Chapter 25

Editor: Byff

Proofreader: YoungMasterT

Yang Chengqi and I left Black Hawk Castle, heading over to a small town not far from it. He told me that other people from HanYiJiao were waiting for us. As long as we meet with them, we can start to rebuild HanYiJiao to forge bright prospects of the future onwards.

It was obviously the same as a street rat that everyone would yell and beat at, but in his words, it came out as very effortless and leisurely.

I really didn’t feel like crushing his exaggerated, naive fantasies, and smiled reluctantly.

If possible, I also want to help him realize his dream of “reviving the demon sect”, but my body has begun to become less and less obedient, and I feel entirely helpless.

I had been thinking about how to tell him this cruel fact, when one certain day, at dusk, as we were planning to spend the night in the woods, I ultimately spewed out a mouthful of blood right in front of him; all my worries were solved just like that. Guardian Yang’s expression made it seem like he saw a ghost.

“Sect Master!” He stepped forward and held up my deathly pale face, and he was losing his mind out of fear as he examined my pulse.

What the outcome was, I could already guess without looking at his facial expression. I am already beyond cure, and I am afraid that my time is running out.

“Don’t examine it anymore, I won’t be able to live long.” I withdrew my hand weakly, “Chengqi-ah, I can’t be the sect master of HanYiJiao any longer. I can see that you’re pretty good. If you want, I can pass the position of sect master to you.”

In any case, whoever wants to take this thing can take it, I don’t want it anymore.

Yang Chengqi didn’t respond to what I said, obviously still in shock, and asked me in a stupified voice, “How can this be? Could it be Xiao Zhongnan who poisoned you? Otherwise, why would Sect Master suddenly be on the brink of death?!”

It was truly awful. Just hearing these three words, “Xiao Zhongnan,” right now made me feel a burst of pain in my heart, and I feel terribly sad.

I staggered to stand up while using Guardian Yang’s shoulders to support myself, and then bent down to slowly pat the hem of my robe. “What are you thinking? Xiao Zhongnan is not that sort of person. Besides, he could obviously stab me with a sword, so why does he still need to unnecessarily use poison on me?”

I stood straight, raised my chin up, and watched the dimming sky.

No birds can be seen, deep green covered the scenery, and the evening breeze blowing gently made people shiver.

I’m going to die for Xiao Zhongnan. Although I am perfectly willing to do so, when I think about the possibility of there never being a second person to know about it, I just can’t help but feel… sad!

Too miserable! 

I glanced at Yang Chengqi and found a stone to sit down on. I said slowly, “Guardian Yang, this body of mine really wasn’t harmed by other people; rather, I practiced an evil technique that led to the complete loss of my internal strength and failure of my internal organs. It doesn’t have much to do with Xiao Zhongnan.”

Although Guardian Yang was a bit stubborn, it felt good to talk about everything on my mind to him. At least someone would know how, and for whom, I died in the end.

He walked a few steps closer to me and asked anxiously, “What technique was it?”

I had no intention of concealing it and told him directly that it was the《Secret Ritual of the Hidden Flower》.

Unexpectedly, Yang Chengqi’s expression changed when he heard those words. “Secret Ritual of the Hidden Flower?!”

Listening to his tone, it turned out that he actually knew this technique, and not only did he know it, he also knew how powerful it was. His master was an old man in the sect, and it wasn’t unusual for him to know a bit of the underlying secrets. It was of no surprise to me.

I clutched my chest and coughed twice before saying, “That’s right, I have practiced this method for several months already, and now even an immortal would find it hard to save me.”

Yang Chengqi’s expression showed he was struggling. He hesitated then asked me, “Was it for… Xiao Zhongnan?”

I smiled. “You know a lot.”

“I heard all of these from my master.” After saying this, he was suddenly once again alarmed as if he realized something. “Since the Sect Master can practice 《The Secrets of the Flower》 for Xiao Zhongnan, it is inevitable that your heart would be bound to him, so this subordinate stealing those confidential letters not only didn’t help you but on top of that, it also created a disagreement between Sect Master and Xiao Zhongnan? This… what’s to be done? This subordinate deserves to die!” The expression on his face says that he has given up on life.

I weakly waved my hand and said, “Stop talking about this now. I’m going to die. Who would care whether it’ll create a disagreement between the two of us or not!”

Moreover, what’s done is done, and even if Guardian Yang uses his death as an apology the situation still could not be fixed. I didn’t want to increase his guilt.

“Does Xiao Zhongnan know about this?” Guardian Yang asked me carefully.

I feebly lifted the corners of my lips. “To prestigious gentlemen, morality and justice are more important than their life; how could they possibly let me treat his illness after knowing about it?” I sighed. “Besides, I’m not as infatuated as you think. From the start, I didn’t know that by practicing this kind of art I would be forfeiting my life. If I had known, I would definitely not have thrown my life away.”

I said so, but I understood that at the bottom of my heart it actually didn’t matter whether I knew of it or not. As long as it involved Xiao Zhongnan’s life and death, no matter how hesitant I was, I would still stubbornly bear it upon myself in the end.

My meeting with Psycho really was a damning lifelong mistake…

Guardian Yang suddenly squatted down and grasped my hand, “Sect Master, do you remember Elder Wen? He escaped with me and is still alive. He is the most proficient in terms of his medical expertise. As long as Sect Master meets with him, your illness will surely be cured!”

I was distracted by the name ‘Elder Wen’. In my memory, he was a small old man with a white beard, white eyebrows, and white hair. He would hold his medical book and cheerfully talk about it all day long, and he had no sense of existence in HanYiJiao. It really was a miracle that his old legs and feet weren’t caught by the righteous cultivators and sacrificed to the heavens!

“Alright, I’ll go with you to meet him, but…” I changed the subject, “If he can’t heal me either, I will immediately pass the position of sect master to you and you will be the one to grow HanYiJiao in the future. It will be up to you, you must live up to it.”

Yang Chengqi’s eyes were red, and his tears were nearly falling.

“Yes!” He nodded one after another.

At that moment, a flock of birds was suddenly startled in the distance, and then came the dense sound of footsteps. Yang Chengqi abruptly stood up and looked around, his expression becoming unusually grave.

Although I have no internal strength, my keen martial artist’s intuition was still there. I immediately stood up after and formed a vigilant stance with our backs against each other.

Soon, a large group of people uniformly made their way out of the woods, surrounding me and Yang Chengqi. There were two very familiar individuals mounted on the horses at the front. I thought about it carefully, isn’t that older one the Sect Master of Hidden Sword Gate? Furthermore, that one with the large beard seemed to be the influential Sect Master of the Northern Gate sect who participated in my entrapment and suppression more than a year ago.

Surrounded by these two sects, I can already roughly guess what happened.

It must be that the old sect master of Hidden Sword Gate finally cured his blurred vision that was caused by his old age. Last time these two joined together to cut down the demon sect, and the more I looked at it, the more I felt déjà vu from the Northern Gate Sect Master hitting it off with the former and coming to ambush me from all ten directions.

The Sect Master of Hidden Sword Gate stroked his beard, smiling until his eyes were squinting. He said, “Sect Master Han, we met again! Last time my hospitality was unsatisfactory, this time, please give this old man another chance to make up for his mistakes and entertain the Sect Master and this little brother with magnificent hospitality. Shall we leave together?”

My cheek twitched, but afterward, I immediately smiled and said, “Senior is polite, but I would rather excuse myself from your hospitality; I’m afraid it is unfortunate that I cannot enjoy it.”

The old man coldly snorted. “Then are you indicating that I should use force?”

You’re the one who doesn’t want to use such a soft attitude, ah!

“Since you know my identity, you should also know that I have a very close relationship with Xiao Zhongnan. The distance from here to Black Hawk Castle isn’t far, aren’t you afraid that he’ll look for you to settle accounts?” While dealing with them, I used my wide sleeves to hide my fingers that were writing a few words in Yang Chengqi’s palm.

—I’ll cover you, run.

The body behind me jolted. It seems that he wanted to turn me around but I grabbed his wrist and squeezed it hard, signaling him not to act recklessly.

“Your demon sect is condemned by everyone. If Xiao Zhongnan looks for trouble with us because of you, it wouldn’t be seen as anything good. If that happened, I would be sure to report it to the Wulin Alliance Leader so that the entire Wulin would know that his Black Hawk Castle was in collusion with the demon sect!” The Northern Gate’s sect master is a big, curly-bearded man, with an excessively fat face; he is not a character that can be easily dismissed.

He was arrogant from head to toe. “You should follow us obediently. If I ask something, you must answer. Do what you are told and know your place, and only then I might consider sparing your dog life.”

My eyebrows twitched. I almost couldn’t help taking off my shoes and throwing them over to plug his stinky mouth.

Report to the Wulin Alliance Leader? He and Xiao Zhongnan are a group that can help you only if there is a ghost!

Even though I was angry inside, I still showed no bad temperament on the surface. I nodded and said, “Okay, I will go with you…” As I was speaking, I quickly dashed forward and shouted, “Go!!”

The dozens of people suddenly fought as a group. Although my internal strength is gone, I still have my two hands and some moves, even if they’re merely flashy moves and without substance.

Several times when their sword was about to cut me, they would pull back. They seemed to want to keep me alive and relatively unharmed, and this gave me greater convenience. My entire body was swimming through the crowd like a fish, stirring up confusion.

Fortunately, Yang Chengqi didn’t lose his temper at this time. He cleverly drew the range of the battle bigger and bigger until he finally broke out from the battle circle and used his footwork to fly away. The Northern Gate Sect Master instantly cursed, and Hidden Sword Gate’s old man sent out several disciples to chase after him.

I’m a little worried about whether Yang Chengqi can escape or whether he would be so stupid as to bring someone to rescue me and throw away his life, but I am powerless to even defend myself right now, and I really don’t have the extra energy left to think about him.

I didn’t have true qi to protect my body and my moves completely lacked any internal force. I was gradually being defeated, and it didn’t need the Northern Gate Sect Master to dismount from his horse to personally fight me.

After holding out for a while, I was pushed down to a half-kneeling position with several swords placed against my neck. I was panting from the exhaustion brought by my actions just now, and there was a slight stinging sensation on my neck, which I think is a cut.

“Sect Master Han hasn’t encountered martial arts for a year, why didn’t he submit or retreat instead?” Northern Gate Sect Master’s tiger eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke. He jumped down from his horse and landed steadily on the ground like a huge mountain.

He walked up to me in several large strides, picked me up by my hair, and said sinisterly, “Is there some serious injury that caused this loss of internal strength?”

I glared at him, not willing to be outdone. I exposed him with a sneer, “Stop with the nonsense, you’ve gone through a lot of trouble to arrest me. Did you really want to provide warm hospitality for me? Great elder, can you stop mincing words? If there’s something you want me to say, I’ll say what I can say, and I’ll do what I can do. If I can’t do or say it, I still wouldn’t be able to anyway, even if you kill me. So, kill me as early as possible so that all our troubles can be solved and we can avoid wasting each other’s time.”

So many people from these two sects were dispatched but they neither informed the Wulin Alliance Leader nor intended to execute me on the spot. My capture doesn’t seem to be for the sake of eliminating the demon sect and defending traditional values, plus, counting in the Hidden Sword Gate’s Sect Master’s desperately greedy personality, I speculate that they are probably trapping me for some other purpose.

Sure enough, the Northern Gate’s Sect Master’s mouth drew back, exposing his yellow teeth. “You are very smart, kid,” he said, pulling me in front of him before emphasizing word by word, “I want you to lead me into the demon sect’s hidden chamber!”