Now, without the help of the black-clad people, facing an Exotic Beast of the Fifth Realm alone, the woman instantly felt immense pressure.
After all, being a half-step into the Fifth Realm is not the same as being in the realm, even half a step makes a huge difference.
The woman could barely hold her own by relying on her extremely skillful sword technique.
This was still because the giant bat had just given birth to a litter of young and was physically weak, otherwise it would have been even more dangerous.
The woman dared not be distracted in the slightest, focusing entirely on battling the giant bat.
As time ticked by, the woman grew increasingly anxious in her heart.
Is it certain, why hasn’t the setup been completed?
Just then, a voice came through.
"Alright, lure it over to me."
Upon hearing this voice, the woman, who was already at a complete disadvantage and relying solely on her sword to barely manage, felt as if she had been granted a reprieve and immediately led the giant bat towards the direction of the voice.
The distance was not far, and they quickly reached the position.
The giant bat, already blinded by rage.
Although it was merely an Exotic Beast, it was actually very intelligent, and among the people present, only the woman posed a threat to it.
Therefore, it decided it must kill the woman.
As for Zhao Ya and the others, it simply did not regard them as threats.
This oversight was exactly what led it to a big loss.
As it stepped into the ambush circle, kerosene suddenly poured down from above, drenching its entire body.
The giant bat was startled, while Zhao Ya shouted, "Get back!"
With that, he directly tossed the fire lighter in his hand.
Boom!
Flames surged high into the air.
The kerosene on the giant bat’s body ignited, and the raging flames caused it to emit a mournful cry.
The intense heat rapidly raised the temperature of the entire stone hall.
This was the reason Zhao Ya dared not use this kerosene casually before.
Because a slight mistake could potentially burn themselves to death as well.
However, this time Zhao Ya had carefully chosen a clever position, right at the center of the stone hall.
When the giant bat was set ablaze, Zhao Ya immediately retreated into the passage to escape the flames.
The others naturally followed suit and quickly took cover inside.
At this moment, the giant bat continued to burn, howling madly and crashing its body against the stone wall, trying to extinguish the flames.
But it wasn’t that easy.
This kerosene was specially made by Zhao Ya, igniting on contact with fire and being extremely difficult to extinguish.
Moreover, bats by nature fear fire.
The combination of factors meant that even as a Fifth Realm Exotic Beast, it had to resign to its fate.
At this moment, the little bats went seemingly insane, desperately rushing at the giant bat, seemingly intent on using their bodies to put out the flames.
But they only added to the pile of charred bodies with no effect.
Finally.
The kerosene burned out, and the flames gradually died down.
A nauseating stench of burnt flesh permeated the air.
The giant bat was certainly dead.
Burned alive into a piece of charcoal.
Frowning, the woman instructed her subordinates to quickly break open the giant bat’s corpse and retrieve a bead-like object from within.
Having obtained this item, the woman finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Luckily, this wasn’t destroyed by the fire."
She had taken the risk to deal with this giant bat all for the sake of this item.
Now that she had it, she felt a great sense of relief and then looked up at Zhao Ya and Nie Jingnian.
Nie Jingnian looked quite nervous.
Because the situation had changed, if the woman decided not to hold to her word, or even intend to kill to maintain her silence, it wasn’t out of the question.
In contrast, Zhao Ya seemed much calmer.
He quietly watched the woman, and their gazes met.
After a long while, the woman let out a soft laugh, "You really are quite brave, not afraid at all."
With that, she reached out, took out a small bag, and tossed it over.
Zhao Ya caught it with his knife, and upon opening while wearing gloves, he saw inside was a small box along with a bundle of gold notes.
"This is the gold I promised you, and inside the small box are twenty pieces of Fifth-grade jerky, goodbye!"
The woman turned her head to leave.
"Wait a moment!"
"Hmm? What else?" The woman asked curiously.
"Uh...your people can’t leave right now; they’ll need about an hour or so before they can move," Zhao Ya said.
As expected, the woman’s black-clad subordinates stood there dazed, as if drugged, unable to move.
The woman was taken aback, then immediately demanded coldly, "Did you do this?"
"Yes, I had to take precautions, in case you wanted to go back on your word or kill to maintain silence, I needed a chance to escape."
"Haha, really? Do you think by poisoning my subordinates, you can escape?" the woman asked coldly.
"Of course not, but haven’t you felt that even your Qi Blood is running a bit irregularly?"
The woman tested at his words, and sure enough, her face changed dramatically.
"You..."
"Don’t worry, I have no ill intentions, and your Realm is too high; my poison only temporarily weakens your strength a bit, but that’s enough to ensure our escape."
With that, Zhao Ya cupped his fists at the woman, "Farewell!"
Having said that, he pulled Nie Jingnian and turned to leave.
The woman’s expression was uncertain, but she did not pursue them.
Because indeed, her strength had somewhat decreased, and with Zhao Ya’s numerous tricks, she feared getting caught if she went after them.
She just shouted, "What’s your name?"
"No comment!" Zhao Ya was almost out of the stone hall, and without turning his head, he said, then disappeared into the Earth Cave.
He had no idea that after he left, the woman stood in place and suddenly laughed.
"Interesting, who would’ve thought there’d be such talent in this little Yunxiao County."
Although she was poisoned, with her strength, she quickly recovered within the time it takes a stick of incense to burn.
She took out a water sack, splashing water on her subordinates.
They slowly regained consciousness, unable to fight yet, but at least their wits were back.
"Miss, what happened to us...?" the black-clad people were all very anxious.
"Alright, it’s not your fault, just blame that kid for being too crafty. Pack up, we’re heading back to the Washing Sword Manor."