Although it was a bit of an exaggeration, he suddenly felt as if the lives of those three people depended entirely on him!
He rushed into the kitchen, only to find someone already inside. The moment Lian Li burst in, he found himself staring directly into the other person’s eyes.
The man stared at Lian Li for a moment before asking, “Why aren’t you at the edge of the Holy Pool? What are you doing here?”
“I…” Lian Li was stunned for a second, but then he thought on his feet and said, “The Hall Master said three people came from the Central Plains, but only two have appeared so far. There’s still one person with the weakest martial arts whose whereabouts are unknown. We’ve been told to spread out and find him. We need to capture him as a hostage.”
Hearing Lian Li’s words, the man’s expression suddenly turned serious. “There’s still one person who hasn’t shown up?”
“Yes! Exactly!” Lian Li nodded frantically. “He hasn’t appeared yet, and the Hall Master is afraid he might be secretly plotting something.”
The man immediately stood up and approached Lian Li, reaching out to grab his wrist. “Come on, let’s go look for him together.”
The sudden movement of the man reaching out made Lian Li’s internal alarms blare. He suddenly feigned a look of shock, raising his hand to cover his mouth to dodge the hand reaching for him.
As the man looked up at him with a sharp, piercing gaze, Lian Li pointed at the window behind the man and shouted, “Watch out!”
Though the man was cautious, he couldn’t control his reflexes. He instinctively started to turn his head, but the moment it tilted even slightly, he realized it was a trick.
The only person who hadn’t appeared was right in front of him; what danger could possibly be behind him?
However, in that split second of hesitation, Lian Li’s whip had already coiled around his neck. The man tried to cry for help, but his throat was constricted so tightly that his face instantly turned a deep shade of red.
He grabbed Lian Li’s whip with one hand and raised the other, instantly summoning a swarm of scorpions and snakes.
Lian Li: “!!!”
With a flick of his whip, he slammed the man directly into the corner. The man’s head hit the wall, and he went still. The snakes and scorpions on the ground, deprived of their commander, wandered aimlessly for a moment before dispersing.
Lian Li rushed to the man’s side and stripped him of all his clothes, not bothering to check if he was dead or just unconscious.
After taking the clothes, he rushed to the counter and picked up two buckets of oil that were sitting on the floor.
The moment he lifted them, his only thought was: This is so damn heavy. Even though he had been practicing martial arts for a year and had internal energy protecting his body, his physical stamina still seemed a bit inferior to that of an average person.
Lian Li took a deep breath, carrying the two buckets of oil as he walked quickly toward the strange room he had seen earlier.
He was even more careful on the way back than he had been coming in. Fortunately, the Spirit Cult disciples’ attention was currently focused on Yun Huizhou, Zhao Honglan, and Qu Tingquan. Aside from that overly cautious man from before, the others saw him wearing the Spirit Cult uniform and, while his behavior was a bit odd, it wasn’t suspicious. They didn’t think much of it and simply shouted for him to go to the Holy Pool.
Lian Li gave a shout of affirmation, and the person turned and left.
Lian Li gritted his teeth, circulated his energy again to lift the oil, and began to trot.
When he reached the vicinity of the strange house, there happened to be no one around. However, Lian Li saw many snakes, insects, rats, and ants crawling out of small holes at the base of the house’s walls.
They were packed so densely that it made his skin crawl.
Moreover, most of these creatures were not heading toward the Holy Pool, but rather toward the direction they had come from.
Thinking of Yun Huizhou, who had not yet reached the Holy Pool, Lian Li felt a surge of anxiety. Most of these insects were likely being summoned by Yun Huizhou’s opponents.
He had to speed up.
He didn’t dare rest for a second. After checking that there was indeed no one around, he used his lightness skill to fly directly onto the roof, preventing himself from falling into the swarm of insects, snakes, and rats.
He pried open the lids of the oil buckets and splashed the oil near the small holes at the base of the house. When half a bucket remained, he used a dagger to cut the clothes he had stripped earlier into several strips of cloth, leaving only the largest piece aside. Then, he threw the other strips into the oil bucket to soak them through.
By the time he pulled them out, the oil in the bucket had decreased further.
He splashed the remaining oil in a circle around the house, then casually grabbed a bunch of wood and dry leaves to scatter around. Finally, he pulled out a fire starter and lit a handful of withered grass.
He first used his internal energy to strike the burning grass toward the area with the most oil and the densest swarm of insects. At the same time, he used his internal energy to palm out a gust of wind to fan the flames.
But he wasn’t finished. He picked up more withered grass placed at his feet, lit it, and threw it toward the small holes at the base of the walls.
He repeated this four times, setting a fire in all four directions of the house where the snakes and insects were being raised.
The weather was currently hot, and the vegetation here was lush. Although the interior of the Spirit Cult couldn’t be entirely primitive, this was a place for raising venomous creatures, so it was inevitable that more grass and shrubs were left to grow.
Soon, the entire area was ablaze.
Lian Li covered his nose and mouth, using the large piece of cloth that hadn’t been soaked in oil to wrap the smaller, oil-soaked strips inside.
Before the fire could leap to the roof, he hurriedly left.
He first found a place where the fire wouldn’t reach and hid for a while, rubbing some black ash onto his face.
When he heard Spirit Cult disciples shouting that the Gu House was on fire, he rushed into the crowd, covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve while shouting along with them.
He circled around and slipped back to the edge of the Holy Pool. By now, Zhao Honglan and Qu Tingquan had already sustained injuries.
Seeing them like this, he became even more worried about Yun Huizhou.
He took one last look at Zhao Honglan and Qu Tingquan, thinking: The fire is set, and I’ve caused the chaos. Now it’s up to you to seize the opportunity while the Spirit Cult is busy saving the Gu House to break out.
Now, he had to go check on Yun Huizhou.
He ran in the direction where the large swarm of insects had been crawling. Before long, he saw a figure suspended in mid-air.
He found a hidden corner and looked up.
Yun Huizhou’s opponents were a man in black robes and a woman in green robes. Each of them was manipulating a swarm of flying insects that circled around Yun Huizhou.
Yun Huizhou was in the air, while the two of them remained on the ground.
Lian Li glanced at the ground directly beneath Yun Huizhou, and his expression turned grim.
Fortunately, most of the Spirit Cult disciples were at the Holy Pool, and because Lian Li had set fire to the Gu House, many had gone to fight the fire. There were very few disciples in this area.
The two Spirit Cult Hall Masters didn’t dare to be careless against Yun Huizhou. Even though they had him surrounded by insect swarms, they didn’t dare relax.
Lian Li crept a bit closer again. High above, Yun Huizhou seemed to suddenly sense something. His saber techniques abruptly became frenzied, and saber qi flew in all directions.
The flying insects surrounding him began to fall like rain.
As these insects hit the ground, they were quickly devoured by the insects already there. Lian Li saw that the stingers on the tails of the scorpions that ate the flying insects were stained with a hint of blue.
One look was enough to know they were highly poisonous.
