Chapter 1057: Intentions to destroy Celestial Mountain Sword Sect? (1/2)
Han Yunxi’s group waited for Gu Beiyue’s arrival while looking into news about the Celestial Mountain and Heretical Sword sects. They didn’t treat most of the enemies as a threat; they were more concerned with verifying whether Bai Yanqing was still on the mountain.
“I’ve only see the Heretical Sword Sect leader once and it was from a distance while he was hiding his face. So I couldn’t see his features clearly,” Chu Xifeng said as he thought back. “He should have been over fifty.”
“Has he been on the mountain this entire time?” Han Yunxi asked.
Chu Xifeng couldn’t be certain. “I never saw him again after they attacked the peak.”
Long Feiye looked at Gu Qishao coldly and said, “Tonight you keep watch, I’ll scope out the path ahead first.”
Chu Xifeng’s knowledge was limited, but making wild guesses now couldn’t compare to climbing the mountain to see for himself.
“You stand guard and I’ll go,” Gu Qishao said. Although he said in the past he’d act as one of Long Feiye’s guards, he’d never listened to the man’s orders once!
“Have you been to Celestial Mountain before?” Long Feiye retorted.
Gu Qishao was immediately left speechless, but said reluctantly, “Then hurry up and go, I’ll stand guard!”
Despite Gu Qishao’s smarts, he wasn’t as clever as Han Yunxi who wanted to go as well. However, she stayed quiet until late night when Long Feiye left. Then she tried to sneak after him, but was blocked by Gu Qishao at the entrance.
“Poison lass, it’s dangerous.”
Han Yunxi turned back to give him a pair of pitiful puppy eyes.
Gu Qishao’s heart melted before he said, “Poison lass, you better hurry after him. It’ll be more dangerous if you can’t catch up.”
Just like that, Han Yunxi soon caught up with Long Feiye. He couldn’t very well chase her away now. Besides, the current Han Yunxi was no burden, but an asset!
Celestial Mountain Range had five separate peaks from south to north that resembled a flight of stairs. Each peak was next to its neighbor, with successive peaks standing higher and higher until the fifth peak in the north made up Celestial Mountain Sword Sect. Thanks to geography, there was only one path up the mountain that traversed between their gaps. In other words, to reach the peak of Celestial Mountain, they would have to cross five peaks.
Han Yunxi’s group had their hiding cave in the shaded side of the first peak. Now the two of them had circled to the front. To figure out what was going on up there, they would have to scale the mountains. Like the first time around, Long Feiye kept his grip tightly around Han Yunxi’s waist, protecting her in his embrace. He was so used to the sensation that he easily climbed the first peak without alerting a soul. However, he could sense ambushes in wait all around them.
Han Yunxi was currently puzzling over how Heretical Sword Sect had taken over Celestial Mountain Sword Sect when they had so many disciples. When it came to numbers, their forces paled before the Celestial Mountain disciples. Even if the masters of the Lockheart Courtyard[1] and Sword and Scripture depositories revolted, these were matters of the mountain peak! Subdivisions of Celestial Mountain Sword Sect were scattered between the first four peaks and filled with disciples who pledged no allegiance to any of the three factions. How did Heretical Sword Sect control them? And how did they stem the tide of information of leaking out?
While Han Yunxi was pondering over the problem, the detox system gave her an answer. As soon as Long Feiye brought her near the Meteor Sword Depository on the first peak, the detox system blared out an alarm to alert Han Yunxi of the poisoned people within.
“A poison attack…” Han Yunxi muttered to herself.[2]
“What’s going on?” Long Feiye asked.
Han Yunxi grinned. “If you hadn’t brought me with you tonight, we would’ve needed to make a second trip!”
“Heheh, since when has Heretical Sword Sect turn into the likes of Hundred Poisons Sect?” Long Feiye immediately understood what she meant.
If it wasn’t for poison, how else could Bai Yanqing ensure complete dominance of Celestial Mountain in such a short time while maintaining an information embargo?[3]
“Let’s go in for a look. It’s too far for me to determine the type of poison,” Han Yunxi muttered.
Meteor Sword Depository was the biggest depository on the first peak and had gotten its share of high-level disciples in recent years. Long Feiye chose this as their first landing point because its leader, Madame Yan,[4] had extremely good relations with Granny You of Abstinence Courtyard.[5] They were like sisters, and most of Meteor Sword Depository’s top disciples were eventually selected by Granny You as Abstinence Courtyard disciples. Very few went on to the Sword or Scripture Depositories, much less Lockheart Courtyard.
Others might lie, but Madame Yan was like Granny You, a stickler for the truth. She would never betray the sword sect.
Before they reached the building, the detox system had already given Han Yunxi her answer.
“Long Feiye, it’s Traceless Poison,”[6] Han Yunxi said. “You can slip the poison into the water, then wait a day before it takes effect. It renders its victims unconscious and will kill them within seven months without a cure.”
Poisoning the water was the most economical choice. Even if one didn’t drink water within a day, one still ate meals, making it inescapable. No wonder everyone had fallen victim to it at once!
“Bai Yanqing wants to destroy Celestial Mountain Sword Sect?” Long Feiye exclaimed in alarm.
From last year’s tenth month until now, six months had already passed. In other words, if they had come a month later, every faction here and at the peak would have been annihilated![7]
No wonder the two Depositories and one Courtyard at the peak had agreed to cooperate with Heretical Sword Sect. When Cang Qiuzi was still leader of Lockheart Courtyard, the Sword and Scripture Depositories had already harbored thoughts of allying together to establish themselves in the sect. Bai Yanqing’s plans fitted their intentions exactly.