"I..."
Donkey-face's face turned green.
A rank smell wafted out. He had wet his pants.
The first person Tiny Waist singled out was actually him.
Even if he racked his brains to pieces, he would never have imagined he would be the first.
Just what was Tiny Waist's criterion for choosing people?
Shouldn't Chen Yang have been the one she hated most?
Why had she picked him, someone who had come to help?
"Boss, save me."
Donkey-face's green face became that of a dead fish.
Even his eyes turned into dead fish eyes.
The Green Snake Sword in Han Yansong's hand was like a real green snake.
It pierced into his chest, then pierced out through it.
Whether Donkey-face had tenacious vitality or Han Yansong was doing it deliberately, no one knew.
He was pierced, but did not die.
Donkey-face watched the entire process with perfect clarity.
In his daze, he could even hear the hissing sound of the snake sword entering his flesh.
Watching himself advance toward death step by step-this was truly killing the body and destroying the heart.
"Tie... Dan..."
Donkey-face exhausted every ounce of strength and finally turned his head.
His eyes were filled with regret, anguish, and his fury and hatred toward Tie Dan and Chen Yang.
But it was all too late. The scene before his eyes had already blurred.
His final shred of consciousness sank into deathly darkness in an instant.
"G... godfather..."
Chen Yang's tongue knotted. He could no longer speak clearly.
Donkey-face died with his eyes open, bulging from their sockets.
It showed just how deeply he hated them.
Even Tie Dan trembled, his eyes wide.
He had seen plenty of dead people, but this was the first time he had witnessed such a death.
His scalp prickled, his whole body went cold, and it felt as though ten thousand little insects were gnawing and gnawing at his heart.
It was too tormenting.
"G... godfather, save me..."
Chen Yang cried out haltingly.
He saw Tiny Waist turn her gaze toward him.
A thick stench spread. To his utter shame, he had also discharged blackish-yellow filth.
"Dark boy, who do you think I should pick next?"
With a soft patter, a hot tear rolled down and landed on Lin Shisan's face.
Tiny Waist's voice was gentle, yet wrapped in a chill that pierced the heart and bones.
"S... senior sister... you choose..."
Lin Shisan's lips moved, his voice as faint as a mosquito's.
His eyelids drooped until he could barely open them, and his voice became an indistinct hum.
His injuries were too severe.
The speck of light in his dantian grew dimmer and dimmer, and the little Flood Dragon's form was so frail it could scatter at any moment.
"Mm..."
Tiny Waist wiped away the tear at the corner of Lin Shisan's eye.
Her smiling face held a tenderness and affection that no words could exhaust.
But the next instant, when she turned her face, she became someone else as if performing Sichuan Opera Face-Changing, her eyes icy and brimming with killing intent.
"Back in the Green Fruit Garden, if not for Lin Shisan, you would have died beneath the lightning. How could you have come back?"
"Yet not only did you show not a shred of gratitude, you repaid kindness with malice."
"When Chen Yang slandered Shisan and made trouble for him, you were the first to stab him in the back."
"You dog with a human heart and a beast's lungs-I want to see just what that dog's heart of yours looks like."
"No... Brother Yang... save me..."
Just like Chen Yang, Chen San wet his pants.
Then he felt a trace of icy cold.
Next, he saw an opening appear in his belly.
After that, he saw his heart float out.
Still connected to it by his blood vessels, he heard his heart beating. He even heard it whimper.
"Shisan, Chen San's heart is black. It's filthy and foul."
With tears in her eyes, Tiny Waist said, "A dog's heart like this sullies our eyes. We needn't look at it."
Crack!
The Nine-Section Whip swung out.
Chen San's dog heart burst into pieces.
The spray splashed straight across Chen Yang's face. His three souls and seven spirits had long since fled.
"God... god..."
Before he could get the rest out, Chen Yang shuddered.
His legs stiffened and his eyes rolled white. He looked about to breathe his last.
"Trying to die?"
The instant Tiny Waist spoke, Han Yansong turned his right hand over and flicked out a ball of light.
Chen Yang shivered violently and immediately woke from his faint, unable to close his eyes even if he wanted to.
"Chen Yang, I want you to watch them die one by one, and truly feel every last one's fury and hatred."
Tiny Waist's eyes filled with tenderness and affection again as she looked at Lin Shisan.
She smiled through her tears.
"Who's next? Will you choose yourself, or shall I help you?"
"Mm, all right. I understand."
This time, Tiny Waist looked at Tie Dan. "Shisan took that lash in my place."
"No... no, Senior Brother Han, you can't kill me. I've even treated you to drinks. Killing me will bring you trouble."
Tie Dan's refined bearing vanished.
Even his last scrap of dignity disappeared completely.
Even his form of address changed to Senior Brother Han.
First, he had to survive.
As for taking revenge and washing away his humiliation, those were things to consider only after he survived.
"Senior Brother Han, I'm the chief inspection steward. If I die, the Enforcement Hall will certainly launch a thorough investigation, and your past will be dragged out again. Your daughter's unauthorized intrusion into District C today will no longer be concealable, and you'll be punished under the Sect Rules for killing me."
"Are you threatening me?"
Han Yansong spoke coldly.
His eyes flashed like lightning, and his will stirred.
The Green Snake Sword slowly aimed at Tie Dan's chest.
"I, Han Yansong, never bow to threats. You are no exception, Tie Dan. And I care even less about those bullshit sect rules."
"Pfft... aah!"
A heart-rending scream rang out, chilling everyone present to the bone.
Han Yansong had really killed Tie Dan, the chief inspection steward of equal rank. He truly held neither the sect nor its rules in any regard.
Even the Enforcement Hall's name carried no weight anymore.
But when they saw clearly, their heavy, sinking hearts finally settled back into place.
The one who had died was not Tie Dan, but Chen Yang beside him.
Chen Yang died with his eyes open. Hadn't Tie Dan been the one marked for death? How had the chosen victim become Chen Yang?
"You don't need to look at me like that."
Following Han Yansong's gaze, they saw a figure approaching from nearby.
Clad in the Purple Rosy Immortal Garment, he was about Han Yansong's age and likewise had a face covered in whiskers.
The foremost man beneath the elders, the Chief Steward of the Azure Cloud Mountains, standing above ten thousand others.
Zhou Xiaotian.
"I didn't come for him, or for you. I came for that little fellow."
Zhou Xiaotian walked straight to Tiny Waist's side.
He looked at Lin Shisan, whose face was pale and whose breaths went out but did not come back in.
"He's certainly hard to kill."
"If you want this boy to survive, you cannot kill Tie Dan. Wait a little longer, and even the Heavenly Emperor descending to the mortal realm could do nothing."
"Shisan can still be saved?"
Tiny Waist immediately perked up. "Old Zhou, you're saying Lin Shisan can still be saved?"
Old Zhou...
Just who was Tiny Waist?
She actually dared call the august Chief Steward Old Zhou. She was practically flying into the heavens.
Just what sort of powerful little girl was she?
Why did her status seem to run deeper with every layer revealed?
What other extraordinary background did she have?
Zhou Xiaotian's brows knotted into an iron lump.
His face was thoroughly displeased. "You're just like your father. Both of you speak so unpleasantly, without the slightest respect for your elders."
"Old Zhou, as long... as long as you can save Lin Shisan, I... I'll agree to become your disciple."
Tiny Waist spoke.
Even so, she could not conceal the haughty air in her words.
It was as though becoming Zhou Xiaotian's disciple would be granting him an enormous honor.
As though she would be getting the worst of the bargain.
"You little girl..."
Zhou Xiaotian shook his head as he spoke.
But the delight deep in the corners of his eyes still seeped out despite himself.
He had found a treasure this time.
"But I have one more condition. You must take Shisan as your disciple too."
Tiny Waist did not forget to add her demand at the right moment. "If anyone bullies Lin Shisan again, I can help him get even. Otherwise, there's nothing to discuss."
Before you continue