"You have saved my life. I cannot thank you enough. If you have anything you want, you can ask without hesitation and I will definitely fulfill your request to the best of my abilities."
Long Yi's voice had turned quite solemn which showed his resolve.
"No need to be that serious about it. You can fulfill my request while standing here. It is not that elaborate of a demand."
Gu Yue jokingly said to Long Yi in a playful manner.
"I have heard that your Dragon Sword holds a Golden Dragon that you can control at will. If possible I would like to see it. I know it is an unreasonable request but I can only hope that you will let me."
"Yes, that is true. My sword does hold a Golden Dragon but I am not strong enough to completely control the golden dragon yet. I am still able to show the sword to you if you want."
Long Yi was a realistic individual and was quite aware of himself, but seeing that Gu Yue despite being so powerful was still interested in his weapon, a little pride managed to drill its way into his heart.
Long Yi had by now thrown caution to the wind since Gu Yue had saved his life before. As such he sheathed his sword and respectfully handed it to Gu Yue for observation.
As soon as the sword changed hands, Gu Yue showed a faint smile which Long Yi took to be his excitement, although that smile might have looked a little evil to a third party observer, if there were any.
Gu Yue slowly unsheathed the sword and slid his fingers along the side of the sword as if trying to assess the quality and sharpness of the Dragon Sword.
While Long Yi was busy being proud of his weapon, the Dragon Sword slashed diagonally across his chest and a fountain of blood spilled out like a chaotic waterfall.
Long Yi didn't understand what had happened at all. He was dumbfoundedly looking at Gu Yue as if asking for an explanation for his actions.
Why save him at all if he wanted to kill him in the first place. Long Yi remembered what Xiao Luo had said to him earlier about not even trusting his own master but there was unfortunately no medicine for regret.
As his body was leaking blood and falling backwards, he saw Gu Yue laughing sinisterly.
Before he fell unconscious, he heard a voice in his head that infuriated him to no end.
"Your stupidity will cause the destruction of your sect. Give it up before it's too late."
He closed his eyes unwillingly but his hands were still clenched tightly into fists, revealing all the anger that he felt on himself and the way he was going to leave the world.
He knew that there was no way that Gu Yue was going to leave him alive. Before he could have made peace with his fate he heard a slight movement beside him and thought that his end was at hand.
He wasn't sure what he heard but he felt as if he had heard a woman's voice after he had closed his eyes. Maybe it was his mind playing games with him but that was when he heard it again.
"Brat, don't push your luck. I won't mind blasting you to death if you don't scram before I blink again."
He forced himself to open his eyes slightly at the corner. He couldn't believe himself when he saw Gu Yue silently retreating into the wind unwillingly before delivering the finishing blow. What shocked him further was that Gu Yue hadn't dared to retaliate after a single sentence from the woman.
Just who was this mysterious woman? Why had she saved him without asking anything in return?
"Don't think too much. I didn't save you out of the kindness of my heart. I owed your master a favor. Consider it repaid."
Although Long Yi had managed to open his eyes slightly, he wasn't able to take a look at the woman who had saved him. She was standing out of his field of vision but he was sure from her voice that she was definitely a woman who was graceful beyond measure.
He wanted to express his gratitude to the lady but no words came out of his mouth. He had lost too much blood and needed to recuperate before he could even talk let alone move.
After the feeble attempt at speaking, Long Yi got tired and drifted off into unconsciousness, not knowing what was happening around him.
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Some rogue cultivators ended up with a bounty on their head by making powerful enemies. Those who did not have a powerful sect or a powerful cultivation family to shield them from rain and wind usually ended up dead after constant pursuit and bloodshed.
And those who ended up surviving eventually ended up delusional or manic after the constant harassment of the money-hungry bounty hunters who needed nothing more than the head of the ones they were hunting.
One of those bounty hunters was renowned among the cultivation world for being powerful and efficient. The Pangolin had a legendary reputation when it came to bounty hunting. It was not interested in the small fries. It specialized in dealing with the highest bounties on the market and had never missed its mark ever since it had come over to the bounty hunting business after being driven out of its sect for being greedy and bloodthirsty. It had been accused of having murdered its fellow sect disciples and had been on the run ever since.
The Pangolin was an assassin in a bounty hunter outfit. It could stay under the ground for a long time. You could never know when it was going to strike. It would constantly be in the wait for the target to drop its guard before moving in for the kill.
This uncertainty and unpredictability made it more of a difficult opponent than even a hardcore assassin.
Recently there had been many bounties that were worth a lot of money and cultivation resources going around in the professional scene. Pangolin despite it being profitable had yet to go after any of these bounties. It knew that whatever it was that was going on, it was big and was bound to be dangerous.
Pangolin might be considered a legend in the bounty hunting scene but it was still cautious enough to not accept a job such as these without careful deliberation.
It would have been a fool if it were to accept the bounty without doing the due diligence. When it couldn't find any information on the targets, it only raised his curiosity instead of its wariness.
The Pangolin did like to take risks and this was the biggest gamble of them all for the stakes were definitely its life and the lives of its targets.
The only reason that it had decided to go after the big bounties was that it was not only good at hunting but was also good at escaping from the threats. Its ability to escape from danger by going underground had allowed it to wager all it wanted since it was almost guaranteed to get away scot free in any scenario.
The Pangolin moved towards the known location of the targets. It took him two days of almost continuous travelling to reach the place of residence of its targets.
The Pangolin went underground and sneaked its way towards Mount Dabie headed towards the hut where Zhang Jian and the others resided.