The mountain peaks in the surroundings of Qingcheng Mountain were evergreen in all seasons. The peaks stood straight in a ring-like shape, like city boulevards with verdant and green trees, deserving its resounding reputation of "Qingcheng, the serene and secluded land under heaven".
Hiking up and down through the mountains on rough and b.u.mpy pathways proved to be quite hard with everyone having to walk more slowly due to some people in the group being ordinary people, while the howls of wild animals came drifting in the air from time to time as night fell. w.a.n.g Tao had repeatedly trekked up the mountain to Qingcheng Monastery and had no worries about the situation in the mountains at night. Zhang Xinyue, on the other hand, had been living in a big city since her childhood and had never spent a night in an old forest of a deep mountain, so was fearful and restless.
"You… can you just stop following me all the time?"
Just as Tang Xiu exited the diagonally narrow mountain path, he found Zhang Xinyue following him closely as if she was afraid that Tang Xiu would leave her alone.
Zhang Xinyue picked up her pace faster and used the faint moonlight in the sky to reach out and grab Tang Xiu"s arm. She restlessly watched the surrounding and asked anxiously, "Where are you going? Don"t leave me."
"Excuse me, Miss. Can I not take my time to relieve myself?" Tang Xiu forced a smile and said, "Just stay here with everyone. I"ll be back soon."
"Uh…" Zhang Xinyue"s face blushed, but fortunately, it was night and no one else was present. After rus.h.i.+ng back to Mo Awu"s group, she picked up a fist-sized stone from the ground and tightly gripped it.
After a while, Tang Xiu returned to the group as he looked at the dark road in front before saying in a deep voice, "Let"s go trekking up the road. We"ll try to hurry to our destination earlier."
"Can"t we have some more rest, Big Brother Tang?" w.a.n.g Tao grinned albeit bitterly, and said, "We are kinda too tired to keep trekking up the mountain."
Tang Xiu was silent for a while. Then he turned to look at Zhang Xinyue and said in a deep voice, "Promise me one thing."
"What is it?" Zhang Xinyue was puzzled.
"We came to this mountain now, but you must forget whatever you see and hear after you leave Qingcheng Mountain; never mention anything that happened here to anyone," said Tang Xiu.
"Do you need to keep it a secret?" Zhang Xinyue wondered. "Ah, that"s right. You said that you must go and handle some matters in Qingcheng Mountain"s Qingcheng Monastery. What exactly do you wanna do there? Also, is this Qingcheng Monastery the likes of those sects in ancient times?"
"There"s no need for you to know these matters for the time being," said Tang Xiu. "If you promise to keep this a secret, I"ll take you there, but if you cannot, Jin s.h.i.+ will send you back now."
Zhang Xinyue looked hesitant but then helplessly replied, "Alright, I promise you."
Tang Xiu nodded and quickly motioned to Mo Awu. The latter then reached out to grab w.a.n.g Tao"s shoulder and dashed toward the front, whereas Tang Xiu quickly caught Zhang Xinyue"s slender waist and flashed along the path to the front.
"Ah…"
Being embraced by Tang Xiu, the masculine scent emanating from him made Zhang Xinyue"s heart beat faster. She couldn"t help but exclaim when she saw the scenery on both sides retreating fast and blurring as they moved.
"Don"t make a fuss, just hold me tight." Tang Xiu kept running and picked up his pace faster.
After a short time being fl.u.s.tered, Zhang Xinyue"s stunning face was full of disbelief as she was shocked to see the quickly retreating and blurring scenery on both sides of her vision, as well as the whistling sound of the wind in her ears.
"Are they superhuman, or martial arts masters?"
Judging from her sight, Zhang Xinyue could tell that their journey"s speed was fast to the extreme. She could see that even sprinters at the national level wouldn"t be able to sprint as fast as Tang Xiu and Mo Awu.
Four hours later, when Tang Xiu and the rest stopped at a mountain peak, they could see a blazing flame in front soaring to the sky, while countless chirping, roars, and howls of various wild animals and birds came from the distance in the forested mountain.
"What could be happening in front, w.a.n.g Tao?" Tang Xiu frowned as his sharp eyes had seen some buildings being engulfed in the raging fire, and he even had a faintly bad premonition.
w.a.n.g Tao himself was utterly dizzy as Mo Awu put him down. He heaved a few times before slowly turning his vision upward. When he saw the fire in front, he shouted in alarm, "Heavens! That"s the outer hall of Qingcheng Monastery in front. Dammit, how did it catch fire in the dead of the night?"
"Who are you?"
Suddenly, Mo Awu shouted as his burly physique flashed toward the bushes on the left suddenly. The dagger in his hand reflected the s.h.i.+ning moonlight that pierced through the slits between the branches and leaves as cold light flashed and pierced the left shoulder of a lurker.
"ENEMY ATTACK!" screamed the ambusher, followed by several silhouettes that flashed around the bushes. At the same time, Mo Awu"s big hand caught the lurker"s throat like a steel pincher.
Whoos.h.!.+
In that instant, Mo Awu flashed and returned to Tang Xiu"s side. Tang Xiu looked at the throat-gripped man dressed in black clothes and asked, "Who are you?"
"Cackle, cackle…"
A few strange noises came out of the man"s throat. In just a few seconds after the three other men in black attire appeared around him, blood seeped out of his mouth as his breath weakened and he finally died while being grabbed by the neck in Mo Awu"s hand.
"Suicide by poison, huh?" Cold light suffused in Tang Xiu"s eyes. It was pretty much ludicrous for him to see this. It was very unexpected and bizarre that there was someone who could be so powerful and had the ability to train such a death squad in today"s society.
"Who the f.u.c.k are you, b.a.s.t.a.r.ds?" one of the man in black attire, who stood across Tang Xiu, asked with a saber in his hand.
Tang Xiu squinted and coldly snorted, "Hmph, it is I who wants to ask who the h.e.l.l you are. What exactly happened to Qingcheng Monastery in front?"
The man in black stared at Tang Xiu and said, "I suppose you"re not a member of the Qingcheng Monastery. If so, you had better scram; don"t meddle in our business. We"ll flood the Qingcheng Monastery with blood today and anyone who dares to meddle with us must be buried along with them!"
Was.h.i.+ng the Qingcheng Monastery with blood?
Tang Xiu"s expression changed and his figure flashed and instantly appeared in front of the man in black. His hand grabbed the man"s neck as he instantly released his longsword to stab the chests of the other two.
"Awu, take out the poison pill in his mouth."
"Roger!"
Mo Awu quickly executed Tang Xiu"s order and pulled out a thin silk thread from the black-clothed man"s teeth. The thread was connected to a dark green poison capsule the size of a grain of rice.
Tang Xiu sealed the acupoints of the man in black and interrogated him with a cold expression, "I give you one last chance. Spit out your ident.i.ty and why you want to wash the Qingcheng school with blood."
The man could clearly sense that he had lost control over his body. He even lost the ability to move his fingers even though he exerted his strength to attempt it. The fear on his face, however, died out in a flash. He even talked back harshly, "You wanna squeeze out an answer from me? f.u.c.king dream on! You"ll know who our leaders are later, and that will be the time when you can"t survive or die!"
Tang Xiu flipped his hand and sent a stream of qi into the man in black"s body while also using a sealing art on him as he then said, "Then let me give you the taste of when you can"t survive or die first."
"Aaargh…" a heart-rending, painful scream came from the man"s mouth. The body he had lost control over was twitching and trembling due to a pain that he could never imagine experiencing even in his dreams.
"I know how to refine medicine. Even I can pull the dying out from the gates of h.e.l.l," scornfully said Tang Xiu with a grim tone. "I had once measured that a human can live for at least 7 days while experiencing this kind of pain, while the medicine I can refine will add three days more, so you"ll live up to 10 days. Hence, you can opt not to answer my question, but be ready to face the next 10 days in your most difficult time of endurance."
10 days?
The man in black could tell that he wouldn"t be able to withstand that for a second. Such an enormous feeling of pain was as though coming from his soul, causing his consciousness to nearly collapse.
What exactly was this pain that could make death much better than being alive?
Only at this time did the black-clothed man feel such a sensation for the first time in his life.
Tang Xiu took out a cigarette without him realizing his own action. He fell into thought before flicking the cigarette toward Jin s.h.i.+"s hand and then said, "Give it thought carefully and if you want to tell me the answer, then blink your eyes a few times. Ehh… you blink so fast? Your will is kinda laughable it seems!"
With that said, he reached out and stroked some beats on the black-clothed man"s body. At the moment when the man"s body gradually ceased convulsing and the pain on his face eased, he detachedly ordered, "Spit it out now! Else, you"ll have the next opportunity like this 30 minutes later."
"Can you kill me immediately if I tell you?" hurriedly replied the man in black.
"How interesting. A death squad who are bent on death, huh?" Tang Xiu nodded and said, "Alright, I promise you to have a clean, quick death."
The man in black looked relaxed and quickly said, "Our leaders are cultivators. I don"t know his school lineages, nor do I know where he learned his ability from, but he"s good at using poison. They brought us to Qingcheng Mountain to exact their revenge on the Qingcheng school. Words have it that the Qingcheng Monastery killed four brothers of our two leaders."
Revenge?
Tang Xiu frowned. He never expected that for the Red Silk Flower, first he would encounter a poisoning incident at the luncheon banquet of the Golden Goblet Emperor Gauze villa complex"s opening sale ceremony. And now he even came across an incident where the Qingcheng Monastery was getting revenge enacted on it.
"Seems like I have to protect the Qingcheng Monastery. The most important thing is to keep w.a.n.g Tao"s uncle alive. Else, it would be very difficult for me to have a breakthrough in my cultivation in the near future if the Red Silk Flower were to fall in the hands of other cultivators by accident."
Tang Xiu inhaled deeply before he sent a slap to kill the man in black. Then he said in a heavy voice, "Xue Sha, Hei Xiong, you two are to stay here to protect their safety. We are going to rush forward to take a look at the situation."
"I don"t want to stay here. I want to follow you!" shouted Zhang Xinyue immediately with a change in expression.
"My uncle and cousin are in the Qingcheng Monastery, Big Brother Tang," interjected w.a.n.g Tao hurriedly. "I gotta go with you there!"
"No can do. You"re all ordinary people. Involving yourselves in danger is a big no." Tang Xiu shook his head and said, "Did you see those four men just now? We easily killed them and for people to die in this kind of danger is much more normal than chickens dying here."
"What did you say?" screamed Zhang Xinyue. "You… you just killed them?"
The light was too dim see in the dark night and Zhang Xinyue only saw those four men fall, but was unaware that they were already dead.
"Don"t you forget your promise to me before. You must forget everything that happened in Qingcheng Mountain after you leave this place and always keep your mouth shut," said Tang Xiu.
With that said, he took Mo Awu, Jin s.h.i.+, and Xue Sha along with him. Their three silhouettes flashed lightning fast towards Qingcheng Monastery. After leaving the line of sight of Zhang Xinyue and w.a.n.g Tao, the four men floated in the air and spent a minute to arrive at a spot less than 100 meters away from the burning outer pavilion of Qingcheng Mountain.