A thunderous roar shook the four walls.

Yu Konghou, who had been sitting cross-legged on the bed meditating and circulating his qi, suddenly opened his eyes. With a sweep of his sleeve, a purple outer robe fell onto him, and “Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms” chimed softly as it coiled into his sleeves along with the robe. Just as the purple robe settled on him, the door to his bedroom shattered with a crash. Countless wood splinters shot toward him like awl points. A sword light suddenly blazed, illuminating the shadows of the splinters and casting countless black shadows behind Yu Konghou.

The sword light had arrived, falling straight toward his brow. Yu Konghou barely heard a soft rustling sound, like the moon about to set.

He lowered his brows and closed his eyes, suddenly spreading both sleeves wide. The purple robe’s sleeves unfurled gracefully, deflecting the splinters from the shattered door. “Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms” shot out from his sleeve, chiming as it entangled the long sword striking toward his face, then he sidestepped and pulled it forward.

That sword bright as moonlight was deflected by Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms. The powerful true force on the sword scattered in all directions. The falling splinters, struck by the sword’s true qi, shot back out. Amid the earth-shaking tremors, mixed with dull thudding sounds, dozens of splinters embedded into the walls. Several shot toward Yu Konghou’s waist, hitting his purple robe but not penetrating even a fraction, falling to the ground with clinks.

The purple robe Yu Konghou wore was no ordinary garment either.

The sword-wielder was dressed in white as snow—it was Tang Lici. He glanced at Yu Konghou’s robe, which was made of the same material as the Floating Red Silkworm silk, only dyed purple with shell cores. This sword was bright as sun and moon with imposing momentum, but entangled and deflected by Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms, it struck the opposite wall. That wall had already cracked from the earth tremors, and his sword caused it to collapse completely, revealing what lay behind.

Behind the wall, something glittered—it was a massive cage.

This thing had originally been embedded in the wall, with only a small door connecting to Yu Konghou’s sleeping quarters. Tang Lici’s sword strike caused the wall to suddenly collapse, and even the cage behind the wall was split open by his powerful slash—truly a world-shaking sword strike.

As the smoke and dust cleared, the person in the cage, who had been sitting cross-legged with lowered brows and closed eyes, was now slowly raising his head.

Yu Konghou held Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms, standing to the side with a slight smile.

The sword in Tang Lici’s hand was like a pool of autumn water. Fine characters were carved on the blade: “Where in life does one not leave the group.” This sword was named “Leaving the Group,” one of Qu Zhiliang’s swords from his youth. Originally part of a set of four swords, the other three had broken, leaving only this one. Qu Zhiliang found a skilled craftsman to reforge it, naming it “Leaving the Group,” perhaps with thoughts of remembrance.

But later, Qu Zhiliang discarded this sword.

What happened in between, later generations had no way of knowing.

How this sword came to be in Tang Lici’s hands was also unknowable.

But “Leaving the Group” remained a sharp weapon.

With this weapon in hand, Tang Lici’s full-force strike had just shattered the cage embedded in the wall behind Yu Konghou.

The person in the cage slowly raised his head.

Tang Lici slowly retreated one step.

This step positioned him to form a triangle with the caged person and Yu Konghou.

The person in the cage was none other than Kuanglan Wuxing.

In Tang Lici’s calculations, Kuanglan Wuxing should be mutually destroyed with Yu Konghou at this time. Once Yu Konghou discovered his power was being used by Kuanglan Wuxing, he would surely go mad.

But Yu Konghou had locked Kuanglan Wuxing in this strange iron cage, seemingly without much torture. Even Kuanglan Wuxing’s power had only increased. As he slowly raised his head, his robes fluttered around him, and scorching true qi spread out like invisible flames flickering in the void.

After he raised his head, Tang Lici could see clearly—Yu Konghou had pierced his ears deaf and nailed a string of silver bells to each ear.

With Kuanglan Wuxing’s wildly beautiful, ghost-like appearance, having a string of silver bells hanging from each ear was both flamboyant and eerie. Yu Konghou’s method served two purposes: first, to prevent Kuanglan Wuxing from hearing Tang Lici’s string-controlling sounds; second, even if Tang Lici had some strange method to make the deaf Kuanglan Wuxing hear music, the bells nailed to his ear bones could disrupt the melody and free Kuanglan Wuxing.

The now-deaf Kuanglan Wuxing had long since lost his sanity. He could no longer hear the String-Drawing Life-Seizing qin music, nor distinguish between Tang Lici and Yu Konghou. He sat cross-legged, holding a long halberd in his left hand, slowly raising his head, his sinister eyes fixed on Tang Lici.

It was impossible to say what he was seeing in his eyes at this moment.

Seeing his reaction, Yu Konghou knew Tang Lici could indeed no longer control Kuanglan Wuxing. He smiled slightly. “Sound-killing techniques… after all, are not without flaws.” After a pause, he smiled again—with his currently handsome appearance, making such a girlish smile was truly grotesque and terrifying, though he himself didn’t realize it. “But Wang Lingqiu’s ‘Three Sleepless Nights’ can make him even more mad… hahaha…” He laughed more and more happily. “Within those three mad days and nights, I’ll tell him who is master and who is enemy—you too were once his master—at this moment, let’s see whether this demon from the ‘Gaya Bodhi Blue Rebirth Manual’ will listen to whom—and take whose life!”

As he burst into laughter, Kuanglan Wuxing stood up, gripping the halberd with both hands and sweeping it forward. A wave of scorching breeze passed by with crackling sounds. The brick and stone on the ground cracked, and the long halberd carved a mark more than an inch deep in the ground three inches before Tang Lici’s feet.

After that crack split open with crackling sounds, it even emitted black smoke for a moment, as if some flammable material in the earth and sand had been ignited by the scorching true qi, then turned to nothing.

Tang Lici swept his sword “Leaving the Group” horizontally, dispersing the scorching qi that spewed like pearls. Seeing this sword light like a pool of autumn water, Kuanglan Wuxing’s eyes brightened slightly. His war halberd thrust forward, stabbing toward Tang Lici’s face.

This war halberd was extremely long, its point and blade a color of gold mixed with red—made of some unknown strange material, possibly poisoned. Tang Lici blocked horizontally with his sword—with a “ding,” the Leaving the Group sword actually withstood Kuanglan Wuxing’s war halberd. This sword was of excellent material, and Tang Lici’s hand strength was also extraordinarily fierce. When sword and halberd clashed, they were evenly matched. As he matched Kuanglan Wuxing evenly, Yu Konghou’s Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms had quietly released and swept across half the sleeping chamber. Tang Lici had broken through the door with his sword, wanting to kill him with thunderous force—how could Yu Konghou let him go! Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms’ fine threads flashed with graceful, delicate light, and in an instant coiled around Tang Lici’s waist!

At this moment, Tang Lici had just raised his sword to block Kuanglan Wuxing’s halberd thrust, and that “ding” sound was just reaching Yu Konghou’s ears.

He revealed a smile. This unexpected sweep was a killing move of Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms called “Falling Petals.” With Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms wrapped around Tang Lici’s waist, if he pulled and Tang Lici was unprepared, this fine thread could cut him in half at the waist.

Tang Lici spun around, red silk floating at his waist amid chiming sounds. Beneath that red silk that swords could hardly harm, he actually wore golden soft armor under his white clothes. Yu Konghou increased his strength, Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms’ fine threads tightly pressing into the soft armor, intending to break the armor with force. Kuanglan Wuxing’s halberd thrust failed, and the long halberd whooshed in a circle. Black flames suddenly ignited on the halberd point, and the upper blade swept horizontally toward Tang Lici’s neck.

The black flames suddenly blazed in the dimly lit sleeping chamber, as if Kuanglan Wuxing had swung a ladle of strong liquor on his war halberd. Tang Lici’s waist was locked, the halberd long and sword short—in an instant he seemed to fall into inevitable defeat. However, with a “clang” of metal striking metal, he blocked horizontally with his sword. The Leaving the Group sword braced against the curved part of the war halberd’s upper blade, actually forcing Kuanglan Wuxing’s war halberd outward by an inch.

This showed that his horizontal block, the fierce force on the sword, exceeded the horizontal sweeping force of the war halberd.

But the flickering black flames on the war halberd swept past his brow and eyes. Tang Lici’s hair caught black fire, several silver strands turned to ash and scattered in the wind—missing his eyes by mere fractions. Yu Konghou exerted full force, Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms coiled several more times around Tang Lici’s waist. Though it couldn’t strangle him to death, it firmly held him.

Kuanglan Wuxing failed with two moves. He tilted his head slightly, silver bells chiming at his ears—whether he heard them or not was unclear. His left hand pulled back the halberd and struck down heavily, thrusting the long halberd downward. The war halberd hit the ground, the blue bricks cracked inch by inch, fierce flames rose accordingly. Inside that war halberd, as Tang Lici had designed before, flammable oil was added. This was something Yu Konghou had learned from Tang Lici. Kuanglan Wuxing’s scorching true force and fire oil complemented each other perfectly. As the war halberd struck the ground, oil from the long shaft sprayed out with the fierce wind, ignited by the fire-poison true qi. Fire snakes darted throughout the sleeping chamber, instantly igniting the bed and curtains.

Yu Konghou smiled slightly. Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms made a precise hook and lift, the sword tip lifting one end of the Floating Red Silkworm silk surging at Tang Lici’s waist. Tang Lici’s sword momentum hadn’t finished—after clashing hard with Kuanglan Wuxing, he had taken another step forward.

At this moment, Yu Konghou struck like lightning, grasping the end of Floating Red Silkworm silk lifted by Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms. With a flip of his wrist, he wound it firmly in his hand. Now he held Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms in his left hand and Floating Red Silkworm silk in his right. With a shake of his left hand, the small sword at the tip of Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms, activated by Yu Konghou’s true qi, shot with a “thud” into a wall pillar ablaze with fierce fire, piercing through the pillar and emerging on the other side. Its force spent, it fell and lodged behind the pillar.

After Tang Lici’s step forward, Yu Konghou’s Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms had coiled several times around his waist. Now one end was stuck behind the wall pillar, the other controlled in Yu Konghou’s left hand. His own Floating Red Silkworm silk was still wound around his waist at one end, the other end grasped in Yu Konghou’s right hand. He was like prey caught in a spider web, firmly fixed in place by three chains.

Kuanglan Wuxing, who had just been forced back a step and was recovering from his fallen halberd, let out a low roar. Igniting poisonous flames all over the ground, he turned and swung his arm in another horizontal sweep, aimed at Tang Lici’s chest.

Yu Konghou smiled, gripping tightly with both hands, firmly stretching Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms and Floating Red Silkworm silk. The three long cords tightened, and Tang Lici suddenly looked back, gray hair covering his face—he couldn’t even turn around anymore.

But as gray hair swept past his face, amid the thick and thin flames and smoke, Yu Konghou didn’t see him change color. Instead, he saw the corner of his eye slightly lift in a half-smile.

That was definitely not the look of someone in desperate straits. Yu Konghou’s heart chilled, but with both hands pulling tight on Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms and Floating Red Silkworm silk, he couldn’t let go. At this moment, as Kuanglan Wuxing’s war halberd came stained with poisonous flames, Tang Lici suddenly spun—one turn, then another—he not only didn’t try to untangle the two long cords restraining him, but instead spun to wind those two cords back around himself. Yu Konghou was suddenly pulled by him, advancing several steps forward. The small sword shot into the wall pillar was pulled by Tang Lici’s brute force, breaking out from the burning wall pillar. With the thunderous crash of the wall pillar’s collapse—the freed tip of Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms fell into Tang Lici’s hand.

Yu Konghou had indeed transferred seven or eight-tenths of his power to Kuanglan Wuxing. In terms of internal force and palm strength, he was no match for Tang Lici now. Seeing Tang Lici use his golden soft armor to wind Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms around his waist, even someone like Yu Konghou couldn’t help but change expression. Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms’ fine threads were killing weapons, not some brocade sash. Tang Lici actually dared to wind them around his waist in reverse—and the wall pillar where Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms was stuck was the main support beam of the sleeping chamber. Once destroyed, the entire chamber would collapse—how dare he—before the thought was complete, the wall pillar was forcibly pulled down by Tang Lici and collapsed. Half the roof creaked and groaned, about to cave in. He himself was constantly pulled forward by Tang Lici’s spinning force. Before Yu Konghou could figure it out, Kuanglan Wuxing’s war halberd had thunderously arrived before him.

With several spins, Tang Lici had pulled Yu Konghou in front of him. In Yu Konghou’s moment of miscalculation, failing to let go in time, he was actually used by Tang Lici as a human shield to block Kuanglan Wuxing’s halberd strike! From allowing himself to be coiled by Yu Konghou, to several spins pulling him over, to breaking the wall pillar and seizing Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms—Yu Konghou couldn’t tell who had designed whom? With the war halberd at his chest, Yu Konghou had no choice but to release Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms and Floating Red Silkworm silk, drawing a short sword from his bosom to forcibly block Kuanglan Wuxing’s strike!

With a muffled “clang,” Yu Konghou retreated seven or eight steps, spitting out blood, his right hand’s tiger’s mouth split open with blood flowing like a stream. His diminished power could no longer be concealed. Tang Lici, coiling his Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms, nimbly avoided to the side. Grasping the silver fine threads and shaking them, Ten Thousand Li Peach Blossoms’ small sword circled around him several times like a dancing butterfly, finally falling into his right palm. Tang Lici didn’t retrieve a section of scattered Floating Red Silkworm silk. That section of floating red satin fell to the ground. He stood on the red silk, flames rising around him, silver hair dancing with black smoke. Turning his head slightly, he smiled at Yu Konghou.

Then with a thunderous crash, the sleeping chamber collapsed, burying all three in broken bricks and rubble.