flstandardbreds Chapter 157 Air Fish
Chapter 157 Air Fish
The cool breeze of early winter swept through the sparse forest at the confluence of the three rivers. The commotion on Lin Fan's side quickly attracted the attention of other bandits, and some even took out crossbows, ready to shoot at Lin Fan.
But it was Ninth Brother who shouted, "Li Tie, where are you, you son of a bitch?"
A voice from the woods responded, "Ninth Brother, Tiezi is here."
Ninth Brother continued shouting, "What are you doing here? Take the kids and overturn all the carriages down there. Kill the men and kidnap the women. Do I need to teach you that?"
The man immediately agreed, and many of the surrounding people dispersed. Li Tie wasn't stubborn; he secretly instructed his next-ranking leader to leave a small group to help surround and kill the caravan before leading the rest of his men down the mountain to attack the caravan.
As a leader of considerable importance among the mountain bandits, Ninth Brother naturally possessed a sense of pride; having so many people surrounding him would be an insult to his dignity.
Ninth Brother turned to Lin Fan and said, "Escort, weren't you supposed to be a bodyguard? The goods are all gone, what's the point of protecting them now!"
Lin Fan wasn't just standing there in the tree; his mind was racing. But Ninth Brother alone wasn't a problem; he'd already taken care of him with his red sickle, which moved freely. The problem was the thing next to him with half a face and one hand—something he didn't know.
At this moment, another unexpected change occurred.
Suddenly, a fish-shaped hole appeared on Ninth Brother's body, through which one could see the dark forest behind him, and the hole seemed to be constantly moving like a live fish.
Soon, more and more transparent holes appeared on his body, and fish swam huddled together on his body, head to tail, their bodies overlapping.
It was a scene that was hard to describe. It looked as if the person was being devoured piece by piece by some evil spirit.
If it were the old Lin Fan, he would definitely have thought the same way, but he is no longer completely ignorant now.
Frowning and deep in thought, he used the Soul-Suppressing Pearl to calm his mind and desperately tried to grasp a clue from his memory, his somewhat sluggish brain working together.
"This is made from the skin of a type of Gu worm that swims in the air in southern Xinjiang; I call it the Concealment Cloth."
It was this thing that Lin Fan realized immediately. The other person was controlling this strange Gu worm, or rather, a transparent fish that could swim in the air.
Sanjiang Prefecture is not far from the Southern Frontier; I've encountered a Gu Master!
Now Lin Fan had a vivid image in his mind: these transparent fish surrounded the two of them, making them seem as if they had disappeared. Unlike the bulky and inconvenient invisibility cloth, these fish were alive and could make openings at any time, and could also move with people!
Lin Fan put his hand to his mouth and gave a mock whistle before jumping down. The moment he landed, several arrows flew through the air from the treetop where he had been standing. The bandits surrounding him didn't approach, but their intention to fire arrows at him never wavered.
Lin Fan could only avoid being ambushed by arrows by getting close to their leader.
Knowing the situation, he dared not use spider eggs casually anymore, lest he be ambushed while dizzy and unable to react.
A large cleaver appeared out of thin air above Lin Fan's head, but Lin Fan had already blocked it with a black blade. The Soul-Suppressing Pearl could read emotions and killing intent, so this kind of stealthy sneak attack was actually less threatening to Lin Fan than a straightforward, well-prepared strike.
However, this 'air fish' is not entirely useless. As long as the opponent suppresses their killing intent, Lin Fan cannot find where they are at all. In this respect, the living 'air fish' is indeed much better than the inanimate invisibility cloth. It is almost completely invisible, and the naked eye cannot detect any flaws.
Lin Fan could only barely keep up with the fight by relying on his intermittent emotional fluctuations.
He took out two more pills from his sleeve and swallowed them. Lin Fan was now nine feet tall, and his skin was purple. He simply put away his black knife and drew the wooden sword from his back, swinging it wildly as if he had given up and was trying to beat someone with a stick.
Ninth Brother sneered and drew his sword to slash at Lin Fan, who caught the steel blade with his wooden sword.
boom!
The wooden sword didn't break, but the steel knife, split in half, embedded itself into the wooden sword, and the two stick together instantly.
Just as he was getting anxious, Lin Fan felt a sharp pain in his hand. He turned around and saw that a small cut had been made on his arm, and a piece of skin and flesh had been torn away.
Beside the arm, a transparent 'air fish' seemed to slowly grow red blood vessels, gradually revealing pink veins.
This fish can bite! This fish can be completely transparent, even hiding its back, but it becomes visible after eating flesh and blood!
However, these thoughts only flashed through Lin Fan's mind. He couldn't possibly kill the fish by feeding them with his own body, could he?
Lin Fan freed one hand and threw his scythe directly at the air fish that was trying to escape after eating flesh and blood. With a crack, the air fish was shattered in mid-air, and bits of Lin Fan's flesh and blood also splattered everywhere.
At this moment, Lin Fan finally caught the emotion he was looking for.
With a thought, the mechanical beast emerged from the ground and looked up.
Unfortunately, Lin Fan couldn't see Xiao Yi's field of vision. Just as Lin Fan had predicted, fish could swim in water and even in the air, but they seemed unable to swim in the ground. Looking up from the ground, the Gu Master enveloped by the air fish could be seen clearly.
He gritted his teeth and stood not too close to Ninth Brother and Lin Fan, holding a strange cane in his hand and waving it around. A circle of air fish formed an airtight cover around him and kept swimming.
Unlike being completely invisible from the outside, from the inside it looks like looking up at the sky from underwater. You can see the ripples spreading as the moon swims by, and the shimmering moonlight reflected off the scales of the fish as they crowd together. It's quite beautiful.
However, the Gu Master was in no mood to appreciate it at the moment, and the mechanical beast didn't understand any of this; it only knew to bite his calf.
With a cry of "Ah!", the school of fish scattered, revealing a 'broken' human figure.
When Ninth Brother saw that things had changed, he did not turn around to help as Lin Fan had expected. Instead, he tried to pull out the knife stuck in the wooden sword and slashed at Lin Fan fiercely, each slash more vicious than the last.
Lin Fan barely managed to dodge with the flow of killing intent, and his wooden sword shattered into wood chips after parrying two blows.
Even if he drew the black knife, the steel knife naturally had the advantage of length. Although Lin Fan was strong and had never learned martial arts, he would not be at a disadvantage if the knife clashed with Lin Fan's. He was just afraid that his opponent would try to take advantage of him with skill.
Soon, although Lin Fan was not hit in any vital areas, he had many knife wounds on his body, and his dark blue bodyguard uniform was tattered.
Even though he had the upper hand, Ninth Brother was still uneasy and shouted to his men, "What are you standing there for? Go help the shaman!"
The shaman naturally refers to the Gu master who is now rolling on the ground. After being bitten by Xiao Yi, he first fell to the ground in pain, and then frantically tried to peel off the thing on his leg.
Xiao Yi, however, crawled along his body, trying to bite through his trachea.
The Gu Master had no other tricks up his sleeve; he simply waved his short staff, and the air fish beside him enveloped Xiao Yi, making it appear as if it had disappeared.
Only the Gu Master knew that the air fish was fragile and its sharp teeth couldn't penetrate the damned mechanical beast; it was only by being bitten to death repeatedly that it managed to hold on.
Before anyone could come to the rescue, the Gu Master saw that the镖师 (bodyguard/escort) had found a gap in Ninth Brother's defenses and was about to kill him first.
(There will be another chapter later. I know it's not good to leave a fight scene halfway through, but I really can't handle updating another chapter, so I've decided to post one chapter before midnight and another after midnight. Does that count as not having a break?)