After Madam Tian died and her Dao perished, two figures flashed into view in midair. They were none other than the Tall, Thin Cultivator and the Brocade-Clad Middle-Aged Man.
The Tall, Thin Cultivator said, "Bad luck for her, running into us even here. We only came to help kill Ma Wanbao."
The Brocade-Clad Middle-Aged Man glanced at Eastchang Island and said, "Strange. There seems to be a fire on the island."
The Tall, Thin Cultivator found nothing strange about it. "Once someone like Sect Master Li makes his move, he strikes with the force of thunder. There must be other helpers besides us."
The Brocade-Clad Middle-Aged Man said, "Come on. Let's go in and look."
After concealing their auras and slipping onto the island, they discovered that Ma Wanbao had not come out. Instead, he sat cross-legged in his room, completely motionless, as though sunk into an endless sleep.
The two killed him with ease. He offered not the slightest resistance from beginning to end.
"Could this be some kind of dummy stand-in?"
Everything had gone so smoothly that they even suspected they had killed a fake.
"Let's check elsewhere first."
After a moment's thought, the Tall, Thin Cultivator beckoned to his companion.
The two wandered around the vicinity and found Wang Erxi.
He was sitting cross-legged in a nearby room. Bloodstains and spatters covered the floor, ceiling, and walls around him, making for an utterly horrifying scene.
An indescribable sour, putrid corpse stench mingled with the scorched odor of burning bones wafted out, like the site of a cremation.
Both men frowned deeply. "How many days has this fellow gone without bathing?"
Enduring their discomfort, they made a circuit around him but found nothing suspicious. All they could tell was that Wang Erxi had completely lost every trace of