The fat man's eyes gleamed with wickedness. "Miss Yue, let's be frank. We brothers want some ready-made benefits, namely you, Miss Yue. If you accompany us brothers for a little fun, wouldn't that be better than gold, silver, and martial arts manuals?"
The pockmarked man said solemnly, "As the saying goes, one should offer oneself to repay a life-saving favor. You ought to have said that yourself. Since you didn't, we brought it up instead. This request is perfectly reasonable, wouldn't you say?"
Yue Lingshan looked at their ugly faces, her head buzzing. She had suffered terribly at the hands of the Demonic Cult's villains, and just when she had finally seen a ray of hope, she never expected the Righteous Path to have such beasts in human form.
At that moment, she grew incredibly furious and cursed them with a flushed face.
"You shameless dogspawn!"
"You're supposed to be members of the Righteous Path! You have no sense of shame at all. You're even worse than the Demonic Cult's remnants."
"You're going to ruin the good name of the Mount Song Sect's ancestors..."
The pockmarked man covered his ears. Yue Lingshan cursed for a full quarter of an hour until her voice turned hoarse, and only then did she stop.
He looked at the bundle of rags on the ground and said regretfully to the fat man, "Junior Brother, I finally understand why we had to gag her."
"Miss Yue, as the saying goes, it takes one sheep to lead and two sheep to drive. Since you could accompany that Demonic Cult scoundrel, what's wrong with accompanying us now?"
As he spoke, the fat man reached out with his greasy hand.
He had always been fond of this sort of thing, nearly to the point of addiction. His lifelong wish was to sample every kind of beauty in the world. His sole purpose in joining the Mount Song Sect was to make that wish easier to fulfill.
This opportunity today was truly one that came once in a thousand years.
Yue Lingshan shouted angrily, "Dogspawn, aren't you afraid of my father, Yue Buqun?"
At the mention of Yue Buqun's name, the pockmarked man froze and seemed to calm down. He glanced at the fat man hesitantly.
No matter how much the Mount Hua Sect had declined, and no matter how contemptuously they spoke of it in private, it was still one of the Five Great Sword Sects. Aside from Shaolin and Wudang, it stood among the first-rate orthodox forces of the martial world. Sect Leader Yue was humble and courteous, but he was also one of the renowned great experts.
The fat man sneered and said to Yue Lingshan, "As the saying goes, it's worth dying beneath a peony, for even in death one dies happy."
"If you don't want the Mount Hua Sect to be disgraced and your own good name ruined, then go ahead and spread the word afterward."
"Either way, we'll just say that you were defiled by the Demonic Cult. We brothers saved your life, yet you repaid us with slander. With no evidence, how could the Mount Hua Sect's leader do anything to disciples of the Mount Song Sect?"
After finishing, the fat man looked at his pockmarked senior brother, a trace of killing intent in his eyes.
He had another plan in mind. Once everything was over, he would kill Yue Lingshan and pin the blame on the Demonic Cult. She had originally been abducted here by members of the Demonic Cult; when they failed to force themselves on her, they killed her instead. The logic was perfectly sound.
The Sun Moon Divine Cult was born to take the blame.
After bringing Yue Lingshan's corpse back, that "Gentleman Sword" might even thank him.
The pockmarked man understood immediately. He was not as eager about women as the fat man, but being able to toy with a female hero of the Mount Hua Sect's status—and control her life and death—gave this long-oppressed martial artist an intoxicating feeling.
"Dogspawn, don't even dream of it. I'd rather die than let you succeed..."
Zhang Yu walked to the front of Guanyin Nunnery and heard voices from within. After listening for a few moments, he guessed what had happened.
"The Mount Song Sect really doesn't have many decent people. Two against one... this could be troublesome."
He turned and left.
Now that he had obtained the Flying Cloud Divine Skill, he had to cherish his life and cultivate diligently, hoping that one day he could shake the martial world.
Play hero?
That didn't fit the style of someone from the Demonic Cult.
But... but I'm still a person, after all. I was taught by the Nine Sects.
Listening to Yue Lingshan's furious curses, Zhang Yu finally stopped. Unable to harden his heart, he turned around and came back.
"The Mount Hua Sect really ought to give me a 'Good Person of the Martial World' certificate."
Zhang Yu hid outside the door. After thinking for a moment, an idea came to him.
He put on the Green Jade Thumb Ring and covered his face with silk cloth. Then he thought, Sorry for the trouble, Hall Master Wu.
A thunderous shout exploded across the flat ground.
"Hey! How dare you touch the woman of Flying Cloud Divine Ape Wu Lianjiang!"
The masked man crossed the threshold. Taking three steps in two, he drove his sword into the fat man's back as he was untying his belt. The man collapsed before the altar, blood spreading beneath him.
The fat man was like a frog seized by the throat. After gurgling a few times, he lost his breath.
The pockmarked man had already drawn his long sword and held it against Yue Lingshan's neck. With his back against the altar, he looked at the masked man. The nunnery was dim to begin with, and the masked man stood against the light, leaving only a silhouette visible.
The masked man glanced at Yue Lingshan and said in a hoarse voice, "This little girl is a gift I intend to present to the Eastern Cult Master. How dare you lay a finger on her? Are you tired of living, like an old man taking poison?"
The pockmarked man's voice trembled. "Y-You're really Wu Lianjiang?"
Yue Lingshan looked at that familiar figure, a strange glimmer in her beautiful eyes. She had long since seen that the masked man was not Wu Lianjiang, Hall Master of Cloud Water Hall, but merely a cunning little Demonic Cult thief.
The masked man threw his head back and laughed. "The Mount Song Sect really has a poor memory. Has Fei Bin's chest wound healed so quickly?"
Fei Bin's severe injury was an embarrassment amid their great victory. Apart from the Mount Song Sect's disciples, the people from the other four sects still knew nothing about it.
It seemed the man before them really was Wu Lianjiang.
The pockmarked man's face instantly turned pale, and the hand holding his sword trembled nonstop.
The masked man pressed forward step by step. "You're still holding a sword? You're still holding a sword? Do you want to trade moves with me? Do you think your martial arts are better than the 'Great Song Yang Hand'?"
The pockmarked man begged, "Hall Master Wu, could you spare this humble man's life?"
The masked man took two steps forward, completely ignoring him. He sneered. "I've been observing a vegetarian diet in recent years and made a great vow to kill only ten people a day. This fat man filled today's final quota, so I hadn't intended to add another life."
"But you actually dared to bully the Eastern Cult Master's concubine. If I spared you, how could I answer to Blackwood Cliff?"
He glanced at the iron sword pressed against Yue Lingshan's neck.
"Since this little girl has already lost her chastity, she naturally has no qualification to go to Blackwood Cliff. She'll have to die as well. You think you can use her to threaten me? How clever of you."
As the saying went, when besieging a city, one should always leave an opening.
He had given the pockmarked man a sliver of hope for survival.
Yue Lingshan glared fiercely at the masked man when she heard this.
The pockmarked man immediately fell to his knees, threw away his iron sword, and slammed his head against the ground.
"Honored lord of the Demonic Cult, please see the truth! Heaven and earth know we never laid a finger on this young lady—not even touched her face. Please show mercy and spare this humble man!"
"Miss Yue, tell him! Isn't that so? If you don't explain clearly, we'll all die..."
The pockmarked man turned to plead with Yue Lingshan. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he saw a cold gleam shooting toward his neck. Before he could react, his neck turned cold, and liquid gushed out like a waterfall.
"Idiot!" Yue Lingshan cursed.
The pockmarked man tilted sideways and collapsed. The Azure Water Sword had carved open his neck. The man removed the cloth covering his face, revealing an exceptionally handsome young man smiling at him.
"On the road to the underworld, apologize to Hall Master Wu for me."
His vision gradually blurred. His consciousness was swallowed by a vortex of darkness and plunged into a bottomless icy cavern, where it was frozen forever.
"He's dead."
Zhang Yu wiped the blood from his sword. Seeing that the girl was still shaken, he reminded her aloud, fearing that the shock might leave her unwell.
Yue Lingshan crouched on the ground and looked up at Zhang Yu. Her nose stung, and she suddenly felt unbearably aggrieved. Then she burst into tears.
"Why are you like a faucet? Every time we meet, you cry, and every time we meet, you cry. Are you planning to flood Guanyin Nunnery?"
Yue Lingshan sobbed, "You little thief, I'm not going to thank you!"
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