Chapter Thirty-Two: The Boy and the Girl

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“Ah!”

“You little wretch! I’ll kill you!”

After having both kidneys stabbed in succession, Aslan finally managed, by the faint light, to see what his attacker looked like.

Contrary to what he had imagined, it was merely a filthy little girl. She wore grimy clothes and did not even come up to Aslan’s chest.

She was thin and frail, with hardly any flesh on her face.

Under normal circumstances, Aslan could have killed such a girl with a single slap.

Yet even a tiger fallen among dogs could be bullied. Now, even some filthy little girl dared to attack him?

“You’re looking for death!”

With a furious roar, Aslan could no longer spare a thought for his injuries. He drew his blade and swung it around in a savage arc, intending to finish off Second Lass.

But in the end, he struck nothing but empty air.

Second Lass was frail, but all the more agile for it. Standing behind Aslan, she easily evaded his slash.

Then, in the very next moment, she appeared behind him again and stabbed him once more.

“Pfft!”

Blood gushed forth, splattering across Second Lass’s face and making her look like a demon in the darkness.

Feeling the heat of the blood on her cheeks, Second Lass smiled.

At last, she could avenge her family!

“Go to hell!”

Her short blade stabbed into Aslan again and again, turning his back into a sieve through which blood poured freely.

Second Lass was like an agile rabbit. No matter how Aslan spun around, he could not strike her.

Instead, he only added more wounds to his own body.

Most importantly, this was Second Lass’s home.

She knew its every furnishing as well as if she had mapped it with her eyes closed. In a battle fought in darkness, she held the advantage.

Aslan knew that too. With blood constantly flowing from the wounds in his back, he felt his body growing weaker and his strength fading away.

He had to deal with the filthy girl. The longer this dragged on, the greater the chance that the Han soldiers outside would discover him.

“Filthy brat, I’ll kill you!”

Aslan’s eyes bulged with fury as he snarled under his breath. Then, astonishingly, he lifted an entire table with both hands.

Using the tabletop as a shield, he swung it around and began sweeping across the room.

He was certainly no match for Second Lass in agility, so he could only rely on his own advantage.

A sweep that could rout a thousand troops!

He attacked everything in the room indiscriminately.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Amid the shriek of splintering air, the table smashed into the walls, the door, and the stools, filling the room with thunderous crashes.

Everything inside was reduced to wreckage.

Aslan had entered a berserk, raging-bear state. He swung the table so swiftly that nothing could penetrate its defense. Second Lass could not approach him and was forced back again and again.

The space in which she could dodge grew smaller and smaller until she was finally driven into a corner.

“Found you!”

Aslan suddenly bared his teeth in a savage grin and swung the table violently toward the corner.

With a tremendous crash, the table shattered against the wall.

Second Lass had hidden in the triangular space between the walls. Though the two walls shielded her from the worst of the impact, the force of the table was still immense.

It struck her body, leaving her mind blank for a moment. After two days without food or water, she was already dizzy and disoriented.

Before she could recover, however, she felt her breathing grow labored and her neck tighten.

As strong as a black bear, Aslan had seized Second Lass by the throat with one hand and effortlessly lifted her off the ground.

“You little wretch. Let’s see where you can run now,” Aslan snarled through clenched teeth.

Originally, he had been struck by a saber and an arrow by that Han youth. The wounds had been serious, but not enough to threaten his life, and he had endured them.

But facing the girl’s frenzied stabbing, Aslan had finally reached his limit.

More than a dozen holes had been punched through his waist and back, blood bubbling out in torrents.

At that moment, his hatred for Second Lass had already surpassed his hatred for Li Xiao.

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“Cough, cough, cough!”

As the pressure around her neck tightened, Second Lass’s face flushed red. She could barely breathe.

“Am I going to die?”

At that moment, Second Lass felt no fear. Instead, she felt a trace of calm acceptance.

Her grandfather, her parents, and all her relatives in Sanhe Fort were dead. She was merely about to descend and join them.

The only one she could not bear to leave was her elder brother.

But Second Lass knew the difference between her strength and that of this Karluk man. Under normal circumstances, he could probably crush her to death with one hand.

Now that he had her by the throat, there was little chance she could escape.

Even so, Second Lass intended to drag him down with her and have him accompany her entire family in death.

“Come with me.”

Her body hung suspended in the air. Summoning all her remaining strength, she raised her hand and stabbed at Aslan again with the short blade.

“Know your place!”

Aslan merely sneered in contempt.

Before this, Second Lass had been as nimble as a monkey, and he had suffered greatly because he could not catch her.

But now that she was in his grasp, she still wanted to resist?

“Hmph!”

Aslan snorted coldly. While one hand held her by the throat, the other shot out and easily seized her hand.

He twisted it viciously.

Second Lass let out a cry of agony.

“Ah!”

The short blade fell from her hand with a clang.

Seeing the pain on her face, Aslan’s expression filled with the satisfaction of vengeance.

This was the first time anyone had ever made him suffer such a grievous loss.

Under ordinary circumstances, he would have tortured her properly, leaving her unable to live or die.

But the Han soldiers were outside. Aslan had to leave Sanhe Fort as quickly as possible.

“Filthy brat, I’ll let you off easy today.”

Yet before he could finish speaking, Aslan let out another agonized scream.

“Ah!”

His cry was so horrifying that it surpassed the bleating of a sheep being slaughtered during a festival.

Pain surged through his entire body, nearly rendering him unconscious.

When he looked down, he saw that although he had knocked the short blade from Second Lass’s right hand, her left hand now held a bloodstained arrow.

It was the very arrow Li Xiao had shot at him.

It was still embedded in his body, and he had not yet had the chance to remove it.

Taking advantage of the moment when Aslan’s attention wavered, Second Lass seized the arrowhead from the front and viciously ripped the entire arrow from his flesh.

Not only had the fletching passed through his body, but the shaft was covered in countless tiny barbs. These had all burrowed into Aslan’s flesh, making them nearly impossible to remove.

The extent of his agony could easily be imagined.

Beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead. His face twisted hideously, and his entire body trembled violently, as though he might pass out at any moment.

After suffering such grievous wounds, his body had already reached its limit.

Yet Aslan forced himself to remain conscious. His eyes blazed with fury as he roared like a beast:

“You little wretch! I’ll kill you!”

With those words, Aslan drew his curved saber and hacked at the girl before him.

“Heh…”

Facing the edge of Aslan’s saber, Second Lass only smiled faintly and slowly closed her eyes.

She seemed perfectly willing to face death.

But at that crucial moment, a thunderous crash suddenly erupted in the room. The door was violently smashed open.

A horse lance thrust in from outside.

“Pfft!”

The sound of steel piercing flesh rang out, followed by the unmistakable crack of splintering bone, unnaturally clear in the silent room.

“Urgh…”

Aslan gave a muffled groan, his eyes widening.

Blood continuously spilled from his mouth. As his lips opened and closed, a harsh, wheezing sound came from his throat, like an old, broken bellows.

He slowly lowered his head and saw that the horse lance had pierced straight through his body, dragging out fragments of his internal organs.

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At that moment, Aslan’s pupils contracted slightly.

He recognized the weapon.

The horse lance had originally belonged to him.

He had lost it during the battle, and it must have fallen into the hands of that Han youth.

So that meant…

Aslan struggled to turn his head and see who stood behind him.

But the horse lance had pierced his heart. Even Aslan, whose defenses had once seemed invincible, had finally been stripped of his armor.

The strength rapidly drained from his body, and blood soon gathered beneath his feet in a dark pool.

“Pfft!”

Another muffled sound rang out as Li Xiao stood in the doorway and pulled the horse lance free.

Without the support of the weapon, Aslan’s body collapsed heavily to the floor.

His eyes remained fixed on the wall ahead, their light gradually fading.

At the same time, Second Lass also crumpled to the ground.

She looked ahead.

Illuminated by the torchlight, she saw a tall youth in leather armor, holding a bloodstained horse lance as his wary gaze swept across everything in the room.

Seeing the unmistakable dress of a Han, Second Lass finally allowed herself to relax.

A powerful wave of dizziness swept over her once more.

Then she heard footsteps approaching. The youth walked through the blood pooled on the floor and stopped before her.

He slowly crouched down and made a quick examination, confirming that the girl had no obvious wounds. Only then did he relax.

“Little girl, are you all right?”

The youth’s voice reached her ears. Fighting to remain conscious, the girl looked up at him.

Now, she could finally see him clearly.

His face was resolute, his features sharply defined as though carved by a blade. His brows were straight and striking, and his eyes deep and bright. Yet at that moment, they were filled with a lingering murderous aura, making him resemble a war god who had just returned from the Asura battlefield.

His cheeks were splattered with blood. Washed by the rain, it had streaked across his face, further accentuating the fierce, cold, youthful heroism in his features.

Droplets of water slid from his jaw and fell onto his clothes, already caked with mud and blood.

Who knew how many Karluk warriors had died by his hand before he could possess such a terrifying presence?

Second Lass gazed deeply at the youth. Gradually, her vision began to blur, and she felt that her body had reached its absolute limit.

She was so tired.

She wanted nothing more than to sleep soundly.

Grasping the hem of Li Xiao’s clothing, she summoned the last of her strength. Her gaze drifted toward the kang bed in the inner room, and she murmured:

“My brother…”

Then she lost consciousness.

“How did she pass out?”

Li Xiao touched the girl’s neck. When he felt that her pulse was still beating, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He shook his head slightly, guessing that exhaustion was to blame.

After remaining tense for so long, the sudden release of that strain could easily cause someone to faint.

“Let’s get her onto the kang first.”

The floor was covered in blood and heavy with dampness. Li Xiao could not leave the girl unconscious on the ground.

He handed the horse lance to Ironhead behind him.

Then he slipped one arm beneath the girl’s neck and the other beneath her knees, lifting her with ease.

She was not short, but her body was light and soft, placing no burden on Li Xiao at all.

Carrying her into the inner room, he laid her on the kang bed.

Only then did Li Xiao notice that a wooden board in the middle of the kang had been pried open.

The space beneath it was pitch-black. Nothing could be seen inside.

It was probably a cellar.

Han families were accustomed to digging cellars. They could be used to store grain, or as hiding places in dangerous times.

Remembering that the girl had just mentioned her brother, Li Xiao turned his gaze toward Luo Meng and Second Tiger.