Chapter 5124 — That Sets My Mind at Ease

Young Master Yu was likewise drooling at the sight, yet he could not help voicing a certain doubt: "Who are you? How is it I've never seen you before?"

"Your humble servant is called Hongniang." So saying, the young woman walked straight toward Jing Taiyang. Jing Taiyang hastened to shove aside the escort girls beside him and make room for her—fine as those girls' looks were, set side by side with this Hongniang they simply could not compare.

Young Master Yu could not help lamenting the waste: a top-notch piece like this was something no man would let slip by. Yet he dared not contest Jing Taiyang for her. He had seen Jing Taiyang's strength with his own eyes—a centuries-old local clan had once retained three legendary masters, and Jing Taiyang had walked over and slit all three throats with a single blade, his movements and bearing no different from slaughtering chickens. And the reason was simply that the three had blocked his path. This was a man of terrifying power!

Hongniang pressed her soft, boneless body against Jing Taiyang's side, trailing her fingernails lightly across his chest while leaning to his ear and asking, her breath sweet as orchid: "Brother Jing, do you have any other friends you know here?"

"Friends? My fellow disciples are all up in Shennongjia—what friends could I have here? Still, it's just as well they're not around, or a stunner like you might never have fallen to me!" Jing Taiyang laughed heartily, utterly without restraint.

"Is that so? Then your humble servant can rest easy." Hongniang smiled a cryptic smile; with a little more pressure of her hand, her nails at once traced a shallow cut across Jing Taiyang's chest. She licked her tongue with consummate seductiveness. "Does it hurt?"

"Haha, not at all—a trifle." Jing Taiyang, still utterly spellbound, continued to run his hands all over Hongniang. For a cultivator, injury was an everyday affair; the Thousand Blades Sect's methods of cultivation were peculiar in particular, and they were bloodied every few days, long since used to it. What was a little scratch like this but nothing at all?

Yet the words had scarcely left his mouth when Jing Taiyang's vision suddenly swam, and the true qi within his body actually began to stagnate and go still. He gave a violent start and forced himself upright. However great a lecher he might be, even he had realized it now. There was something wrong with this woman!

"You... who in the world are you?" Jing Taiyang's footing was unsteady; swaying, he pointed at Hongniang and shouted his demand.

"Tsk, tsk—worthy indeed of an early-Foundation cultivator out of the Primordial Alliance. Smearing on our newest biochemical agent, and you can still stand. Impressive." Hongniang smiled an unfathomable smile.

At that same moment, the floor-to-ceiling window beside them shattered with a bang, and four men in black flew in through the air, one hard on another's heels. Every one of them was a Heaven-rank consummate master of fierce, piercing aura. Without a word they encircled Jing Taiyang—as for Young Master Yu and the other escort girls, they were silenced in an instant, before they could even scream.

It had all happened too suddenly; Jing Taiyang was wholly unprepared. An early-Foundation expert out of the Primordial Alliance, come to the mundane world where he ought to have been invincible—who would have thought he would end up someone else's quarry?

Counting Hongniang, five Heaven-rank consummate masters now had him surrounded. At any ordinary time Jing Taiyang would have scoffed: never mind that only a single rank lay between early Foundation and Heaven-rank consummate, the gulf between them was as heaven from earth. And Jing Taiyang was, besides, a core disciple groomed with emphasis by the Thousand Blades Sect, his strength and depth outstanding among experts of his rank—let alone one against five, one against ten would have been easy as could be.

But his present situation was anything but reassuring. Blinded by lust, he had fallen prey to Hongniang's biochemical agent, and the true qi in his body had turned stagnant. Now he could barely even stand—how much strength could he possibly have left?

"Who exactly are you people?" Jing Taiyang forced the words out again with difficulty.

"Still refusing to give up, are you? At a time like this you still hope to buy time with idle talk, still think of escaping from under our hands?" Hongniang paid his question no mind at all and simply signaled for everyone to move together. Though the plan had reached the point where success was all but certain, this Jing Taiyang was, after all, an early-Foundation expert—who could say what formidable, lethal trump card he might still be hiding? Until the very last moment, there could be no slackening whatsoever.

As the ace squad most prized by the central headquarters of the mundane world, every member of the Hunter Group was the elite of the elite. Heaven-rank consummate strength was merely the minimum threshold; in every other respect as well they had to be the very pick of the crop, and among the most important criteria was temperament. To expect them to underestimate an enemy and so commit some grave blunder was a fool's dream.

Seeing these men attack without the slightest hesitation, Jing Taiyang's heart sank at once. Just as Hongniang had said, that was indeed what he had been thinking. He did not know what this biochemical agent she spoke of actually was, but he could roughly guess: it must be some kind of poison—and one that could not kill outright, only block the circulation of true qi within the body.

Of course, for an early-Foundation expert like him, this poison was in effect no different from a fatal one. With his true qi obstructed he could not unleash his strength at all; before these people he was a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

But he had no intention of surrendering so tamely. His stalling tactic seen through, Jing Taiyang ground his teeth and suddenly swept his hand toward Hongniang, the nearest of them—and in his hand, who knew when, there had appeared a soft sword, neither long nor short.

In such a state he could not muster much true qi, yet this single thrust was still enough to turn the tables. Every disciple of the Thousand Blades Sect was a master of weapons, and the sword is the lord of all arms. Jing Taiyang's swordsmanship might not be that of a grandmaster, but it had certainly entered the halls and ascended the heights. Most crucial of all: this thrust came utterly without warning!

The biochemical agent was the chief culprit behind his present desperate strait—yet in this moment it also became his perfect cover. However stout the psychological fortitude of these central Hunter Group men, faced with a target already poisoned, they would inevitably relax a little without thinking. That was human instinct.

"Fine swordsmanship—a pity it is not fast enough." In the final instant Hongniang caught the blade with one bare hand. She seemed to wear only a pair of ordinary gloves, yet these were among the central headquarters' newest achievements, sufficient to withstand any cold-weapon attack.

Jing Taiyang's face fell. Had the true qi in his body circulated normally, Hongniang would long since have been a dead woman. But alas, there are no ifs in this world; stripped of the all-important augmentation of true qi, his swordsmanship—however fine—was useless, far from sufficient in either speed or power. His opponent was, after all, a Heaven-rank consummate master, no ordinary person.

His last desperate gambit thus calmly dissolved by the enemy, Jing Taiyang's spirits sank at once, and he seemed to have accepted his fate... (To be continued.)