Chapter 15: Night Raid (Part 2)

  "I think the three of you are just pretending to be my friends, intentionally trying to get rid of this person. Since your goal has been achieved and this person is worth a lot, I suppose it's not worth continuing. Although there are many of you, your cultivation is weaker than mine by one level. Moreover, I have four puppets, if we were to fight to the death, even if I die, I can guarantee that I will take one of you with me. Let's just part ways here." Stone River said coldly.

  "Senior brother, forget it!" The female cultivator seemed somewhat disheartened.

  "Letting him off like this would be too easy for him. Hand over the spirit stones on you, and then hand over the Golden Book, and you can leave."

  "As long as the spirit stone is fine, it's all good." Ishikawa burst out laughing and swung his arm. Eight sharp, arrow-like objects flew out of Ishikawa's sleeve, which was exactly the magic tool that Ishikawa was most skilled at refining - the Mother-Child Arrows. The eight child arrows could be controlled through the mother arrow.

  Ishikawa lets those four nearly collapsing puppets block the three, while he himself controls eight shuriken and entangles with the three.

  For a moment, the three of them didn't gain much advantage.

  Ishikawa also saw that the woman didn't seem to want to attack him, she was just defending herself. So Ishikawa shifted his main attacking force onto one of the Qi Refining Fourth Layer cultivators.

  The pressure on the two male cultivators in the fourth layer of Qi Refining immediately increased significantly.

  "Sister, if you don't go all out against the enemy, don't blame me for not giving you the antidote." A fourth-layer Qi-refining stage man cursed, breaking through the obstruction of four puppets and charging towards Shi Chuan.

  He also discovered that Ishikawa was using the child and mother shuttles to keep them at a distance, entwining and consuming very little spiritual power. After more than half an hour, they would probably be exhausted and defeated without a fight. Therefore, close combat with Ishikawa is the fastest way.

  Ishikawa's face revealed a hint of cold smile, as he controlled the four puppets to surround another male cultivator in the fourth layer of Qi Refining, while he himself faced forward.

  "You little brat, you really aren't afraid of death!" The monk shouted, his sword stabbing towards Ishikawa's chest, a vicious smile spreading across his face.

  Contrary to his expectations, Ishikawa did not dodge in the slightest.

  "A Peng" sound of golden resonance, and the swordsman's sword was suddenly broken into two pieces.

  Before he could wipe off the look of surprise on his face, his chest had already been pierced by Ishikawa's Xuan Tie sword.

  He couldn't understand why that one sword didn't cause any harm to Ishikawa even if it was fatal.

  This was actually a strategy that Ishikawa had planned from the beginning. First, Ishikawa used the Child Mother Shuttle to test the power of his flying sword and felt it was slightly inferior to the Child Mother Shuttle. Since the full-force attack of the Child Mother Shuttle couldn't break through Ishikawa's defensive armor, he decided to go all out with this monk. As long as he could kill this monk, the remaining monk would be easy to deal with.

  As for the female cultivator, Shi Chuan didn't take her seriously because she had never launched a direct attack on him from start to finish.

  "Ah! Qiu Shimei, you're ambushing me!" Another man hadn't even recovered from his companion's death when he discovered that the female cultivator had actually attacked him.

  The sudden counterattack by the female cultivator left Ishikawa both surprised and delighted. Ishikawa hastily manipulated the child and mother shuttles and four puppets to coordinate with the female cultivator's attack, and the two were surprisingly in perfect sync, instantly rendering the male cultivator completely defenseless.

  "This senior brother, spare Qiu Shimei's life. I'm willing to leave the storage bag behind, hoping you two will let me go." The male cultivator saw that things were not going well and hastily begged for mercy.

  "Either you die today or I perish!" The female cultivator seemed to be filled with a boundless resentment.

  Ishikawa's face was expressionless, having already killed two people, one more didn't make a difference.

  "You dare to kill me! I am a direct disciple of the Fire Spirit Sect's elder!"

  "Whoosh!" The female cultivator's sword pierced into the male cultivator's chest, and Ishikawa's mother-child shuttle arrived in response, creating eight large holes in the male cultivator's chest.

  "Qiu Yun, you..." The man's last words were left unspoken, and he died a death that was more dead than dead.

  Qiu Yun didn't say a word, and immediately began searching his body. He pulled out a small bottle from the storage bag, and hastily swallowed the dan medicine inside.

  Ishikawa didn't have any bad feelings towards the woman, and in the end they joined forces to kill the male cultivator. From their brief conversation, Ishikawa sensed that the female cultivator was definitely being coerced by the two of them.

  Ishikawa gathered up the puppet that was left with only a skeleton, and then picked up the storage bags on the two corpses. Just as he was about to go ask Qiu Yun how to deal with these three corpses, unexpectedly, Qiu Yun walked towards him.

  Even with a veil on, Ishikawa couldn't help but notice Qiu Yun's long eyelashes and her pair of eyes that seemed to speak.

  Qiu Yun's breathing seemed a bit hurried, and her eyes also became dazed.

  "You go ahead, I'll handle things here." Qiu Yun gritted her teeth and forced out a few words.

  "What's wrong?" Ishikawa noticed that Qiu Yun's skin tone slowly revealed a pink color, and her body also emitted a fragrant scent.

  Before Ishikawa could react, Qiu Yun had already started removing her veil, followed by her top, and in a short while, a stunning woman appeared before Ishikawa's eyes.

  Qiu Yun seemed to be around sixteen or seventeen years old, but her body was already well-developed. Her pure white skin caused Ishikawa's breathing to quicken.

  Ishikawa, but the scent emanating from Qiu Yun's body made Ishikawa's feet unable to move.

  "Ah!" The thought immediately flashed into Ishikawa's mind, and this was absolutely a highly effective anesthetic, perhaps made by a Qi-refining alchemist. Otherwise, it wouldn't have such a strong effect just from the smell. Qiu Yun must have been looking for some medicine earlier, but mistakenly took this anesthetic as an antidote instead.

  Ishikawa hastily circulated the spiritual energy inside his dantian to resist the onset of the medicine's effects, but what made Ishikawa feel depressed was that during the fight just now, he had exhausted almost all of his spiritual energy. Now, he could barely maintain his clear-headedness and didn't even have the strength to turn around and leave.

  Qiu Yun, who had directly swallowed the anesthetic, seemed to have lost her senses. She now had no shame at all and actually hugged Ishikawa lightly, taking off his clothes one by one.

  Although Ishikawa was only thirteen years old, he had been walking in the mountains and fields for many years and was like a fifteen or sixteen year old boy. In the village of Shi, it was not uncommon for people to get married at this age. He also knew a thing or two about men and women, but being so close to a woman was still a first for him.

  …………

  When Ishikawa came to, Qiu Yun was already dressed and standing aside, looking at him coldly. The three corpses on the ground had disappeared, presumably Qiu Yun had just dealt with them.

  Ishikawa immediately broke out in a cold sweat. If this woman had malicious intentions, Ishikawa would have been beheaded long ago.

  "Are you awake?" Qiu Yun asked coldly.

  Ishikawa nodded while tidying up his clothes.

  "What happened today, let's just pretend it never happened. You didn't see me, and I didn't see you. As for those three people, neither of us has ever seen them before." Qiu Yun looked at Shi Chuan with a gaze that still held a lot of resentment.

  Ishikawa couldn't help but smile wryly. Although it seemed like he had gained some advantage from this matter, in reality Ishikawa was the one who suffered a great loss. It was all so inexplicable, and yet he had gone through such an ordeal.

  Ishikawa looked up at the sky, which had already become slightly brighter, and in another hour, ordinary people would be delivering vegetables to the mountain. If he hurried with all his might, he should be able to make it back.

  After all, the two of them had been entwined here for a whole hour.

  "Well then, junior sister, I'll take my leave first. Until next time..." Ishikawa cupped his hands together, but the phrase "until next time" was left unspoken, because Qiu Yun had said that today's events were to be treated as if they never happened.

  Ishikawa had an inexplicable feeling, there were many things he wanted to say to Qiu Yun, but he couldn't say them. And Qiu Yun's cold attitude ultimately made Ishikawa not open his mouth. He turned around and quickly rushed towards the direction of Shuiling Gate.

  After Ishikawa left, Qiu Yun's icy face immediately disappeared, revealing a hint of sadness and resentment. It wasn't until Ishikawa's back was out of her sight that she let out a soft sigh and turned to leave.

  ………

  Ishikawa rushed back and finally returned to Shuiling Gate when the sky was slightly bright.

  Back in his own room, Ishikawa carefully checked and found no changes, the letter he left was still there, and there were no signs of being touched, which proved that no one had entered.

  Ishikawa hastily burned the letter to avoid leaving any future troubles.

  After doing all that, Ishikawa immediately sat down and started gasping for breath, not even having time to open the storage bag he had just obtained. The fight had consumed a huge amount of spiritual energy from Ishikawa, and rushing back from wherever he came from, Ishikawa had almost exhausted his entire body's spiritual energy, now feeling like he was falling apart all over.

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Before Ishikawa had even finished making a complete turn, the sound of fierce knocking came from outside the room.

  Ishikawa's face changed suddenly, and although he wasn't accepted by the people of the Refining Furnace, he was after all an ordinary attendant, and an ordinary disciple wouldn't dare knock on the door like that.

  It was just Hong Paozi and Cui Sanda who would do such a thing, but getting up so early wasn't their style either. Could it be that Yun Changlao had summoned them? Shi Chuan opened the door with a puzzled expression.

  Ishikawa's strange junior was a mysterious inner disciple, with a cultivation base at the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Beside him stood an old acquaintance of Ishikawa's, Huang Shu Lang.

  "Hua Shixiong, he is indeed Shi Chuan." Huang Shulang said with a flattering smile. It seems that the newcomer's status is not low.

  "Are you Shi Guang from Shijia Village?" asked Hua surname monk in a cold voice.

  "Exactly, I don't know what you want from me?" Ishikawa said calmly.

  "Presumptuous, an outer sect disciple, seeing an inner sect disciple doesn't even call out 'senior brother', are you thinking of rebelling?" Huang Shu Lang was like a mad dog, as long as the Hua surname cultivator gave one order, he would charge over.

  "Big Brother?" Ishikawa sneered, "We outer disciples toil every day, fetching water and chopping firewood, refining equipment and crafting treasures, all in service of you inner disciples. And yet we don't even have the most basic cultivation mantra. Calling you Big Brother would be giving ourselves too much credit."