Chapter 16

This town was truly boring. There was nowhere to go even after eating and drinking to one’s heart’s content. The usual hawking sounds that should have been heard on the streets were absent from the moment they entered the town. The area around the town was also quite desolate. The only thing to do was to stay in the inn and space out.

Shen Yao Xing didn’t know if the Black and White Sha sisters would come this way to look for her if they couldn’t find her in the forest. She was just afraid they would foolishly keep searching there. However, with Black Sha there, it shouldn’t come to that. Although Black Sha stuttered a bit when speaking, she was quicker-witted than White Sha.

Shen Yao Xing sat by the window on the second floor, resting her chin on her hand. Her gaze swept aimlessly over the empty streets. There were no other guests in the inn’s hall besides her. The innkeeper was quite nice, letting her sit anywhere and even serving her tea and snacks.

However, if it was true as she said, that those bandits came to plunder every ten days or so, then this inn probably couldn’t last much longer.

Shen Yao Xing bit into a snack and lay on the table, staring blankly out the window. The inn was so quiet that there weren’t even footsteps. Outside the inn, besides the rustling sound of the wind stirring the leaves, nothing else could be heard. It was so quiet that she felt a bit drowsy.

“Might as well go back to sleep…” The young lady mumbled, stood up to stretch, and walked towards her room.

…

As the sky gradually darkened, until only the last glimmer of sunset remained, it illuminated several masked figures in black clothes jumping across the tiled roofs. They crouched on the rooftops, and as the afterglow faded, one of them pointed to the inn not far away and exchanged a glance with the others beside her.

The group leaped towards the inn, silent and traceless.

In a room of the inn, a man sat in front of a tea table. One of his hands was slightly raised, the wide sleeve sliding down to reveal half of his jade-like fair arm. His slender fingers gently swayed, as if teasing.

At this moment, a white, nearly transparent fat worm was lying on the back of his flawless white hand. As the man’s fingertips swayed, the plump worm’s body squirmed along with it, slightly raising its head towards the man, as if looking at him. Then it lay back down on his skin and slowly crawled towards his wrist.

The man was very indulgent with it, letting it squirm and crawl as it pleased.

Suddenly, the originally gently swaying fingers paused slightly. Those deep, emotionless eyes glanced towards the window. The raised hand slowly lowered. He naturally threw the fat worm that had crawled to his wrist back into the small round plate, ignoring its struggle, and closed the plate, placing it aside.

On the other side, Shen Yao Xing, who was in the room next to the man’s, had just woken up and was thinking of going downstairs to have a nice dinner. She had just opened the door when she nearly had her throat slashed by a masked person who had just landed at the doorway.

Shen Yao Xing reflexively dodged back. Her still drowsy eyes immediately became alert. She narrowly avoided a knife as two more people jumped in through the window. The group attacked from both sides, creating a flurry of knife and sword shadows.

“Wait!” Shen Yao Xing raised her hand to stop them at the critical moment.

The four people surrounding her actually stopped, holding their knives in a posture ready to chop her. Shen Yao Xing discreetly shuffled her feet and glanced to both sides, very puzzled. “Who are you?”

Actually, what she wanted to ask was why they were trying to chop her. Last time it was that black shop, but now she was being attacked for no reason again. Shen Yao Xing glanced at them. Could it be that those women from the black shop held a grudge and chased her all the way here?

The four masked individuals looked at each other. One of the women standing at the forefront raised her knife and pointed it at her, her voice slightly rough. “Hand over the deerskin map and we’ll spare your life!”

So these people were after that map. Shen Yao Xing stood up straight, smoothed the hair that was sticking up on top of her head from sleeping, and jerked her chin towards the woman closest to her. “Come and take it if you dare.”

“Ignorant fool!”

The provoked woman shouted, and the four of them simultaneously attacked the young lady. The cold light flashed, and the sound of clashing blades was piercing and shrill. But the space between them was already empty. The four were all stunned. The quickest to react was the leading woman. She abruptly looked up at the roof beam.

The young lady was seen unharmed, half-squatting on the roof beam. Seeing the woman look over, she even grinned and waved. The woman’s eyes instantly turned red with anger. Using the momentum, she leaped up and slashed horizontally towards the person. The young lady’s figure disappeared again. Along with a scream, the other two were kicked out of the room, breaking the railing of the corridor and falling directly from the second floor.

“Tsk,” Shen Yao Xing sucked in a breath of cold air. The moment she lifted her foot, she regretted it. With this kind of fighting, she couldn’t afford to compensate for the damage to the inn!

Without much thought, the remaining two had already swung their knives towards her neck. She bent down and spun to dodge, reflexively kicking one of them in the lower back, her speed so fast that it didn’t give the other party any time to react.

As the woman’s body was about to crash onto the table, Shen Yao Xing, afraid of breaking the tea set, quickly grabbed her wrist, pulled and released. The person was fiercely thrown against the wall and collapsed to the ground with a muffled groan.

Only one left. Shen Yao Xing glanced at her.

That person tightly gripped the knife in her hand, watching the young lady vigilantly. The two silently confronted each other. The young lady’s expression was relaxed as she scratched behind her ear, seeming to be just waiting for her to charge over.

Suddenly, slow and prolonged footsteps sounded from the corridor outside the room. The two looked towards the door in unison. The footsteps paused for a moment when they reached the doorway. As the corner of a white robe swayed, the man’s tall figure appeared at the door, backlit by the candlelight from the hall. His jade-like face was covered in shadows, and his eyes were filled with a chilling light as they swept over the two people in the room.

When she saw the ornament hanging from the man’s waist, the masked woman’s eyes suddenly widened. With lightning speed, she jumped out the window and fled.

“……” Shen Yao Xing quickly walked to the window and looked down, only to see that black figure leaping away with a few swift jumps, running faster than a rabbit.

At least take your few companions with you. She hadn’t intended to use lethal force. This person was also a bit too timid.

“Miss Shen, you’re just letting them go like this?”

The man’s cold voice sounded behind her. Shen Yao Xing didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. With her back to him, she shrugged. “What else?”

Jiang Ming Yue didn’t speak. His gaze fell on the unconscious woman.

On the other side, Shen Yao Xing had already started cleaning up. She dragged the three unconscious individuals out of the inn, dusted off her hands, and didn’t bother with them anymore.

Turning around, she saw the innkeeper looking at her with a frightened expression. Shen Yao Xing felt a bit embarrassed. She glanced at the broken railing upstairs and hurriedly assured, “Innkeeper, don’t worry. I’ll compensate you for the damaged items!”

However, the innkeeper’s attention didn’t seem to be on those broken items. Instead, she was looking behind Shen Yao Xing, her sallow face turning a bit pale. Shen Yao Xing noticed that even her hands were trembling.

“Ban… bandits…” Her voice was shaking so much that it was hard to hear clearly.

Standing on the second-floor corridor, Jiang Ming Yue’s eyes rarely showed a hint of interest. He was somewhat curious about what the young lady would do next. Would she chase them away or kill them all? The upturned corners of his eyes exuded a captivating charm. The man closely watched the young lady’s figure, not missing a single move.

At this time, Shen Yao Xing had already sensed the approaching presence behind her. She couldn’t help but sigh. This was truly a case of driving away the jackals only to have tigers and leopards come. It was endless.

She resignedly turned to look. A group of black-clothed people surged into the inn, each one tall and sturdy, with uniformly fierce and sinister faces. Especially the one walking in front, with a scar on her face and a tiger’s back and bear’s waist, her eyes flashing with a fierce light. She had the standard face of a villain. If not for her bulging chest, Shen Yao Xing felt that she would be much more pleasing to the eye.

“Innkeeper!”

A ferocious roar shook the eardrums. The innkeeper behind directly collapsed to the ground in fright. Shen Yao Xing picked her ear and suddenly realized that this person’s gaze seemed to directly ignore her. Even standing right in front of her, she didn’t notice.

Instead, Jiang Ming Yue on the second floor drew all the attention the moment the shout fell. The bandit leader’s eyes widened, her mouth gaping as she stared straight at the person upstairs, her gaze turning dazed.

“This… this… good…” She couldn’t even speak clearly.

The bandit leader wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth, her eyes fanatical. The corners of her mouth curved up wantonly as she pointed at the man and said, “Tie him up and bring him back to the stronghold!”

The people behind erupted in an uproar, rushing towards the stairs one after another. The stairs creaked under the crowding, as if they would collapse at any moment. It was like fighting over a precious treasure. Some even got into a brawl while pushing and shoving, falling down the stairs before even getting close.

Shen Yao Xing glanced at them and quietly moved to the side.

A woman charged at the forefront, her face somewhat manic, reaching out towards that incomparably beautiful man. Just as she was about to touch the hem of his robe, a bone-chilling cold light flashed. The woman’s arm spun and flew off, followed by another flash. Her arm, along with her head, flew out of the corridor and fell to the first-floor hall. The people behind her were splattered with blood.

Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, before they could react, a black shadow weaved among them. Cold light continuously flashed across their necks. The frenzy on the faces of the crazed crowd hadn’t yet faded, frozen in the instant shock appeared. Everything happened so fast, as if in the blink of an eye.

Shen Yao Xing’s face turned slightly pale, her hands clenched tightly under her sleeves. She discovered that this time, the black-robed man beside Jiang Ming Yue was even more formidable than the one on the arena. His eerie movement technique was so fast that even she had trouble seeing it clearly.

He might not even be on the same level as the previous one.

The previously frenzied crowd on the second floor seemed to have had their acupoints sealed, not moving an inch. Blood traces fell from their necks. The bandit leader, frightened by the first person who had their head chopped off, had even changed the color of the scar on her face. Seeing the people behind not moving, she pointed at the man and roared, “What are you still standing there for!? Hurry and capture him!”

As soon as the roar fell, they all collapsed like deflated balloons. Surging red dripped from the second floor to the hall, displaying a terrifying color under the flickering candlelight.

Seeing this, the innkeeper directly fainted.

The bandit leader’s eyes revealed terror. When looking at the man, she no longer dared to have any greedy thoughts. She turned and fled out of the inn in a panic, not choosing her path. A black shadow flashed past Shen Yao Xing, and immediately after, the woman who had just run out of the inn was seen being cut in half at the waist, her death extremely miserable.

Shen Yao Xing discovered that anyone the man set his eyes on seemed to meet a terrible end.

“What, do you pity her?”

Shen Yao Xing turned her head to look at the man standing not far from her. His face was calm, as if such a horrifying scene had long become commonplace for him. She didn’t know what to say. Her lips moved but ultimately didn’t utter a word.

Jiang Ming Yue slightly raised his chin and pointed at the unconscious innkeeper, “Didn’t you want to help her?”

“If I hadn’t taken action just now, what were you planning to do?”

What to do? Naturally, drive them away, beat them until they didn’t dare to come back.

“Drive them away?”

The man seemed to see through her thoughts. The mocking tone in his voice made Shen Yao Xing somewhat annoyed, “You think I’m like you? Killing without batting an eye!”

“Heh,” Jiang Ming Yue let out a cold laugh. He slightly raised his chin and looked down on the young lady with a condescending attitude, “Then what do you think would happen after driving them away? Can you guarantee those people won’t come back?”

Shen Yao Xing was stunned.

He slowly walked to the young lady’s side, his beautiful eyes slightly turning to glance at her profile. He lowered his head slightly, his voice lingering by her ear, so soft as if bewitching, “Cutting off the weeds at the roots is the best outcome.”

Shen Yao Xing glanced at the unconscious innkeeper.

It seemed… that was indeed the case.