"You…you planned this all along," I spoke up uncertainly. "You volunteered to escort Qi Hong and Lian Rou back to the sect grounds after they helped out with resupplying the Blood Blades with Spirit Armaments, but you were actually scheming to lure them into a trap and kidnap them!"

"They didn"t suspect a thing," Hu Mei Er agreed, her pretty face crinkling into a sneer. "When their guard was down, it was but a simple matter for me to strike. Before we were halfway back, I stabbed them with poison. Don"t worry," she added when she caught sight of my expression. "It"s not a fatal toxin. It was from Lord Blood Shadow. It"ll only immobilize them for a few hours, but they"ll be fine once it wears off." she smiled, her expression ugly when compared to her usual beauty. "We don"t want to accidentally kill the hostages, after all."

"You…!" Tong Xue shouted. "You betrayed Nine-Tailed Fox Sect!"

Hu Mei Er shrugged callously. "My loyalties don"t lie with Nine-Tailed Fox Sect anyway. Obviously I"ll honor my relationship with my future husband more than the sect."

Despite myself, I couldn"t help but snort in laughter. "Your future husband? Liang Shao Yang?"

"What"s so funny?" Hu Mei Er demanded.

"You," I replied honestly. "Did you really think Liang Shao Yang was serious about his relationship with you? He was merely making use of you."

"Shut up!" Hu Mei Er snapped. "You know nothing about him!"

"I do know he tried to kill me, though," I pointed out. If Hu Mei Er didn"t want to hear the truth, then I wasn"t going to argue with her. That said, she might be right. I didn"t know Liang Shao Yang as well as she did. It was entirely possible that he was truly and sincerely in love with her. He had even given up wooing Tang Qi Hong to be with her.

Perhaps he did really love her.

Nonetheless, it didn"t change the fact that Hu Mei Er wanted revenge for him, which led to my current predicament.

"That still doesn"t justify you betraying Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and joining Divine Shadow Sect to kill your fellow disciples!" Tong Xue protested hotly.

"Shut up!" Hu Mei Er snapped again, this time her anger directed at him. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"Considering you"re trying to kill him too, I would say it has everything to do with him," I muttered dryly. Hu Mei Er seemed to take my words seriously, for she shook her head.

"I only have business with you." she pointed at me. "Junior Tong Xue and Junior Lian Rou can go."

"What…?" Tong Xue"s jaw dropped.

"Hey, you don"t get to decide that...." one of the Divine Shadow Sect a.s.sa.s.sins began, but Hu Mei Er cut him off with a look. What the h.e.l.l? Since when was she in charge?

"He"s from Smart Shadow Sect anyway, which is a subsidiary sect of your Divine Shadow Sect. Didn"t your sect leader, Blood Shadow and the Dark Asura Sect leader say something about leaving him alive? Or do you plan to go against your own sect leader?"

"…"

The Divine Shadow Sect members looked at each other, but no one objected. Given what Yuan Tian Ya said earlier, it seemed that they were telling the truth about Tong Xue.

Unfortunately, Tong Xue was far from flattered.

"I"ve renounced my membership from Smart Shadow Sect," he growled defiantly. "I"m part of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and a member of Blood Blades. If you want to harm any of my comrades in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, I will fight you."

Watching the scene unfold before my eyes, I couldn"t help but be struck by the stark contrast between Tong Xue and Hu Mei Er. One was formerly from a subsidiary sect of the enemy, but was willing to give all that up and risk his life fighting to defend the woman he loves, as well as his comrades. Another was a member of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, but betrayed us and joined our enemies in order to take revenge for her lover.

I wasn"t sure what to make of it. One thing was for sure, though. I held even greater respect for Tong Xue than before.

"Even so, you"re not the target of my vendetta. They are." She pointed at me and Tang Qi Hong. "I don"t care what you do. As long as you don"t attack us, we won"t kill you. But if you insist on getting on our way, then we"ll eliminate you as well, regardless of our orders."

"Try it if you dare!" Tong Xue snarled, but I stopped him with a shake of my head.

"Tong Xue, take this chance and bring Lian Rou to safety." I began to hand Tang Qi Hong over to him. "And Qi Hong too. I"m counting on you to bring both girls to safety. I"ll delay them as long as I can, but I"ll be depending on you to call for backup."

"That"s…" Tong Xue looked conflicted, but I stared at him earnestly.

"Please. I understand how you feel, but our priority is to get Qi Hong and Lian Rou to safety. You"re the only one I can count on for this."

"Ugh…make sure you don"t die!"

Tong Xue saw the wisdom of my words. With both immobilized girls present, we couldn"t fight to our true potential. We would be too busily distracted with keeping them safe and protecting them that we wouldn"t be able to unleash all of our strength.

"Who says you can bring her?" Hu Mei Er swung her fan and a blast of qi seared through the s.p.a.ce between me and Tong Xue, causing both of us to jump back while still hanging tightly onto our respective girls.

"You…!" Tong Xue growled as he skidded a safe distance away.

"I said I have a vendetta with you two." Hu Mei Er pointed at me. And then I realized that she was pointing at Tang Qi Hong as well. "Both you and Tang Qi Hong. I want the both of you dead as payment for Shao Yang"s death."

"Why?" I demanded. "Qi Hong has nothing to do with Liang Shao Yang"s death! I was the one who killed him!"

"She was the indirect cause. After all, you never would have fought Shao Yang if it wasn"t for her sake, right?" Hu Mei Er rested her murderous gaze on Tang Qi Hong"s immobilized figure. "And if I"m honest, I"ve always held a grudge against her ever since she first joined the sect. Usurping my place and stealing my thunder…if that b.i.t.c.h was never part of the sect, I would have been the treasured child and the most beautiful girl in the sect!"

Ah…so jealousy was rearing its ugly head here. I took a deep breath and straightened while gesturing to Tong Xue with my head to retreat. However, my friend continued to hesitate and he finally shook his head.

He was going to stay and fight with me, even if that meant risking Lian Rou"s safety. He was aware that Lian Rou would never forgive him if he left her best friend in the lurch. Admittedly, if I was in his position, I would probably do the same.

Upon finishing her wailing and whining, Hu Mei Er then glared at me and Tang Qi Hong, her usually dazzling blue eyes terrifying and filled with bloodl.u.s.t. Pointing at us, she callously hissed out a single order.

"Kill them both!"

As one, the Divine Shadow Sect a.s.sa.s.sins leaped forward to obey.

*

"Who are you?"

Hai Rong furrowed her brow as she glared at Blood Shadow, studying the mask he wore so intently her gaze almost bore holes through the layer of synthetic skin concealing his real face. Her expression grew solemn as several possibilities occurred to her.

Possibilities that were distinctly disturbing.

Despite the number of experts and skilled killers occupying the mansion, the atmosphere seemed to become even more oppressive than before.

Lang Xie, who had turned to leave a few seconds ago, suddenly turned around, his attention captured by Blood Shadow"s single sentence.

"Who are you?" he asked again.

Venomous hatred blazed in Blood Shadow"s eyes as he met Lang Xie"s gaze evenly, and he spat.

"You don"t need to know who I am. All you need to know is that I respect Master. All these years, the only reason why I endured the harshest of agonies, is so that I can kill you, Lang Xie!"

"Master…?" Lang Xie whispered, his eyes slightly widening in realization. Blood Shadow sneered sardonically.

"That"s right. Master…who you killed! You unfilial senior!"

He then raised a hand and conjured a bloodthirsty technique, causing dozens of crimson chains to descend from the sky.

"Heavenly Lock!"

The crimson chains weaved around each other, taking the shape of a gigantic claw that smashed down upon Lang Xie"s position. Before Lang Xie could begin to dodge, however, a second figure appeared atop the building.

He was a thin and shriveled man who looked about sixty years old, clad in a simple gray robe, and wielded a skeletal sword that shone an ivory white.

"Di Shi Jiu!" Hai Rong shouted the moment she caught sight of him. Her expression turning into panic for a second, she spun around to yell at her vice-commander. "Lang Xie, be careful!"

However, Lang Xie didn"t seem to be the least perturbed. Instead, his killing intent intensified when he matched his murderous gaze with the almost relaxed expression that Di Shi Jiu wore. A bloodthirsty aura rolled out from his body and enveloped him in a thick, crimson mist, and the strong iron tang of blood filled the air.

"Di Shi Jiu!" he growled.

"Where do you think you"re looking?" Blood Shadow sneered. The crimson chains, with the gigantic claw in the center, continued to hurtle toward Lang Xie, seeking to crush him under their tremendous weight, or at least bind him.

Lang Xie didn"t even spare the claw or chains a single glance. Throwing out a hand in the vague direction of the attack while keeping his eyes on the recently appeared Di Shi Jiu, he launched a blast of blood-red qi. The qi immediately transformed into a blood-red spear and streaked toward the claw, obliterating it upon impact and scattering the rest of crimson chains with a terrifying howl that echoed throughout the night.

"!"

Blood Shadow retreated as the spear hurtled through his broken blood claw and continued to speed toward his chest. Gathering all of his chains back, he managed to conjure a blood shield, which almost crumbled as it absorbed the collision with the blood spear.

Meanwhile, without paying any attention to Blood Shadow, Lang Xie was biting his finger and drawing a single drop of blood. The droplet of blood drifted toward his chest before glowing brightly, like a crimson spark that set a forest aflame.

A few seconds later, the blood-red light solidified into blood-red Spirit Armor around his chest and torso. The Spirit Armor continued to spread across his body, covering his chest, back, shoulders, arms, stomach and thighs. Before even five seconds had pa.s.sed, Lang Xie was already clad in a full-body armor not dissimilar to that of Wu Xing"s Five Elements Royal Armor.

The Spirit Armor gleamed a bloodthirsty red, the Spirit Engravings inscribed into its surface glowing in an arcane manner. Everyone present instinctively took a step back when they sensed the potent power emanating from the armor and the mystical patterns engraved into it.

"Impressive…as expected of the legendary vice-commander of Blood Blades, Lang Xie." Yuan Tian Ya"s voice was filled with grudging admiration as he stalked out of the shadows, his expression grim. "What a terrifying display of power. Even so, I can"t walk away today. Blood Blades are Nine-Tailed Fox Sect"s sword and shield. Once Blood Blades are eliminated, Nine-Tailed Fox Sect will instantly fall apart. The usually renowned blacksmiths and Spirit Engravers will all become captives of the Martial Arts Alliance and imprisoned in their cells, forging armaments for us."

"You think the Royal Family will stand to the side and allow you to do that? They will send the Imperial Guard to crush you." Hai Rong sounded defiant. Yuan Tian Ya merely laughed sinisterly.

"Why would they? We have ample justification for this. We"re doing this so as to not allow you to ama.s.s weapons of ma.s.s destruction to threaten the safety of the Great Zhou Empire."

"You lying b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" Hai Rong shouted. "You know we don"t have any weapons of ma.s.s destruction! When the royal family finds out…"

"Why would they?" Yuan Tian Ya scoffed cruelly. "Once all your precious blacksmiths and Spirit Engravers are imprisoned, we can…uh, forge the evidence we need. The royal family will not be able to do anything."

"…"

Lang Xie remained silent, refusing to be provoked by anything their enemies said. Yuan Tian Ya didn"t care.

Instead, he used a footwork technique and appeared in front of Hai Rong, taking her by surprise. As she tried to defend herself, Yuan Tian Ya didn"t attack. Instead, he casually turned away and suddenly departed.

He was heading toward Lang Xie.

"Blood Shadow, you only need to trap Blood Blades" Instructor Hai. You can leave Lang Xie to us," Yuan Tian Ya ordered.

As if on cue, the co-leader of Divine Shadow Sect, Di Shi Jiu, suddenly swung his bone sword at Lang Xie.

The sword seemed to metamorphize into a brilliant flash of light, surging across the courtyard in destructive fashion and uprooting the trees.

That wasn"t all.

Every building in the vicinity that was in the bone sword"s path suddenly crumbled and toppled over. Amidst the exploding debris, a single eerie white sword beam lanced through the dust and explosions like a dragon. It rammed and knocked the collapsing buildings aside as it charged straight at Lang Xie.

While the dragon occupied Lang Xie"s attention, Di Shi Jiu seemed to have disappeared. Surprisingly, it was Yuan Tian Ya who was following the eerie white sword beam, diving in its wake and striking at Lang Xie.

Lang Xie conjured a second blood spear that was much larger than the first and hurled it at the incoming sword beam. The crimson projectile pierced through the white lance and exploded violently, hurling more rubble aside from the sheer force.

However, Di Shi Jiu burst out of the explosion and punched Lang Xie, but the latter was ready for him. Raising a gauntleted arm, Lang Xie intercepted Di Shi Jiu"s strike, and the two men vanished in a cloud of dust and stone, the earth unable to withstand the tremendous impact of their collision and the violent qi that swirled around them.

Hai Rong was unable to pay much attention to them, having troubles of her own. Facing Blood Shadow after the both of them sprang apart after a vicious exchange, sparks flying between them, she skidded to a stop and glared coldly at her opponent.

"Who are you, Blood Shadow?" she demanded frigidly. "Or…am I perhaps supposed to address you as Senior or Junior?"

Blood Shadow grinned, and his murderous intent dissipated slightly. Surprisingly, his eyes turned gentle as he met Hai Rong"s murderous gaze evenly, and he shook his head.

"If you want to, you can address me as Senior."

"I know who you are now!" Hai Rong tensed when realization dawned on her. There was only one other person who could be her senior, but long ago, he had already…

But if what this man was saying was true, then…

"How are you still alive?" she gasped in disbelief.

"The murderer of our master, Lang Xie, is still alive. So how can I die first?" Blood Shadow chuckled frostily. "We were all raised and taught by our master since we were young. Not only did Lang Xie fail to be grateful, he even betrayed and killed him. After being taught by Master for so many years, I am obligated to seek revenge for him, as his true disciple!"

"Master deserved to die," Hai Rong snorted callously.

The gentleness in Blood Shadow"s eyes vanished completely upon hearing her cruel dismissal. His aura surged with murderous intent as he clenched both his fists.

"b.i.t.c.h! You deserve to die too!"

His shadow seemed to detach from him, wriggling in a disturbing manner and taking a life of its own. Emerging from the ground, it seemed to solidify as a blood-red demon, which then swooped down on a stunned Hai Rong.

"This is…Blood Arts: Materialization?!" Hai Rong"s eyes widened in shock. She was unable to dodge in time, and could only hold up her Spirit Shield to block the attack. But the blood demon was so powerful that its one punch sent her helplessly hurtling out of the courtyard.

With an inhuman cackle, the blood demon dropped into a crouch before springing up in a single bound and pouncing after the defenseless, spinning Hai Rong.

Blood Shadow observed the fight for a moment, a smile curling across his face.

And then he disappeared from the courtyard as well.

*

"Seriously?"

I stared at the group of Divine Shadow Sect a.s.sa.s.sins in astonishment. All of them were crouching on the ground, immobilized, unconscious or dead. To be fair, they were frozen by a ton of ice, so I couldn"t blame them.

Even so…

"You guys are so pathetic that you actually got defeated by me off-screen?"

"Seriously?" I couldn"t tell if Tong Xue was questioning my remark or agreeing with me. From the way he was staring at the fallen Divine Shadow Sect a.s.sa.s.sins instead of me, I was pretty sure it was the latter.

Tong Xue had gotten used to my strange sense of humor, after all.

"What the h.e.l.l did you do?!" Hu Mei Er demanded, in the center of the ice, shivering violently. She wrapped her arms around her body, which emphasized her ample bosom, and desperately used her qi to stop the spreading of the ice that was creeping up her gorgeous body.

I shrugged. "Stopping you guys cold."

If looks could kill, I had no doubt I would be lying on the floor right now. To be fair, though, if looks could kill, I would have murdered Hu Mei Er with a gaze much earlier, so it wasn"t as if it was a good thing. Would have made things a lot easier.

"I miscalculated," she swore. "I didn"t think you would grow this powerful in just a few months!"

"You talk as if you know exactly how strong I was a few months ago," I said sardonically. Hu Mei Er stared at me in shock and I shrugged. "What makes you think I was displaying my real strength, even when fighting against Liang Shao Yang?"

"There"s also the fact that you overestimated the power of your Divine Shadow Sect allies," Tong Xue added, shaking his head in disappointment. Probably because he didn"t get to fight at all, since I downed all of them with a single technique. "Have you forgotten the strength of Blood Blades? We"ve been kicking the Divine Shadow Sect"s a.s.s all this while and winning one-sidedly, to the point where they have to beg the Martial Arts Alliance for help just to fight evenly with us!"

The situation was a lot more complicated than that, to be honest, but I wasn"t going to take the wind out of my friend"s sails. So I said nothing.

"As if I"ll let this end here! I"ll kill you! I swear, I"ll definitely kill you, even if I don"t get to kill anyone else!"

Before we could stop her, Hu Mei Er grabbed a Qi Burst Pill and popped it into her mouth. I began wondering where these guys get all their doping drugs and steroids from. Someone ought to clamp down on those illegal activities.

Unfortunately, it was too late in Hu Mei Er"s case. In an instant, her qi swelled and exploded, and she broke free of the ice. Her body shimmered with pink qi and she lunged at me, thousands of razor-sharp Sakura petals dancing in her wake.

"Thousand Sakura Petal Scatter!" she shouted, thrusting her sword at me.

Her blade never reached me.

Clang!

"Kuh?!"

Hu Mei Er"s eyes widened as her blade bounced off my Snow Aegis. She stumbled for a second, losing her balance. Being a martial artist, however, she was able to almost instantly recover her balance and straighten herself.

It wasn"t enough.

At the moment when she was off balance and helpless, that was when she was most vulnerable and unable to dodge. Call me despicable, but I had no intention of wasting time on her, so I didn"t hesitate to attack.

The six mobile turrets that had detached from Snow Aegis earlier hovered about and fired a concerted volley, the qi beams puncturing holes in Hu Mei Er"s body as she tried to right herself. As she was off balance, she was unable to dodge, and the qi beams. .h.i.t her with deadly precision, punching b.l.o.o.d.y cauterized craters through her vitals.

Her heart, her chest, her shoulders and her hips.

With a cry, Hu Mei Er fell, her body jerking in spasms and her eyes staring up lifelessly. Her nose was missing, having been disintegrated by the qi beam, a cauterized hole smoldering in the center of her once beautiful face.

"…!"

The Divine Shadow Sect members recoiled in horror, realizing that they had just p.i.s.sed off the wrong person.

"Too late," I said as I turned to them.

This might strike you as odd. I was merciless when killing Hu Mei Er, yet I spared Ling Qing Zhu"s life. Well, the reason was simple. Ling Qing Zhu was clearly holding back when she fought me. While we traded blows, I realized clearly that she had no intention of killing me. I was never in any danger of dying – she might have sought to incapacitate me, but because of her misplaced grat.i.tude toward me for saving her life during that expedition into the Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s tomb, she felt that she owed me and therefore couldn"t bear killing me. Respecting that, I decided to let her and her fellow Incendiary Ifrit Sect members live if possible. Of course, I did end up killing a few of her fellow discples, but such casualties were inevitable during a battle of life and death.

On the other hand, Hu Mei Er quite clearly aimed to kill me. Unlike Ling Qing Zhu, who restrained herself, Hu Mei Er did everything in her power to kill me, and threatened Tang Qi Hong"s life as well. The Divine Shadow Sect a.s.sa.s.sins were the same. If I wasn"t able to defeat them, they wouldn"t have hesitated to murder me.

That was why I showed them no mercy, gunning them down without a second thought.

Adjusting Tang Qi Hong in my arms as she mumbled something incoherently, I turned to Tong Xue, who was also carrying Lian Rou.

"Let"s get out of here."

"Leaving so soon?"

The both of us immediately jumped back as someone smashed the ground where we were standing on a few seconds ago.

Blood Shadow slowly rose to his feet, a cynical smile spreading over his masked face.

"Don"t go yet," he said mockingly. "The fun is only just beginning."