Chapter 165

Acrid smoke spread thickly through the air.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong wrapped the silk covering she had been wearing over her shoulders around her arm and blocked in front of her.

All the hidden needles that Mang Ryo had shot were blocked by the silk covering, and Dan Ryeong-gyeong wasn’t hit by even a single one.

However, she had been pushed back about half a step. The destructive power of the hidden weapons was that tremendous. If she had been hit directly, it wouldn’t have been just a matter of needles embedding themselves, but would have torn flesh and shattered bones.

A chilling killing intent formed around Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s eyes.

“So this was your intention from the beginning.”

Mang Ryo groaned as he got up from the railing.

“I was just playing a little prank. A prank. And this is also a prank.”

Bang!

Mang Ryo struck the railing with both palms and used the recoil to leap high into the air. He aimed his other prosthetic leg, which hadn’t exploded, at Dan Ryeong-gyeong.

The moment Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s head naturally followed Mang Ryo upward.

Flash.

Instead of an explosion, completely unexpectedly, light emanated from Mang Ryo’s body. The light extending from Mang Ryo shone directly into Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s right eye.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s pupils contracted. Her right vision completely disappeared. With her left eye, Dan Ryeong-gyeong saw that Mang Ryo was holding a bronze mirror in his hand.

What did this mean?

Dan Ryeong-gyeong instinctively swung her right arm to protect her blind spot on the right side while dodging.

Slash.

However, her right arm became completely numb and only her shoulder moved forward. Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s right arm just floated in the air.

A single clear frost was severing the space, and on both sides of that boundary, Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s right shoulder and arm were gradually moving apart. The silk covering that had been wrapped around her right arm was also half cut away and fluttering.

Then came a heavy burning sensation from her shoulder.

“My Lord!”

The Guangtou Brothers’ cry.

Blood shooting up from where her right arm had been!

Baek Li-gwon, who had been lying on the stretcher, was holding a sword raised toward the sky.

If she hadn’t turned her shoulder, her body would have been cut in half!

Dan Ryeong-gyeong turned her body and struck Baek Li-gwon’s chest with her left hand.

Bang!

Baek Li-gwon was pushed back several steps, flailing his arms without even having time to retrieve his sword. He was pushed back almost six or seven steps before falling to his knees.

Baek Li-gwon stuck his sword into the ground and coughed up blood with a retch. The area around his ribs was deeply dented.

Baek Li-gwon felt no injustice. Against Wishful Fairy Maiden, taking one arm and giving up about three ribs was absolutely not a losing deal.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Mang Ryo still hadn’t come down from the air.

“It’s a prank, a prank.”

Mang Ryo laughed as he triggered the mechanism in his prosthetic leg.

Bang!

Dozens of hidden needles poured down on Dan Ryeong-gyeong from mid-air. In exchange, Mang Ryo was blown backward through the air again.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong hurriedly wrapped the silk covering around her remaining left arm and swung it.

Thud thud thud!

The situation was different from before. Several hidden needles broke through Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s defense, grazed past her body, and embedded themselves in the ground.

“Kugh!”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong gritted her teeth. The silk covering was riddled with holes, and her abdomen and legs also had several wounds. The powerful hidden needles’ force had instantly turned Dan Ryeong-gyeong bloody.

The Guangtou Brothers ran to protect Dan Ryeong-gyeong.

The two workers who had brought the stretcher threw their bamboo hats at the Guangtou Brothers. The bamboo hats infused with internal energy were no different from discs with blades attached. The Guangtou Brothers pulled out short iron clubs and knocked away the bamboo hats.

Clang! Sparks flew.

The two workers were Zhuge Ming and Zhuge Son-gi. Zhuge Son-gi drew his sword and confronted the Guangtou Brothers.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong was extremely enraged.

Grind grind grind!

She glared at Baek Li-gwon with beast-like eyes. Because the vision in one eye hadn’t recovered, the pupil sizes of both eyes were different, making her look eerie.

“As expected, you’ve definitely inherited the dirty blood of the Baek Li family! Does the Baek Li family teach people to ambush others!”

Baek Li-gwon also ground his teeth.

“Shut up, evil witch of the dark path! Because of the murderer you raised, my fiancée died. After doing that, do you expect mercy! I will cut off your head and then cut off Snake Scorpion Poison King’s head to comfort Young Lady Yan’s soul!”

Only then did Dan Ryeong-gyeong realize why Mang Ryo had said strange things about murderers and such. However, there was no point in arguing about that now.

“So is that why you call the one who killed your real father ‘father’?”

At Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s brief mockery, Baek Li-gwon’s body flinched.

“That’s just a rumor circulating in the world to slander my adoptive father! My father died of illness!”

Baek Li-gwon’s real father was the cousin brother of his adoptive father Baek Li-jung. Some rumors circulated that Baek Li-jung had killed his real father, coveting Baek Li-gwon’s martial talent.

“But the fact that you raised a murderer isn’t a rumor!”

“Shut up!”

At that moment, Zhuge Ming rushed at Dan Ryeong-gyeong.

Zhuge Ming spread his fan and swept it. Several sword energies appeared in the air.

The enraged Dan Ryeong-gyeong drew up her internal energy to the maximum and kicked the ground.

Whoosh! The sword energy cut through the rising dust.

“You don’t know that this lady showed mercy last time!”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong rotated her body in mid-air and extended both her silk covering and hand simultaneously. Several palm forces flew like a downpour. Zhuge Ming folded his fan and used it as a folding fan technique to strike and neutralize the palm forces.

Thud thud thud thud! Clang!

But through the middle, the twisted and coiled silk covering broke through. The silk covering followed Zhuge Ming like a snake. Zhuge Ming was greatly alarmed and stepped backward while frantically striking the coiled silk covering’s edge.

Thud thud thud thud thud!

Finally, the force contained in the silk covering was neutralized. The silk covering’s stiffness disappeared and it became powerless cloth swaying in the air.

“Vile one. The Zhuge family already knew about this lady, didn’t they?”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s cold voice was heard from above Zhuge Ming’s head. A shadow was cast over Zhuge Ming’s body. Dan Ryeong-gyeong had followed from mid-air as Zhuge Ming fled backward!

Zhuge Ming tried to lie backward using the iron bridge technique and swing his fan. However, Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s palm fell on Zhuge Ming first. Zhuge Ming raised his forearm against the folding fan and lifted it up to block. Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s palm struck the folding fan.

Crash!

Zhuge Ming was buried in the ground just like that.

“Kugh…”

It felt like his spine was being crushed, but as soon as Zhuge Ming felt the pain, he twisted his body to the side.

Bang!

Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s left hand struck the ground once more. Dirt scattered and stones flew. If she had been able to use both hands, he wouldn’t have been able to avoid the second palm force!

“Die, witch!”

Baek Li-gwon rushed at Dan Ryeong-gyeong to protect Zhuge Ming and tried to swing his sword.

Heavenly Human Divine…!

But before he could even infuse internal energy into his sword, Dan Ryeong-gyeong glanced back, and in the blink of an eye, she appeared right in front of Baek Li-gwon. She approached close enough to collide with the rushing Baek Li-gwon. Baek Li-gwon, startled by Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s terrifying movement technique, barely managed to stop.

However, if he hadn’t stopped, it would have been Baek Li-gwon who died.

Because Baek Li-gwon’s sword was caught in Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s bare hand.

“Don’t act up, brat. How dare you use Heavenly Human Divine Sword in front of me?”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong didn’t hide her killing intent and put force into her left hand. Baek Li-gwon sensed the tremendous internal force flowing from his own sword. Baek Li-gwon gritted his teeth and gripped the sword with both hands, countering with internal energy.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s internal energy rushed like a torrent and met Baek Li-gwon’s internal energy.

Pop.

A sound like something bursting flowed from the sword blade. The sword blade rang with a “clang.”

Clang clang clang!

That sound gradually continued toward Baek Li-gwon’s side. The sword blade’s trembling intensified. Sweat poured from Baek Li-gwon’s face like rain. Baek Li-gwon was using all his strength to block Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s internal palm force, but he was gradually being pushed back.

The sword now trembled visibly.

Pop!

Finally, blood vessels bulged on the back of Baek Li-gwon’s hands, his qi and blood burst, and blood splattered. Now it was only a matter of time before Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s internal palm force reached his heart!

Thud, thud!

“That’s enough. No more than this.”

Mang Ryo was running from behind Dan Ryeong-gyeong, leaning on his staff.

“If you kill that friend, this old man will have nowhere to return to.”

Mang Ryo’s prosthetic legs had already burst apart near the knees. Even so, he was running at tremendous speed, supporting himself with a single crutch against the ground.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong hesitated very briefly. Should she kill Baek Li-gwon as is, or should she block Mang Ryo?

But killing Baek Li-gwon wasn’t the purpose. The purpose was to cause that person pain by killing Baek Li-gwon. There was no meaning in dying here together with Baek Li-gwon.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong kicked Baek Li-gwon away and turned her waist to face Mang Ryo. Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s left hand and Mang Ryo’s right hand met palm to palm.

Boom!

As Dan Ryeong-gyeong and Mang Ryo’s palms collided, both their hands bounced back about half an inch from the repulsion.

Tremble tremble tremble… Both their palms shook violently. Unexpectedly, contrary to Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s expectations, Mang Ryo wasn’t pushed back much. Although the crutch supporting the ground was driven two spans into the earth, it wasn’t to the degree where the gap was noticeably large.

He was too strong to dismiss as a mere spy. Dan Ryeong-gyeong withdrew her tingling left hand and looked at Mang Ryo.

Blood vessels had burst in his eyes, the blood vessels in his exposed arms bulged prominently, and fresh blood also showed slightly at the corners of his mouth.

These were side effects from abnormal internal energy operation.

“That thing, could it be Mad Blood Heaven…”

“Y-you don’t have time to leisurely move your mouth like that, do you?”

Mang Ryo gestured with his eyes.

Zhuge Ming, who had been buried in the ground, had escaped and fled. Zhuge Son-gi was still fighting the Guangtou Brothers, but even in a two-against-one situation, superiority hadn’t been determined.

Come to think of it, the fact that Zhuge Ming was here meant that the warriors he had brought were also here.

Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation!

This meant they had been buying time to deploy the Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation on Laozhai Mountain.

After exchanging palms once, Mang Ryo didn’t seem to want to fight again and spoke leisurely.

“Capturing the world’s Wishful Fairy Maiden is truly not easy. I expected as much, though.”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong glared at Mang Ryo.

“What exactly is your purpose?”

“It’s probably similar to the Fairy Maiden’s purpose. The target is different, but we both long for one person – that much is the same.”

Mang Ryo bared his teeth and smiled.

“H-how dare…”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong emitted much stronger killing intent than ever before. Tremendous killing intent covered the summit of Laozhai Mountain.

“Oh my… it seems I’ve touched a reverse scale.”

Mang Ryo even let go of his crutch and flew backward to retreat.

The Guangtou Brothers stopped fighting and ran to Dan Ryeong-gyeong.

“My Lord!”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong barely regained her reason. The Guangtou Brothers pointed down the mountain.

A large number of warriors were approaching, surrounding Laozhai Mountain.

Mang Ryo sat on the broken railing of the octagonal pavilion and shrugged his shoulders.

“Take care.”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong glared at Mang Ryo. She raised her only remaining left hand and pointed at Mang Ryo.

Just pointing with her finger and glaring like that, without saying anything, would have made ordinary people wet themselves. However, Mang Ryo calmly even lifted a wine bottle to drink.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong looked at Zhuge Ming, Zhuge Son-gi, and Baek Li-gwon, who had retreated far away, in turn, then closed her eyes and regulated her breathing.

“Let’s go.”

The Guangtou Brothers nodded and brought a palanquin. Dan Ryeong-gyeong stepped onto the palanquin. The two shouldered the palanquin and ran with all their might, leaping off the cliff. The Li River flowed below the cliff.

When they reached near the bottom of the cliff, Dan Ryeong-gyeong first stepped on the palanquin and jumped, and the Guangtou Brothers also jumped down in turn.

Splash!

A water column splashed up quite high.

Zhuge Ming and Zhuge Son-gi looked down below the cliff. Zhuge Son-gi looked at Mang Ryo and said with dissatisfaction.

“You should have prevented them from escaping!”

Mang Ryo gulped down alcohol as if his throat was burning.

“Look here!”

“Oh my, how impatient you are.”

Mang Ryo tapped his broken prosthetic legs at his feet with his hand.

“Do you know where this was made?”

“Whoever made that, what does it matter! If we had held them just a little longer, everything down to the river would have been within the influence of our formation!”

“Would we have died horribly before that?”

“What?”

“If it hadn’t been for me just now, we would all have died. Just because she’s missing one arm doesn’t mean we won. Wishful Fairy Maiden’s specialty isn’t palm techniques but…”

Mang Ryo paused briefly before continuing.

“Well, anyway, the one who made the mechanisms in my prosthetic legs was the Tang family, the Tang family. They were hidden needles made by Tang family craftsmen. Do you know what that means?”

Mang Ryo grinned wickedly.

“Now we just need to wait leisurely and then collect the Fairy Maiden’s corpse.”