147: To die under the peony flowers, even as a ghost you will be romantic!

“That’s normal. Experts always appear at the very end. If no one wears down our True Qi first, how can the later experts ensure they don’t capsize in a ditch?

Hahahahaha, come, come, everyone eat something.” Han Zhen said with a smile.

Plum Orchid Bamboo Chrysanthemum helped serve, offering bowls, chopsticks, and dishes.

You Longsheng, the Young Lord of Cangjian Villa, was accustomed to being served, but A Fei was still very uncomfortable.

He grew up in the wilderness and, apart from his mother, seemed to have no contact with other women.

His mother died of melancholy when he was seven, and from then on, he lived in the wilderness with jackals, wolves, and leopards.

Someone being kind to him, beautiful girls being kind to him, gave him a peculiar sense of torment, a mix of resistance and fondness.

His face turned red.

“Women will only slow down your sword draw,” You Longsheng said indifferently, looking at A Fei.

“They are a corrosive poison, a soft poison that wears down the spirit. A Fei, you are a swordsman of immense talent.

But if you immerse yourself in romantic love, you will only become a cripple.

Just as I once was.”

“I am me, you are you, I will not become you!” A Fei shook his head, involuntarily recalling You Longsheng’s decisiveness back then.

And the terror of Great Joy Bodhisattva.

I have not experienced what you have, and I will never become like you.

“The beautiful maiden of sixteen, her body like soft butter, a sword at her waist to slay the foolish man.

Though no heads are seen to fall, in secret, she drains the marrow dry.”

Lu Jiuyuan said leisurely, “A Fei is still young, still inexperienced. Some things, one only understands their true meaning after experiencing them.

Merely seeing, merely hearing, will not teach any lessons.”

The rain outside seemed to intensify.

After everyone finished eating, before their bowls were even fully set down, A Fei and You Longsheng almost simultaneously looked up again, gazing outside.

“Someone else is here,” A Fei’s voice was still concise but carried a hint of solemnity. The aura of the newcomers was deeper, steadier, and likely stronger than the first group.

“Northeast, ten people.

Southwest, eight people.

And... directly ahead, three.

Very fast.”

You Longsheng reported the directions with a deathly calm, his fingers unconsciously caressing his scabbard again. This was not tension, but... a nearly famished anticipation.

“Do you want to have a competition, to see who is faster?”

Lu Jiuyuan smiled faintly, as if those arriving were not reapers of souls but guests for entertainment. “Let’s see whose sword is sharper this time.”

Before he finished speaking, the grey and red shadows shot out again, like two arrows released from a bowstring, disappearing into the vast rainy night.

In the northeast direction, ten men in black, tight-fitting clothes advanced steadily in a fan formation.

Their steps were firm, their breathing long, and their eyes held a restrained keenness, clearly indicating they were all skilled internal martial artists, far superior to the disorganized rabble from before.

The leader, holding a pair of Emei Piercers, scanned the silent forest with eyes like lightning.

Suddenly, he roared, “Careful! He’s here, it’s the Grey Swordsman!”

However, the warning came half a beat too late.

A grey shadow swept almost parallel to the ground. With a single direct thrust, the broken iron piece in his hand, like a viper’s tongue, silently pierced the man’s throat.

Having struck, he did not linger for a moment!

A Fei shifted his feet, spun his body, avoiding two blades that chopped from the side. Using the force of his spin, the iron sword, with only an inch of its tip exposed, traced a cold arc.

“Puff! Puff!”

Two soft sounds, and two more men clutched their throats, stumbling backward, their eyes filled with disbelief.

They hadn’t even seen how the sword came!

“What a fast sword!”

“Back to back, be careful!” The leader with the Emei Piercers shouted, both startled and enraged.

The remaining seven immediately drew in, back to back, weapons facing outward, forming a tight defensive formation.

The glint of blades and swords protected them impenetrable.

A Fei’s figure flickered outside the formation, then merged behind a large tree, as if he had never appeared.

The rain rustled, and only the heavy breathing of the seven men and the sound of rain hitting leaves remained in the forest. Fear spread silently.

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the tree canopy above!

The seven men instinctively looked up, blocking with their weapons.

But only falling rainwater and a few leaves descended.

The true killing intent came from the ground!

A Fei, like a gecko, silently slid out from the shadow near the tree roots, his iron sword thrusting along the ground!

“Ah!” “Ah!”

Screams erupted. Two men had their Achilles tendons severed, collapsing to the ground with cries of pain.

A gap instantly appeared in the formation!

A Fei’s figure, like a flood breaking through a dam, fiercely crashed into the formation!

The sword light completely erupted at this moment!

There were no flashy lights and shadows, only the most direct, most lethal thrusts, points, stabs, pokes, and impalements!

Each flash was accompanied by a grunt or a scream.

The Emei Piercer leader’s eyes were bloodshot. His two piercers rapidly aimed at A Fei’s vital points at his back, a tactic to relieve the siege by attacking the besieger.

But A Fei seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He subtly shifted his body at the last possible moment, and the Emei Piercers grazed his clothes.

Meanwhile, the iron sword in his hand, like a precisely calculated machine, pushed backward with the momentum!

“Pfft!”

The sword tip emerged from the throat of a man who was about to launch a sneak attack.

At the same time, A Fei’s right foot kicked backward fiercely, heavily striking the Emei Piercer leader’s ribs.

“Ugh!” The leader grunted, stumbling backward, his blood and Qi churning.

In that fleeting moment of obstruction, A Fei’s sword struck again.

The last two men standing, one was pierced through the throat, the other also through the throat.

A Fei stopped, standing amidst a pile of corpses. Rain rapidly washed streaks of blood from his face and clothes.

“Stop, I’m not doing this anymore! Spare my life, we’re not participating in this business.

Spare my life, and I’ll offer a thousand gold!”

He coldly glanced at the Emei Piercer leader, who was struggling to get up, and casually slashed with his iron sword.

“Noisy!”

The world became quiet.

He flicked the blood drops from his sword, sheathed it,

“A joke. Do I crave money? What use is money to me?”

After sensing for a moment, his figure stealthily moved towards the southwest.

The battle there seemed not to have ended yet.

Eight enemies, dressed differently, with various weapons—saber, sword, spear, chessboard, halberd, iron plate, hook, axe—cooperated seamlessly, both offensive and defensive.

Their formation was like an iron barrel covered in spikes, tightly trapping You Longsheng’s pulsating red figure in the center.

Although the Eight Friends of Hangu were only second-rate in strength, their combined efforts, complementing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, unleashed power far exceeding their individual capabilities.

You Longsheng’s Duoqing Sword, though strange and sharp, with its emerald light crisscrossing, always seemed on the verge of breaking through a gap, but another person would always fill it in time, or attack a vital point, forcefully dragging his deathly Sword Intent into the quagmire of entanglement.

You Longsheng’s red clothes here were particularly conspicuous, like a flickering flame in the dark night.

His movement technique was eerie and elusive. The Duoqing Sword transformed into a cluster of emerald light, protecting him impenetrably, while also, like a peacock fanning its tail, occasionally shooting out deadly sword rays.

“Clang, clang, clang!”

The sound of weapons clashing was like heavy rain on banana leaves, dense and continuous, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t break out.

He was forcibly dragged down here.

“Eight Friends of Hangu! You also want to wade into this muddy water.”

“Hahahahaha, You Longsheng, we are quite familiar with your father. I didn’t expect your strength to have already reached such a level.

Indeed, a tiger father has no dog son.” Su Moqiao, the leader of the Eight Friends, said with a smile:

“If you retreat, we’ll pretend we never saw you. If you continue, you are bound to lose.”

“You eight, you also have a minor reputation in the Jianghu. Why do you want to obstruct and destroy evidence!” You Longsheng asked.

“You Longsheng, why? Would you not know?”

Fourth Brother Tao Lingjun said with a smile, “You are also someone who has tasted Lin Xian’er’s charms, so you should know that no one in this world can resist her allure.”

“We don’t need to kill you, only to hold you back. There are experts inside who will kill the others.

It’s just doing a small favor. It won’t take long, and then we can enjoy Lin Xian’er’s gentle embrace again.

Although there’s a slight risk, dying beneath a peony is still worth it, even as a ghost, it’s romantic.”

Second Brother Yue Zhengqingxian also said with a smile.