Chapter 354: Lin Suo, The Mysterious One

Li Luo felt his stomach sink when he saw the golden aura being sucked away into the black gourd. At least now he could finally confirm that Lin Suo’s target had been Lu Qing’er from the start, and not him.

Or rather, just the Golden Dragon Qi?

But Lu Qing’er had only gotten the Golden Dragon Qi after entering the Dao Fields. Lin Suo had entered before that. Did he know this whole time?

And why wasn’t Lin Suo afraid of Yu Hongxi?

Did he think he could get out of this alive when he got back to the Xia Kingdom?

Li Luo’s mind was racing with questions, all while he evaluated the situation. Lin Suo was definitely not an easy person to deal with.

Still, his objective was clear. Ultimately, he had to save Lu Qing’er. That was all. Regardless of Lin Suo’s plans.

Two separate streams of resonant power flowed within him—waterlight and woodearth. He channeled them to his blades and kicked away at the ground, launching himself forward.

Li Luo slashed out wildly to cover his advance, his flurry of swordlight attacks leaving deep gouges on the ground.

“Fool.” Lin Suo shook his head.

“So what if you have dual resonances? You’re just a mere Third Pattern.”

He pulled out an iron mace and started swinging the bulky, bludgeoning weapon over his head. Blood-red power flew through the air, becoming crimson plum blossoms in the air that floated towards Li Luo.

The contrast was bizarre enough to make Li Luo blink. He could sense that there was something dark about them. He did not dare to dawdle, immediately combining his resonant powers.

Whoosh!

Swords glowing with a fresh coat of power, he slashed away at the blossoms. Each time one was cut, it dissipated with a dark hiss.

Li Luo was cutting his way through the crimson flowers, slowly and surely approaching Lin Suo.

His four resonant bubbles popped, filling him with fresh strength.

Ding!

The crimson mace moved with surprising dexterity despite its ponderous bulk, deftly deflecting Li Luo’s attacks. Through it all, Lin Suo barely moved, his defense impregnable.

Li Luo was getting less and less confident by the moment. Lin Suo seemed even stronger than Zhao Ziyang or Zhu Xuan. Even when fighting against Li Luo’s full strength, he seemed to be handling it with ease.

This guy had really hidden himself well!

Ding!

Another clash, and Li Luo was sent staggering back into a clump of bushes. Lin Suo stepped forward to press his advantage, when suddenly a tiger’s roar broke into the fray.

Heavy spear sweeping out in a deadly arc, the new attacker leaped at Lin Suo with no hesitation.

Qin Zhulu!

A pang of irritation showed on Lin Suo’s face, although he was still not worried. Another twirl of his mace created three hoops of blood that floated around him as a defense, and he turned to deal with the new attacker.

Ding!

The roaring tiger-youth was sent flying with a splendid smash of the mace, his golden stripes battling against the bloody impact of the mace.

Crash!

His body smashed into a tree and broke it.

He sprung up again in a trice and started charging again, his own eyes red with the hunger of battle. He was oblivious to the wounds that the mace had left behind, deep enough to pulp the surface of his flesh.

Each of Qin Zhulu’s attacks were incredibly savage. They were reckless, risking his life again and again just to cause a little bit more harm to his opponent. Lin Suo was fighting more cautiously to protect himself. After all, he held the advantage, so there was no need to trade damage with a weaker opponent.

Swoosh!

From where Li Luo had backed away into the trees, a streak of light flew out, headed straight for Lin Suo’s throat.

It was an arrow, fashioned with resonant power. Lin Suo’s eyes widened at the speed.

He opened his mouth reflexively to spray his corrosive blood at the new attack.

It formed an arrow of blood that flew on course to crash against the arrow of water, but the latter had a core of light energy as well. It changed course mid-air, then it homed in on Lin Suo again.

His defense had missed?

Lin Suo panicked, then he threw his arm up to brace himself. The arrow shot past him.

Turning, he saw that it had buried itself in the black gourd hovering above Lu Qing’er’s brow.

Ding!

There was a clear ringing sound as the black gourd was sent flying. It was not broken, but it had been knocked out of position.

The flow of golden mist stopped. Now it hung in the air with the faint roar of a dragon echoing all about them.

Lin Suo’s face darkened.

…

At the same time, in the forest some distance away.

The messy battle had ground to a sudden halt because of the dragon roars they could hear.

Both Zhao Ziyang’s faction and Zhu Xuan’s faction paused, looking over with alarm.

“That’s… the camp!” Zhao Ziyang exclaimed.

“And is that golden column the Golden Dragon Qi?” Gu Ying hissed.

“Someone’s set it free?!”

Zhao Ziyang’s group turned on Zhu Xuan furiously. “Your methods are vile. Since you can’t win, you’ll set the Golden Dragon Qi free?! Lu Qing’er’s mother is the president of the Xia Kingdom’s Golden Dragon Bank. She won’t let you off!”

Zhu Xuan was cringing with horror and fury. “You think I don’t know?!” he shouted back indignantly. “Why the hell would I do something like that? Besides, I don’t even understand the Golden Dragon Qi well. How could I possibly release it?”

“As if it’s not your lackey doing it right now!” Zhao Ziyang thundered.

Zhu Xuan froze. Indeed, he had sent Lin Suo over, but it was just to hold Lu Qing’er and the others in place. After all, Li Luo was always bad news. He had to stop Li Luo from sneaking Lu Qing’er away under the cover of chaos.

But he had not ordered Lin Suo to release the Golden Dragon Qi from Lu Qing’er. He had spoken the truth—even though he might have agreed to it if he knew, he didn’t know it was possible!

Gu Ying took Zhu Xuan’s shocked silence as an admission of guilt. “You poisonous toad, we were just trying to get some dao-gold. You’ve killed the golden goose now!”

Even Zhu Xuan’s helpers were turning on him now. “What’s going on, Zhu Xuan?! If you release the Golden Dragon Qi, what are we going to do?!” Zhu Xuan was sweating bullets.

Ning Zhao quickly came to his side. “What’s going on?” he asked in an urgent whisper. “If the Golden Dragon Qi is destroyed, Qing’er might be safe, but we won’t be. President Yu will break every bone in our bodies when we get back!”

“How would I know what’s going on!?” Zhu Xuan snapped at him. “That Lin Suo! Something’s fishy!”

They were no longer paying attention to him. Zhao Ziyang and all the others were rushing back towards camp at full speed.

Zhu Xuan swore and gnashed his teeth, then he followed, his eyes burning with rage.

“Lin Suo, you bastard, what the f*ck have you done?!”

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