More rubble fell from the wellhead.
The masked cultivator stepped on the boulder sealing the well and stuck a Fire Talisman to the ground. Red light flowed along the old Array Patterns and burrowed underground, setting the Corpse-Bone Vines in the medicine cellar ablaze one after another.
A wave of heat surged into the water channel.
The Law Enforcement disciple carrying Sun Erhe staggered, nearly dropping to his knees. The other two carried Zhao Chong and retreated to the iron door.
"They're going to burn the water channel down!" Gu Qinghe thrust her sword at the well wall.
The blade bit into a crack in the stone, but only chipped off a few pieces. The boulder sealing the well weighed at least a thousand jin. A few Qi Refining disciples couldn't possibly push it aside.
The fire in the medicine cellar had already reached the iron racks.
The Corpse-Bone Vines had been stored for years. The moment they caught fire, they gave off great clouds of green smoke. The smoke rolled along the ground, making the disciples cough nonstop.
Li Sanshun yanked off his Smoke-Avoiding Scarf and sucked in a deep breath.
The poisonous smoke rushed into his lungs, and his throat immediately burned.
The next moment, a surge of vitality spread through his chest and abdomen.
[You have inhaled a mouthful of rich Rotten Wood Spiritual Qi.] [Air quality: mixed.] [Life energy increased by 3 points.] [Damaged meridians are recovering.]
Three points!
Li Sanshun took another breath.
[Life energy increased by 2.6 points.]
The injuries he'd accumulated over a whole night of struggle healed quickly, and his strength was replenished as well.
These Corpse-Bone Vines had grown on North Mountain for years, their roots constantly absorbing spiritual energy from the ley lines. Medicine Peak had treated them as poisonous waste, unaware that when burned, the Wood Spiritual Qi stored inside the vines would escape with the smoke.
Poisonous fumes could harm people, but Wood Spiritual Qi could save them.
For anyone else, breathing too much of this smoke meant certain death.
For Li Sanshun, this was a pharmacy!
"Everyone, take a Detoxification Pill and retreat behind the medicine cellar door!"
Li Sanshun grabbed the Broken Blade from the ground and ran toward the bottom of the well.
Gu Qinghe stopped him.
"What are you doing?"
"The people setting the Array up there can't be left alive."
"The wellhead's sealed."
Li Sanshun pointed to the left side of the boulder. A narrow crack ran there, with smoke seeping through it.
"The boulder isn't wedged all the way in. The fire's baked the left side of the well wall, and it's cracked."
Gu Qinghe swung her sword.
Crack!
Another fissure split the well wall.
Footsteps sounded above.
"Someone's still moving down there. Stoke the fire!"
Two Fire Talismans were shoved through the crack.
Li Sanshun grabbed some wet mud and smothered the talismans. They failed to ignite, but the flames burned through several nearby vines instead.
More Wood Spiritual Qi surged into the water channel.
He drew in a breath, replenishing the strength he'd just spent.
"Strike three more feet, toward the lower left corner!"
Gu Qinghe struck four times in quick succession.
The crack widened rapidly. Losing its support, the boulder sealing the well slid half a foot downward.
The masked cultivators at the wellhead hurriedly backed away.
"Hold the boulder down!"
Three people rushed to the edge of the well and pressed down on the boulder together. The firelight in the Array Patterns had already reached the medicine cellar. Several iron chests were burning through, and sparks flew toward them along the water channel.
Li Sanshun snatched up an iron chain from the ground, looped it around a protrusion in the well wall, then wrapped the other end around the base of the boulder.
"Gu Qinghe, strike the right side!"
Gu Qinghe changed position and drove her sword into the boulder's lower right side.
Chunks of stone broke away.
The boulder lost its balance completely and slid down the well wall. The three cultivators above couldn't hold its weight and had no choice but to let go.
Li Sanshun had already moved to the side.
The boulder crashed to the bottom of the well, pulling the iron chain taut.
One masked cultivator at the well's edge hadn't managed to release the iron hook he'd used to hold down the boulder. The chain wrapped around his ankle, and he tumbled into the well.
Li Sanshun stepped forward and smashed the man's wrist with the Broken Blade.
His short sword hit the ground.
Li Sanshun followed with a kick, sending him into the water channel.
"Charge!"
Gu Qinghe planted a foot on the boulder and vaulted out of the well.
The two masked cultivators had only just raised their weapons when sword light swept across their chests. They flew backward, smashing the Array Flag beside them.
The red light underground dimmed by more than half.
Li Sanshun grabbed the iron chain and swung upward, using the momentum to catch the edge of the well.
A curved blade hacked down at his head.
He didn't dodge. He raised his left arm to block the back of the blade and drove the Broken Blade into his opponent's ribs with his right hand.
The curved blade sliced through his sleeve, leaving a gash half a foot long on his arm.
[Life energy depleted by 0.8 points.] [The wound is recovering.]
It still hurt like hell.
But as soon as blood began to flow, the Wood Spiritual Qi stopped it.
The masked cultivator pulled back his blade to strike again.
Li Sanshun deliberately crashed into his arms, smashed his forehead into the man's nose, then drove the Broken Blade into his abdomen.
"You really think I'm afraid to trade my life for yours?"
The man clutched his wound and staggered back. Li Sanshun swept his leg out and kicked him into the well.
The Law Enforcement disciples below swarmed forward and bound him with chains.
The three remaining killers had already retreated more than ten steps.
Their leader held the Array Disk, his thumb pressed against the central fire bead.
"Come any closer, and I'll burn the people below alive!"
Gu Qinghe didn't stop.
"Go ahead and try."
"You're asking for death!"
The fire bead was pressed.
The Array Patterns underground lit up again, but the flames stopped after reaching the edge of the Abandoned Well.
When Li Sanshun had wrapped the chain around the boulder, he'd already cut through the Array Patterns with the Broken Blade. The medicine cellar was still burning, but the flames could no longer spread through the array.
The killer looked down at the Array Disk.
In that half-breath, Gu Qinghe was already right in front of him.
Her short sword pierced the Array Disk, then sliced off two of his fingers.
The other two turned and ran.
Li Sanshun picked up the curved blade and chased the man on the left. The opponent was two cultivation levels above him and flung three poison spikes as he turned.
Li Sanshun blocked two. The third lodged in his shoulder.
[Snake-Hop Poison detected.] [Life energy depleted by 1 point.] [The poison is being expelled.]
He didn't slow down.
The man had meant to use poison to drive off his pursuers. Seeing Li Sanshun speed up even after being struck, he faltered for half a beat.
The curved blade came down from behind and struck the man's calf.
The killer fell into the Fire Trench.
Li Sanshun planted a foot on his back and pressed the blade's tip to his neck.
"Don't move. Move again, and I'll save you the Detoxification Pill."
The other fleeing cultivator had just climbed over the Stone Wall around the Herb Garden when reinforcements from the Law Enforcement Hall arrived and blocked his path. Several Spirit-Binding Ropes flew out, yanking him down from the wall.
The fight by the well was over, too.
Of the six killers sent to wipe them out, three were dead and three were wounded.
Gu Qinghe kept the one with the lowest cultivation alive. The other two, gravely injured, had only just had their masks removed when black blood spilled from their mouths.
"They hid poison sacs between their teeth!"
A Law Enforcement disciple reached out to pry their mouths open, but both were already dead.
The last killer was gritting his teeth as well.
Li Sanshun punched him in the jaw, knocking out the poison sac along with two of his teeth.
"Want to die? Did you ask me first?"
Gu Qinghe sealed the man's meridians and bound his hands and feet with chains.
Medicine Peak servants brought sand and smothered the remaining flames on the ground. Though half the entrance to the medicine cellar had collapsed, Zhao Chong and Sun Erhe were both carried out, and every piece of evidence had been packed into the Storage Bag. Not a single item was missing.
Sun Erhe took a Healing Pill and identified several of the killers.
"One of the people who captured me last night was him."
Gu Qinghe walked up to the surviving killer and pulled off his mask.
He was about forty, with an old burn scar on his neck. The Law Enforcement Hall disciples had checked his waist token and Storage Bag, but found not the slightest clue to his identity.
Li Sanshun crouched down and spotted a small hole in the man's back molar.
"There's more than one poison sac in his mouth!"
The killer had already bitten through the poison pill hidden in his tooth root.
Gu Qinghe used her spiritual energy to seal his throat, but she was still a moment too late. Black blood trickled from his nostrils. He stared at Li Sanshun and struggled to move his throat a few times.
Li Sanshun grabbed him by the collar.
"Who sent you?"
The killer squeezed out four words with his last breath.
"The fifteenth portion..."
Before you continue