Chapter 78 - Under the Moon at Five Gods Summit

The elder's sword was about to skewer Flowerless Butterfly!

He sensed something was wrong when he heard Tang Jinnian distantly say, "Then perish..."

The elder’s heart sank, but he already fully committed himself to the attack. It was too late to pull back. Gritting his teeth, he yelled, "Pay with your life!"

The elder gripped his sword with both hands and thrust it down, but the woman in his sight suddenly rolled to the side, revealing another figure beneath her!

Another puppet! The elder was horrified.

The puppet shoved aside the woman who had been concealing it and grabbed the blade of the iron sword with a single large hand.

The elder tried to pull back the sword to no avail and was nearly dragged into the puppet instead. Left with no choice, he abandoned his sword and leapt away from the puppet. He decided to retreat into the shadows for another opportunity.

Mid-air, his back crashed into something and he heard Tang Jinnian derisively say, "Old bastard... did you think I would let you go?"

Startled, the elder didn’t have time to turn around, so he immediately struck backward with a palm, only to have his wrist caught by what he crashed into.

His wrist felt as though it had been clamped by an iron vice. The grip revealed a terrifying strength that lacked the warmth of a living person.

The elder instantly realized that this was yet another puppet, but he didn't have time to dwell on it further.

With his right hand caught, he immediately attempted a backflip over the puppet’s head, planning to position himself behind it and use its joints against it.

Even in mid-air, the elder was calculating his next move. After dealing with this puppet, he would launch a sneak attack on that strange young man. As long as he could kill that man, everything would be settled.

Just as he thought this, an irresistible force suddenly yanked the elder out of the air!

Boom!

Once again, dust flew everywhere!

Despite all his planning, there was one thing he hadn't accounted for.

The metallic puppet was extremely dense, far heavier than the animated corpses he used. After trying to backflip over it, he had no leverage in the air, so he was helpless when the puppet yanked him downward with full force and slammed him into the ground.

The elder, already advanced in years, felt like he had a foot in the grave after this violent slam.

He curled up on the ground and trembled uncontrollably. Without his commands, the animated corpses he had been controlling collapsed to the ground.

The sound of unhurried footsteps grew louder in his ears.

Tang Jinnian walking over leisurely. He smirked as he passed by Rao Shuang, who was still unconscious.

"Old bastard..." Forsaken Phoenix had a smile on his lips, but his voice was as cold as ice. "Do you have any last words to pass on to the Five Gods Summit?"

"

Cough, cough

... I..." The inner sect elder finally showed the fatigue of his age at this moment. He glared venomously at the man standing over him. "I—"

Splat—

Before the elder could finish his words, Tang Jinnian stomped down, blithely crushing the elder’s head like a tomato.

"Forget it, now that I think about it... you might as well tell them yourself when they join you down there."

He wiped the blood and brains off the sole of his shoe on the elder’s robes.

Tang Jinnian took a deep puff from his pipe, exhaling the smoke slowly. He turned to look at Flowerless Butterfly, who was still unconscious on the ground, and frowned. "What a... hassle."

He walked over and nudged her head with his foot, but she didn’t respond.

Pah—Pah—

Tang Jinnian squatted down and slapped Flowerless Butterfly across the face twice. The sound rang crisp and clear.

Rao Shuang groaned, showing signs of waking up. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the familiar figure standing over her. "

Ah!

What happened? Where did they go?"

"They’re all dead." Tang Jinnian waved at the corpses scattered around.

"I see..." Rao Shuang knew she had been careless while fighting and embarrassed herself, so she decided to keep quiet. However, Tang Jinnian wasn't going to let her off that easily.

He smirked. "Flowerless Butterfly, a famous Heaven-ranker of the Ghostbane Association, was defeated by a single strike. How much did you buy that Heaven-ranker title for?"

"Shut up!" Flowerless Butterfly’s face was dark, almost dripping with anger.

"Haha, don't worry you were a pretty good bait." Tang Jinnian patted the fuming woman's shoulder. "If you didn't risk yourself like that, I wouldn’t have killed him so easily."

"Risk myself?" Rao Shuang frowned. "What do you mean?"

"That old bastard wouldn't come out from hiding," Tang Jinnian explained with a smile, "I killed all his disciples to provoke him to kill you... Once he appeared, I caught him immediately."

"You used me as bait?!" Flowerless Butterfly glared at Forsaken Phoenix furiously. "I was unconscious that whole time! If he really killed me, who should I go to for revenge?!"

"Isn’t it fine now?" Tang Jinnian shrugged. "Besides, I saved your life again... Flowerless Butterfly, now you owe me two lives."

"Damn you!" Rao Shuang turned her head away and ignored him.

Forsaken Phoenix was unfazed. Brushing nonexistent dust from his clothes, he looked past the tall archway, and toward the mountain's peak. He faintly saw flying eaves of the pavilions under the moonlight. The air was still; there were no birds that could be seen or bugs that could be heard.

Five Gods Summit was enveloped in a deathly silence.

***

"Dummy..." Chi Nanwei looked at the figure walking ahead and spoke hesitantly.

"

Hmm

?" Ye Beizhi turned to face his travel companion.

The two had spent more than half a month on the road before they finally arrived at the imperial capital, the Emperor's doorstep.

At this moment, the two were standing in front of a restaurant.

"What’s wrong?" Ye Beizhi asked softly.

"We..." Chi Nanwei looked around and spoke in a lowered voice, "We don’t have much money left... How about we eat somewhere else?"

Chi Nanwei had not brought much money when she departed from the Li residence.

Along the way, they had used up the three hundred gold tael bounty Ye Beizhi had earned to pay for their expenses. Although it seemed like a lot, Ye Beizhi had mailed away most of his reward, so what remained for their journey was scant to begin with.

Moreover, Ye Beizhi did not want Chi Nanwei to suffer during the journey, so he always chose the best food, clothes, and inns.

Chi Nanwei knew that Ye Beizhi was unwilling to let her suffer, so she had mentioned several times that she was willing to rough it out too. However, Ye Beizhi didn't say much, and continued to pamper her along the way.

Now, the large reward had finally run dry.

Chi Nanwei looked at the man in front of her and said, "We don’t know how long we’ll stay in the capital, and we haven’t found a place to stay yet... We still need money..."

From beneath a wide-brimmed hat with a black veil that concealed his face, Ye Beizhi said, "It’s fine... After lunch, we’ll look for a friend."

"He owes me a lot of money..."