Chapter 146 (1/2)
A distressed frown began forming on Yu Yifeng’s face. Something was wrong, he realized. “What are you doing, Lil Chen?” He asked Xiao Chen, but the latter merely shook his head. “Help me take care of Senior Sister Luo, Brother Yifeng.” With a light push imbued with his inner strength, Yu Yifeng was sent off the dais with a whisk of wind.
He would never have wanted Yu Yifeng to witness him using the Heaven’s Talisman. But there was hardly any choice; there was no way he would leave without Murong Xian’er.
He walked slowly to Murong Xian’er. She seemed to feel something welling from within him. Her eyes began to tremble with dread, her little head shaking profusely, “No, Big Brother Xiao Chen… No…”
But Xiao Chen merely smiled gently at her as his hand caressed lovingly on her cheeks. Softly, he said to her, “Fret not little Xian’er. Big Brother will allow no harm to come to you…”
He turned away from her, his demeanor instantly changing so precipitously that everyone standing below the dais instantly felt his sharp and icy glare as if the temperature of the surroundings had plummeted instantly.
“I will no longer repeat myself. Nothing will stop me from leaving with her…”
“What if we decide to?” An equally chilly voice rang suddenly from a corner, piercing through the silence that hung over the crowd.
Everyone instantly turned their heads, eager to look at the origin of the voice. Zhang Qinglian of Penglai Island, wearing only a dispassionate expression, continued indifferently, “Today is the day where almost every sect, school, and order within the Orthodox Path assembled together. The Penglai Island might only be one of the lesser schools congregated here today, but we would never allow any evildoers from the Devil’s Practice to do as they please!”
He began to address the crowd now looking at him. “Hear me, everyone! It is no secret that the cursed Blood Lotus Demon Blade, has openly recognized him as its master. The cursed blade itself is an object of great evil. Surely it is obvious why he was chosen? Yet now he openly defends an evil being of the Devil’s Practice! Do I need to say more?”
Heads began swinging back toward the dais. Almost everyone was present during the incident of the Blood Lotus Demon Blade and they had definitely felt the malicious and murderous aura radiating from him then. Some within the crowd begin to doubt Xiao Chen’s allegiance, swayed by Zhang Qinglian’s rousing slander. Brutish and impatient cries began clamoring from everywhere around the dais, shouting, “The Devil’s Practice has been a scourge to all mankind! Let no evildoers go!”
If Zhang Qinglian had intended to incite anarchy, his actions were beginning to bear fruit: rowdy and angry protestors began shouting for Xiao Chen, incensed with a stirring bloodlust, branding him as one of the evil entities of the Devil’s Practice to crucify him. But they were cordoned off only by the flock of cultivators who were with him during the Wuwang Wind Cloud City expedition.
“He must be a spy from the Devil’s Practice!” Zhang Qinglian’s loud roar boomed amidst the hubbub of the noisy crowds, his final straw to ignite tinderbox.
“Master Zhang!” Yu Yifeng shouted immediately, “You are a respectable person, the leader of a sect! How can you spew such falsehoods without any shred of evidence!”
“Evidence, you say? Look at yourself, Yu Yifeng! Why are you willing to go to such lengths to protect him? Could he be one of the dirty linens of the Jade Qing Sect?” Zhang Qinglian hissed devilishly.
The rages of two of Yu Yifeng’s female juniors immediately turned red. Seething, one of them shouted, “What nonsense! You are an elder! Do you not know how to govern your mouth?”
But Zhang Qinglian was hardly perturbed by her remark; he wanted to provoke the members of the Jade Qing Sect so that they would behave inappropriately before the eyes of the rest of the Orthodox Path.
“Heh heh heh heh…” A chilly giggle rang suddenly from atop the dais, the outbreak of hubbub and noise immediately died down as everyone below stared up and saw Xiao Chen guffawing, his head thrown back in a deranged euphoria. “So what if I’m one of the Good? So what if I’m one of the Evil? All of you, the so-called Orthodox Path, so easily sentenced death to an innocent girl with no proper investigation! Is this how the forces of Good behave?”
He reached for Murong Xian’er’s hand and tugged it, pulling her close to him. Beginning to march forward, he growled, “Nothing will stop me from leaving!”
“You may well try!” The Elder of the Vermillion Bird bellowed. He spat an order to his underlings guarding below, “Arrest him!”
More than forty disciples of the Widespread Wintriness Sect were already waiting to spring into action. At the elder’s cue, they immediately surrounded Xiao Chen, forming an array of swords, a ring of steel threatening to strike at him.
Zhang Qinglian’s eyes twinkled with malice; this was his chance for vengeance. “Hearken me, disciples of Penglai Island!” He called loudly, “No evildoers are to escape today!” A chorus of assent rose from the crowd as Ye Wuhen, with another seven to eight students of Penglai Island, emerged from within the mob to reinforce the array of swordsmen.
More and more people got past the blockade of Xiao Chen’s former comrades, only to supplement the formation of swordsmen now circling around Xiao Chen and Murong Xian’er like hungry sharks waiting to strike. Unfazed by the commotion demanding for his judgment, Xiao Chen simply laughed. “Good! Very good! Very good indeed!” He yelled, “I have never offended any one of you, yet you draw your blades against me! Very well then! Then blame me not for any reprisals from me! Come at me, all of you!”
“Insolent pup!” Ye Wuhen snarled, “Can’t you see that you are standing on a knife’s edge! So be it then, if death is what you seek!” Since his loss to Xiao Chen, Ye Wuhen had only the deepest jealousy and contempt for his rival. With an opportunity to avenge himself for his ignoble defeat, he conjured a sword in mid-air and grabbed at its hilt before stabbing straight at Xiao Chen.
The blade sped dangerously towards Xiao Chen, its tip gleaming coldly. But Xiao Chen, hardly perturbed, merely threw his sleeves at the incoming strike. A strong pressure pummeled into Ye Wuhen, crashing him backward like a powerful hammer! What force was this! Many immediately gasped. The stroke sent a rippling shockwave, shaking the entire platform and shattering the marbles of the dais. Devil Qi! He was indeed one of the Devil’s Practice!
Tendrils of foul energies like black fumes swirled around him like jet-black serpents that slithered around him in a protective manner. Xiao Chen, standing tall and proud despite the adversity posed against him, beheld the rabble that sought to defy him with a frosty glare. With his Devil Qi, Xiao Chen had Ye Wuhen held in an invisible vice-like grip. “You shall die…” He was heard hissing thus. But he suddenly remembered that they were formerly comrades during the expedition to the Wuwang Wind Cloud City. With a fleeting outburst of compassion, the intent to kill Ye Wuhen quickly faded. Xiao Chen slammed a stroke into Ye Wuhen’s chest, merely incapacitating him.
The boisterous atmosphere instantly plunged into a deadening silence. There was none who did not fear Xiao Chen’s overwhelming power pulsing through the air of the square, but even more trembled at the chilly tingle felt after sensing the murderous and malicious aura now flooding the whole courtyard. It was evident that Xiao Chen could have easily killed Ye Wuhen if he so wished. Still, he had decided to show him mercy.