No one had expected such a scene. Astonishment filled every face as they all turned to look at Yang An, who had struck first.
Du Ze's close friends, Li Ranxia and Ci Daoqi, instantly flew into a rage. Had Du Ze not reacted in time and stretched out his hand to stop them, the two would likely have attacked together already.
"Du Ze, why are you stopping us?!"
Ci Daoqi had always been hot-tempered. Seeing the people under his command severely wounded in an instant, and the other party attacking without any reason, he immediately erupted in fury.
Cold sweat had already seeped across Du Ze's forehead, yet he still stood before the two of them.
Knowing Yang An's temperament, Du Ze understood in an instant why Yang An had suddenly attacked this group.
The reason he had stopped them was not to keep them from hurting Yang An. He feared that, in a fit of anger, Yang An would regard his two close friends as demons as well and kill them. He was protecting them.
"This is the person I wanted to bring you to meet—Emei Prefecture's Elder Yang."
But Yang An's affairs could not be explained clearly in a few words. Du Ze could only first identify Yang An as one of their own, while preparing to explain why Yang An had acted.
Yet at that moment, Yang An smiled faintly at Li Ranxia and Ci Daoqi, raising a hand to point at the people screaming amid the crowd.
"Look."
His gesture drew everyone's attention, and they instinctively followed the direction in which he pointed.
The glow around the dozen or so cultivators had already vanished, but each bore a ghastly wound. Their bodies had been completely pierced through; broken organs could even be seen amid their flesh