Chapter 016: Let Me Kiss You There

Lamenting the cruelty of fate, Lin Feng had no choice but to face the danger before him head-on.

He had two options.

Either run, or stay and fight.

If he ran, his Iron Shirt would protect him from Shouzi and the others' punches and kicks — but against the broadsword wielded by the large man guarding the exit corridor, Lin Feng had absolutely no confidence he could make it through unscathed.

More importantly, even if Lin Feng managed to escape, regardless of whether Bai Xuewu and Bai Yichen survived, there would be no good outcome waiting for him.

If Bai Xuewu and Bai Yichen lost their lives — their fragrance faded, their jade broken — Lin Feng would lose any chance of completing the mission issued by the Peach Blossom Manual, and with it, any hope of receiving future missions from the Manual.

And if Bai Xuewu and Bai Yichen somehow managed to escape with their lives, then deserting at the moment of battle would make it nearly impossible for Lin Feng to ever win Bai Yichen's heart.

Lin Feng forced himself to calm down and took his place beside the two women.

"Bai Xuewu, I'll give you three seconds to reconsider. If you insist on this path, don't blame me for being ruthless," said an elderly man of around sixty, his expression dark and grim.

"Protect Yichen!" Bai Xuewu's face was as still as deep water.

Even Bai Yichen's youthful face betrayed not a trace of panic.

Lin Feng's expression, however, was a little odd. Bai Xuewu surely wasn't telling Bai Yichen to protect herself — so was she telling him to protect Yichen?

Lin Feng had no confidence whatsoever, but despite his anxiety, he held his head high and stood beside Bai Yichen.

"Move in!" The old man waved his hand.

The shadowy figures surrounding them closed in on Bai Yichen and Bai Xuewu from all sides. They seemed to hold some wariness toward Bai Xuewu, and after encircling her, they didn't launch an immediate attack.

The atmosphere was oppressively dead quiet.

The handful of other customers in the theater all huddled obediently on their sofas, suppressing the enormous fear in their hearts as they watched the scene unfold before them in a daze.

A few seconds later, one of the large men finally struck — his broadsword descending on Bai Xuewu with tremendous force and momentum.

Bai Xuewu reacted in an instant. Her longsword left a ghostly afterimage as it swept cleanly across the man's throat. The great blade he had raised high had not yet fallen when a red line appeared at his neck — then a clean gash split open, and crimson blood came gushing out.

No one had the mind to be awed by Bai Xuewu's breathtaking, decisive strike. The attack shattered the silence, and the surrounding figures launched themselves at Bai Xuewu and Bai Yichen almost simultaneously.

Lin Feng could feel the warm spray of blood from the man's severed neck hitting his skin. Having never witnessed anything like this before, his mind went completely blank.

It wasn't until a large man kicked him off his feet and sent him crashing to the ground that Lin Feng snapped back to his senses.

Seeing a flicker of unmistakable disappointment cross both Bai Xuewu and Bai Yichen's faces, Lin Feng could only smile bitterly. He wanted to protect Bai Yichen too — but on what grounds? With what ability?

A half-baked Iron Shirt?

With his current strength, Lin Feng wasn't even qualified to participate in the fight, let alone protect Bai Yichen.

Still, what gave Lin Feng some small comfort was that Bai Xuewu turned out to be an incredibly powerful martial artist. Facing the assault of dozens of men, she hadn't lost an inch of ground. In a mere few dozen seconds of life-and-death combat, more than half of the men surrounding her and Bai Yichen had already fallen, and the few remaining showed no particularly fearsome fighting ability.

Lin Feng glanced at the old man who had spoken earlier. Seeing the elder's composed, confident expression, a vague sense of unease settled in his chest.

It was right then that a woman who had been clutching a child and cowering in her seat, trembling with fear, suddenly stood up. She bolted toward the emergency exit as if trying to flee the chaos — but Lin Feng saw it clearly: in one of her hands, she gripped a gleaming broadsword.

"Watch out for that woman!" Lin Feng shouted.

Sure enough, just as the woman reached the edge of the fighting, she suddenly spun around and slashed at Bai Xuewu.

Bai Xuewu dodged the blow!

But in that same instant, the child the woman had been holding flew free from her arms and sailed forward. Judging by height, the figure looked to be only five or six years old — but when Lin Feng got a clear look at the face, he realized it was no child at all, but a dwarf who appeared to be at least thirty or forty years old.

A sinister grin twisted the dwarf's face as he flipped his wrist to reveal a dagger and drove it savagely toward Bai Yichen's chest.

Bai Yichen's abilities were far below Bai Xuewu's — she could barely hold her own, let alone withstand a surprise attack. Seeing the dwarf launching himself at her through the air, a flicker of genuine panic finally crossed Bai Yichen's pretty face.

But then — a sword strike, like a celestial blade falling from the heavens, skewered the airborne dwarf clean through in an instant.

It was Bai Xuewu's full-force strike. She had killed the dwarf, but paid a heavy price — a burly man landed a devastating kick square to her midsection.

Even so, as Bai Xuewu was driven backward, she turned the momentum and took the woman's life with a single fluid sword stroke.

In less than a minute, the area around Bai Xuewu and Bai Yichen was littered with fallen bodies. Their clothes had been completely soaked to a deep crimson red.

One by one, the attackers surrounding the two had gone down. Only the old man remained.

Though the old man had not moved to strike the entire time, Lin Feng didn't believe for a moment that he was harmless. On the contrary — judging by his steady, unhurried expression, Lin Feng was certain the elder was a master.

Bai Xuewu's lips were tinged with blood, her face deathly pale — clearly she had taken serious injuries. As for Bai Yichen, from the way she swayed unsteadily on her feet, it was obvious she would be no match for the old man.

Watching Bai Yichen's frightened state, Lin Feng felt a pang in his chest. He stood up, walked step by step to the side of the two women, positioned himself in front of Bai Yichen, and clenched his fists tight.

The old man paused, then smiled. "Not afraid to die?"

"Afraid," Lin Feng answered honestly.

"Then get out of the way."

Lin Feng knew the old man could probably deal with him easily, and that the elder clearly felt it beneath him to bother. Stepping aside would genuinely give him a chance to survive — but now that he knew Bai Yichen was meant to be his partner in this life, Lin Feng simply could not bring himself to abandon her and run.

A hot-blooded young man, even when faced with the most overwhelming odds, must keep his spine straight.

"I'm afraid of death — but that doesn't mean I'm afraid of you!" Having made up his mind, the weight on Lin Feng's heart eased considerably. He met the old man's mocking gaze directly and said, "You're old and scrawny, while I'm young and in my prime. If you know what's good for you, you'll back off now — otherwise, don't blame me for not holding back."

The old man let out a cold laugh and began walking toward Lin Feng with measured steps.

He was not a merciful man, nor did he particularly mind killing bystanders. He simply hadn't thought it worth the effort to deal with Lin Feng — but since the boy didn't know his place, he didn't mind sending him to the afterlife.

Lin Feng swallowed hard, fists clenched. Even if he died, even if he couldn't harm his opponent in the slightest, he would still throw one punch with everything he had!

Noticing the old man's pace slow slightly, Lin Feng felt a flicker of puzzlement.

He felt someone tug at his sleeve. Turning, he found Bai Xuewu still holding her sword, facing off against the old man while slowly retreating.

The old man clearly still held some wariness toward Bai Xuewu and didn't dare press in too close.

Before long, the three of them had backed into one of the private screening rooms designed for couples watching films together.

Once inside, Bai Yichen — whose stamina had long since been exhausted — finally gave out, slumping sideways onto the sofa and losing consciousness.

Bai Xuewu didn't look at Lin Feng. She said coolly, "You should go. The enemy isn't particularly strong, but they're beyond what you can handle. A pointless sacrifice serves no purpose."

Hearing Bai Xuewu say the enemy wasn't particularly strong, a thought sparked in Lin Feng's mind.

His Iron Shirt was only half-trained — even if the old man wasn't that powerful, Lin Feng still wouldn't be his match. But... what if he could learn an offensive martial technique?

Ten Peach Blossom Points, and he could learn the Iron Sand Palm.

Lin Feng had looked into the Iron Sand Palm before. As the name suggested, it was a palm technique trained using iron sand, belonging to the school of hard qigong. The Iron Sand Palm relied on fierce, masculine force — a specialized technique for conditioning the palms, commonly practiced by warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple. At high levels of mastery, a practitioner could shatter bricks and split stone.

The old man wasn't that strong to begin with. If he caught the old man off guard and struck while the man's attention was elsewhere — could one palm technique turn the tide?

Whatever the outcome, it was worth trying!

Though Bai Xuewu hadn't meant to insult him, the truth was that Lin Feng had been dragged into this mess because of the two women. And even though Lin Feng couldn't beat the old man and had no intention of running, Bai Xuewu showed not the slightest remorse or gratitude — she didn't even seem to take Lin Feng seriously at all.

Lin Feng's life had already been a gift to begin with, and whether he'd make it through today was still up in the air — Bai Xuewu's attitude put him in a foul mood. The corner of his refined mouth curved into a cocky arc as he said, "Whether or not I can handle that old man isn't for you to decide. But I'm certain of one thing — you definitely can't."

At his words, a strange glimmer flickered in Bai Xuewu's eyes. Even her face, cold as an ancient glacier, underwent a subtle shift in expression.

"You can handle him?"

Lin Feng's eyes drifted briefly to the area below Bai Xuewu's chin. Despite her clothes being soaked through with blood, it did nothing to diminish the allure of her ample chest — if anything, the exertion from the battle had left her breathing slightly ragged, making her chest rise and fall with every breath.

It was unavoidable, yet Lin Feng's cheeks still flushed warm. He swallowed and said, "I'll act — but you have to agree to one condition."

"What condition?"

"Let me kiss you there."

"Where?" A layer of icy frost instantly spread across Bai Xuewu's face.

Lin Feng had no interest in taking advantage of someone in a desperate situation — his mind was still relatively pure. Knowing that Bai Yichen was meant to be his partner in this life, he would much rather any intimate moments be shared with her. But at this moment, he had no choice.

"Your chest." The words barely left his mouth before Lin Feng's face turned scarlet.