Chapter 77: If Not For This, How Could She Become a Demon?

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: If Not For This, How Could She Become a Demon?

In the small courtyard.

Thug after thug fell to Lin Qingqing’s fists. Each punch landed like a surging tide, her momentum unstoppable...

A trace of anxiety began to creep into Elder Yatou’s heart. He kept straining his ears, listening for the sound of galloping horses from the Wild Flood Dragon Gang on the road outside.

But all he heard was the rain and the sounds of the fight in the courtyard.

At first, he managed to remain calm, but now he saw that only two men were left standing before Lin Qingqing—the waiter and the burly man who had been in the courtyard from the beginning.

In the courtyard, everyone’s hair was soaked by the rain.

Lin Qingqing was covered in blood, but none of it was her own.

"Well done, Junior Sister!" Qii Zhengyi shouted in praise.

He had only taken down two men himself—Lin Qingqing had dispatched most of the thugs with a single punch each—but that didn’t stop him from cheering for his junior sister.

"Senior Brother, be careful. Go check on that room over there first."

Trusting Qii Zhengyi to guard her back, Lin Qingqing turned to face the remaining three opponents.

At this moment, Elder Yatou finally grew uneasy. ’Could the Wild Flood Dragon Gang have been planning to get rid of me all along?’ he thought. ’Is that why they’re so late? They’re just watching from the sidelines, waiting for both sides to suffer heavy losses so they can take over my business?’

At this thought, Resentment and rage flared in Elder Yatou’s heart.

"Xiao Er, Da Long, get them! Finish them off, now!"

Both Xiao Er and the burly man were terrified of Lin Qingqing, but facing an order from the normally imposing Elder Yatou, they didn’t dare to disobey.

Each of them had already taken several of Lin Qingqing’s punches, but they had managed to last this long because they both possessed some degree of Martial Arts.

The two men exchanged a look, signaling their intended angles of attack to one another.

SWOOSH!

They attacked simultaneously, one with a blade and one with a sword, flanking her from the left and right.

But Lin Qingqing’s form seemed to merge with the rain in the courtyard. With a step and a flick of her wrist, she sent raindrops imbued with terrifying Power flying toward the two men like hidden weapons.

Then she advanced, swung her sleeve, and clenched her fist—all in one fluid motion!

BANG!

Her fist smashed into Xiao Er’s chin, launching the handsome young man a meter into the air before he crashed heavily to the ground, his breathing instantly ceasing.

She smoothly caught the sword that fell from his hand!

As if she were born to wield a sword, she pivoted and slashed with a backhand stroke.

A line of blood appeared on the burly man’s neck, then erupted in a spray of crimson as he collapsed to the ground with a thud!

"Wild Flood Dragon Gang!"

Elder Yatou roared, "If you’re nearby, come out now! I am willing to give you half my fortune..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Lin Qingqing, her face cold, strode through the rain and thrust her sword forward.

Elder Yatou’s eyes hardened. "You want to destroy my life’s work? In your dreams!"

He had waited until the very end to act, intending to use his men as cannon fodder to drain Lin Qingqing’s stamina. After the cost of over twenty lives, he was certain she couldn’t have much strength left.

Only by striking now did he feel completely confident.

Elder Yatou rarely fought personally, but his fifty years of practicing the Bone Dislocation Hand had honed it to the point of second nature. Once unleashed, it could even shatter swords and blades...

His five fingers clawed out wildly, aiming to personally strangle Lin Qingqing to death.

But no matter what he did, he couldn’t get a grip on the longsword in Lin Qingqing’s hand. ’She’s been fighting twenty men for ages,’ he thought in disbelief. ’How can she still have so much stamina?’

In his eyes, the sword in the young woman’s hand seemed to come alive, its movements exquisite and flowing like water...

She thrust the sword forward. There was no fancy Sword Technique.

There were only three principles: steady, precise, and ruthless!

"Ugh..."

Blood gushed from Elder Yatou’s throat, which sounded like a broken bellows.

The tip of the sword had pierced his throat and emerged from the back of his neck.

"Is... is this the power of a disciple from a Major Sect?"

In his final moments, he stared at the brilliant young woman who casually let go of the sword. He died in disbelief that he, a fellow Second-class Expert, couldn’t even withstand a single strike from a mere slip of a girl.

After letting go of the killing sword, Lin Qingqing felt a pang of regret, as if she had just released her most trusted weapon.

Just then, a chubby chef in the courtyard screamed and begged for mercy, his hands clasped over his head.

"Don’t kill me! I just cook! I’m just a chef!"

Lin Qingqing glanced over and saw that he had been squatting by the kitchen since the beginning and hadn’t attacked her. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to ignore him and looked toward Qii Zhengyi, who was opening the door to the room.

Qii Zhengyi had frozen at the doorway, his hand outstretched, unsure of what to say.

Inside the room, children were screaming in terror. Blinded, they fumbled about in the darkness, some of them huddled together in a ball.

There were eighteen of them in total, none older than ten.

Tears welled in Qii Zhengyi’s eyes. When he looked back at the corpses littering the ground, any remorse he felt about the killing vanished. He even felt he hadn’t been ruthless enough!

"Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. We’re not bad people. We’ll take you to your parents..."

Qii Zhengyi walked over and comforted the children. "Don’t be scared. Your parents are at home waiting for you."

Hearing the word "parents," it was as if the children saw a sliver of light in the darkness, and they all fell silent...

Lin Qingqing came forward and said, "Eighteen children... we’ll need to get a few carriages. Didn’t we already figure out a plan for the children before we came? We’ll take them to the nearest Escort Agency under my Lin Family Castle, get them settled in at the Lin Family Escort Agency first, and then ask the uncles at the agency to find their parents one by one."

As the young lady of the Lin Family, she certainly had the authority to command her own Escort Agency.

"It’s not safe here. Take the children and leave first. I’ll go find the carriages," Qii Zhengyi said.

The chef in the courtyard, seeming to have finally understood the situation, hurried over to offer information.

"Young heroes, I know where to find carriages! Please take me with you. You’d be saving my life! They forced me to cook here."

The two exchanged a glance. "Lead us to the carriages, and we’ll trust you."

Half a cup of tea’s time later.

The rain washed away the stench of blood that filled the courtyard.

...

Late that night, two carriages arrived at a dilapidated Earth God Temple outside the city.

The two of them, thinking they were finally safe, suddenly felt a wave of intense danger approaching.

In the distance, beyond the campfire in front of the Earth God Temple, a figure appeared.

He approached step by step, his voice carrying a deep, chilling laugh.

"So young, and you couldn’t learn anything better than to meddle in others’ affairs. Don’t you know that in this Jianghu, where there is white, there is black? Where there is light, there is darkness? Where there is the Righteous Path, there is the Demon Path? You fancy yourselves heroes, dishing out justice, but have you ever considered that we who walk the dark path make our living this way? You killed more than twenty of my subordinates and thought you could just leave Black Stone City so easily?"

Beside the campfire, Lin Qingqing and Qii Zhengyi shot to their feet.

"Who’s there?"

The two stared at the man who had appeared like a phantom by the fire. He had a tall, imposing figure and carried a blade in his hand. He simply stood before them.

Yet his presence felt as heavy as a mountain.

"Are you the one behind those animals in the courtyard?"

Lin Qingqing asked, staring at the middle-aged Swordsman in disbelief.

"Heh heh..."

The middle-aged Swordsman grinned, his gaze suddenly shifting to where Song Yu was hiding. "That person may have helped you deal with a few experts from the Wild Flood Dragon Gang, allowing you to bring these children here with ease," he said, "but why don’t you guess if he can stand against me?"

Lin Qingqing and Qii Zhengyi were not only stunned by the mysterious Swordsman’s power but also confused by his words.

’What does he mean, "That person helped you deal with..."?’

Suddenly, they saw a man in black wearing a bamboo hat step out from the shadows of the dilapidated temple. He faced the middle-aged Swordsman and said:

"You’re not with that brokerage or the Wild Flood Dragon Gang, are you? A small-time trafficking ring, plus a third-rate gang from a minor city—how could they possibly support a great Buddha of your Grandmaster Level stature?"

Song Yu asked in a low, heavy voice:

"Who are you, and what do you want with the disciples of my Dao Yi Mountain?"

It wasn’t that he couldn’t keep his composure, revealing the fact that he was their escort and protector to Lin Qingqing and Qii Zhengyi.

It was because...

The middle-aged Swordsman who had suddenly appeared before the dilapidated temple had an aura that was simply too powerful!

A Grandmaster!

"You are..."

Lin Qingqing and Qii Zhengyi looked at the man in the bamboo hat in astonishment. Song Yu slowly removed the hat that had concealed his face and said to them:

"Don’t be afraid. Stand behind me for now."

Song Yu’s eyes were fixed on the middle-aged Swordsman. With a mysterious Grandmaster appearing with killing intent, he could no longer afford to hide.

"Haha! So you do have the guts to admit your Dao Yi Mountain identity."

The middle-aged Swordsman planted his blade in the ground and said mockingly:

"I thought that after Chen Canxuan’s death, no one from Dao Yi Mountain would dare to speak so boldly while roaming the Jianghu anymore."

Song Yu’s voice was grave. "So you truly have come for Dao Yi Mountain? Do you dare state your name and your grudge against us?"

’How could a mere child trafficking ring in a small city like Black Stone City be connected to a Grandmaster like him?’

’These two kids haven’t revealed their identities for the past three months, so how did he know the three of us are from Dao Yi Mountain?’

His mind raced, trying to understand how this man had targeted him and the two children, and how he could possibly resolve this unexpected crisis.

"My name? My grudge?"

The middle-aged Swordsman laughed heartily and said:

"Chen Canxuan offended countless people. All you need to know is that today, the three of you, along with all the little children in this temple, are going to die!"

As the word "die" left his lips, Song Yu suddenly felt that what was howling through the rainy night sky was no longer just raindrops, but a terrifying blade intent, sharp enough to slice through anything!

"Children, I’m here!"

Seeing the Swordsman pull his blade from the ground, he had no time to think of a strategy. His only thought was an instinctive, desperate urge to protect his two juniors. He roared:

"Run! Run now!"

...

「Far from the dilapidated temple.」

The fortune-telling old man, holding his rain-soaked white cloth banner, watched everything at the dilapidated temple from afar. After hearing the middle-aged Swordsman’s words, he muttered to himself:

"Weii Wuji is going to kill those disabled children too? To murder young children who don’t even have the strength to tie up a chicken... I find myself feeling a little... reluctant."

Then he immediately asked himself:

"But if everyone around her today isn’t killed, if she doesn’t witness it all with her own eyes before making a desperate escape... how will she ever enter the Demon Path? How will her personality undergo a drastic change? How will she develop that desperate desire to become stronger? How will she smoothly walk the path I have laid out for her and become a precious piece in the Chess Master’s hand?"

The old man smiled faintly. "In that case, sometimes sacrificing a few useless children is a necessary evil."