With half a game of chess, I vanquish all demons!

The head of Wu Wei, the Black Iron Realm Warrior, is here; his death was so tragic.

And that headbutt he just delivered...

This is a martial artist, a powerful martial artist, even stronger than Yan Rouyun.

bang~

Leaving Wu Wei's underling's corpse lying on the ground in front of him, Zhao Yao remained motionless, his mind on high alert, and he looked nervously at the man holding the severed head, whose face was so thin it was stiff.

"Ha~"

The man, his face stiff, opened his mouth and exhaled a hot breath.

He walked closer, casually smashing the severed head against the corpse. His amber pupils flickered slightly, and his gaze fell heavily on Zhao Yao.

"You've seen a crazy old man?"

"no."

Zhao Yao shook his head.

As the two got closer, he could feel that the other person was radiating a powerful heat, which seemed quite mystical.

"lie……"

The man's amber pupils narrowed to needles, locking onto Zhao Yao with a dangerous look, as if he were about to strike and kill her at any moment.

Zhao Yao was about to argue when the man finished speaking:

"...But...I'll die!"

"I would not dare to lie."

Zhao Yao felt uncomfortable from the heat and lowered his head, covered in sweat.

He looked at the ground, remembering the mad old man's words: "Do me a favor. If someone passes by and asks for directions, point them to a side road and make sure they don't catch up with me. It could save your life."

The person in front of me must be the one the crazy old man was talking about who asked for directions.

However, at the foot of the desolate mountain, besides the path leading uphill, there is only this one main road. To point someone to a side road without being easily detected, one can only point them to the path leading uphill.

However, the three villages on the mountain are the places Zhao Yao needs to go after meeting the guiding officer in his mission, so he cannot just lead them randomly.

In this way, lying is risky, while telling the truth is harmful to others and not beneficial to oneself.

In addition, Yan Rouyun reminded her before leaving: "Don't get involved in the crazy old man's affairs."

Zhao Yao's denial that he had seen the mad old man was the best answer.

The man stared at Zhao Yao with his amber eyes for a few breaths, then nodded and said:

"If that's the case, then go die."

"?"

What the hell is this plot twist?!

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yao was shocked and stopped sweating.

He immediately tried to slip away from the man.

However, his opponent moved extremely quickly, clearly overwhelming him.

Awoo!

puff~

In that instant, Zhao Yao seemed to see a tiger with raging fire hidden in its abdomen and white steam rising from its mouth and nose, swiftly reaching out its claws to pounce on him.

He snapped out of his hallucination and saw that the stiff-faced man opposite him was holding a still-beating, warm heart in his hand.

He looked down and saw his empty chest.

bang~

His body went limp, and he knelt on the ground.

"Who are you... why did you kill me?"

Before dying, Zhao Yao, with doubt in his eyes, managed to utter these words with all his might before collapsing to the ground.

His body lay there with a large hole in his chest, which contrasted sharply with the body next to him with a human head embedded in its chest.

"I, an old man, dislike getting involved in cause and effect."

Talking to you is already a cause and effect, ha~

The stiff-faced man spoke to Zhao Yao's corpse, exhaling a puff of hot steam before continuing:

"I am Huo Xiaotian, the third leader of Black Wind Stronghold."

I asked you a question, you answered me, that's useful, the cause and effect are settled, I won't touch you.

If I ask you a question and you don't answer, it's useless. So, I have no choice but to kill you to settle the score.

Now that I've answered your question, we're even, haha~

After explaining his actions to the corpse, Huo Xiaotian exhaled another puff of scorching steam, casually tossed the heart aside, turned and left to continue his pursuit of the mad old man.

Not long after Huo Xiaotian left.

Call ~

The wind rustled the tips of the grass blades, bringing a cool, refreshing scent.

"suck--"

Zhao Yao let out a sharp gasp, as if his lungs were restarting, and suddenly opened his eyes, sitting up from the ground.

He heard Huo Xiaotian's last words. The mad old man's "I can save your life" meant this—if you follow this lunatic's logic, nothing will happen.

At this moment, his chest, which had been ripped open, and his heart, which had been taken away, were now filled with primordial energy, making it look as if he had never been injured at all.

But that's only a temporary filling of vital energy, replacing the heart's function.

He sat there, turned his head and looked around, and quickly spotted the heart that Huo Xiaotian had abandoned on the ground.

Sizzle~~

Zhao Yao used all four limbs, his knees scraping the ground, to quickly crawl to his heart, grab it, and press it back into his chest cavity.

With primordial energy present, the heart can still function.

The heart's function is currently being simulated by the filling of primordial energy, but after a period of time, the heart will be able to grow back on its original primordial energy structure.

"Run! We have to leave now, we can't stay here any longer! Who knows if that lunatic will come back later."

They waited and waited at the foot of the mountain for the military officer to escort them, but he never appeared. Instead, Wu Wei and this vicious man appeared one after the other...

Zhao Yao's face was gloomy. Without saying a word, he quickly packed his bags and immediately began to flee up the mountain.

He had no choice but to flee up the mountain.

The direction that mad old man and Huo Xiaotian went was the direction he came from, the direction of Wangzhou City. If he went in that direction, he would likely run into them again. If he went in the opposite direction, he would enter the mountains, which felt like walking into a wolf's den.

Carrying his bundle, he ran up the mountain while drawing his dagger and began cutting off pieces of his hair and clothes.

Bunches of hair and scraps of clothing were used to wrap stones, which he repeatedly threw far away onto the mountain path.

There are two purposes to doing this:

Firstly, he had communicated with Yan Rouyun. When Yan Rouyun was chasing him, she broke into the forest and relied on her strong sense of smell to catch up with him.

Whether this man, who seemed like a sick tiger, actually possessed such abilities, he didn't know, but he couldn't gamble, so he chose to try to mislead people in this way.

Secondly, he wanted to change his appearance to avoid being hunted down by people with bounty posters.

Not long after Zhao Yao fled to the desolate rocky mountains.

Beneath the desolate rocky mountain, Huo Xiaotian's figure reappeared.

He has no sense of direction.

I don't know how he got there; there's only one main road, how could he get lost?

Huo Xiaotian glanced at the ground and saw that one of the two corpses was gone, even the heart he had casually tossed aside was missing. He immediately figured out the reason:

"He didn't die... karma! Ha~"

He exhaled a puff of hot steam, and his amber eyes suddenly brightened, shining as if flames were burning within them.

"We must eliminate cause and effect!"

嗅~

On Huo Xiaotian's stiff face, his nostrils twitched almost imperceptibly as he inhaled a wisp of surrounding air.

After a moment's thought, he slowly looked up at the barren rock mountain...

On the barren rock mountain.

Zhao Yao kept running, never stopping.

As he fled, he used his inner vision to check the depletion of his primordial energy.

In the Jade Chess Game, the original three flame layers were all full of primordial energy.

Now, some of the energy used to fill the hole in the chest and replace the heart to maintain the body's functions has been used up, and the primordial energy has decreased by five points, causing it to fall below the fourth flame layer. The third flame layer is also no longer perfect due to the exhaustion.

"Being alive is already a tremendous blessing."

He silently comforted himself.

Zhao Yao shifted his gaze from inside to outside, keeping his pace, and saw a village appear ahead. It seemed to be one of the targets of this mission: Shanyin Village.

At the village entrance, a minor official in a cloud-patterned hat and crimson robe was busy with something...