Chapter 68: The Oriole Behind
After being repelled, the young woman flew backwards.
Her hand was numb, and droplets of blood oozed out of her palm.
"Who are you?" She asked for the second time.
Until now, she recognised all the sword arts that her opponent used.
The drifting wind sword art, the heavy mountain strike sword art, the soft water sword art, and the raindrop sword art were all low-grade silver rank sword arts.
Although her opponent’s drifting wind sword art was more powerful than normal, it was still within a manageable range.
However, that last move was mysterious.
She could detect some qi from the move, but the qi was mixed with something unfathomable.
"I..."
After exchanging many moves, Yu Nianzhen thought it was okay to introduce himself to the young woman.
However, just before he did, he felt a chill at the back of his neck.
A frown marred his face, and his body became a little tense.
Without turning back, he knew that someone was watching them fight.
"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it." He suddenly said.
"What?" The young woman was confused.
Her opponent had spoken in a low voice, and she didn’t catch what he said.
"Let’s stop here." Yu Nianzhen said.
A solemn look coloured his face, and the young woman was taken aback by the sudden change.
She looked at him warily and took another step backwards.
This was the thousand herbs garden!
She would be too stupid if she believed an enemy who had attacked her, but then had a sudden change of heart.
"You will take two bundles of the blue-silver berries. I will take the herb and the remaining bundle."
Yu Nianzhen didn’t care whether she believed him or not.
What he cared about was that someone was watching them fight.
If his guess was correct, the other person wanted to wait until they fought to the end.
At that time, both of them would be injured or exhausted.
In such a situation, they would be unable to take the herb and may end up losing their lives.
"It’s too late." A voice came from a distance.
Soon after, a man flew toward them.
The man wore a peach robe embroidered with red flowers. His face was painted white, and his lips were a vivid red.
When he looked at him, Yu Nianzhen was reminded of a Japanese geisha.
"Because I like your robe, I will let you walk away with your life. Leave your storage bags and walk away." The man said when he was three metres away from him.
"Unfortunately, I can’t afford your appreciation." Yu Nianzhen spoke through gritted teeth.
He was most helpless about his dressing style, and he didn’t like when others commented on it.
Now that someone had mentioned it, he couldn’t help but feel hateful.
"You are strong, but you are nothing in my eyes."
The geisha man had watched the fight from the beginning.
Because of this, he could gauge the strength of both parties.
If he wasn’t sure that he could defeat them, he would have left the valley before being discovered.
"How can I know before we fight?"
At this time, the young woman saw her opportunity.
She turned to Yu Nianzhen and said, "I will agree to your terms."
"Do you think you can defeat me if you team up?" The young man asked with a sneer on his face.
Without waiting for an answer, he waved his hand, and two puppets appeared beside him.
Both puppets looked like the young man.
The only reason Yu Nianzhen realised they were puppets was because he could see the mechanical joint where their heads were attached to the necks.
"A cultivator from the puppet region."
The young woman frowned.
Cultivators from the puppet region were not the most powerful, but they were amongst the hardest to deal with.
This was because they could tag team with their puppets to outnumber their opponents.
"Both my puppets have the strength of an eighth-level origin forging realm cultivator." The young man informed generously.
Although the puppets hadn’t been refined to the peak of the origin forging realm, the young man felt they were enough to deal with the two.
After all, he would also participate in the fight, which would turn the fight into three against two.
"What do you think? Will you walk away, or will you die?"
The young woman looked at Yu Nianzhen in question.
She didn’t know him, but they had a relationship born from fighting each other.
At this time, they had consumed a lot of qi, and neither was at peak condition.
Although she knew that the other had hidden cards, she didn’t know if those cards were enough to deal with the young man from the puppet region.
"I will ask you the same question. Will you walk away, or will you die?"
Yu Nianzhen narrowed his eyes and waited for an answer.
With the blue-silver berry, Jiang Yue would be able to improve his physical condition.
His hidden injuries would be removed, and his cultivation potential would be maintained at an optimal state.
After considering these benefits, Yu Nianzhen was unwilling to give up the blue-silver berries.
"You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit." The geisha man sneered.
His hands rapidly formed three seals, and the puppets opened their eyes.
Soon after, they rushed towards Yu Nianzhen and the young woman.
Their speed was incredibly fast, but Yu Nianzhen was faster.
He slashed forward, and his sword met the puppet’s arm, causing a loud clang to reverberate in the valley.
"Metal?"
Yu Nianzhen was surprised.
With the way the puppets moved, he didn’t expect them to be made of metal.
"You dare to lose focus when fighting me?"
The geisha man shouted as a circular black ball flew out of the puppet’s mouth.
The ball was three centimetres at its widest part, and it gave Yu Nianzhen a dangerous feeling.
Without a second thought, he retreated a few metres, and the ball fell to the ground.
When it fell, a loud bang was heard, and a pit appeared where Yu Nianzhen was previously standing.
"Don’t let the puppet’s black ball touch your body." He immediately called to the young woman.
Although they didn’t know each other, they were temporarily allied.
"Got it." The young woman shouted back.
She had seen the pit formed by the explosion of the black ball, and it gave her goosebumps.
"Do you think you can evade just because you know about it?"
The geisha man made three more seals, and the two puppets shook lightly.
Immediately after, they flew towards Yu Nianzhen and the young woman.
At the same time, the geisha man threw two black balls at the two of them.
Yu Nianzhen evaded the black ball thrown by the young geisha, but jumped into the path of another spat by the puppet.
As soon as the ball landed on him, Yu Nianzhen felt like he was hit by a force of fifty thousand kilograms.
This force was nothing to him since his force value had already exceeded fifty thousand.
However, force value was not the problem.
When the ball landed, it immediately exploded.
A powerful force hit his body, and Yu Nianzhen couldn’t block it.
His body was flung backwards, and he flew twenty metres before he fell to the ground.
’I would be seriously injured if my body wasn’t on the first realm of sword body refining.’ He thought and wiped a stream of blood at the corner of his mouth.
"I will give you another chance to leave." The geisha shouted.
Yu Nianzhen turned and saw that the young woman was also hit by the black ball.
Her face was pale, and her clothes were ripped in several places.
’I can’t drag the fight.’ He thought as he stood up.
The black balls used by the geisha man were a special kind of projectile produced by the puppet region.
They were powerful and didn’t require any qi to activate
If they continued fighting like this, Yu Nianzhen and the young woman would lose.
After coming to that conclusion, Yu Nianzhen narrowed his eyes.
He looked at the geisha man and the puppets.
A moment later, he swung his sword twice.
First, at the puppet that was fighting him, and the second time at the puppet that was fighting the young woman.
His speed was so fast that his slash looked like a blur to the young woman and the geisha.
Soon after, twelve wind blades hit each puppet, and the puppets were slashed into several pieces.
"You..." The geisha was shocked, but so was the young woman.
Neither had expected a cultivator of the seventh level of the origin forging realm to have such power.
"How can the drifting wind sword art be so powerful?" The young woman asked with a dazed look in her eyes.
Although she couldn’t see clearly, she was sure that the number of wind blades that attacked her puppet was more than nine.
However, she didn’t understand how that was possible.
"Last chance, toast or forfeit?" Yu Nianzhen asked the geisha with a face covered in frost.
