"Blood! Did those idiots kill someone?"
Yang Hong urged the horse-drawn carriage forward for another three miles, suddenly catching a whiff of blood. His face changed.
"Giddy up! Giddy up!"
He whipped the horses a few more times, urging the carriage to pick up speed.
Soon, by the roadside under a canopy of trees, Yang Hong saw six of the foolish bandits lying in a pool of blood.
He quickly got out of the carriage and rushed over.
The six burly men were all killed with a single sword stroke to the throat,
as dead as they could possibly be.
Yang Hong frowned. He was somewhat annoyed. These were the men he had planned to take as his subordinates,
and now they were dead in the blink of an eye.
Furthermore, the killer must have been a martial arts expert.
A martial arts expert killing six unarmed commoners was simply outrageous.
"Rustle~"
Yang Hong suddenly looked up to his right.
A man and a woman flew out from the dense woods by the roadside.
"Miss Shi, I told you these bandits must have accomplices,
and here they are!"
The two arrived beside Yang Hong in the blink of an eye, the man already drawing his sword.
Anger surged within Yang Hong, and he was about to unleash his killing intent.
However, as he extended his divine sense, he detected a familiar aura.
The aura of a Golden Core cultivator.
Yang Hong worried there might be more cultivators nearby, so he suppressed his killing intent for now.
"Did you kill these six? Are you planning to kill me too?"
"These six bandits were robbing people on the road. It was their just deserts for me to kill them.
Who are you?
Confess honestly, or I'll send you to join your companions."
The man pointed his long sword directly at Yang Hong's heart, threatening him in a calm tone.
Yang Hong's voice also turned cold.
"Do you know who they are? Do you know who I am?
How dare you kill people so readily."
"Bandits who rob and kill deserve to die! Tell me, who are you?"
The man took another step forward, less than twenty feet from Yang Hong.
"Heh heh~ If I'm a nobody, would you kill me to silence me?
I am Yang Hong, the Sixth Prince of the Great Sui Dynasty. Do you dare to kill me?"
Yang Hong did not hesitate and directly revealed his identity.
"A Prince of Sui!"
"You are Yang Hong!"
The man and the white-robed woman behind him exclaimed in unison.
Immediately after, a terrifying killing intent erupted from the man, and he lunged at Yang Hong's head with his long sword.
"Clang~"
But before the sword could reach Yang Hong, it was deflected by the white-robed woman.
"Xu Ziling, no!"
The white-robed woman blocked Xu Ziling's sword and stood protectively in front of Yang Hong, preventing Xu Ziling from attacking again.
"Miss Shi, move aside quickly. This man is the tyrant Yang Jian's son. I must kill him."
Xu Ziling, with sword energy spewing from his hand, stared intently at Yang Hong, his stance indicating an irreconcilable feud.
Through their brief exchange, Yang Hong understood the identities of the two.
Xu Ziling from "The Legendary Moonlight Knight," and Shi Feixuan from Ci Hang Jing Zhai. He hadn't expected to encounter them here.
Even stranger, why did Xu Ziling want to kill him?
However, he was not worried about his own safety at all. That familiar Golden Core aura had already arrived nearby.
She knew his identity and would surely protect him.
"Xu Ziling, Yang Hong is not Yang Jian. He has no enmity with you. You cannot kill innocents."
"Anyone related to the tyrant Yang Jian, I will kill! I will make the tyrant taste the pain of losing his loved ones!"
Shi Feixuan's plea only made Xu Ziling more agitated.
With a sudden flick of his long sword, several streams of sword energy shot towards Yang Hong.
"You are in the Heavenly Human Realm!
No!"
Shi Feixuan could only cry out in horror, then watched Xu Ziling with wide eyes filled with terror.
She hadn't expected that the man who had sworn to love her for a lifetime just fifteen minutes ago,
would now unleash a fatal sword strike at her.
Yang Hong simply stared straight ahead, seemingly frozen with fear.
In reality, his true energy was already stirring, but he did not act.
He was gambling, betting that the Golden Core aura would intervene to save him.
"Puff~ Puff puff~~"
A grayish-yellow talisman suddenly appeared and unfurled in front of Yang Hong and Shi Feixuan, expanding to over ten feet wide in an instant.
All the sword energy that struck the giant talisman dissipated immediately.
"Immortal~"
"Cultivator!"
Shi Feixuan and Xu Ziling exclaimed almost simultaneously.
"Heh heh~ Young man, your vision is good. You actually know about cultivators.
You must have inherited something from a cultivator."
A gentle and pleasant voice echoed on the official road, and then a white-robed figure appeared before the three of them.
It was the Saintess of the Qian Yuan Sword Sect, and the senior disciple of the outer sect, Xi Miaohua.
"I don't know what the fairy is talking about. Since the fairy is protecting these two, this humble one shall take his leave."
Xu Ziling's face was pale, but he managed to compose himself.
He truly had a cultivator's heritage and naturally understood the power of cultivators.
Saying so, he slowly began to retreat.
"Heh heh~ A mere ant dares to play tricks on me."
Xi Miaohua sneered and extended her left hand, clenching it in the air.
"Whoosh~ Whoosh~"
Xu Ziling was immediately lifted into the air by an invisible giant hand, struggling with difficulty.
"Fairy, Young Master Xu was merely angry for a moment and did not intend to harm me. Please spare his life."
Shi Feixuan, who had recovered from her shock, lived up to her reputation as a saintess and immediately pleaded for Xu Ziling's life.
She seemed to have forgotten that just a few breaths ago, Xu Ziling was about to kill her too.
"Hmph~ I know what I'm doing."
Xi Miaohua snorted coldly, her hand movements unchanged.
"Pop~ Splash~~"
Under Xi Miaohua's true essence, all of Xu Ziling's clothes were stripped away and torn to shreds.
"Heh~ As expected, there's something!"
Xi Miaohua's eyes suddenly lit up. With a gentle wave of her left hand, she flung Xu Ziling away.
Simultaneously, a ring flew into her palm.
"Cough cough cough~"
Xu Ziling was thrown against a large tree, his face purple, coughing incessantly.
The casual strike of a Golden Core realm cultivator was not something a Heavenly Human realm martial artist could withstand.
"Ziling, Ziling, are you alright?"
Seeing Xu Ziling fall to the ground, Shi Feixuan rushed over to him with concern, completely disregarding Xu Ziling's current state.
Yang Hong cast a contemptuous glance at the pair of lovebirds, filled with disgust.
It was a miracle that Shi Feixuan could live so many years in the world of "The Legendary Moonlight Knight."
However, he was more interested in another person.
"Yang Hong greets Senior Sister Xi. Senior Sister, we meet again."
"Heh heh~ Junior Brother Yang, we meet again."
Xi Miaohua still wore her veil, but her eyes, as she looked at Yang Hong, held a touch of gentleness.
They had officially met twice before.
The first time was when Yang Hong's nominal master, Song Yu, broke through to the peak of Nascent Soul, and the second time was after exiting the secret realm.
"Senior Sister, didn't you return with Uncle-Master and the others?"
"Yes, I have a mission with several other senior brothers and cannot return for now."
"Is there anything Senior Sister needs my assistance with?"
Yang Hong, wanting to probe the reason for the cultivators' stay, inquired with a hint of enthusiasm.
"Heh heh~ There is indeed something Junior Brother can help with."
Xi Miaohua looked at Yang Hong, a hint of pity in her eyes.
She had learned some of Yang Hong's secrets when she was asked to stay by her sect,
and thus felt some pity for him.
However, as a cultivator, she had more subtle intentions.