Chapter 26 Fang Bie's Oath.
Birds startled in the forest.
Xue Ling gritted her teeth in panic as she watched Fang Bie, bleeding in her arms.
She hadn't expected someone as cautious as Fang Bie to step forward and defend her from such a blow. Even though he was completely outmatched, even though he himself was bleeding and seriously injured, he stepped forward without a moment's hesitation. That moment truly warmed Xue Ling's heart.
She eventhought,
"Is it worth it?"She clenched her sword tightly.
"So you're still a pair of star-crossed lovers," the short, chubby man scoffed at the young man and woman before him.
"The so-called Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are probably no more than that."
Xue Ling bit her lip and was about to charge forward to fight him, but Fang Bie calmly pressed her shoulder.
She looked at the short, chubby man as he approached.
"You're not going to bypass us, are you?" Fang Bie asked weakly.
The short, chubby man sneered, "That depends on the skills of you two mandarin ducks." He took another step forward.
Fang Bie looked up and smiled: "Goodbye then." Fang Bie raised his sleeves.
Xue Ling heard a deafening thunder. In front of her, the short and fat man who had been so arrogant just now had a thumb-sized blood hole between his eyebrows.
A sticky liquid mixed with red and white was slowly flowing out from there. The whole man fell straight to the ground.
Fang Bie stood up lightly from Xue Ling's arms and walked straight towards the short and fat man. His figure was light and swift, and there was no sign of injury at all.
Xue Ling was startled and asked in a trembling voice; "Aren't you injured?"
Fang Bie turned around, and a playful look appeared on his usually expressionless face: "Why do you think I'm injured?"
"But you clearly came out desperately to fight him, and spit out blood..." Xue Ling said, biting her lip.
"Are you talking about this?" Fang Bie grinned, opening his mouth and spewing out a translucent bag, blood still dripping from it. "This."
Fang Bie smiled faintly. "It's just chicken blood."
Xue Ling pounded the ground with her sword.
For a moment, she had been captivated by Fang Bie's reckless devotion.
He'd come out to save her, regardless of the possibility of both of them perishing.
But now it seemed like Fang Bie had been acting all along.
He'd disguised himself as a devoted man saving his mistress and confronted the short, chubby man, feigning blood and severe injuries. Then, when the man let his guard down, he unleashed his lightning-fast hidden weapon, inflicting immense damage.
It was as if all this was part of Fang Bie's plan, that even she was his pawn.
The thought of it made her deeply unhappy.
But then, Fang Bie, who was examining the body, said, "Come and take a look."
Xue Ling approached and saw that Fang Bie had already donned his corpse-touching gloves and was pulling out one valuable item after another from the corpse.
The most conspicuous item was the stack of banknotes, because just a few hours ago, they belonged to Fang Bie.
"Is this person the Thunder God?" Xue Ling asked in surprise.
"No, he's not the Thunder God. These banknotes were used by the woman to buy his life. The woman is the Thunder God."
Fang Bie said quietly, "So, the Thunder God doesn't like to talk, preferring to express himself with short sentences and gestures to hide his gender."
"Then who is this person?" Xue Ling asked.
"This person is Red Fox." Fang Bie looked up at Xue Ling and saw that Xue Ling's eyes were filled with disbelief.
"Impossible," Xue Ling said.
After all, they were both women. When they had previously interacted with Red Fox, her charming tone and slender fingers had left a deep impression on Xue Ling. The idea that someone so charming, even through the mask, could be this seemingly rude and overweight man in front of her was something Xue Ling couldn't believe.
Fang Bie remained silent as he unsheathed a dagger from the Red Fox's waist. It was the same pair of fish-slaying daggers he'd seen at the Dragon King Market.
"But the Red Fox is clearly taller than him, and it has fingers," Xue Ling tried to articulate her confusion.
Fang Bie smiled and proceeded to remove from the Red Fox a pair of wooden clogs, similar to stilts, and a pair of exquisitely crafted finger gloves. Once they were on, his formerly stubby fingers instantly appeared slender and long, as translucent as jade.
"Becoming shorter isn't easy, but becoming taller is quite simple. Many people in the martial arts world possess the ability to mimic a woman's soft, alluring voice. I'll give you a tip."
"The more charming and soft the voice, the more likely it's a man impersonating it."
"Do you have that voice?" Xue Ling asked.
"Yes, but I prefer not to use it," Fang Bie replied.
"Why?" Xue Ling retorted.
She was puzzled. She had seen Fang Bie's feigned voices so well before, but she had never seen him speak in a female voice.
"Because there's only one difference between wearing women's clothes once and countless times." Fang Bie said seriously, "Even if I starve to death, die outside, or jump off from here, I will never wear women's clothes once."
Xue Ling looked at Fang Bie's figure and realized that Fang Bie might really look good in women's clothes.
But Fang Bie's oath was so cruel that Xue Ling subconsciously felt Fang Bie's deep hatred for women's clothes.
After all, a real man shouldn't act like a woman.
Didn't you see that when Zhuge Kongming went to provoke Sima Yi, he gave him a set of women's clothes to insult him?
Xue Ling nodded, not quite understanding.
Fang Bie was stunned when he saw that Xue Ling didn't pick up on his stalk, then sighed.
He took out the green porcelain bottle that Xue Ling had remembered so well from his arms.
Corpse powder.
"Why do you always carry this with you?" Xue Ling was shocked.
"Are you asking me how many times I've done it?" Fang Bie smiled: "This is the second time."
"But I've seen it many times."
"And this thing is so convenient. Once you use it, you'll want to use it again."
As he said this, deep in the woods, Fang Bie unscrewed the cap of the porcelain bottle and sprinkled the green powder inside into the wound on the red fox's forehead little by little.
Green smoke curled up.
...
...
The Soul-Stirring Inn.
When they finally came back, Xue Ling and Fang Bie were both carrying large and small bags.
The clothes they changed back were one thing, and the gains from this trip to the Dragon King Market were another.
Xue Ling had never thought that buying things on the black market would actually have the treatment of door-to-door delivery.
Even though Xue Ling and Fang Bie had never thought about receiving the goods at first.
Walking into the lobby of the inn, it was empty.
After all, in this Soul-Stirring Inn, apart from Fang Bie and Xue Ling, there was only the proprietress and the shopkeeper. How could they open the door to do business if two of them left?
He Ping sat on the chair in the middle, looking at the two of them.
"There's new information from the organization."
"Two pieces of information."
(End of this chapter)