Chapter 88: Fighting Through Blood and Fire

Thunder rolled. Wood cracked.
Soon, the dense forest outside the valley echoed with one deafening crash after another.

Thick trunks fell in waves, one after another, shaking the whole place with a mighty roar.

“What is going on?”

The fifteen men who had been drinking sprang to their feet and looked through the valley mouth toward the woods. But the night was too dark; they could see nothing at all.

An elder of the group barked, “You two, go and take a look. Whoever it is, kill them on the spot!”

“Understood!”

The two elders nodded and immediately ran toward the mouth of the valley.

Not far away, on a small hill, Qin Feiyang lay hidden in the grass, watching the entrance and exit of the valley. When he saw only two men come out, he frowned.

So that trick would not work.

What else could draw them all out?

Then an idea struck him.

Was he not, by himself, the best bait of all?

He pinched his throat slightly and suddenly roared, “Qin Feiyang, don’t run!”

“What?”

“Qin Feiyang!”

The two elders who had come out first were instantly electrified and charged wildly into the forest.

At the same time, the men inside the valley all had a sharp gleam in their eyes.

“Hurry! As long as we catch Qin Feiyang, not only can we return to Black Bear City, we will surely receive rewards from the Lin family of Bright City and from the King of Bright City!”

“This is a golden chance. We absolutely cannot miss it!”

Whoosh!

More than ten men, as if injected with stimulants, rushed out of the valley one after another. Even the two guards joined them.

“So I really am the prized catch.”

Seeing everyone rush out, Qin Feiyang curled the corner of his mouth into a cold smile and entered the castle directly.

After the sound of footsteps had faded into the distance, he left the castle again and went to meet Ling Yunfei.

At the same time, Ling Yunfei had also slipped silently into the valley. After pouring the poison into the fifteen men’s wine jars, he quickly withdrew from the valley, returned to his original position, and hid there while staring at the woods, unable to stop worry from rising in his heart.

Suddenly, a hand appeared behind Ling Yunfei and landed on his shoulder, startling him.

“Don’t make a sound. It’s me.”

Qin Feiyang’s voice followed.

Ling Yunfei let out a breath and asked, “Where are they?”

Qin Feiyang smiled. “Chasing Qin Feiyang.”

Ling Yunfei shook his head with a laugh. “When I saw only two men come out just now, I thought the plan had failed. I never expected you to be so quick-witted, using Qin Feiyang as bait.”

How could he know that the man standing before him was the renowned Qin Feiyang himself?

“It was only something I thought of on the spur of the moment. Now we wait for them to return and catch them all in one net.”

Murderous intent surged violently in Qin Feiyang’s eyes.

...

“When we heard the roar, we rushed out at once, and still failed to catch him. What bad luck.”

“They say Qin Feiyang is only fifteen or sixteen, but his speed is far too fast, isn’t it?”

“We must not underestimate him. Anyone wanted by the royal house can’t be simple.”

“Even though we didn’t find him this time, at least we now know he is near Black Bear Mountain. As long as he remains in this area, he won’t escape our grasp.”

“Exactly. Once dawn breaks, we’ll search carefully again.”

After several hundred breaths, the fifteen men emerged from the forest and walked back toward the valley while talking among themselves.

Once they entered the valley, Qin Feiyang and Ling Yunfei followed silently behind and hid once more behind the same boulder from before.

The fifteen men again sat around the campfire.

After chatting for a while, the eldest man rose with a wine jar in hand and laughed. “Come, come, let’s celebrate.”

“It wasn’t easy killing those two brats. We really should celebrate properly.”

“Tomorrow, we’ll go to Snake Cave, kill that beast, dry its flesh into jerky, and drink with it.”

The two guards also stood and laughed.

“Celebrate?”

Hidden in the darkness, Qin Feiyang and Ling Yunfei’s eyes both turned icy.

The elder laughed heartily. “Well said. Come, tonight we drink to our hearts’ content.”

The fifteen men lifted their jugs and drank greedily.

Suddenly, with a sharp crack, the elder whose arm Qin Feiyang had severed shuddered. The wine jar in his hand fell to the ground and smashed to pieces.

“How is it?”

“Has the poison already taken effect so quickly?”

Qin Feiyang and Ling Yunfei were both stunned.

They had assumed it would take some time for the poison to act, since all of these men were martial masters. But they had not expected the venom of the one-horned giant python to be this terrifying.

In truth, the reason was that the elder had previously lost too much blood, leaving him weak and his resistance greatly reduced, so the poison took effect so quickly.

“Old Eight, what’s wrong?”

The other fourteen men, unaware of the truth, looked at him in confusion.

“This wine is wrong. Spit it out, now!”

Old Eight roared and was the first to collapse to the ground, clawing at his throat with his fingers as he vomited violently.

“What’s wrong with it?”

The others were shocked and uncertain.

“It’s poisoned!” Old Eight shouted.

“What?”

The rest turned pale with fright.

Then, at that very moment, Old Eight let out a miserable scream and collapsed with a thud, foam spilling from his mouth as his whole body convulsed violently.

“Yes, this is poisoning!”

The others’ faces instantly drained of color.

Bang, bang!

Ahh!

The two guards also collapsed at the same time, both hands clamped around their throats as they howled in agony, their lips turning black at a visible speed.

The poison had clearly taken hold.

This also proved that their strength was inferior to the other clan elders of the Ling family.

“Now! Charge in and stop them from taking antidotes!”

Seeing this, Qin Feiyang barked.

He and Ling Yunfei sprang out from behind the rock almost at the same instant.

The scene was in complete chaos. No one noticed them.

“Who has an antidote? Take it out, quickly!” the eldest elder roared.

“I... have...”

One of the guards forced out the words with all his strength.

The elder hurried over, ripped the cosmos pouch from the guard’s waist, and was about to retrieve the antidote.

“Jiang Haotian, Ling Yunfei!”

“How are you here?”

At that moment, an elder spotted Qin Feiyang and Ling Yunfei behind them and cried out in shock. His old face filled at once with disbelief.

“What?”

The others were also stunned and turned sharply to look.

They were still alive?

“Seize the cosmos pouch!”

Qin Feiyang shouted and stomped the ground, leaping high like a fierce eagle.

The eldest elder finally realized the truth and bellowed, “The poison was administered by them! Stop him!”

There were still eleven men whose poison had not yet taken effect.

At his command, they all revealed murderous intent and leaped up to block Qin Feiyang.

“Ahhh!”

But just as they jumped, ten of them let out terrible cries and fell rolling to the ground, bodies convulsing, foam spewing from their mouths.

The poison had struck them too.

Only one remained unaffected.

There was no doubt: this man and the eldest elder were the two two-star martial masters Ling Yunfei had mentioned.

“Die!”

He seized Qin Feiyang’s ankle, his rage erupting as he flung him with all his might.

Qin Feiyang flew like a falling star and crashed into a nearby boulder with a heavy boom, spitting blood at once as several ribs snapped on the spot.

At the same moment, Ling Yunfei seized the opening, stepped over the campfire, and lunged for the cosmos pouch in the elder’s hand.

“Wretch!”

The elder roared and struck Ling Yunfei’s left shoulder with a palm.

Bang!

Ling Yunfei was blown away by the strike, coughing blood. His entire right shoulder was shattered, flesh torn open, a blur of blood and ruin, and his consciousness rapidly darkened.

“I’ll kill you later!”

The elder smiled grimly and took out an antidote pill, preparing to swallow it.

But then, Ling Yunfei gritted his teeth. Some clarity returned to his mind, and he threw himself onto the elder with all his remaining strength. With a fierce swing of his left hand, he slapped away both the antidote pill and the cosmos pouch, then bit down hard on the elder’s ear!

He actually bit the ear clean off.

“Ah...”

The pain twisted the elder’s face as he screamed miserably.

The man who had seriously injured Qin Feiyang saw this and hurried over to help.

At the same time, Qin Feiyang also clenched his teeth, endured the agony in his ribs, kicked off with both legs, and launched himself forward, slamming that man to the ground.

Then he drew Cold Snow and, without the slightest hesitation, drove the blade into the back of the man’s head.

The man died instantly.

“You filthy little brats, I’ll kill you both!”

The elder’s furious roar rang out at the same time.

And then Ling Yunfei was once again struck flying by a palm, sent skidding several meters through the air before crashing to the ground. He immediately closed his eyes, his life and death unknown.

“You old bastard, I’ll fight you to the death!”

Qin Feiyang’s eyes were bloodshot as he charged at the elder with Cold Snow in hand, like a maddened beast.

Killing intent blazed skyward around him.

Seeing this, the elder ignored Qin Feiyang and ran toward the antidote pill.

But after only a few steps, he staggered and crashed headfirst to the ground.

Foam spilled from his mouth.

His body began to convulse too.

His eyes were filled with unwillingness as he struggled toward the antidote pill.

It was almost within reach.

Yet at that moment, Qin Feiyang arrived and seized the pill.

“Give it to me, please...”

The elder’s face collapsed into despair as he begged piteously.

But Qin Feiyang turned a deaf ear to him, quickly ran to Ling Yunfei, and stuffed the antidote pill into Ling Yunfei’s mouth.

Because the venom of the one-horned giant python would seep into the blood. Ling Yunfei had just bitten off the elder’s ear, and he must have swallowed some blood as well. If he did not take the antidote in time, he too would be poisoned.

Then Qin Feiyang hurried to check Ling Yunfei’s condition.

Fortunately, his heart had not been struck. He had barely survived; he had only fallen unconscious.

After feeding Ling Yunfei a healing pill and a bone-regenerating pill, Qin Feiyang rose and turned to look at the elder.

The man had still not given up and was crawling toward the cosmos pouch.

Qin Feiyang took up Cold Snow and walked toward him step by step. The searing pain from his broken ribs only made his killing intent burn hotter.

The elder heard the footsteps and, while still crawling, pleaded, “Please... have mercy... save me...”

“Save you?”

Qin Feiyang sneered, stepped on the cosmos pouch, and said, “A few hours ago, when you were trying to kill me and Ling Yunfei, where was your mercy then? You want me to save you? Fine. If you can crawl over here, I’ll put the antidote into your mouth myself.”

The elder struggled to crawl forward.

But after crawling for a long while, he was still in the same place.

He had no strength left, only despair and hatred.

Qin Feiyang walked up and looked down at him. “Actually, I should thank you. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have had a way to catch you all in one net.”

A trace of confusion appeared in the elder’s venomous eyes.

Qin Feiyang said, “Do you know what was in that snake cave? There was a one-horned giant python inside. I nearly lost my life killing it, but fortunately I not only succeeded in killing it in the end, I also obtained its venom.”

Hearing this, the elder was overwhelmed with regret and asked in broken breaths, “How... did you... poison us...”

Qin Feiyang mocked, “You don’t find the name Qin Feiyang unfamiliar, do you?”

The elder suddenly understood.

Qin Feiyang continued, “To tell you the truth, I am the Qin Feiyang you were looking for. Jiang Haotian was only a false name.”

The elder’s eyes bulged wide open.

“Now you can rest in peace, can’t you?”

Qin Feiyang bent down and grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

With a sweep of Cold Snow in his hand, a blade mark instantly opened across the elder’s throat.

Blood sprayed everywhere, staining Qin Feiyang from head to toe.

At that moment, he looked like a demon of the night, terrifying beyond measure.