Chapter 1466: Fragrant Blood

Dragged away inside the net, Consort Yuan looked toward Lu Zhichang with despair and pleading in her eye, hoping he could save her.

She knew very well that if Yuan Se captured her again, the end awaiting her would be so miserable and terrifying that she could not bear to imagine it.

The street around them lay in chaos after the clash.

Standing amid the wreckage, Lu Zhichang saw the desperate appeal in her eyes.

But there was nothing he could do.

Or rather, Consort Yuan was no longer the most important concern.

Luo Qiu had not sent any special force to protect her. If she still needed protection at this stage, that could only mean one thing: the plan had already failed.

That was why Lu Zhichang alone had been assigned to receive her.

There was another consideration as well.

The fewer people who knew about Consort Yuan’s role, the better.

There was no real marital affection between them, and Lu Zhichang felt no particular love for her. Even so, the pleading in her eye pierced him.

No matter how one looked at it, they now possessed the formal status of husband and wife.

For a man to stand by helplessly while his own wife was dragged away by others left a feeling difficult to describe.

But reality had to be faced.

By himself, there was no possibility of rescuing her from an enemy force that had prepared this thoroughly.

Then another thought struck him.

The enemy had laid a trap specifically to capture Consort Yuan.

What did that mean?

Lu Zhichang’s heart chilled.

Consort Yuan had already been exposed!

And judging by the ruthless way the other side had acted, it did not look as though Consort Yuan had betrayed Luo Qiu’s side.

Which meant Yuan Se had known beforehand.

The plan to kill Yuan Se could not possibly succeed!

By now Consort Yuan had disappeared from sight.

Lu Zhichang immediately retreated and left at speed.

The group blocking him made no attempt to stop him.

He was not their target. There was no need to fight the people of Daluo Sacred Land to the bitter end.

They too rapidly withdrew.

Lu Zhichang rushed back to the inn and burst into the guest room. Sha Rulai stood by the window staring toward Maolu Annex.

“Senior Brother, something’s wrong. They laid a trap and captured Consort Yuan.”

“What?” Sha Rulai spun around, unable to believe it. “How could that happen?”

“I don’t know either. We need to notify Master immediately!”

Sha Rulai looked back out the window and murmured, “Master should already be fighting Yuan Se. Whether the plan failed or not, Master will know without us telling him.”

He was not worried about Luo Qiu.

Given Luo Qiu’s strength, Yuan Se could do nothing to him.

What truly worried Sha Rulai was Luo Fangfei.

Niu Youdao’s side did not know the plan had failed.

Nor did they know whether Yuan Se had made other preparations.

Could Luo Fangfei still be rescued?

...

“Hongniang, what’s going on?”

The Zijin Cave cultivators stationed at the Prince’s residence had finished arranging its defenses. Some immediately hurried over and ran into Guan Fangyi.

The man in the lead barked the question.

Guan Fangyi leaned close to his ear and whispered, “I don’t know what’s happening. They’re people from Misty Pavilion.”

“Misty Pavilion?” The man was shocked and quickly waved to stop the cultivators behind him from acting rashly.

Boom!

Another violent tremor shook the ground.

Two figures suddenly burst out of the earth, smashing through a shop.

The power pouring off them made the surrounding buildings collapse in rows as though rotten wood had been swept aside.

Both figures shot into the sky, fighting all the way upward into the night.

Ordinary mortals below could hear only thunder rolling through the heavens.

Cultivators looking up with Dharma Eyes, however, could see one man blasting out an endless sea of palm shadows.

The other controlled a rainbow of green qi, sometimes like a sweeping bolt of lightning, sometimes like a green dragon soaring through the heavens, weaving among the countless palm shadows while fiercely battling the massively obese figure.

Their clash sent violent astral winds raging in every direction.

The scale of the commotion was terrifying.

Who were these people?

The cultivators of Zijin Cave and the others stared in shock.

None of them had ever seen combat at this level in their lives.

Who would dare rush up there?

The residual force from the battle alone might annihilate them.

Guan Fangyi naturally knew exactly who they were.

Other than Luo Qiu and Yuan Se, who else could it be?

But even she had never before witnessed two experts of this level fight.

The smile had vanished from Yuan Se’s face.

Only fury remained.

He had not even seen the face of the person who rescued Luo Fangfei.

With all the arrangements he had made, it should have been impossible for anyone to take Luo Fangfei away from beneath his hands.

Yet it had happened.

He had already broken through the earth with astonishing speed, but whoever had rescued her seemed even faster than he was underground.

Yuan Se desperately wanted to know who that person was.

He had intended to pursue until the end.

But Luo Qiu came after him underground.

Afraid there might be another trap below, Yuan Se had no choice but to abandon the pursuit and deal with Luo Qiu first.

Boom!

After another thunderous collision, the chaos in the sky abruptly stopped.

The two men locked hands.

Their arms twisted together as they pitted spiritual power directly against one another and hung deadlocked in midair.

Yuan Se gave a dark chuckle. “Luo Qiu, I truly underestimated you. What is it? Still planning to keep me tied down until the poison takes effect?”

Luo Qiu’s gaze flickered.

That was exactly his intention.

But something was wrong.

The poison should have taken effect by now. It could not possibly have remained dormant for this long.

Perhaps Yuan Se was forcibly suppressing it.

That was why Luo Qiu had no intention of letting go easily.

As they twisted through the air while locked together, Yuan Se glanced toward the ground.

Suddenly his arms moved like slippery eels and slipped free of Luo Qiu’s grip.

In a flash, he plunged toward the street below.

Whoosh!

Yuan Se landed beside a group of his people.

They were carrying a net, and someone was trapped inside it.

Yuan Se seized the captive and turned to face Luo Qiu as the latter descended after him.

“Come. I’d like to hear how the two of you hooked up behind my back.”

Inside the net, Consort Yuan looked utterly miserable and terrified. Her heart was filled with despair she had no way to express.

Even now, she still could not understand how she had been exposed.

The moment Luo Qiu saw the one-eyed woman trapped in the net, he stopped short and slowly descended opposite Yuan Se, surprise and uncertainty showing faintly on his face.

The instant he saw Consort Yuan, he understood.

She had been exposed.

His plan had failed.

Consort Yuan wanted desperately to beg Luo Qiu to save her, but restrictions sealed her body. She could neither speak nor move.

Yuan Se flipped one hand and produced a pill between his fingers.

“You aren’t the only one who knows how to use poison. Let me show you mine as well.”

“Your daughter has been poisoned with my Fragrant Blood. She can endure at most three shichen.”

“If you want to save her, come beg me!”

“If you want to keep fighting and make every last ugly secret of yours known beneath Heaven, I’ll accompany you to the end!”

“Hmph!”

Luo Qiu gave a cold snort.

With a sweep of his broad sleeve, he shot into the sky and disappeared.

The plan had failed. There was no longer any point in continuing the fight.

Yuan Se suddenly seized Yuan Chun by the arm and whispered in her ear, “Luo Fangfei cannot get away. Find my box and open it!”

Then he tossed Consort Yuan—net and all—toward his people and shot into the sky after Luo Qiu...

When Guan Fangyi, who had cautiously reappeared nearby, saw Consort Yuan had been captured, her expression changed drastically.

She immediately ducked back and whispered to Old Six Xu, “Tell the brothers to find places to hide.”

Old Six Xu did not understand why, but nodded and hurried off to carry out the order.

Guan Fangyi avoided the cultivators gathered nearby and found the monks of Nanshan Temple hiding together.

She called softly, “Old Bear, come here.”

Yuan Fang immediately looked left and right and followed her with his head tucked in.

When they reached a secluded corner, Guan Fangyi leaned close as if to whisper in his ear.

Yuan Fang bent over to listen—and his eyes suddenly widened.

He could no longer move.

Guan Fangyi withdrew the two fingers she had pressed against his waist, caught his body smoothly, hoisted him over her shoulder, and slipped away while keeping to cover...

...

At that same moment, Yun Ji staggered back into the hidden cave with someone over her shoulder, blood smeared across her mouth.

Niu Youdao and the others had been waiting.

They were shocked at the sight.

Yuan Gang immediately stepped forward and took the person from her.

Niu Youdao supported Yun Ji as she swayed and helped her sit against the cave wall.

“What happened?”

Yun Ji panted, “Yuan Se injured me.”

Niu Youdao’s voice sank. “You met him face-to-face? Didn’t I tell you not to? The moment anything looked wrong, you were supposed to run.”

He looked back at Luo Fangfei, who Yuan Gang had placed nearby.

“And why did you bring her here?”

The plan Niu Youdao had given Yun Ji was simple.

Once she found Luo Fangfei, she was to take her underground and hide.

The moment Yuan Se realized he had been poisoned, he would certainly try to control Luo Fangfei. Once he discovered she had vanished, he would then have to deal with Luo Qiu’s attack.

As soon as the sounds of fighting began, Yun Ji was supposed to return Luo Fangfei to the underground prison.

Sha Rulai would naturally find her afterward, making the rescue appear perfectly natural.

Of course, Niu Youdao had repeatedly emphasized that she only needed to do what she could. If the situation became dangerous, she was to abandon the attempt.

There was no sense sacrificing two lives by forcing the matter.

Yun Ji shook her head. “I never met Yuan Se face-to-face.”

“The place where Luo Fangfei was being held had restrictions Yuan Se personally arranged. Fortunately I was the one who went. Anyone else would have had no way to approach Luo Fangfei without alerting him.”

“Yuan Se had constructed the underground space extremely cleverly. Unless someone could identify the exact location where Luo Fangfei was being held inside that maze, he would always reach her before the rescuer could.”

“Even though I managed to reach Luo Fangfei before him, I still triggered his warning formation.”

“He had arranged a direct route underground that let him reach Luo Fangfei without the slightest obstruction. I didn’t want to bring her here, but I had no choice.”

“Yuan Se pursued me through the earth the entire way. He never gave me a chance to return her.”

“Even without seeing him face-to-face, I was still badly injured by his attacks. His strength is far beyond mine. I am no match for him at all.”

“After I escaped far enough, I no longer had the strength to carry someone back underground again.”

“I had no other option but to bring her here.”

Lü Wushuang sighed. “I told you Yuan Se was not simple. How could he possibly let someone rescue a hostage from beneath his nose so easily? There was no need to take this risk, but your Master Dao insisted on holding onto the idea.”

“At least the person was rescued and Yun Ji came back alive. That is already fortune within misfortune.”

Yun Ji gasped for breath. “Rescued? Maybe not.”

“That damned Fatty Yuan prepared one contingency after another—a trap inside another trap.”

“He hid a poison-needle mechanism on Luo Fangfei’s body. Anyone who tried to snatch her away in an emergency would fail to notice it.”

“Under the way he arranged things, whoever took Luo Fangfei away would be the one who harmed her.”

Yun Ji turned toward Luo Fangfei.

“I only discovered it later.”

“Check her quickly. She’s poisoned.”

...

A box.

One that ordinarily only Yuan Se himself was allowed to touch.

Yuan Chun carefully opened it.

Inside lay a human skull.

She was still wondering what she was supposed to do when a faint noise came from within the skull.

A white-furred rat crawled out through one of the empty eye sockets.

No.

It was not a rat.

It was a white bat.

The white bat emerged from the skull, suddenly spread its wings, and shot away into the vast night.

Yuan Chun stared after it in astonishment...

...

High in the sky, Luo Qiu flew ahead.

Yuan Se continued pursuing him relentlessly.

Luo Qiu looked back from time to time but otherwise could not be bothered with him.

He had no idea he had already fallen for Yuan Se’s deception.

Yuan Se knew very well that whoever had rescued Luo Fangfei could not have carried her too far.

All he needed to do now was force Luo Qiu away and wait for his white bat to find Luo Fangfei’s location.

Once the white bat followed the scent of Fragrant Blood to the target and returned, so long as Luo Qiu was no longer present, none of the shrimp and crab generals under Luo Qiu could possibly stop Yuan Se.

He could simply seize Luo Fangfei back again.

[End of Chapter 1466]