Chapter 36 : Chapter 36
Chapter 36: Li Fei and the Others Are Already Dead
In the very next instant, a black shadow was nailed in midair by a single stroke of his blade, the long saber punching straight through its chest!
“Ah—!”
Luo Li finally saw clearly what it was—a black-clad, masked man whose chest had been pierced clean through by Chen Guan’s saber in a scene so gruesome it should have made her scream.
Yet instead of crying out in terror, her expression changed violently.
Behind her, Luo Tong and the others also underwent a sharp change of face. At once, they raised their weapons and dropped into a defensive stance!
And then, in the very next heartbeat—
two arrows glowing with green light shot out from the grass ahead like venomous snakes spitting their fangs!
Clang! Clang!
Chen Guan’s horse-cleaving saber spun before him, raising a solid barrier of saber qi.
After two crisp impacts, those two green-glimmering arrows were pinned dead in midair!
He flicked his wrist once more, and the two arrows spun in place, reversed direction, and shot back the way they had come at an even faster speed!
Shhk! Shhk!
Two bursts of blood exploded from the grass a hundred meters ahead. Then came two brief, shrill screams that rose quickly and died just as quickly, leaving behind only silence.
“Wh-what is going on here?” Luo Tong asked, his face full of confusion and shock.
Holding the horse-cleaving saber in one hand, Chen Guan stared straight ahead. He waited a moment, and when no further movement followed, he finally turned his head slightly and said flatly,
“If you’re asking me, then who am I supposed to ask?”
Luo Tong’s gaze fell on the black-clad man ahead, who had already gone completely still. Raising his guard, he gripped his saber in both hands and cautiously approached.
Only after confirming that the man was truly dead did he stretch out the tip of his saber and lift the black cloth covering the man’s face—
Riiiip...
But the instant the blade-tip extended forward, a plume of strange black smoke suddenly rose from the corpse. Then, as though all the moisture had been sucked from it, the body rapidly shriveled and collapsed.
In the blink of an eye, even the black clothing melted away, leaving behind only a puddle of blood-water bubbling with a foul stench.
“Th-this is... a deathsworn assassin!” Liu Shuo cried out.
In the jianghu, only the deathsworn servants raised by certain shadowy organizations would take this kind of Bone-Melting Water before carrying out a mission.
The moment they died, the toxin would activate automatically, dissolving the body and erasing every possible clue that could prove its identity!
Luo Tong immediately pushed forward and went into the grass a hundred meters ahead. After parting the grass, he found that there, too, were only two pools of cold, bloody water.
His old face darkened to the point that it seemed ready to drip.
Never had he imagined that, within the demon-haunted Ten Directions Marsh, they would actually be hunted by human deathsworn assassins!
How was that even possible?!
He whipped his head around and looked sharply at Luo Li.
Plainly, those deathsworn had come for her!
Who exactly was this little girl?
She was definitely not merely some young lady from a wealthy family in a remote frontier commandery.
Even the Lord of Wangyue City would probably not be important enough to warrant the mobilization of deathsworn assassins!
“Leave this place first.”
Chen Guan rode forward, glanced once as well at the pools of blood hidden in the grass, and did not give the others any time to ask questions.
Pressing his legs against the horse’s belly, he urged the white horse straight over the foul mess on the ground and continued onward.
Once Luo Tong and the others confirmed that the two figures in the grass had likewise dissolved into blood-water, they immediately heightened their vigilance to the utmost.
At times, men were far more difficult to deal with than beasts acting on instinct alone.
Especially here in the perilous Ten Directions Marsh, where, with the experience of veteran escort masters like theirs, most risks from demons and monsters could at least be anticipated and avoided—so long as they stayed vigilant enough.
People were different.
People could think. They could lay traps. They could use every rule and every power available to them against you, striking where you never expected.
And indeed—
they had advanced barely another ten li when a violent roar shattered the silence of the marsh.
A huge Ironclad Demon Ox, covered from head to hoof in black armor-like plates and crowned with twin horns, came charging wildly out of the reeds ahead, snorting thick breaths!
Its bulk was like a moving hill. Each step it took shook the ground and left behind a deep hoofprint.
The warhorses beneath the group let out a chorus of terrified screams and immediately became restless.
Chen Guan reacted with extreme speed. Seizing Luo Li around the waist, he leapt straight down from the horse’s back in a single motion, allowing the startled white horse to flee with shrill neighs.
Luo Tong and the others did the same, abandoning their horses and instantly spreading into a defensive formation.
Splurt!
At the very moment everyone braced themselves for the impact, a blade flash of impossible speed suddenly streaked through the air!
In the next heartbeat, the charging Ironclad Demon Ox stopped dead in its tracks. The entire upper half of its massive head had been sliced clean off in a single stroke!
Boom!
Its enormous corpse lost balance and crashed heavily to the ground. The severed head rolled away, kicking up a spray of mud.
Everyone’s eyes dropped to the utterly ordinary-looking horse-cleaving saber in Chen Guan’s hand, and a storm rose in their hearts.
They realized that this man, no matter what he killed, never seemed to need a second strike.
Just what sort of saber art was this?
There was not the slightest visible surge of true qi, and yet it seemed capable of cutting through anything beneath heaven!
One had to understand—this was an Ironclad Demon Ox, a creature famed precisely for its defenses!
The armor plating covering its body could be fashioned into defensive armor. Ordinary sabers and swords could not even leave behind a pale mark upon it. Yet beneath Chen Guan’s blade, it had been just as fragile as tofu.
But there was no time for them to dwell on that shock.
Because all of them could tell that this Ironclad Demon Ox had been wounded beforehand, driven into a frenzy, and then deliberately lured here.
It had mistaken them for the people who had ambushed it and thus launched a suicidal attack.
Chen Guan merely cast the great ox corpse on the ground a cold glance. Then he took the silent Luo Li by the hand and made to continue forward.
“Escort Master Chen! Wait!” Luo Tong hurried forward to block the path. “We cannot keep going like this!”
“That’s right!” Liu Shuo immediately echoed him. “There are more and more high-tier demons and monsters ahead. If we keep going, we’ll all end up becoming blades in the hands of these mysterious attackers!”
“Is that so?”
A coldly mocking curve slowly formed at the corner of Chen Guan’s mouth as he swept his gaze across them. A trace of icy ridicule flashed through his dark eyes.
“My escort road, Chen Guan’s road, has never feared there being too many blades. If they have the courage, then let them come!”
The others all stared blankly when they heard that.
What exactly did that mean?
Liu Shuo, on the other hand, underwent the faintest possible change of expression. Instinctively, he glanced toward Luo Tong and the others.
Luo Tong still looked baffled. But in the next instant, deep anxiety rose visibly upon that weathered face of his.
He had suddenly thought of an even more terrifying possibility!
If they had encountered an assassination attempt here, then what about Li Fei and the others, the ones who had split off?
These deathsworn had clearly come for Luo Li, and they had not been tailing them the whole way.
With the experience of veteran escort masters, one could tell at a glance whether anyone was trailing behind.
Luo Tong could say with absolute certainty that these people had caught up to them from the rear!
And if the deathsworn knew precisely that their group had entered the Ten Directions Marsh, and had still managed to catch up to them... then there could be only one explanation.
They had learned from Li Fei and his group that this team had gone into the Ten Directions Marsh.
“Not good!”
Luo Tong’s face changed violently, and he blurted out, “Escort Master Chen, Li Fei and the others might—”
“No need for ‘might.’”
Chen Guan cut him off directly, his voice calm to the point of terror.
“He’s already dead.”