Chu Xisheng's first thought was to seek help from the martial instructors stationed inside the building.
But what chilled his heart was that both martial instructors he found along the corridor treated him with utter indifference.
"They mean you harm? Do you have any solid evidence?"
"I think you're imagining things. They're all your fellow disciples. Why would they harbor ill intentions toward you?"
Chu Xisheng saw traces of disdain and pity in their eyes.
Seeing this, the youths behind him grew even more brazen. Their eyes gleamed viciously as they closed in on Chu Xisheng with mocking smiles.
There were nine of them, tall and short, fat and thin, but every one of them was sturdy, solid, and strong.
Chu Xisheng sighed inwardly. He knew he could only rely on himself.
He grabbed a wooden rod used for making scrolls from a nearby bookshelf. It was made of black ironwood, rather unwieldy and quite heavy.
His mind raced as he considered how to deal with these people.
Facing them head-on was out of the question.
These newly promoted inner disciples were all roughly equal in strength. Their martial skills had only just crossed the threshold, and their Origin-Nourishing Art would be no higher than the first level.
Those with exceptional talent could reach the Ninth-Rank Lower realm, but they were very few.
Chu Xisheng was confident he would not lose in single combat, but there were nine opponents.
No matter how fast his saber was, he could not knock them all down in an instant.
Besides, all he had in his hand was a heavy wooden rod.
He had to find a narrow passage in which to face them. Then, however many opponents there were, only one could fight him head-on at a time.
Only by keeping the fight one-on-one throughout would he have a chance of winning.
If all else failed, he could spend one Martial Dao Point to buy a Divine Strength Pill from the Martial Dao Treasury.
It could temporarily increase his strength by two hundred percent, his speed by sixty percent, and his reflexes by sixty percent-enough to make him unbeatable.
His mind made up, Chu Xisheng broke into a sprint, escaping the encirclement before the youths could close it, then charged up the stairs with every ounce of strength he had.
Caught off guard, the youths took a moment to react.
"After him!"
All nine followed, charging up the stairs like maddened tigers.
After they left, the many inner disciples nearby were alerted as well and gathered in groups.
They looked toward the stairway in puzzlement, talking among themselves.
"What happened?"
"I recognize those fellows behind him. They're all from the Haiqing Gang at the eastern docks."
"The one being chased is Chu Xisheng, the fellow who nearly chopped off the Long Household's second young master's hand yesterday. Those Haiqing Gang members must have taken money from the Long Household to come looking for trouble with him today."
"Chu Xisheng? I heard his saber is fast. Academy Master Lei personally said his talent was no less than Li Fenglai's, the foremost True Disciple. But he's in for it this time. Those fellows are all skilled fighters raised by the Haiqing Gang, with strength close to Ninth-Rank Lower. Two fists can hardly fend off four hands."
"What a shame. He'll probably be crippled. I heard someone offended somebody three years ago and had both his arms broken in the library, but it was reported as a fall down the stairs. With nobody willing to testify for him, the matter simply came to nothing."
"Don't the instructors in the building do anything? Isn't that far too corrupt?"
"Shut up. Keep talking if you don't want to stay in the academy."
Chu Xisheng reached the third floor and headed straight to the left.
He spotted a small corridor in the eastern corner on the left side of the floor. Its entrance was about four feet wide, allowing at most two people through at once-the ideal place for him to make a stand.
As he ran, doubts arose in his mind.
He had not seen a single martial instructor along the way.
Every direction was empty, and the surroundings were frighteningly quiet.
Was there nobody on this floor? No martial instructor on duty either?
Just as Chu Xisheng rounded the corner into the corridor on the left, the nine youths charged up the stairs one after another like wolves and tigers.
They looked all around, searching for him.
"Where did that fellow go?"
The speaker was a tall, fat, brawny youth who also held a wooden rod. His cold, fierce eyes swept the surroundings. "Bastard! He certainly runs fast."
Another youth, with eyes like brass bells and a face covered in stubble, was also looking around. "Search the area. He should be on this floor. I didn't hear him going upstairs just now. Our people are blocking the other two staircases, so he can't get down.
"Don't rush to attack when you find him. His saber work is fierce. None of us is his match one-on-one-"
The stubbled youth's voice cut off abruptly. They saw a figure emerge from a room nearby.
It was a refined, handsome man wearing a tall red crown, his face white as jade and his sharply shaped lips red as blood.
Between his brows was a blue-green mark shaped like a sword.
After stepping out of the room, the man looked at them expressionlessly, his gaze carrying a hint of irritation, as though he were looking at rubbish blocking his path.
Already annoyed at being unable to find his quarry, the brawny youth glared at him. "What are you looking at? The Haiqing Gang is handling business. Get the hell out of the way!"
The man paused at those words, then gave a chuckle.
The brawny youth grew even angrier. Just as he was about to shout a rebuke, he saw the handsome man extend a hand as white as jade and make a grabbing motion toward him through the air.
Crack!
With that crisp sound of breaking bones, the brawny youth's hands and lower legs suddenly folded backward, and he pitched face-first onto the floor.
He froze for a moment, then let out a heart-rending scream.
The handsome man flicked his sleeve. A burly youth lunging at him was struck as though by an enormous invisible hand and slammed into the wall like a torn sack. When he fell, his limbs were broken too, and he lay unconscious.
The stubbled youth's expression froze at the sight.
Was that true essence projected outside the body? But wasn't that an ability only martial cultivators of the Sixth Grade or above possessed? How could an inner disciple have it?
"You're-"
He stared at the handsome man before him and the blue-green mark between his brows, and suddenly thought of someone.
A chill shot straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, making his hair stand on end.
This man was Bloodwind Sword Li Daogui!
Why was a criminal wanted by the imperial court inside Zhengyang Martial Academy's library?
Just as that thought arose in the stubbled youth's mind, an immense force wrenched his hands and feet backward with crisp cracking sounds.
The incomparable agony instantly cut off his thoughts and wrung an utterly piercing howl from him.
The screams rising one after another not only startled and baffled the many inner disciples on the first floor, but also left Chu Xisheng, hiding in the narrow corridor, utterly perplexed.
Chu Xisheng was bewildered and suspicious. Could those fellows be playing a trick to lure me out?
Then he thought that, with their numbers, they had no need for that, and followed the sounds.
When Chu Xisheng reached the corner, he cautiously poked his head out, then froze.
He saw all nine youths sprawled across the floor by the stairs. Not only were their limbs bent at unnatural angles, but they were utterly silent and motionless.
What was going on?
Were these fellows dead? Who had done this?
Chu Xisheng looked around, but there was nobody in sight.
After much hesitation, he finally walked over.
Only once he drew closer did he discover that, though unconscious, the youths were all still breathing faintly.
Their injuries, however, were horrific. Both hands and both feet were broken, and the fractures were comminuted ones, the hardest kind to treat.
Just as Chu Xisheng prodded the brawny youth with his rod, intending to turn him over for a look, he heard a flurry of footsteps from the stairway.
Chu Xisheng turned and saw several martial instructors leading a group of people up the stairs.
Before they had even emerged from the stairway, their expressions went blank.
They looked at the nine unconscious youths on the floor, then all shifted their gazes toward Chu Xisheng, their faces filled with shock and alarm.