Swoos.h.!.+

The sound of a sharp sword cutting through the air gives suddenly gave Qin Lou a fright. Her face inside the mask had a hint of panic as she quickly bends backward to evade the fatal slash which is directed at her neck. Her fast reaction enabled her to evade the sharp blade by a hair's breathe. Although she was able to evade she was still hit by the Qi enveloping the sword which brushed through and cut a portion of the white mask covering her face.

Qin Lou's stumbled a few steps back now half of her lower face was exposed after that surprise attack from Xing Meng. Although she was able to evade at the last minute, still she was. .h.i.t by the spiritual energy that the sword emits. Blood slowly flows down from the corner of her mouth and then like red crystal pearls drip little by little to the ground. There is a new wound on the lower corner of her chin.

She looks back at Xing Meng with an angry eye inside the mask. But Xing Meng looked stunned at Qin Lou. His sneering face was frozen and his face turned pale as if he just saw a ghost. His eyes are directly looking at Qin Lou's lower face where the white mask was torn open and this made him unable to move. Looking at his reaction and the people behind him, Qin Lou suddenly understood what's going on. It seems that half of her lower face was exposed and the people were stupefied at what they are seeing. The greenish blood vessels on Qin Lou's face are like webs of cracks that are pulsating like there are living worms inside it. Half of her face has a large scar which looks like it was burnt before. Although her lips look fine still it was deformed a little bit and drops down on one side.

Seeing that the people looking at her was stunned, Qin Lou grabs this opportunity to strike back. With a flicker of her sleeve, she slashed towards Xing Meng's chest. Because of his stupor, it was too late for Xing Meng to evade and the blade in Qin Lou's hand directly sliced through his clothes. But before it could reach Xing Meng's skin it was stopped by a thin layer of fabric.

"That's a Heavenly silk mail!" Susu Ling exclaimed.

A heavenly silk mail is a consumable armor which can protect its wearer for at least 3 times before it would run out of spiritual essence. It's like having the protection of a nascent cultivator's Qi. Although it is a consumable armor, it's still a very valuable item to carry as with it one can have at least 3 lives.

Seeing that he was. .h.i.t Xing Meng felt anger rus.h.i.+ng through his brain. This armor was given by his master and he truly didn't want for it to be exposed but due to his carelessness, he now lost his trump card.

So, before Qin Lou could do anything else, Xing Meng quickly countered her slash by directly stabbing towards her heart. But since Qin Lou is already in battle mode, she saw what Xing Meng is going to do so she backflipped gracefully evading the sword. But this move has three purposes, it was not only to evade the incoming sword stab but also her aim is to disarm Xing Meng. So, one of her foot forcefully hit Xing Meng's hand which is holding the sword.

The force of the kick sent the sword on Xing Meng's hand to fly towards a person behind Susu Ling which is the third reason for her move. The person did not expect things to go sour and upon seeing the incoming sword he truly wanted to evade but it was too late. The sword found its way to his right shoulder and unexpectedly the impact sent him flying backward which render him to lose his consciousness.

"Susu run! Go and tell the elders what's happening here, now!" Qin Lou shouted as she moves towards Susu Ling and pushed her back.

Still stunned Susu Ling was pushed and dragged by Qin Lou towards the place where the man who was struck by the sword stood. This hole in the entrapment chance was grabbed by Qin Lou so that Susu Ling could escape and find help. Susu Ling was awoken from being stunned and nods towards Qin Lou.

"Senior sister, wait for me… I come back with the elders." Susu Ling said as she quickly escaped.

Qin Lou didn't know why she trusted what Susu Ling has said but her gut feeling tells her that Susu Ling would return with some help and all she has to do is buy her some time.

"Don't let her leave!" Xing Meng shouted in exasperation and a few people ran chasing after Susu Ling.

Xing Meng is truly angry now, as he didn't expect for Qin Lou to be able to counter his sword strike and let Susu Ling escape. Plus because of that one of the men following him became unconscious. He felt hatred towards Qin Lou because of this failure and wanted to kill her just to direct his anger.

"You two kill her now! I already got what we came for." Xing Meng shouted as he suddenly stepped back.

Though he wanted to continue and fight her, Xing Meng is still aware of what is important.

The famous twin tigers suddenly leap towards Qin Lou and began their flurry of attacks once more. Now their movements are more ferocious and are aiming to take her life. But the difference this time is that Qin Lou is going to fight back and also show them her resolve.

Looking at the two charging men rus.h.i.+ng towards her like two ferocious tigers, there was a sudden glint of killing intent that appears in her eyes. Although Qin Lou is always pa.s.sive and would not usually fight with anyone, only when she is pushed in a corner that she would not hesitate to fight back and even take lives if necessary. In this situation where her life is in danger, she has no choice but to defend it.

"It's time to die now, you ugly woman!" the twin brothers shouted in unison.

The shotel swords of both twins glowed with a red and blue hue. This is one of their killer moves that have the ability to cut through any object. The spiritual Qi on both blades emits high and intense heat that has the capacity to melt any metal.

"Let's see you evade this! Twin tigers crosscut!" they shouted in unison.

Then the two blades crossed together and rushed forward towards Qin Lou. Upon seeing the two glowing blades giving off that cross-cutting skill, she felt her heart shook. She didn't have the time to be relaxed as she can tell that this skill almost has zero evasion chance. But Qin Lou didn't give up and made her choice, so she just gritted her teeth and a.n.a.lyze once more her evasion route.

Then in the last seconds her eyes suddenly lit up, it was as if she saw a saving grace which made her have a bit of hope in escaping her predicament. Qin Lou swiftly jumps up and twisted her body in an angle that is enough to pa.s.s through the V-shaped gap before the twin glowing blades could adjust themselves and cut her. In a blink of an eye, Qin Lou was able to evade the crisscrossing cut skill that the twin made. But to fully evade that overwhelming skill, Qin Lou sacrificed the scabbard of the sword to block the skill. In that split of a second before the scabbard was disintegrated to dust, it provides Qin Lou with enough time to pa.s.s through the opening.

Seeing that their skill was seen through and became ineffective, the twin decided to use another skill in their a.r.s.enal to take Qin Lou's life. But Qin Lou would not let them do that, she already acknowledges that the skills used by the twin are too powerful and it's enough to kill her if she got careless and hit just once. So with a quick turn, since she is close to one of the twin, she did a simple slicing motion.

This action from Qin Lou made that person sneer in contempt. A simple slash without using Qi in her sword would be like a sword made of clay facing one that is made of steal. All he has to do is to raise his glowing shotel sword and the weapon on Qin Lou's hand would be cut in half. So without thinking twice, he lifted his glowing hot sword to parry Qin Lou's attack. But, who would have known that when Qin Lou's sword was about to make contact with the glowing hot blue shotel sword. It would suddenly change its direction and turn from a slash into a straight stab. He wanted to step back or evade but it was already too late as the tip has already touched his forehead.

"No!... Brother!" one of the twin brothers shouted mournfully.

He rushed to attack Qin Lou but before he could move a step, he saw the sword in Qin Lou's hand piercing his twin brother's forehead impaling it like b.u.t.ter in a hot knife. With a clang, the shotel sword fell on the ground and the glowing blue hue on it slowly diminished.

"You dare kill my brother! I will skin you alive you ugly b.i.t.c.h!" the remaining one of the twin raves in anger.

Qin Lou just looks at him with caution as she prepares for the man to attack. Meanwhile, Xing Meng was really astonished and had a disbelieving eye after seeing what happened. It is known that the twins are a legend among cultivators in Er city, not only are they good at fighting solo but when they both work together no one is their match. Now he just saw one of them being impaled by a sword from a woman whom they considered as trash. Now his heart began to feel fear and decided to run and save himself.

"All attack! Kill her! Kill her!" Xing Meng frantically shouted while he secretly took something out from his spatial tool which is a small pouch hidden on his waist.

All the cloak men suddenly rushed towards Qin Lou brandis.h.i.+ng their swords. With this many opponents, Qin Lou is not sure if she could survive, but she didn't cower, instead, she held her sword and prepared to fight them all.

The first one to rush is the twin brother of the man she just killed. The man has already almost lost his reasoning as he just waves his sword without using any of his remarkable skills. This made it easy for Qin Lou to predict his movements and clearly, after three moves Qin Lou was able to stab the man who is already in berserk due to anger from behind and directly pierced his heart.

"Everyone attack at once! I don't believe she has the ability to go through all of us!" one of the cloaked people shouted.

Then with a nod, everyone suddenly rushed towards Qin Lou. But then all of a sudden one of them who is near Qin Lou suddenly fell down kneeling on the ground while a b.l.o.o.d.y hole can be seen in his chest. This made everyone stopped from attacking and directed their gaze towards that guy.

Then they saw not too far behind that kneeling dead man stood an elder stroking his long white beard while holding a long whip, on his side are two more elders and the young woman, Susu Ling.

"Tsk, tsk. Truly you all are an unruly bunch. I didn't expect that you lot would collude with some people from the outside and let them enter this hidden area." The one that spoke was Hu Ao.

"Xing Meng, you truly disappoint this old man. I let you won in the contest even though you cheated. I just wanted to preserve your master's prestige and didn't expose the truth about the pill you've made, and now you are doing this behind our backs? You truly are waste." Lu Hao Duang said shaking his head.

Xing Meng's eyes went wide in disbelief. He didn't expect that Susu Ling could really escape the clutches of the people who chased after her. And now his crime was known to the two well-known elders of the school. But his resolve was set when he started to think about the reward his master would give him if he shows the recipe he obtained. This would balance his crime and would also gain a great benefit.

"Give up now young lads; it's no use resisting us." Hu Ao warned the group.

As Hu Ao said, no matter how much they wanted to resist they won't be able to fight against two peak-stage gold core realm experts, and another one with an unknown cultivation level. So the group decided to lay their weapons on the ground, at least this way they may preserve their lives.

With a wave of his hand, the weapons on the ground were shattered. This caused all the people to become dumbstruck. Master Ju just casually stepped forward and destroyed the weapons, then he flicked his sleeves and from there shoots out multiple needles which render all the men in black cloak motionless, with this move of his, he just sealed their acupoints.

But before Xing Meng's acupoint could be sealed, he broke a crystal-like object in his hand. And when his acupoints were sealed his body suddenly vanished from where he stood.

"That's a teleport crystal!"

"That sneaky b.a.s.t.a.r.d he just ran and left us here."

"I'll kill him if I find him someday."

The students who are in the group of cloaked men suddenly complained as they realized that because of their greed Xing Meng was able to use them. This is more so with regards to Xian Jian Feng who thought that he could use this opportunity to get Qin Lou's secret in an easy way.

Xing Meng was able to escape being caught by the three elders. But the rest of the group was gathered up, as more elders from every school appear in the area. After the students who committed this offense was taken by the people of the disciplinary committee.

Qin Lou ran towards Xian Jian Feng and violently shook him.

"Where is my servant? Where did you put him?" Qin Lou's frantic voice echoed.

"I don't know... It was Xing Meng's men who took him... He may be... dead already." Xian Jian Feng said with uncertainty.

Suddenly tears began to uncontrollably fall from Qin Lou's eyes as it began to soak the white mask. She didn't bother to cover the exposed area of the mask as she just stood there feeling helpless. The elders look at her and just waited, they know that right now she is feeling depressed by the loss of someone she cared about. After some time Qin Lou stopped crying and decided to not believe what Xian Jian Feng said. She would look for s.h.i.+n Jiao no matter what.

Qin Lou along with Susu Ling went with the three elders and return to the alchemist's building. Unknown to them one of the cloaked men had escaped and is hiding on the top floor of a house. This is the young man wearing a half-mask and a dark green robe with a tinge of red in his collar.

He actually escaped earlier when Susu Ling was able to run away. He knew that something is going to happen and now that everything was exposed he wanted to save himself.

"That Xing Meng tricked us all… I will repay this debt with him after I came back to Er city." The youth said gritting his teeth in anger.

Then he turns around and decided to run out of the illusion mountain, but before he can take a step he heard a sound of something falling.