Being the most careful one in the group, he felt a trace of aura from one of the bushes that was several meters away.
The rest of the group was frozen in place as they didn't sense anything had it not been for him. Looking in the direction Sun Min yelled, they felt confused as they saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Are you sure there is someone the…"
Before Xu Min could continue, several figures started to come out from behind the trees and plants in the same direction Sun Min had sensed before.
"You must be quite the careful fellow, I can't believe you sensed us even after we did our best to conceal our aura. It seems we still have much to learn."
A middle aged man leading a group of five man said while looking surprised at Sun Min's senses.
"You are the first to have noticed us, but if you are smart you should already know that you are not my opponent."
Sun Min felt their auras and was very surprised by the result as he realized that the entire group was in the fourth stage of Blood Qi and their leader, the man who spoke, was in the fifth.
Although they tried to conceal their auras the best they could, there was plenty of blood qi leaking out of their body showing a faint aura of their cultivation stage.
Sun Min and his group had realized that they could conceal their aura too, after being with Ling Xu, but they realized how difficult it was as it required a very delicate and precise control of their blood qi.
"What do you mean by doing this?"
Feeling the pressure of having a disadvantage in numbers and cultivation stage, he was in complete awe. He didn't know how they were going to get out of this alive, the difference in cultivation stage wasn't something that could be overcome easily. Even less when they had a disadvantage in numbers too.
Xie Lin was sweating cold drops feeling nothing good would come out of this, and the rest were doing even worse.
"Nothing much, I just need your weapons and that girl."
Said the leader as he pointed specially at Xie Lin's weapon and Xu Min. He didn't plan to do anything good if he got his way with her. The rest of his group looked at her with lustful eyes.
Gripping her hand hard until there was a mark of blood, Xu Min was infuriated at their pig like expressions. She wanted to slap them to death this moment but couldn't do anything as she knew they were at a serious disadvantage.
"And what would happen if I say no?"
"Well in that case you are going to die, you should know the difference in strength between us."
The leader then laughed as he was already thinking about what he would do to Xu Min before giving her to the rest of the group. They had already done this a few times since they entered the mission and he was very confident that there was almost no one who could rival him.
"Mr. Sun what should we do? I don't want to be touched by those bastards, I would prefer dying right now."
"Don't worry Xu Min, we would never give you to them. Even if we did they would probably kill us next once they had our weapons."
Said Xie Tan backing her up, Sun Min and Xie Lin nodded showing their full agreement on not selling her for their safety.
"Well, you leave me no choice."
The leader of the group of bastards said and instantly charged at Sun Min with his full speed.
He tried to fight back but once they exchanged blows he knew what would be the outcome of this fight.
Activating his skill, Sun Min parried the second attack with difficulty as his hands had started to hurt from the first exchange. He knew he couldn't last very long as the difference in strength from was very high.
On the other hand, the leader who seemed to be taking a stroll, felt nothing as the toughness of his skin could withstand Sun Min's blows. He barely felt any kind of discomfort when a blow landed on his chest.
"Mr. Sun!"
Running to help, Sun Min's teammates were stopped by the rest of the leader's crew as they started to fight and choose their own opponent.
They tried to defend but after Xie Tan was defeated, as he confronted one of the enemies and he was hit in the back by another one, the outcome was clear in just a few seconds.
On Mr. Sun's side, it didn't take more than a minute to see him with the leader's feet pressing his back against the floor.
"Arghhh!!!"
The sound of his rib breaking could be heard from the pressure.
"Stop! Let him go!"
Said his teammates gritting their teeth in anger. At the same time, a trace of tears could be seen as they saw their precious teammate in extreme pain, they felt despair and powerless.
"Don't worry girl, I will leave your friends alive so they can watch me have fun with you."
Taking his feet out of his back, he walked to take his price.
"Don't touch me, nooo!"
Xu Min was yelling in despair when the pig took her forcefully by the hand. He started taking her clothes slowly, one layer at a time.
"Let her go!!!"
The rest of the group had the same fate as Sun Min, having a fot on their back and their faces pressed on the ground, full of dirt.
"Hahaha! Don't worry, you will be one of the lucky ones to have been touched by me, Ren You."
Putting his hands on the last layer of protection on Xu Min, he tore it off as he felt a gust of wind brushing against the back of his face.
"What?!"
The feeling continued as it turned from the back of his head all the way to the front.
Ren You's vision started to spin until it showed him his own body. The last thing he saw was his headless body without any idea of what had just happened.
With a small part of her peach blossoms showing her white skin, Xu Min opened her eyes full of tears. She couldn't care less about the headless corpse belonging to the man who was about to abuse her, seeing behind a familiar figure she hadn't seen in a few days.
...
On Ling Xu's side, he was moving extremely fast with his Swift Steps skill, he was leisurely running while enjoying the feeling of moving as if following the wind.
"What was that?"
He heard the sound of a person very far away.
"Something must have happened, for me to be able to hear from this distance they must have screamed with all their strength."
Changing his direction, Ling Xu turned to the place where he heard the sound coming from. He didn't know who it was from but he wouldn't ignore someone in need when he had the opportunity to help.
[You have entered the outer layer of the Deserted Forest.]
Ling Xu advanced very fast and smoothly while avoiding any obstacle he had in front, with his use of the skill's flexibility to turn when he had a tree in front he didn't have anything to worry about.
Hearing the sounds of people every time closer, Ling Xu paid close attention as he realized that a hundred meters apart there was something going on. He activated his Enhanced Synapsis to enhance his senses to the limit.
"It's actually Mr. Sun and the rest, why are they fighting?"
He saw in front the fight unfold to its end and Ren You taking his feet off Sun Min to get his way with Xu Min.
"Damn, you dared to touch one of Mr. Sun's teammates!"
He clenched his hands in fury.
Ling Xu's body made a subtle sound like the one from a torrent and his eyes turned red with a wild expression.
His feet moved barely touching the floor and he made a turn in the air before reaching the next instant in front of the bastard who dared to touch her.
His short sword moved instantly, cutting his head in half very smoothly.
"Who are you?"
When Ling Xu appeared, Ren You's lackeys yelled in anger seeing him interrupt their fun.
Seeing Ling Xu appear a meter behind their boss they became furious as he didn't know who he was messing with. But the next second, they saw their boss' head falling to the ground.
You could hear a pin drop as no one made a sound.
"What?"
"Our boss is dead?!"
Ren You fell and now it was his lackeys turn to pay for what they were about to do.
Ling Xu moved again as he disappeared from their view for a second. The next moment, he reappeared in the same place.
"What happen…"
Before they could end their question, their vision turned until they saw their bodies lacking a head.
"Go to hell!"
Ling Xu turned his eyes to the fragile girl who had seen the same as the corpses on the floor. She then looked at his eyes, which were red and felt the pressure emanating from his blood qi.
Seeing her reaction, Ling Xu restrained his blood qi circulation speed once again until his eyes returned to normal.
"I hope I didn't arrive too late."
Saying with worry, he helped her stand up and turned to the rest of the group.
Seeing his neighbor breathing with difficulty and being in a complete mess, he walked to him right away.
"Wai…"
Xu Min from behind extended her hand and tried to say something, but her voice barely came out of her mouth so Ling Xu couldn't hear her as he was paying attention to Sun Min.
"Is that Ling Xu?"
Sun Min said as it was the last thing he saw before falling unconscious with his head against the ground.
…
Half a day later.
"Don't you dare lay a hand on her!"
Waking up, Sun Min yelled in anger as he thought he was still going through the moment Xu Min had her clothes ripped apart.
"Uh?"
He saw Xu Min guarding as it was already night and the Xie cousins were sleeping trying to recover from their own injuries.
"Mr. Sun, you are finally awake! How are you feeling?"
"Xu'er, how is it that you are…"
"That I am alright?"
Looking at her with pitiful eyes and feeling guilt as he wasn't able to avoid it from happening, he waited for her to explain.
"Mr. Sun, you may not know this as you fell unconscious but while I was about to have my virginity taken aw…"
"Cough… I know that part, but what exactly happened?"
He interrupted her before she completed the phrase, after all it wasn't something easy to talk about.
"Don't you remember who saved us?"
Sun Min looked at her in confusion as he started to remember a vague figure he saw before falling unconscious.
"It was Ling Xu that saved us! He appeared out of nowhere and killed that bastard and his lackeys in a matter of seconds. You should have seen him, well… I couldn't even see when he cut their heads as he went extremely fast so I doubt you could have actually seen him in action."
"Ling Xu?!"
Sun Min's expression became solemn as he finally realized how deep Ling Xu had hidden his strength, Xu Min who was in the same stage of cultivation as him wasn't even able to see him move before they were all dead.
He couldn't imagine how much the difference in strength must be for Ling Xu to be able to achieve such a feet.
"He even used a pill to help you replenish your blood qi so your body had enough energy to recover by itself and then he applied a very high grade wound ointment on your injured parts and where you had broken your bones."
He observed his body which seemed to have completely healed as he became shocked. Sun Min was completely aware of the several wounds he had on his body.
"Ouch!"
Moving carelessly, he felt the pain from his broken rib which had barely started to heal with the constant use of the wound ointment by Xu Min. She had almost used it completely after staying awake during the night letting the ones who were injured rest.
Although she was the one who would have suffered the most, and she knew that this event wouldn't leave her this easily, she was the one who suffered the least when it came to physical injuries.
"Be careful! Although this wound ointment helps recover injuries, it doesn't help with internal ones. Only after the constant use of it can there be some help in recovering faster."