Chapter 181: Chapter 181: Completely Unprepared

Urging the horse forward, Xia Wenjin arrived at Linyan Slope as night fell.

Upon arrival, she smiled bitterly, realizing she had forgotten the time.

According to Ling Xiao, the day he would lose his arm was three days later during the daytime. She had come too early, and arriving directly here, a place with no villages ahead or inns behind, she would have to camp out in the wilderness.

Fortunately, sleeping in the open was not unfamiliar to her.

# There is a forest to the right, and Xia Wenjin led her horse inside, letting it graze freely.

The weather was warm now, so even at night, there was no need to start a fire. At the edge of the forest, she sprinkled a circle of insect-repellent powder around a tree, creating a zone where snakes, bugs, rats, and mosquitoes would not bother her, and she could sleep peacefully for a night.

Still, she needed to eat something.

She wandered around, discovering a wild pear tree with many fruits, so she picked some to eat, making do for a meal.

Returning to the forest edge, she broke off some leaves to cushion the ground, forming a thick bedding, and leaned against a tree, managing to doze off for the night.

In the middle of the night, Xia Wenjin was startled awake by the sound of weapons clashing.

She jumped up quickly, looking towards the source of the sound.

Under the moonlight, a man was besieged by more than ten people. His figure was disheveled, beard unkempt, eyes bloodshot, and his entire demeanor was frenzied. He held a sword in his hand, which was broken halfway. In this condition, describing him as desperate was an understatement.

Through the bearded face, Xia Wenjin still recognized him at a glance; it was Ling Xiao.

His eyes carried a fierce determination as if he wanted to devour those in front of him, emanating a murderous aura. But clearly, his movements were stiff and sluggish, his strength awkward, as if something was binding his limbs, preventing him from exerting himself.

The various wounds on his body had stained his entire outfit with blood.

If this continued, even if he wasn’t dismembered, he would die from excessive blood loss.

Ling Xiao had clearly said it would be three days later—what went wrong?

Xia Wenjin did not know.

The current situation also caught her off guard. She had arrived here three days early, even staying overnight, with the intent to understand the terrain and see what measures she could take to help Ling Xiao. But who knew he would crash into her so early and so directly?

She was completely unprepared.

But she had to save him.

An underbelly man in yellow was the leader of this group, smiling viciously as he swung his blade at Ling Xiao. At this moment, Ling Xiao was exhausted and knew he couldn’t dodge. He gazed fixedly at the blade, determined to face death like a man.

The man in yellow swung his blade deliberately slow, cutting a piece of flesh from Ling Xiao’s leg. Then, he raised the blade again, treating Ling Xiao like a toy, carving wound after wound on him.

With a cruel smile, he watched Ling Xiao’s misery. His thin lips spat out words like a venomous snake: “Ling Xiao, what makes you think you can compete with me? You’re just a wild bastard without parents, daring to covet Susu. Do you actually think you can become the junior sect leader of Tianwu Sect?”

Immediately, someone next to him chimed in: “Exactly, our senior brother is better than you in every way, yet you dare to sidle up and carry on in secret with Susu. You’re courting death!”

Ling Xiao kept his mouth tightly shut. As an orphan, upon entering the sect, he dedicated himself to practicing martial arts and serving the sect.

He trained diligently, rapidly advancing in martial arts, surpassing senior brothers he once could only look up to. He neither boasted nor was he ostentatious. Nonetheless, a few months ago, the master’s daughter, Susu, would seek opportunities to talk to him, often coming to find him.

Because of this, the man in yellow, the senior brother of the sect, regarded him as a thorn in the side.

Just the night before last, he heard a noise, nightwalkers prowling inside the sect, and treating the sect as his home, Ling Xiao immediately pursued them. The nightwalker weaved around the sect and eventually entered a courtyard.

Ling Xiao followed, but the nightwalker had vanished from sight; only a room door was open. He rushed in, and the scene before him left him dumbfounded. In the room, the Sect Leader’s wife lay dead, her clothes in disarray, and a sword embedded in her body.

Before he could react, the Sect Leader and fellow disciples arrived.

The sword was his, and at the time, he was the only one in the room.

He could not defend himself with a thousand words!

He became the ungrateful scoundrel who attempted to ravish his master’s wife and killed her when thwarted!

No one believed him, and his master wanted to kill him immediately.

He had no choice but to flee, pursued by everyone in the Tianwu Sect.

However, due to the involvement of the Sect Leader’s wife’s death, and because her death was disgraceful, the matter was not spread in the Jianghu; the Sect Leader could not afford this loss of face.

After escaping for two days and nights, they still caught up with him here.

This time, it was a group led by the senior brother and over a dozen fellow disciples.

With his martial arts skills, even when these people pursued step by step, he could have easily escaped had he not been seriously injured by a palm strike from his master that night.

But now, hearing the words of his fellow disciples, he suddenly understood. He looked directly at the man in yellow: “Pan Bai, I get it now. It was you that night. You led me to that courtyard deliberately. You killed the master’s wife!”

The associates Pan Bai had brought were all his trusted aides, so he wasn’t afraid of any leaks. Besides, the incident wasn’t accomplished by him alone. He casually inflicted another cut on Ling Xiao, smiling with extreme complacency: “You forced me to do it. The old man wanted to marry Susu off to you and hand the sect leader position to you. You’ve been in the sect for just a few years as an orphan. On what grounds?”

“But why did you have to kill the master’s wife? She was always kind to us!”

“If I killed an ordinary disciple, it wouldn’t have achieved the purpose of turning you against the old man or making Susu loathe you!”

Ling Xiao let out a beastly roar of anger.

Why?

All he wanted was to repay the kindness of his master and mistress for taking him in, to serve the sect well so it could flourish, yet despicable, vicious people opposed him, even going as far as killing the master’s wife!

No one believed him, and the vile man before him would return to the sect as the master’s most trusted senior disciple, while he, having done nothing, bore the reputation of dishonoring and murdering the master’s wife, abandoned by the sect, abandoned by the master!

He wanted to kill this despicable scoundrel.

However, a wave of dizziness hit him, and before he could even touch the hem of Pan Bai’s clothes, he was kicked to the ground.

Pan Bai laughed cruelly and triumphantly: “Ling Xiao, do you feel wronged? Do you feel angry? Good. Don’t say I’m not brotherly—I’ll only take your arm, but not your life. Am I not generous?”

Pan Bai raised his blade, a gleam of malice in his eyes.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep