The city guards of Shadow City spotted Zi Tianjun and quickly surrounded him. They did not dare chop him down as they would an ordinary disciple. Instead, they hurried to report to the Young Gang Lord, who now handled the Hack Gang’s internal affairs.
After hearing the report, Bao Nianhui pondered briefly before personally leading a group to the teleportation gate. There she saw Zi Tianjun surrounded by layer upon layer of the Hack Gang’s city patrols. She was now the Young Gang Lord and no longer a disciple of Xuantian Sect. Yet Zi Tianjun had once been a respected senior of her former sect and was also the father of her Little Martial Aunt-Grandmaster. She still bowed deeply to him before speaking.
“Sect Master Zi, the Azure Dragon Mountains lie right beside Shadow City. If you have business, just send a voice transmission; we can hear you. Why trouble yourself by coming in person? The Hack Gang has its rules. Now that you have entered Hack Gang territory, the regard we owe Elder Yunshu and the Demon Saint Elder puts us in a difficult position.”
Zi Tianjun’s face darkened.
“Then I wish to pay my respects to your Elder Yunshu. Please announce me.”
Bao Nianhui replied solemnly.
“Elder Yunshu has cultivated into a True Dragon and attained an immortal body. It is no longer appropriate for her to involve herself in mortal affairs. She has already withdrawn into seclusion, and even the Hack Gang can no longer contact her.”
Zi Tianjun sneered.
“Since it is only a rumor, why should I take it on faith? I have also heard that dragon qi is surging through the Primordial Mountain Range and that countless auspicious signs have appeared. Is she really repaying the Hack Gang’s enormous favor by voluntarily going into the Primordial Mountain Range to nurture your geomantic fortunes?”
“Since it is only a rumor, Sect Master Zi, why put your faith in it?”
“Rumors do not arise from nothing. Yunshu is my daughter; how could I simply stand by? I want to see her!”
“Please go back, Sect Master Zi!”
“My beloved daughter is in your gang’s hands. How can I leave without seeing her?”
He poured internal energy into the words and sent them pressing toward Bao Nianhui, intending to intimidate her and force her to bring Zi Yunshu out.
The enormous force striking her head-on triggered every protective treasure on Bao Nianhui’s body. Before a late-stage Void Tearing expert like Zi Tianjun, her cultivation was as insignificant as a tiny ant in a raging gale. She poured all her strength into resisting and barely avoided being blasted away. Fortunately, the guards beside her were all battle-hardened veterans. They surged forward and joined forces to withstand the force Zi Tianjun sent rolling toward them, shielding Bao Nianhui.
Just as Bao Nianhui let out a breath, Zi Tianjun glared at her and berated her.
“What? You cannot even withstand a question, and you still want to use force?”
A voice suddenly drifted over.
“Then let’s fight! You think I’m afraid of you?”
As she spoke, Qingying appeared in front of Bao Nianhui and cast Zi Tianjun a sidelong glance.
“Did you just attack my junior sister?”
She sent the question out with internal energy, imitating Zi Tianjun’s technique.
Before she had finished speaking, Zi Tianjun spat blood and was sent flying backward. He tumbled and crawled across the ground as his clothes and magical treasures burst apart inch by inch. Razor-sharp force shaved flesh from his body in sprays, even slicing pieces from his bones. By the time Qingying finished the sentence, Zi Tianjun had rolled seven or eight zhang away.
His body looked as if he had been subjected to a thousand cuts. He had become a bloody mass, covered in gaping wounds, every scrap of skin gone and blood pouring from him everywhere. This was not speech at all. Every word was a blade—hundreds, even thousands of blades hurled out at once. With so many people standing around, every one of those blades struck Zi Tianjun alone, slicing him beyond recognition. His hair, scalp, and ears were gone. Even his nose had been shaved away, leaving only two bloody holes. He looked like a blood-soaked corpse that had crawled out of a grave.
Qingying cast a sidelong glance at Zi Tianjun, who was barely recognizable as a person.
“Although my master is in life-and-death seclusion, I am not dead yet! Did you think that just because Zi Yunshu became a True Dragon, you could finally hold your head high? If she were not my master’s Little Martial Aunt, and if my master had not ordered me to respect her and leave her alone, I would have caught her long ago and made her my mount!”
With that, Qingying turned to Bao Nianhui.
“With Master in life-and-death seclusion, you are responsible for my provisions from now on. If anyone bullies you, tell me. I guarantee I will beat him so badly that even his own parents will not recognize him.”
“Oh.”
Bao Nianhui looked at Zi Tianjun. Although his injuries were horrifying, his major meridians and internal organs were unharmed, so she knew none of his vital points had been damaged. She gave an order to one of the centurions beside her.
“Take some men and escort Sect Master Zi back to Xuantian Sect.”
She then turned to Qingying.
“But, Senior Sister, I… I don’t have that many spiritual treasures or healing medicines. I… I’m very poor…”
Qingying gave Bao Nianhui a sidelong glance, a dangerous glint in her eyes.
“Senior Sister, Master has entered life-and-death seclusion. You are the closest person I have left in this world. You have to protect me.”
With everyone watching, and with the Hack Gang at a life-or-death juncture, dignity was far less important than clinging to her senior sister’s leg.
Qingying thought about it, then looked Bao Nianhui up and down. The more she looked, the more disgusted she became.
“We’re true sisters of the same lineage.”
Bao Nianhui saw that Qingying still looked at her with distaste. She gritted her teeth.
“Isn’t Grandpa Tree supposed to give Master tea once every three years? Master isn’t here, so all that tea is yours!”
At the words “all that tea is yours,” Qingying instinctively started to nod, then suddenly came to herself.
“That is my Grandpa Tree you’re talking about!”
“Then…” Bao Nianhui’s eyes shifted.
“Every year, you get one-tenth of the Hack Gang’s income as your provisions. All you have to do is help whenever someone bullies the Hack Gang or me from now on!”
After saying this, she swiftly pulled the Hack Gang’s general ledger from the storage treasure her master had refined for her and stuffed it into Qingying’s arms.
“Look it over and do the math. You’ll see how generous it is! Even I, the Young Gang Lord, receive less than a fraction of what you would!”
Qingying opened the jade slip Bao Nianhui had shoved into her arms. Her eyes curved into crescent moons, but her merchant’s instincts demanded that she haggle for the greatest possible benefit. She smiled sweetly and held up two fingers.
“Twenty percent.”
“Fifteen percent!”
Qingying continued waving two fingers.
“Twenty.”
Bao Nianhui was about to speak when she saw Qingying push the jade slip back toward her, looking ready to refuse the deal. She hurriedly said:
“Fine, twenty percent. But if there’s a fight, whenever I tell you to go, you have to go!”
Qingying felt that fighting meant little more than moving her cauldron and throwing a few palm strikes. After thinking it over, she said:
“As long as it isn’t a fight with that nasty little fox, I’ll do as you say.”
When she thought of that nasty little fox’s row of imperial artifacts and those eyes that seemed to say, I know everything, she was very reluctant to provoke him. If Bao Nianhui dared send her to fight that little fox, she would beat Bao Nianhui first!
“Agreed! Three palm strikes to seal the oath!”
Qingying raised her hand and slapped palms with Bao Nianhui three times.
Thus, the senior and junior martial sisters concluded their deal right there in the street, under everyone’s eyes.
At least, everyone now had definite news about the Hack Gang Lord: she was in life-and-death seclusion and would not emerge anytime soon. With her cultivation at the Tribulation Transcendence stage, not seeing her for several hundred or even a thousand years would be nothing unusual. But Bao Nianhui had brought the Ba, a drought demon, in as the Hack Gang’s combat force. Everyone imagined future clashes with the gang: what if the Ba suddenly burst out and killed a whole swath with a single move? The thought sent chills through them.
On the upper floor of a nearby restaurant, Qu Yirou watched from afar as the two martial sisters negotiated their deal in the street and burst out laughing.
“This really is Bao Gu’s personal disciple. Her way of doing things is practically a carbon copy of Bao Gu’s.”
Si Ruo replied:
“Qingying is protecting Bao Nianhui and the Hack Gang for Bao Gu’s sake, isn’t she? She is merely going with the flow.”
She had always considered Qingying a shrewd one. Zi Tianjun, on the other hand, seemed to be growing more foolish with age.
“Zi Tianjun’s days ahead probably will not be easy.”
“How so?”
“Now that Zi Yunshu has become a True Dragon, she can no longer protect Xuantian Sect as she did before. There is a divide between immortals and mortals. If she continues involving herself in worldly affairs…”
Si Ruo raised a finger toward the sky.
“The laws of the Heavenly Dao are still bearing down on her.”
“She really went into seclusion? She didn’t go looking for Bao Gu?”
“Bao Gu was rescued by that person from the Demon Realm, so there is presumably no place for Zi Yunshu to interfere. If she does not withdraw into seclusion…”
Si Ruo paused before continuing.
“The ancestral True Dragon Sword I carry is proof. Long ago, one of my ancestors also became a True Dragon through a fortuitous opportunity. Yet when disaster struck the clan, he stepped in to protect it, only to incur Heaven’s punishment and perish. The clan forged a sword from his remains and sealed his dragon soul inside it. That was how this immortal treasure came to be passed down.
“Zi Yunshu has become a True Dragon, so her sensitivity to the Heavenly Dao is beyond anything mortals can reach. She must know the consequences of entangling herself in mortal affairs again. Bao Gu paid such a great price to protect her; she cannot possibly risk her own fall to protect Zi Tianjun. She has already done everything she could for him. If she protected him again, she would cross the line and likely bring Heaven’s retribution upon herself. How could she face the Demon Saint—or Bao Gu, who is still in life-and-death seclusion? Besides, judging by Zi Tianjun’s conduct since he rose to prominence… heh. The classic case of a petty man drunk on success.”
That was the same as so many people who rose from poverty. After enduring hard times and suddenly making their fortunes, they forgot themselves, trying to make up for every hardship they had suffered and enjoy everything they had once been denied, without considering how hard it was to build a foundation—and harder still to preserve it. Perhaps Zi Tianjun had considered how to hold on to what he had, or perhaps he was simply more afraid of losing what he now possessed. Otherwise, he would not have allowed ambitious disciples to meddle and push Xuantian Sect out, creating such a huge disturbance and leaving them in their current predicament. Nor would he have held such a high-profile celebration when Zi Yunshu transformed into a dragon. Wasn’t the purpose to announce to the cultivation world that a True Dragon would protect him from then on? Unfortunately, he had no idea what a True Dragon truly represented.
Qu Yirou nodded lightly. After thinking for a moment, she asked:
“If a cultivation force moved against Xuantian Sect, would you step in?”
Si Ruo knew that a True Dragon could not interfere in mortal affairs, and many cultivation factions surely knew it as well. The Heavenly Secrets Sect, capable of calculating everything under heaven, certainly did, not to mention the ancient powers with deep foundations.
“If it is going to be robbed, what difference does it make who does the robbing? Yue Kingdom and the Xuantian Sect led by Zi Tianjun have no relationship. For Zi Yunshu’s sake, if no one makes a move, neither will I. But if someone does, then rather than let the Daluo Scarlet Gold Treasury fall into another person’s hands, it may as well fall into mine.”
“I know the location of Xuantian Sect’s Daluo Scarlet Gold Treasury. I also know where their Daluo Scarlet Gold warships are moored, and I already have the formation diagrams.”
Si Ruo’s eyes lit up. She raised a sleeve and dismissed the maidservant attending behind her.
“Name your price. Sell it to me.”
“There are five Daluo Scarlet Gold warships in all. The Soul Chasing Pavilion wants two, and forty percent of the treasury’s holdings!”
“Why don’t you go rob it yourself?”
“The Soul Chasing Pavilion has rules, you know. Otherwise, do you think I would have leaked this information to you? Besides, the Pavilion will send ten thousand elite fighters to take your orders. You are paying to hire them to strip Xuantian Sect of its Daluo Scarlet Gold.”
“With a pavilion master like you, that rule is practically meaningless.”
“I have not broken any sect rule! I am still taking money to solve someone’s troubles—no stealing, no robbing, no cheating, no swindling. Not interested? Then I can find another buyer.”
“Gladly! My thanks, Great Pavilion Master!”
She then took out a jade slip, etched the contract onto it, signed it, and left with the map Qu Yirou had given her. If Qu Yirou could obtain this map, there was no telling who else might obtain it. She had to send people into Xuantian Sect immediately to keep a close watch on the treasury!
Members of the Hack Gang escorted Zi Tianjun back to the gates of Xuantian Sect. They tossed him down at the mountain gate. Their leader said:
“Take care, Sect Master Zi. Farewell.”
They turned and left.
Zi Tianjun pulled himself up and instinctively reached for the healing medicine in his storage treasure. To his horror, he found that the storage ring on his finger was empty. Only then did he realize that he had been stripped of everything. Shock and fear struck him. When he thought it through, he suddenly remembered that Qingying’s blow had shattered every magical treasure on his body, including his storage treasure. Ever since his disciples had rebelled, he had kept all the valuables he could carry in that storage treasure and taken it with him everywhere to avoid being looted. But now…
The blow was a greater shock than his injuries. His mind reeled, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Then the disciples guarding the mountain surrounded him.
“What kind of monster is that?”
Feng Yi rushed over and caught hold of Zi Tianjun, whose skin was peeled back and whose flesh was torn open everywhere.
“Master…”
The instant the word left his mouth, Zi Tianjun cried out and shoved him away.
With no skin left, Feng Yi’s touch sent pain ripping through Zi Tianjun. He had been the head of Xuantian Sect for nearly a thousand years and had enjoyed several hundred years of glory as its sect master. When had he ever been this wretched? Grief and rage, compounded by pain, made his whole body tremble.
Seeing that Zi Tianjun’s body was skinless and covered in wounds—with not a single magical treasure or scrap of cloth to cover him, and even his storage treasure gone—Feng Yi hastily took out a healing pill and fed it to him.
“Master, how did this happen? Who did this to you?”
Zi Tianjun swallowed the medicine and forced a single word through clenched teeth.
“The Ba!”
Even Bao Gu had never dared lay hands on him. Only this one could beat him, and he would have to take it without protest. Even if she killed him, with Bao Gu gone, he suspected that no one would dare utter a word. At that thought, he suddenly felt that life had been better when Bao Gu was around. Trembling, he sighed.
“Feng Yi, how could I have been so foolish as to listen to those bastards’ provocations and drive Bao Gu away?”
The mountain wind swept over his skinless body, making every inch ache. Fortunately, the pill was effective, and his wounds began healing rapidly.
“Master, you should return to your residence and put on some clothes.”
As he spoke, Feng Yi enveloped Zi Tianjun in a cloak of spiritual energy to keep him from exposing himself any further.
Feng Yi lifted Zi Tianjun on a current of wind and carried him toward his residence. Zi Tianjun asked:
“When will Chen Yu emerge from seclusion?”
“Senior Brother Chen has been in seclusion for so long that he has ignored worldly affairs, and he has not contacted me. I have no idea.”
“The cultivation world’s factions have always been accustomed to flattering those above them, trampling those below, changing course with the wind, and kicking a man when he is down. I have suffered such humiliation today, yet Shu’er did not even show herself. I fear that something has changed. Feng Yi, I trust no one else. Go investigate Shu’er’s situation yourself, and find out what is happening in the cultivation world while you are at it. The cultivation world has always taken the Hack Gang as its barometer. I am worried that every faction will interpret the gang’s humiliation of me today as a signal from the Hack Gang to suppress Xuantian Sect, or even…”
“My injuries are nothing. Go and find out what is happening at once.”
Feng Yi delivered Zi Tianjun outside Xuantian Hall. He then took a disguise pill, changed his appearance and aura, and left. To gather information, he naturally had to go into Hack Gang territory. Although he remained on friendly terms with Bao Gu, Yu Mi, and Yu Jianming, the decree personally issued by the Hack Gang Lord was still in force. As an elder of Xuantian Sect’s Punishment Hall, appearing openly would inevitably invite trouble.
