That plain, unremarkable glance made Shang Zhai’s heart flutter. He was completely captivated, and his resolve grew even firmer — ‘I must… I must have this woman!’
But in the next second, Lü Qi stopped in her tracks.
“You actually dare to stay here… are you overconfident in your abilities? Huh?”
She suddenly turned to look at Shang Zhai. Her originally gentle and clear face instantly became twisted and terrifying, like a vengeful demon. Lü Qi struck out with a palm, and a powerful gust of wind surged toward Shang Zhai.
Shang Zhai had no choice but to dodge. After nimbly flashing away, he realized his identity had been exposed — after all, how could a heavily injured person dodge such a swift and violent gale?
Since things had come to this, Shang Zhai, who had just entered the Fengqing Sect only to be exposed, stopped pretending and revealed his true face.
Since Shang Zhai had already selected his two “prey,” there was actually no need to hide his identity anymore. However, he was still somewhat frustrated that the “face-changing art” he had painstakingly cultivated had been seen through so quickly.
“Little girl, how did you realize I was a fake?” Shang Zhai asked coldly.
Feeling Shang Zhai’s powerful aura, the surrounding Fengqing Sect disciples dared not approach and retreated one after another.
Lü Qi, however, took a step closer.
“I once considered the possibility that Fu Yi might return alive, but the hope was very slim. And your words just now directly exposed you!”
Lü Qi’s voice carried a bizarre echo, as if a crazed demon lived inside her body; bursts of roars emanated from deep within her throat.
“From the first time I met Fu Yi, she told me — she was willing to give her life at any time to eliminate demons and protect the Right Path.”
“She might find ways to survive, but she would never lie on the ground pretending to be dead amidst the painful screams of her companions!!”
“Heh, so that’s the reason.” Shang Zhai sneered and spread his hands.
“I really didn’t expect that woman named Fu Yi to be so stupid. She’d rather die than escape and even tried to fire a Signal Arrow? I thought you people of the Orthodox Factions cherished your lives above all else, and would even betray your companions just to survive.”
“I SHALL HAVE YOU PAY WITH YOUR LIFE!!”
Green light flared in Lü Qi’s eyes, and the powerful wind elemental power stored within her body poured out.
In an instant, the slowly flowing air suddenly became violent and erratic. The tiles of the surrounding houses were swept up in sheets, and a large number of invisible wind blades slashed toward Shang Zhai.
“Humph, quite a display, but do you really think you can scare me with this?”
Shang Zhai gave a disdainful smile. He tilted his head slightly to dodge the first wind blade, leaned to the side to avoid the second, and then used these subtle movements to evade all the wind blades.
“Hahaha! Too slow, too slow! You think you can hurt me with this kind of speed?”
Shang Zhai laughed arrogantly. He was, after all, the fastest among the Seven Apostles — so fast that even the wind could not catch him!
However, just as he was laughing, a melodious sound of a zither suddenly rang in his ears.
Shang Zhai was startled and looked forward. He saw that Lü Qi was now holding a treasure zither, gently plucking the strings.
‘Hmm?’
Shang Zhai was experienced and saw at a glance that the treasure zither was a Heavenly-Grade Weapon.
He reacted instantly — the wind blades from before might have just been a distraction! Lü Qi’s real goal was to make him hear the zither’s song!
In the next moment, Shang Zhai suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyes. It was as if he had fallen into a world of pure black, unable to see anything.
‘This… what kind of wicked sorcery is this?!’
No matter how confident he was, facing the unknown, he couldn’t help but feel panicked.
Then, he heard the sound of something rolling onto the ground beside him — like two stone balls.
Suddenly, those two “stone balls” smashed toward his face, precisely embedding themselves into his eye sockets!
“AHH — !”
Shang Zhai let out a scream of agony. He felt as if those two stone balls were about to burst his eye sockets.
The corners of his eyes tore, and a large amount of blood slid down his cheeks, dripping onto the ground.
He tried to gouge them out, but the two stone balls sank deeper and deeper, as if they were going to pierce through his head!
Intense pain and Fear instantly spread through his body. Lü Qi’s low, curse-like whispers echoed in his ears, frantically attacking his will.
“Damn it… who exactly is the one from the Demon Sect?” Shang Zhai growled through gritted teeth.
In his life, he had fought countless practitioners of the Right Path, and there was no shortage of insidious ones among them.
But Lü Qi’s current assault could no longer be described as “insidious”; it was simply bizarre.
However, as one of the Seven Apostles of the Demon Sect, Shang Zhai naturally had means of dealing with dire situations that differed from ordinary people.
Since he had fallen into this strange state after hearing the zither music, then — as long as he couldn’t hear it, wouldn’t it be fine?
Shang Zhai slowly raised his hand, using Demonic Qi to condense a long, sharp hidden weapon between his fingers. Then, he thrust it into his own ears without hesitation!
At that moment, he completely destroyed his hearing.
***
In the next instant, the darkness shrouding his vision vanished, and he returned to reality!
Lü Qi saw blood flowing from Shang Zhai’s ears. She had thought he would die with blood leaking from his seven orifices like Guilong and Guisha. She hadn’t expected —
Shang Zhai flashed in front of her the next second, thrusting a blade of Demonic Qi directly at her!
Lü Qi was shocked. ‘He… he actually disabled his own ears to break my control?!’
To outsiders, it seemed Lü Qi relied only on the eerie zither music to kill enemies from a distance, making her very vulnerable once closed in on, forcing her to use the wind to retreat.
But in reality, she had more than one trump card.
The moment Shang Zhai approached, Lü Qi did not retreat but instead moved forward. She drew a short sword from beneath the body of the zither and met the demonic blade head-on!
The zither and sword became one, combining hardness and softness.
She thrust with her sword, accompanied by surging wind pressure, actually knocking Shang Zhai’s demonic blade aside!
With this strike, Shang Zhai suddenly discovered that not only was the treasure zither a Heavenly-Grade Weapon, but even the short sword hidden beneath it was a Heavenly-Grade Weapon!
‘A person covered in top-tier equipment? How can a mere Earth-tier Force like the Fengqing Sect have someone like this? Where did all these treasures come from?!’
Shang Zhai’s heart was shaken.
Although Lü Qi was only at the Martial King realm and her cultivation was far less profound than his, his strength had been weakened because he had just fallen into her trap and lost his hearing.
Combined with the enhancement from Lü Qi’s Heavenly Rank treasures, the gap in their cultivation had been largely bridged.
In other words — at this moment, the two of them were at most evenly matched.
As a lone traveler, Shang Zhai naturally would not fight a prolonged battle here. He immediately changed his strategy.
In the next instant, his gaze locked onto Yu Yi, who was watching the scene from not far away, and he suddenly rushed toward her.
“Heh, as long as I capture this woman, this trip won’t be in vain!”
The Fengqing Sect was just a mere Earth-tier Force. Having one powerhouse covered in Heavenly Rank treasures was already the limit — it was impossible for there to be anyone even stronger, right?
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