The rain stopped.
About half an hour later.
A frantic red figure stumbled into the quiet alley.
It was Ma Hongjun.
"Teacher Zhao?"
"Teacher Zhao! Where are you?"
He ran along, shouting loudly.
Teacher Zhao had been gone for so long and still hadn't returned. Ma Hongjun couldn't stop worrying, so he went out to look for him.
The alley wasn't long. He could see all the way to the end at a glance.
In the dim light, a figure sat motionless against the wall at the alley's end.
Ma Hongjun's heart leaped with joy, and he hurried over.
"Teacher Zhao! I finally found you. Why are you..."
His voice cut off abruptly.
A thick stench of blood rushed into his nostrils.
Ma Hongjun's feet seemed nailed to the spot. He couldn't move another inch.
He saw it clearly.
The man wasn't "leaning" against the wall.
He was lying in a pool of blood.
Immovable Wisdom King Zhao Wuji's eyes were wide open, the final terror and unwillingness frozen in them.
A bowl-sized hole gaped in his chest, blackish-red blood still seeping from it in thin trickles.
His right arm had been severed at the shoulder, hanging limply at his side.
Ma Hongjun's mind buzzed, going completely blank.
Dead?
Teacher Zhao... was dead?
How was that possible?!
He was a Soul Sage! The Immovable Wisdom King, who had once calmly escaped after being surrounded by sixteen Soul Emperors from Spirit Hall!
Who in Heaven Dou City could kill him? And who would dare?
A bone-deep chill shot from the soles of Ma Hongjun's feet straight to his scalp.
His whole body shook violently, every bit of fat trembling uncontrollably.
Not from the cold, but from fear.
"It's... it's him..."
Ma Hongjun's lips quivered. A name he hated to the bone,