Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 58 Safety - Part 2

Chapter 58: Chapter 58 Safety - Part 2

Pfft.

The tip of the knife stabbed at Lin Xin’s skin, emitting a muffled sound similar to wood.

The tip of the knife actually couldn’t penetrate the skin?!

Yu Zan was stunned.

With a splash of water, Lin Xin had already reacted, standing up and grabbing her wrist with a backhanded grip. At the same time, he pulled a bath towel around himself with his right hand.

"It’s you?!" He recognized the origin of the white clothing on Yu Zan in an instant.

With a flip of his hand, he now held a black Luminous Talisman Stone in his palm. He pressed it forcefully against Yu Zan’s body.

Ah!!

Amidst a piercing scream, the white clothing seemed to sense the threat, soaring off of Yu Zan’s body and shooting towards the side curtain.

As the white clothing left,

Yu Zan’s clothes instantly scattered into pieces, and she collapsed to the floor, completely naked and unconscious.

Lin Xin, however, retrieved the Luminous Talisman Stone with a cold laugh.

He had merely intended to scare the other party, but the result was indeed satisfactory. This individual was clearly the same set of Ghost Garment that had been injured by his Luminous Talisman Stone before.

Without hesitation, he threw the Talisman Stone towards the direction where the Ghost Garment had fled.

Bang! A muffled sound resounded, and a bright light exploded.

The room suddenly lit up like a miniature sun.

Lin Xin pulled across the curtain to shield his eyes.

Faintly, he heard a scream. After one or two seconds had passed and the light dimmed, he lifted the curtain and stepped out.

Inside the room, everything was scorched black, especially near the window where a large hole had been blasted open. A set of white clothing hung fiercely burning on the window.

"It seems to be resolved..."

Lin Xin carefully checked the white clothing to see that it was no longer moving. He did not relax until it had been completely consumed by fire, turning into black ash.

Footsteps from the inn’s staff could now be heard outside the door. They were clearly disturbed by the previous explosion.

Yu Zan was still lying faint and unclothed in the bathing area.

This inn did not offer any kind of erotic service. The girls were all decent and well-behaved, occasionally flirtatious but never selling their bodies, remaining chaste.

But now with Yu Zan unconscious and her clothes gone, Lin Xin felt somewhat embarrassed.

Looking at Yu Zan, who lay in the bathing area, the fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl’s body was not fully developed; however, it was still enticingly attractive, her skin dazzlingly white.

Lin Xin propped her onto the bed and covered her with a quilt, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

The door was already being knocked on loudly.

As Lin Xin went to open the door, he also knew it was time to change his lodging.

Without going to the door, Lin Xin quickly dressed, donned his gear including the leather bag, sword, and Talisman Sword, and packed up his Silver Tael.

Hiss!

Suddenly, a white shadow flew past the opened window.

The shadow was incredibly fast, just a blur, leaving behind the sound of tearing through the air. Lin Xin turned his head to look, but it was too late. Even with his recently improved dynamic vision, he only saw a trace of the outline. To the average person, it might have been a white dove.

"They’re still coming?!"

A chill ran through his heart.

"It seems that the fight earlier caught their attention..."

With this thought flashing through his mind, he looked around quickly, leaped out of the now-opened window, and upon landing amid startled cries, quickly turned a few corners and disappeared into the crowd.

***************

Racing after the white shadow, Lin Xin quickly crossed the crowded streets and gradually arrived near a deserted section of the city wall.

Everywhere he looked, there were abandoned houses draped in white silk. It was gloomy, with not a single person in sight.

Lin Xin gradually slowed down, holding a Talisman Stone tightly in his right hand, vigilant as he surveyed his surroundings.

This time the opponent had lured him out here. Chasing all the way to this place wasn’t without the intent to draw out the person behind the scenes. Previously, numerous Ghost Garments had failed to deal with him, so only the mastermind might stand a chance against him. Although the chase was somewhat risky, it was also a real opportunity to face the mastermind.

Walking between the abandoned houses and city walls, his footsteps echoed one after another through the streets, unusually clear.

"A mere named disciple dares to risk his life alone to pursue my Ghost Garment troops?"

Suddenly, from behind him, a sharp male voice rang out, full of a weird androgynous tone.

Lin Xin spun around to see a bald man with a pale face and red lips mocking him.

The man was bare-chested, wearing black silk lantern pants. Engraved vividly on the muscled chest was a ghastly white human face, eyes tightly shut as if in deep slumber.

"Who are you?" Lin Xin asked in a steady tone without any change in expression. "Are you controlling these Hex-wing Bees to create the Human Face Fruit?"

"Everyone calls me Wooden Mule." The bald, strange man replied with a high-pitched, shrill voice, "Hex-wing Bees? You mean Kuihua Bees? Indeed, I control all of the Kuihua Bees in the city." He stepped towards Lin Xin, his fingernails sharp and knife-like, glinting with a faint cold light under the daylight.

"As for the Human Face Fruit... Don’t I have one on my chest? If you want it, come and get it yourself~~"

Lin Xin, however, did not move, but focused intently, feeling an inexplicable rage every time he saw the weird bald face, an urge to charge forward and punch it ruthlessly.

"Something’s wrong!" He held his breath inwardly, struggling to maintain his composure. The Solar Yang Talisman Sword was drawn out, emitting a faint heat flow in his hand, the Evil-Repelling Force gradually dispelling the unknown eerie presence that surrounded him.

Lin Xin immediately felt a bit better, the indescribable compulsion slowly dissipated.

"Such a covert technique." He spoke in a low voice.

Wooden Mule paused his advance, smiling with his eyes at Lin Xin.

"Really not bad, such high alertness. The second time I’ve encountered someone who noticed something was off so quickly..." He spoke flamboyantly, his tone unsettling as if a man was speaking with the intonations of a woman.

"I’m really starting to like you more and more...."

He gently clapped his hands.

Clap.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh... instantaneously, from hidden spots around the streets, a dense flurry of various types of clothing flew out, belonging to men and women, young and old, all sorts of garments.

These Ghost Garments, like countless birds, rushed towards Lin Xin, surrounding him from all directions.

"Each of these Ghost Garments has the strength of Third to Fifth Layer of ’Return to Origin’ Inner Qi. This time, I really want to see with my own eyes how exactly you managed to get rid of my little creatures...." Mu Laozi said in a weird intonation.

The sky full of Ghost Garments, no less than dozens, charged towards Lin Xin with a terrifyingly dense whooshing sound.

If it were any other disciple at the Third Layer of small ’Return to Original’ here, they would surely have no other path but death, but he was different.

His left hand quickly took out a Luminous Talisman Stone and scattered it around him.

Four Luminous Talisman Stones shot towards the ground in four different directions, with another thrown towards the sky above his head.

Plop!!

Blinding light burst forth suddenly, with a loud bang, spreading out the white light, and intense light and heat exploded simultaneously.

Within a radius of more than ten meters around Lin Xin, everything was completely enveloped by the white light. Among the dozens of Ghost Garments, more than ten were unable to evade in time and collided with the exploding Luminous Talisman Stones head-on.

Lin Xin stood in the middle, his hand gripping the Solar Yang Talisman Sword, pointing it obliquely towards the ground. He also tightly closed his eyes, quietly waiting for the strong light to pass.

In the sounds of ’put put’, garment after garment on fire fell to the ground. The remaining Ghost Garments scattered in fright and did not dare to come within ten meters of him again.

As the Ghost Garments scattered and the strong light dissipated, Lin Xin slowly opened his eyes and looked at Mu Laozi. The other’s extremely ugly expression showed his extreme displeasure.

He looked around and saw that more than a dozen Ghost Garments were lost, but the majority were left, which immediately made him apprehensive.

"The five Luminous Talisman Stones just now weren’t enough to eliminate all the Ghost Garments that attacked. It seems that’s the limit of their power. If they had kept charging just now, I would have truly been in danger."

His left hand tightly held onto the last two Talisman Stones, as he intently stared at Mu Laozi, estimating his true strength.

"I have the Solar Yang Talisman Sword with me, which when activated on its own can reach the power of the Third Layer. Along with the Flameless Swordsmanship, the swordsmanship itself has alarming lethality. Stacking these together should allow me to reach the strength of the Fifth Layer Inner Qi. Additionally, with the Luminous Talisman Sword at hand... if I take him by surprise, as long as he’s not above the Seventh Layer, I should be able to escape unscathed...."

Now, as Lin Xin’s experiences broadened, along with an increase in real battles and exchanges with other internal martial arts masters, he had also gradually clarified the baseline of his strength, which could not exceed the Seventh Layer of small ’Return to Origin’.

"Ghost Spirit Formation!" Mu Laozi sneered across from him and let out a low shout, his hands quickly forming numerous complicated Hand Seals.

At the same time, the fluttering Ghost Garments once again fiercely pounced towards Lin Xin.

Hum....

Strangely, a semi-transparent grey Protective Shield suddenly appeared around Lin Xin, enveloping him. The Ghost Garments that hit the Protective Shield, much like fish diving into water, disappeared without a trace.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of Ghost Garments had all plunged into the Protective Shield.

Lin Xin didn’t know what had happened, but he wouldn’t sit and wait to die. He quickly shifted his position, but after swiftly running a few steps, he found that the Protective Shield moved with him.

"Trouble!"

His heart sank.

The Solar Yang Talisman Sword suddenly burst into red and yellow flames, and with full force of his Inner Strength, he used the flames as cover before fiercely throwing the last two Luminous Talisman Stones.

Bang!

The strong light emitted a blinding burst.

The Protective Shield shook violently and gradually began to show cracks.

"Interesting," Mu Laozi let out a cold laugh. Unbeknownst to when, he had made his way inside the Protective Shield, less than ten meters from Lin Xin.

As he appeared, the entire Protective Shield quickly reverted to its original state, the cracks that had been blasted open instantly mended.

"Attack!"

With a wave of his hand,

In an instant, numerous Ghost Garments appeared out of thin air within the Protective Shield, appearing right beside Lin Xin, and fiercely wrapped around him.

Lin Xin’s face set like frost, his hand shaking as he instantly threw out a handful of densely packed Talisman Papers.

The white Resentment Talismans fluttered and spread out like numerous snowflakes.

Each Talisman Paper, upon touching a Ghost Garment, made a sizzling sound like a hot iron hitting water.

With hundreds of Talisman Papers scattering, the nearest Ghost Garments were ignited and chaotically knocked backwards, also scattering the formation of the other Ghost Garments.

Lin Xin took the opportunity to draw out a Luminous Talisman Sword lightning-fast. Grasping it in his hand, he poured his Inner Qi into it rapidly.

A subtle and deep oppressive aura immediately spread from the Talisman Sword.

Mu Laozi’s face grotesquely changed, and he turned to flee. But it was too late.

Boom!!!

A massive blazing white light exploded outwards, like a white jade expanding in an instant from Lin Xin as its center.

The Protective Shield was silently swallowed, and Mu Laozi, along with all the Ghost Garments within the Protective Shield, were completely engulfed.

The Protective Shield shattered, and the white light splattered out.

In the air around the streets, glass-like cracking sounds could be faintly heard, as if some Formation had been blasted open.

The noise of people and horse carriages from the outer streets suddenly broke through.

Before long, the white light faded and dimmed, and a charred figure stumbled and fled towards the outskirts of the city.

Lin Xin remained composed as he pursued from behind.

The Luminous Talisman Sword in his hand, with a "crack," snapped into countless tiny shards of metal powder.

"You made me lose a Talisman Sword, to think you could just leave without compensating me with your human face fruit...." His gaze turned icy, he quickened his pace, closely chasing after Mu Laozi.

The two of them swiftly flew past the lowered city bridge, heading towards the vast graveyard behind the city.