Drunken Spring Pavilion (5)

Qi Xianqing had asked whether Yan Jue knew how to deal with the man, but Yan Jue really wasn’t confident at all.

In a situation like the one just now, did she dare ask? Of course not!

All she’d seen on television was that you were supposed to wake the murderer first and interrogate him.

This man had used a Demonic Cult magic weapon, so she’d start there.

Or just finish him with a single slash?

Yan Jue came from modern times; she had never killed anyone, so she chose the former.

She took a long, thin rope out of the pale pink beginner Qiankun bag and bound the man tightly.

Then she fetched a basin of water and splashed it hard over the unconscious man.

The man shuddered all over and woke up. He tried to move, but the injuries he had suffered in the fight made him suck in a sharp breath of pain.

Yan Jue: “Your life doesn’t have many days left. You’d better answer me honestly when I ask you something, understand!”

As she said this, she kicked over the chair beside her, her face fierce.

“L-little one, I’ve wanted to seek immortality and the Dao since I was young, but my aptitude is mediocre. By chance I got hold of a secret recipe that can use a woman’s heart...” The man recalled how he had just been wounded in the room by some expert; it had to have been this woman, and he was instantly terrified. “Also, using a woman’s heart as a medicinal guide has the effect of strengthening virility!”

Yan Jue: “Who told you to cultivate here... hmm?”

The man was shaking all over. “I... I don’t know why, but ever since I was young I’ve been impotent. I found this folk remedy in an old book by chance. It requires tiger penis... bull penis... and a woman’s heart to make into pills. It can strengthen the body, and this method really does let one improve quickly in a short time, so I resorted to this desperate measure. Immortal, Immortal, please spare me!”

Frowning, Yan Jue searched through his bag and indeed found several red pills.

Those pills carried a faint smell of blood; they must have been made from women’s hearts.

Yan Jue couldn’t help feeling a chill run down her spine.

She put the pills into her Qiankun bag, and from the corner of her eye she suddenly caught the man inching over in secret, trying to grab the knife.

Yan Jue held the sword hilt upright and slapped hard at his hand. “What are you doing? You’re caught and you still won’t behave?”

At the same time, voices came from the corridor.

“It’ll be the end of the year soon, Junior Ke. We need to hurry and take on more missions, finish the beginner tasks, and start earning points. This time let’s try to get into the sect’s top two hundred!”

“When I went to the Administrative Hall before, I didn’t see this mission listed. I wonder why it showed up again. It must be that the fellow disciple who took it before failed, so the mission was returned to the Administrative Hall,” the girl said, a faint gleam in her eyes. “This is great. Once we finish this mission, we can finally go out and train properly.”

“But I remember asking around before, and wasn’t the Administrative Hall asking Senior Sister to deal with this mess...”

“You don’t know; Senior Sister is very busy. With her cultivation, why would she bother taking this kind of trash mission? She’d be better off doing some Foundation Establishment Realm missions. Why waste time here for no reward and all the effort?”

“That brothel is disgusting. If they keep me here, I’m not doing it!”

Yan Jue was in the middle of interrogating the criminal when the door was suddenly kicked open.

She turned around and saw a man and a woman in green-gray Daoist robes walking in from outside.

The man had broad shoulders and a tall build, full of high-spirited confidence.

Beside him stood a petite girl. Seeing the man at Yan Jue’s feet, she widened her eyes slightly and raised the painting in her hand to compare it. “Senior Brother, is this the man we’re supposed to catch?”

Li Hao frowned. “Yes, but...”

Why was he tied up?

Seeing the two of them, Yan Jue could only feel a little awkward.

The missions assigned by the Five Dragons Mountain Administrative Hall had a one-month deadline. Once the deadline passed, the mission would automatically be deemed a failure and new cultivators would be sent down the mountain.

Although she had already sent a spirit dove letter to the Administrative Hall requesting an extension, it seemed the other side hadn’t received it yet.

It actually wasn’t that big a problem. As long as she brought the mission results back up the mountain and explained the situation, she could still receive the reward.

But Yan Jue hadn’t expected that as the end of the year approached, this kind of beginner mission would be so popular; in such a short time, two groups had actually come.

Setting aside Qi Xianqing’s earlier visit, the two people standing before her now—however Yan Jue looked at them—they did not seem like decent people.

Thinking of this, Yan Jue lifted her head and gave a polite little smile. “Sorry, but this person has already been taken down by me.”

As soon as she said it, the room fell into dead silence.

Li Hao and his junior sister Ke Shuang were both disciples of Jingang Sect. They had come down the mountain today to complete their sect’s beginner mission.

This place wasn’t far from Five Dragons Mountain, and through flying-dove correspondence they could easily swap missions, but this was the simplest mission among the countless beginner tasks they had chosen, and the reward was also quite generous. They were not willing to hand over this fat piece of meat to anyone else.

Li Hao clasped his hands behind his back and frowned as he swept his gaze over Yan Jue’s face. “There’s such a thing? This mission was accepted by us.”

Yan Jue politely explained the complexity of the mission to them. Because the criminal murderer’s cultivation was higher than what was recorded on the talisman, she had no choice but to infiltrate the brothel for an entire month.

Yan Jue apologized. “Sorry, the thing is...”

Li Hao impatiently cut her off. “Enough, stop talking. We get it, we get it. Anyway, you let him go now, and we’ll catch him ourselves!”

As he spoke, he suddenly drew the sword at his waist and cut the bindings on the man’s hands.

Yan Jue stared at him in shock and blurted out, “Be careful!”

Before the words had even faded, the man suddenly sprang up from the ground like lightning and lunged fiercely at Ke Shuang, who stood beside Li Hao.

The sinister long blade was still on the ground, its edge sharpened to a terrifying thinness from years of honing.

It could take a heart with one strike. The man only let out a sinister grin and flicked a hand, and the long blade moved as if it had a will of its own, flying into his grasp.

Li Hao froze; he could barely make out the man’s movements. By the time he reacted, that iron blade was only an inch from his junior sister’s chest.

“Aah—” Ke Shuang was so frightened she went completely rigid and let out a scream that seemed to tear from her very soul.

Among everyone present, the only one who had anticipated the man’s lightning-fast attack was probably Yan Jue.

Almost the instant the man broke free of his restraints, she began chanting the incantation, summoning the iron sword from her Qiankun bag, and with all her strength she hurled it up.

The iron sword was incomparably sharp; in the blink of an eye, it pierced the man’s chest.

The man’s body jolted to a halt, the long blade still in his hand. He staggered a few steps and then fell.

The room once again fell into dead silence.

Ke Shuang sat on the ground, so frightened her legs were trembling. Li Hao’s face was also deathly pale.

Both of them were disciples who hadn’t even finished their beginner missions; they had never seen anything like this.

Yan Jue’s hand was shaking too.

No matter what, she was a modern person; she had never seen a scene like this either.

Holding the iron sword, she looked at the bloodstains on the floor and suddenly felt the urge to vomit.

Slowly, she crouched down and reached a hand beneath the man’s nose.

No breath.

At the same time, the wooden token in her arms suddenly vibrated.

A faint trace of spiritual energy surged violently inside the token. It seemed that just now...

When she struck down and killed the pervert, a sliver of his remnant soul had automatically entered her mission talisman.

This was the proof that she had completed the mission.

Yan Jue: “...”

Her face turned pale. She turned to leave.

Since the mission was already complete, there was no need to stay here any longer.

Li Hao had originally been standing there in a daze, but when he saw Yan Jue turn around, he instantly reacted, his eyes blazing with rage. “You killed our man?”

Yan Jue turned back. “Sorry. The situation just now was really urgent, and that long blade was an evil object. As long as it left even a single wound on a person’s body, it would drain the person’s yin...”

Li Hao flew into a rage. Raising both hands, he instantly summoned a huge silver sword. “Enough nonsense. Cut off one of your arms, and that will be compensation enough!”

The giant sword tore through the air; it seemed to carry the force of a thousand catties as it crashed down and sank deep into the floorboards.

Yan Jue looked at Li Hao, the smile on her face gradually collapsing as she slowly cursed in her heart.

This was the terror of the cultivation world once again. Here, strength really was everything; no matter how weak your cultivation was, even if you were in the right, you weren’t allowed to say a single word.

Judging from Li Hao’s cultivation, he was at least at the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. There was no way she could beat him.

The silver sword came hurtling through the air. Yan Jue took a sharp step back, one hand suddenly catching the windowsill, and she turned and leapt out through the window.

Yan Jue wasn’t naturally good-tempered either. She had kept smiling all along because she didn’t want to anger these two people, who clearly seemed stronger than her.

With such weak cultivation, in a situation like this, of course she should run!

Yan Jue sprinted ahead at full speed; behind her, the silver sword burst with a crack through the air, emitting a piercing shriek as it flew.

Five Dragons Mountain disciples mostly cultivated swords, and particularly talented inner sect disciples could even gain the qualification to enter Sword Tomb Valley and draw a sword.

The swords in there were all extremely precious immortal swords.

As for the silver sword behind her, even a hint of killing intent leaking from it made Yan Jue’s scalp prickle.

It was probably a famous immortal sword used specifically to slay demons and evils!

That silver sword likely sensed the faint traces of demonic aura Yan Jue had exposed while fleeing; it trembled excitedly in midair and came after her with thunderous force.

Yan Jue turned and ran into the woods, only to feel her shoulder suddenly drop, followed by searing pain.

She must have been caught.

The silver sword descended from the sky and crashed down violently, the earth all around trembling fiercely as a faint halo of light appeared in the surrounding area.

Yan Jue was flung hard away, rolling across the ground, the iron sword in her hand thrown a full zhang away.

Panting heavily, she raised a hand to press against the collar at her chest.

Immortal swords could sense their master’s will, and the reason this silver sword carried such intense killing intent was probably because of Li Hao’s rage.

Once again, the silver sword fell from the sky and stabbed viciously into Yan Jue’s shoulder blade.

Blood splashed everywhere!

Yan Jue clenched her teeth and tried to crawl toward her iron sword.

Right now, the only way was to grab the iron sword and block it.

But there wasn’t enough time!

The silver sword gave a dragon’s roar and attacked again in a frenzy.

Almost instinctively, Yan Jue silently recited the Spirit Communication Art, placing all her hope of survival on the iron sword lying quietly in the grass in the distance.

One breath... two breaths... three breaths.

The silver sword in the distance didn’t budge at all.

Fine. Born as cannon fodder, dying in mediocrity—Yan Jue felt like crying.

Maybe until the moment she died, she still wouldn’t be able to master even the most basic spirit communication of a cultivator.

The silver sword suddenly thrust at her again!

Yan Jue closed her eyes and suddenly felt her neck go light.

It was as if a dragon’s cry and a phoenix’s cry rang beside her ears!

The golden collar around her neck seemed to sense its master’s will. In an instant it transformed into a streak of golden light and shot out.

At the same time, the silver sword came flying through the air, stabbing straight at Yan Jue.

The golden threads collided with it violently in midair, producing an earsplitting crash.

Then, like a golden snake, it wound around and around until it quickly coiled around the silver giant sword.

Yan Jue froze. In front of it, the silver sword let out a deep, furious roar, as if struggling violently.

Then the next second, it was forcibly strangled in two by the demon-binding ring!!