As if a taboo subject had been broached, the expressions of the Shanyao Hall members changed drastically.
Wei Baizhu nearly plucked out his own beard, his hands trembling, "That’s right... Liu Yi, if you can defeat Kuaidao, then you can defeat the San Shan Sect’s sect master!"
"Can revenge begin now?"
Senior Brother Li’s eyes reddened, and tears streamed down his face.
Several brothers either screamed madly or clenched their fists, their faces flushed with excitement.
Even Wei Hongyao turned away surreptitiously, wiping his face with his sleeve.
This frightened Shi Yu and Lu Yang into a shiver, fearing that all their seniors were on the verge of hysteria.
"Although I’m confident in dealing with San Shan Sect’s experts, the condition is a fair duel, not a mob attack... If too many people come, I might be able to run away, but you all will end up surrounded and attacked. Therefore, we must ask the Nine Elements Sect to intervene and resolve this according to the rules of Jianghu," Zhong Shenxiu declared solemnly.
To truly take revenge, he could sneak into Little Mountain City and silently exterminate the high ranks of the San Shan Sect.
But this clearly wouldn’t satisfy the psychological needs of Wei Baizhu and the other remnants; they wanted to take back Little Mountain City, to rebuild the Shanyao Gang, to reclaim everything they had lost.
Although, everything was already destroyed, and even retaking Little Mountain City couldn’t change reality.
Zhong Shenxiu decided to go big with them, while also reaping some Heavenly Show Points.
His main purpose in this world was to harvest Heavenly Show Points to take back to the main world.
After all, no matter how invincible this body became in cultivation, if it couldn’t be taken back, what was the point?
Due to the shortage of Heavenly Show Points, he even stopped practicing the "Dragon Tiger Pill Book"; after all, the Spells cultivated here couldn’t be taken back either. Other than getting used to them ahead of time, it was just a waste of Heavenly Show Points.
Besides, he was already prepared to seize the Martial Arts Dao Fruit of this world.
Things that could be done with Martial Arts didn’t need Mana.
’Besides... even if I recover my peak cultivation strength, I’m just a Gang Sha Realm cultivator; I’d still be killed by the Martial Arts Divine Power of a Heavenly List Martial Artist. I should focus solely on learning Martial Arts...’
When it came to investment and returns, especially concerning Heavenly Show Points, Zhong Shenxiu was extremely parsimonious.
"Fine! If you’re so confident, Liu Yi, I’ll throw my dignity to the wind and go beg Meng Tian... This time it is indeed the San Shan Sect who was at fault first. At the very least, we must pressure them to agree to settle this with us in an arena duel," Wei Baizhu said through gritted teeth.
"Dad, can those thieves from the San Shan Sect really agree?" Wei Hongyao thought of his brothers and sisters, a pang hitting his heart.
"With the Nine Elements Sect stepping in, at least we can ensure that they- will follow the rules of Jianghu..." Wei Baizhu pondered for a moment, clearly having a strategy in mind, "And... seeing how rapidly Xun has progressed, if I were the San Shan Sect master, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Now with an opportunity to eliminate him, they might be tempted."
At this point, he looked at Zhong Shenxiu, "Liu Yi, have you thought this through? We can wait for revenge, even if not in this generation, then the next. But you’re our last expert; we can’t afford to lose you. If you go this time, it’s likely setting up a ’Blood Arena’."
Blood Arena refers to a ruthless custom in Jianghu for settling grievances, where both sides fight in turn, ceasing only at death.
But without the Nine Elements Sect intervening, the San Shan Sect wouldn’t even bother with that. They would simply send hundreds of Martial Arts experts to encircle just one.
And they would resort to every possible means: strong bows and crossbows, poison darts, iron traps, without any hesitation.
Against such forces, unless one were a Heavenly List Expert or even on the Earth List, a Human List Martial Artist would have no choice but to turn tail and run.
Zhong Shenxiu waved his hand indifferently, while inwardly rolling his eyes: ’Still talking about waiting? If we wait any longer, I’m afraid each of you will become too repressed and go mad...’
Little Mountain City.
This city is located at the edge of the mountain range, guarding several key routes into the mountains, but the city is not large, its size comparable to that of a town.
In the early morning.
A troop slowly approached from afar, carrying the banner of the Nine Elements Sect.
People from the Shanyao Hall were among this group, all seething with emotion.
After all, it hadn’t been long since the bloody battle of the Shanyao Gang; the damage at the city gate was still clearly visible.
When Wei Baizhu passed through the city gate, he was overwhelmed with emotion.
"Who would have thought, San Shan Sect really agreed to the conditions of the blood challenge..." Wei Hongyao’s eyes were lost in a daze, murmuring to himself.
"They also want to resolve me as soon as possible, and the rules are in their favor,"
Zhong Shenxiu commented noncommittally.
On the night of the assassin’s attack, Wei Baizhu, casting aside his pride, went to Meng Tian in tears to plead his case.
Sure enough, Meng Tian was outraged and summoned Qi Lianfeng for questioning.
Such underworld experts don’t normally have the obligation to keep their employer’s secrets, and they knew that the Nine Elements Sect’s tribunal wielded extraordinary interrogation skills. Rather than being tortured endlessly, it made sense to confess early and suffer less.
Hence, he readily confessed to the crime of murder for hire orchestrated by San Shan Sect.
This was actually quite absurd, as when San Shan Sect had attacked Shanyao Gang, it was done blatantly, without hiding anything.
But now, they were being forced to admit fault.
The reason was nothing else; in this world of Jianghu, weakness was the original sin!
This was the epiphany Zhong Shenxiu had reached. As for what Wei Hongyao and the others learned, that was unclear.
’Thinking about it, the Nine Elements Sect is so earnestly helping out, firstly to befriend us, and secondly because the San Shan Sect has been expanding too rapidly recently, having occupied two cities already, which was somewhat taboo, needing to be suppressed...’
’Even so, this favor to the Shanyao Hall... we owe it...’
Zhong Shenxiu secretly curled his lips, walking down the street, noticing that every household had their doors tightly shut, clearly not daring to provoke the large group from the Martial Arts fraternity.
From time to time, a few complex glances were cast their way, apparently recognizing the Shanyao Hall group.
After another street, they arrived at the former base of Shanyao Gang, now the main stronghold of San Shan Sect.
Below the flags flapping in the wind, a group of martial artists waited, the leading few casting undisguised malicious looks towards the Shanyao Hall members.
"The first one up front, that big man in the purple robe, is the Master of the San Shan Sect—Luo Shanshan. To his right is the Great Elder Nie Rufe... These two are formidable in martial arts, I’m afraid even fiercer than Qi Lianfeng!"
Wei Baizhu whispered a warning.
What concerned Zhong Shenxiu even more were the disciples of the San Shan Sect.
There were at least several hundred of them, a considerable force.
If they shamelessly swarmed in attack, he could possibly escape, but the rest might be doomed.
"Ha ha, what an honor it is for Master Luo to personally greet us! I’m truly flattered,"
Meng Tian approached with a beaming smile, first paying respects to the higher-ups of the San Shan Sect, then he sighed, "Jianghu fueds, when will they end? This time, I come on behalf of the Nine Elements Sect, hoping to mediate between our two groups... This has already been made clear in the previous correspondence."
Luo Shanshan spoke in a rough voice, gesturing with a hand, "Members of Shanyao Hall, the blood challenge arena is inside, please!"