195 Chapter 194: Love versus Loyalty (1/2)
I felt a little bad lying to Tong Xue, but I didn't regret it. After all, having read Spirit Realm, I already knew what was going to happen next, so I might as well follow the script to the letter. I knew I couldn't avoid it.
The confrontation was inevitable.
Especially since I recognized the qi signature of that person, someone who I was very familiar with. He was bringing an entire entourage along with him, and they were headed in my direction. Though I could normally outrun them with my footwork techniques, if I was carrying Tang Qi Hong, I wouldn't be able to outpace them. They knew where I was, and would catch up to me in no time.
Of course, I could just hand Tang Qi Hong to Tong Xue and get him to carry both her and Lian Rou to safety, but he would have suspected something was amiss and insisted on sticking with me to face the enemy together. Furthermore, if I remember the script correctly, this person's target was also Tang Qi Hong, and the present group would split off a small division to send after Tong Xue and pursue him to retrieve her.
She was better off sticking with me.
I briefly considered several possibilities, but knew that it was inevitable. If whoever was writing this story wanted something to happen, it would happen no matter what steps I took to avoid it. I wasn't a mathematician, so I couldn't calculate the exact probability of escaping my pursuers, but even someone who was too obsessed with the humanities to scoff at the over-reliance of mathematics and numbers to quantify reality was aware that my chances of getting away from the approaching group were pretty low. No matter which route I took, they would catch up eventually, much like how events rearranged themselves to ensure Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou got kidnapped even though they did the smart and logical thing and didn't, for the most idiotic reason ever, just stupidly go to Free Trade Street where the former got assaulted by Gray Shadow and Black Shadow a mere few months ago. So while there certainly were differences, there were also inevitabilities.
I could only hope there would be some differences, like Tong Xue not behaving exactly like Yi Yuan, and unknown elements like Hu Mei Er suddenly appearing and changing the script completely. But this time, it didn't seem there would be any chance of that.
”…”
Realizing that Tang Qi Hong wanted to say something, I lowered her gently. She was staring at me intently, her beautiful eyes brimming with emotion. Clearly she wanted to say something, but Blood Shadow's restraining technique prevented the words from spilling out of her mouth. Even though her lips were moving, no sound came out.
No, I am not going to describe her lips as full, lustrous and fragant (why the hell would they be fragrant in the first place?). That's the problem with stupid wuxia and xianxia stories – they never missed an opportunity to describe how beautiful the heroines were, to the point it got annoying. Well, my whining about wuxia and xianxia stories was probably annoying too, but I bet it was no less annoying than the obscene amount of words invested into describing the heroines' physical appearances at every conceivable opportunity, no matter how inappropriate it was.
Taking a deep breath, I knelt by her side and placed a finger on Tang Qi Hong's neck. Even though I probed her qi vessels with my spiritual qi, because I wasn't a doctor or healer, I had no idea what was going on.
”Sorry, I have no idea what happened to you, but I'm guessing you're being incapacitated by some blood restrainment technique from Blood Shadow. I don't know how to neutralize it, and I don't know which spirit medicine to use, so we'll have to wait until I bring you back to the infirmary for Doctor Yi Sheng to treat you.”
Tang Qi Hong's eyes rapidly moved as she stared at me, obviously trying to convey some message through her eyes, but obviously I didn't understand eye language, and I couldn't read minds, so I had no idea what she wanted to say.
”Relax, Qi Hong. I'll bring you back to the infirmary first. After that, you can tell me whatever you want. I promise I'll listen, okay?”
Not wanting to waste any more time, I scooped her up in my arms and began to hurry down the path I had jumped down onto from the building earlier. Using my footwork techniques, I began to move in the direction of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect as quickly as I could.
But as I suspected, I wasn't able to outrun the group currently pursuing us.
The moment I burst out of a secluded alley and into the junction of a street that would normally be bustling under normal circumstances, I couldn't help but pause for a fraction of a second to take the astounding view in.
The buildings were burning all around us. Civilians were screaming and fleeing, Blood Blades were struggling desperately as they fought against invaders, the sounds of their combat echoing throughout the street. Fortunately, most of the combatants were currently embroiled in their own fraught struggles, and were unable to pay attention to me.
Unfortunately, our pursuers were not among those currently engaged in battle.
Right at the opposite end of the street, the figures of three people appeared. And as I thought, they were standing in my way.
”I knew it was you.” I sighed in resignation when I confirmed the familiar presence that I had been detecting this whole time.
Pang Feng, Pang Yun and the owner of Great Nature's Heart, Wu Tuo, were standing in a thin row under an immolated building, their silhouettes illuminated by the blazing fires. They watched me quietly, waiting for me to approach them.
”Pang Feng,” I greeted him with a somewhat severe expression. ”Where have you been all this while? Blood Blades have been mobilized to protect Tushan City. Yet you were nowhere to be found, and absent in your duties.”
Pang Feng didn't reply. His features were illuminated by the flickering flames, and I could see him maintaining a difficult expression. His normally hard features looked as if they had been carved into rock, and his huge body emanated a rock-like, immovable aura. He raised his head and stared at me, emotions warring in his steely eyes.
I felt a chill run down my spine. Even though I was hoping against hope that Pang Feng would follow Tong Xue's example and stay true to the Blood Blades and adhere to his duty to protect Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, it appeared that he had let me down.
Gritting my teeth, I tightened my grip on Tang Qi Hong in reflex. I knew Pang Feng's purpose, or could at least guess it.
”Pang Feng, I found the person for you. Don't forget our promise.” Wu Tuo chuckled as he casually Pang Feng's shoulder. Then he turned away. ”I still have other matters to attend to, so I've to leave first. Remember what I said earlier.”
”Wait,” I growled, feeling incensed. All that kindness and flattery he gave me and Tang Qi Hong several months ago were gone now, nothing but hollow words from a fair-weather man. ”What are these other matters you are talking about? Do you really intend to destroy Nine-Tailed Fox Sect?”
Wu Tuo hesitated for a moment, and then he smiled sadly. Without dignifying me with a reply, he merely nodded a greeting in my direction and calmly left.
As soon as Wu Tuo departed from the scene, several shadows suddenly sprang out from within the immolated buildings that stood on either side of the street.
”You…!”
I narrowed my eyes when I recognized them, my glasses magnifying their features and recording their faces. These shadows were all shop attendants of the Great Nature's Heart shop, but they also doubled as martial artists from Cloud Sky Mountain. All this time they had been occupying Tushan City and doing business here, but today they had bared their fangs at us.
Several of them followed Wu Tuo into the distance, but the rest remained behind, wielding Spirit Weapons and slaughtering the martial artists who were still inside the buildings on both sides of the street.
Bam!
I flinched as a spear flew past me and nailed a hapless martial artist behind into a concrete wall. He had just jumped out of a blazing building, presumably to escape the hellish flames, but ended up making himself an easy target for the staff of the Great Nature's Heart shop. Spinning around, I recognized him as one of the civilians living in Tushan City, a vendor who ran a ramen shop that I frequented.
”Are you all right?”
”Please…help us…”
Even as a chill ran down my spine at the wanton murder, I reached out with my Heaven and Earth senses and picked out familiar presences all over the street. People I had met before in Tushan City, mostly ordinary civilians with some knowledge of martial arts.
Wu Tuo had brought his Cloud Sky Mountain martial artists here to massacre them indiscriminately.
”Hang in there!” I shouted as I raced toward the ramen uncle, but I was too late. Before I reached him, he had expired, slumping helplessly against the spear that pinned him to the wall. My knees buckling I swore under my breath. ”Fuck!”
”Have we gotten everyone here?”
”Yes, all the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect people here have been accounted for.”
”A clean purge.”
”Good. Then let us go.”
The sounds of fighting have finally died down and the Cloud Sky Mountain martial artists calmly walked out of the buildings. There were dozens of them. Right after they emerged into the open, they respectfully saluted Pang Feng and Pang Yun. Then they immediately moved toward the direction where Wu Tuo had departed in.
”Who says you can go?”
My fury surged out of me, manifesting in icy qi that spread across the entire district and immediately freezing the flames, turning them into ice.
”!!!”
The Cloud Sky Mountain martial artists realized something was amiss, and they all tried to leave, but the vast majority of them was caught in my Absolute Zero technique, their bodies turned into ice and shattering into bits. The very few surviving members stared at me in horror, and quickly sped off in different directions before I could catch them.
”Yun'er! Behind me!”
Pang Feng quickly shouted and shoved his sister behind him. He gathered all his qi and coalesced it into a defensive technique, managing to withstand my Absolute Zero, but just barely. A thick layer of frost hung over his crossed arms and his hair, dripping into icicles and he heaved heavily, almost dropping to a knee.
”Brother!” Pang Yun shouted.
”Young Master!” the fleeing shadows of the Cloud Sky Mountain Sect suddenly stopped and spun around to check on him.
”Did you think you can just waltz out of here unscathed after slaughtering the people of my sect?” I asked them coldly, ignoring the fallen Pang Feng and stepping toward them. Their momentary hesitation proved to be their undoing and they were caught in the ice. Their screams were cut short before they shattered into numerous frost fragments. ”If you have the audacity to come in here and kill my comrades, then be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
In the blink of an eye, there were no longer anybody left within the buildings which lined the two sides of the street. The civilians had all been murdered and massacred cruelly by the despicable Cloud Sky Mountain Sect martial artists, and I had killed them in turn, avenging the civilians' deaths. I had to admit, I did not remember reading about this, but perhaps it was because of my selective memory remembering only the important plot points and named characters. It was too bad I didn't have an eidetic memory, or I certainly would have taken steps to protect the civilians here. To be fair, I doubted I would have been able to accomplish anything on my own.
Crack!
In an instant, the ice that I had manifested in reality shattered and scattered into countless fragments. Pang Yun rose to his feet once more, his body unharmed and imposing. I had the sudden impression of a mountain rising to stand in my way.
”Junior Fei, leave Senior Tang here and flee.”
A look of helplessness was etched onto Pang Yun's tiny face.
”Divine Shadow Sect, Dark Asura Sect, Cloud Sky Mountain, and the Seven Valley Sects have all moved. Nine-Tailed Fox Sect is definitely finished. It's impossible to save the sect. Leave Senior Tang to us and take this opportunity to flee from the city. Perhaps you'll be able to survive.”
She sighed dramatically. However, that only served to irritate me more.
”Who are you again?” I blurted out.
”Are you serious?” Pang Feng snapped. ”She's my sister, Pang Yun! How could you have forgotten about her?”
I shrugged callously. ”Because she is an insignificant character who hasn't appeared much or done anything major over the last hundred chapters since she was first mentioned?”
”How cruel!” Pang Yun protested, wincing. ”I mean, you're right, but even so…don't you think you're being rude?!”
”I'm rude?” I scoffed, unable to believe her audacity. ”You're complaining about me being rude after you just stood aside and did nothing while your fellow sect members murdered members of your secondary sect.”
I was aware that Pang Feng and Pang Yun were originally from Cloud Sky Mountain, which was their primary sect. Honestly, it wasn't unusual that their loyalties to Cloud Sky Mountain would be stronger than their ties to Nine-Tailed Fox Sect.
Even so, that pissed me off. Especially considering what I had just seen and heard. Clearly Wu Tuo of Cloud Sky Mountain had entered Tushan City and took charge of Great Nature's Heart shop just for this day alone.