By rights this should have counted as a happy occasion. The trouble lay entirely with Xuanguang Cave’s Zheng Zisheng.
Smiling amiably on the surface, he’d abruptly struck to kill Yu Yuelong, and — relying on his deep foundation — had actually ambushed him into grave injury outright, and made off with that scroll of technique.
Among the Mixed Origin Grandmasters here, only these two had cultivation reaching the upper tier. Zheng Zisheng’s plan had been to settle the matter with a vicious strike, then use Xuanguang Cave’s name to overawe the rest. What he hadn’t reckoned on was that the act would rouse the fury of the crowd. Five against one, and they’d nearly cut Yu Yuelong down all the same — though as the price, he too now bore grave wounds.
“If we still don’t act,” one of the Mixed Origin Grandmasters said coldly, “then this lot of us needn’t even dream of getting so much as a mouthful of soup today.”
Something already in another man’s hands, a promise already made — and still he’d ambush and seize it by force. Since he wouldn’t keep to the rules, then let no one keep to them at all.
“Tch.” Zheng Zisheng sneered over at them. “The whole two or three stray cats and kittens of your sects — once I’m out of the cave estate, I’ll gather a few fellow disciples to pay them a call, and they’ll not one of them get to live, I fear.”
That Mixed Origin Grandmaster drew a deep breath and said blandly, “Then we’ll simply see to it you don’t get out.”
To rob a man of his cultivation heritage was to slay his very parents. And besides — that scroll of technique was in Zheng Zisheng’s hands now; whoever took it, it was theirs. Xuanguang Cave? Once they were out of the estate, who the devil would know what had happened inside. Grant him face and you’d call him Perfected Master; withhold it, and he was just a Mixed Origin Grandmaster — how much stronger could he be?
“Strike! I don’t want the technique — today I want only his life!”
Yu Yuehu roared and was first to charge out. The others followed without hesitation. Since the feud had already been forged, then of course it had to be settled swiftly — should the rest of the Xuanguang Cave people arrive, none of them would live.
“Insolence!”
Zheng Zisheng’s eyelid twitched. His face stayed composed, but inwardly he couldn’t help a flutter of panic. Yu Yuelong’s earlier desperate counterattack had made him suffer no small amount. Just then, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of something, and delight welled in his gaze. He shouted sharply, “Chen Zhong! Come out already!”
Before the words had finished, everyone’s faces changed abruptly. They instinctively turned to look. Far, far off, an old man in gray stood silent where he was, the aura leaking from his body — of all things — that of another upper-tier Mixed Origin.
Chen Zhong sighed. “…”
After coming in he’d scattered from the rest, and only came over to have a look on hearing the sounds of fighting. Once he saw it was Zheng Zisheng, he’d meant to turn and leave — but had been spotted all the same.
“Ha.”
Even the enraged Yu Yuehu could now only draw a hard breath. An upper-tier Mixed Origin in full, prime condition was already enough to turn the situation around.
“Kill me? Not one of you gets to leave today.”
Zheng Zisheng ground his teeth savagely, and finally no longer needed to deliberately maintain his earlier composure. He wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and shrieked arrogantly, “Strike! Leave none alive!”
At this, the four Mixed Origin Grandmasters went taut all over, braced as against a formidable foe. Regret was going too far, though. Their luck had simply been a touch poor, that was all. All of them cultivators who’d fought their way up through bloody gales of slaughter — which of them hadn’t made ready to lose his head? And besides, the outcome wasn’t yet decided.
Yu Yuehu knit his brow and urged, “Old Senior, you’re no man of Xuanguang Cave — don’t meddle in this! Once we’ve dealt with him, we’ll never sell you out.”
“You dare!” Zheng Zisheng glared over in fury. “You know full well — if I fall here in the estate, can you clear yourselves of the blame? Don’t forget those colleagues of yours…”
“Hoo.”
Chen Zhong smiled bitterly and lowered his eyes, finally stepping toward the small loft. Truthfully, he couldn’t afford the gamble. Unlike these cultivators who came and went alone, behind him stood the whole of the Nine Provinces.
“What’s all the dawdling for! I told you to strike, and quickly!”
Zheng Zisheng cursed a couple more times, beside himself with rage.
“Old Senior, you’d best think this through.” Yu Yuehu hung in midair, watching the old man press closer step by step, the chill in his eyes thickening. “By his account, you’re a man of Great Qian? Once one of the foremost powers, and now truly willing to play another’s dog?”
The other three Grandmasters cursed aloud as well. “The War Temple treats Xuanguang Cave as an ally — has he ever treated you as a human being? Earlier at the Eight-Direction Dining Hall, we still left you your face, made no mocking remarks. But now it seems you’ve truly thrown away all shame — where’s there a shred of a great sect’s bearing left?”
“What a waste of the reverence we once held for your kind!”
The War Temple had once been a power held in the highest esteem too, yearned after by countless cultivators. Now, seeing the old man asking no reasons, called hither and yon by Xuanguang Cave, without the least Grandmaster’s dignity, reduced wholly to a slave — the several men looked over with no small measure of grief that iron would not become steel. One of the three great powers — how could it fall to such a state?
“Hilarious.” Zheng Zisheng watched this crowd bark on and on, and felt nothing but vindication. “So now you know fear. Too late.”
With that, he looked toward Chen Zhong. The old man walked slowly to the middle, and neither side’s words could stir the least change in his expression. Chen Zhong’s head dipped slightly, his gray-white hair somewhat disheveled. His voice held no strength to it either. “Go, all of you. Today you can’t kill him.”
At this the several men blanked for an instant, then exchanged looks. Yu Yuehu glanced at the old man, then at his brother lying near death on the ground, and clenched his fists hard, wringing out a grinding, creaking sound. In the end he still cupped his hands in helpless resignation. “My thanks for the Senior’s mercy. It’s only… hah!”
“Who told you to let them go?”
Zheng Zisheng’s face went stiff, as though he found it hard to believe. Then he rebuked sharply, “I see you’ve lost all grasp of your own station. I told you to kill them — you dare disobey?”
“Fuck!” The several Grandmasters couldn’t help swearing aloud, the killing intent they’d just barely suppressed surging up once more.
Chen Zhong pressed down a palm to still the crowd’s fury, glanced back at Zheng Zisheng, and said softly, “The alliance sworn at the outset was to jointly resist the Thousand Demon Den. Nowhere in it, I think, was there any clause about killing people for you at your whim.”
“I’m Great Qian’s Inspector, not a blade in your Xuanguang Cave’s hand.”
“If you’re dissatisfied, we can go to Wutong Mountain to settle it fairly.”
Hearing Wutong Mountain’s name, Zheng Zisheng opened his mouth, but said nothing more, only shooting the other a sullen glare.
Just then, laughter came again from the distance.
“Settle it fairly?”
“What do you want with Wutong Mountain — let this king settle it instead.”
A tall tiger demon came ambling over, both arms wrapped behind its head. A single golden horn grew from its brow, its edge keen and bared. Behind it were two more figures, likewise smiling. The demon qi radiating from the three of them wasn’t the least bit inferior to Chen Zhong’s — indeed, a shade better.
“…”
Zheng Zisheng’s pupils contracted sharply. When foes meet, their eyes burn red, so the saying went — but at this moment his heart held only fright and dread. How could the Thousand Demon Den’s demon kings possibly appear inside the estate? They’d plainly left a fellow disciple guarding outside.
A trap?!
The several Mixed Origin Grandmasters stood in silence. Though they hadn’t exchanged a word, they’d already, with great speed, taken up a stance against the foe.
Chen Zhong’s face stayed calm as he silently looked back toward Zheng Zisheng — he wanted to know how much strength the man had left.
Just then, a look of alarm suddenly crossed his face. In his senses, another surpassingly dense demon qi burst open across the heavens.
The next moment, a crimson demon-cloud descended from the sky. A figure swept out from within it.
Beneath the surging ink-black robe, that long, slender treasure saber came chopping straight down with heaven-toppling demonic power! Not a word spoken — the very first strike a certain-kill move!
“There’s a great demon too?!”
In the crowd’s instant of panic, every heart sank straight down.
(End of Chapter 261)