clergé

Chapitre 39

Seeing that things were going badly, Pang Wan stuck out his tongue and turned to run away.

"Your face is real! I know!" she shouted as she ran, seemingly apologizing.

He Qinglu's face was as dark as the clouds before a storm.

After a while, he calmed his breathing and turned to look at the mercury mirror on the table.

His face was covered with a streak of grayish-black pond mud.

"A stain," he murmured, flicking his finger slightly. The mercury mirror shattered from the mud, eventually crumbling into fragments that scattered silver dust.

Reunion

On a dark and stormy night, an uninvited guest flew into the mansion of the martial arts alliance leader.

Our strong-willed, unyielding Miss Pang Wan, the Moon-Worshipping Saintess, decided to risk sneaking back to Guixi Residence to pay Young Master He five thousand taels of silver.

She wanted to retrieve her package, which contained some medicine and about a thousand taels of silver.

As for whether or not to ask the Alliance Leader for her wages from last month, well, she hasn't decided yet.

He quietly slipped into the landlord's house and rummaged through everything, only to find that almost everything was still intact, except for the package containing the silver and clothes, which had vanished into thin air.

"Withholding employee assets is a crime!" Pang Wan clenched her fists, seething with hatred.

It was obvious that there were no unions in this world, so she decided to fight for her own rights. With a flick of her hair, a raised chin, and a strutting gait, she walked out.

Before even reaching the courtyard of Guxi Residence, a flickering fire could be seen in the distance, accompanied by indistinct cries.

Could someone have set the fire? Pang Wan leaped onto the roof in three quick steps, wanting to get a better look.

They were stunned when they saw it.

The servants were carrying some things that looked like corpses into the garden one after another, their faces somber. Leading the way was none other than Bai Xiaosheng, dressed in rags and covered in blood! He staggered along with the support of two people. The once handsome scholar's face was as white as a sheet of paper, his eyes were empty and unfocused, as if his soul and energy had been drained away. He looked like he would collapse after taking a few more steps.

This strange group of people entered the courtyard of Gu Xiju. Pang Wan frowned and followed them silently.

"...I never imagined the enemy was so powerful, managing to injure more than ten of our top fighters! If it weren't for the strategist's exceptional wisdom, we would have been completely wiped out..."

"...The martial arts are truly insidious! Instantly draining the opponent's internal energy, leaving not even a breath! Unprecedented and unheard of..."

Extremely angry accusations could be heard intermittently from the dimly lit room.

Pang Wan listened intently and roughly identified Zhang Xiuzhu from Wudang, Ding Huaili from Songshan, Xu Rong from Hengshan, and others.

Hearing the group discussing the draining of their internal energy, Pang Wan was secretly wondering if the Star Absorbing Technique had reappeared in the martial world when Bai Xiaosheng's weak yet firm voice rang out: "That Moon Worshiping Cult is truly vicious, actually cultivating a monster like Blood Tyrant! Not only does it absorb people's internal energy, but it also drains their flesh and blood! Alliance Leader, we must not allow that monster to enter the world, otherwise the martial world will surely be thrown into chaos!"

Upon hearing the words "Baiyue Sect," Pang Wan was stunned.

—Blood Lord? When did the Moon Worship Cult acquire such a figure? Just from the name, you can tell he's a super villain. How vulgar.

"Alliance Leader! Bai Xiaosheng is incompetent and failed to complete the mission. Please punish me, Alliance Leader!"

A loud thud was heard, as if someone had knelt down, followed by an even louder thud. Several exclamations of surprise rang out from the room: "Strategist! Strategist!"

She quietly peeked through a crack in the door and saw Bai Xiaosheng lying stiffly on the ground, his face bluish-green, with dark blood continuously flowing from the corner of his mouth.

A purple figure bent down and checked his breath and pulse: "He's been poisoned."

The man in purple slowly turned his face, and Pang Wan's heart stirred—after several days apart, Gu Xiju was still as elegant as ever, but there was a hint of weariness on his face that he had never seen before.

"Poisoned?! That Blood Tyrant can use poison? That's utterly despicable..."

"You despicable villains who worship the moon! I'll skin them alive, tear them apart, and drink their blood..."

The room became noisy and chaotic in an instant.

"Alright!" A sharp shout came from Gu Xiju's mouth. He glanced around at everyone, and they immediately held their breath and dared not make a sound.

"Xu Rong!" he ordered the man on his left, "Quickly send someone to invite Miss Tang Clan's Flying Phoenix!"

"Ding Huaili!" he commanded the man on his right, "Take my token and go to Medicine King Valley to invite the Medicine God to come out of the mountains!"

"Lu Kui!" he called out a strange name, and the maid who responded was none other than the one with slightly red eyes. "Send the strategist back to his room. First, use snow ginseng to suppress the poison. Remember to add a touch of styrax resin to the medicine!"

Finally, he turned to look at everyone, his eyes shining like bright stars.

"Anyone else who has ever seen Blood Tyrant, recall to me all the moves he used and his appearance, one by one!"

With a few crisp and decisive instructions, the previously panicked crowd seemed to have found their backbone again and began to get to work.

Pang Wan stared blankly at the person in the hall who remained calm and issued orders in the face of danger, a vague and complicated feeling welling up in his heart.

—So this is what the leader of the martial arts alliance really looks like?

Facing unexpected challenges, commanding a group of heroes who are like scattered sand, and making the most reasonable and correct judgments quickly is no easy task.

She remembered the task her uncle, the cult leader, had given her—to seize the Jade Dragon Token, abolish Gu Xiju, and take his place.

Sigh, it seems that stealing only the tokens is enough. The job of becoming the leader of the martial arts alliance is too physically and mentally taxing. Let someone with a life of hard work like Gu Xiju take it!

As time passed and the night deepened with heavy dew, the mountain villa gradually returned to tranquility.

Seeing that no one was around, Pang Wan tiptoed towards the room where Bai Xiaosheng was.

—This guy has always been clever and cunning, how could he suddenly be so deeply hurt? She still couldn't let it go.

Once on the roof, she quietly broke off a tile and began to spy, repeating her previous trick.