To avoid any more inconvenience, Abigail directly teleported herself to a forest near the capital, the place was only about a day walk or two away. This forest was named 'Death Forest' due to the high amount of demonic beasts inside and although they were not nearly as strong as the demonic beasts in 'Beast Maw', their numbers could only be described using one word and that word was 'Extreme'.
There were two reason why the empire allowed a forest like this to exsist near the capital. The first reason was due to the foul Qi, the high amount of concentrated foul Qi made this an unlivable place and any normal beast that stay here for more than three days will be infected and turned into demonic beast, this resulted in an army of demonic beasts inside the forest.
The second reason was due to the fact most sects, schools,... Sent their students, heirs to this forest to get some fighting experience, this also applied to the king and his sons. And right at this moment, the heir of 'Yin Yang Sea' sect, a sect that focused on what people called 'Dual Cultivation', Zhan Liang was on his mission to find and capture a dangerous criminal that said to be hiding somewhere in this forest.
He took this mission after considering the pros and cons for days. The criminal was Liu Jiang, and the last time someone saw him, he was a eighth stage 'Core Formation' cultivator, this bastard has committed many crimes over the years but no one has ever caught him, most male bounty hunters died brutally under his schemes and tricks while beautiful female bounty hunters were captured and raped by him for days until he got bored and killed them off.
Zhan Liang certainly wasn't the for-justice type, but the rewards for capturing this bastard was too tempting to pass off despite the dangers. Beside, he was a stage of cultivation higher than this bastard, his resources were much better with rare Qi technique and strong battle skills, not to mention the small band of mercenary that he hired, what would he need to be afraid of, right ? Now thinking back, Zhan Liang wanted to beat himself up for his stupidity.
The first day they came into the forest, over half of the mercenary he hired were killed by various kind of traps. If only he had been a little smarter back then and decided to retreat right away, they wouldn't be in this situation... Before the three female mercenaries and him stood a ugly, 4' 7" tall looking man. This was the criminal they were chasing, Liu Jiang from the goblin race.
Goblins were a very fascinating species, instead of eating food, they only need water and sunlight to survive, just like a plant. The most special features about them were probably their green skin, short height, wrinkled face and unexpectedly high sex drive. If you were a woman and were captured by a goblin then killing yourself would be the most logical option, that is unless you were a masochist that like being violated by ugly people all day.
[Now, let's see what we got here...] - The goblin grinned maliciously as he lifted the chin of a female mercenary, the woman looked away with unwillingness evident in her black eyes as she tried her best to get away from him. Then he checked on the next woman but this one was way fiercer as she spat on his face the moment he touched her and grumbled. [Go to hell you stinky bastard!]
Wiping away the saliva on his face, Liu Jiang eyes turned bloodshot as he rammed the woman head against a tree making blood, tears, snorts flowed out from her face. He smashed her face repeatedly onto the ground until her face no longer look recognizable. Then he looked at the other two female mercenaries who was crying their eyes out, his cruel and hideous expression immediately made them shut up.
His gaze soon rested upon Zhan Liang and Zhan Liang could feel himself shudered from the piercing cold eyes, which hid a little bit of amusement deep down. The goblin stood up and a smile returned to his face, but the ear-to-ear smile combine with that wrinkled face of his made him look even a thousand more times uglier. [Look like we got ouselves a rich one over here...] - He hasn't finished when a whistling sound took away his attention.
One of the female mercenary immediately called out loudly for help. [Help!!! We're over here!] - And was soon kicked in the mouth by the goblin, he looked at her and grumbled. [Do you have a death wish, you damned bitch ?] - Then he pointed toward the dead female mercenary and continued. [Do you want to die like her ?]
Tears welled up in her eyes but the woman stopped herself from crying, she also quieted down but it was too late, Abigail was already here. Looking at the four with a confused expression, Abigail asked out loud, expecting an answer. [What's going on ?] - The four were all surprised by Abigail's beautiful look, but Zhan Liang soon regained his composure and screamed. [RUN!!!]
This made Abigail even more confused, but seeing the tied up state the four were in and that dead body sprawling on the ground, she quickly deducted the situation. It was too late though, the goblin bolted toward Abigail with a twisted, lust-filled face. When he was 3 feet away from Abigail, all three people, the mercenaries and Zhan Liang sighed as they closed their eyes.
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*Splash*
A loud splashing sound of liquid echoed through the forest and the stench of blood filled the small clearing. At this moment all three of them couldn't help but asked themselves why would the goblin kill that girl ? She was so beautiful and there's no way the goblin would pass that on, right ?
So they all opened their eyes and what they saw shocked them. The little girl was standing there without a speck of blood on her body, in fact she was perfectly fine, not even a scratch could be seen on her. In her right hand was a longsword with silvery glossy blade, gold handle and it was decorated with blood red rubies. There were ancient looking words carved onto the blade, which they couldn't understand at all, but actually all it take was a 'Earthling' who learned the almost dead language Latinh and you can translate the words to 'Excalibur'.
They looked down again to see a dead goblin, his body was cut in half with pieces of organs all over the ground. They honestly have no idea how a sword could do that to a person but they weren't going to question it. The girl then glanced at them once and asked. [Are you alright ?]
Now that they have time to truly look at the little girl, they could not help but be surprised. She was just a little girl looking about 5' 1" in height, she could hardly be called ten to twelve years of age. She was wearing a short plain white dress decorated with blue snowflakes on it, but one look and you will notice the material using to created the dress must be really expensive.
Her flowing white hair that floated due to the wind perfectly fit her pacific blue piercing eyes. Even as someone who has seen many beauties from different sects and notorious families, Zhan Liang must admitted she was more beautiful than a goddes. The girl cutely tilted her head to the side, a concern expression appeared on her face as she asked again. [Uhm... Are you guys alright ? Should i get something for you ?]
Her words broke all three out of their stupor and Zhan Liang replied for the three. [We're fine. Can you please cut the ropes for us, miss...?] - Abigail smiled and said. [Abigail. Abigail Reinhardt and before you ask anything, i'm not a citizen of the empire, i actually came from a far away land.] - She then moved on to cut their restraints as she continued. [I must say, it's really rare for a influentialperson like you to act like this.]
Zhan Liang lifted an eyebrow. [How do you know i'm an influential person ?] - To which Abigail replied laughingly. [It was due to your clothes. If i'm not wrong then your clothes were all made out of 'Dragon Silk' ? Sir...?] - Zhan Liang laughed. [How rude of me, asking a lady name without giving mine. I'm Zhan Liang, the next in line to become 'Yin Yang Sea' sect's sect master. And no offense but it's also pretty rare for a foreigner like you to come to this empire, miss Reinhardt.]
With that, Zhan Liang stood up and moved on to release the still crying mercenary while Abigail handle the other. Abigail looked at Zhan Liang before a gentle smile appeared as she responded to him. [Please, calling me by Abigail is fine and yes, i'm a long way from home...] - Then she continued. [...But to truly grow up, you need experience, don't you agree with me, sir Zhan ?]
After releasing the last mercenary, Abigail turned to walk away but was called back by Zhan Liang. [May i ask what your plan is, Abigail ?] - Abigail smiled seductively at him, causing Zhan Liang's face to grew very red, even he couldn't understand what was going on with him. [Fufu... Why would you want to know my plan ? Are you perhaps smitten by my beauty, sir Zhan ?]
Hearing her saying things like that, Zhan Liang was very much surprised due to her directness, not knowing what to say, he just stood there like a statue, rooted in place. Abigail laughed mischievously, kissed him on his cheek and whispered in his ear. [Don't worry, sir Zhan. I'll stay at the capital for awhile, go and meet me if you want.] - Finished, she concentrated 'Primordial Chaos' in her legs and flew away.
Her movements were as graceful and elegant as a swan, she soon disappeared into the vast forest while giggling at Zhan Liang's dumbfounded expression. As for the trio, after they had buried their fallen, the two female mercenaries returned just in time to see Abigail kissed Zhan Liang on the cheek and him standing there like a rock, not knowing what to do, their crappy mood was soon lifted after seeing this comical sight.
Looking embarrassedly at the mercenaries, Zhan Liang coughed, trying to ignore what just happened. As for Abigail, she reached the capitail that evening, her existence alone stole away the heart of many man, but she also became the center of all the woman nearby hatred. As if not noticing any of this, Abigail jogged toward the huge, about twevle feet tall iron door. Seeing the other taking out their money, Abigail did the same as she created twenty gold coins with a thought. Just when Abigail was about to give the guard her money, a voice called out to her.