Chapter 100: Heavenly Maiden
“No.” The little maidservant shook her head timidly and said, “The Left Protector has already turned Wu Commandery upside down, but still hasn’t found the person Miss mentioned.”
“As expected.” The Saintess seemed to have had little contact with the church lately, so she still needed to ask her own maidservant to know about such things. Her eyes were like cold ice as she stared at a palace lantern in the carriage, saying coldly, “Just as I thought, that guy has already left Wu Commandery!”
“But even if he has left, there should be people in Wu Commandery who have come into contact with him,” the little maidservant said doubtfully. “Why can’t we find even a trace of that person?” Taiping Dao’s power was extremely terrifying. Even though their foundation in Jiangnan was still shallow, they still had countless believers providing news, and there were almost no people or matters they couldn’t investigate.
“It’s impossible there are no traces; they just haven’t been found yet!” The Saintess said confidently, then asked in a deep voice, “Have they checked the army that surrounded Bai Liu Village? Maybe they saw that guy!”
“They didn’t discover Miss…” The little maidservant muttered softly, implying that since that guy was even more formidable than Miss, he certainly wouldn’t be discovered.
The Saintess glared at her irritably, and the little maidservant quickly shrank her neck, changing her words: “I’ll send someone to check right away, check thoroughly!”
“Hmph, that’s more like it…” The Saintess’s expression softened a bit. Just as she was about to give a few more instructions, her expression suddenly tightened, and then exclamations of shock came from the guards outside the carriage!
“Who is it?!”
Before the guards could finish speaking, a streak of flowing light pierced through the carriage curtain at the rear and shot into the carriage like lightning!
In the flash of lightning, the Saintess only saw a sheathed precious sword shoot in from right before her eyes, severing a few strands of her hair and shattering the exquisite glazed tile palace lantern into pieces!
The carriage instantly plunged into darkness, but the hand gripping the sword hilt was as white as jade, still clearly visible in the night!
In that instant, the Saintess made her judgment, knowing that the intruder could easily break through her guards, so her martial arts were certainly far above her own! Without thinking, she reached out and pressed a prominent raised bump on the carriage!
Immediately, a dull twanging of springs sounded in the carriage, and countless three-inch black short arrows shot out from various positions on the carriage, firing in all directions!
The uninvited guest who had charged in with sword in hand turned out to be a woman in white clothes and white skirt. She clearly hadn’t expected the Saintess to have this trick up her sleeve. It was too late to retreat now that she had rushed into the carriage, but her reaction was incredibly swift. She quickly grabbed a guard who had killed his way to her side and hid her body behind him!
‘Puff puff puff puff…’ Accompanied by the sounds of countless sharp weapons piercing flesh, several men’s screams rang out simultaneously! The Saintess’s guards were almost all hit by arrows and fell to the ground!
The woman in white clothes and white skirt, hiding behind the human shield, was unscathed. Seeing the Taiping Dao demoness in the carriage using this to delay her, even disregarding the lives of her subordinates, she couldn’t help but furrow her delicate brows. She hadn’t expected the Taiping Dao demoness to be so decisive and ruthless!
She was about to leap into the carriage when she suddenly heard a sizzling sound from under the carriage. Her Sword Heart Wisdom Eye, honed since childhood, suddenly gave a warning sign. Without thinking, she hid behind the human shield again—almost at the same time, a blinding white light accompanied by a loud noise exploded the carriage into pieces!
Although the white-skirted woman had the human shield protecting her, she was still thrown more than a zhang away by the fierce explosion. She thrust the precious sword in her hand two feet deep into the ground to barely steady herself and avoid falling.
The white-skirted woman was left with ringing ears from the shock, yet her Sword Heart remained calm and undisturbed. She vigilantly guarded against the Saintess’s next attack!
However, there was no further movement in the field, only the severely injured horses neighing miserably…
Only then did the white-skirted woman release her grip, and the human shield, no longer resembling a person, slumped to the ground. She couldn’t help but slightly furrow her delicate brows, activating her pair of wisdom eyes. Her gaze instantly pierced the night, quickly locking onto two figures rapidly fleeing a hundred zhang away!
Clearly, the Taiping Dao demoness had first used the volley of hidden crossbows to delay her, then escaped the carriage with her maidservant and detonated it. If she had been even slightly careless and rushed in, she would surely have been blasted to bits!
In the blink of an eye, the white-skirted woman saw through the Saintess’s scheme and chased after the two figures. Her movement technique was extremely exquisite, almost as if her feet didn’t touch the ground. Stepping on the endless wild grass, she flew more than a dozen zhang in an instant!
Not far away, the Saintess fled while glancing back at the situation behind her. Seeing that conspicuous white shadow, she knew her sure-kill had failed, and she gritted her silver teeth, realizing she had encountered a rare formidable enemy in her life!
“Split up!” She gave the order, and the little maidservant understood immediately. The two instantly went separate ways, one east and one west. Both were in black clothes and black skirts with black cloths covering their faces; even standing right in front of someone, it would be impossible to tell which was which.
However, the white-skirted woman seemed to have a sixth sense. After a slight hesitation, she chased in the direction the Saintess had fled, completely ignoring the little maidservant who wanted to draw the enemy away for her own Miss.
Seeing the enemy not taking the bait, the little maidservant anxiously stamped her feet and had no choice but to change direction and follow the two. But her lightness skill was clearly much inferior, so she could only watch helplessly as her own Miss and the white-skirted woman disappeared one after the other into the night…
The Saintess also saw her maidservant’s reaction and couldn’t help but smile bitterly to herself. The white-skirted woman couldn’t distinguish the real from the fake before. If the maidservant had continued west, she would definitely have seriously suspected chasing the wrong target and might have changed course. But as soon as the little maidservant changed direction, how could they not know she had guessed right?
With no other choice, the Saintess had to bring out her true skills. Her escape speed instantly more than doubled, and like a nimble cat on the grass covered in night dew, the distance from the white-skirted woman finally stopped shrinking!
.
The bright moon quietly peeked out from behind the dark clouds, casting its clear glow over the wilderness and illuminating the two racing figures, one black and one white.
Although for the moment, the white shadow couldn’t catch up to the black shadow, the Saintess knew her own difficulties. She was just one layer of paper away from opening the Ren and Du Meridians. Achieving her current speed relied entirely on the supreme movement technique from the《 Taiping Sutra》. But for a Black Rank Expert, this movement technique consumed far too much; she couldn’t sustain it for long!
The pursuer behind her was undoubtedly an Earth Rank Grandmaster, with true qi endlessly surging in her body. She only needed to wait for her own true qi to deplete, and that would be the moment she was caught!
In this dire situation, the Saintess remained calm and composed, leading the pursuer another two li before a continuous steep cliff appeared before them. She had actually returned to Longmen Mountain!
The Saintess didn’t take the mountain path but went straight up the steep cliff wall, which was as smooth as a mirror, with only some tenacious wild grasses growing in clusters in tiny crevices. She used those wild grasses, climbing the cliff with hands and feet together.
She had thought this would delay the opponent a bit, maybe even allow a surprise attack. Who knew the white-skirted woman ascended as if walking on flat ground, without even using her hands! Not only did it take less time than her, but her posture was also much more elegant and composed.
Naturally, the Saintess’s plan failed again…
The Saintess stopped running. She stood gracefully on a boulder at the mountain top, taking a deep breath of the crisp night wind to regulate her churning qi and blood, waiting for the opponent to approach.
The white-skirted woman stepped through the frost-covered ground, walking step by step to her front.
Under the bright moonlight, the black-skirted woman’s robes fluttered, the white-skirted woman’s belts whipped in the wind. Both women had long hair like waterfalls, their gazes coldly fixed on each other.
The Saintess looked at the white-skirted woman, who was elegantly transcendent, like a fairy. Her body seemed shrouded in a faint haze, and under the moonlight, it refracted a pure and holy glow.
Seeing the other’s face clearly, the Saintess was visibly stunned, perhaps shocked that there existed such an otherworldly woman in the world? The next moment, a flash of enlightenment rose in the Saintess’s heart, and two words slipped from her lips:
“Heavenly Maiden?”
The white-skirted woman nodded, acknowledging her identity, and asked back in a voice like shattering jade from an icy spring: “You must be Taiping Dao’s Saintess Su Yingxiu, right?”
“Heh…” The Saintess sneered: “Heavenly Master Dao is indeed formidable, even finding out my given name.”
“Taiping Dao is a great scourge under heaven, and the Saintess is the new generation’s spiritual leader. Naturally, my Heavenly Master Dao cannot ignore it.” The Heavenly Maiden said indifferently, then gripped the precious sword in her hand and said: “Make your move.”
