As the sword point was about to pierce him, despair filled Guan Tianyue's eyes.
But just then, Xu Chongshan suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
The Qi flowing through his body faltered, and the Black Sha True Qi sent him flying backward.
Having narrowly escaped death, Guan Tianyue leaped forward and struck with his palm, intent on killing this formidable foe.
Just then, a figure flashed past. Zuo Qingshuang caught Xu Chongshan and sent out a palm strike of her own.
The two currents of True Qi collided with an earth-shaking crash, and the entire hall rumbled.
Guan Tianyue staggered back two steps, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
Zuo Qingshuang stood unmoved, but abruptly turned to Li Nanchen:
"When?"
As soon as she spoke, she spat out a mouthful of blood!
Guan Tianyue should have been certain to die under Xu Chongshan's hate-filled sword strike.
He should even have been injured by her palm strike.
The [Black Sha Demonic Art] was formidable, but it had its limits. Had they fought thirty years ago, both Xu Chongshan and she, Zuo Qingshuang, would have lost more often than they won against him one-on-one.
But after thirty years of patient cultivation, the Pearl Pavilion's supreme art that she and Xu Chongshan practiced, the [Golden Jade Divine Art], was far beyond the methods of those demonic heretics.
Now Xu Chongshan had been defeated, and though she had clearly forced Guan Tianyue back, she had spat blood.
It was not because their martial arts were lacking, but because they had been poisoned.
It was already obvious who had poisoned them!
She simply did not know when she had been poisoned, or what poison it was.
Li Nanchen did not answer her question. Instead, he looked beyond the hall.
The sounds of slaughter came in waves from every direction, like a rising tide.
The faces of everyone in the hall had long since darkened at this turn of events.
Some were baffled and demanded an answer:
"Li Nanchen, why are you doing this?"
Others flew into a rage and cursed him at the top of their lungs:
"Li Nanchen, you deserve ten thousand deaths!!!"
Still others said nothing and tried to break out.
But when they circulated their internal Qi, they felt their meridians twist as if being wrung out, and like Zuo Qingshuang and Xu Chongshan, they spat blood.
Li Nanchen sighed softly.
"Everyone, don't waste your strength. The poison in your bodies is called [Qi-Severing Powder]. Though it isn't a deadly poison that seals the throat at the first drop of blood, as soon as you circulate your internal power, it will damage your meridians and block the flow of your True Qi.
"The harder you force your Qi to circulate, the worse your injuries will become.
"Even now, the entire Pearl Pavilion, from top to bottom, is slowly falling into the hands of my Black Sha Cult.
"I have just one question for you...
"Are you willing to submit to my Black Sha Cult?"
"You're a member of the Black Sha Cult?"
Zuo Qingshuang stared at Li Nanchen in disbelief.
The black-robed man to Li Nanchen's left chuckled, stepped forward, and slowly said:
"He is my son."
"Who are you?"
Zuo Qingshuang felt that his voice was indeed somewhat familiar, but after thirty years, whose memory could be good enough to remember a person's voice?
The man removed his hood, revealing a fairly gentle-looking face.
Unfortunately, a scar ran across his entire face, destroying one eye and making his once gentle features look particularly menacing.
Zuo Qingshuang's pupils contracted slightly.
That face slowly merged with the overbearing figure in her memories.
A name slipped from her lips:
"Feng Mantian!?
"You're Feng Mantian, the leader of the Black Sha Cult!"
Feng Mantian, leader of the Black Sha Cult!
Thirty years ago, relying on his [Black Sha Demonic Art], which had reached the pinnacle of mastery, he had fought a running battle against the experts of the seven great sects on Purple Sun Mountain.
In that battle, the old Pavilion Master had not personally intervened. The one who fought was the current Pavilion Master of the Pearl Pavilion, Zuo Qingshuang and Xu Chongshan's senior brother—Lou Yuxiao!
In the end, Feng Mantian had been struck by a sword and a palm and fallen into a bottomless abyss.
The sword scar on his face was Lou Yuxiao's handiwork.
Feng Mantian threw back his head and laughed.
"I never expected that, even after all these years, Miss Zuo would still have me on her mind.
"Thirty years ago, your Pearl Pavilion joined forces with the other six great sects to wipe out my Black Sha Cult.
"You destroyed everything my Black Sha Cult had built in a single stroke!
"Thirty years later, I have returned, and not one of your seven great sects will escape!
"First in line is your Pearl Pavilion!!"
Hearing this, Zuo Qingshuang burst out laughing.
"You arrogant fool, you're making me laugh.
"Thirty years ago, our late master was unwilling to bully a junior, so he sent our senior brother to deal with you.
"And now... you don't even dare show your face to my senior brother.
"You think you can sweep aside the seven great sects with a few underhanded schemes?
"Do you believe that bullshit yourself?
"Let me ask you: if my senior brother weren't in seclusion, would you dare show yourself before him?"
A dark light flickered faintly in Feng Mantian's eyes.
"Sharp-tongued woman!
"Blissful Monk, what do you think of this woman?"
"Not bad."
Blissful Monk was a plump monk with a ruddy face and a beaming smile.
His long, narrow eyes gave him a distinctly Buddha-like appearance.
Yet there was not a trace of compassion in his gaze.
"Then she's yours."
Feng Mantian spoke indifferently.
A cold, fierce light flickered in Zuo Qingshuang's eyes, but she said nothing.
They were the knife and chopping block, and she was the fish on the board. Even ten thousand words could not hurt them in the slightest.
Xu Chongshan forced himself to his feet.
"If you want to touch my junior sister, you'll have to step over my corpse first!!"
"Senior brother!"
Zuo Qingshuang hurriedly said:
"Focus and circulate your Qi first. Don't worry about me!!"
"...Those words again."
Xu Chongshan gave Zuo Qingshuang a helpless look.
"You girl, you've refused to be disciplined since you were little... Of all us fellow disciples, you're the most stubborn.
"But what could we do? You were the youngest, and whether it was Master or your senior brothers, you were the one we doted on most...
"Even I, your senior brother, was stern on the surface... but in truth, I let you do as you pleased.
"But you can't do as you please now.
"I absolutely won't let these beasts defile a single hair on your head!
"Unless... I die!!"
At that, he lowered his voice and said:
"I'll use my life to win you a sliver of a chance to survive.
"After you leave, you have two choices. First, look for our eldest senior brother on the back mountain... though I'm afraid that way may be blocked.
"Second... leave Nine-Congealing Mountain.
"Tell the martial world what happened here!
"The righteous heroes of the martial world will join forces to slay these fiends!!"
With that, he said no more. He turned his longsword, gritted his teeth against the agony of the [Qi-Severing Powder] churning through his meridians, and circulated his True Qi to strike.
Blood poured ceaselessly from his seven orifices, but he would rather fight to the death than yield!!
Zuo Qingshuang did not leave. Instead, she stepped forward after him.
"Word of what happened today will get out sooner or later. Since when have there been walls in this martial world that don't let the wind through?
"We all learned from the same master and spent half our lives together. Don't think you can walk the road to the Yellow Springs alone!!"
Seeing that Xu Chongshan and Zuo Qingshuang would rather die than submit, everyone in the hall shouted angrily:
"We of the Pearl Pavilion would rather die standing than live on our knees!!"
"We'd rather die standing than live on our knees!!"
"Good, good, good!!"
Feng Mantian roared with laughter.
"In that case, I'll grant your wish!!"
Black Sha True Qi gathered around his body, while Xu Chongshan and Zuo Qingshuang were covered in blood, yet their fighting spirit was sharp and undisguised.
The crowd was just about to charge into battle.
Just then, a whistling sound approached from afar.
A figure dressed in green traced a perfect arc through the air and landed with a crash right between the two groups.
Everyone looked in the direction the figure had come from. A plainly dressed young man was stepping through the door, holding one girl by the hand, carrying another on his back, and dragging a Green-Faced Ghost's corpse with his free hand.
When he saw them looking at him, the young man raised his head and smiled.
"It's lively in here."
P.S. Oh, right, today is the winter solstice. Have you all eaten dumplings?