Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 147 - 140: Narrow Path - Part 1

Chapter 147: Chapter 140: Narrow Path - Part 1

He hurriedly followed the sound and turned several corners until he came upon a group of fiery red little monkeys jumping up and down, relentlessly attacking Liu Zong.

The incessant chittering was deafening as one monkey after another was flung away by Liu Zong’s sword, only to get up unharmed and continue their assault.

Chitter!

Suddenly, a sharp scream rang out from behind Lin Xin.

Without looking, he swung his sword backward.

With a swish, the blade pierced through a small monkey and retracted.

Seeing that Liu Zong could still hold on, Lin Xin was not in a hurry. He raised his sword and carefully observed the small monkeys.

The monkeys were only the size of a human head. Despite a blade piercing its skull, one struggled violently. Its entire body was fiery red, and its tail ended with a small bunch of flames.

"Earth Fire Monkey?" Lin Xin, widely read and knowledgeable, recognized the species at a glance.

Earth Fire Monkeys lived in groups, each with a precise hierarchy. The one before him was just the weakest small fire monkey; there would be larger fire monkeys, elder fire monkeys, and even a fire monkey king!

Their skin was tough and heat resistant. Their tails could deliver high-temperature lashes, making them rather troublesome.

"This could be troublesome!"

Most importantly, a group of Earth Fire Monkeys typically numbered at least a thousand...

"No wonder no one is stationed here." He now understood why no one was guarding this place.

Glancing at Liu Zong ahead, the man was fighting fiercely. His Sword Dao, especially adapted to resist encirclement under the modified Extreme Yang Scroll’s Inner Qi coupled with the Sun-Burn Formation Sword, allowed him to produce bursts of scalding hot steam. The sword itself was like a glowing red branding iron, but against these fire monkeys, only the sharp edge was effective, which made it inefficient.

Lin Xin flicked the corpse of the small monkey off his blade.

He drew the Red Flower Sword.

"Yin Mantuo."

At his soft call, bits of rock began to rise at his feet. The Man-Eating Flower had entered the rock layer here.

But as soon as it entered, a slight pain was transmitted through it.

"Not suited to the high temperature here?" Lin Xin frowned slightly, urging the Man-Eating Flower to act with his thoughts.

"Block this place; don’t let any creatures through." He turned and saw a large swarm of small fire monkeys rushing toward them, which gave him a headache.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Vines burst through the soil, wrapping around the fire monkeys’ heads, instantly strangling over ten and brutally mashing the rest into chunks of flesh.

The Man-Eating Flower greedily devoured the blood and flesh of the fire monkeys.

With the rear blocked, Lin Xin himself sheathed the Red Flower Sword and drew another standard longsword, pointing it downward as the tip hissed and emitted a stretch of milky-white sword light.

"Just in time to test the swordsmanship I’ve developed recently." He had tried to understand it during his long stays in dim dwellings, initially integrating it into his own style of swordsmanship, which was yet unnamed.

Boom!

Suddenly, a burst of white light exploded behind Lin Xin, and the immense thrust it produced shot him forward. Meanwhile, his movement technique accelerated tremendously, and with a push off the ground, his speed increased even further.

"Duck your head!"

With a low shout,

Liu Zong was startled and quickly crouched.

Swish!!

Immediately afterward, a group of small fire monkeys was suddenly severed in two, falling to the ground and leaving a bloody, vacuum-like pathway down the middle.

At the end of the pathway, Lin Xin’s longsword flipped back as he turned around.

In just an instant, he covered a distance of over ten meters, pierced through the group of fire monkeys as if teleporting, and appeared behind Liu Zong.

"Sect... Sect Master!" Liu Zong was so startled that he broke into a cold sweat. The flesh and blood pathway was less than a meter away from him—if Lin Xin had been just slightly off, he might have ended up like those fire monkeys.

He quickly jumped to Lin Xin’s side.

The little fire monkeys paused momentarily, then immediately recovered, shrieking and charging fearlessly at the two men.

More than ten roots burst through the soil, blocking the onslaught of the small fire monkeys.

"Let’s go." Lin Xin turned and walked toward the cave at the end of the passageway.

Liu Zong swallowed nervously, watching the spiky roots whip the small fire monkeys into pieces, some being dragged underground to disappear, while other roots punctured the bodies of the small fire monkeys and sucked noisily.

He was utterly chilled.

"But this place..."

"With Yin Mantuo blocking, it’s fine." Lin Xin spoke calmly.

"Yin Mantuo? Is it this thing...?"

Liu Zong took one last look at the Man-Eating Flower before hurrying after Lin Xin into the cave.

The cave was a small red stone chamber filled with a type of semi-translucent red shrub.

These shrubs bore clusters of fiery red plum blossoms.

Cough, cough!

At this point, Liu Zong could no longer hold his breath. As soon as he began to breathe through his mouth, his lungs were scorched by the hot air inside.

"Gather what we need and leave quickly."

Lin Xin whispered.

"Yes!"

The two quickly took separate actions, plucking the plum blossoms one by one and placing them in the prepared copper pots, as these Earth Fire Golden Plums had to be stored in copper pots.

Soon, the dozens of Earth Fire Golden Plums in the cave had been completely harvested by the pair.

Lin Xin noticed that the cave walls occasionally bore the distinctive mark of the Red Mansion. Under a tree of Earth Fire Golden Plums, there was even a small table scattered with many pieces of broken stone, suggesting that no one had been here for a long time.

Having gathered enough Earth Fire Golden Plums, the two of them re-emerged from the cave entrance.

Outside, the narrow passage was now filled with fresh blood and shattered bones, the bodies of countless small Fire Monkeys littering the ground.

Yin Mantuo brandished dozens of roots, wildly lashing out in all directions, keeping the remaining Fire Monkeys at bay, who could only stare with hateful eyes from a distance.

Lin Xin felt a swelling sensation coming from Yin Mantuo, as if something was brewing within it.

He sent out a thought to communicate and inquire.

’I...devour...too much...’

’Becoming...stronger.’

Yin Mantuo’s feedback was intermittent.

"Evolving again?" A surge of joy crossed Lin Xin’s mind as he drew the Red Flower Sword, activated the formation, and instantly retracted Yin Mantuo.

The remaining small Fire Monkeys quickly fled. The ground was littered with flesh and bones, the number of dead Fire Monkeys unknown.

The air faintly carried the smell of charred meat.

Hiss!

Suddenly, a piercing scream came from afar as several huge black and red shadows charged at high speed towards them along the passageway.

"Run!" Lin Xin grabbed Liu Zong and exerted full power in his Qinggong. He soared out of the passage, pushing off the rock walls with his legs at an angle towards where the thick ropes were located.

His Qinggong cultivation had reached an extremely high level. Now, powered by Spiritual Energy and further enhanced by attributes, his speed reached an unbelievable level, allowing him to fly out of the volcano, carrying another person, and land steadily on a large boulder at the rim.

As soon as he steadied himself,

Liu Zong hadn’t yet reacted when Lin Xin quickly grabbed his shoulder and flashed away.

Bang!

A fiery red shadow followed closely and slammed hard into the large stone they had been standing on.

The rock exploded, sending countless fragments flying. It was then that Liu Zong deployed his Spiritual Light Shield to block the fragments.

Lin Xin’s Sword Shadow flickered, brushing the flying stones away as if blooming flowers.

The fiery red shadow landed steadily. It was not a Fire Monkey, but a man in a full red suit and a masked face.

His bare hands were black and red, and runic symbols flowed across his palms.

"You ruined my plan!!" The man began with red, furious eyes, then his figure darted forward, fiercely charging at Lin Xin.

Lin Xin was startled, the opponent’s speed nearly matched his. Although he didn’t know why the man was so angered, since he was drawing his sword, there was no point in talking.

Clang!

The sword was unsheathed.

Both moved incredibly quickly, clashing instantly. The flesh palm and the sword blade struck violently, emitting clanging sounds like metals colliding.

Lin Xin, clad in black, and his opponent in fiery red, turned into two void shadows—one black, one red—fiercely dueling at the edge of the volcano.

Ding, ding, ding, a series of harsh clashes rang out as the two exchanged blows in the blink of an eye. Both struck as fast as lightning with great force.

This was the second time Lin Xin had encountered someone who could match his speed head-on. The opponent’s strength was slightly inferior, but his speed was even superior, and the runes flowing over his palms ominously warned of danger.

He used no particular techniques, merely unfolding his own Sword Dao, allowing him to fully leverage his speed and destructive power. This was his strongest state under normal conditions.

Even so, his speed was still slightly inferior to his opponent’s.

After a round of exchanges, each flew back, landing on the rim of the volcano, just a step from falling into it.

Neither looked at the roaring volcano; their gazes were instead fixed intently on each other.

"This speed... who are you exactly?" the opponent demanded gravely.

Lin Xin detected something off about the man’s accent, not resembling those from nearby regions, his thoughts racing.

"I am Shi Ran of the Red Mansion." Shi Ran was a prominent figure under the current Great Witch of the Red Mansion, not directly belonging to the Red Mansion, but part of its faction. He had previously received intelligence and knew of this name.

"Red Mansion!? No wonder you are so fast. I’ve paid enough tribute to use this territory, and yet you interfered at the final moment, ruining my efforts. Very well... very well!!" The opponent was enraged. "We’ll settle this account later!"

With that, he leaped up like a wisp of smoke, softly and gently soaring into the sky, and quickly shot down the mountain.

The faint white light of the formation behind Lin Xin then extinguished.

"Sect Master’s divine power!" Liu Zong finally reacted, rushing over to shout loudly. His face also relaxed greatly, knowing that had he gone down earlier and encountered that man, his chances of survival would have been slim.

But Lin Xin raised his hand to signal him to be quiet. He walked to the spot where the opponent had stood, knelt down, and found a small puddle of black blood, already somewhat coagulated. He dipped his finger in it and took a sniff.

"He was here to expel poison and heal," Lin Xin whispered. "Otherwise, our battle’s outcome would have been uncertain."

Liu Zong was taken aback.

"Let’s leave this place immediately," Lin Xin instructed.

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om