The green-faced, red-eyed man stood extremely close to the eldest Sun brother as he spoke.
His breath struck the man's face, carrying a foul stench.
The eldest Sun brother's eyes rolled back, and in his extreme terror, he lost control of what was between his legs. Urine gushed into his pants.
The man holding him immediately looked disgusted.
He pressed his left hand against the back of his head and smashed it into the stone wall beside the doorframe.
Bang!
His brains burst out, and he died a swift, clean death.
"Dad!!"
The boy cried out in alarm. His legs felt as soft as noodles, utterly unable to support him, and he landed on his backside with a thump.
Old Master Sun staggered backward, shouting at the top of his lungs:
"M-murder! Murder!!!"
He also wanted to wake Zhou Qingmei.
They had seen great heroes of the martial world before. Though such people were stupid beyond saving in their eyes, they often had chivalrous hearts.
Faced with a scene like this, they would surely intervene.
Meanwhile, the two men outside the door had entered the courtyard.
After Old Master Sun shouted, his vision blurred for an instant. The two men who had just stepped into the courtyard were suddenly right in front of him.
Overcome by terror, he sucked in a sharp breath. His eyes rolled back and his toes went rigid. He had been frightened to death.
The two newcomers had originally planned to each take one of them.
They had not expected the old man to be so frail that he would simply drop dead.
The hand reaching for Old Master Sun had no choice but to withdraw in disappointment.
The other man casually lifted the boy off the ground.
Everything happened so quickly that by the time the child reacted, he had already been grabbed by the head and hoisted into the air.
The man spoke in a sinister voice:
"Zhou Qingmei, you're a true disciple of the Pearl Pavilion. Are you only brave enough to hide in the house and watch the show?
"If you still won't come out, I'll crush this brat to death too!"
Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei had indeed been watching the show, and enjoying it quite a bit.
There wasn't a decent person in the Sun family. Now they had gotten their just deserts.
But they hadn't expected to be involved in the matter themselves.
She and Fang Shuwen exchanged a glance, and Fang Shuwen raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Can you tell where these two are from?"
Zhou Qingmei shook her head.
There were simply too many strange people and strange things in the martial world.
But people as unconventional as these two were rare.
Judging by their looks and methods, there was no reason word of them wouldn't have gotten out.
Yet Zhou Qingmei had never heard of two such men.
Fang Shuwen nodded, pushed open the window, and climbed straight out.
Zhou Qingmei followed close behind.
Once she had found her footing, she looked up at the two men.
"Did you come looking for me?"
The two men's gazes only swept over Zhou Qingmei before settling on Fang Shuwen.
A trace of uncertainty and suspicion showed in their blood-red eyes.
Just as Fang Shuwen was growing impatient, one of them spoke.
"No, that can't be right."
"Yeah, he's so young. How could it be him?"
"Did we guess wrong?"
"But apart from him, there doesn't seem to be any other expert by Zhou Qingmei's side?"
"Could it have been a master passing by?"
"Ask?"
"Ask!"
The two spoke one after the other, paying Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei no mind at all.
Only then did they both look at Zhou Qingmei.
"Who helped you kill Black Granny?"
Black Granny!?
Zhou Qingmei instantly knew they meant the person who had dug her own grave in the woods, braving the heavy rain.
And Zhou Qingmei probably wouldn't forget that incident even many years from now.
After all, she had seen plenty of people dig graves for others, but those who dug their own were truly rare.
So that person's name was Black Granny?
These two were from the Black Sha Cult as well?
Although Zhou Qingmei had already guessed as much when the two men called for her to come out, she still found it hard to believe.
She and Fang Shuwen had spent so long deep in the mountains and forests.
They had only just come out, and the Black Sha Cult had already come knocking?
How on earth had they found her?
She suddenly said to Fang Shuwen:
"Smell me."
Fang Shuwen stepped back, his face full of refusal.
"I've kept you safe all this way. Why would you do me harm?"
Zhou Qingmei's face reddened.
"I suspect that black-robed person left some hidden trick on me that night. Otherwise, how could they have followed us here?"
"A hidden trick... doesn't necessarily have to be on your body, does it?"
Fang Shuwen silently looked up.
"It could also be hanging in the sky."
"In the sky?"
Zhou Qingmei instinctively looked up, and an eagle's cry suddenly rang out overhead.
She had heard that sound many times in recent days.
She had assumed it was an eagle or some other bird of prey from the mountains, but now she and Fang Shuwen had left that mountain behind. Was the bird still following them?
"Could those beasts be keeping an eye on us?"
"Ask?"
"Ask!"
The two of them likewise spoke one after the other, paying the fellow holding the child hostage no mind at all.
"Is that beast in the sky your eyes and ears?"
Such behavior naturally made the men angry.
The man holding the child stretched out his arm and silently tightened his five fingers.
Agony and terror made the child scream again and again.
Tears and snot streamed down his face together.
"Big brother, big sister, help!!"
The man holding him spoke with a vicious grin.
"Did you hear that? He's asking you to save him."
"We heard, we heard. What a racket."
Fang Shuwen waved a hand and said:
"Why don't you just be quick about it and kill him?"
The man froze and exchanged a glance with his companion. Did we find the wrong person?
This man is so ruthless. How could he belong to an upright and reputable sect? Could he be one of our kind too?
The other man still wanted to make another attempt. He raised a hand and snapped one of the child's arms.
The piercing scream echoed far into the night.
The man shouted angrily:
"Still not talking?"
Fang Shuwen rolled his eyes and suddenly stepped forward. Before he arrived, the wind came first, followed by a large hand striking out.
The man facing him turned an even darker shade of green, the blood-red color in his eyes so thick it seemed ready to drip.
He too let out an angry shout, turned one palm over, and thrust it out.
When the two palms met, it was like a boulder striking an iron mountain, producing a tremendous boom.
The green-faced, red-eyed man was sent flying backward the very next instant.
Fang Shuwen glanced at his own palm in some surprise. The man was tougher than he had expected.
But he immediately stepped forward, seized the man by the throat before he could land, and turned back to Zhou Qingmei's side. Looking coldly at the other man, he said:
"Talk. Is that thing in the sky your eyes and ears?
"If you don't tell me, I'll crush him to death!!"