In Tang Lici’s room.

“Bang!” Tang Lici and Xifang Tao exchanged a palm strike, each retreating a step from the force. Tang Lici’s palm technique was sharp and fierce, following the first palm contact with an immediate second strike, relying purely on the vast and boundless power of his palms without regard for formal technique or method. After Xifang Tao received the first palm, her chest’s qi and blood churned, her heart slightly alarmed. The Power Transmission Great Method was indeed one of the world’s most extraordinary martial arts. Tang Lici’s palm power was no less than that of a pill master with sixty years of cultivation. What a pity that such talent could not be used by her. In a flash of thought, the second and third palms came straight at her chest. Her sleeves flew horizontally, ambition suddenly rising, she turned her palms and added force to meet them. Tang Lici saw her strike again to receive his attacks, his left hand adding force as it struck out. The two exchanged another palm strike, and suddenly there was an explosive sound. The bronze incense burner in the room suddenly toppled over, curtains flew in all directions, followed by creaking sounds as wardrobes and tables and chairs all around shook continuously, each splitting several fine cracks. After three solid palm exchanges, Tang Lici’s face was extremely close before her. With a “puff” sound, he used his internal force to spray out a mouthful of blood mist. Xifang Tao quickly dodged sideways—this face of hers had cost her much effort, she certainly couldn’t let Tang Lici’s fresh blood ruin it. In this moment of dodging, Tang Lici burst through the door and departed with long strides.

In the room, fine and ethereal blood mist still slowly drifted down. Xifang Tao stood in the doorway watching Tang Lici’s retreating figure, her eyebrows raised high, her heart filled with mixed joy and anger. Her joy was that in this palm exchange, Tang Lici had exerted his full ten-tenths power, and the result was that she had gained a slight advantage. Her anger was that this person, having been defeated in the palm exchange, immediately sprayed blood to injure others—though defeated, he still achieved victory and managed to escape. She had also used her full strength in that palm strike. Though Tang Lici was injured, exactly how severe were his injuries—light or heavy? She had no certainty in her heart. Her eyes moved, and she suddenly turned with hands behind her back, then rushed toward the Sword-Questioning Pavilion battlefield.

Outside the Sword-Questioning Pavilion, tragic war drums beat incessantly. The Central Plains Sword Society members were completely surrounded by Fire Cloud Stronghold, sword and blade lights flashing, shouts of battle never ceasing. Everyone struggled to parry, but they looked at each other uncertainly, not daring to truly harm anyone. Yu Furen blocked the furious-faced Xuanyuan Long while anxiously watching Chi Yun with burning worry. Chi Yun’s white clothes were stained with blood as he moved like lightning through the crowd—wherever he passed, blood splattered three feet! Yin Dongchuan drew his blade to block Chi Yun, but how could the “Three Blades Seize Soul” technique stop Chi Yun’s swift movement and silver blade? He could barely parry and was already in mortal danger.

“Master Xuanyuan, please order them to stop, or the Central Plains Sword Society will no longer hold back,” Yu Furen shouted with raised voice. “There are many misunderstandings in this matter. Please stop and let me explain at length—things are absolutely not as you imagine. We have absolutely no intention of harming Chi Yun…” Xuanyuan Long said coldly, “He has already become like this, yet you claim no intention of harm. Do you take Fire Cloud Stronghold for complete fools? If we don’t burn the Central Plains Sword Society to white ground, we cannot offset the suffering our stronghold leader has endured, cannot eliminate the hatred in our brothers’ hearts!”

“Ah—” Miserable screams continued without end. Yu Furen, anxious to save people, angrily said, “If you don’t stop, those dying will all be innocent brothers of Fire Cloud Stronghold. Chi Yun has been poisoned with strange toxins and his mind is unclear—quickly stop and work together to restrain him!” Xuanyuan Long said sinisterly, “After I kill you, I’ll go do that!” Yu Furen was both angry and furious, “You’re obstinately stubborn and absurdly confused…” Just as the two were angrily shouting and fighting, they heard Yin Dongchuan’s long, miserable cry of “Ah—”. Xuanyuan Long suddenly turned around to see Chi Yun’s bloody palm withdrawing from Yin Dongchuan’s chest—he had actually punched straight through Yin Dongchuan’s heart! Yu Furen was stunned, Xuanyuan Long’s face turned deathly pale. In that instant, both Fire Cloud Stronghold members and Central Plains Sword Society disciples fell into deathly silence, everyone staring dumbfounded at Chi Yun, for a moment not daring to believe they would witness such a tragic scene.

“Strong… hold…” Yin Dongchuan had just been unwilling to truly strike Chi Yun with his blade, but Chi Yun took advantage of his hesitation to punch through his chest. Yin Dongchuan opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, fresh blood from his chest spraying all over Chi Yun’s head and face. Chi Yun looked at him with a sinister smile, as if seeing him in such a miserable state made him very happy. Yin Dongchuan’s face instantly turned deathly pale, his expression seeming to cry and smile at once. He said in a low voice, “Stronghold leader…” Before he could finish his words, he died, his eyes wide open with two lines of tears suddenly falling, dying with eyes that would not close.

“Old Yin…” Xuanyuan Long’s whole body trembled, almost unable to grip the sword in his hands. But Yu Furen gripped the Azure Jade tightly, his heart bitter. Chi Yun, oh Chi Yun, is your lifetime of heroic righteousness and gallant spirit to be completely buried here? Heaven above! Whose fault is this? Whose fault?

“Stop!” When all sounds had ceased, someone calmly shouted.

Chi Yun suddenly raised his head. With a push of his hand, Yin Dongchuan fell to the ground with a thud. Without even a glance, he stared fixedly at the latecomer—a person in gray clothes with silver hair, standing outside the pile of corpses.

Tang Lici! Yu Furen’s heart filled with wild joy—he had finally come. Then immediately a wave of sorrow—he had come one step too late, the great mistake was already made and irreversible. Hearing this shout to stop, Chi Yun looked up to the sky and laughed strangely. Everyone smelled a thick, pungent, strange sweet fragrance. Yu Furen covered his nose and changed color, “Spider Gu poison!” The Spider Gu poison could actually lurk so deeply and firmly within Chi Yun’s body, and now it was dispersing. If everyone were poisoned together, wouldn’t they all kill each other here? Xuanyuan Long was terrified and lost color, “How can this be?” Yu Furen said indifferently, “Spider Gu poison—originally the toxicity in Chi Yun’s body had been suppressed. If he hadn’t been stimulated, perhaps… perhaps the result would have been far from this…” He deliberately suppressed his indifferent tone. Xuanyuan Long swayed, feeling the world spinning. Could it be that Fire Cloud Stronghold had harmed Chi Yun? His full heart of loyalty and righteousness—could it be that it was the root cause of Chi Yun’s mental disorder, of Jin Qiu Fu’s serious injury, of Yin Dongchuan’s tragic death? In hot-blooded impulse, he drew his sword to cut his own throat, but Yu Furen grabbed his hand. “Stay calm! Don’t let him be stimulated further. Chi Yun… Chi Yun might still have medicine that can save him.” Xuanyuan Long laughed tragically, unable to say even half a sentence. Medicine that could save him? How could there be medicine to save him? He felt like he was going mad along with Chi Yun.

Mountain wind swept up, dispersing the thick strange smell emanating from Chi Yun’s body. His disheveled hair fluttered, a pair of leopard-like sharp eyes glaring at Tang Lici with extreme ferocity. Tang Lici’s robes floated in the wind, his eyes very calm.

“You—” Chi Yun raised his blood-dripping silver blade straight up, the snow-bright blade tip pointing at Tang Lici. “You—”

Tang Lici turned sideways with hands behind his back. Chi Yun’s right hand blade remained motionless. “You—”

No one knew what Chi Yun actually wanted to say with “you what.” Yu Furen only saw Chi Yun’s sleeves fluttering more and more vigorously, the blade in his hand gradually leaving his hand, rising into the air inch by inch, bit by bit, like a frail white butterfly in a fierce wind, slowly drifting toward Tang Lici’s chest. The strangeness of this blade technique was unprecedented for Yu Furen. Xuanyuan Long naturally knew this was Chi Yun’s move called “Red lotus blooms for karmic sins, ferrying life, ferrying fate, ferrying wandering souls”—the “Ferry Wandering Souls” technique, the most unpredictably changing move among the “Eighteen Ferrying Strikes.” Under this move, countless treacherous villains had been cut into four pieces, but…

But Chi Yun had already gone mad, and the person he faced was Tang Lici.

A gentle wind blew from behind Tang Lici, lifting thousands of silver threads. Yu Furen watched Tang Lici intently and suddenly noticed his sleeves were stained with blood, his heart startled: could he be injured? Everyone held their breath watching the two confronting each other. Tang Lici’s expression was calm, Chi Yun’s silver blade riding the wind appeared increasingly violent in the wind’s force, swaying unpredictably as it slowly approached Tang Lici’s chest. Everyone held their breath in silence. Suddenly white light blazed, everyone felt a sharp pain in their eyes and had to close them. They only heard a sound like howling wind and wailing ghosts from the blade, the silver blade’s tearing through air could be as shrill as a crying child. Then came a muffled sound, followed by a “clang”—before everyone could open their eyes, they knew the blade had broken!

Opening their eyes, they indeed saw Chi Yun’s Moon-Crossing Ring broken in two, fallen to one side. But exactly how Tang Lici had broken this mysteriously unpredictable blade strike, no one knew. Xuanyuan Long drew a sharp breath, seeing Chi Yun reach to his waist where a second Moon-Crossing Ring was gripped in his hand. His eyes were full of unruly expression, even with a trace of wildly joyful laughter in the depths of his eyes. Was this Chi Yun? This was a fierce spirit that had somehow mistakenly entered the human world—a murderous ghost…

“You—” Chi Yun again gave a low, hoarse roar. The second blade gripped in his hand, the blade technique like flowing clouds and flying waterfalls, was surprisingly graceful and natural, blade flowers spinning like flying waterfalls and rainbows. As the blade emerged, points of coolness touched the skin, like gentle wind and light rain brushing the face. One blade strike created water’s rainbow garment, spring’s swaying grace! Yu Furen’s color slightly changed. The artistic conception on this blade far exceeded Chi Yun’s usual cultivation level. Tang Lici had made him take the Scarlet Ghost Nine Heart Pill again, enhancing his power. His frenzied mind had broken through the limits of his blade technique! This Chi Yun was like an unrestrained wild horse—extremely terrifying.

The blade came with force vast as melting snow’s tide. Tang Lici reached into his robes, grasped something, and with a wave of his hand, horizontal shadows layered—it was that copper flute. Seeing him draw the copper flute, everyone’s hearts filled with joy—Tang Lici had the ultimate skill of sonic killing. Even if Chi Yun’s blade technique was divinely skillful, he could hardly resist the urging of sonic killing. It seemed Chi Yun could be saved.

But why did Tang Lici’s eyes still remain so deep and complex, flowing with hundreds of emotions and meanings, yet consistently without any smile? The copper flute emerged but was not played. There was a crisp “clang” as the copper flute collided with the Moon-Crossing Ring in parrying. The plain and ordinary copper flute, with one wave, could block that blade with force like melting snow rushing flood. Chi Yun’s eyes were furiously angry. With an “Ah—” howl, surging power flowed through the silver blade, pressing straight toward the copper flute in Tang Lici’s hand. His internal power at this time was infinite and endless—he wouldn’t consider whether he might collapse from exhaustion. With a “puff” sound, Tang Lici opened his mouth and sprayed out blood mist like fog, covering Chi Yun’s head and face. The copper flute pulled back, Chi Yun’s blade force didn’t slow, striking Tang Lici’s shoulder with a “thud.” Immediately blood gushed like a spring. However, as Tang Lici’s copper flute pulled back, it lightly spun in a circle, borrowing the flute’s two-foot length to point straight at Chi Yun’s throat.

A blade wound was merely an external injury, absolutely not fatal, but this copper flute strike, even using only thirty percent power, would hit a fatal spot! Before everyone could be horrified that Tang Lici would actually spit blood under Chi Yun’s blade, they were already horrified that his strike showed no mercy whatsoever. Though the strike wasn’t fierce, it held no hesitation at all.

That kind of non-hesitation was as if he had never known Chi Yun, had never devoted heart and soul to saving him.

Like cutting cabbage—utterly… without any emotional stirring.

As if his blood was cold as ice.

Like a chess game where beyond winning and losing, there was nothing else worth caring about.

With a “puff” sound, the copper flute pierced through the body, fine blood scattered like a canopy, splashing onto Tang Lici’s cheeks. Following this was a “smack”—still the sound of weapons cutting into human flesh. Tang Lici opened a pair of eyes so calm they were heart-chilling, looking at Xuanyuan Long who was blocking in front of Chi Yun. Xuanyuan Long’s left shoulder was pierced with a bloody hole by Tang Lici’s copper flute—that hole should have opened in Chi Yun’s throat. It was Xuanyuan Long who had suddenly burst out to take the strike for Chi Yun. Behind him was another bloody hole piercing his heart… The one who wounded him was the Moon-Crossing Ring.

“Wait… wait…” Xuanyuan Long, having suffered these two severe wounds front and back, had an expression of extreme pain and extreme disbelief on his face. “You… you said you were going to save him…” Before he could finish the sentence, the Moon-Crossing Ring behind him suddenly pulled out, fresh blood immediately gushed wildly, and Xuanyuan Long fell toward Tang Lici, dying as his breath ceased!

Tang Lici stood quietly, letting Xuanyuan Long’s corpse fall against his chest. That hot blood instantly dyed his entire robe red. Yes, he should have done everything possible to save Chi Yun. Why had he just struck without mercy? Why did he want to kill Chi Yun? Perhaps moments before, no one could understand, but seeing that shocking wound behind Xuanyuan Long, everyone completely understood—

Chi Yun was beyond any medicine’s help.

He had to die!

If Chi Yun wasn’t killed, only more people would be killed by him. Only by killing him could Chi Yun find redemption.