The clash of weapons echoed with metallic sounds.
“Clang!”
Meng Xiaoyu raised her sword to deflect the middle-aged man’s blade aimed at her face.
Her lips parted slightly, and her breath was labored, clearly showing her exhaustion.
She deeply regretted not learning swordsmanship properly from the old man, which left her barely able to defend herself without any chance to counterattack.
Meng Xiaoyu silently vowed that once she escaped this place, she would diligently practice martial arts and swordsmanship.
She never wanted to experience being overpowered and unable to fight back again.
While making this vow, she continued to fend off the relentless attacks from the middle-aged man.
“You little girl, how dare you deceive me?”
With a loud shout, a dark blue figure joined the battle between Meng Xiaoyu and the middle-aged man.
It was none other than Zhao Tianyu, who had been lured away by Meng Xiaoyu with the Millennium Snow Ginseng.
“Hmph, when did I deceive you? Didn’t I already return the Millennium Snow Ginseng to you?”
Meng Xiaoyu, struggling even more with Zhao Tianyu’s involvement, sidestepped to avoid his grasp and raised her sword to block the middle-aged man’s blade, speaking with an unsteady breath.
“Hmph, you did return the Millennium Snow Ginseng, but not the Xuanfeng Token,” Zhao Tianyu said angrily as he launched a swift attack on Meng Xiaoyu.
“Hahaha, the Xuanfeng Token never belonged to your Zhao family. Why should I return it?”
Meng Xiaoyu, though struggling to fend off the fierce attacks from Zhao Tianyu and the middle-aged man, laughed as she spoke.
“You’re courting death,” said the middle-aged man wielding the sword.
His attacks became faster and more ruthless, each strike aimed at Meng Xiaoyu’s vital points, leaving her no room to breathe.
As the middle-aged man suddenly changed his moves, Zhao Tianyu also increased his attack speed.
Their combined assault forced Meng Xiaoyu to retreat continuously.
If not for the Snow Silk Soft Armor she wore, her small body would have been pierced with holes by the middle-aged man’s sword.
Because of this, Meng Xiaoyu was even more determined not to return the treasures she had taken from the secret chamber to Zhao Tianyu and his group.
She kicked away Zhao Tianyu’s hand reaching for her face, then used the Three Rings Encircle the Moon move from the Taiji Sword to entangle the middle-aged man’s sword.
With a slight shift in her steps, she spun around and counterattacked with a move called Kui Xing Points the Way, forcing Zhao Tianyu to retreat.
It’s said that people’s potential is often forced out under pressure, and Meng Xiaoyu was a prime example.
The moves she just used were enough to prove it.
The Taiji Sword techniques she used in a moment of desperation not only surprised Zhao Tianyu and the middle-aged man but also amazed Meng Xiaoyu herself.
She found it hard to believe that the Taiji Sword, which was used as a fitness exercise in the 21st-century Celestial Empire, could be so effective here.
This discovery delighted Meng Xiaoyu and gave her a bit of confidence.
After all, the basic sword techniques taught by the old man couldn’t withstand Zhao Tianyu and the middle-aged man’s attacks.
Now that she found the Taiji Sword could somewhat fend off their attacks, Meng Xiaoyu felt a bit more assured.
With this in mind, Meng Xiaoyu decided to act, spreading her legs slightly and slowly performing the starting move of the Taiji Sword.
Meng Xiaoyu’s sudden change in sword techniques made Zhao Tianyu hesitant to attack rashly.
The middle-aged man also paused for a moment but soon raised his sword to stab at Meng Xiaoyu.
After observing Meng Xiaoyu’s swordplay for a while, he concluded that her techniques were slow and weak, and he didn’t believe they posed any real threat.
However, this assumption was quickly overturned by what happened next.
The middle-aged man’s sword strike was infused with six to seven-tenths of his strength, aimed directly at Meng Xiaoyu’s face without any fancy moves.
He thought this strike would be fatal for Meng Xiaoyu, but he didn’t expect that when the sword was less than three feet from her face, Meng Xiaoyu deflected it with a diagonal lift of her sword, dissipating most of its force.
Not stopping there, Meng Xiaoyu’s sword drew a semicircle, resting on the middle-aged man’s sword, transmitting force that made his sword feel heavy.
Realizing something was wrong, the middle-aged man quickly tried to withdraw his sword, but to his surprise, Meng Xiaoyu’s sword seemed glued to his, making it impossible for him to break free.
He could only follow the movements of Meng Xiaoyu’s sword, drawing circles in the air.
Initially, the middle-aged man didn’t feel anything amiss other than his sword being guided by Meng Xiaoyu’s internal force.
However, within less than a quarter of an hour, he turned pale as he realized his physical and internal strength were rapidly depleting.
This discovery filled him with extreme shock and fear.
As the middle-aged man’s face turned pale, Zhao Tianyu, who had been observing from the side, finally noticed something was wrong.
He shouted loudly, leaping into the air with his fingers curled into claws, aiming straight for Meng Xiaoyu’s left shoulder.
Seeing Zhao Tianyu’s move, Meng Xiaoyu cursed him for being despicable in her heart and quickly drew her sword to block his attack.
After failing to land a hit, Zhao Tianyu didn’t continue attacking.
Instead, he turned and moved swiftly to the side of the exhausted middle-aged man, crouching down to support him with concern.
“Fourth brother, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just a bit exhausted,” the middle-aged man replied weakly.
Hearing the middle-aged man’s words, Zhao Tianyu relaxed slightly.
Just as he was about to say something, he let out a muffled groan, feeling a sharp pain from his right calf.
Zhao Tianyu immediately turned to look at Meng Xiaoyu, who was standing there, clapping her hands and helping the injured Ling Yuer up.
“Despicable,” he said.
Meng Xiaoyu, supporting Ling Yuer, shrugged indifferently.
“You’re no better,” she replied, preparing to help the severely injured Ling Yuer over the wall to leave this cursed place.
It turned out that while Zhao Tianyu and his brother were having their brotherly moment, Meng Xiaoyu had taken the opportunity to strike Zhao Tianyu’s right leg with a Divine Sword Finger.
Although this action was somewhat unethical, Meng Xiaoyu felt no pressure.
In her own words, “I never claimed to be a good person, and Zhao Tianyu isn’t a good person either.
Why should I feel guilty?”
Supporting Ling Yuer, Meng Xiaoyu slowly made her way to the high wall.
Looking at the towering wall, Meng Xiaoyu was troubled.
“How can I jump over it? If it were just me, it wouldn’t be a problem, but…”
She turned to look at Ling Yuer, whom she was supporting.
She wanted to ask, “Can you jump over by yourself?”
But seeing Ling Yuer’s pale face and the dried blood at the corner of her mouth, she shook her head and gave up.
Meng Xiaoyu was troubled again.
“If Ling Yuer can’t use Light Skill to fly, how can they leave here? Do they have to walk out the front gate?”
She glanced back at the two sitting cross-legged, healing their injuries, and shook her head again.
She didn’t have the strength to fight them again.
With a sigh, Meng Xiaoyu resigned herself to the idea of carrying Ling Yuer over the wall, hoping that God would protect her from falling due to hunger and exhaustion.
Just as Meng Xiaoyu was about to squat down to carry Ling Yuer, something unexpected happened.
As Meng Xiaoyu turned to approach Ling Yuer, ready to carry her, Ling Yuer suddenly pushed Meng Xiaoyu to the ground.
“What are you doing, pushing…”
The words caught in her throat when she saw an arrow embedded in Ling Yuer’s right shoulder.
Meng Xiaoyu wasn’t foolish.
She realized that Ling Yuer had pushed her to save her.
Seeing the large red stain spreading from Ling Yuer’s back, Meng Xiaoyu was furious.
She glared at the young man in a crimson robe standing beside Zhao Tianyu, holding a bow and arrow.
She didn’t know where the young man had gotten the bow and arrow, but she knew she was angrier than she had ever been.
Raising her hand, she gathered the last of her internal energy and launched a powerful sword energy attack at the young man.
If the attack hit its mark, Meng Xiaoyu was almost certain that even if he managed to avoid a fatal blow, he would still be seriously injured.
She had aimed at the young man’s heart, and she was confident that his skills wouldn’t allow him to dodge her strike.
After launching the attack, Meng Xiaoyu didn’t make another move.
She turned around, carried the injured Ling Yuer on her back, and used the last of her internal energy to fly away from the place that had nearly cost them their lives.
