Haoyuan City, the beginning of the Yin period. Most of the night has passed, the skyline in the distance is slightly white, but the night has not completely subsided, it is the time when the consciousness of people and dogs who have been vigilant all night is the most relaxed.

Outside Zhang's house, a man poked his head out of a hidden alley, his eyes gloomy, and the hair on the back of his head was braided into short, thin braids, as if the mane of a lion grew on the neck of an old jackal. With a slight touch of his toes, he silently jumped to his feet, reached out and grabbed the corner of the house, and was about to climb onto the roof.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his ankle from behind. The man was caught off guard and was dragged out of the air. The corner of the eaves broke in his hand.

The man quickly steadied himself and kicked his other leg back, his toe digging into the attacker's wrist. The sneak attacker was in pain and let go of his hand. The man threw himself to the ground. Just as the door was about to hit the ground, the left palm slapped on the ground, and a harrier eagle rolled over, threw its right hand backwards, smashing the corner of the eaves towards the sneak attacker, and then with a flick of the wrist, several silver needles flew out of the sleeve.

The sneak attacker seemed to have anticipated it, and as if he was stepping on the ice, he quickly slid backwards. The thin sword was unsheathed, smashing the corners of the eaves, and then the cold mang swirled, and the sword shadow built a barrier in front of him, and the sparks exploded, knocking all the silver needles away.

The man's figure flared up, and he instantly came to the attacker, raising his right arm and slamming it into front of him. The sneak assailant paused, raised his sword above his head, and suddenly stepped forward and slashed down. With a "bang", sparks burst out, and the thin sword slashed at the man's shield hidden under his shirt, bent backwards like a bow, and then straightened in an instant, bouncing the man's right arm away.

"What kind of sword is this! It's weird. The man was amazed, but he didn't hesitate to make a move, and he crashed into his opponent with the momentum. The two collided shoulder-to-shoulder, and the sneak attacker took half a step back, but the man took more than five or six steps back. As it retreated, the attacker caught up, and the man's face changed slightly, and he threw a throwing knife straight at his throat. The sneak attacker's figure froze slightly, and a sword slashed the flying knife open.

The man steadied himself and was waiting to meet his opponent's attack, when the sneak attacker suddenly stopped two arm's length in front of him. The distance between the two was beyond the range of the rapier's attack, but for some reason, the man did not feel the slightest sense of safety, and the years of licking blood from the knife had cultivated his instincts for dangerous beasts.

"Dangerous building nine-foot hanging blade!" (Move again, let you be dead here.) The sneak attacker wore a half-iron mask, covered his eyes, and had a small plaster on his chin.

"There are three households in a lonely village and one withered willow. The man hesitated for a moment, but still didn't dare to take the risk, and stood in place and whispered.

"There are chopsticks buried under the well. (Probe Sword)

Hearing this, the man's face changed slightly.

"The long stream eventually enters the sea, the dice do not come out of the cup, the four barrens are boundless, where are the withered willows. (I have to talk about the rules when I go to the rivers and lakes, I work in my territory, and I have no grudges with Your Excellency, why do you want to trouble me?)

"Nineteen o'clock out of the cup, go home and code the dice. (This business is mine now, and you can go back.) ）

"Knock on the side, laugh silently!" (want to rob people, deceive people too much!)

"Nanchuan Sai, go to Xijiang. The grass on the path is high, and the bamboo chopsticks can't support the window frame. (If you don't want to, just give it a try.) Mind you, swords don't have long eyes. ）

The man clenched his teeth, clenched his fists, thought for a long time, raised his hands, spread his palms, and turned his palms towards Ying Yanshu, panning towards the wall on the other side of the alley, and slowly walked towards Ying Yanshu. Ying Yanshu was still holding the jade willow sword, and the tip of the sword moved with the man, not daring to slack off. The man was expressionless and passed by Ying Yanshu. Ying Yanshu saw the man gradually disappearing into the depths of the alley, so he turned around and looked at Zhang's mansion under the cover of night.

The sky was quietly changing, and the moon was engulfed by heavy clouds.

The man's figure suddenly stopped, and the right hand, which had been raised at the side of his ear, was wiped behind his head, and suddenly raised behind him, like a bat silently waving its wings. The thin needle that was originally hidden in the braid was sandwiched between the calloused fingers and thrown at Ying Yanshu, and the needle glowed with a faint blue light.

Ying Yanshu seemed to be on guard, his ears trembled slightly, and he turned around in an instant, his pupils still turned golden. Swing your sword to form a sword shadow in front of you, blocking the poisonous needles that shoot at you.

At the same time, the man turned around and removed a string of steel beads from his neck with his left hand. Put your hands together in front of your chest, put them on your hands, and then suddenly push them forward. The string of beads broke, and the tiny steel balls shot out like locusts flying all over the sky, completely blocking the narrow alley. Some of the steel balls hit the wall, some bounced back, some were embedded directly into the wall, the shallow ones floated on the surface, and the deep ones sank into the wall by a full three inches.

In the face of this dense rain of steel balls, Rao is Ying Yanshu couldn't help but feel a little numb. At the moment, he pulled out and retreated, while swinging his sword to block a part of the steel balls, protecting his eyes, throat and other vital points. Other steel balls hit his legs, sending a bee-like sting.

Just as Ying Yanshu was retreating, the man took out two more projectiles from his waist, rubbed them lightly, and smashed them on the ground. The smoke suddenly dispersed, covering his figure. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, thinking about whether to fight or flee next.

Suddenly, there was a throbbing sensation in the back of the man's neck. A purple-black wound on the cervical vertebrae, squirming slightly, seemed to have something about to break through the skin. The man was horrified, it was not a wound, but the demon beast "curse" that he had implanted in his body.

"On the north bank of the middle reaches of the Buzzard River, there are insects, which are called curses. It is an inch long, with hidden wings, and lives under the skin at the back of the neck of humans and beasts, feeding on the blood of its host. Legend has it that the little thumb phalanx of the demon god was transformed after decay, and although he had low intelligence, he could communicate with fate and predict bad luck. When the host's life is in danger, the curse will break through and escape. ”

- "Ancient Demon Chronicles" Volume One Hundred and Three: Curse the Order

The mercenaries are all swordsmen who lick blood, and no one knows how they will die or where. Therefore, he found a precious curse on the black market and implanted it in his body. He had dodged three deadly sneak attacks with the curse's ability to predict doom. If it weren't for the absolute danger of death, the curse would never have moved, and even when he was attacked by the probe sword just now, the curse didn't react, and it was because of this that he dared to fight back. At this time, the probe sword had just been forced back by itself, so where did this danger come from? was it another competitor, or was it a more terrifying charmer? For a moment, he didn't know what to do but fear.

The sound of metal grinding sounded overhead, and although it was low, it was undoubtedly like a death knell in his ears.

He didn't dare to raise his head, but immediately bent down and rushed forward. But it was too late, and a thin iron rope with a sharp blade attached to the end suddenly fell, hitting him like a black lightning bolt, instantly piercing his body. Blood splattered, and body temperature quickly drained from the wound. The sound of a heartbeat is incomparably clear.

A slightly thin figure jumped down from the sky, and the iron rope in his hand was like a black snake flying in midair. The man was still on the run, the rope being quickly straightened, the blood-stained part being pulled out of the wound until the barbs of the sharp blade at the end of the rope hooked his spine like an anchor. The fleeing figure froze suddenly, the sensation of sharp pain piercing his brain, and the man's eyes went black, and he fell backwards to the ground, and then struggled desperately to prop up half of his body. At the back of its neck, a purple-black insect burst out from under its skin, spread a pair of small transparent wings, and flew into the night sky.

The attacker's right arm jerked up, and a shudder slammed into the man's back, severing his spine. Broken bones were accompanied by a splatter of flesh and blood, and blood-stained iron cables popped out of where the corpse was broken, like a demon dragon poking its head out of a sea of blood. I don't know if it was a coincidence or an intention, but as the rope flew back, the sharp blade at the end sliced the curse in two.

On the other side, Ying Yanshu had just blocked the steel balls that were shooting, and he saw that the smoke that diffused completely covered the narrow alley, and he didn't know if his colleague was still planning the next attack.

Suddenly, a cold light flashed in the smoke, and a thin blood-red iron cable came straight into his eyes. At the end of the rope is a small triangular blade, the size of a grown man's thumb, with sharp barbs on both sides that are particularly sinister. Ying Yanshu was taken aback, but he didn't panic, and the jade willow sword bypassed the sharp blade and slashed towards the chain body in the front section of the iron cable. The iron rope belongs to the long soldier, and has a natural advantage over short soldiers such as the upper sword, and unless it is close, he has no chance.

If the incoming iron rope is compared to a snake, and the sharp blade is the head of a snake, then the place where he Ying Yanshu is attacking now is seven inches. If he strikes with a single sword, he will be able to wrap the rope around the sword, forcing his opponent to abandon his weapon and engage in melee combat.

What Ying Yanshu didn't expect was that just as the blade of the sword and the iron cable were about to connect, the iron rope suddenly shook, and the head of the chain rose a few inches as if it had come to life, avoiding the blade of the sword, and then pulled it fiercely. If it weren't for Ying Yanshu's cultivation of Shuo Jianshu, his eyesight and reaction speed were extremely fast, and he was afraid that even half of his palm would be cut off if he was hit by this blow. The iron cables were emptied, and the iron buckles collided and rubbed against each other, making a terrifying "click" sound, and then retracted into the smoke.

This is a technique commonly used in soft whip weapons, jittering. Some warriors who are good at using soft whips will add some blades or hammers to the whip, and the techniques such as splitting and sweeping will be more destructive. However, this kind of soft whip embellished with heavy weapons can only be smashed, not shaken, because the heavier whip head can easily make the whip body break when it shakes. The whipping method used in this type of heavy-headed soft whip is known as the traditional whipping method. The pure whip method only seeks to be light, mainly shakes, and the rapid turn is more explosive.

When Ying Yanshu first saw the sharp blade of the iron chain head, he habitually thought that his opponent was using the traditional whip method. However, he overlooked a detail, that is, although a sharp blade was added, because the iron cable itself was heavier, the sharp blade of the chain head did not destroy the balance of the overall weight of the iron cable, and it was still able to perform the technique of shaking. However, to be able to control a soft whip of this weight so lightly, the opponent may not be as simple as a simple martial artist.

If he could choose, the last thing Ying Yanshu wanted to encounter was an opponent with a whip. The whip is easy to carry, especially when there are fewer enemies, so it is mostly used as a self-defense object by dart masters and some hermit masters, and the mercenary circle is very rare. First, mercenaries do a lot of black work, and although soft whip weapons are easy to carry, they are too quiet to hide; second, experienced mercenaries never take risks, and rarely let themselves fall into a one-to-many dangerous situation, and the biggest advantage of soft whip weapons cannot be brought into play; third, soft whip weapons are very dependent on the terrain, and they cannot exert their full power at any time, and mercenaries face too many risks in the mission, so they are naturally unwilling to use this weapon with extremely poor stability. But it is precisely because mercenaries rarely use whips, as long as they appear, they are all first-class ruthless characters. Especially the guy he is facing now, even in this narrow area that is not suitable for soft whip weapons, he did not hesitate to make a move.

The opponent's whip technique is very, very exquisite, and he can easily suppress the Jade Willow Sword, just like using a spear to deal with a jackal, and he doesn't have to worry about the beast's teeth going over the long stick to threaten him. Ying Yanshu had to be careful to dodge, tired of parrying. The other party didn't seem to be in a hurry to defeat him quickly, but just kept shaking to suppress and force Ying Yanshu's move. Several times, as soon as Ying Yanshu wanted to withdraw, there was a shaking blow behind his ear, forcing him back.

It seems that he is a very patient and determined opponent, Ying Yanshu's face is extremely solemn.

The smoke didn't last long, and the figure of the enemy gradually became clear, it was a small guy compared to the average adult man. Ying Yanshu looked at his face, his golden pupils quickly condensed, and the look in his eyes became brighter and brighter. Everything that had been dim became clear to his eyes, including the ghost mask on the man's face.

Charmer.

Ying Yanshu's heart sank suddenly. Is there anything worse than encountering a ghost in Xiling?

It seems that the task is a trap, just pity the colleague who hit the tiger's mouth, he smiled bitterly in his heart.

Strange, am I just a slightly more famous snitch? Why do you spend so much time on me? Could it be that I also crashed into the tiger's mouth? But before the real target appears, there is no reason for the charm to do it?

Ying Yanshu thought about it for a long time, but he didn't figure out why. In desperation, he had to start reminiscing about his companions in his brief career as a charmer. Accompanied by a chain of shadows in the sky, in the end, a name that he was most reluctant to face appeared in his mind.

Repair.

Damn, why is this guy? He's already an envoy of the Charm Division, isn't he?