As Lin Ruoxi stopped in her tracks, she hesitated to approach the young man, this was because his sword was covered in blood; looking very menacingly in her eyes.
'What if he kills me for fun? Is he the same type as Ma Liang?' Lin Ruoxi stood rooted on her spot for a few seconds; until she heard the sound of Ma Liang covering the distance between them.
"Young man, help me!" Shouted Lin Ruoxi as she dashed towards the young man.
Meanwhile, Bai Shen was confused by the entire situation.
First, he heard some shouting inside the forest and decided to take a look. Then he saw a disheveled woman stopping in front on him.
'She looks to be scared, could it be the man I heard shouting before?' Thought Bai Shen as he calmly looked at the young woman.
"Stay behind me." His calm voice managed to relax Lin Ruoxi's tensed nerves.
As she passed the young man to hide behind his back, she muttered,"Thank you, thank you..."
As soon as she said this, the tears that gathered in her eyes couldn't help but slowly start to slide down her cheeks.
The entire chasing made her extremely afraid, she thought that she would meet her end in Ma Liang's hands.
"Who the heck are you?" When Ma Liang arrived a few meters in front of Bai Shen, he viciously shouted at the young man.
"You don't need to know. Please back off, I don't want to hurt you." Saying so, Bai Shen swung his sword downwards, thus, making the blood that was previously on the sword's blade drop onto the ground.
Seeing such a scene, Ma Liang stepped back in fear. 'Shit! That's a real sword, and what's with all that blood on it?! Did he kill someone?'
Ma Liang was a thug who was in a lot of street fights before, he could differentiate a fake sword from a real one.
So he instantly knew that Bai Shen wasn't joking earlier, 'But Ruoxi... I want her!'
Suddenly, Ma Liang dashed forward, he risked it all, hoping that Bai Shen was a softie who wouldn't dare to use his sword against him.
'He's coming.' Bai Shen tightened his grip on the sword before slowly exhaling.
He already prepared himself mentally in case such a situation ever happened in the future.
His train of thoughts was very simple, 'If I hesitate to use my sword and strike the enemy, he won't.'
Without falling back a single step, Bai Shen shouted, "If you want to die, come here!!!"
And this was indeed effective, Ma Liang slowed down for a bit, but he didn't stop. He was still charging ahead, preparing to tackle Bai Shen.
"Oh, no!" Lin Ruoxi also screamed from behind, she was afraid that something would happen to the kind, young man, that helped her.
'Arm...' Bai Shen's eyes gleamed ferociously as Ma Liang got closer to him, with a swipe of his sword, he managed to wound the latter's arm.
"Ahhhh!" A squeal resembling a pig was heard from Ma Liang's mouth as he looked over to see a deep wound on his arm, one that was about 30 centimeters long.
'Damn! I did it.' Bai Shen was happy that he didn't outright kill the man, he wanted to offer him a second chance and let him leave with his life intact.
Even if the latter would come back with friends, they were deep in the mountain; so he didn't know where Bai Shen lived.
"Go back from where you came from. I don't want to ever see you again, otherwise, I won't be as merciful next time."
Coldly looking into Ma Liang's eyes, Bai Shen threatened the man before turning around and leaving.
'This shitty brat!' Anger began to overtake Ma Liang's senses, he was never so angry in his entire life.
"I WILL KILL YOU, BRAT!" Shouting at the top of him lungs, Ma Liang tried to grab Bai Shen who was facing him with his back.
"Be careful!" Lin Ruoxi's warning was heard, but it was late.
'Sigh... You forced me.' Not even looking at Ma Liang, Bai Shen swiftly took his sword, and after doing a quick spin he swiped it at the charging man.
"Ahh!" Gurgling sounds were heard as Ma Liang tried to cover his neck that was now gushing with blood.
After a few seconds he fell down to the ground, without a single breath left in him.
'I did it... I killed someone...' Waiting for a few seconds, Bai Shen was surprised to see that he didn't feel any remorse for what he just did.
'I'm not even sorry that it happened. Could this be because he tried to kill me?' As Bai Shen was questioning his morality, Lin Ruoxi turned her head around.
She couldn't watch the scene of her ex-boyfriend dying in front of her.
'He killed him. He killed Ma Liang...' Complicated feelings arose deep within Lin Ruoxi's chest.
She understood that Bai Shen did all of these to save her, because he was left without any choice.
Since Ma Liang was offered a chance to escape, but he turned around and even tried to attack Bai Shen, Lin Ruoxi couldn't really blame the young man.
Instead, she came in front of Bai Shen and deeply bowed to him while crying, "I'm thankful to you for saving my life. And I'm sorry that you were forced to kill Ma Liang."
"There's no need for you to thank me, neither to blame yourself. Scum like that guy should have died long ago."
"But now, what are you going to do?"
Hearing that question from Bai Shen, Lin Ruoxi hesitated for a while, "The police will surely find the car that Ma Liang left behind."
"They would probably be informed that you were with him, and after that they will start an investigation."
"I know that. I'm just... I don't really know what to do." Lin Ruoxi tried to calm herself down.
In the meantime, Bai Shen approached Ma Liang's body and touched it, 'Steal.'
Once again, he didn't feel any huge changes to himself, but after checking his System panel he couldn't help but smile.
Name: Bai Shen (18)
Level: Locked
Talent: Stealing, Prediction
Attributes: Strength: 11.6 (0.3^)
Agility: 11.4 (0.1^)
Physique: 10.8 (0.2^)
Charisma: 8.1
Luck: 1.1
His Strength increased by 0.3, his Agility by another 0.1, but the most surprising thing was his Physique that was boosted by 0.3, this came as a surprise for Bai Shen.
'It seems that humans offer more attributes than animals. Well, that may not be entirely true, since I only killed a snake before.'
'I wonder if it also works on living humans...' Slowly glancing in Lin Ruoxi's direction, Bai Shen wanted to try it out.
And so, he offered, "I have a secluded villa a few kilometers away, you can come and stay over for a few days."
As soon as she heard that, Lin Ruoxi's cheeks flushed, this sounded like an indecent proposal to 'spend the night' with Bai Shen.
But she knew that the young man wanted to help her, "I'll be grateful. Thank you..."
"Bai Shen, that's my name." he said after noticing Lin Ruoxi's dilemma.
"I'm glad to meet you, my name is Lin Ruoxi." The girl finally introduced herself, "Thank you, Bai Shen!"
After chatting for a while, they decided to first bury Ma Liang's body, or throw him in the nearby river; as to hide the evidence of death, at least for a while.
Since Bai Shen's villa was over ten kilometers away, they both decided to get as close as they could to it; and spend the night in his tent, before continuing the rest of the journey in the morning.