There were seven or eight roads leading to Jiao Yu Town, and now each road had people hurrying along with urgent steps, all rushing toward Beauty’s Residence. The cold wind was biting, and the small paths, having just been snowed upon, were damp and chilly. They had also been trampled by horses into many muddy pits, making travel increasingly difficult. One person, leaning on a bamboo staff, walked tremblingly along the muddy, impassable little road. With his unsteady, stumbling gait, it would probably take him a full day to reach Jiao Yu Town.
Behind that person followed a silver-haired scholar in white robes, with text embroidered all over his garments. The scholar had a face like polished jade and lips like painted cinnabar, with a graceful and handsome appearance, though his age was unclear. The man with the bamboo staff swayed unsteadily forward, while the silver-haired scholar followed behind with a sigh at every step. “I say, you—can’t you disguise yourself a little? Are you really planning to go meet people with that ‘beautiful as a heavenly fairy’ face? I think as soon as you set foot in Jiao Yu Town, out of a hundred people, a hundred and twenty will know you’re Liu Yan. You’d better prepare to be hacked to death with random blades, or have your head cut off and your corpse whipped.”
“Shut up!” Liu Yan’s face remained terrifying, with flesh growing in some places while other areas were still bright red. The originally beautiful complexion, set against the vivid red scars, made one never want to look again after seeing it once. The silver-haired scholar shook out a human skin mask from his sleeve. “Come, come, come, put this on. Even if your personality is prideful—so proud that I admire it—you should also pity me, who’s acting as your bodyguard. I’ve lived freely all my life, and I don’t want to die under random blades at my age. I still want to die of natural causes.”
“You’re very noisy,” Liu Yan said impatiently. “Can’t you be quiet for even a moment?” The silver-haired scholar patted his chest. “I was originally living freely, just planning to find Xiao Shui to eat fish head hotpot, but who knew I’d run into that big-headed ghost. If I had known Tang was there, I wouldn’t have gone even if it killed me. Now… sigh…” He shook his head repeatedly. Liu Yan snorted. “Didn’t you get a ten thousand tael gold bank note from him? What’s there to cry about?” This silver-haired scholar was naturally the famous martial arts master Xue Xianzi. Hearing this, he cried out even more pitifully, “Originally, Tang owed me six thousand taels of gold. Now he gives me a ten thousand tael bank note, wanting me to give him back four thousand taels of gold. I wander the martial world with nothing but the clothes on my back—where would I get four thousand taels of gold to give him back? Now I owe him four thousand taels of gold. If it weren’t for my debt to him, I would never act as your bodyguard. This kind of thankless, dangerous, and troublesome work is something I’ve always avoided.” As he chattered on, he suddenly placed the human skin mask in his hand over Liu Yan’s face. In an instant, Liu Yan became a decrepit old man covered in black spots and looking ancient. Xue Xianzi clapped his hands in satisfaction. “This is much safer. I guarantee even your mother wouldn’t recognize you—” Before he could finish his sentence, more than ten earth dogs suddenly emerged from the withered grass clumps in the muddy path, barking frantically at Liu Yan. Xue Xianzi was startled, and Liu Yan also frowned. What was happening?
“As expected, no matter how you transform, you can’t escape a dog’s nose sniffing you out.” More than ten men in black tight-fitting clothes with peonies embroidered on their backs suddenly emerged from the wild grass. Among them, one with delicate features and a cold expression was unknown to Liu Yan and Xue Xianzi. This black-clothed youth with hatred in his eyes was Cao Wufang. After the defeat at the Romantic Shop’s Haoyun Mountain battle, he had disappeared without a trace, but in reality had gone from light to shadow, joining the Ghost Peony as one of the demonic soul death warriors.
“Dogs?” Xue Xianzi was speechless. “How did they think of dogs… How many dogs? Are they all on this road?” Cao Wufang said indifferently, “On all eight roads leading to Beauty’s Residence, there are a total of five hundred and forty-four dogs. The scent comes from your medicine room in the Eyebrow Study. And the one about to be hanged from the roof of Beauty’s Residence… is Young Master Lin Bu. It’s an inescapable net—one of these roads will surely catch you.” He raised his arm horizontally, his black sleeves fluttering gently in the wind. “Come with me.”
Liu Yan’s eyes showed no concern for the dogs on the ground. He glanced at Cao Wufang indifferently. “When Hua Wuyan died, did you hate me for not saving him?” Cao Wufang’s expression was cold. “You could have saved him, but you played the qin to send him off.” Liu Yan smiled slightly. “I don’t save waste.” Cao Wufang’s face showed anger. “He wasn’t waste! He served you with complete dedication, even giving his life. When he was fighting desperately for you, you sat aside playing the qin. You played music while watching him die, you composed poetry for his death, you treated him like a play… People like you should go to hell!” Liu Yan smiled again, and on that strange face, the smile appeared indescribably eerie. “If he had lived on, he would have lived more and more wrongly, making himself more and more miserable. You were his good friend, but you don’t understand.” Cao Wufang sneered coldly. “The way you look now—that’s what living waste truly is!” He clasped his hands behind his back. “Capture them alive!”
More than ten black-clothed men surrounded Liu Yan and Xue Xianzi completely. Cao Wufang drew his long sword and thrust it toward Liu Yan’s shoulder. Liu Yan stepped back with his bamboo staff, and Xue Xianzi sighed. “Wait a moment!” He stepped forward. “Young brother, if you only have these dozen or so helpers, I advise you to quickly take your dogs and leave.”
Cao Wufang held his long sword horizontally, Liu Yan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Xue Xianzi’s sleeves suddenly fluttered. A red-clothed woman gracefully revealed half her face from behind a tree—snow-white skin and dark hair, with lingering charm despite her age. She smiled charmingly at Xue Xianzi. “Xue Lang, you and I haven’t seen each other for thirty years, yet you’re still so romantic and charming.” Xue Xianzi sighed again. “Eyebrows too short, face too long, nose not straight enough, uneven teeth—even after thirty years, you remain the same.” The red-clothed woman behind the tree laughed melodiously. “Xue Lang has seen countless beauties, so I dare not claim to be one myself.” She walked out gracefully, her expression quite affectionate, as if she had simply met a close friend not seen for many years.
Liu Yan’s heart skipped slightly. This person was the “Thousand Forms and Shadows” Lady Hongchan, a famous poison expert from decades ago. Even though Xue Xianzi was renowned throughout the martial world, he might not necessarily gain an advantage against her. Just as he was startled, another person slowly approached from not far away—blind in one eye, covered in scars, with a dark hole in his neck that rose and fell with his breathing, looking shocking and terrifying. Liu Yan’s heart slowly tightened. It was Yu Qifeng…
Xue Xianzi laughed heartily. “I haven’t met an opponent in thirty years.” Lady Hongchan smiled gracefully. “Oh my, I never intended to be Xue Lang’s enemy. If I could just kiss your face once, I’d truly die content.” Yu Qifeng slowly walked to Lady Hongchan’s side, twisted his rust-covered iron sword, and said in a hoarse, strange voice, “Being able to fight Xue Xianzi wouldn’t disgrace the name of Sword King.”
Cao Wufang led the group back a step, watching Liu Yan behind Xue Xianzi with predatory eyes. Xue Xianzi’s white robes fluttered as he faced two great enemies directly. “I say—being in debt really doesn’t feel good. Poor me, at my age still having to risk my life for gold… How tragic and helpless!” Liu Yan said in a low voice, “You should go.” Xue Xianzi laughed. “Oh my, even if I wanted to escape, I’d have to take you with me—you’re worth four thousand taels of gold. Have confidence in me.” Liu Yan said, “Good.”
Dark clouds rolled, wind gradually rose, and the desolate grass path stretched for thousands of miles, reaching the ends of the earth.
Yu Qifeng slowly raised his broken sword. “Please enlighten me.” Xue Xianzi nodded. His gaze remained fixed on Yu Qifeng’s broken sword. Even though this sword was damaged, the “West Wind Cuts Wild Fire” technique was still not to be taken lightly. Lady Hongchan laughed softly. “Oh my, not putting little me in your eyes! Xue Lang, you’re really breaking my heart.” With these words, her sleeves fluttered, and a cloud of red mist slowly drifted toward Xue Xianzi—undoubtedly a cloud of poisonous gas.
Xue Xianzi stood motionless. The cloud of red poisonous mist touched his clothes and immediately corroded them, boring several small holes in the snow-white garment. However, the small amount that drifted onto his cheek seemed to lose its effect, passing without a trace. Lady Hongchan was startled. Xue Xianzi’s internal energy was profound and he was immune to severe poisons. Though her poisonous mist could dissolve muscle and corrode blood, it only dissolved his clothes. She immediately flipped her wrist, and a curved blade appeared in her hand. The blade gleamed with a blue light—who knew how many types of deadly poison it had been fed. With a move called “Facing Wind, Watching Moon,” she slashed toward Xue Xianzi’s neck.
Xue Xianzi’s gaze remained firmly fixed on Yu Qifeng’s sword. When Lady Hongchan’s curved blade attacked, suddenly his figure blurred. Xue Xianzi, without moving his body or shifting his eyes, inexplicably retreated three feet, avoiding her curved blade. How exactly he accomplished this, even Liu Yan couldn’t make out—it was as if he had truly vanished into thin air and then reappeared.
“Xue Lang is truly supernatural. However, I’ve heard that no matter how well one practices this body-shifting technique, it only works within a range of about ten feet. People are still people—it’s impossible to truly disappear every time.” Lady Hongchan laughed softly and flicked her red silk, which shot straight toward Xue Xianzi’s head like a covering.
The red silk fluttered to mid-air, its four corners rising, actually spreading to cover four square feet, like a large net descending over Xue Xianzi and Liu Yan. Xue Xianzi’s sleeves moved slightly, and with a “tear” sound, the red silk’s center instantly tore a large hole, and the shredded red silk scattered to the ground. Lady Hongchan’s body curved and twisted like a snake, passing through the floating red silk fragments. Her blade stabbed straight at Xue Xianzi’s heart. “Xue Lang, what excellent skill!” Though she appeared to be in her forties, she was actually a seventy-year-old crone, but her movements remained agile. This single blade strike contained decades of accumulated power and was far from ordinary. Xue Xianzi’s gaze never left Yu Qifeng’s broken sword as his figure turned, once again retreating four feet with Liu Yan. Just as he shifted position, Yu Qifeng’s sword sang out with a whistle, wind and clouds changed, and his blade thrust swiftly at Xue Xianzi’s chest. Lady Hongchan spun around, her blue curved blade swiftly chopping at Xue Xianzi’s back. In an instant, sword winds stirred up dust all over the sky. A burst of strange blue light broke through the dust and smoke, and a strange cry of “Yi ya” came from within the dusty haze as Xue Xianzi clasped his hands behind his back, his white sleeves suddenly rising.
Liu Yan had been standing behind Xue Xianzi the entire time. Yu Qifeng’s sword thrust and Lady Hongchan’s blade strike combined their power, and his heart instantly rose to the highest point. Even if his martial arts hadn’t been completely ruined, he acknowledged he couldn’t withstand these two people’s full-force attack. But seeing Xue Xianzi’s white sleeves rise, Yu Qifeng’s sword passed through the sleeve, stabbing straight at his chest. Xue Xianzi brushed his palm along the sword, moving against the blade to gently pat Yu Qifeng’s hand. Yu Qifeng’s decades of accumulated power, aided externally by the Scarlet Ghost Nine Heart Pills, made his sword grip unshakably stable—among the finest in the world. This palm strike couldn’t shake the broken sword’s trajectory, and the blade was about to penetrate his chest. Yet at the instant it touched Xue Xianzi’s chest, it broke section by section, shattering into iron fragments on the ground. Yu Qifeng was startled and struck out with a palm. His power was profound, but the iron sword in his hand couldn’t withstand Xue Xianzi’s gentle touch. Xue Xianzi smiled at him and waved his hand to meet the attack. With a “bang,” their palms met solidly—both sides evenly matched, neither moving an inch. Just as the sword broke, Lady Hongchan’s blue curved blade behind him let out a strange whistle, already slashing toward the back of Xue Xianzi’s garment. Liu Yan suddenly extended his bamboo staff, gently deflecting her blade.