Chapter 92: Hunter in the Night, Masks Off
A lean bandit jumped over the wall into the courtyard, surveying the quiet and deserted space. He licked his dry lips. “I heard the Cheng family’s young ladies are all delicate and tender. Should we…”
A glint of malice flashed in his eyes. “Have some fun?”
“Don’t mess around.”
The other masked bandit who followed closely behind was more muscular and had a stronger presence. “The client for this job is extremely strange, with martial arts skills possibly rivaling a Qingling Grandmaster. Since they ordered us to eliminate everyone in the Cheng family, don’t do anything beyond the mission. If something goes wrong, we might lose our lives.”
“Since we’re going to kill them anyway, why not enjoy those ladies before they die? We can just finish the job quickly and slit their throats afterward.”
“Just take the money and go to a brothel for your fun, no one’s stopping you!”
The muscular bandit walked briskly, sticking close to the wall as he approached a nearby room.
Both of them practiced advanced Qinggong, which had helped them succeed in countless missions and accumulate a significant number of kills. Even a martial artist at the Pure Yang realm could have their throat slit in their sleep if they weren’t careful.
Despite their banter, the two veterans didn’t let their guard down for a moment. They held their breath, suppressed the sound of their footsteps, and slipped into the room like eels. They drew their cloth-wrapped daggers from their sleeves and lunged towards the bed with ruthless precision!
Thud!
The sound of flesh being pierced suddenly rang out.
“Huh?”
The two were stunned and stumbled forward, feeling a cold sensation in their abdomens.
“Hehehe~”
A chilling, eerie laughter echoed in the room, accompanied by a gust of cold wind, sending shivers down their spines.
The two bandits’ pupils constricted, and they tried to turn around, but their vision flipped upside down. In the end, they could only see their own legs…
Or rather, their lower bodies.
There were no screams, no blood splattering. Only a chilling cracking sound. Then, two withered corpses, completely frozen and covered in frost, lay on the floor of the empty room.
“The last one, you can’t escape…”
The sharp sound of metal scraping against the ground echoed through the courtyard.
…
“…Gasp… gasp!”
A young woman in a ruqun stumbled into a room, frantically slamming the wooden door shut. She hid behind a pile of clutter, covering her mouth and nose to suppress her panting.
Beads of cold sweat trickled down her forehead, her eyes filled with terror.
This Cheng residence was too strange!
There was no eerie barrier like the one at the Lin residence, but ever since she had stepped into the Cheng mansion, she had felt a bone-chilling coldness, as if a sinister aura was clinging to her.
Now, a terrifying scraping sound was approaching from behind, and with her companions losing contact one after another, she could no longer bear the fear in her heart. She desperately tried to hide.
“What’s going on? Are the dozens of people in this Cheng residence really just ordinary mortals?”
“This aura… is completely different from ordinary ghosts!”
It was different from both ghosts and ghost practitioners, but it was even more chilling, as if the killing intent had condensed into a muddy swamp, turning the Cheng residence into a terrifying abyss, making it impossible to move.
She gritted her teeth. “No, I have to escape from here and get the message out. Only then can I—”
Crash!
Wood splinters and mud splattered as a giant axe tore through the wall!
The young woman’s pupils shrank to pinpoints, her body frozen in terror.
Then, the sharp axe blade pressed against her neck, and a sinister chuckle came from behind her. “If you don’t want to die, tell me everything you know.”
Feeling the terrifying coldness against her skin, the despair of death made her abandon all resistance. She hurriedly said, “W-we were following Master Chen’s orders to come to the Cheng residence and capture hostages, to force the two women in the Lin residence to surrender and then seize all the treasures inside.”
“Anything else?”
“N-nothing! That’s all we were told! As for what Master Chen wants to do next, I’m just a ghost practitioner, I have no right to know!”
“Very well.”
The chilling laughter rang out again.
Before the young woman could say another word, she felt a sharp pain in her neck. A wave of coldness surged into her body, knocking her unconscious.
“…”
Cheng Yishi dragged her out of the room and tossed her aside like trash.
She looked at the corpses piled up in the courtyard, her expression grave.
She had been busy these past few days.
At first, she had received some rumors about a group of people with unknown origins entering Changling County. Their movements were suspicious, and they were often inquiring about things in the county… especially about Lin Tianlu.
This made her suspicious, and she guessed that they were probably bandits with malicious intentions.
Now that Lin Tianlu wasn’t in Changling County, their hostility was likely to be directed at Mao Ruoyu, who was closest to him.
That was why she had deliberately visited her that day.
But after staying there for three days, she was convinced of the locust tree’s power. It was impossible for ordinary ghosts to approach it, so she finally let go of her worries. Then, those people should only have one other option.
The Cheng residence.
But Cheng Yishi had anticipated this and had warned her family in advance. As soon as night fell, they all hid in the cellar, and she had also notified the authorities, who would arrive soon to clean up the mess.
As for asking the authorities to deal with these ghosts, that was impossible.
Now that she was half-human and half-ghost, she knew the huge difference in strength between them. If those constables rushed in, they would only be sacrificing themselves in vain.
And Cheng Yishi had some confidence in her current strength.
Although she still didn’t know her exact level, in the entire Changling County, she was probably the only one who could deal with these enemies.
“Interesting—”
Just then, a low voice suddenly came from the roof, making the girl’s expression turn serious.
“I didn’t expect Miss Cheng to know the trick of ‘secretly crossing the Chencang.’ You slipped away from the Lin residence under our noses and returned to the Cheng mansion.”
Cheng Yishi turned around and looked up coldly. A middle-aged man was standing on the roof, seemingly having appeared out of thin air.
“You’re the mastermind behind this.”
“Calling me a mastermind is a bit too crude.”
Chen Zixiao jumped down gracefully. “It’s just a simple power shift. And I chose to take a risky approach, that’s all.”
“You want to take control of Changling County?”
“Precisely.”
Chen Zixiao didn’t even glance at the corpses. He smiled faintly. “But I didn’t expect Miss Cheng to appear halfway. You’re neither human nor ghost, yet your strength is so extraordinary, almost on par with an Evil Spirit. Truly impressive.”
He gestured invitingly. “With your strength, Miss Cheng, perhaps we don’t need to fight. If I gain control of Changling County, I will naturally let you continue to manage part of the county. We won’t interfere with each other. What do you think?”
Cheng Yishi’s eyes flickered, and then she suddenly smiled. “Are those your last words?”
“Don’t you want to join forces, Miss Cheng—”
“You’ve set your sights on the wrong person.”
The girl’s smile was beautiful, but her eyes were bloodthirsty. “From that moment on, I only have one thought: to kill you!”
“I have no intention of harming Mr. Lin.”
Chen Zixiao raised an eyebrow, a thoughtful look on his face. “I didn’t expect Miss Cheng to value that Miss Mao so much.”
Cheng Yishi didn’t say anything more. Her blood-red eyes narrowed, and she charged at him with her axe!
“Miss Cheng, there’s no need to court your own—”
The axe swung down, forcefully tearing through layers of Yin energy!
Chen Zixiao’s expression changed drastically. He quickly retracted his hand, which was almost split in two, and retreated hastily, while pushing out his left palm.
Boom!
A gust of wind exploded. Cheng Yishi, who had just struck, was forced back to the courtyard entrance, stumbling until she slammed her axe into the ground to stop herself.
“Ha—”
The girl exhaled, her eyes bloodshot as she stared at the gate.
Chen Zixiao walked out with a gloomy expression. His injured hand quickly healed under the shroud of Yin energy, but his heart was filled with shock.
He never expected this seemingly delicate and weak girl to be so powerful. The concentrated Yin energy in her attack was incredibly potent, instantly breaking through his protective aura.
If he hadn’t reacted in time, that blow would have been enough to split him in two!
This woman… was truly strange!
“Hehehe~”
Cheng Yishi raised her axe, letting out a sharp and chilling laughter. The blood-red light in her eyes almost solidified, appearing even more eerie in the darkness.
“Next, it’s your head!”
“It seems there’s no need for me to hold back anymore.”
Chen Zixiao sneered, standing with his hands behind his back as a torrent of Yin energy surged around him. “You dare to be so arrogant with your newly acquired Yin techniques? Let me teach you a lesson—”
Crash!!
Before he could finish speaking, a carriage slammed into him, sending him flying through the air. He rolled for several meters on the street before collapsing on the ground in a sorry state.
“…”
Cheng Yishi was stunned.