You Must Leave Your Life Behind!

More rubble fell from the well mouth.

The masked cultivator stepped onto the boulder blocking the well and pressed a Fire Talisman against the ground. Red light snaked into the earth along the old array patterns, and the Corpse-Bone Vine in the herb cellar caught fire one after another.

Heat waves surged into the water channel.

The Law Enforcement disciple carrying Sun Erhe stumbled, nearly collapsing to his knees. The other two, carrying Zhao Chong, retreated to the side of the iron door.

"They're going to burn the water channel until it collapses!" Gu Qinghe thrust her sword toward the well wall.

The blade bit into a stone seam, but only shaved off a few pebbles. The boulder sealing the well weighed over a thousand pounds; a few Qi Refining disciples could never push it aside on their own.

The fire in the herb cellar had already reached the iron racks.

The Corpse-Bone Vine had been stored for years, and it erupted into thick clouds of green smoke the moment it touched fire. The smoke clung to the ground as it surged forward, choking the disciples into a fit of coughing.

Li Sanshun tore off his Smoke-Avoiding Scarf and took a deep breath.

The poisonous smoke rushed into his lungs, and his throat burned with immediate, searing pain.

The next moment, a surge of vitality radiated from his chest and abdomen.

[You have ingested a mouthful of concentrated Rotten Wood Spiritual Qi.]

[Air quality: Impure.]

[Life energy increased by 3 points.]

[Damaged Qi channels are recovering.]

Three points!

Li Sanshun took another breath.

[Life energy increased by 2.6 points.]

The injuries accumulated over a sleepless night recovered rapidly, and the strength in his body was replenished along with them.

These Corpse-Bone Vines had grown on North Mountain for years, their roots constantly absorbing the spiritual qi of the earth veins. Medicine Peak had dismissed them as toxic waste, never realizing that once burned, the wood spiritual qi stored within the vines would be released along with the smoke.

Poisonous gas could kill, but wood spiritual qi could save lives.

To anyone else, inhaling this much smoke would be a death sentence.

But to Li Sanshun, this place was an apothecary!

"Everyone take a Detoxification Pill and retreat behind the herb cellar door!"

Li Sanshun grabbed a Broken Blade from the ground and ran toward the bottom of the well.

Gu Qinghe blocked him for a moment.

"What are you doing?"

"The people lighting the array up there cannot be left alive."

"The well mouth is sealed shut."

Li Sanshun pointed to the left side of the boulder. A narrow stone seam existed there, and smoke was drilling its way out.

"The boulder isn't completely wedged in. The left well wall was baked by the fire and has already cracked."

Gu Qinghe struck with her sword.

Clack!

A new fissure appeared in the well wall.

Footsteps sounded from above the well.

"There's still movement below, keep adding fire!"

Two Fire Talismans were shoved in through the stone seam.

Li Sanshun grabbed some wet mud and sealed the talismans. The fire failed to ignite, instead burning through several rotten vines nearby.

More wood spiritual qi surged into the water channel.

He opened his mouth to inhale, and the energy he had just expended was replenished once more.

"Chop three feet deeper, toward the bottom left corner!"

Gu Qinghe delivered four consecutive strikes.

The crack expanded rapidly, and the sealing boulder lost its support, sliding downward by half a foot.

The masked cultivators at the well mouth scrambled backward.

"Hold the stone down!"

Three men lunged at the edge of the well, using their combined strength to pin the boulder. The firelight from the array patterns had already surged into the herb cellar; several iron boxes burned through one after another, and sparks flew along the water channel.

Li Sanshun snatched up an iron chain from the ground, looped it around a protrusion on the well wall, and tied the other end to the base of the boulder.

"Gu Qinghe, chop the right side!"

Gu Qinghe shifted her position and thrust her sword into the lower right side of the boulder.

The stone crumbled.

The boulder lost its balance entirely and slid down along the well wall. The three cultivators guarding the top could not hold back the weight and were forced to let go.

Li Sanshun had already ducked to the side.

The boulder crashed into the bottom of the well, and the iron chain pulled taut.

One of the masked cultivators at the well edge failed to release the iron hook pinning the stone in time; his ankle was caught by the chain, and he tumbled into the well.

Li Sanshun stepped forward and smashed his wrist with the blade.

The short sword fell to the ground.

He followed up with a kick, sending the man flying into the water channel.

"Charge up!"

Gu Qinghe stepped on the boulder and vaulted out of the well mouth.

The two remaining masked cultivators had only just raised their weapons when the sword light swept across their chests. Both men flew backward, crashing into and snapping the Array Flags nearby.

The red light beneath the earth dimmed significantly.

Li Sanshun grabbed the iron chain and swung upward, using the momentum to scale the well rim.

A curved blade slashed down at his head.

He didn't dodge, instead raising his left arm to block the back of the blade while his right hand drove the Broken Blade into the opponent's ribs.

The curved blade sliced through his sleeve, leaving a half-foot wound on his arm.

[Life energy consumed: 0.8 points.]

[Wound is recovering.]

It hurt—it truly hurt.

But just as the wound began to bleed, the wood spiritual qi stanched the flow.

The masked cultivator pulled his blade back to strike again.

Li Sanshun lunged into his guard, smashing his forehead into the man's nose and driving the Broken Blade into his abdomen.

"Do you really think I'm afraid of trading lives?"

The opponent clutched his wound and retreated, and Li Sanshun swept his leg, kicking him into the well.

The Law Enforcement disciples below swarmed forward, binding the man with chains.

The remaining three assassins had already retreated a dozen paces.

The leader gripped an Array Disk, his thumb pressing down on the central fire bead.

"Come any closer, and I'll burn everyone below to death!"

Gu Qinghe did not stop.

"You can try."

"You're courting death!"

He pressed the fire bead.

The array patterns beneath the earth lit up again, but the flames stopped at the edge of the abandoned well.

When Li Sanshun had looped the chain around the boulder earlier, he had already used the Broken Blade to sever the array patterns. Although the herb cellar was still burning, the fire could no longer spread along the array.

The assassin looked down at the Array Disk.

In that half-breath of hesitation, Gu Qinghe had already forced her way before him.

Her short sword pierced through the Array Disk and severed two of his fingers.

The other two turned and ran.

Li Sanshun picked up the curved blade from the ground and chased after the one on the left. The opponent's cultivation was two levels higher than his own, and he turned to fling three poison needles.

Li Sanshun blocked two, but the third pierced his shoulder.

[Snake-Hop Poison detected.]

[Life energy consumed: 1 point.]

[Toxin is being purged.]

He didn't stop running.

The opponent had intended to use the poison to force his pursuer back, but seeing Li Sanshun accelerate even after being struck, his movements faltered.

The curved blade slashed down from behind, striking the assassin's calf.

The assassin tumbled into the fire trench.

Li Sanshun stepped on his back, the tip of the blade pressed against his throat.

"Don't move. Move one more time, and I'll save you the trouble of taking a Detoxification Pill."

The other fleeing cultivator had just vaulted over the Herb Garden stone wall when he was intercepted by reinforcements from the Law Enforcement Hall. Several Spirit-Binding Ropes flew out, dragging him down from the wall.

The battle at the well had also ended.

Of the six cleanup assassins, three were dead and three were wounded.

Gu Qinghe kept the one with the lowest cultivation alive; as for the other two heavily wounded men, their masks were barely removed before black blood began to flow from their mouths.

"They hid poison sacs between their teeth!"

The Law Enforcement disciples reached out to pry their jaws open, but the two were already breathless.

The last assassin was also gritting his teeth.

Li Sanshun smashed his chin with a fist, knocking out the poison sac along with two teeth.

"Want to die? Did you ask me first?"

Gu Qinghe sealed the man's Qi channels and bound his hands and feet with chains.

Medicine Peak handymen brought sand and soil to extinguish the remaining fires on the ground. Although the entrance to the herb cellar had partially collapsed, Zhao Chong and Sun Erhe were both carried out, and the relevant evidence was packed into Storage Bags—not a single piece missing.

Sun Erhe took a Healing Pill and pointed out several of the assassins.

"Among the people who captured me last night, he was one of them."

Gu Qinghe walked up to the survivor and tore off his mask.

The man was about forty years old, with an old burn scar on his neck. The Law Enforcement disciples checked his waist token and Storage Bag, but found no clues regarding his identity.

Li Sanshun squatted down and discovered a small hole in the man's molar.

"There's more than one poison sac in his mouth!"

The assassin had already bitten down on a poison pill hidden in his tooth root.

Gu Qinghe used her spiritual power to seal his throat, but she was still a step too late. Black blood flowed from his nostrils; the man stared at Li Sanshun, his Adam's apple moving with great difficulty.

Li Sanshun grabbed him by the collar.

"Who sent you?"

The assassin used his final breath to squeeze out four words.

"The fifteenth copy..."