Inside the tent, everyone was concerned about Tang Lizhen's injuries. The physician from Biluo Palace removed his outer robe and cleaned the wounds, but the abdominal injury was horrifying to behold. His internal meridians were in disarray, and his inner energy had dissipated. Even if he miraculously survived this ordeal, Tang Lizhen's martial arts would likely be lost forever. Tie Jing and Qi Xing stayed by his side, both trembling with fear—neither daring to look at him nor speak to him. Sitting beside Young Master Tang felt like torture.
Tang Lizhen's eyes remained open, his breathing rapid and shallow. Listening to his labored gasps, even Cheng Yunpao felt a surge of fear.
Wan Yu Yuedan retrieved a medicine bottle from his sleeve, containing a pill as lustrous as jade. It was a remedy he usually took himself—nowhere near the efficacy of Shaolin’s Great Return Pill, but better than nothing. Tang Lizhen slightly parted his lips and, without even needing water, forced the pill down.
The red-clad woman noticed his expression and finally sensed something amiss. "Hero Cheng, please guard Young Master Tang and unseal his acupoints. He has something to say."
Cheng Yunpao channeled his true energy into Tang Lizhen, only to feel it scatter upon reaching the dantian. Tang Lizhen’s martial arts, derived from the Book of Transmigration , had never truly been his own—now they abandoned him, as if karma had come full circle. Heeding the red-clad woman’s words, he unblocked the acupoints previously sealed on Tang Lizhen.
Once his qi and blood circulated freely, Tang Lizhen’s abdominal wound gushed blood. He suddenly lifted his head, coughing violently. "Wang... Wang Lingqiu... 'Three Slumbers Sleepless Sky'... 'Queen Bee'...?"
Wang Lingqiu?
Wan Yu Yuedan raised his voice. "Where is Wang Lingqiu?"
The red-clad woman also stood. "Was Wang Lingqiu properly confined? He’s the sole inheritor of the Summoning Lamp Command and likely more adept than Chai Xijin at controlling the poisoned men outside! We must be extra cautious!"
"Lady Red! Wang Lingqiu is missing!" Xu Qingbu rushed in, his face pale. "He has accomplices among the poisoned soldiers outside. They’ve surrounded us again, climbing back up the mountain."
Tang Lizhen gasped and shook his head. "Fu..."
He clearly had something urgent to say but grew increasingly breathless, coughing harder. "Fu... Imperial Plum Blossom Saber... where...?"
Where was Fu Zhumei?
Everyone exchanged bewildered glances. Amidst the earlier chaos, landslides, and battles, Fu Zhumei had been restrained by the Spider Woman on Chai Xijin’s war chariot—but then what?
Where had he gone?
But the Imperial Plum Blossom Saber’s martial prowess was unparalleled, and the Spider Woman was already dead. Surely Tang Lizhen wasn’t clinging to life just to ask about Fu Zhumei’s whereabouts?
A faint whoosh —a flash of blade light like a raging river of snow—shattered the tent entrance. Cheng Yunpao raised his sword to block, and with a metallic clang, the blades crossed. The intruder’s face was ghastly purple—it was Fu Zhumei!
He gripped his Imperial Plum Blossom Saber, but none of the Plum Blossom Control’s usual grace and serenity remained. His entire body was shrouded in the faint gold-green hue of the spider venom, his eyes restless and unfocused. He stared at Tang Lizhen—yet not quite at him.
In his deranged world, who knew what he was seeing?
Tang Lizhen clutched the robe covering him and sighed. "Zhumei."
Wang Lingqiu was hiding outside, using the Summoning Lamp Command’s poison arts to control Fu Zhumei.
Chi Yun had died this way.
Shui Duopo had died this way.
And now, it was Fu Zhumei’s turn.
Tang Lizhen tightened his grip on the robe, watching as the wounded Cheng Yunpao and Meng Qinglei battled Fu Zhumei. He closed his eyes slightly and bit his lip hard.The Imperial Plum Blossom Saber sliced through the air as more members of the Central Plains Sword Assembly gathered around, yet none could approach. The flowing saber light of Fu Zhumei was aimed squarely at Tang Licishen's life.
Tang Licishen sat motionless within reach of Fu Zhumei's blade. The energy from the three combatants' weapons stirred his long gray hair, yet he remained silent and still, as if waiting for Fu Zhumei to take that final step forward—to swing the blade at his neck—so he might meet death with composure.
One strike, two strikes, three strikes...
The Imperial Plum Blossom Saber moved like flowing water, clear and traceless as ice. Fu Zhumei's True Power gradually merged with the venom of the Gu Spider, his blade's chilling wind growing ever more rampant. Cheng Yinpao and Meng Qinglei initially held their ground but were soon forced back, step by step...
The frigid saber wind now swept directly before Tang Licishen, severing strands of his gray hair as the golden hairpin holding it up clattered to the ground.
Tang Licishen suddenly opened his eyes.
He caught the falling hairpin.
At that moment, a sword burst into the tent from the opposite side. With a thunderous clash of blade and steel, True Powers collided, shattering the entire tent with a flash of sword light. The newcomer, clad in white with dark hair, strode forward resolutely, his sword raised to shield Tang Licishen.
Cheng Yinpao and Meng Qinglei exclaimed in unison, "Abbot Puzhu!"
Puzhu clasped his hands in greeting. "Fellow... practitioners," he said solemnly, no longer reciting Buddhist mantras. "Puzhu has committed grave errors. As one bearing the weight of sin, I am no longer fit to serve as the abbot of Shaolin. Benefactor Tang saved me from dire straits. The events of that day and the peril of this moment—Puzhu shall provide an explanation to all."
But hadn't this abbot been publicly abducted by Tang Licishen during his assault on Shaolin Temple?
The members of the Central Plains Sword Assembly were both shocked and bewildered. Puzhu's abduction by Tang Licishen had been irrefutable proof of the latter's heinous crimes, yet now Puzhu claimed, "Benefactor Tang saved me from dire straits."
What truly happened that day at Shaolin Temple?
Puzhu pointed his sword at Fu Zhumei.
Puzhu bore the Queen Bee Congealed Frost, while Fu Zhumei was afflicted with the Gu Spider's venom. The moment the two poisons met, both men unleashed lethal techniques without hesitation.
Fu Zhumei hadn't comprehended a word of Puzhu's speech. The wound on his back burned as he stared fixedly at the robed figure before him—there was something within this man!
Similarly, Puzhu sensed an unusual sweetness emanating from Fu Zhumei.
He was unlike anyone else.
Their deadly strikes erupted, sending shockwaves that shattered the surrounding rocks and destabilized the ground beneath them. Cheng Yinpao, Tie Jing, and others hastily carried Tang Licishen, Wan Yu Yuedan, and the rest away as the group scattered like fugitives. Screams echoed as the force of the two combatants' life-or-death struggle triggered yet another landslide.
Tang Licishen watched wide-eyed as Puzhu and Fu Zhumei clashed.
Not far away, the two were locked in mortal combat.
They cared neither for their own lives nor the lives of those around them.
A wave of dizziness washed over Tang Licishen. He lowered his head, watching the swirling shadows of Fu Zhumei and Puzhu in the distance. Though the vertigo threatened to overwhelm him, he dared not close his eyes.
Placed on the ground by Cheng Yinpao, he sat in the dust, his vision split between grains of sand and the dance of blades.
He didn't know who would prevail.
But he knew Puzhu... would fight to the death.
Just as he had witnessed Mo Ziru's sword... and Shui Duopo's stillness, heard of Xu Xianzi's shattered skull and three-day demise.
Seen Zheng Yue drawing his blade, Bai Suche walking alone.
Beheld the blood and indecipherable poetry beneath the jade mirror mountain, within the cascading waterfall's deep pool.In this world... it's not that Tang Lizhen is invincible and all-conquering, but rather that there are always people... willing to go through fire and water, even sacrifice their lives, just to make him "invincible."
With a sharp "shick," blood splattered as Fu Zhumei's blade pierced Pu Zhu's chest.
With a "clang," Pu Zhu dropped his sword and firmly grasped Fu Zhumei's shoulders with both hands.
He bit into Fu Zhumei's shoulder and began frantically sucking the blood.
The golden-green poisoned blood brought by the Gu spider was continuously drawn out by Pu Zhu. The Gu King raged violently in Pu Zhu's dantian, and the wound from the stab in his chest began to heal.
OpenNovel