Chapter 50: Silent Shock
The woman in simple clothes watched as Lu Bai drew ever closer, feeling a suffocating pressure wash over her.
Savage, vicious, bloodthirsty!
The woman’s chest tightened, and her heart hammered wildly, as if it were about to burst.
An aura that made the heart tremble emanated from him.
The woman trembled, a primal fear rising from the depths of her very being.
Her grip slackened, and the Willow Leaf Saber nearly fell from her hand.
"You’ll regret this!"
The woman gritted her teeth and shrieked.
With a surge of desperation, she put force into her hand, about to slit Li Yue’er’s throat with the Willow Leaf Saber!
"ROAR!"
In the next instant, a deafening tiger’s roar suddenly thundered through the ruined temple.
It was like a clap of thunder, exploding right next to her ear!
The woman’s body convulsed as if struck by lightning. She froze, her expression vacant and her mind a chaotic blank. Her ears were deaf to all sound.
Everything around her fell into a dead silence.
A severed hand, still clutching the Willow Leaf Saber, suddenly appeared before her eyes. It flew high into the air amidst a spray of blood before falling back down.
The hand looked vaguely familiar.
As the woman seemed to regain her senses, a thought flashed through her mind.
"AHH!"
The next moment, excruciating pain shot up from her wrist, jolting her back to full awareness. She let out a piercing scream.
"PSHHTT!"
The scream cut off abruptly.
A razor-sharp sword blade thrust into her mouth and pierced through the back of her skull.
A single strike, a fatal blow!
Only after he had killed her did Lu Bai let out a soft sigh of relief.
The tiger’s roar just now was the Secret Technique derived from the White Tiger Stance—Silent Shock.
It could startle the soul and seize the spirit, plunging all things into silence!
Forget the woman before him; even a real, ferocious tiger would have been stunned by his roar.
Moreover, after mastering several Secret Techniques, he was gradually beginning to notice a pattern.
The power of a Secret Technique was directly tied to one’s own Cultivation.
Take the Silent Shock Secret Technique, for example. If he were to step into the Inner Strength Realm, his Blood Qi would be stronger from cultivating his Internal Organs, and the technique’s power would increase as well.
The Bone Supreme Profound Scripture had never come with a true, inheritable Cultivation Technique.
But the two Secret Techniques it produced were both extremely important to Lu Bai.
The Eye of Illusion was his best tool for finding Ghostly Creatures and breaking through Illusion Realms.
As his Cultivation improved, the duration he could maintain the Eye of Illusion would also continue to grow.
Bone Regeneration was a technique that consumed his own Blood Qi to heal wounds, and its effects were astonishing.
If not for this, he wouldn’t have survived his body’s abnormal, massive transformation and the tearing of his skin.
But not long after, the wounds had already healed and scabbed over.
Once his Blood Qi grew stronger, this healing effect would become even more potent.
Cultivated to its peak, it could truly bring the dead back to life and grow new flesh on bare bones!
It seemed that of his four Secret Techniques, besides the useless Ghost Commanding Order, the other three were of immense help to him.
Lu Bai drew his Cyan Cloud Sword and, with a single swing, severed the ropes binding Li Yue’er and Xiaodie.
The two of them remained stunned, their mouths slightly agape, seemingly yet to recover from the effects of Silent Shock.
Lu Bai paid them no mind.
’They just need a moment to recover.’
Lu Bai went over and began to search the body of the woman in simple clothes.
After searching her from top to bottom, he only found a few silver taels.
Lu Bai moved to the other corpses, patting them down one by one.
It wasn’t until he got to Zhao Wuji’s body that he found a few silver notes.
There was also a Yellow Tier Martial Technique, the Water Splitting Blade Skill.
’Better than nothing. Even if I can’t use it, I can sell it.’
Lu Bai pocketed everything.
He tallied his gains. The silver notes and loose silver from the bandits added up to two hundred taels.
Zhao Wuji’s group hadn’t dared to plunder caravans from large families, fearing they might attract Inner Family Masters or even Innate Martial Artists. They only robbed remote, poor villages, so they never managed to steal much silver.
The reason they had dared to ambush Li Yue’er this time was partly due to an old obsession.
On the other hand, it was because out of the three of them, only Li Yue’er was dressed in a Cultivator’s Daoist Robe, and she looked young.
If two Cultivators had been traveling together, he never would have dared to make a move.
After searching all the corpses, Lu Bai pulled a couple of garments from the bodies, pieced them together, and draped them over his frame.
None of the bandits’ clothes fit him properly.
’I’ll make do for now. I can buy new ones when I get to the city.’
Once Lu Bai had sorted himself out, he turned and looked back.
Li Yue’er and Xiaodie still wore expressions of utter, dumbfounded astonishment.
Lu Bai’s heart skipped a beat.
’Looking at them, don’t tell me my shout actually stunned them witless!’
’Silent Shock is an area-of-effect sound attack, after all. It’s not directional.’
’The closer you are, the stronger the effect.’
Lu Bai walked over, waved a hand in front of their faces, and asked tentatively, "Daoist Li? Xiaodie?"
A flicker of awareness finally returned to their eyes.
Seeing this, Lu Bai relaxed.
’If they’d turned into drooling idiots, I’d have a hard time explaining things in Bluestone County.’
In reality, both Xiaodie and Li Yue’er had come to their senses a while ago.
It was just that the shock from the tiger’s roar paled in comparison to the scene that had followed.
’Is this man before me really Lu Bai?’
’How could he have changed so drastically?’
The change in his physique was one thing.
But the terrifying combat power and ruthless methods he had just displayed were what truly stunned them!
"Young Master Lu, you..."
Xiaodie opened her mouth as if to say something, but then her vision went black and she collapsed backward.
She had been afflicted by a sinister presence and her body was already weak.
On top of that, the terror of being captured by the bandits had brought her to the brink of a mental collapse. Lasting this long was already her limit.
Now that she was out of danger, she finally relaxed, and the last of her adrenaline faded. She could no longer stay conscious and fainted.
Li Yue’er quickly caught Xiaodie, propping her up.
But her gaze remained fixed on Lu Bai’s face, a mixture of shock, gratitude, and confusion in her eyes.
’No wonder Master always said that the Martial Dao of the Jianghu is full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons, and that you should never underestimate anyone.’
’I never imagined that an unassuming place like Liuxi Town could produce someone with such heroic spirit.’
’When Young Master Lu wanted to avenge Senior Brother Yu, I thought he was just acting on hot-blooded courage and righteous indignation.’
’But now I see that Young Master Lu is truly an extraordinary person, capable of such decisive and powerful methods!’
For a moment, a thousand thoughts raced through Li Yue’er’s mind.
And yet, for some reason, this Young Master Lu gave her a strange feeling.
’He clearly possesses such incredible abilities, yet he never showed them.’
’He has the air of a hero, yet just a moment ago he was rummaging through the bandits’ corpses for a few silver taels.’
’Aren’t great heroes supposed to be magnanimous and view money as dirt?’
"Young Master Lu... are you in dire need of money?"
Li Yue’er couldn’t help but ask.
"I am!"
Lu Bai replied matter-of-factly.
’Who would ever complain about having too much money?’
"Oh..."
Li Yue’er looked thoughtful.
This Young Master Lu was completely different from the disciples of prestigious families and the senior brothers and sisters she knew in the Cultivation Realm.
Even when those people were short on funds, they would always put up a front, too ashamed to speak of money.
None of them would ever be as frank as Young Master Lu.
"Young Master Lu, I still haven’t properly thanked you for saving my life."
Li Yue’er suddenly snapped out of her daze and said quickly.
Hearing this, Lu Bai turned to look at her, smiled faintly, and said, "There’s no need for thanks. Or perhaps..."
"You want another... token... of appreciation?"
Li Yue’er’s face flushed red. She lowered her head and mumbled shyly, "But I... I don’t have anything on me anymore."