Chapter 170: You Won't Mind
Huo Gang's face was covered in thick stubble, giving him a sharp, rat-like appearance, but he was a genuine Earth Extreme Realm expert, incredibly fast, and in an instant, he charged right in front of Zi Qian.
His five fingers curled into a claw shape, swiping through the air toward Zi Qian's chest.
Zi Qian's expression changed. She immediately executed a strange sword technique, conjuring eight sword shadows before her, each aimed in a different direction, all thrusting toward Huo Gang.
Within the Chi Kong Secret Vault, Zi Qian had also encountered a stroke of luck, and her cultivation had broken through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm Great Perfection. However, she was injured, which slowed her sword strikes considerably and left many openings.
"Your sword techniques are all feints. In the face of absolute power, they're utterly useless."
Huo Gang let out a wild laugh. His five fingers, wrapped in true qi, took on a metallic sheen, as if he were wearing a pair of metal fist gloves.
"Boom!"
He struck down with his claw, shattering all the sword shadows Zi Qian had sent out.
His metallic hand claw swept across Zi Qian's waist, and with a tearing sound, ripped off a large piece of her robe.
The skin from Zi Qian's waist down to below her left chest was exposed—curving, shapely lines and snow-white, crystalline flesh. The sight made the three evil men who had just escaped from the purgatory stare wide-eyed, their gazes burning with heat.
Zi Qian extended a hand to cover the area below her chest, hiding the faintly visible, alluring scene.
Huo Gang clutched the large piece of white robe he had torn from Zi Qian, brought it to his nose, and sniffed, wearing an expression of ecstasy. "So fragrant!"
"Go to hell!"
"God-Slaying First Form!"
Zi Qian unleashed a low-grade spirit-level sword technique. The sword shot like lightning, streaking through the air toward Huo Gang's heart.
A slight smirk curled at the corner of Huo Gang's mouth, revealing a cunning grin. He shot forward even faster, dodging Zi Qian's sword, and struck a finger against her slender neck, sealing the meridians around her lips.
Then, he fired off seven more pillars of true qi, sealing the other seven meridians on Zi Qian's body.
Zi Qian, sword in hand, froze mid-step, as if turned to stone, unable to move a muscle.
"Beauty, I know you have a poison pill hidden in your mouth. The moment you're captured, you'd bite it open and kill yourself. But now, with all your meridians sealed, can you still bite through that pill? Haha!" Staring at Zi Qian's tall, graceful, and alluring figure, Huo Gang trembled all over, his eyes blazing with scorching light.
At that moment, Zi Qian was filled with regret. She should have bitten the poison pill and ended it from the start, instead of clinging to vain hope.
Now, it was too late for words. Falling into the hands of these three evil men would bring her unbearable suffering.
She was originally from the Black Market and knew all too well the methods of its evil men.
For some reason, the image of Ning Xiaochuan flashed through her mind. She sighed inwardly. Why think of him? Even if he came, he wouldn't be a match for these three evil men.
Just as this thought crossed Zi Qian's mind, a scream rang in her ears.
"Boom!"
Huo Gang flew backward, his body slamming into the stone wall. His eyes bulged wide, his whole body stiff—he was already dead.
A pebble the size of a thumb had pierced through Huo Gang's chest. The immense impact left a bowl-sized bloody hole in his chest, punching clean through his body.
Zi Qian, who had been on the verge of despair, suddenly felt hope surge within her. She looked toward the entrance of the stone cave.
"Tap, tap."
Footsteps slowly echoed.
Zhang Ruochen entered, clad in a pristine white robe. His features were delicate, his posture tall and straight, making him appear very young and handsome, carrying an air of noble royalty.
Zhang Ruochen stepped into the cave, saw Zi Qian with her meridians sealed, and walked straight over to her.
"Kid, are you a student of the Martial Market Academy?" Chen Lidao said coldly.
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen completely ignored him, anger flared on Chen Lidao's face, and he struck a palm toward Zhang Ruochen.
Chen Lidao didn't dare take him lightly. After all, Huo Gang had been killed by a single pebble from this opponent, so his strength was clearly not to be underestimated. He mobilized all his true qi and unleashed a palm strike with the force of a landslide, threads of lightning surging from his palm with crackling sounds.
Zhang Ruochen paused slightly, then struck back with a reverse palm, swatting Chen Lidao away like a mosquito, sending him flying over ten meters.
"Boom!"
Chen Lidao crashed into the stone wall, spitting a mouthful of blood. His body, as light as a sheet of paper, slid down the wall and crumpled to the ground.
A human-shaped pit was left in the stone wall.
Chen Lidao lay on the ground, unable to rise. Every bone in his body had been shattered by that palm strike. If he weren't an Earth Extreme Realm martial arts expert with strong vitality, he would have died already.
Tu Yun stared in shock at the white-robed youth before him, backing away step by step. He had roamed the martial arts world for decades, a ruthless figure in his own right, and had seen many martial arts experts. But he had never encountered someone so young with such terrifying martial arts cultivation.
It wasn't just Tu Yun who was stunned—Zi Qian was equally astonished.
She never imagined Zhang Ruochen's strength had reached such a formidable level. With a casual palm strike, he had sent an Earth Extreme Realm martial arts expert flying.
Tu Yun, having weathered many storms, was shocked but not completely overwhelmed by Zhang Ruochen.
He snatched the Sleeve-Hidden Fish Belly Sword from Zi Qian's hand and pressed it against her neck, glaring coldly at Zhang Ruochen. "If you want to save her, you'd better follow my orders and back out of this cave right now."
Zhang Ruochen stood still, unmoving. "You're not qualified to negotiate with me. Release her now, and I'll spare your life. But you must return to the Flame River Purgatory and continue serving your sentence as a prisoner, atoning for the crimes you've committed."
"Haha! Are you joking? I barely escaped that hell—why would I willingly go back?" Tu Yun sneered.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head gently. "So you're saying you're giving up this chance to live?"
Tu Yun's gaze turned icy. He pressed the Sleeve-Hidden Fish Belly Sword closer to Zi Qian's neck, gritting his teeth. "If you don't let me go, do you believe I'll kill her right now?"
"I won't let you go, and I don't believe you can kill her." Zhang Ruochen walked toward Tu Yun as if strolling through a garden.
The distance between them shrank.
Watching Zhang Ruochen draw nearer, Tu Yun grew desperate. He was about to slice through Zi Qian's neck and then fight Zhang Ruochen to the death.
This opponent was just a teenager. No matter how strong, how powerful could he be?
Tu Yun was an Earth Extreme Realm mid-stage expert. Even if he wasn't a match, he should at least have a chance to escape.
But just as Tu Yun resolved to kill Zi Qian, he was horrified to find that his entire body was frozen in place, as if sealed in ice.
"How… how is this… happening…" Tu Yun struggled to speak, his voice muffled.
Zhang Ruochen was using one of the powers of his Space Domain: space solidification.
Within the Space Domain, Zhang Ruochen could make the air solidify like water, "freezing" any cultivator inside the domain.
Of course, if the enemy's cultivation was strong enough, they could still forcibly break through the Space Domain and escape the suppression of space solidification.
Clearly, Tu Yun didn't have that kind of power. So, within Zhang Ruochen's Space Domain, he was utterly helpless.
Zhang Ruochen walked up to Tu Yun, looking at his terrified face. "I gave you a chance. You didn't take it."
Zhang Ruochen placed his palm over Tu Yun's heart. Cold Ice True Qi surged from his palm, completely enveloping Tu Yun's chest.
"Sizzle, sizzle."
The Cold Ice True Qi froze Tu Yun's heart, turning it into a blood-red crystal of ice.
Tu Yun's body convulsed, his muscles tensing, and then he stopped breathing altogether, his body stiff as an ice statue.
The killing method was elegant—not a single drop of blood was spilled.
Zhang Ruochen removed the Sleeve-Hidden Fish Belly Sword from Tu Yun's hand and tapped a finger on Zi Qian's brow. A surge of powerful true qi flowed into Zi Qian's Qi Lake.
The true qi coursed through her body along her meridians for one cycle.
The sealed meridians immediately cleared and returned to normal.
Zi Qian's body went limp, and she collapsed into Zhang Ruochen's arms, her voice faint as a thread. "Thank you."
With those words, Zi Qian fell unconscious.
When she woke again, she was still in the stone cave, lying on a stone bed. Her injuries had mostly healed.
The six corpses had been cleared away, leaving only the severely injured Chen Lidao lying limp on the ground, still unconscious and hovering between life and death.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged on the floor, seemingly in meditation.
The moment she woke, Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes and looked at her. "Are your injuries healed?"
Zi Qian looked down at the new, pristine robe she was wearing. A blush crept across her originally cold, beautiful face. She lowered her head. "You changed my clothes?"
Zhang Ruochen saw nothing wrong with it and nodded. "It's my robe. It might be a bit big, but it should still be wearable."
Zi Qian hurriedly stood up, fastened her belt, and bit her red lip, glaring at Zhang Ruochen. "Don't you know there's a difference between men and women?"
"Is there a problem?"
Zhang Ruochen paused, then added, "I've seen it before, so I believed you wouldn't mind. You're not the type to get hung up on trivial details. At the time, I saw you were badly injured, so I treated you first. After the treatment, I noticed your clothes were torn, so I put on a new robe for you. Now that your injuries are healed, if there's nothing else, I should get back to my business."
With that, Zhang Ruochen turned and walked out of the cave, leaving Zi Qian standing there, stunned.
"I… wouldn't mind?" Zi Qian seemed to hear the most intolerable words. She grabbed the Sleeve-Hidden Fish Belly Sword from the stone bed and chased after Zhang Ruochen.
As she passed by Chen Lidao, her eyes turned cold. The Sleeve-Hidden Fish Belly Sword flew out from her sleeve.
"Whoosh!"
A flash of sword light.
Chen Lidao's head separated from his neck, turning him into a dead man.
Zi Qian rushed out of the cave, a fragrant breeze trailing behind her, and blocked Zhang Ruochen's path. She pointed the sword tip at him, her expression deadly serious. "Zhang Ruochen, you need to explain yourself today. What do you mean by 'I wouldn't mind'?"
Zhang Ruochen looked puzzled, thinking for a long moment. "Are all women this unreasonable? I saved you—it's not like I actually wanted to see your body. Zi Qian, I consider you a friend, which is why I saved you. I swear to the heavens, I have no ulterior motives toward you."
If any other man had said such outrageous things, Zi Qian would have already stabbed a hundred bloody holes in him.
But Zhang Ruochen's eyes held not a trace of impurity. He was simply telling her the truth—he only wanted to save her, with no other intentions.