Sekar nodded and then handed Lian Hua a silver coin to pay for the food she had ordered. But the woman, who looked to be around forty-five years old, politely refused.“The villagers will be pleased if they know that someone has humiliated Li Jie,” Lian Hua whispered.A faint crease formed on Sekar’s forehead. The beautiful girl then smiled, before walking out of the eatery.“What did you say to her, Yu?” asked one of the customers.“I told her to be careful, and if possible, to hide,” Lian Hua answered as an excuse. She couldn’t possibly tell them what she had really whispered to that beautiful girl, because she had no idea who could be trusted and who couldn’t. There might be someone in the crowd who was a sycophant, ready to report her words to the village chief.Not long after Sekar left the eatery, a male customer quickly followed her out.---Meanwhile, as she walked toward the inn, Sekar thought about Lian Hua’s words before she had left the eatery. From the analysis she made a

Han Lin and Luo Heng sheathed their swords again because the Black Crow Hunter Formation truly did not require weapons.Xiao Chen tried to strike first, but an attack from A Guo immediately foiled his move. He was forced to withdraw and leap back to avoid the blow.Before Xiao Chen could stand upright and regulate his qi, Luo Heng and Han Lin were already at his flanks. The two attacked simultaneously, unleashing strikes aimed straight at him.“Quite troublesome,” Xiao Chen muttered, then jumped back to dodge their blows.The three swordsmen gave Xiao Chen no moment to breathe. The young, handsome warrior continued to parry the energy strikes A Guo fired from the front while evading the simultaneous attacks from Han Lin and Luo Heng on his sides.While defending and occasionally counterattacking, Xiao Chen tried to observe the patterns and variations in his three opponents’ techniques. From his observations, their patterns quickly covered for each other after an attack, and at times A

After entering the room, Xiao Chen frowned when he saw no one inside. Yet he was certain the voice had come from within, even though the door was locked from the outside.The handsome young man closed his eyes to sharpen his hearing, but the woman’s sobbing vanished completely.He opened the large wardrobe inside the room, but the woman he was searching for wasn’t there. Instead, he discovered two small chests filled with gold and silver coins.Although a faint joy stirred within him at finding the treasure he sought, Xiao Chen still felt dissatisfied until he could uncover the truth behind the woman’s sobbing. Was it just a hallucination, or was there truly a girl being held captive?“Could it be in another room?” Xiao Chen muttered as he walked toward the door, both hands carrying the small chests.But just as he stepped outside, the woman’s sobbing echoed once more.“Damn it, could it be a ghost’s voice?” he whispere

Sure enough. Behind the thick, towering trees of the Laoshan forest stood a building that was large and extensive. Too lavish to be merely a bandit hideout; it looked more like a sect headquarters.Judging from the size of the complex, which was surrounded by a four-meter stone wall, Xiao Chen estimated the place could accommodate at least three hundred people. If his suspicion was correct, he and Sekar would be facing over a hundred—possibly up to two hundred—bandit members.The young man glanced back. He saw Sekar running toward him after finishing off the bandits who had attacked her. The beautiful girl had shown no difficulty when Xiao Chen gave her the chance to deal with the first threat.“I’ve tied our horses so they won’t run away. What next? Should we attack directly?” Sekar asked, full of enthusiasm.Xiao Chen smiled at her confidence. He stared at the girl standing beside him for a moment before turning his gaze back to the building some fifty meters ahead.Facing an estima

Sekar walked away from the small building with heightened vigilance. Her gaze swept the surroundings sharply. The loud crash of the door she had kicked in had drawn the attention of members of the Twin Sword Sect. More than ten of them immediately surged forward to surround the beautiful girl. Their tempers flared the moment they saw their comrade who had been guarding the small room lying helpless on the ground. “Bastard! What did you do to our friend!?” one member shouted in a high voice. Sekar lifted one corner of her mouth in a mocking sneer. “Heh, what a pity—you’re young and already short-sighted. Can’t you clearly see your friend is dead?” “You vile witch! You must die!” The beautiful girl fixed a sharp look on the man who had just called her a witch. For those unfamiliar, “witch” here carried the same meaning as a woman used for satisfying lecherous men. W