Reopening her eyes, a flash of resolute determination crossed Yu Fengyao’s gaze as she made her choice.
The distance between both parties closed rapidly. Finally, at the very last moment of peril, Yu Fengyao moved.
Pressing her tongue against the roof of her mouth, she brought the index and middle fingers of her left hand together, pointing straight ahead. Thousands of pounds of weight instantly bore down upon her left arm. Clenching her teeth against the immense burden, she mustered all her strength in a single breath to raise her left hand, pointing it toward the ceiling.
As she acted, the soft sword altered its course in tandem. Ten thousand swords launched simultaneously, charging fiercely upward toward the roof.
“Pfft.”
A sudden sound of vomiting blood escaped the storyteller. He coughed up a mouthful of blood that splattered everywhere across the floor. He simply could not hold on any longer; a sharp, piercing pain racked his chest, and he completely lost the strength in his hands as the fan ceased its motion.
Without the fan’s interference, the air gradually returned to stillness, yet the formation remained intact!
The myriad swords reformed their shapes, razor-sharp, following the trajectory of the soft sword as they shot upward. Yu Fengyao was caught completely off guard, anxiety staining her complexion as she scrambled to regain control of the blades, but it was already too late.
The destination of these swords was the barrier overhead. Unlike the previous collisions, this impact offered no room for hesitation or retreat; putting their full force behind it, the onslaught carried the formidable momentum of splitting mountains and rivers.
Yu Fengyao watched helplessly as the tip of the soft sword touched the barrier. Before she even had time to blink, the trailing wind swords struck right behind it.
Swish! The explosive force burst outward, sending layers of shockwaves rippling through the air. Countless air currents whipped around frantically in all directions, and the barrier shattered into pieces!
The backlash of the formation struck them directly. All six individuals were ruthlessly flung backward, simultaneously spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood.
The books within Yu Fengyao’s embrace were even sent flying straight up into mid-air.
Doors and windows blew open from the shockwave, and the earth-shattering commotion resonated throughout the entire inn.
Yu Fengyao’s pupils reflected the figures of Beisi and the other two. The barrier was broken, which meant she was about to take the full brunt of Beisi’s attack head-on. Was she truly going to meet her end right here?
No! She twisted her violently shaken body, attempting to evade Beisi’s impending strike, her mind already set on mutual destruction.
Whether she lived or died, the Fengling Sect would pursue Beisi and Chi Qiqi to the ends of the earth!
To everyone’s surprise, Beisi lightly tapped the floor with his toes and dashed toward the falling books. In the span of a single breath, he gathered every single one of them.
Their objective had never been to take her life, but to seize her books.
Beisi shifted his gaze away from the books and locked eyes with Chi Qiqi’s gleaming, luminous gaze. They exchanged a knowing smile; this tactic of borrowing strength to strike back had already been used back at the mass grave, when they utilized He Dao to shatter the corpse horde, and now they had similarly used Yu Fengyao to break the formation.
Yu Fengyao finally realized she had been played. Swallowing the blood rising in her throat, even though she looked thoroughly disheveled and was currently at a disadvantage, she remained defiant. Her voice rasped with hoarseness as she spat out, “Even if you got your hands on them cough so what?”
“You think you can cough” Before Yu Fengyao could finish her sentence, someone began shouting loudly from below.
“Help! Cough, cough, cough! The Fengling Sect is murdering people!” The storyteller clutched his wound and, seizing the moment before anyone could react, bolted straight out of the room. Pulling back his throat, he let out a piercing, heart-wrenching series of screams.
Yu Fengyao glared with burning hatred toward the source of the noise. At some point, the storyteller’s face had smeared so much soot and grime that his original features were barely recognizable.
The private room was on the second floor, and the center of the second floor was hollow, offering a direct view of the people downstairs.
Hearing this explosive roar, the patrons downstairs all halted whatever they were doing and looked up toward the sound, spotting a young boy under seven feet tall. His face was filthy, blood stained the corners of his mouth, and blood streamed continuously from his chest, soaking his proper clothes into a crimson mess. He looked utterly pitiable.
The storyteller miserably clutched the railing and slumped to the floor, raising his pitch into a voice that sounded remarkably like a boy undergoing a puberty voice-crack. He wailed pitifully, “The grand eldest miss of the Fengling Sect—cough, cough—is murdering a child!”
The wanted poster might have depicted his face, but his appearance right now bore no resemblance to his true self whatsoever. Moreover, how could anyone down below possibly know his actual height? I really am clever, he thought, feeling a little wave of smugness as he cast a sidelong glance toward Chi Qiqi.
Catching sight of the storyteller’s filthy face, Chi Qiqi looked away with a faint expression of distaste.
The storyteller felt a twinge of disappointment. Just as he turned his head, his gaze accidentally collided with Yu Fengyao’s ferocious, murderous glare, instantly terrifying him out of his wits. If looks could kill, he was certain he would have already been chopped into minced meat. Hurriedly, he dragged his battered body with great difficulty to a safer distance away.
Lowering his head once more, he resumed observing the expressions and movements of the crowd below while continuing to wail at the top of his lungs.
The entire inn was preposterously quiet at this moment, with only his voice echoing through the space.
The people staying at this inn weren’t merely ordinary commoners; there were also cultivators gathered from all corners of the realm. He refused to believe there were no chivalrous souls among them. The bigger he stirred up this commotion, the better.
Yu Fengyao mustered every ounce of strength she had left throughout her body, burning with rage. How old is he, and he’s still down there playing the child? Have you no shame?
She drew back her soft sword, intending to teach the storyteller a lesson, but someone else moved faster than her.
She merely felt a gentle breeze sweep past her cheek. By the time her peripheral vision caught what was happening and she reached out to grab it, it was already too late—those few books had been so casually tossed down to the ground floor.
The rustling sound of pages flipping through the air was exceptionally distinct in the silence. Seeing books raining down, the people downstairs instinctively reached out to catch them.
Opening the pages, they found them densely packed with names, immediately followed by countless unnumbered accounts of crimes. While some travelers from afar might not yet grasp the full significance and remained bewildered, the locals burst into immediate gasps of shock.
“What is written on this?”
“Hey, isn’t this name awfully familiar? Didn’t he slay a ferocious demon beast? Why does it say here he colluded with demons?”
“Aren’t the people listed in here all paragons of righteousness and great heroes?”
“Ah! Aren’t these people from the He clan?”
“Impossible! They’re all exceptionally good people! Just how much have they helped us ordinary folks…”
Points of fingers directed at the names inside sparked immediate astonishment, and the crowd instantly boiled over with commotion.
Seeing Beisi and Chi Qiqi handling the situation so smoothly, the storyteller continued to pinch his voice, gripping the railing with both hands as he launched into an impassioned accusation: “Big brothers and big sisters! Help me! I managed to—cough—find the evidence against the He clan with the utmost difficulty, but… but the Fengling Sect wants to sweep it under the rug and cover for them!”
Too late to stop them, Yu Fengyao spun around and met Beisi’s gaze. Unflinching and unhurried, the man stared right back at her without a trace of evasion.
Beisi said calmly and evenly, “Even if you claim right now that all of this has been fabricated, your esteemed sect’s reputation will undoubtedly suffer severe damage.”
For the He clan to run amok to such an outrageous degree without a single soul within the Fengling Sect being aware of it—how could that possibly be true? It was evident that the He clan was inextricably linked to the Fengling Sect. No wonder they were so desperate to burn these books; for the sake of status and prestige, they could not afford a single mistake.
Yu Fengyao naturally understood the underlying logic. She had never anticipated that her opponents would employ such a crude yet devastatingly effective method, but public opinion is a formidable force.
“Will the eldest miss of the Fengling Sect silence the witnesses?” Leaning close to Beisi’s ear, Chi Qiqi asked this question with a look of genuine puzzlement.
His delicate brows were slightly knitted, as if he were truly perplexed, while his gaze remained fixed squarely upon Yu Fengyao.
Hearing these words, Yu Fengyao tightened her fists instinctively, opening her mouth to retort, but that shameless old scoundrel below resumed his tearful howling.
“They’re cough all in this together! They steal cough other people’s contributions, and now they want to kill a child!” The storyteller shook violently, not daring to look back, putting on a thoroughly terrified act.
What part of that behavior resembled a child? Yet the crowd had already been completely consumed by the explosive revelations inside the books; for the moment, not a single person questioned the authenticity of this supposed “child.”
Upon hearing the storyteller’s words, the individuals dressed in the yellow clan uniforms of the He clan saw panic instantly flash across their faces, their pupils trembling with terror. One of them snatched a book from someone nearby, his hands shaking uncontrollably as he scanned the familiar names and crimes listed within.
When someone nearby expressed displeasure at having their book snatched, the He clan member slammed his finger onto the page, turned toward the storyteller, and roared in fury, “Slander! This is pure, unadulterated slander!”
The storyteller hastily feigned crying, whimpering aloud as he wiped away non-existent tears with his hands.
People are naturally inclined to pity the weak and small.
Immediately, someone in the crowd chimed in, “Why are you yelling at a child? Can’t you see the kid is injured?”
“Once everything is investigated thoroughly, the truth will naturally come to light.”
“Wait, aren’t you a disciple of the He clan?”
The He clan member stammered an incoherent “You, you, you” for ages before flying into an absolute rage. Out of sheer exasperation, he drew his sword and slashed a nearby table straight through the middle. With a deafening crash, splinters scattered everywhere, instantly swallowing all further chatter back into people’s throats.
Looking closer, the man’s eyes were filled with murderous intent as he locked his gaze onto the storyteller, exuding a vicious drive to strip him of his tendons and grind his bones to powder.
The storyteller’s eyes lit up instantly. He never expected his opponents to be so utterly cooperative, leaping forward on their own accord to “prove” their pristine innocence!
Yu Fengyao also heard the commotion downstairs, thinking internally that this group of idiots was truly more than capable of ruining everything.
If the majority of the crowd had initially harbored doubts about the contents of the books, that single sword strike shattered whatever skepticism remained, exposing just how intense their murderous intent toward a mere child truly was—especially when the authenticity of the books had yet to be officially verified!
Naturally, the storyteller refused to let such a golden opportunity slip by. He immediately rode the momentum, adding fuel to the fire with shrill complaints: “They’re flying into a rage out of shame! Flying into a rage out of shame! I’m so scared cough waah…”
The man in yellow felt burning gazes converging upon him from all directions. Yet, things had progressed to this stage; he had no choice but to silence this brat and re-establish his innocence. Watching the child wipe the corner of his eye, he noticed the exposed hand it was a sallow yellow mixed with black, shriveled, rough, and deeply cracked like sun-dried tree bark.
A child’s skin ought to be tender and delicate. How could anyone possess hands so battered by the harsh elements? They looked precisely like the hands of an old man—the contrast was jarring.
The He clan member narrowed his eyes slightly. Looking closer, the child’s facial features suddenly seemed rather familiar. Those brows, that nose, that mouth… they were cast in the exact same mold as the Second Elder!
Estimating the child’s height once more, it matched the Second Elder’s frame remarkably well.
The He clan member widened his eyes, staring intently at the cunning little scoundrel still putting on a pitiful act, feeling a surge of utter disbelief.
This person it was the Second Elder!
With this realization, his heartbeat quickened out of sheer excitement. Hastily grabbing the sleeve of the person standing next to him, he urged them to look at the storyteller, blurting out urgently, “Look! Look closely! He’s not a child at all! He’s…”