Published: August 15, 2025
Chapter 80: Encounter with the Enemy
This command token was a personal token of Sect Master Wang. Whoever held it could temporarily issue orders to disciples below the rank of elder. This fat man was Sect Master Wang’s close confidant, reportedly a relatively close cousin. So if Sect Master Wang had any messages or orders, they were always delivered through this man.
Not long ago, Sect Master Wang hastily granted this fat man the token and sent him here to summon Elder Li up the mountain for a meeting. But after delivering the order, the fat man felt it was too exhausting to go back immediately after coming down from Sunset Peak. Relying on his favor, he insisted on staying at the Li Residence to rest for a while before returning to the peak.
Elder Li had no choice but to agree, but he didn’t dare to slack off himself. He hurriedly took Zhang Xiu'er and several other disciples and rushed up to Sunset Peak.
Not long after, a major upheaval occurred on the mountain. This fat man was extremely timid and naturally even less willing to return alone.
The people in the courtyard were family members of the wild wolf gang from the nearby Seven Mysteries Sect. Most of them didn’t know any martial arts. When the chaos broke out, they panicked, not knowing what to do.
Fortunately, Ma Rong showed good judgment. He quickly requested help from the more than twenty subordinates left behind by Li Feiyu. He gathered these people together and kept them contained to prevent them from running wildly in the dark and encountering unexpected danger.
Because this place was relatively remote, built in a mountain valley, although alarms and shouts of killing were heard, the people inside had no understanding of the specific situation outside.
After finishing these tasks, Ma Rong planned to send some people out to gather intelligence. At this moment, the fat man, who knew nothing about martial arts, appeared again. Not only did he stop the reconnaissance, he used the command token to immediately seize Ma Rong’s command over the Outer Blade Hall disciples and intended to hole up here, foolishly pretending nothing was happening.
Ma Rong understood the importance of knowing the enemy’s situation and argued with the cowardly fat man several times. But this fat man, terrified of death, suppressed him with Sect Master Wang’s token. He even forbade Ma Rong from personally investigating, apparently treating Ma Rong as just another tool to protect his own life.
So Ma Rong paced anxiously in the hall like an ant on a hot pan, utterly helpless against this ignorant fat man. In the Seven Mysteries Sect, disobeying orders and acting on one’s own was a grave offense—at best martial arts would be stripped and one would be expelled, at worst one might be executed by blade. Knowing that something earth-shaking was happening outside and that the sect might be at a life-or-death moment, he was still forced to do nothing here.
Just as Ma Rong wished he could palm this so-called superior to death, Han Li and Li Feiyu were unaware of everything happening here, rushing here at full speed.
Along the way, they encountered signs of the enemy. They avoided where they could, dodged where possible, trying their best to conceal their movements. Only when they were just over a mile from Elder Li’s residence did they run into a group of men in blue. Unable to hide anymore, they finally came into their first direct confrontation with the enemy.
Now, more than a dozen men in blue wielding steel knives surrounded them from all sides, trapping them in the center.
From their walking styles, most who had a single white line embroidered on their sleeves were the weakest in martial arts; the two men with two white lines were much stronger; but the strongest was the scarred man with three white lines on his sleeve. He was obviously the leader of the group.
The scarred man leading them carefully examined the few people his men had surrounded and felt somewhat puzzled.
It was understandable. Among these people, Li Feiyu was now disheveled, dirty, and ragged, looking like a mountain cook; Han Li’s eyes were dull and his skin darkened, resembling a farmer with no martial arts; the only one who could exert pressure was the tall figure wearing a bamboo hat, bloodstained—Quhun.