Chapter 335: The Mysterious Man, Wu Xiaochang Perishes

Translator: Minotauruz

Zhang Shuyue had already left her room and successfully linked up with her master Xiang Guqing when Zhou Zilong discreetly released his Messenger Paper Crane to warn Zhang Shuyue about the possible assailants.

“Master, this is where the Heavenly Peak disciples are residing. Apart from Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen, all of the other disciples have already ingested the powdered roots of the Spirit Devouring Grass together with the food I had earlier prepared. In other words, they’re like fattened lambs ready for the slaughter.” Zhang Shuyue curled her lips into a wicked smile as a bright gleam flickered across the depths of her eyes.

“Mm, you’ve done well.” Xiang Guqing patted Zhang Shuyue’s shoulders in delight, “I heard you’ve been injured by that cheap slut Jun Xiaomo? Let master take a closer look at your wounds.” As she finished speaking, Xiang Guqing placed her fingers onto Zhang Shuyue’s wrists.

As soon as Zhang Shuyue thought about the humiliating things Jun Xiaomo had done to her, she couldn’t help but reveal a thoroughly aggrieved expression on her face – Jun Xiaomo, you slut! I’m going to sentence you to death by a thousand cuts tonight! I’m going to flay off your skin and expose your grotesque, disgusting features for the world to see!

Meanwhile, Xiang Guqing released a thread of spiritual energy and sent it through Zhang Shuyue’s meridians and Dantian. Gradually, she began to furrow her brows more and more, and the indignation written on her face grew increasingly pronounced.

“Vile! That brat deserves to die!” Xiang Guqing flicked her sleeves in fury as her anger reached its boiling point, shattering a massive stone ten meters away into dust.

“Master, did something happen to my body?” Zhang Shuyue asked about her own condition anxiously.

“That brat Jun Xiaomo has damaged your meridians and Dantian using her demonic energy. In other words, she’s damaged the foundation for your cultivation. It’s a good thing that Master has arrived in time. Otherwise, if the incursion of demonic energy spreads and worsens any further, the consequences could be incredibly dire.” Xiang Guqing explained.

“That vile and wicked woman! I knew that she would never let me off that easily!” Zhang Shuyue gritted her teeth as she looked pleadingly at Xiang Guqing with indignation in her eyes, “Master, you’ve got to settle the score for me!”

“Don’t worry, master won’t let that brat off that easily.” Xiang Guqing solemnly promised her disciple before turning to Dai Yanfeng, “Elder Dai, I suggest that we stand guard around the entrance to the valley, and then you can send your disciples from the Eternal Summit Sect to apprehend those vermin that are running wild within the valley. What do you think?”

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Sending the Eternal Summit Sect disciples? This would be far too easy on your part, wouldn’t it? You wouldn’t even have to lift a finger!” Dai Yanfeng rejected the suggestion with some measure of displeasure.

“Are you suggesting that I deal with the fifteen-odd Heavenly Peak disciples with the meagre number of disciples that I have? Elder Dai, you overestimate our abilities.” Xiang Guqing did not have many disciples. Including Zhang Shuyue, she only had a total of seven disciples.

“Hmph!” Dai Yanfeng snorted. Despite his displeasure, he set aside his personal feelings for the greater goal and relented. Thus, he began to disseminate his instructions to his disciples to discreetly make their way towards where the Heavenly Peak disciples’ rooms were located.

According to Zhang Shuyue, all of the Heavenly Peak disciples would already have consumed the powdered roots of the Spirit Devouring Grass, so apprehending them would hardly be a difficult thing at all.

“That’s right. Which rooms are Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen residing in?” Xiang Guqing brought her mind to the fact that they had not consumed the Spirit Devouring Grass yet, and she knew that the Eternal Summit Sect disciples would never be able to deal with the two main perpetrators.

“It’s those two rooms that are adjacent to each other.” Zhang Shuyue pointed at the two courtyards some distance away.

“Hmph. Very well. Dachang, Xiaochang, you’ll be in charge of them. Don’t kill them; just make sure you incapacitate them and leave them with their lives dangling by a thread.” Xiang Guqing instructed the two disciples who were standing just behind her.

“Yes, Master!” A pair of twins acknowledged her instructions in the same manner and at the same time. Then, after bowing politely to Xiang Guqing, they sprinted towards the courtyards where Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen’s rooms were located.

The twin sisters were already in the secondary-tier Golden Core stage of cultivation. To Xiang Guqing’s mind, these twin sisters were going to be more than enough if they were to apprehend the two fledgling cultivators that Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen were.

How could she have possibly guessed the immense levels of cultivation that Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen possessed? They were already in the elementary-tier and advanced-tier Nascent Soul stages of cultivation respectively. Even if Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen were still residing within their rooms right now, these twin sisters could never possibly defeat either of them with their present abilities.

A man standing at the back of the pack lifted his head and looked at the pair of twin sisters that had shot off to perform their tasks. Then, with a glint in his eyes, he faded into the darkness and followed closely behind the twin sisters as well.

This man had been wearing the uniform of the Eternal Summit Sect disciples all this while. Thus, nobody discovered anything amiss with him.

The twin sisters, Dachang and Xiaochang, divided up their responsibilities very quickly. Dachang made a beeline straight towards Ye Xiuwen’s room, while Xiaochang shot straight towards the room where Jun Xiaomo was allegedly residing in.

Then, as soon as she arrived at the courtyard where Jun Xiaomo’s room was located, Xiaochang reduced her speed and proceeded much more cautiously.

Slowly, she drew closer to the door to Jun Xiaomo’s room. Then, as soon as she was infinitesimally close to Jun Xiaomo’s room, she suddenly launched an attack, intending to barge straight through the door and into her room.

To her dismay, Xiaochang found her attack completely parried and botched by a man wearing the uniform of the Eternal Summit Sect disciples. She was unable to see the appearances of the Eternal Summit Sect disciple in the dark of the night. The only thing she knew was that this disciple appeared to be unusually tall, large and well-built.

“Who are you?! Why are you standing in my way?! Aren’t you from the Eternal Summit Sect?” Xiaochang’s heart sank when her attack failed. But in the very next moment, she found herself glaring viciously at the man standing in front of her, questioning his intentions incessantly.

However, this man remained completely taciturn. Shortly after parrying Xiaochang’s initial attack, the man launched his own attack at Xiaochang without much warning.

Wu Xiaochang’s heart sank. This was because she could tell with one glance that the man’s abilities were hardly beneath hers at all.

Does the Eternal Summit Sect have disciples who are stronger than the secondary-tier Golden Core stage of cultivation? What’s he doing in such a small sect if he’s already surpassed that level of cultivation?!

Unfortunately, before Wu Xiaochang could wrap her head around just what was going on, the man’s clawing attack plunged straight through her chest, leaving a huge, gaping wound where her flesh and heart used to be.

“Ungh...urgh...”

When she first agreed to participate in this operation, Wu Xiaochang had never even considered the possibility that she would die so easily, much less perish at the hands of a man whose appearances she could hardly even see.

Then, when Wu Xiaochang collapsed to the ground, she finally saw the man’s appearances out of the corner of her eyes – under the dim illumination of the moonlight, the man’s blood-red pupils glistened with an eerie sheen.

“Demon-...demonic cultivator...”

Wu Xiaochang’s neck slumped as she muttered her final words. She had just drawn her final breath.

The man tossed Wu Xiaochang’s corpse onto the ground before making his way into Jun Xiaomo’s room.

“Xiaomo?” The man called out with a deep, booming voice. However, he did not receive any response whatsoever.

The man could see what appeared to be a lump under the blankets, as though someone were still deep in slumber, completely oblivious as to what was going on right now.

The man’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. Then, slowly, it began to thump stronger and faster, and with ever-increasing vigor.

Ever since the man first learnt of Jun Xiaomo’s death, his heart became to die to the rest of the world. Then, consumed by the notion of vengeance, he led an army, fighting his way straight into the heart of the Greenwich Kingdom’s capital. Yet, whenever night fell, his emotions would emerge from the depths of his heart once more, amplifying the void in his heart and causing him to feel like an empty husk.

Years ago, his mother was murdered by his selfish father, yet he continued to look expectantly to his heartless father for love and compassion.

Unfortunately, his father caught wind of some rumours and ordered that his rights to lead an army be rescinded once more. To make matters worse, his father even decided to exchange his head for the support of the Zephyr Sect. This thoroughly embittered him, and his heart grew frigid and cold.

Thus, he abandoned his station. After leaving a few standing instructions to ensure continuity, he departed from them.

The man knew that the Zephyr Sect and the Greenwich Kingdom had never given up their search for him over the last few years, and they were eager to locate him so that they could repay whatever blood debt they had to repay. However, this man was determined not to be found.

This was because he now lived for vengeance, and he knew that he had to remain alive to carry out his life’s goals. With his eyes on the prize, he did everything he could as he looked forward to the day when he would finally have sufficient power and abilities to uproot the entire Zephyr Sect and the Greenwich Kingdom, razing both to the ground!

However, what surprised the man the most was the fact that he would be given yet another opportunity to reunite with Jun Xiaomo once more. When he first heard the news that the daughter of the Heavenly Peak’s Peakmaster was still alive, and that she had even wreaked havoc and chaos in the Dawn Sect, he thought that everything was simply too good to be true.

If this were a dream, the man sincerely hoped that he could stay in this dream for as long as possible. He was willing to remain in his slumber and dream on for the rest of eternity if that was even possible!

Shortly after that, he began to follow the leads he had on the whereabouts of the Heavenly Peak disciples who had just escaped from the Dawn Sect’s imprisonment. During this period of time, he began to hear more and more rumours about Jun Xiaomo’s role in their escape, and he began to grow more certain of the fact that Jun Xiaomo was still alive.

Jun Xiaomo isn’t dead! She’s actually still alive!!

Words were unable to describe the feelings within the man’s heart at that time. The only thing the man knew was that he needed to locate Jun Xiaomo and do his utmost to ensure that she remained safe and sound in this world.

There were many people in the spiritual cultivation world looking for Jun Xiaomo, some of which had even decided to pledge great rewards and post a bounty on Jun Xiaomo’s head. Amidst his rage and indignation at the disgusting acts of the spiritual cultivation world, an idea struck the man – it would be far easier locating Jun Xiaomo if he followed anyone who was looking to claim the bounty on Jun Xiaomo’s head.

Thus, the man remained around the vicinity of the bounty board until Xiang Guqing finally showed up and claimed the bounty on the board.

The bounty which Xiang Guqing claimed was none other than the bounty which was jointly posted by the Eternal Summit Sect and the Dawn Sect. Their common grievances against Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen had caused the two rival sects to finally set aside their multitude of differences and cooperate, thereby boosting the bounty to unrivalled levels.

Just like that, the man discreetly tailed Xiang Guqing as soon as she first accepted the bounty, and he began to learn more and more about just what exactly had happened over the last few days. Concurrently, he began to hatch a grand plan to assist and rescue Jun Xiaomo.

Sometime later, Xiang Guqing led Dai Yanfeng and his men towards the valley and made the decision to launch a sneak attack on the Heavenly Peak disciples under the cover of night.

Dai Yanfeng had brought with him a total of over fifty disciples. However, he did not recognize every single one of the disciples by their appearances.

Thus, he had failed to discover that one of the male disciples which he had brought together with him had been killed without a single trace.

The man possessed a very similar build to the Eternal Summit Sect disciple whom he had killed. Thus, under the dim illumination of the moonlight, Dai Yanfeng was completely unaware that a mysterious man had surreptitiously snuck into the midst of all his disciples under the guise of one of his late-disciples.

The man steadied his spirits as he made his way towards Jun Xiaomo’s bed.

He would very soon be reunited with Jun Xiaomo.