uprooted. The fight kicked up dust and sand, startling birds into flight. Gradually, there were no more insects chirping or birds singing nearby, only the sounds of their battle.
Xueying seemed tireless, as if he never needed to eat, drink, or rest, like a puppet created solely for fighting. Xia Yunting, on the other hand, became more and more excited as he fought, each punch and kick seeming to carry more power than before, as if he had become addicted.
What perverts!
Rong Zhi was dumbfounded.
"Husband! That's enough! Don't prolong the fight!"
Rong Zhi wanted to call Xia Yunting back, but he seemed not to hear her. He landed on the top of a tree, and using the elasticity of the branches, he flew up again. He clenched his right fist, condensing all his strength, and attacked his opponent. At that moment, Rong Zhi seemed to see a pale blue true qi coiled around him, transforming into an illusionary figure. At the same time, a fleeting surprise appeared on Xueying's face.
"This is..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the punch landed squarely on his ribs. The sound of breaking bones echoed. Xueying felt his vision spin, the scenery rapidly receding, followed by a wave of intense pain.
He crashed to the ground with a thud, his bones shattered in a bizarre posture.