Shao Yi didn't think that much. The less one thought, the better one's life was his motto. He turned around to look at the fake mountain.
"Huh?" he thought.
"No one's around?"
He caught a silhouette in his periphery not far away, causing him to immediately turn around.
He saw a man in white clothes with his hair messily draped over his shoulder. His arms were behind his back.
This was the man who was standing on that fake mountain.
He came to stand right in front of Shao Yi.
Shao Yi's pupils contracted. The man had his head hung low, obscuring his face, yet the clothing he was wearing was noticeably tattered.
That man's clothes seemed to have been torn by a sword, and the exposed skin was all bruised and battered.
There were also vague bloodstains on said clothes that had almost all been washed away by the rain.
Shao Yi wasn't stupid. While he was unable to keep up with the terrifying thought processes exhibited by those other two, he still had basic judgment.
Judging from the extent of the man's injuries, gashes from sword attacks, and bruises…
Coupled with the fact that Xu Xiaoshou had [Innate Sword Will] and [Innate Level Physique]…
Shao Yi could tell that the man wasn't Xu Xiaoshou.
Yet, the man had fought Xu Xiaoshou.
So the real Xu Xiaoshou…
Was dead!
"What th…"
The rain was heavy, and he dared not even turn his head around, so Shao Yi just simply stared at that man in white in the rain, feeling the scene to be rather eerie for some reason.
Brrooooom!
A rumble of thunder was heard, and the man in white lifted his head all of a sudden.
"Holy sh**!"
Shao Yi was so frightened that he kept backing away from the man until his back hit the wall. "Xu Xiaoshou!?" he uttered in fright.
"What kind of insanity is this?" he thought.
He'd just speculated that the man before his eyes wasn't Xu Xiaoshou, yet when the man had looked up, he'd shown a face with features completely identical to Xu Xiaoshou's.
"Now I see why Kong was so scared. Thinking is a frightening thing indeed."
"He's Xu Xiaoshou!" he shouted.
Feng Kong couldn't help but turn around when he heard Shao Yi's shout.
Lightning flashed across the night sky, and glimmers of silver light were seen on the man in white's face.
Both of them looked at the messy-looking man at the same time and grinned, yet their grins were anything but sincere, as that face before them felt like it belonged to someone else, and everything felt wrong.
They felt their skin crawl.
This was so d*mn terrifying.
Feng Kong was so confused that he lost all his powers of judgment. Even Shao Yi, who had just learned to think, felt like his brain was frying.
Was this guy Xu Xiaoshou or not? That was the question that came to each of their minds at almost exactly the same time.
"I'm Xu Xiaoshou."
The man in white seemed to have read their thoughts and grinned again.
Oh, they weren't going to buy that!
That crawling feeling became more intense. The two of them looked at each other, and the fear in each other's eyes was a clear as day.
Even if this man was indeed Xu Xiaoshou, they still wouldn't be able to attack him.
The scene was utterly harrowing.
"Run!"
"Run!"
They each said at almost exactly the same time. Shao Yi held his short sword in reverse grip and cut open the barrier. A rumble was heard as a fissure was torn right there and then.
"Just stay behind and rest if you're tired of playing. What's the use running anyway?" Xu Xiaoshou said coldly.
The lines on his Information Bar were no longer refreshing, but that didn't mean the two had confirmed his identity. On the contrary, he'd finally been able to confuse the two of them.
He was Xu Xiaoshou, yet he was not.
The fear of the unknown was what struck fear in the minds of those two. As for whether he was actually Xu Xiaoshou or not, that was beside the point.
Yeah…
To them at least.
Although he would've very much liked to just let them go, he had to keep playing along.
This might just be another one of the guy's scheming tricks, no?"
He couldn't afford to take chances.
Seeing the two of them getting ready to leave from that fissure in the barrier, he drew the finger blade behind his back and almost turned that eerie smile of his into the real thing, just for the sake of playing along.
Blood splattered with the snap of a finger.
"[Infernal Heavens]."
He did nothing but tilt his head, and invisible fire suddenly burst from Shao Yi's body. The sound of something burning was heard.
In Xu Xiaoshou's eyes, this [Spiritual Technique] of unknown level was his only weapon at the moment. All the others were just too telling, or were used at too far a distance to cause significant damage.
Drawing Hiding Pain was definitely out of the question, as there was no way those two wouldn't recognize the sword.
Yes, the only technique he could use now was [Infernal Heavens]. Terrifying might, yet unknown to anyone.
As expected, dread was written all over Shao Yi's face when that invisible flame began to burn. Shao Yi summoned [Spiritual Source] to defend himself, yet the flames burned his [Spiritual Source] all the same.
He panicked. "What the h*ll is this!?"
By then, he'd already come to see the man by the name of Xu Xiaoshou as a living manifestation of terror and malice. He suffered a psychological breakdown as soon as the "ghostly flames" began to burn.
"Shao Yi!"
The fissure in the barrier wasn't that large, but Feng Kong had already gotten through. After seeing that Shao Yi was still on the other side, he shouted, "Run, I'll cover you!"
Shao Yi tried his best to resist the eerie flames on him. To the naked eye, nothing appeared to be wrong with him at the moment, as [Infernal Heavenly Flames] were completely invisible.
"You know what I mean!" Shao Yi said something puzzling. Xu Xiaoshou then saw the man outside immediately bolt.
"What's happening?" he thought.
"Some kind of code?"
Feng Kong, who was running as fast as he could at the moment, was the only one who knew that Shao Yi was proficient in seven [Escape Techniques], while he, on the other hand, only knew Blood Escape. As such, Shao Yi was the one who covered him whenever things went south during missions.
Yet, Shao Yi would quickly catch up before long every time, running before Feng Kong with his wine container, drinking as he shouted at Feng Kong with his weird voice, telling Feng Kong to run faster.
Pfft!
Feng Kong couldn't help but snicker at the thought.
He was very confident of Shao Yi's proficiency in [Escape Techniques]. The way he saw it, no one could keep up with someone proficient in seven [Escape Techniques].
He'd never expected this mission tonight to turn so weird, and he wondered if someone else had been assigned by Brother He to kill Xu Xiaoshou.
He could've told the both of them!
"It's okay that he doesn't trust a lunatic like Shao Yi, but he doesn't trust me as well?" he thought.
"H*ll!"
…
"Sawwy, Kong."
"Maybwe I won be going back dis time…"
Shao Yi was feeling bitter. He was at the peak of [Innate Stage], and yet he was utterly incapable of resisting the "ghostly flames."
Was this some kind of demonic art?
He'd never seen such eerie [Spiritual Technique] at work before.
The flames seemed like they could burn down just about anything, and it took them mere moments to chew through over half of his [Spiritual Source]. He figured that he would be doomed by the time his [Spiritual Source] finally ran out.
Shao Yi looked at the man in white in the rain and tightened his grip around the short sword in his hand.
"Why isn't he attacking?" he thought.
"Does he wanna see me burn to death?
"Some twisted way to enjoy himself...
"Maybe, in the eyes of such formidable ones, this bit of power of mine makes me little more than an ant, eh?
"Whatever, I'll just keep buying time then.
"Kong, don't ever, ever come back…"
[Doubted, Passive Points +1]
[Belittled, Passive Points +1]
[Ridiculed, Passive Points +1]
[Cursed, Passive Points +1]
…
Xu Xiaoshou had no idea what the other guy was thinking. He simply kept up his unfazed façade, trying to make the scene as harrowing as possible.
He tried his best to vaporize the rainwater falling from the sky, stirring up vortexes on the ground and shaking the fauna all around them.
That was all.
He couldn't afford to attack.
Once he did so, the truth of him still being at level nine would be completely exposed.
He deemed that he would then be pummeled by that man before him.
He knew that despite the man looking stupid, that man was still at the peak of [Innate Stage].
Xu Xiaoshou was actually panicking deep down.
"What should I do? What should I do?" he thought.
"Can someone at Spiritual Cultivation Level nine beat someone at the peak of [Innate Stage]?
"Someone help me!
"Help…"