Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 62: Outcome Part 2

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Outcome Part 2

Lin Xin sneered coldly, surveying his surroundings. The fire was spreading to the distant pine forests. He knew that the recent explosion had likely caught the attention of a superior fighter—this was not a place to linger.

Uh...

Suddenly, at that moment, Shu Luoyi let out a soft moan, about to awaken.

Lin Xin walked over, picked up Yu Chang’s sword, and with several swift movements, disabled all four of Shu Luoyi’s limbs.

Four streaks of blood became visible on Shu Luoyi’s pale skin, clearly evident as fresh blood gushed from her wounds.

Shu Luoyi also groaned in pain.

She slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Yu Chang, pressing down on her.

Her pupils shrank instantly.

"Yu Chang... what are you doing!?" she screamed suddenly, trying to get up, only to be shocked to find she couldn’t move at all.

"Ha...hahaha..." Yu Chang continued thrusting excitedly, saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth onto Shu Luoyi’s smooth abdomen.

"Luoyi...I..love you...love you..."

Lin Xin watched emotionlessly from the side, looking at the two bare bodies in the pit.

"Help...help me...!" Shu Luoyi felt waves of tearing pain throughout her body, and she painfully cried out to Lin Xin.

"You’ve tried to kill me several times and this is all you’ve got?" Lin Xin said coldly.

"I...I was wrong... please...I beg you..." Tears streamed down Shu Luoyi’s face, the redness around her eyes growing deeper and thicker.

"Please... save me..."

Whoo~~~

Pair after pair of green wolf eyes gradually appeared around them, obviously attracted by the blood scent.

Lin Xin looked around only to realize that it wasn’t they who had attracted the wolf pack, but rather, they had blindly stumbled into the animals’ den.

There were no fewer than a hundred wolves surrounding them, all eyeing the area menacingly. In the distance, the sound of numerous creatures swiftly approaching could still be heard, unknown how many more.

He glanced at the sword in his hand, Yu Chang’s sword, and thrust it forcefully forward.

Hisss!

The blade pierced through Yu Chang’s back and viciously through Shu Luoyi’s neck, embedding itself in the ground.

Yu Chang screamed in agony, heavily wounded, but still unwilling to leave Shu Luoyi’s body, he continued to struggle weakly.

Shu Luoyi, however, wasn’t dead yet, but with venomous eyes, stared fiercely at Lin Xin while blood continuously gushed from the wound on her neck, quickly soaking the surrounding scorched earth.

"Enjoy this slowly...." Lin Xin sneered coldly, slowly retreating. A trace of inner Qi was injected into the concealment array plate, instantly masking his scent,

Soon, pack after pack of wolves circled closer and closer...

And under Lin Xin’s watchful eye, they pounced directly.

Lin Xin no longer lingered, but concealed his tracks and swiftly headed deep into the mountains. Behind him, the sounds of the wolf pack tearing flesh and bones echoed faintly.

Shu Luoyi had the backing of the Shu Family, a Qi Refining Family, and mishandling this affair could easily bring disaster upon himself.

After all, now only he survived—if everything was blamed on Mulu’s evil techniques, he would inevitably be suspected. However, Lin Xin had no choice, as Shu Luoyi had attempted to kill him several times, leaving him with no option but to ruthlessly eliminate her.

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

A moment later...

A middle-aged Taoist, arrayed in a plain Taoist robe and holding a longsword, approached the outskirts of the wolf pack. Behind him followed a man, looking fearful, who was none other than Zhao Hongtian.

"Hongtian, are you sure it was here?"

The Taoist scrutinized the area ahead, where hundreds of wolves darted through the forest, unafraid of the blazing pines, their eyes a chilling green, giving off a grim sensation.

Zhao Hongtian’s face was somewhat pale, appearing to be poisoned. Upon hearing this, he nodded vigorously.

"It was here, the Thousand Mile Incense I earlier placed on Yu Chang is still here."

The middle-aged Taoist’s expression turned frosty.

"So many wolves, quite troublesome." Even though he was a master of the Qi Refinement Realm, facing so many wolves with limited spiritual energy was manageable short-term, but long-term would be problematic. Moreover, there were wolf leaders among them, and encountering a demon would be troublesome.

"The wolves in these mountains are fierce and fearless of death, and in recent years have even become unafraid of fire..." Zhao Hongtian muttered, "This will depend on you, Uncle-Master...." Ordinary innate masters still rely on internal Qi, which, while adequate for killing dozens, wouldn’t suffice here with hundreds densely packed within the pine forest.

The middle-aged Taoist snorted coldly and lightly leapt onto a large pine to look inside.

At the center of the wolf pack, two bodies had been torn apart, leaving nothing but scattered bones. Some small parts were even a great distance apart, with some still being fought over in the mouths of the wolves.

Only the fragments of the robes on the ground could identify the identities of two Sword Sect disciples.

"Beasts... beasts!!" The middle-aged Taoist’s face suddenly turned ugly.

Three blurred sword shadows suddenly emerged behind him, and he drew one with a backhand and chopped down fiercely.

With a hiss, a white sword qi flew out from the tip of the sword shadow, tearing through more than a dozen wild wolves in front, reaching the area of the corpses and leaving a long sword mark on the ground.

The Taoist and Zhao Hongtian took the opportunity to dash into the wolf pack, heading toward the area where the corpses were.

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

In the deep mountains outside Peacock City, within a strange Stone Pillar Forest.

The gray-white stone pillars rose from the ground like bamboo shoots, their surfaces unusually smooth, with patches of dark green flora beneath them.

Under the scorching sun, a cautious figure was squatting beside a stone pillar, carefully examining something.

The man’s clothes were somewhat blackened, as if smoke-stained, and his face showed a delicate scholarly demeanor. It was Lin Xin, who had just quietly left the burning pine forest.

He carefully placed a cloth bag containing the Human Face Fruits into a pit under the stone pillar.

"The consumption of these Human Face Fruits requires special treatment, time waits for no one, I can only temporarily hide them here,"

Lin Xin felt somewhat troubled in his heart.

Mulizi is dead, there must be masterminds behind him, it couldn’t have been just Mulizi and the Ghost Garments controlling the annual plague in the city, with his minimal cultivation he was probably just an outer pawn.

Looking at the quality of these five Human Face Fruits, four of them had barely formed facial features and were only capable of enhancing the First Layer below the Innate level.

After all, it only takes the consumption of five hundred ordinary people to form a complete set of features and appearance.

The best one among them had full facial features, and there was a slight trace of black air on the face, looking particularly similar to Mulizi. According to the record book, it was graded at a thousand people level.

"Only the thousand people level can help me break through the Innate, but I must wait until the situation calms down a bit before consuming it." He carefully buried the Human Face Fruits, which were impenetrable by blades and invulnerable to fire or water, resembling a walnut-like species with a very hard shell. They required a special method and some time to prepare before consumption.

Among the remaining things in Mulizi’s cloth bag, there were a few small items: a small book, a red porcelain vase, and five dark metal fragments.

Lin Xin flipped through the book, which detailed the Evil Technique of cultivating Human Face Fruits using Six-Winged Honeybees. This technique was of little use to him, and committing such sinful acts to enhance his cultivation seemed disproportionate in terms of risk and reward.

He tossed the book aside, then picked up the red porcelain vase, shaking it gently. It seemed to contain a liquid, which made a sound when moved. The vase bore no marks, unknown whether it was poison, so he also set it aside.

The last item was the five dark metal fragments. Lin Xin examined each one. These fragments seemed to be broken off from somewhere, their dark surfaces covered in intricate and complex blurred symbols that resembled Formation Talismans, their purpose unknown.

Packing these items into his pouch, Lin Xin then started to check the items of Shu Luoyi.

Clearly, after this period of use, various talisman papers and trump cards she carried were almost depleted, leaving only a few ordinary Sweet Dew Talismans and some Gold Leaves.

Among the special items, apart from the Sword Qi Talisman, there was also a string of jade ring pendants.

Lin Xin studied the Sword Qi Talisman, the white talisman paper had a blood-red sword mark drawn straight down the middle, sharp and fierce, even just holding it in hand you could feel a sharpness rushing towards you.

However, the talisman paper seemed somewhat thin, almost translucent.

"Good stuff!" Lin Xin praised quietly.

He stored the Sword Qi Talisman securely, planning to look up how to use it later, as it could serve as a trump card at a crucial moment.

As for the green jade ring, he picked it up and looked it over, its jade material was dull and lusterless, with a faint crack visible, likely the source of the greenish energy flow he had seen earlier. Once the power was exhausted, this item was probably useless.

"Such a pity." Lin Xin tossed it into the pit as well.

"I need to think about how to explain when I get back, the Human Face Fruits are gone, everyone else is dead, only I survived... no... Zhao Hongtian is also alive!" Lin Xin’s eyes turned cold, "Zhao Hongtian saw me and Shu Luoyi chasing into the forest together. This makes me even more suspicious of having the Human Face Fruits on me!"

He cross-leggedly checked his own body, and found his current state of Inner Qi was very poor, with an unstable sign in the Internal Energy Core at the center of his chest. His organs had also been severely damaged in the earlier use of the Luminous Talisman Sword.

"This is bad! My foundation of Inner Qi is becoming unstable! I must stabilize my cultivation quickly, otherwise, if the foundation is damaged, it will take at least several years to recover!" Lin Xin was alarmed, immediately slowed down the movement of his Inner Qi, took out some chocolate beans from his pouch and started chewing them to replenish his depleted Inner Qi.

At the same time, he took out more than ten Sweet Dew Talismans and stuck them on his body one by one.

The Sweet Dew Talismans slowly started to take effect, making him feel much more comfortable immediately.

"I’ve been so tense, I didn’t even notice the issue. Also, considering the explosion that dealt with Mulizi and so many Ghost Garments at once, and that I was also at the center, it’s impossible that there was no damage. Even with defensive measures and guiding the impact, injury from the backlash was inevitable. Plus, I’ve been forcefully pursuing for so long."

Lin Xin felt a bit better, but didn’t dare to use his Inner Qi further to avoid aggravating his injuries.

"There’s no escaping it, I can only turn in the Human Face Fruits, hand over the four that are useless to me, then spend resources to smooth things over, possibly consult with my master Ji Lu, maybe he can handle the censure from the sect. After all, nobody wants to talk more about the scandal involving Cultivating Human Face Fruits... but, I need a backer for this, otherwise being killed to silence and steal the treasures is also perfectly normal."

Having experienced several incidents, Lin Xin no longer trusted the so-called orthodox appearance of the Pine Forest Sword Sect; sanctimonious on the surface but ruthlessly brutal behind closed doors is their true style.

As several candidates passed through his mind, Lin Xin’s gaze firmed up, having made his decision.