Ugly Hero - Chapter 19

Night fell. Lu Nanzhu doubled back to the ruined temple from before and hid the wooden box on the temple’s crossbeam.

She flipped down to the ground, then pulled the Ghost Head Nail from the floor and walked out of the ruined temple.

Lu Nanzhu came to the inn where Xia Qinyi was staying and hid in an ancient tree outside. Holding the scrap of cloth and the Ghost Head Nail in her hand, she thought for most of the day and finally decided to warn Xia Qinyi.

With a “sou,” the Ghost Head Nail pierced through the window and flew inside!

“Who’s there!” Lu Nanzhu heard Xia Qinyi’s voice and used qinggong to flee.

Behind her came the sound of a crash. Piaoxue broke through the window and chased after her.

Lu Nanzhu looked back, then raised her speed to the utmost.

She and Piaoxue maintained a distance of one zhang the entire time. Piaoxue could not catch up to her, but he showed no intention of giving up.

Lu Nanzhu flew out of the small town in one breath. Seeing that only Piaoxue had chased after her, she slowed down.

Back at the inn, Qingzhu rushed into Xia Qinyi’s room at the first moment.

“Young Miss, are you all right?!”

Xia Qinyi shook her head. Qingzhu removed the Ghost Head Nail and the scrap of cloth pinned to the wall.

“It’s the Demon Cult!”

“Give me the cloth.”

“Yes.”

Xia Qinyi unfolded the rag. Written on it in crooked, clumsy characters were five words: Wants to seize the Phoenix Blood Saber.

The moon was full, without stars. The woods outside the city were very quiet. The pale moonlight stretched the shadows of the trees long, and bursts of insect cries came from within the forest, making everything seem extremely eerie.

Lu Nanzhu stopped in an open space. Piaoxue, who had been chasing relentlessly, blocked her path.

“It’s you!” Recognizing the Ugly Hero, Piaoxue drew a flexible sword from his waist. The trembling blade reflected waves of white light.

Lu Nanzhu raised her hand, intending to take down the Canglong Sword. Piaoxue seemed rather wary of the Canglong Sword and did not give the Ugly Hero time to draw it. He shook his flexible sword and charged over.

Lu Nanzhu lightly tapped her foot and widened the distance between herself and Piaoxue. Taking advantage of this opening, she took down the Canglong Sword from her back, then stomped hard against the tree trunk behind her. With the sword point aimed straight ahead, she stabbed toward Piaoxue’s face.

Piaoxue stopped his momentum. With a special flick of his wrist, the flexible sword actually wrapped around the blade of the Canglong Sword.

Lu Nanzhu curved the corner of her lips and turned her arm. Along with an ear-piercing sound of metal scraping against metal, the flexible sword wrapped around the Canglong Sword was bounced away.

Piaoxue’s sword-holding hand was also thrown slightly backward. Lu Nanzhu pressed forward one step, lowered the Canglong Sword to her side, and used the Thirty-Six Heavenly Dipper Legs, kicking Piaoxue in the chest.

The latter retreated several steps in succession before barely managing to steady himself.

Lu Nanzhu looked at the disheveled Piaoxue, and behind the mask, her long ink-black brows furrowed slightly. She had thought that the people Huaxia Manor had sent to protect Xia Qinyi would be supreme experts. She had not expected this person’s skills to be so lacking!

In truth, although Piaoxue was young, he absolutely had the qualifications to rank among the first-rate experts of his generation. Especially with that silkworm-thread flexible sword—ordinary weapons, once wrapped by it, would suffer cracks even if they were not snapped apart.

Unfortunately, what he had encountered this time was the Canglong Sword, famous alongside the divine weapon Phoenix Blood Saber. It was precisely the nemesis of that flexible sword.

Lu Nanzhu had too little experience fighting enemies. She herself did not know that, for her age, having such skills already made her a monster-like existence!

The Demon Cult’s two envoys, Xiuluo and Huanghuo, were both past forty. Lu Nanzhu had once blocked Xiuluo’s full-force strike with one hand and endured a palm from Huanghuo head-on. Afterward, with an injured body, she had fought Huanghuo and won. Such extraordinary strength naturally was not something Piaoxue could handle.

If Lu Nanzhu’s moves had not been too lacking back then, and if the Canglong Sword had not only just revealed its edge, Xia Qinyi might not have been able to fight her to a draw. After all, Jun Moxiao back then, relying on a single Heavenly Demon Art, had already been hard-pressed to find an opponent at a similar age.

Piaoxue was deeply alarmed. He circulated his true qi to suppress the waves surging through his chest. He had not expected the Ugly Hero’s martial arts to be so high, and his internal force even more unfathomable. Piaoxue had received the harshest training since childhood. Just now, he had already used his full strength, yet still could not catch up. They had flown out of the town in one breath, but looking at the Ugly Hero’s breathing, it was still long, steady, and stable.

Piaoxue raised his caution to the utmost, used his full strength, and attacked again.

Unfortunately, the effect was not great.

Because of his special weapon, Piaoxue’s sword technique was based on the “wrapping formula,” combined with his ghostly movement. Ordinary people would find it difficult to withstand.

But after facing the Ugly Hero, Piaoxue felt as though he was facing a boundless sea. No matter how he stirred it, he could not raise a single wave.

Every move Lu Nanzhu made was reinforced with internal force. Piaoxue’s sword, whenever it wrapped around her weapon, was mercilessly bounced away again and again. And each time it was bounced away, Piaoxue would feel his chest churn. The more he fought, the more shocked he became, and he could not help beginning to question the manor’s intelligence: was this Ugly Hero really not very old? How could he possibly have such profound internal force?

After several months of accumulation, Lu Nanzhu was no longer the jianghu novice who had only known the most basic moves. Now, her techniques opened and closed broadly. Though they looked simple, they hid variations within them, and she could release and withdraw them at will.

In fewer than ten moves, Piaoxue was once again forced into an opening by Lu Nanzhu. He took a kick to the chest and was sent flying heavily.

After Piaoxue fell to the ground, he slid a long distance before stopping. Lu Nanzhu put away the Canglong Sword, sighed softly, and turned to leave.

Blood hung at the corner of Piaoxue’s mouth. His hair was disheveled, and his snow-white clothes were covered in dirt. The two footprints on his chest were especially eye-catching.

He staggered back to the inn, and Qingzhu immediately stepped forward to support him. “Piaoxue!”

“Qingzhu, help Piaoxue back to his room first. I’ll go get the bruise-dispersing powder.”

After taking the medicine, Piaoxue half-leaned against the bed, his complexion very poor.

“Piaoxue, who injured you like this? How many people were there?”

Piaoxue coughed twice and replied, “Young Miss, it was… the Ugly Hero!”

“What?! This is outrageous. That Demon Cult fiend—we have not gone to find him, yet he delivered himself to the door!” Qingzhu said, filled with righteous indignation.

“Piaoxue, are you certain you did not see wrong?”

Piaoxue shook his head firmly. “Young Miss, this subordinate is certain. That outfit, and the Canglong Sword—this subordinate absolutely could not have mistaken them!”

Xia Qinyi fell silent. In a mere four months, this person’s martial arts had actually improved so rapidly.

Qingzhu said with a grave expression, “Young Miss, send a letter to the Third Old Master and ask him to personally come out! One Jade-Faced Fox is already very difficult to deal with, and now there is another Ugly Hero. Young Miss…”

Piaoxue had made such a commotion while chasing the Ugly Hero that many people had heard it.

The next day, news that the Demon Cult had attacked the Young Miss of Huaxia Manor at night in an attempt to seize the Phoenix Blood Saber spread without legs. Xia Qinyi accepted Qingzhu’s suggestion and wrote the entire sequence of events in a letter, sending it to the Third Old Master.

After the Tianqiong Sword Sect heard about it, they sent several dozen disciples: half to search the whole town, and half to protect Xia Qinyi.

After news spread that the Ugly Hero had appeared in the town, the Huaxia Manor disciples who had gone out searching for the Ugly Hero all rushed toward the small town at top speed under the banner of “protecting” the Phoenix Blood Saber.

The sect master of the Raging Saber Sect, Hou Rulie, personally led a hundred disciples to hurry to the foot of Tianqiong Mountain. When the Demon Cult had repeatedly invaded, Sect Master Hou had not been seen personally leaving his mountain. Yet now, because of a single Ugly Hero, he mobilized such a large force. This truly made people think deeply.

Bounty hunters from every side moved upon hearing the wind, setting out from various places and heading for Tianqiong Mountain.

The helpers that the sect master of Tianqiong Sword Sect had painstakingly summoned by holding a “Demon-Slaying Assembly” did not even amount to half the people drawn in by the Ugly Hero.

This was the jianghu.

And Lu Nanzhu, the “instigator,” knew nothing of this. She was still hiding in the ruined temple outside the city. In her view, the most dangerous place was the safest place. The Demon Cult Master had once exposed his whereabouts here, so he should not come again.

She rested during the day and went out at night, paying attention to the situation in town while also searching for Gongsun Qing.

On several nights, she took the risk of entering the town and sneaking outside the inn where Xia Qinyi was staying. Holding the Canglong Sword, she sat on a thick branch hidden in the lush crown of a tree, leaning against the trunk. She would only leave when the sky began to brighten.

That night, Lu Nanzhu again came outside the inn. Not long after she sat down, Lu Nanzhu straightened. Xia Qinyi came out of the inn holding the Phoenix Blood Saber, accompanied by Qingzhu and Piaoxue, and walked toward the direction leading out of town.

After the three had gone far, Lu Nanzhu quietly followed them…

The three seemed to be talking about something along the way, but because Lu Nanzhu did not dare follow too closely, she could not hear clearly.

Xia Qinyi did not stop until they reached the town entrance. Lu Nanzhu hid far away in the darkness.

“Come out!” In the quiet night, Qingzhu’s shout traveled far.

Lu Nanzhu’s heart tightened. Just as she was about to step out from the small alley, she saw from the other side a woman dressed entirely in white, wearing a bamboo hat, walking out with four subordinates.

“Young Miss Xia has such fine leisure. In the dead of night, you still bring your household slaves out to admire the moon.”

Piaoxue and Qingzhu each drew their weapons and protected Xia Qinyi in the center, shouting, “Jade-Faced Fox, how bold of you!”

Lu Nanzhu shook her head. So Gongsun Qing was the Jade-Faced Fox. No wonder she had been stopped by the Tianqiong Sword Sect disciples that day.

When enemies met on a narrow road, the braver would win. Qingzhu and Piaoxue had already charged forward and begun fighting four Demon Cult disciples. Xia Qinyi, however, was half a beat slower.

She looked at Gongsun Qing’s outfit, and it overlapped with an image still lingering in her heart.

The Phoenix Blood Saber left its sheath. Gongsun Qing did not dare be careless in the slightest and drew her sword to counterattack.

This time, the people Gongsun Qing had brought were experts from the Demon Cult. Qingzhu and Piaoxue were entangled, and within a hundred moves, it would be very difficult for them to break free.

Lu Nanzhu hid in the dark, staring without blinking at the battle between Xia Qinyi and Gongsun Qing. After ten moves, Lu Nanzhu could see that Gongsun Qing’s martial arts were slightly stronger than Xia Qinyi’s. However, Xia Qinyi held the Phoenix Blood Saber, so within a hundred moves, victory and defeat were still hard to determine.

Piaoxue had previously suffered internal injuries. After thirty moves, he gradually began to show signs of being unable to continue.

The Demon Cult disciples also noticed this point. They left one person to entangle Piaoxue, while the other circled around to help Gongsun Qing deal with Xia Qinyi.

Fighting one against two, Xia Qinyi soon fell into disadvantage. At this moment, from the distance came the faint sound of carriage wheels.

Lu Nanzhu crouched down and groped along the ground.

With a “ding,” Xia Qinyi’s Phoenix Blood Saber was blocked by Gongsun Qing. The Demon Cult disciple beside them took the opportunity to slash toward Xia Qinyi’s waist!

“Young Miss, be careful!”

Qingzhu’s shout traveled far. In that moment of distraction, a Demon Cult disciple seized the opening and cut his arm. Blood sprayed out.

Xia Qinyi rolled awkwardly across the ground, barely avoiding the fatal strike.

The Demon Cult disciple raised his saber and attacked again, chopping toward Xia Qinyi’s head.

Lu Nanzhu’s heart tightened. She could not help rushing outward, but by chance, her hand touched a small stone. Without hesitation, she flung it toward the Demon Cult disciple’s lower leg.

The stone struck the bend of his leg. Caught off guard, the Demon Cult disciple’s knee softened, and he dropped to one knee.

Xia Qinyi seized the opportunity and raised her saber, slashing upward at an angle. A wound was cut open across the Demon Cult disciple’s chest, and he fell to the ground.

This scene came too quickly. Gongsun Qing stared helplessly at the strange sight before her, her figure pausing.

Seeing Xia Qinyi take the chance to stand up, Lu Nanzhu let out a great sigh of relief.