Chapter 171 – An Ambiguous Smile

The hare returned to Hua Qiyue and told her everything that it saw earlier.

It laughed till it was breathless and lay sprawled out in a corner and tried to catch its breath as it said, “I bet that man has fallen for her. Wow, he really has a way with women because he just stood there and let Princess Qianyang hug him. Ha ha ha… why wasn’t I blessed with such great luck in the past?”

It scratched its fur in annoyance. Hua Qiyue mulled over that and suddenly heard a loud whistle outside. This was the signal that the evil beasts were here!

Hua Qiyue suddenly rose to her feet and flew outside. Those who were hiding in the cave didn’t even dare to breathe.

Boom, boom, boom—

The evil beasts walked over and their footsteps caused the mountains to tremble. The ground shook and Hua Qiyue’s heart sank. This evil beast was extremely powerful and it was said that they had eaten 10 cows the first time they attacked and several men.

Huangfu Shenglin and the others were already waiting at the entrance to the village by the time Hua Qiyue rushed over. Many Qi Artists had already prepared the bows and arrows and reinforced their arrows with anima energy. The arrows were many times more powerful than ordinary arrows.

“The level 5 beasts are coming. Qiyue, you must be careful!” Huangfu Shenglin warned her.

However, Hua Qiyue was the strongest person in their group so he didn’t need to worry.

“Don’t worry, leave this with me. There’s no need to cause unnecessary deaths and injuries,” Hua Qiyue took out the Drunken Flower Fan from her robes. She had already gradually comprehended the words on the fan and had seen that there were several lethal skills that she could use the Drunken Flower Fan to unleash.

She had decided to use this level-5 evil beast to test out her skills!

Boom, boom, boom—

A demon bear that was as large as a towering ancient tree and its body was as large as a mountain. It crushed many trees under it as it walked toward the village.

Several ancient trees had already been destroyed during its earlier attacks, so when it walked past them again, small pits formed on the ground!

Many Qi Artists’ jaws started to tremble in fear when they saw how strong this evil beast was.

“It is a level-5 blood-sucking demon bear!” Huangfu Shenglin couldn’t help but exclaim in shock since he was very well-informed.

The demon bear opened its mouth savagely at Huangfu Shenglin and the others when it heard that someone had called it by its name and roared a couple of times.

“Growl, growl, growl…”

The earth shook, mountains and rivers trembled, all the birds flew into the sky, and the beasts fled in terror!

The level-5 evil beast was so powerful that it destroyed all the food sources that the village had the moment it appeared. Even though their houses were destroyed, the villagers could still fall back on their livelihood as hunters but when this demon bear appeared, these hunters were no longer able to hunt anything down.

If Huangfu Shenglin and the others had arrived any later, the village would probably cease to exist!

“Retreat!” Hua Qiyue couldn’t help but yell when she saw the evil beast.

“Retreat. I will fight on the front lines along with the princess!” Huangfu Shenglin said gravely.

The Qi Artists exchanged glances with each other before they all shook their heads and said, “No, Your Highness, we have to protect you!”

As the spoke, the evil beasts had swiped out powerfully at them. The wind its paw generated was so strong that 10,000 trees looked as though they were able to fall over. Two Qi Artists were unfortunate enough to have been swept away by the wind and were sent flying with terrified cries.

When the other Qi Artists saw what was happening, they couldn’t help but stare at the huge bear in terror.

Many Qi Artists were finally frightened and didn’t dare to force the issue, so they slowly retreated.

Huangfu Shenglin tried his best to remain standing. No matter how powerful the demon bear was, they would not be cowed.

Hua Qiyue took out her Drunken Flower Fan and she pointed it toward the bear as she yelled coldly, “Drunken Flowers Meeting the Moon!”

She suddenly opened the fan in her hand a ray of red light spread out as countless flower petals burst forth from the fan. Everyone stared in astonishment at this scene. The flowers that had burst out from the fan were the flowers that were painted on the fan.

The red lotuses glowing all over and transformed into a ray of flowing light that charged toward the demon bear.

The demon bear sensed the aura from a powerful spirit and couldn’t help but widen its eyes in an angry glare. It spat out mighty anima energy from its mouth that then collided heavily against the flowers from the fan!

Boom—

Roar——

There was a loud rumble and a loud roar as the demon bear’s body was slashed right in the middle by the light from the lotus flower and the light had hit its heart!

The large level-5 evil beast was slashed into two and looked as though it was about to topple at any moment.

Hua Qiyue gently moved the fan in her fan and sent the two halves of the demon bear’s body flying into the distance.

Everyone stared at this scene in shock and silence fell upon the area!

A powerful level-5 demon beast had perished with one move from the Drunken Flower Fan.

The fan was so powerful!

A divine weapon truly lived up to its name. The moment it appeared on the battlefield it managed to turn the tables around. It was no wonder why so many people in the world longed to own a divine weapon!

There were two level-5 evil beasts and after the first demon bear perished, the second demon bear charged madly at Hua Qiyue!

Hua Qiyue’s brows arched. This demon bear truly trying to court death but it was acting so madly probably because it had just witnessed the death of its companion, right?

Hua Qiyue was about to make her move when someone appeared in front of her in a flash.

“It’s Prince Nan!”

Someone exclaimed in surprise. Hua Qiyue was stunned. Wasn’t Yun Shimo supposed to be with Princess Qianyang at Furong Temple at the moment?

She saw the man in black robes and his black hair dancing in the wind as he battled the demon bear. Yun Shimo jumped up in the air and a silver ray of light appeared.

The ray of silver light expanded until it turned into a pillar of light that reached to the skies and clashed against the charging demon bear with a loud boom.

“Growl growl growl…”

The demon bear growled in pain when the pillar of light entered the demon bear’s body and its large body transformed into a large pool of blood. The pool of blood was swept away by Yun Shimo with a flick of his sleeves.

Everyone was deathly silent as they watched this scene in astonishment.

Yun Shimo managed to kill a level-5 evil beast in one move despite his lack of a divine weapon while they had been sent flying with one swipe of the demon bear’s paw!

This showed the vast difference in their abilities!

They wouldn’t be able to survive the demon bear’s attack even if they had 10 lives but Yun Shimo and Hua Qiyue had managed to kill both bears calmly and effortlessly. Thus, the crowd couldn’t help but look at them in admiration.

The hare immediately jumped onto Yun Shimo’s shoulder and started to cackle loudly as it said, “Ha ha ha, kiddo, you’re finally here. That was hilarious, the way the princess took the initiative to drag you into her bathtub…”

Yun Shimo’s face darkened. He didn’t expect the hare to have actually witnessed that scene and to announce it so publicly in front of everyone! His palm came smashing down on the hare before it could finish its sentence.

The hare hurriedly dodged the blow and laughed as it cursed, “Kiddo, you’re so gullible…”

“Alright, the evil beast is dead so everyone should get some rest now,” Yun Shimo said calmly as he walked toward Hua Qiyue.

Huangfu Shenglin was incredibly disappointed. There was a huge gap in their strengths and besides his loftier status, what other strength did he have over Yun Shimo?

He was not as powerful as Hua Qiyue and now, she had even stepped forward to protecting instead of him protecting her. As the Crown Prince, his complexion was very pale and he was also very embarrassed.

“Your Highness, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Yun Shimo nodded blandly at Huangfu Shenglin.

“I caught a very bad cold… cough cough… I’ve ran out of medication at my own residence and had come out in search of herbs when I chanced upon all of you.”

Everyone found his excuse amusing. Yun Shimo was not usually one who would lie but when he lied, he was like a different person. Everyone could tell that it was merely an excuse but no one exposed his lies.

Hua Qiyue looked coldly at him, then turned and walked toward the village.

Several villagers who were a little more courageous had been sneaking peeks from the village gate. When they saw how Hua Qiyue killed the demon beast in one move and how the man in black suddenly appeared to kill the second demon bear in one move, they were completely astonished and froze on the spot.

When they saw how the group was making their way back to the village, several villagers quickly ushered the others out from the mountain cave. The rest of the villagers were incredibly bewildered. Had the two evil beasts been killed so quickly? Was this a joke?

“The Crown Prince and the Princess are truly incredibly outstanding. That was unexpected… it truly was! Many thanks for helping us avenge the deaths of our villagers!” Several middle-aged men ran out and fell onto their knees with a loud plop.

Huangfu Shenglin felt a little embarrassed since he hadn’t been the one who had killed the demon bear. Instead, it had been Hua Qiyue and Yun Shimo, “Please rise, please rise…”

Huangfu Shenglin didn’t want them to stand on ceremony and Hua Qiyue wasn’t rushing to take credit for this, so she quickly made her way back to her courtyard while Yun Shimo naturally trailed after her. The remaining soldiers looked at each other and exchanged ambiguous smiles.

They were surprised to see that Yun Shimo had dared to abandon Princess Qianyang to rush over here. This was enough to see how cunning this man was. This was how he managed to avoid offending the Emperor and the Princess that night at the inner hall.

Moreover, his sudden appearance and his killing of that demon bear was enough to win the heart of his beloved.

Hua Qiyue entered her chambers and flung the Drunken Flower Fan aside. She then went to the well to draw a basin of water to wash her face while Yun Shimo stood silently in the corner and observed her actions.

Hua Qiyue’s face was covered in dust. This was because when the demon bear had charged toward her earlier, it had created large gusts of wild winds and stirred up all the dust on the ground, so her clothes were covered in dust.

She wrung a towel and wiped at her face and hands before she hung the towel on a bamboo stick to dry.

The hare jumped off Yun Shimo’s shoulder and said solemnly, “I have received some news.”

Hua Qiyue paused for a moment and looked at the hare whose expression was incredibly solemn.

“Before the demon bear died, I sent my Divine Sense into its brain and discovered a lot of information. In other words, I found out what it was doing around these parts,” the hare paused to gulp down water from the well.

Yun Shimo frowned and asked, “What do you mean? Are you saying that someone had deliberately sent it over this way?”

“Indeed. They’re from the Magic Beasts Forest and the leader of their Forest had instructed them to do this. Of course, these evil beasts had also been paid off by someone —— the Dark Sect,” the hare said blandly.

Based on its abilities, it couldn’t be bothered to deal with these puny evil beasts but the Dark Sect was a different matter altogether.

The Dark Sect was so powerful that it was highly possible that there a deity-level Qi Artist controlling this sect.

The hare was afraid that the powerful figure behind the Dark Sect might be one of those old freaks from 10,000 years ago.

“If the Dark Sect had already formed an alliance with the evil beasts, then I guess we have to settle this matter as soon as possible. Otherwise…” Hua Qiyue paused to mull over this and glanced at Yun Shimo.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep