Ninety-One. Settling Old Scores and New Grudges Together

Lu Tong witnessed the grisly scene, and his breath nearly stopped. He dropped to his knees, his face draining white.

Lying on the ground was the wife he loved more than life itself, and now a great bloody hole had been torn through her abdomen. She was already dead, tortured to death before his very eyes.

“Aaah... ha... hng...”

His throat locked. He wanted to scream, to howl, to cry out with all his strength, yet no sound would come. Not a breath escaped him.

His tears were long since spent. His hands and feet seemed poured full of lead, unable to move.

In the distance, his parents cast him a cold, indifferent glance. Ye Fang said, “Father, are we just going to let this man go?”

Li Qiufeng opened his eyes. They were a pair of blood-red eyes, red as the bulbs in a brothel district, radiating a ferocious, murderous glow.

He dropped the dead infant from his hand and said flatly, “Let’s go. This man is ruined. Even if he has the rest of his life left, he will spend it in terror. Sometimes living is more unbearable than dying. Let him live, let him suffer more than death itself. Heh, heh, heh...”

With a venomous, icy smile, Li Qiufeng led his daughter away.

Only after a long while did Lu Tong find the strength to move. He threw himself over his wife’s body and cried like a child. Yet in his eyes, too, there burned a scarlet light, filled with hatred.

Just now he had heard the words Danxia Sect, and he had mistaken them for the people who had killed his wife and child. His rage was such that he ground his teeth, his fingernails digging through his palms.

“Danxia Sect, I will make you pay... even if I must pay everything, even if I must pay with my soul, I will never let you live in peace... I want revenge, I want revenge!”

He shouted until his voice was hoarse, his face twisted like a demon’s.

Elsewhere, Xie Wuji was in the temple, watching two young attendants tending the flower beds. He stood beside them, observing quietly.

At that moment, a faint fragrance drifted over. Xie Wuji looked up by instinct and saw a girl resting her chin in her hand, those bright, clear eyes fixed on him.

“Big Brother Wuji, what are you thinking about?”

It was Ye Fang. Xie Wuji gave a polite smile. “Miss Ye Fang, you should have let me know before making such an honored visit.”

She giggled. “Look, my mother prepared a lot of dried fish for me. I also simmered a pot of fish-ball stew, especially for you. Try it.”

Xie Wuji’s eyes flickered. “How could I keep such a fine thing to myself? Since we were just about to eat, why not have it together?”

“I just ate. You taste it first.” Ye Fang began to coax him.

Xie Wuji put a fish ball into his mouth and nodded repeatedly. “Mm, not bad. Not bad at all.”

“Then you eat first. I’ll come back after you finish,” Ye Fang said with a smile.

After watching her leave, Xie Wuji spat the fish ball from beneath his tongue and hurriedly rinsed his mouth. Just then, Old Master Chu came out. Seeing the bowl of fish soup, he said, “Ho, that little girl really has taken a liking to you.”

“It’s not that simple,” Xie Wuji replied.

At that moment a cat happened to wander over. It seemed to be one kept by the temple. Sensing the smell of the fish balls, it went over and took a bite of the one Xie Wuji had spat out. Suddenly, the cat began to sway.

In an instant it collapsed to the ground, struggling to breathe.

Before long, blood flowed from its nose and mouth as it lay there, dead.

“This fish-ball soup is poisoned!” Protector Chu said through clenched teeth.

“I’ve thought of a plan,” Xie Wuji said, narrowing his eyes.

“Oh?”

Outside the temple, Li Qiufeng and Ye Fang stood beneath a tree. Li Qiufeng sat cross-legged, eyes closed in repose. At ordinary times he kept them shut as though he had never recovered his sight.

But when Ye Fang returned, he said, “Did you give it to him?”

“Yes.”

“You saw him eat it yourself?”

“I did.”

“Let’s go.” Li Qiufeng rose to his feet and opened his eyes. Those scarlet eyes looked cruel and dreadful beyond measure.

The father and daughter entered the temple and found, in the courtyard, a shattered earthen basin with fish balls scattered all over the ground, along with a dead cat lying nearby.

Going farther in, they saw that Xie Wuji, Protector Chu, and the two attendants were all collapsed on the ground, blood streaming from nose and mouth, apparently dead.

“Hahaha! Even heroes cannot resist beauty. Once my daughter makes a move, what man could withstand her charm?” Li Qiufeng clasped his hands behind his back and laughed triumphantly.

“What a pity. This cat had lived in the temple for three years. When Mother came to burn incense before, she often brought this cat some dried fish,” Ye Fang said, picking up the cat’s corpse.

“It was only a beast. Nothing worth mentioning... Wait. This old Taoist looks somewhat familiar,” Li Qiufeng said as he approached Protector Chu.

After all, Li Qiufeng had been blind for so long that he had never seen what anyone looked like. Now that his sight had been restored, he could once again see the faces around him.

He stepped closer and nudged Protector Chu with his foot.

As Protector Chu rolled over, a talisman hidden against his chest suddenly burst into brilliant light, forcing Li Qiufeng to cover his eyes. “What in the world is this?”

Xie Wuji had already been waiting nearby. He snapped his fingers, and armored bracers and shoulder guards appeared on his body at once. Then he charged straight at the blinded Li Qiufeng.

Thud!

Li Qiufeng was sent flying bodily and smashed into the wall, where he became embedded and unable to move.

“You bastard, Li Qiufeng! So you really did use that vile joined-parent and twin-swallow technique!” Protector Chu cursed.

Xie Wuji’s sudden ambush, the shoulder-check, had struck Li Qiufeng squarely. Li Qiufeng had taken the blow full on.

“You weren’t... affected?” Ye Fang’s face went pale.

“What sort of decent girl are you, with such fine eyes, and yet you choose to sin against yourself?” Xie Wuji reached out and clamped a hand around the back of Ye Fang’s neck.

Ye Fang tilted her head to look at him. “Is this how the righteous act? Bullying a weak woman like me?”

“Just because you’re a woman, am I supposed to stand here and let you slaughter me?” Xie Wuji snapped.

At that very moment, a strange smile touched Ye Fang’s lips. From the collar at the back of her neck suddenly sprang a small emerald snake, which immediately coiled around Xie Wuji’s arm and opened its mouth to bite.

“Break!” Xie Wuji growled. In the next instant, the Undying True Fire erupted from his hand. The fierce recoil of that exploding flame instantly blew the little green snake to pieces.

Ye Fang retreated in haste. At the same time, Li Qiufeng on the other side landed back on the ground. Holding a cane in one hand, he glared fiercely at Xie Wuji and the old man Chu.

“So you’re Chu Sheng? I never expected you to have been in Greenstone Village all along,” Li Qiufeng said. “So you’ve been deceiving this blind man all this time. I thought you had died long ago, and that the owner of this temple was just some ordinary Taoist priest. Who would have thought the one who blinded me was standing right before my eyes!”

“Li Qiufeng, you caused the death of my entire family of five. This blood debt is irreconcilable. If my cultivation had not been utterly ruined, I would already have taken your head! And yet I thought you might repent and keep honestly to your life as a village chief’s husband in Greenstone Village. But a dog never stops eating filth. I never imagined you would turn even your own daughter into someone like yourself. Today, old and new grudges shall be settled together!” Protector Chu said bitterly.

“Hahaha! Right now you don’t have the slightest trace of energy about you. Let me see just what you’re capable of!” With that, Li Qiufeng lunged toward Chu Sheng.

Protector Chu had long since lost all cultivation. How could he possibly be a match for Li Qiufeng? With a single palm strike, he was hit squarely in the chest. He spat blood and was sent flying backward, prompting Li Qiufeng to laugh uproariously. “As expected, you’re nothing but a cripple now. A cripple, you bastard!”

“Do not harm my master!”

The two little attendants suddenly rushed out. Only then did Xie Wuji realize they were both girls. Each drew a sword and charged toward Li Qiufeng.

“Twin-Voice Swordplay?” Li Qiufeng’s eyes widened.

“Haha, frightened now, are you? Back then, the old man and the mistress used this very Twin-Voice Swordplay. We took out your eyes, and even if you’ve used sorcery to restore them, you still are no match for my two disciples!” Protector Chu laughed heartily.