In the main room of the third courtyard.
Two black-robed men nearing fifty sat facing each other, a fine feast spread across the table as they drank to their hearts' content.
Both were thin as skeletons, with gloomy eyes, faces wrinkled like dead bark, mouths full of yellow teeth, and voices like ghosts.
"Hahaha, congratulations, Holy Envoy, congratulations! In just another half month, you will master the Black Lotus Great Art. Then none of the sect's Attendants will be your match."
"All in good time. Have you taken care of everything I instructed you to do?"
"How could your subordinate dare give anything less than his utmost to your instructions, Holy Envoy?" the Black Lotus Dharma Protector flattered him.
"Haha, the Black Lotus Great Art requires harvesting yin to replenish yang, and the girls must be unmarried virgins. The ones in the side courtyard are useless now. You may enjoy them to your hearts' content tonight."
"Thank you for your blessing, Holy Envoy!"
The Black Lotus Dharma Protector offered a toast. After he set down his cup, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy continued, "Don't say I don't look after you all. You know my tastes.
"What I enjoy most is tying up chaste maidens and training them into whores, then slowly torturing them to death.
"That feeling makes one hover between ecstasy and death.
"But for your sake, I couldn't bring myself to kill the ones in the side courtyard. I left them alive for you to enjoy."
"How merciful you are, Holy Envoy. As you instructed, I have found a few more girls. The men will bring them back for you tonight, and then you may harvest from them however you please."
"Hahaha, you know how to handle things, Dharma Protector."
"It is all thanks to your excellent teaching."
The two exchanged toasts, and after a few cups, their tongues grew looser.
As the sky outside grew dark, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy slapped the table and said angrily, "What is wrong with these disciples today? It has been two hours. Why has no one come to attend us?"
The dark-faced Dharma Protector hurriedly smiled apologetically. "Don't be upset, Holy Envoy. It is all my fault for failing to discipline them. They have grown lazy.
"They must be gambling and drinking right now. Let me call them."
He cleared his throat and shouted toward the door, "Attend us!"
"Attend us?"
"Coming," a quiet voice answered.
The door swung open, startling both men.
The figure at the doorway was no Black Lotus disciple, but a young Daoist carrying a longsword. A smile hung on his face, yet that smile carried a chilling edge.
The two fiends paled in shock and looked outside. The courtyard was empty.
The Black Lotus Holy Envoy's expression grew grave. There was a saying in the martial world that, out in the jianghu, there were several kinds of people one must never underestimate.
Children, old men, women, Daoists, and monks.
Since he dared openly push the door open, that meant all the Black Lotus disciples in the courtyard were already dead.
A Daoist who could silently wipe out an entire courtyard of Black Lotus disciples possessed martial skills that could not be underestimated.
"Who are you?"
"The man who will kill you."
"Hahaha, what a joke! You? A brat whose hair hasn't even grown in-"
Whoosh!
Before he could finish, sword light flashed, and the Black Lotus Dharma Protector felt his vision blur.
He was a little confused. Why can I suddenly see the Holy Envoy behind me?
Huh? Who is that headless man?
Oh, that man is me...
"Excellent skills, fellow Daoist." Having witnessed such swordsmanship, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy was even less willing to act rashly.
Though the Black Lotus Dharma Protector's martial skills were merely second-rate in the jianghu, he was not much weaker than the Holy Envoy himself.
Someone who could take his head with one stroke was certainly beyond the Holy Envoy's ability to fight.
"You flatter me." Zhang Qingyuan withdrew his sword and smiled. "I've always felt that a fight should be a fight. Threats are something you ought to make after you're done. What do you think?"
"You are absolutely right, fellow Daoist." The Black Lotus Holy Envoy simply sat down, placing one hand on the table and the other beneath it.
"So, fellow Daoist, you have come to kill me today?"
"That's right."
Zhang Qingyuan also sat down, directly opposite the Black Lotus Holy Envoy.
The two looked at each other, and the Black Lotus Holy Envoy smiled. "I assume you know who I am."
"Of course. The Black Lotus Sect's holy fellow."
"In that case, why not join our Black Lotus Sect, fellow Daoist? Our Black Lotus Sect-"
"Stop!" Zhang Qingyuan waved a hand. "We're both men of faith. Trying to persuade someone who believes in the Dao to join an evil cult? You're being naughty."
"So this will be difficult to settle peacefully today?"
Zhang Qingyuan nodded. "Just now, outside the door, I heard that you enjoy turning chaste, virtuous maidens into whores before torturing them to death. Is that right, Holy Envoy?"
"I..."
"I always thought only the islanders were this twisted. I never expected you to be every bit their equal."
"Islanders?" The Black Lotus Holy Envoy did not understand.
Zhang Qingyuan rose, lifted his sword, and let out a long breath.
"What I mean is, the islanders deserve to die, and you deserve it even more."
"Then let's see which of us dies first!"
Seeing that his opponent would yield to neither oil nor salt, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy flipped the table up and drew the sinister hook hidden beneath it. The hook was three feet long, with a sharpened inner edge.
The table blocked Zhang Qingyuan's view. Seizing the chance, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy unleashed Splitting Mount Hua, driving the hook down like a death-dealing sickle.
For an instant, it seemed the sinister hook would pierce through the crown of Zhang Qingyuan's head into his brain in the very next moment. Even the Black Lotus Holy Envoy thought so. Then a streak of sword light swept through the hook's cold gleam.
The sword light blocked the sinister hook with a clang, and the Black Lotus Holy Envoy hastily retreated.
Zhang Qingyuan stood up. The Black Lotus Holy Envoy stared at him, and at the sword in his hand.
It was only an ordinary longsword, with nothing extravagant about its design. Yet in this young Daoist's hands, that utterly ordinary sword had displayed such fierce swordsmanship.
As he stood dumbfounded, still searching for an opening in Zhang Qingyuan's defenses, he saw the corners of Zhang Qingyuan's mouth lift into a slight smile. "Holy Envoy, have you decided how you wish to die?"
The instant those words fell, he had already taken a step, his blue-and-white Daoist robes becoming a blue-and-white afterimage.
Sword light flickered amid the ever-shifting afterimages. The longsword swung casually, and the next moment, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy felt pain in his back. The sword had already passed through his back and out his chest.
Against such movement, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy had not even had time to react.
This was a movement technique Zhang Qingyuan had improved: Jade Purity Lotus Step!
His martial talent, equal to Zhang Sanfeng's, allowed him to understand all methods once he understood one. He had improved the movement technique his master created, making it even more unpredictable.
The Black Lotus Holy Envoy turned deathly pale and dropped to his knees with a thud. Slowly lowering his head, he looked at the blade protruding from his chest, crimson blood sliding along it.
The Black Lotus Holy Envoy panted, unable to hide his terror, and hurriedly threatened, "Y-you... how dare you kill me? The countless followers... of my Black Lotus Sect will never let you off!"
Zhang Qingyuan chuckled. "Perfect. I detest sects like yours too. I'll wait for them to come looking for me and cut out the weeds by their roots while I'm at it."
"Urgh..." The Black Lotus Holy Envoy spat blood, yet still did not die.
Zhang Qingyuan slowly walked around in front of him, picked up a chopstick, and looked down at him.
"Do you feel you still have strength left? Think you're lucky enough to survive a sword through your body?"
"You did..."
"I did." Zhang Qingyuan smiled. "I deliberately aimed the sword off-center to leave you a breath.
"But don't misunderstand. It isn't that I can't bear to kill you. I simply can't bear to let you die quite so quickly and easily."
The Black Lotus Holy Envoy grew even more panicked, fear spreading into his chest, for he saw that the smile on Zhang Qingyuan's face was becoming increasingly familiar.
That smile was so much like the one he used to wear while torturing those young girls.
"Y-you... what are you going to do?"
Zhang Qingyuan smiled and casually hurled the chopstick. It shot toward the Holy Envoy's crotch, pierced the thing between his legs, and smashed both his balls.
"Aaaah!!!!"
With a scream, the Black Lotus Holy Envoy felt a chill below, followed by a heart-piercing pain that nearly made him faint.
Zhang Qingyuan said mildly, "People are always debating which hurts more: a man having his balls crushed or a woman giving birth.
"I've seen childbirth, but this is my first time seeing balls crushed.
"Tell me, how much does it hurt?"
The Black Lotus Holy Envoy's head was drenched in sweat. He cursed furiously, "Demon! You're a demon! Make it quick! Kill me!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. When you tortured those girls, did you ever think of making it quick for them?"
Zhang Qingyuan shook his head. "That really doesn't answer my question. I'm asking whether it hurts. What sort of answer is that?"
He walked behind the Black Lotus Holy Envoy and kicked him in the back, knocking him onto a stool.
The Black Lotus Holy Envoy lay draped over the stool, not knowing what Zhang Qingyuan intended to do.
Zhang Qingyuan picked up a stool leg from the floor. It was as thick as a baby's arm. With a cold smile, he waved it before the Holy Envoy's face.
"There's a village in the island nation called the Hidden Leaf Village. Hidden Leaf has a special move called One Thousand Years of Death. You have the honor of being the first to try this move."
Zhang Qingyuan stood behind him, about two meters away.
Aim.
Fire.
He hurled the stool leg with all his strength, and it sank into the Holy Envoy's body like a sword.
Pfft!
"That felt so fucking good!"
Then he froze for a moment. Forgive me, forgive me. Patriarch above, this disciple has sinned.