Chapter 174: Is This Your Strength?
"Punishment? He should be thanking me!" Vermilion Bird sneered and slashed her sword again, sending out another blast of Sword Qi. But before the Sword Qi could strike the tree trunk, a figure leaped out. It was none other than He Yi, who had been hiding there.
"Thank you? Do you have any idea that you're betraying the organization?" He Yi's voice was ice-cold as he berated Vermilion Bird.
"Is it just the two of you? How audacious. You didn't run, you actually dared to stay?" Vermilion Bird's brows furrowed slightly. She glanced around but didn't sense anyone else, which made her suspicious. 'Just these two? Could they really have killed all those people from before?'
"What's wrong? You're not scared, are you? I'll be honest with you—the Nether King is hiding in the shadows. He killed all those men, and now he's just waiting for the right moment to land a fatal blow!" Fan watched Vermilion Bird mockingly. This was what Zhou Fan had told him to say, all for the purpose of misleading her.
Zhou Fan was absolutely confident that in such a chaotic, dense forest, especially with the smell of fresh blood in the air, not even Vermilion Bird could pinpoint his location. The goal was to create the illusion that he wasn't here—that he had already left after the killings—while Fan used his name as a bluff. The objective, of course, was to make his eventual attack all the more unexpected and effective.
As for Li Xing and Li Yue, forget Vermilion Bird—not even Zhou Fan knew where the two of them were hiding at this moment. It was as if those two young women were born to be assassins; their methods of concealing their presence were incredibly sophisticated.
"Hmph. Attack! Get rid of these two traitors to Dragon Soul!" Vermilion Bird couldn't be bothered to waste any more words on Fan. With a cold snort, she gave the order, and several of her subordinates immediately rushed forward to kill the two men.
"Fuck, you're the damn traitor!" Fan cursed. As planned, he ran in the opposite direction of Zhou Fan's hiding spot, while He Yi hurriedly fled in another direction.
Seeing them flee in different directions, a scornful smirk tugged at the corner of Vermilion Bird's lips. 'Looks like the Nether King really did leave after the killings. Otherwise, they would have run in the same direction instead of splitting up.'
But just as Vermilion Bird was about to lead her people forward in pursuit of Zhou Fan, she suddenly, instinctively, raised her longsword to block.
CLANG!
The sound of metal on metal rang out. The immense rebound force made even Vermilion Bird's arm go numb, and she couldn't help but take half a step back.
Before Vermilion Bird could even recover, her opponent closed the distance again. A flash of inky-black light cut through the dense forest, stabbing straight for her chest.
"Nether King, you're courting death!"
Vermilion Bird now clearly saw her ambusher: it was Zhou Fan, the very person she thought had already left. With a sharp cry, she slapped out with her left hand to meet Zhou Fan's sword while simultaneously thrusting her own longsword at his chest with her right.
In Vermilion Bird's mind, her palm strike would surely knock Zhou Fan's sword aside, if not swat it from his grasp entirely.
The result was just as she expected: the straight thrust of Zhou Fan's Li Hen Sword was knocked aside by her palm.
But at the same time, Zhou Fan's left hand shot out and grabbed the longsword aimed at his chest. The sharp blade sliced through his palm and stabbed into his chest.
Faced with Zhou Fan's sudden move, Vermilion Bird froze for a second, a flicker of confusion in her eyes. But she immediately realized his intent. With a flick of his wrist, Zhou Fan changed the trajectory of his Li Hen Sword—the one she had just knocked aside. The thrust became a chop, swinging rapidly toward her shoulder.
"Trying to trade your life for mine? You're not worthy!" Vermilion Bird sneered contemptuously and slapped out again with her left hand at Zhou Fan's sword.
But in that instant, a ruthless, bloodthirsty gleam flashed in Zhou Fan's eyes. He let her palm strike the body of his blade, yet the momentum of the Li Hen Sword didn't diminish in the slightest. It was completely unaffected.
PFFT!
The Li Hen Sword hacked into Vermilion Bird's left shoulder, nearly severing her entire arm. Alarmed, she disregarded everything else and raised her leg to kick Zhou Fan's chest, only to find he had already kicked out a split second before her.
BANG! BANG!
They each landed a kick on the other. The tremendous force sent them both flying backward uncontrollably.
"Heh, Vermilion Bird, one of the four Grand Elders of Dragon Soul... So this is all you amount to." Zhou Fan's body slammed into a tree, barely stopping his momentum. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, he quickly took out a Recovery Pill and swallowed it, then looked at Vermilion Bird with disdain.
This was a part of his plan: to trade injury for injury. 'So what if you're powerful, Vermilion Bird? Even you have the basic human instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm. At the end of the day, you're still afraid of death.'
'But I, Zhou Fan, am not. What's more, I have Recovery Pills. Even after taking one just now, I still have fourteen left. I refuse to believe I can't take you down with fourteen Recovery Pills!'
After steadying herself, Vermilion Bird glanced at her left arm, which was nearly severed, the wound so deep the bone was visible. She quickly used her right hand to press several acupoints on her left shoulder, seemingly to seal them. She then took out a pill of her own and swallowed it before glaring at Zhou Fan, her killing intent radiating. "Is this the extent of your strength?"