Reminded thus, the disheveled head on the iron-masked man’s side immediately fixed its gaze upon the place where the group was hiding, sweeping its eyes over it. Between the hanging strands of hair, his eyes faintly glowed red.
The group hiding and peeping all snapped their heads back in unison.
Everyone knew clearly that no one present was a match for the iron-masked man. To make matters worse, the iron-masked man had already become a monster that would not die even if his head were chopped off.
Nan Zhu tugged Yu Qing’s sleeve, then quickly patted Mu Aotie’s shoulder across Yu Qing, tilting his head to signal and calling out in a low voice, “Run.”
Shen Qingcheng, having received the reminder, immediately hoisted Ning Chaoyi onto her back and ran, leaving the same way she had entered.
Yu Qing knew very well that with the iron-masked man’s strength, if he wanted to pursue them, it would be very hard to escape. He immediately waved at his two martial brothers, “You two go first. Once outside, find a place to hide immediately. I have a way to deal with him.”
In truth, he wanted to stay behind to cover their retreat. Once the iron-masked man intended to give chase, he would find a way to hold him off, trying his best to buy some time for his two martial brothers to escape. As long as they gained enough time to hide, it would not be so easy for the iron-masked man to find them in a short while. After all, there was an even more powerful existence around, so the time left for the iron-masked man was not much either.
Seventh Brother and Ninth Brother had stayed behind because of him. He could not let the two of them lose their lives.
But seeing he would not leave, the two of them would not leave either. Mu Aotie gave a single line, “If you have a way to deal with him, why run?”
Yu Qing grew furious and immediately roared at the two in a low voice, “You being here will get in the way.”
Inside the hall, while one of the iron-masked man’s heads was sweeping its gaze over the place where Yu Qing and the others were hiding, he had already walked up to Bai Lan. He bent down and grabbed her, lifting her up by the throat.
Bai Lan’s eyes were filled with grief. She struggled, but her waist had been ruthlessly swept and broken by the iron-masked man’s kick earlier. Her upper and lower body seemed to have lost connection, and she had no strength to resist at all. Blood was also gushing from her mouth and nose.
She forced out a few words from her mouth, “I beg you, spare my child!”
The meaning she wanted to express was not hard to understand. She no longer held any hope that the other party would spare her. She did not cling to any hope of survival. She only hoped he would spare her child.
The iron-masked man did not waste words with her. Keeping his grip on her throat, his two hands suddenly grabbed her thighs, while one hand grabbed her only remaining arm, pulling them apart.
“Mn…” Bai Lan let out a pained grunt, and blood instantly gushed from her mouth and nose.
The iron-masked man’s two free hands suddenly shot forward like sharp blades, slicing into Bai Lan’s chest with a whoosh, forcefully prying it open.
With a tearing sound, blood splattered in all directions. She was torn apart. A living person was instantly ripped into four pieces.
Bai Lan, held by the throat, could not even let out a scream before she was torn apart and discarded by the six hands.
The iron-masked man, withdrawing his hands, turned around to face the hiding place of the three martial brothers. He leaped into the air and pounced over.
Yu Qing could not get through to his two martial brothers. Seeing the situation was not right, he immediately shouted, “Go!”
He was the first to leap out. Nan and Mu immediately followed, flying out as well.
The reason the two were unwilling to leave was simple. If something happened, the three of them joining forces to deal with it would have a slightly greater chance of success.
At no other time could it be said for certain, but when the three martial brothers encountered trouble, they were absolutely of one mind, standing back to back.
Under the faint fluorescent stone light inside the hall, human figures flew back and forth. The iron-masked man flashed and landed at the spot where the three martial brothers had just been hiding, while the three martial brothers had already jumped down. The three of them drew their swords mid-air and stood on guard.
The iron-masked man kicked off from the pavilion, not pausing for a moment, and flashed forward to pounce again.
The three martial brothers, advancing and retreating together, immediately retreated quickly.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie each already had one free hand placed on Yu Qing’s left and right shoulders, connecting their own cultivation with Yu Qing’s cultivation. Combining the power of the three, they advanced and retreated together. Thus, their reactions were sharp, and the two could completely keep up with Yu Qing’s tempo of movement.
As Yu Qing retreated a step, Nan and Mu, with their hands on his shoulders, immediately linked up and retreated quickly in默契.
The iron-masked man landed, having pounced on empty air. He turned to look at the three of them.
The three of them had also retreated to the edge of the pool platform. Nan and Mu had already each raised a foot to press against the edge of the pool platform.
Yu Qing noticed the faintly floating layer of evil energy on the iron-masked man’s body. His eyes flashed, and he immediately halted his retreat, shouting loudly, “Mr. Iron Mask, I will give you a heavy treasure. How about you spare our lives?”
Nan and Mu, seeing he had halted his retreat instead of fleeing quickly, did not know what he was muttering about and grew anxious.
The iron-masked man, who was about to flash forward again to pursue them, paused slightly. He eased his urgent desire to kill and switched to a pace of walking over unhurriedly, “A heavy treasure? What heavy treasure could you possibly have?”
When he spoke, he himself seemed somewhat unaccustomed to it. His words were heavily accented, and all three mouths were moving.
Yu Qing reached into his collar and pulled out that necklace. He yanked it off in one go and directly threw it over, saying, “You will understand once you look at it. Then we can talk slowly.”
Nan and Mu recognized what it was and also realized something. Their eyes followed the pendant as it flew.
Seeing it was a necklace worn close to the body, pulled out from inside his clothes, the iron-masked man did not suspect a trick. As the necklace flew over, he directly caught it in one grab. He dangled the chain in his hand and stopped to examine it.
The three martial brothers tried their best to act as if nothing was wrong, but in truth, their hearts had already leaped into their throats.
The iron-masked man looked at the necklace dangling before his eyes but did not see anything special. He raised his eyes and asked, “What does this mean?”
Yu Qing raised his finger and pointed, “The thing inside the pendant, you will naturally know once you examine it.”
The iron-masked man observed the three of them for a moment. In the end, the hand below grabbed the pendant and pinched it between his fingers to examine it carefully. He saw that inside the silver mesh pouch was a dark red bead the size of a quail’s egg, covered with strange black patterns like flowing clouds.
For a moment, he could not make out what it was. He glanced at Yu Qing and the others again and saw they were not fleeing, but instead were all looking at him eagerly.
He then looked more closely. With just one look, he felt there was indeed something to discover. He saw that the strange patterns on the dark red bead seemed to have come alive, as if they were rotating like flowing clouds.
Soon, he realized something was wrong. It was not the patterns on the bead that were rotating, but the layer of evil energy shrouding his hand that was rotating. It was rotating and drilling into the bead.
The evil energy shrouding his hand alone drilling in was not enough. The evil energy on his entire arm also began to rotate, then it picked up momentum. The evil energy all over his body began to rotate and drill into that bead.
The evil energy on his body seemed insufficient. He suddenly felt his heart rate accelerating, his blood vessels swelling. The evil energy condensed inside his body actually also seemed to have opened a floodgate, dispersing from countless pores, converging into flowing clouds, and wildly swirling into that bead.
After climbing out from the earth spring earlier, he had felt a powerful force gathering inside his body. At this moment, he could feel that powerful force inside his body rapidly draining away. He felt as if his very life was also rapidly draining away.
He quickly cast a spell to suppress it, wanting to cut off the drain of power from his body. But the evil energy inside his body had long since fused with his entire body and cultivation. It was utterly impossible to suppress. He immediately cried out in panic and confusion, “What is this?”
He looked toward the opposite side but received no answer.
The eyes of Yu Qing’s trio revealed excitement, but they were also facing a great enemy, afraid he would act in desperation.
The panicked iron-masked man cast another spell, forcefully pinching that bead, intending to destroy it. But the hardness of this bead exceeded his expectations. He could not crush it. He immediately threw it out with force, intending to shake it off.
What was terrifying was that the pendant flew out, clattering against the wall and landing in a pavilion on the wall. But the stream of evil energy pulled from his body did not break. It was still rapidly rotating and draining away.
Feeling his life rapidly draining away yet being helpless, the iron-masked man, in his extreme panic, suddenly felt his legs go weak. He suddenly fixed his gaze upon the earth spring behind Yu Qing’s trio.
The three martial brothers also turned to look at the earth spring behind them, realizing something.
The iron-masked man charged over.
Nan Zhu immediately tugged Yu Qing’s shoulder, signaling him to avoid him.
But Yu Qing was unwilling to give up easily.
He did not know whether the earth spring could save the iron-masked man’s life, but he knew he could not easily let his enemy succeed.
Having reached this point, if he was not an enemy, what else could he be?
Seeing he would not leave, Nan and Mu could not abandon him alone either. Almost simultaneously, the two poured their entire cultivation into Yu Qing’s body.
But Yu Qing did not swing his sword to meet the enemy. Instead, he quickly pulled something out from inside his clothes, held it out toward the charging iron-masked man, and shouted, “Die!”
The charging iron-masked man was greatly startled. He dodged to the side and leaped into the air, but he could not leap very far. It seemed he could no longer fly. He ran rapidly to the wall, clambered up to the pavilion above, and staggered into the passage leading to the mountain-top pavilion.
Soon, the swirling stream of clouds broke. The last stream of clouds drifted across the upper air of the hall, swirling as it drilled into the pendant that had fallen in the pavilion on the wall.
Nan and Mu let go, quickly stepping forward to see what Yu Qing had pulled out, which could scare the iron-masked man away with a single display.
When the two saw clearly what it was, they thought they had seen wrong. Nan Zhu pried open Yu Qing’s hand, took the object, and turned it over in his hand to examine it. There was no mistake. It was merely a small case for the “Blue Enchantress.”
Just this thing had scared the iron-masked man away?
Nan and Mu looked at each other, then looked at Yu Qing again. They discovered that fine beads of sweat had already appeared on Yu Qing’s forehead. He had clearly been frightened.
The two of them immediately understood. So it turned out he had been bluffing the iron-masked man.
The two of them were truly impressed by this fellow. He had guts. He dared to hold a useless broken case and shout “Die!” at an upper Xuan expert. This was practically gambling with his life.
Yet that upper Xuan expert was truly easily frightened. He had actually been scared away by a useless little case.
Yu Qing let out a long breath, still shaken with fear. Just now, it had truly been a gamble. He gambled on the effect the pendant necklace had on the iron-masked man, using the momentum to intimidate him. Fortunately, the result was good. After tasting the pendant’s effect, the iron-masked man indeed did not dare to underestimate his items anymore.
As for why he pulled out the small case for the “Blue Enchantress” to scare him, it was simply because he did not have many things left on him. In his urgency, he did not have time to slowly search. He could only grab whatever he touched to make do.
In short, he simply felt he could not let the iron-masked man return to the earth spring. The miraculous abilities displayed by the earth spring were truly too bizarre and unfathomable.
After recovering his senses, he snatched back the small case, waved his sword, and called out, “Letting this demon return to the mortal world would not be a good thing. It is weakening. Chase it quickly!”
The three of them quickly pursued the iron-masked man’s path.
Running into the pavilion, they looked out the window and immediately saw a person lying on the ground outside. It was the iron-masked man, who had returned to his original appearance, only he had suddenly aged considerably. He was struggling to crawl forward slowly.
Nan Zhu immediately raised his foot to climb out the window, waving his sword and shouting, “Chop him!”