The shouts of battle rang out all around, and figures clashed in a chaotic blur.
Yet not a single sound from the cacophony reached Wu Xian's ears.
It was as if someone were hammering his brain, the pain so intense that it had gone numb. All he could hear was an endless buzzing. For a moment, the shock left him unable to speak or think, and that mocking remark kept replaying over and over. He gritted his teeth, his raised finger trembling like a sieve. "You—you actually—deceived me!"
Wu Xian's guards and soldiers had also come to their senses. They drew their sabers and swords and pointed them at the National Teacher, surrounding him on all sides, convinced he had no chance of escape. Faced with such a formidable force, the National Teacher showed not the slightest fear. He lowered his head slightly, letting a few strands of silver-white hair drift across his eyes and partly veil the mockery in their depths. The look he gave the crowd was rather telling, as if he were watching a pack of ignorant, dim-witted wild monkeys whose fur had yet to finish growing in. He opened his mouth and mercilessly sneered at Wu Xian. "A brainless fool like you dares call yourself 'I, the lonely one' before me?"
Wu Xian felt a tightness in his chest, his eyes nearly splitting with rage.
His copper-bell eyes seemed ready to bulge right out of their sockets.
He clutched his chest, the blood surging through his body in his fury, rushing straight to his head until his veins felt ready to burst! Wu Xian could only force himself to endure, again and again, struggling to swallow the blood roiling in his throat. In a hoarse voice, he said, "What exactly are you trying to do? I