Demonic Path

Fires suddenly sprang up everywhere within Guihua City, black smoke wrapped in blazing flames shooting straight into the sky. Cries of battle came from all directions, mixed with the panicked, despairing screams of countless civilians.

A sinister voice blanketed the entire Guihua City. "Men, loot and plunder to your hearts' content. For this one day, enjoy yourselves as you please!"

Thunderous cheers erupted from every direction. From the sound of it, the eastern, southern, western, and northern gates of Guihua City had all been breached at once, and bandit soldiers were flooding in from every side.

Hua Wuniang's body began to tremble violently. She shrieked, "Lin Shan~~~ No, husband~~~ No, master, you, you can't leave! Yao'er, you must save Yao'er!" With one hand, she snatched up Lin Yao, whose face had gone deathly pale from fright, and raced after Lin Shan in a flash.

The Hua Family members in the Great Hall, along with the many resident physicians and apothecaries, fell into chaos. Only Mr. Wei retained a little of a great general's bearing. He hurriedly selected several Martial Masters from the guards and ordered them to gather everyone in the rear courtyard, preparing to resist behind its sturdy walls and buildings. Yet Mr. Wei had no idea how long they could hold out. The fall of Guihua City had been far too bizarre. How had the city been breached after only a few peals of thunder?

If walls that sturdy had been breached, how long could Spring Return Hall's rear walls, barely three feet thick, possibly hold?

With a grim face, Lin Shan carried Lin Xiao all the way to the rear courtyard. He rushed into the storage room where Lin Xiao lived, tore off a piece of wrapping cloth, and bundled the Lin Family genealogy together with some loose gold, silver, and copper coins. He tied the small bundle firmly around Lin Xiao's waist. Before Lin Xiao could react, Lin Shan carried him and ran toward the most remote corner of the rear courtyard.

Within Spring Return Hall's rear garden was a patch of pitch-black, barren soil. It was said that some strange poisonous herb had once been planted there. After the herb died, its poison remained in the earth, leaving not a blade of grass able to grow and killing anyone who touched it. Thus, no one dared approach this acre of land. Over time, with no one tending it, the place had become a complete mess. The black earth was covered in rotten leaves and unknown refuse, and even from far away, a faint stench drifted over.

"Father, this is?" Lin Xiao's face changed when he saw Lin Shan rushing toward this death ground that everyone in Spring Return Hall feared at the mere mention of it.

"Good son, do not fear! With the Pill Token on you, the poison in this soil cannot harm you." Lin Shan gave a soft snort, then suddenly stepped onto an inconspicuous round stone in the black earth. The ground trembled faintly, and a crack barely two feet wide suddenly split open in the black soil. Carrying Lin Xiao, Lin Shan stepped into it in a single stride. The ground trembled once more, and the crack vanished without a trace. By the time Hua Wuniang came racing into the rear courtyard with Lin Yao in tow, how could she still find any sign of Lin Shan or Lin Xiao?

Hua Wuniang stamped her feet in panic and wailed, "Master, master, how could you heartlessly abandon mother and son like this? Sob sob~~~ Yao'er is your son too!"

Hearing the cries of battle drawing closer from all around, Lin Yao shrieked as well, "Father, save me, save me~ Your son was wrong! Your son will never dare again~"

What exactly Lin Yao would never dare do again, no one would ever know.

At some unknown moment, a huge man had leaped onto the rear wall of Spring Return Hall. His face was smeared with soot, black as pitch; only when his large eyes, more white than black, rolled wildly could a glimmer of white be seen. He held a specially made powerful bow six feet long. Seeing Lin Yao shouting loudly below, he gave a "Heh heh" laugh, nocked an arrow, and released it. A black shadow shot toward Lin Yao's heart like a venomous snake.

Hua Wuniang reacted swiftly. She reached back and caught the long arrow with incredible precision.

The force contained in the arrow was not strong. With Hua Wuniang's cultivation, she could easily have snapped it and sent it flying back to kill the man.

But just as Hua Wuniang's true qi was about to burst forth from her body, she suddenly gave a muffled groan. Two streams of blood spurted from her nostrils, and all the true qi in her body scattered completely. The arrow ripped across her palm with a tearing sound, drawing a blood spray several feet long before piercing through Lin Yao's heart and emerging from his back.

Lin Yao lowered his head and stared blankly at the transparent hole in his chest, as large as the mouth of a teacup. He struggled to lift his head, blood slowly dripping from the corner of his mouth. He looked at Hua Wuniang, whose expression had likewise frozen stiff, and asked hoarsely, "Mother~ Why, why didn't you save your son? Your son... still doesn't want to die. Your son doesn't want to die~"

With a thud, Lin Yao fell backward onto the ground, utterly devoid of breath.

Hua Wuniang's eyes flew wide open, her eyeballs seeming ready to drop from their sockets. A low rattling sound came from her throat as her body trembled violently. Slowly, she turned toward the man.

Several more men, their faces similarly smeared with black ash and dressed in black short fighting garb, leaped onto the wall. Seeing Lin Yao lying on the ground and Hua Wuniang with blood hanging beneath her nose, they burst into raucous laughter. One of the newcomers slapped the archer on the shoulder and laughed. "Fifth Brother, did you shoot her lover dead or something? This old woman looks like she wants to swallow you whole in one gulp!"

Fifth Brother, holding the bow, gave a strange laugh and said carelessly, "Swallow me? She'd need a stomach that big! Heh heh, the old immortal set up the Four Phases Soul Locking Array. No matter how many experts there are in Guihua City, they're all chicks now. Who can swallow me?"

Another man stroked the beard on his chin and appraised Hua Wuniang from head to toe. "She's a little old, but she's still got some charm. Doesn't the Second Leader like this sort?"

All the men laughed. They jumped down from the wall one after another and closed in on Hua Wuniang with lewd laughter.

Hua Wuniang narrowed her eyes, which were already filled with bloodshot veins. Again and again, she tried to mobilize the true qi of the Evergreen Art within her body. Yet each time the qi had barely entered her meridians, it dissipated for no reason. Every strand of qi that vanished felt as though a portion of her flesh and blood had been devoured, and her internal injuries worsened by the moment. Two streams of blood flowed from her nostrils like little creeks, while blood slowly seeped from her nose and the corners of her mouth. Yet Hua Wuniang seemed not to notice the pain within her body. Only one thought remained in her mind.

"They killed Yao'er! Yao'er is dead, slain by their arrows!"

"Whoever killed Yao'er must pay for Yao'er's life!"

A savage, crazed smile suddenly appeared on Hua Wuniang's face. Her lips split apart, and a layer of dim green light suddenly covered her features. Since she could not mobilize the true qi in her body, and every breath only worsened her injuries, then she might as well explode her dantian. Within Hua Wuniang's dantian, a dim green mass of qi suddenly detonated. The Evergreen True Qi, once as gentle as spring wind and rain that moistened all things in silence, now became furious dragons rushing through Hua Wuniang's meridians.

Power returned to Hua Wuniang's body.

Green light flashed through Hua Wuniang's eyes as she burst into wild laughter. "Bandits, pay for my son's life! My son~~~"

With a shrill scream, Hua Wuniang turned into afterimages filling the sky and pounced upon the burly men advancing on her with lecherous grins.

Her palms struck out again and again like iron plates, every blow carrying the pure true qi Hua Wuniang had cultivated bitterly for over thirty years. Every strike possessed nearly a thousand catties of force; every strike shattered their bones and tore their sinews. Several palms even punched in through their fronts and emerged from their backs.

Dull booms shook Spring Return Hall's rear courtyard again and again. Holding one breath, Hua Wuniang unleashed nearly a hundred palm strikes in the blink of an eye, forcibly beating those burly men into piles of mangled flesh. Fifth Brother, the archer in particular, was no longer recognizable as a person. Nothing remained on the ground but a ghastly puddle of blood.

"Yao'er, Yao'er~~~" The true qi within Hua Wuniang's body suddenly drained away. Blood surged from her seven orifices as she cried wildly at the sky, "My precious son~~~"

"Hmph hmph!" A cold sneer, sharp as a blade, suddenly rang out. A middle-aged man dressed in an absurd fashion abruptly appeared before Hua Wuniang. He wore a Daoist robe but had shaved his head completely bald. On his left foot was a rough hemp monk's boot; on his right, a brocade cloud-patterned boot. His face was thin and dark, thoroughly unremarkable, save for an enormous hooked nose that lent him an added air of sinister gloom. He gave Hua Wuniang a dark look and sneered. "Little girl, did you kill these people?"

Hua Wuniang coughed. The true qi in her body was melting away as swiftly as snow under the sun, taking her life with it. She gave the strange man a cold glance and nodded. "I did. So what?"

The strange man narrowed his eyes. "Very good."

Pressing his palms together before his chest, he smiled coldly. "Heaven cherishes life, so before every massacre of a city, I always find myself an excuse. This time, I have one!"

Such terrifying words as massacre a city came from this strange man as casually as eating and drinking. A deep, cruel savagery naturally seeped from his words, forcing Hua Wuniang's face to change as she staggered back several steps. At that moment, the man felt to her like a Three-Headed Golden Python Spring Return Hall had once acquired—a creature with not a trace of humanity left, only the most terrible killing intent and the most brutal murderous heart. How had Hua Wuniang ever seen someone so terrifying?

The strange man gave a grim smile, casually spread his right palm, and pressed it toward Hua Wuniang's heart.

Outside Guihua City, ninety-nine zhang from each of the eastern, southern, western, and northern gates, stood a huge banner roughly ten zhang high. Upon the black banners, red silk thread depicted the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise—the Four Directional Spirit Beasts. Yet the divine beasts that should have radiated righteous majesty and awe-inspiring power instead exuded a gloomy, murderous evil aura from those banners. Wisps of black smoke constantly seeped from them and slowly drifted into Guihua City.

Beneath every great banner sat more than a dozen strange men who were neither monks nor Daoists, cross-legged on the ground and lazily chanting some unknown scripture.

Suddenly, all the strange men rose with delighted expressions. Together, they shouted, "The Commander has found an excuse~~~ Black Blade, pass down the order: massacre the city!"

At Guihua City's eastern gate, a savage-looking giant of a man rode atop a one-horned wild ox. He wore heavy black-and-red armor and wielded a massive saber one zhang and eight chi long. Hearing the strange men's roar, he cheered toward the sky. "Men! Massacre the city! Massacre the city! Stop looting! Damn it, massacre the city! Hahaha, kill!"

He savagely smacked the wild ox beneath him on the rear with the shaft of his saber, then charged into Guihua City with nearly a thousand bandits, cheering all the while.

Beneath the patch of black poisonous earth in Spring Return Hall's rear courtyard was a tiny stone chamber, no more than a zhang in length and width. Two long greenstone tables stood inside, with two white jade trays atop them. One held an azure bracelet three fingers wide, while the other held an exquisite ring woven like a vine.

On the north wall of the stone chamber hung a small scroll bearing a single character, "Pill," roughly a chi square. The calligraphy was ancient and vigorous, yet between its strokes was a transcendental elegance that seemed ready to drift away with the wind. As Lin Xiao gazed at that character, he unconsciously became entranced. He stared deeply at one dot in the character, and the true qi within his body suddenly began to stir, as though it wished to burst free.

Lin Xiao was greatly startled. What kind of ghostly character was this? How could it possess such strange power? He had merely looked at it once, yet it could draw upon the true qi within his body. What sort of extraordinary person had written it?

As Lin Xiao pondered this question, Lin Shan had already kicked him roughly to the floor and forced his head down, making him kowtow nine times to the small scroll. Then Lin Shan knelt as well and worshipped the scroll. "'Great Luo Pill Dao' Patriarch above, the world is now in chaos. Demonic Path people stir up wind and waves within, while the Outer Sect's one hundred and seventh-generation disciple Lin Shan is incapable of managing this estate. Today, out of necessity, I pass the post of Great Luo Pill Dao Outer Sect Steward to my disciple and youngest son, Lin Xiao. Patriarch, please bless him. Bless Lin Xiao so that he may escape this calamity."

Before Lin Xiao could ask anything, Lin Shan seized the bracelet and ring from the trays and fastened them onto Lin Xiao's hand. With incredible speed, Lin Shan flicked out a finger and drew a drop of hot blood from Lin Xiao's brow, letting it fall upon the bracelet and ring. The bracelet, which had originally glimmered with azure light, and the vine ring, which looked lush and green enough to drip with dew, immediately drew in their radiance and became ordinary. They now looked like a crude bronze bracelet and a child's carelessly woven vine toy.

"The Nine Abyss Bracelet and Spirit Returning Ring are treasures of our sect. You must remember to protect them well." Lin Shan patted Lin Xiao's head and said urgently, "This hidden treasury may seem concealed, but it has great dangers too. The poisonous soil above is simply too conspicuous. Yet Father has no better place to hide you. Good son, wait quietly here for a few days."

Lin Shan sighed deeply. "If you can escape this great calamity, you will naturally have somewhere to go in the future."

He hugged Lin Xiao tightly, kissed his forehead hard, and shouted, "Good son, remember! If you see anyone holding a Pill Token, beg them through tears. You must enter under their tutelage. Your aptitude is sufficient! Outer Sect disciples, Outer Sect disciples~~~ Heh heh heh, the Great Luo Pill Dao Outer Sect line is going to be severed today!"

"Father!" Lin Xiao screamed. He had heard ominous signs in Lin Shan's words.

Lin Shan sealed Lin Xiao's mute acupoint and several major acupoints with one swift motion. Lin Xiao could no longer move or speak. He could only open his eyes as wide as possible and stare fixedly at Lin Shan.

Lin Shan looked at Lin Xiao with boundless tenderness and smiled. "Good son, remember to live well. You must remember: the ancestors of the Lin Family cannot go without descendants to offer them incense!"

Gently patting Lin Xiao's head, Lin Shan turned and left. As he walked, he said coldly, "Only an Outer Sect Steward may enter this hidden treasury. Therefore, Father has passed the steward's position to you, and that does not violate sect rules. Now, Father must fulfill the promise I made to your grandmaster all those years ago. While Father lives, Spring Return Hall lives. Only when Father dies may Spring Return Hall perish!"

Lin Xiao stared wide-eyed, watching that lean, frail figure walk from the hidden treasury with such unrestrained grace, heading toward unknowable danger.

For a very, very long time afterward, Lin Xiao could not understand why Lin Shan had not hidden with him in the hidden treasury, but had insisted on going out to die.

Only much later did Lin Xiao discover that, compared to life itself, some things in this world were more important to a man.

Lin Shan, that mild and unhurried little old man, that old man who seemed to have been oppressed by Hua Wuniang his entire life, Lin Shan, who could not even protect the woman he loved, much less avenge her himself—deep in his bones, he was truly a real man. Therefore, from the moment the Black Blade Bandits appeared, his death had already been destined.

Lin Xiao spent many years before he understood this.

But by the time he understood, his heart had become like Lin Shan's heart that day, like bitter water steeped from coptis—his spirit utterly exhausted.

"Patriarch, bless the Lin Family line and leave us incense and fire." As Lin Shan emerged from the hidden treasury, he still prayed silently. His heart was filled with worry. He had another source of intelligence and knew that, besides the Black Blade Bandits, an even more terrifying bandit army was roaming within a thousand li. Thus, he did not dare send Lin Xiao out of Guihua City. Now he could only hide Lin Xiao in the hidden treasury. But though the treasury seemed concealed, that was only true for Spring Return Hall's people—no one from Spring Return Hall dared approach this poisonous ground.

But what about the Black Blade Bandits? Once they discovered that Spring Return Hall's rear courtyard contained such a patch of deadly poisonous ground, what would they do?

Could they discover the hidden treasury?

The instant he emerged from the secret passage, Lin Shan cast all his worries beyond the clouds. Things had come to this; there was nothing left to worry over. All Lin Shan could do now was live and die with Spring Return Hall. This was the promise he had made years ago to his benefactor and master, the former master of Spring Return Hall and the previous Outer Sect Steward disciple of Great Luo Pill Dao. Lin Shan was a man who kept his promises.

Standing atop the black poisonous soil, Lin Shan happened to see the bald strange man send Hua Wuniang flying with a single palm strike. Before this man's palm, Hua Wuniang had not even possessed the ability to evade.

"Pwah!" Hua Wuniang spat out a mouthful of blood in midair, mixed with countless fragments of internal organs.

Lin Shan's body flickered lightly. In two steps, he caught up to Hua Wuniang and gently gathered her into his arms. Hua Wuniang coughed up blood mouthful after mouthful, staining Lin Shan's green robe a brilliant crimson.

The bald strange man was stunned. He had not even known when Lin Shan had appeared! To him, this was impossible. Ordinary martial artists, even those cultivated to the so-called innate realm, were still martial artists. They could not possibly escape his notice. Yet Lin Shan had somehow circled out from behind him without a sound or trace! This proved only one thing: Lin Shan possessed the same identity as him. Tilting his head, the strange man twitched his hooked nose, and a pleased smile appeared on his ugly face. "Good. Very good!"

Lying in Lin Shan's arms, Hua Wuniang stared blankly at him as she vomited blood. Trembling, she exhausted her last bit of strength and cried through clenched teeth, "Yao'er~ He~ is dead~~~ Master~ You truly are~ this heartless~"

"I have always loved you, and Yao'er!" Lin Shan's clear eyes fell gently upon Hua Wuniang's face. Streams of soft Evergreen True Qi continuously flowed into her body, holding onto the last breath of life within her. "Wuniang, in my heart, you have always been that innocent little girl from years ago, without the slightest scheming heart. So I always indulged you, yielded to you, loved you, protected you! Even when, for Yao'er's sake, you poisoned Xiao'er's mother to death, though I knew you had done it, what did I ever do?"

The bald strange man had intended to seize the chance to ambush Lin Shan with a palm strike, but upon hearing the conversation between Lin Shan and Hua Wuniang, a trace of tenderness unexpectedly flashed through his eyes. He lowered his head and pondered briefly, then quietly withdrew several steps, signaling that he would wait for Lin Shan and Hua Wuniang to finish speaking.

Lin Shan gave the bald strange man a gentle glance, extended his right hand, and performed a respectful salute toward him. Lin Shan's gesture was that of a proper Daoist cultivator.

The bald strange man's gaze sharpened. His hands formed a seal like blazing fire before his chest, and he silently returned Lin Shan's salute.

"If~ you still love me, and Yao'er~ why did you~ find another woman outside~ and even bring back a bastard?" Hua Wuniang suddenly recovered her senses. She forced up a breath and pressed Lin Shan with the question she had wanted to ask, yet had always disdained to ask.

Lin Shan looked gently at Hua Wuniang, his right hand softly caressing her face, caked in far too much powder. White powder fell softly from his fingertips, revealing Hua Wuniang's still-pretty features.

As he gently stroked Hua Wuniang's cheek, Lin Shan smiled warmly. "Since you learned of the hidden treasury from Master, how could you forget that every ten generations, Spring Return Hall is qualified to recommend one descendant to the Inner Sect for cultivation? This is the favor Spring Return Hall earned through thousands of years of labor for the Inner Sect. How could you not know?"

"You~~~" Hua Wuniang stared blankly at Lin Shan.

Lin Shan gently shook his head and sighed. "Was Yao'er the sort who could cultivate with peace of mind? And could you bear to let him leave for a hundred years, never to meet again? In my generation, it happened to be time to send one descendant into the Inner Sect. For the sake of Spring Return Hall's foundation, how could I fail to plan carefully? Xiao'er has a steady temperament and excellent character. If he achieves success in the future, he certainly will not mistreat Yao'er." Lin Shan did not say one sentence aloud: if Hua Wuniang had not been too impatient in her cultivation and damaged the source of her vitality, how would he ever have met Lin Xiao's mother?

"Master~ Husband~ I!" Hua Wuniang was stunned. Suddenly, she began coughing violently. "Then, in your heart, between me and that woman, who exactly..."

Lin Shan looked gently at Hua Wuniang. He had just wanted to say that his feelings for both women were no different. But seeing the light in Hua Wuniang's eyes grow weaker and weaker, as though she might stop breathing at any moment, Lin Shan's heart softened. Against his true feelings, he sighed, "Wuniang, in my heart, you have always been my little junior sister, the woman I have loved most in this life."

Lin Shan's heart ached as he remembered Lin Xiao's mother—the woman gentle as water, who regarded Lin Shan as her sky, her earth, her everything. By his conscience, Lin Shan truly loved the two women equally. But the woman in his arms had done something that had nearly driven him to collapse.

"Good~~~" The brightest smile suddenly blossomed on Hua Wuniang's face. For a moment, she seemed to return to a long, long-ago season when spring flowers bloomed in riotous splendor.

"Husband, it was Wuniang who was wrong all these years!" Hua Wuniang's head tilted slightly, and she immediately swallowed her last breath.

"You were not wrong. Nor was I. No one was wrong." Lin Shan gently patted Hua Wuniang's face, just as he had patted the face of ten-year-old Hua Wuniang when he had first entered under his master's tutelage. "What was wrong was fate. We were all not wrong. Even though I knew you poisoned her to death, I still say this: truly, none of us was wrong."

Lin Shan genuinely could not summon even the slightest hatred for Hua Wuniang. He could understand very well how Hua Wuniang had felt when she did those things for Lin Yao's sake.

If someone had to bear the blame, then the one most at fault was himself—Lin Shan!

Gently laying Hua Wuniang's corpse to one side, Lin Shan straightened up. Two dim green lights in his eyes fixed upon the strange man.

"It was you who struck Wuniang dead." Glancing at Lin Yao, whose chest had been punched through by a great hole, then at the arrow embedded in the ground behind him, Lin Shan smiled faintly. "Your men killed my son."

The strange man said blandly, "Yes."

Lin Shan nodded lightly, his voice dark. "Wuniang's temperament was poor, and Yao'er was even more unworthy. But one was my wife of tied hair, and the other was my child."

The strange man nodded forcefully and gave a strange laugh. "So?"

Lin Shan said softly, "So I am going to kill you!"

"Kill me?" The strange man burst into an odd laugh. "Are you joking? Do you know that Guihua City is surrounded by the Four Phases Soul Locking Array I set? Even if you are an expert at the peak of the innate realm—no, even if you are a great master on the verge of forming a golden core—your strength can only be brought out at less than ten percent! Can you kill me?"

Lin Shan spread his hands, producing from nowhere a small medicinal hoe over two chi long, which he gripped in his hand. Staring fixedly at the strange man, he said calmly, "Great Luo Pill Dao Outer Sect Steward Lin Shan requests instruction in Fellow Daoist's profound arts and wondrous methods!"

"Great Luo Pill Dao!" The corner of the strange man's eye twitched. Suddenly, he threw back his head and laughed. "So you truly are from Great Luo Pill Dao. Hm, Spring Return Hall deals in medicinal herbs. It would be stranger if you had no connection with Great Luo Pill Dao, which specializes in refining pills for others."

With a sigh, the strange man said darkly, "However, though the Great Yuan Kingdom is Great Luo Pill Dao's territory, their name cannot frighten us. Lin Shan, prepare to die!"

The strange man reached behind his back and slowly pulled out a three-foot beast bone. Atop the bone sat a ghastly white skull, two crimson ghostfires flickering within its eye sockets, as terrifying as could be. The strange man smiled darkly. "Commander Wutian of the Jimo Sect seeks instruction in Fellow Daoist's brilliant techniques! Heh heh, you are an Outer Sect Steward, so your cultivation should not be high. I too am merely an external affairs commander, and only barely broke through the innate realm. We are quite the matched pair!"

"Ha!" Lin Shan shouted. The purple-green medicinal hoe in his right hand trailed a faint purple mist as it smashed down upon Commander Wutian's head and face.

Commander Wutian's expression changed. With a cold laugh, he pointed his bone staff toward the sky and shouted in a low voice, "Four Phases Lock Souls, Heavenly Demon Slays Spirits, kill!"

The huge banners beyond Guihua City's four gates began to whip violently. Four rays of black light surged from the banners, condensing in the sky into four hazy phantoms of the Four Directional Spirit Beasts, wrapped in faint black smoke. Like lightning, they swept toward the skies above Spring Return Hall.

The Four Directional Spirit Beasts opened their mouths in a soundless roar toward the heavens, then transformed into four black beams that shot straight at Lin Shan.

Lin Shan gave a muffled groan and casually flung the medicinal hoe from his hand.

The four black rays struck Lin Shan's body. His small, thin frame swelled, then suddenly exploded into countless fragments amid the black light.

The small medicinal hoe Lin Shan had thrown struck Commander Wutian's shoulder, trailing purple smoke. It smashed his left shoulder into a mangled mass of flesh and blood, causing Commander Wutian to curse loudly in pain.

Covered in blood, Old Patriarch Wang wielded a golden saber, carrying a yellow-haired elderly woman on his back as he charged into the rear courtyard like a mad tiger. As he swung his saber to fend off the dozens of Black Blade Bandits pursuing him, he shouted, "Elder Lin, join forces with me and fight our way out! I can no longer care for my family—I can only carry my old mother and flee for our lives! These damned Black Blade Bandits, I will never let them go~~~"

Old Patriarch Wang turned his head just in time to see the bizarre sight of Lin Shan's body vanishing within the black light. He stammered in a shriek, "Wh-what is this? Elder Lin! Elder Lin! Waaah~~~"

Black Blade, leader of the Black Blade Bandits, rode his one-horned wild ox through the bandits as he charged forward. His massive saber swung up a sheet of pitch-black light, and from above, with the force of splitting Mount Hua, he cleaved Old Patriarch Wang and Old Madam Wang on his back into four pieces with a single stroke.

Black Blade spat a glob of phlegm viciously onto the ground and gave a "Heh heh" laugh. "Commander, the Wang Family Patriarch of Guihua City truly has some skill! Trapped by the Four Phases Soul Locking Array, he still killed seventy-eight of my men while fighting his way here! Hm, this Four Phases Soul Locking Array does not seem all that powerful!"

Commander Wutian clutched his shoulder through gritted teeth and cursed loudly, "Bullshit! The Four Phases Soul Locking Array is the Jimo Sect's signature array, with boundless power. It's only..." His dark face reddened as he muttered, "It's only that our cultivation is insufficient, so we cannot bring out its full strength. Hmph hmph, if the Four Phases Soul Locking Array could be activated at full power, one strike would grind all of Guihua City into dust. Why would we need to work so hard, catching and killing people one by one?"

Guihua City had already become a hell of blood. Tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered one by one by Black Blade Bandits running rampant through the streets. The souls and essences of everyone slain were absorbed into the four great banners. The black qi seeping from the banners grew ever thicker.

Guihua City was destroyed! (To be continued)