The disciple spoke with fear and trepidation, "That person said... said that if you, Tower Master, do not wish for your son to come to harm, you must go to the time and place agreed upon in the letter for a battle..."
"Where is Eighteen? Call Eighteen here for me!"
A sense of unease began to rise in Wen Xiangxin’s heart. He turned around and spoke loudly to the trusted disciple beside him.
That trusted disciple did not dare to delay, left as if flying, and approximately a dozen minutes later, he returned to Wen Xiangxin’s side with a face full of panic, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said with a trembling voice, "Tower Master, the young master... he is not in his room..."
"Did you look for him elsewhere?"
Wen Xiangxin’s sense of unease grew stronger and stronger.
"We have sent people to look for him. However... there are words written in red paint on the wall of the young master’s room..."
"It says ’Borrowing your son for a bit’!"
Wen Xiangxin gasped sharply, his figure swayed, and he flashed towards the residence of his son, Wen Shiba.
Wen Xiangshan and Wen Xianghai, the two brothers, exchanged glances and followed closely behind Wen Xiangxin.
Half an hour later, in Misty Rain Tower’s council hall, Tower Master Wen Xiangxin, two Elders, and ten Core Disciples gathered together, with each person’s face grave and the atmosphere oppressive.
"Two arrogant and presumptuous juniors! They are courting death!"
Wen Xiangxin held up the challenge letter in his hand, his voice roaring like an angry lion.
He had intended to send someone to kill Ghost Hand but had not expected that Ghost Hand and Fang Bai would instead take the initiative to come knocking on the door, and their purpose in coming to Misty Rain Tower was to challenge all the Profound Level Experts of Misty Rain Tower.
To achieve this goal, they had gone so far as to enrage Misty Rain Tower completely, abducting Wen Xiangxin’s son, Wen Shiba, and using this as leverage to force Wen Xiangxin to definitely bring all Misty Rain Tower disciples above the Profound Level to the foot of Feilai Peak in Xishan for a battle at six o’clock tonight.
The fact that his own son was abducted quietly from Misty Rain Tower’s stronghold – if this incident were to spread, it would bring disgrace upon Wen Xiangxin and tarnish Misty Rain Tower’s reputation. How could Wen Xiangxin not be infuriated?
"Tower Master, to deal with two juniors, just let the two of us brothers make a trip!"
Wen Xianghai said coldly.
"Xiang Hai is right, two juniors are not worth mobilizing our forces for full battle readiness!"
Wen Xiangshan’s face also lacked its usual smiles; he looked ready to kill.
"No, those two managed to abduct Eighteen right under our noses, they must be extraordinarily powerful. Moreover, in the challenge letter, they also stated that if we are missing anyone, Eighteen’s life would be in danger! Let’s all go together! Remember, seize any opportunity to kill the two, no need for mercy!"
After some thought, Wen Xiangxin made his final decision.
He casually picked up the challenge letter, infused True Yuan into his palms, and squeezed it tightly.
As he opened his hands again, the challenge letter was reduced to shreds, drifting away with the bitter northern wind.
Feilai Peak, located thirty miles west of Suhang City, originally a tourist attraction, but now that winter had come and heavy snow sealed off the mountains, not a single human footprint could be seen for tens of miles around.
On the sunny southern side of Feilai Peak was a flat area of about one square kilometer, with several stone pillars, each over one person tall, standing in the center.
At this moment, two young men about twenty years old were sitting cross-legged atop two stone pillars, deep in discussion about something.
Not far from them, in the snowy ground, a man clad in white was crawling forward as if mad, screaming "Save me" at the top of his lungs.
The man in white was about thirty years old; his originally handsome features were twisted in pain, his normally neat hair was now a messy tangle, and his once pristine white garment was covered in filth, torn and ragged, presenting an utterly wretched sight.
As the man in white wriggled along, he would occasionally turn to look back at the two young men seated on the stone pillars, his eyes filled with terror, as if those two were demons from hell itself.
Judging from the way the man in white was crawling, it was clear that he could not use his limbs at all; they had obviously been broken.
"Wen Shiba, if your family doesn’t show up by six this evening, your life is as good as over,"
said the younger man, sitting on the stone pillar and clad in casual attire, as he cast a glance at the struggling man in white. His voice was indifferent, devoid of any pity.
"Don’t kill me... my family will come... they will definitely come... please, don’t kill me..."
the man known as Wen Shiba howled desperately.
"Master, will the people from ’Misty Rain Tower’ renege on their promise and fail to appear?"
The other, an older man in black, glanced impatiently toward the distant mountain path and asked.
"Unless Wen Xiangxin no longer cares about his son’s life or the reputation of ’Misty Rain Tower,’ he is bound to come!"
the younger man replied.
The three men at the base of Feilai Peak were none other than Fang Bai, Ghost Hand, and Wen Shiba.
Fang Bai and Ghost Hand had shaken off the disciples of "Misty Rain Tower" in Jinling the day before and had traveled overnight to Suhang City, where Fang Bai infiltrated "Misty Rain Tower" and kidnapped Wen Shiba to this location.
Fang Bai had two main objectives in abducting Wen Shiba.
One was to coerce from him the names of the "Misty Rain Tower" disciples involved in the massacre at Myriad Medicine Valley.
The second was to use Wen Shiba to force Wen Xiangxin and others to meet the appointed time, thus allowing Ghost Hand to obtain retribution for the dead of his sect.
Wen Shiba was a proud man, also one with much backbone; ordinary means would hardly make him reveal anything.
But Fang Bai had his methods and techniques; he simply tapped a few times on Wen Shiba’s body with his fingers, after which Wen Shiba’s pride and spirit were crushed, quickly leading him to weepingly confess everything he knew.
With the names provided by Wen Shiba, Fang Bai challenged the "Misty Rain Tower" disciples who participated in the Myriad Medicine Valley slaughter to a confrontation.
Before issuing the challenge, Fang Bai specifically sought Ghost Hand’s opinion on whether he intended to retaliate with blood for blood, slaughtering all the "Misty Rain Tower" disciples, or only to hold accountable those directly involved in the massacre at Myriad Medicine Valley.
Ghost Hand was not a ruthless killer of the innocent; he only wished for the perpetrators of the massacre to pay for their crimes with their blood, without involving other "Misty Rain Tower" disciples.
When Ghost Hand made such a decision, Fang Bai nodded in approval.
What Fang Bai had been most concerned about before was that Ghost Hand would be consumed by hatred, lose his rationality, and engage in mass slaughter, which would certainly relieve his vendetta but would also hurt the way of Heaven and have a profound impact on his future cultivation, something Fang Bai did not wish to see.
At this moment, Ghost Hand’s ability to remain calm and in control showed that his mental cultivation was keeping pace with his increase in strength.
For martial artists undertaking cultivation, both mental state and physical prowess are equally important and mutually reinforcing; only when both are well-managed will the path of the Martial Dao proceed smoothly and shine with unlimited light.
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