Green-Winged Bat King Wei Yixiao

They crossed mountains and forded streams all the way until the sun sank low and dusk stained the sky like ink, yet they were still trekking through the uninhabited depths of the mountains.

Jagged rocks surrounded them, ancient trees towered overhead, and the mournful cries of night owls and the long howls of wolves echoed through the valleys, adding to the eerie terror.

Zhou Zhiruo and Yang Buhui were the youngest. Instinctively, they clutched tightly at the hem of Zu Hao's robe, their small bodies trembling slightly.

Zhang Wuji's face had also gone somewhat pale, but he forced himself to remain calm and kept his lips pressed shut.

Only Yin Li, who had always been rather bold, widened her eyes and looked around curiously, seemingly trying to locate the source of the sounds.

"Don't be afraid. They're just ordinary wild animals from the mountains."

Sensing the children's anxiety, Zu Hao stopped and gently patted the back of Zhou Zhiruo's icy-cold hand. "If they're smart, they'll stay far away. If they're foolish enough to come provoke us, we can kill them and add some meat to our meal."

Zu Hao's gaze swept over the surroundings like lightning. Before long, he spotted a cave beneath a sheltered cliff face, its entrance narrow but its interior rather dry and spacious.

After tying up the horses, Zu Hao took out a lighter and built a blazing bonfire at the cave entrance.

The orange-red flames danced, driving away the darkness and chill and restoring color to the children's cheeks.

"Boil some water and make some vegetable porridge to warm yourselves up. I'll be back shortly."

After giving the instruction, Zu Hao's figure flickered, and he disappeared into the nearby forest.

Not long afterward, he returned carrying two plump pheasants and a gray-furred wild rabbit.

Zhou Zhiruo and the others were already used to this. They deftly took the game and cleaned it at the small stream beside the cave.

Before long, the aroma of roasting meat spread through the cave, making everyone's mouths water.

Just as they sat around the fire and prepared to enjoy their simple dinner, several pairs of green, greedy, hungry eyes quietly lit up in the darkness outside the cave.

Several wild wolves, drawn by the scent of blood and the firelight, crept closer without a sound.

Yet the moment they entered within a hundred meters of the cave, Zu Hao did not even turn his head. With merely a slight movement of his mind, invisible psychic force descended upon the wolves.

In the night, only a few faint cracks of breaking bones and the wolves' brief dying cries could be heard. Those unsettling green glimmers quickly went out, as though they had never existed.

Zhang Wuji and Zhou Zhiruo did not even notice what had happened outside. Only Yin Li seemed to hear a faint strange noise and turned her head suspiciously toward the pitch-black forest.

When she saw that Zu Hao's expression was unchanged, she returned her attention to the sizzling roast chicken.

After their simple meal, Zu Hao took a sip of water to rinse his mouth, then said gently to Yang Buhui, who was nestled beside the fire, "Buhui, according to the map, we should not be far from Sitting Forget Peak."

"If all goes well, you'll see your father, Yang Xiao, tomorrow."

"Then you can live with him in peace."

A complicated expression immediately appeared on Yang Buhui's little face. There was anticipation and excitement at the thought of seeing her biological father, but also unease toward the unknown future.

And reluctance to part with Brother Zu Hao, who had protected them all along like both a teacher and an elder brother, as well as Zhang Wuji and the other companions.

She opened her mouth, just about to say something...

At that moment, Zu Hao's expression abruptly hardened. He raised a hand in a silencing gesture, his sharp gaze cutting like a blade toward the depths of the dark forest outside.

An incredibly faint whistling sound came closer from afar, erratic and elusive, as though it were circling the cave at high speed.

Then, a sinister voice, sharp and strange, rang out from all directions like the cry of a night owl.

"Heh heh heh... Who would have thought that in these godforsaken mountains, this Bat King would run into several tender little children?"

"Tsk tsk, fresh human blood. Wonderful, simply wonderful!"

The voice was impossible to pin down, and its chilling tone and words instantly frightened Zhou Zhiruo and Yang Buhui until their little faces turned deathly pale. Even Yin Li nervously grabbed Zu Hao's arm.

Zhang Wuji instinctively circulated the martial arts Zu Hao had taught him and focused on guarding against the threat.

Zu Hao snorted coldly. His powerful psychic force had long since spread out like a spiderweb, instantly catching the grayish-green figure darting rapidly through the woods.

A cold gleam flashed in his eyes as he shouted, "I wondered what old ghost it was. So it's the Green-Winged Bat King Wei Yixiao, one of the Ming Cult's Four Guardian Kings!"

"You old beast, your cultivation went wrong, and now you must drink human blood just to cling to life. If you went after Yuan soldiers, I might still respect you as a man."

"But now you come to frighten children and seek to survive by drinking blood. You have brought death upon yourself!"

Although the Ming Cult was one of the main forces resisting the Yuan, its members were a mixed lot.

It was called the Demon Cult partly because Cheng Kun had secretly stirred up trouble, but partly because of its own nature as well.

Wei Yixiao had encountered problems while cultivating the Cold Ice Silk Palm, leaving cold poison accumulated within his meridians. Whenever he used his internal energy, the cold poison would flare up and trap him in his own icy cocoon, forcing him to drink human blood to prevent the blood in his entire body from freezing solid.

In the original story, Zhang Wuji used the Nine Yang Divine Skill to cure Wei Yixiao, purging the cold poison from his body and freeing him from his bloodthirsty fate.

But the old bastard truly drank human blood. Though his lightness skill was unmatched in the world and he was loyal to his comrades, it was equally true that he indiscriminately killed innocents.

Even Zhang Wuji had nearly fallen victim to him, only escaping because he was Yin Susu's son.

That showed Wei Yixiao had harmed no small number of children in his usual days.

If they had not crossed paths, Zu Hao could not be bothered to seek him out specifically. But now that Wei Yixiao had come to him of his own accord, his retribution had arrived.

Wei Yixiao did not see it that way. He thought himself lucky to have encountered five young blood meals at once.

Hearing Zu Hao's words, Wei Yixiao merely sneered. "Arrogant."

"Ignorant brat, I'll start with you. Keke keke..."

Wei Yixiao's lightness skill stood alone in the martial world, the finest in the Heavenly Sword World. Coupled with his specially made cloak, he could even glide through the air, swooping down like a vampire bat in the night.

The sound of air currents produced by his movements was incredibly faint, nearly impossible for ordinary people to detect.

Before Zhang Wuji, Zhou Zhiruo, Yin Li, Yang Buhui, and the others could react, Wei Yixiao had already leaped over the bonfire.

In the flickering firelight, he entered the cave.

His speed was roughly forty meters per second, somewhat slower than Zu Hao's speed when enhanced by psychic force.

But to ordinary people, and even to martial artists of the Heavenly Sword World, this was already extremely fast.

Yet as Wei Yixiao approached Zu Hao, he saw Zu Hao's gaze following the path of his movements.

He can see me? He can keep up with my speed?

The thought had barely formed when Wei Yixiao, like a mosquito caught in a spiderweb, was tightly bound in midair by invisible threads of psychic force.

Zu Hao wasted no words and struck him with a Heart-Shattering Palm.

Bang!

With a muffled impact, the force passed through flesh, skin, muscles, and bones, striking directly at Wei Yixiao's organs and shattering his heart into seventeen or eighteen pieces.

Wei Yixiao died on the spot.

Zu Hao rose, carried Wei Yixiao's corpse out of the cave, and swept the area with his psychic sense. Finding nothing of value, he casually tossed the body into the forest. Before long, it would likely be gnawed clean by wild beasts.