He used a sword, yes, but using a sword didn’t mean he was a Sword Cultivator.
In Hua Jian’s eyes, this person’s ultimate destination was likely the Tiandao Sect, not the Sword Sect, the holy land of Sword Cultivators.
And a prospective cultivator of the Tiandao Sect shouldn’t have this kind of reaction when encountering such a thing.
“This guy is plotting something big. You two must be careful, understand?” Hua Jian turned her head and spoke to Shiqi and Xia Hui with absolute seriousness.
“Understood, I will definitely be careful!” As Hua Jian’s fully affirmative NPC, Xia Hui naturally nodded without saying a word.
Shiqi was a Sword Cultivator and had already gotten used to sharing her brain with Hua Jian. Since Hua Jian said so, she naturally wouldn’t object.
“Alright, then I’ll head out with the men first. You two help me look after this place.”
Xia Hui’s body and strength didn’t allow her to travel long distances, so she had to stay to help Hua Jian guard their home. Since she was staying, Shiqi had to stay as her protector.
This time, Hua Jian could only act with the Sword Hero’s subordinates.
……
‘There are indeed eyes on me in the dark…’ Standing on the snow-covered plain, looking around like a proper sentry, the Sword Hero’s attention was actually entirely focused on his feet.
Every inch of the ground he walked over was carefully scanned by his Divine Sense to find any hidden threats.
As the distance to the spot where the attacked cultivator had been hit grew closer, the intensity of the gaze he felt also grew stronger.
Just now it was a faint attention, but now that look had become fiery and aggressive.
The Sword Hero steadied his mind and continued walking forward. This gaze was like a warning device, letting him know clearly roughly where a trap would appear.
‘The ambusher lacks experience. Doesn’t he know that in this situation, you absolutely cannot stare at the target you’re about to attack?’
Cultivators were very sensitive to gazes. After being watched for so long, any slightly skilled cultivator would notice.
His Divine Sense reached out forward, and in the soil under the thin snow, the Sword Hero sensed a wisp of life.
It seemed that was the trap.
He didn’t hesitate and took a step right onto it, as if he hadn’t discovered the trap’s existence at all.
One who achieves great things must have courage. For his goal, what did taking this one risk matter! The more severely he was injured, the harder it would be for Hua Jian to give him the cold shoulder.
Hua Jian was currently too wary of him. He had to eliminate that wariness step by step to reach his ultimate goal!
As his foot landed near the trap, the ambusher hidden in the soil immediately activated it. A thin needle, almost invisible, shot out from the dirt, aimed straight at the Sword Hero’s ankle.
But before it could touch his ankle, a faint white barrier appeared on the Sword Hero’s body, easily blocking the sneak attack.
Simultaneously, the Sword Hero thrust his sword toward the direction where he had sensed life.
A dark shadow burst out of the ground before his blade could land and flew toward the distance at extreme speed.
“Want to run? Too late!”
The Sword Hero immediately gave chase with his sword. The dark shadow’s flight speed was extremely fast, but he was not to be outdone.
After about fifteen minutes of chasing, the Sword Hero reached a small grove where the environment was slightly warmer.
The place where he was attacked was already in the southern part of the Forbidden Land, and after chasing for a while, it was normal to reach a place without snow.
Without suspicion, the Sword Hero charged straight into the grove after the dark shadow.
Then, a huge web appeared before him.
There was almost no time to react. The web was located right at the entrance of the grove.
An instant before hitting the giant web, the Sword Hero saw the dark shadow he was chasing also stuck to it.
The next moment, he slammed into the large web. The web wasn’t that strong, and being hit by a fast-flying person, it directly detached from the tree branches.
The Sword Hero rolled twice on the ground, trying to pull the web off his body. The skin in contact with the web was already beginning to sting with a burning pain; there was definitely a very potent toxin on it.
Although the strength of this spider web wasn’t high, its stickiness was exceptionally disgusting. It stuck to his body like a pile of mud and couldn’t be cleaned off quickly.
While the Sword Hero was struggling with the spider web, several small colorful butterflies flew over his head and sprinkled shiny scales down upon him.
In this colored mist falling like raindrops, more and more red spots appeared on the Sword Hero’s body. Various toxins were launching a fierce assault on his form.
If it were an ordinary Spirit Master, they would have definitely been beaten by these poisonous insects until they lost their combat power.
“They’re really trying to kill me…” the Sword Hero muttered in a voice no one could hear, his movements gradually becoming weak.
As if seeing his performance, a soft giggle came from the grove, and several small poisonous scorpions clad in jet-black armor crawled over from various places, intending to give him the final blow.
“Five Poisons Peak…” When the Sword Hero saw these things, how could he not guess the ambusher’s identity?
But why was someone from the Five Poisons Peak attacking him, and acting so obviously?
Swish, swish, swish!
As questions swirled in his mind, several sounds of breaking air reached his ears, cutting the poisonous insects crawling toward him in half.
After the silver flying blades killed those little bugs, they drew a beautiful arc in the air and returned to the sword in the girl’s hand.
The Sword Hero turned his head in that direction, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. ‘Why does that sword look so familiar?’
Before he could figure it out, Hua Jian had already shouted toward the grove in front of her, “You’re surrounded! It’s not too late to surrender! If you insist on resisting, the sword in my hand won’t show any mercy!”
‘Still thinking of calling for surrender at a time like this? How naive!’ the Sword Hero couldn’t help but think.
As Hua Jian’s voice rang out, pillars of light rose from various parts of the grove. These pillars met above their heads, turning into the shape of a large pot turned upside down on the ground.
“Your subordinates know quite a bit. I just asked them if they had an Array Formation to stop someone from escaping, and I didn’t expect them to actually have one.” Hua Jian looked down and remarked to the Sword Hero, who was covered in red spots.
‘So this is the kind of high-quality stuff you guys were eating. You should have said so earlier. If I’d known your people were this capable, I would have just come and snatched them.’
“This Array can only briefly block someone wanting to leave. Besides, are you sure you don’t need them to assist you?” the Sword Hero reminded Hua Jian while removing the sticky silk from his body.
“No need. I saw exactly how you were hit. That enemy probably isn’t good at frontal combat. And as for playing dirty, I’m her ancestor!” With a strange smile, Hua Jian raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
Magic Mist began to spread rapidly with her as the center, and before long, it had completely covered the surrounded grove area.
Even the Sword Hero, who was in the same camp, was enveloped in the colored mist. This time, the mist smelled exceptionally pungent, making him almost unable to stop himself from sneezing.
If even he could barely stand it, the hidden ambusher naturally fared no better.
“Achoo!“
The faint sound of a cough came from the depths of the grove, and Hua Jian immediately transformed into a mass of flower petals, charging straight toward that direction.
‘Flying Flower Evasion… is this person really not a mole from the Demonic Path who infiltrated the Right Path?’ While speeding up the cleaning of the things on his body, the Sword Hero quietly grumbled in his mind.
This person called Hua Jian had an identity that was too mysterious. She acted like a hardcore member of the Right Path, but the various methods she used made people unable to help but doubt her identity.
Even he was unable to understand her now.
Within the thick mist, the red spots on his body were fading at a rapid speed, as if those toxins were no match for his body at all. His previous pathetic appearance had clearly just been an act.
“Tch, regardless, I have to make a move…”
His muttering vanished into the wind.
On the other side, Hua Jian had already found the general direction of the ambusher through that cough. As she grew closer to that person’s location, she encountered more and more obstacles.
Various bizarre poisonous insects began to fly at her face, making Hua Jian feel a bit of physiological discomfort.
She really didn’t like these bug-like things, so for these fellows, she chose the most brutal way to deal with them without a second word.
Every poisonous insect that flew over was pierced in the air by Vines, their strength sucked dry until they became shriveled corpses strung on the vines.
The advantage of the poisonous insects lay in sneak attacks, not frontal combat. Facing Hua Jian, their extremely weak frontal combat power became apparent.
Hua Jian wasn’t afraid of poison and had full-body protection. She was like a tank, charging straight at her target. The ambusher, however, had no weapons of sufficient power and could only watch as Hua Jian charged over to crush her.
Boom!
Fiery red Spirit Leaves exploded into a surging wave of air in the forest. In this sweep-like attack, the ambusher finally could no longer stay hidden.
With a surge of Spiritual Power in the grove, a petite black-robed figure appeared from the top of a large tree, using a very crude movement technique to dodge Hua Jian’s Spirit Leaf attack.
“This movement technique is a bit too poor…” Hua Jian was amused by the black-robed person’s clumsy movements. For a moment, she actually forgot that this was a villain who had harmed many people.
However, she quickly adjusted her mindset. No matter who was under that black robe, she currently had only one goal: to defeat the opponent and ensure her rear was no longer threatened!
Her body transformed into flying flowers and vanished into the mist. When she reappeared, she was already directly in front of the black-robed person, swinging her sword at the figure’s body.
“Eek!” The black-robed person was so frightened by this sudden sword strike that she let out a cute sound, and her body instinctively went into a head-hugging squat.
This did indeed dodge Hua Jian’s strike, but it also caused the black-robed person to lose her balance, sending her rolling across the ground.
Hua Jian was also amused by this scene. Was this black-robed person only good at sneak attacks and nothing else?
Watching the other party roll on the ground, Hua Jian couldn’t help but lower her guard. She no longer aimed to kill with every move.
Later on, Hua Jian didn’t even use her sword. She held a Thin Vine in her hand and began to whip the black-robed person.
The battle quickly turned into a game of cat and mouse. No matter where the black-robed person tried to run, she couldn’t escape Hua Jian and could only be corralled within a small area.
Not long after, the Sword Hero, who had finally broken free from the spider web, walked over. Seeing this scene in the woods, his expression became even stranger.
He could naturally see that Hua Jian had the complete advantage and was currently playing with this black-robed person. This behavior was, well, a bit malicious.
“Miss Hua Jian, how about I have them take down the barrier?” he couldn’t help but call out to Hua Jian.
Upon hearing this, the black-robed person’s body shuddered. This shudder resulted in Hua Jian’s vine whip striking her squarely, making her let out a sharp cry of pain.
“Eek!“
‘Does that voice sound a bit familiar?’
“Take it down. She can’t run anymore.” Hua Jian agreed to the Sword Hero’s request and continued to catch the black-robed person.
With the order given, the curtain of light in the sky soon vanished, and the cultivators who had formed the Array converged here to watch Hua Jian’s torment of the black-robed figure.
Originally, they had felt some dread and resentment toward the black-robed person, but seeing her being toyed with by Hua Jian like this, sympathy began to take over.
‘This black-robed person looks quite pitiful, and her voice sounds like a very young girl. She shouldn’t be from the Demonic Path, right?’
Driven by this mindset, several cultivators couldn’t help but shout to the black-robed person, “Little sister, you should just surrender! Miss Hua Jian won’t mistreat prisoners!”
“That’s right, just surrender!”
Although they sympathized with the toyed-with black-robed little sister, these cultivators still knew right from wrong. They weren’t asking Hua Jian to be merciful, but rather telling the black-robed person to surrender quickly.
Unfortunately, the black-robed person didn’t appreciate the sentiment. Even as she was poked and prodded into jumping around without being able to escape, she kept her mouth shut and refused to surrender.
It was as if surrendering would lead to death.
“Little sister, I’ll give you one last chance. If you still don’t surrender, don’t blame me for getting serious!” Seeing that the black-robed person’s stamina was almost exhausted, Hua Jian began her final call for surrender.
If she still couldn’t persuade her this time, she would have to use more brutal methods.
And the result of the persuasion was as expected — a failure.
The black-robed person even charged straight at the Sword Hero, looking like she wanted to take him down with her.
The Sword Hero instinctively raised his sword to knock the black-robed person away, but before he could act, the ground in front of him suddenly exploded.
Several Vines quickly wove into a net in the air, intercepting the black-robed person halfway.
Now everyone understood. Hua Jian had just been tormenting the black-robed person; she could have caught her long ago.
‘This person is too cruel,’ everyone thought to themselves.
After netting the black-robed person, the vine net quickly changed shape, turning into a large vine cocoon, leaving only the head exposed.
All other parts of the body were bound by vines, leaving no gap. She had no chance to release any poisonous insects.
After taking these protective measures, Hua Jian walked to the black-robed person’s side and, amidst her timid dodging, reached out and grabbed her black hood.
Rip!
With the sound of tearing fabric, Hua Jian saw a small head wearing a black mask.
Throwing the torn hood aside, she reached out once more and grabbed the mask.
“Let me see what you look like under this mask!”
With a forceful pull of the mask, a small, aggrieved face that was already on the verge of tears appeared before Hua Jian.
It also made her curse out loud.
“Why are you here too, you little brat?!”