Chapter 376: The Loosened Shackles, Zhuang Lenghui’s Hatred

Translator: Minotauruz

Just as the Zephyr Sect disciple and Princess Linglong’s bodyguards were wallowing in the mires of self-pity and crying their eyes out at their bleak future as a result of Princess Linglong’s death, Ye Xiuwen returned without any warning and appeared before their very eyes once again.

The limbs of the Zephyr Sect disciples were still severed, and none of them possessed any ability to stand against Ye Xiuwen. Thus, all of them shrunk back in fear the moment they saw Ye Xiuwen.

They also noticed that Ye Xiuwen was carrying Jun Xiaomo in his arms right now. She wore a striking red garment, yet her face appeared pale and her aura seemed feeble and frail. Worrying that something bad might have happened to Jun Xiaomo, everyone turned their cautious gazes back to Ye Xiuwen, wondering if he was back here for revenge. Everyone present had the exact same concern in their hearts – it was as though they could all see the light at the end of their roads.

Thunk! A loud thud resounded, and a person whose appearances couldn’t clearly be seen was tossed down right in front of Ye Xiuwen’s feet. Moments later, a sprightly old man skipped over to Ye Xiuwen’s side, “Argh, I wonder what that young lad ate growing up. He’s so heavy. I pity this old bag of bones of mine.” The old man massaged his shoulders as he remarked aloud. It was evident that he had carried that man back from where he was.

Very soon, the Zephyr Sect disciples noticed the characteristic garments worn by the man on the ground.

“Look! It...it seems to be Martial Brother Zou.” One of the disciples exclaimed aloud, directing everyone’s gaze towards the person lying on the ground.

“It certainly looks like Martial Brother Zou’s garments.”

“Could that man have killed Martial Brother Zou?”

“That’s too much! Do you not have any regard for the Zephyr Sect at all?!”

Within moments, everyone began to cast infuriated looks at Ye Xiuwen. Unfortunately, as soon as they locked eyes with Ye Xiuwen and noticed the dispassionate gaze in his eyes, they immediately shuddered coldly and turned their gaze away once more. Even the disciple who first criticized Ye Xiuwen for his actions dared not speak any further.

After all, who in the right mind would dare to stir the wrath of a fiendish war god who would even kill Martial Brother Zou or Princess Linglong?

Ye Xiuwen glanced at everyone placidly for yet another protracted moment before he addressed them, “The person surnamed Zou isn’t dead yet, but he’s most certainly on the brink of death. If you don’t want to see him perish before your very eyes, you’d best tell me a way to release the shackles on my wife’s limbs. Otherwise, you’d best be prepared to collect his corpse.”

The Zephyr Sect disciples looked sheepishly at each other, evidently with hesitation in their eyes.

Ye Xiuwen squinted slightly, before adding, “And, you’d be wise not to try anything funny. Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind staining my hands with the blood of several more Zephyr Sect disciples.”

Finally, after a moment of hesitation, a Zephyr Sect disciple stepped forward and stammered, “Dear Senior, it’s not that we don’t want to hand you the key to these shackles. It’s just that way to open those shackles have only been known to Princess Linglong, Martial Brother Zou and Martial Sister Zhuang. We don’t know how to open these shackles at all.”

Princess Linglong had already been killed, while Zou Zilong was laying motionless on the ground on the brink of death. Even if he were to wake Zou Zilong from his stupor, Zou Zilong might not remain unwilling to reveal the way to release those shackles. Thus, the only plausible solution right now was to locate the third and final person who knew the means to release the shackles.

“Martial Sister Zhuang?” Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows.

“It’s...It’s Martial Sister Zhuang Lenghui. Would you like us to locate her for you?” The Zephyr Sect disciple mustered his courage and responded to Ye Xiuwen’s question. However, his voice continued to tremble with trepidation.

“Summon her.” Ye Xiuwen ordered dispassionately. The Zephyr Sect disciple heaved a huge sigh of relief. It felt as though he had just been extended the hope of second wind, and he sincerely prayed that Zhuang Lenghui would respond to his call and arrive promptly on scene to turn the situation around.

He didn’t use a Transmittance Talisman. Instead, he released an emergency signal to Zhuang Lenghui. This was a signal that was designed for the Zephyr Sect’s internal usage so that anyone in an emergency could immediately alert all who were nearby and receive assistance in the quickest time possible.

As expected, Zhuang Lenghui appeared soon after the emergency signal was released. She rushed quickly into the courtyard, leading a team of Zephyr Sect disciples.

Zhuang Lenghui had briefly heard of Princess Linglong and Zou Zilong capturing Jun Xiaomo. However, this was a matter that merely distracted her from her task at hand, so she cast these thoughts onto the backburner in no time.

That said, she had never expected Princess Linglong and Zou Zilong to have bitten off more than they could chew – and the dire backlash had taken one’s life and crippled the other.

Zhuang Lenghui roughly managed to guess what transpired as soon as she saw the devastation in the courtyard.

She swept a surveilling glance across everyone present, before finally resting her gaze on the man standing in the middle of the courtyard, raising her eyebrows curiously – she had never expected such an unassuming man who clearly had no backing behind him to be so capable to injure the Zephyr Sect disciples to such an extent. After all, the injured Zephyr Sect disciples were generally in the Golden Core stage of cultivation, and they could hardly be considered pushovers to begin with.

Zhuang Lenghui’s own abilities were in the bottleneck of the advanced-tier Golden Core stage of cultivation, and she had recently detected signs of a breakthrough into the Nascent Soul stage of cultivation. Despite that, she assessed that she was still no match for Ye Xiuwen at all.

Zhuang Lenghui was no fool. She understood far better than Yue Linglong and Zou Zilong how best to act in order to maximize profits and shrug off trouble. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that Ye Xiuwen had injured so many Zephyr Sect disciples, she still bowed politely to Ye Xiuwen, “Dear Senior, I’m unaware of what the Zephyr Sect disciples might have done wrong to offend you, but as the daughter of the Phoenixia Peak’s Peakmaster, please accept my apology.”

Zhuang Lenghui’s status in the Zephyr Sect was hardly any lower than that of Zou Zilong. Thus, her apology carried quite a substantial amount of weight behind it.

Having encountered an ostensibly reasonable person, the frigid intent in Ye Xiuwen’s eyes began to subside gradually.

“This is my wife. The Zephyr Sect’s disciples had captured her for no reason and even locked her up within the wooden hut, declaring that they were going to cripple her and sell her to a whorehouse in the mortal world. As her husband, I had in a spate of fury taught these members of the Zephyr Sect a lesson. This wouldn’t be considered going overboard, would it?” Ye Xiuwen placidly explained.

“Naturally not. The Zephyr Sect disciples have been ill-behaved. We’ve made a fool of ourselves in front of outsiders.” Zhuang Lenghui bowed once more.

“That’s good. Right now, my wife’s limbs are still bound and restrained, and I want to release those shackles of hers. I’d heard that only you know the method to opening these shackles. What do you think?”

“Naturally, it would only be right to help Senior release those shackles.” Zhuang Lenghui went with the flow. With that, she retrieved a small token from her Interspatial Ring and dripped a drop of her own blood on it. Then, as soon as she made a hand seal, the shackles around Jun Xiaomo’s limbs made a resounding click, and they fell off her limbs onto the ground below.

With another wave of her hand, the shackles below Ye Xiuwen’s feet flew back to her own hands.

“I wonder if Senior is satisfied with that?” Zhuang Lenghui smiled faintly at Ye Xiuwen as she stored the shackles back into her Interspatial Ring.

“That’s fine. I’ll return this man back to you.” As Ye Xiuwen finished speaking, he kicked Zou Zilong back towards Zhuang Lenghui and the rest, before turning around and taking his leave.

Ye Xiuwen was moving under the influence of his Windwalk ability, so he quickly vanished from the courtyard before the old man could even react to the situation.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“This disciple! How could he forget his master now that he has a wife? Infuriating!” The old man snorted aloud, before quickly following behind Ye Xiuwen.

Just like that, three people vanished from Zhuang Lenghui’s vision in the blink of an eye, leaving only a group of injured and weak disciples behind.

“Martial Sister Zhuang, are we going to let them off just like that?” One of the Zephyr Sect disciples asked somewhat reluctantly.

That man had killed Princess Linglong, crippled Martial Brother Zou, and even injured so many of our Zephyr Sect disciples. He obviously doesn’t place the Zephyr Sect in his sights at all. Are we really going to let him get away like that? This is far too humiliating!

“What can we do but let them off? If he can singlehandedly cause so much trouble for Martial Brother Zou, do you think we’ll be able to beat him all on our own?” Zhuang Lenghui chuckled coldly as she glanced back at the disciple.

Recognizing that Zhuang Lenghui’s words made sense, the disciple shrunk back sheepishly.

“Then, Martial Sister Zhuang, what are we going to do about Martial Brother Zou?” Another disciple behind Zhuang Lenghui couldn’t help but ask when he noticed Zou Zilong’s tragic state.

Zhuang Lenghui walked over towards Zou Zilong’s side and stepped on his wound, grinding the grotesque injury with the sole of her feet.

Ugh! It hurts to even look at that!!! The disciples standing behind Zhuang Lenghui broke out in cold sweat as soon as they saw Zhuang Lenghui’s actions.

“Ungh...” Zou Zilong regained consciousness as a result of the immense pain surging throughout his body. Then, as soon as he noticed Zhuang Lenghui standing directly above him, his entire body shivered intensely.

His master and Zhuang Lenghui’s father had been furiously competing with each other to gain the upper hand in the fight to be named as the next Sect Leader. Naturally, he could never see eye to eye with Zhuang Lenghui either. Zou Zilong despised the fact that his rival was standing directly above him while he was in his most tragic state.

If there were only a river beside him right now, he would have flopped into the river and drowned himself. Death would be much better than presenting himself defenseless to his rival.

Zou Zilong knew better than anyhow just how cold-blooded and hardhearted Zhuang Lenghui was. Any descriptions of her in the ilk of warm and gentle were nothing but mere pretenses.

“You...what are you going to do to me?” Fighting through the pain and dread in his heart, Zou Zilong glared at Zhuang Lenghui with apprehension as he asked.

“What am I going to do? Haven’t you already guessed?” Zhuang Lenghui chuckled lightly as she stated without a single ripple of emotion in her eyes, “Your master would be incensed and maddened if he ever learnt that you’d perished, wouldn’t he? I heard that he’s been in closed door cultivation over the last few days. I wonder what will happen if he learns of your death during this period of time. Maybe such news would stumble his cultivation, causing him to experience a demonic upheaval? Perhaps his cultivation might even be crippled as a result of these news...”

“You! You’re going to kill me?!” Zou Zilong’s eyes widened as he glared at Zhuang Lenghui with disbelief.

“Hehe, the person who’d killed you wasn’t me. It’s Jun Xiaomo’s martial brother, the First Seat Disciple of the Heavenly Peak, Ye Xiuwen.” Zhuang Lenghui curled her lips into a wicked smile as she added, “Unfortunately, you were killed by him after attempting to seize his woman from right under his nose – I wonder if such an explanation sounds logical enough?”

“But I’m not dead yet!” Zou Zilong barked indignantly.

“But you’re about to die very soon, aren’t you? The Zephyr Sect doesn’t need a useless disciple like you.” As Zhuang Lenghui spoke, her gaze landed on Zou Zilong’s chest.

There was a gaping hole right where Zou Zilong’s Dantian was located. It was obvious that his Golden Core had been crushed by someone.

“Zhuang Lenghui, you dare?!”

“Why wouldn’t I? After all, I wasn’t the person who killed you, so I wouldn’t be the object of your master’s wrath and vengeance in any event.”

Zhuang Lenghui’s smile at this moment was incredibly icy and peculiar. Then, she turned to another Zephyr Sect disciple and barked at him, “Ah Cheng, come here. Send Martial Brother Zou on his way.”

“Ahh?! Me?!” The disciple nicknamed “Ah Cheng” asked back in disbelief.

“You’re the only one here who possesses a wind-based spiritual root, so you’re naturally the only person who can create a wound that wouldn’t attract any suspicion. Go on then. Hurry up.” Zhuang Lenghui prompted.

Ah Cheng was hardly willing to do so. Yet, faced with Zhuang Lenghui’s oppressive, icy-cold gaze, his body shuddered intensely, and he knew he had to comply. Thus, he began to walk forward in trepidation.

“Martial Brother Zou, I’m sorry, this is all under Martial Sister’s instructions. I hope you don’t blame me...” Ah Cheng put his palms together and apologized to Zou Zilong.

Then, prompted by yet another intense, cold gaze from Zhuang Lenghui, Ah Cheng closed his eyes. Hardening his heart, he sent another few Wind Blades shooting straight towards Zou Zilong.

These Wind Blades sliced cleanly through several of Zou Zilong’s arteries, causing his blood to spray everywhere. Reeling in fear, Ah Cheng took a few steps back from him.

Zou Zilong’s throat gurgled slightly. He continued to gaze icily at Zhuang Lenghui, as though he were determined to seek her out in his next incarnation as a vengeful spirit.

Yet Zhuang Lenghui simply continued to stare at him with a frigid smile on her face until he finally stopped breathing.

“Remember, when the Stoneknife Peak’s Peakmaster asks about this incident, tell him that the perpetrator is Ye Xiuwen.” Zhuang Lenghui instructed the other Zephyr Sect disciples standing around. Despite having killed her own sect mate, her eyes remained still and tranquil, completely devoid of any ripple of emotions.

“Yes, we understand Martial Sister Zhuang’s instructions.” The Zephyr Sect disciples standing around immediately knelt before her, pledging allegiance to her.

Zhuang Lenghui smiled.

She had never liked killing others with her own hands. Instead, what gave her the most pleasure was to kill using a borrowed knife.

Ye Xiuwen, if you have to blame someone, you can blame yourself for attempting to seize the Rainbow Lotus Flower’s seeds from me. Zhuang Lenghui chuckled coldly in her heart. It was as though she could already smell her victory.