Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 697 - 692: Laying the Foundation II

Chapter 697: Chapter 692: Laying the Foundation II

The hall was utterly silent, and Wu Daojiu’s gaping mouth remained agape.

The other servants off to the side, along with several men and women who appeared to be guests, all looked shocked, as if they had not yet grasped the turn of events.

Xu Jin was ready to take a life at the slightest disagreement; that palm strike, if it had hit an ordinary person, would surely have resulted in urinary bleeding to death.

A trace of ferocity flickered in Lin Xin’s eyes, and he was about to make a move to end the man’s life completely.

But upon further thought, he realized that the image he needed to establish on this journey was that of a noble figure of the Righteous Path. If he acted too ruthlessly, it might affect his plan. He also needed to consider how the people present would spread word of his reputation.

With this in mind, he suppressed the urge to annihilate his adversary.

"It seems that this place indeed does not welcome the likes of me; I shall take my leave," he said.

He turned and walked away at a leisurely pace.

With one step, though appearing slow, he crossed over ten meters in an instant, appearing directly in the courtyard.

Wu Daojiu and the others then realized they had truly encountered a master.

Wu Daojiu felt some regret in his heart and silently cursed Xu Jin for acting rashly and throwing the situation into chaos.

But, out of face, he had no choice but to stand by Xu Jin’s side after all, as he was also standing up for himself.

As he was about to order the capture of the stranger, he had not expected the Taoist to step forward from the courtyard and, in the blink of an eye, disappear out the door, his voice no longer audible.

"Younger brother! Are you alright!?" Wu Daojiu asked, his heart trembling with the relief that the other party, apparently a man of the Righteous Path, had not acted violently.

Quickly feigning urgency, Wu Daojiu rose to examine Xu Jin’s injuries.

But a broken wrist was almost akin to a ruined future for someone who practiced martial arts.

"Someone, come! Quickly go and capture that Taoist for me!" he shouted.

In fact, Wu Daojiu was less concerned about his brother’s future and more regretful that he had not managed to form a good relationship with the Taoist.

However, since his brother’s wrist had been severed, he still needed to put on a show of concern.

Xu Jin clutched his wrist and wailed, and the whole hall fell silent. No one had seen clearly how the man had struck.

A few of the guests were well-known figures from the city, and they exchanged glances before, one by one, taking their leave.

Forgoing how Wu Daojiu hurriedly sought a doctor, let’s talk about Lin Xin’s clever move.

The guests who had witnessed the event firsthand began to gradually spread the name of the Red Flower Taoist.

Wu Daojiu, the city’s top tyrant, had just been bested in his own home by a wandering Taoist, and word of it quickly spread.

The name of the Red Flower Taoist thus began to circulate slowly throughout the small city.

Yet, in the end, Suzhou was still a place with many martial artists. Even more varied were the legends of Jianghu.

Ordinary folk often relayed rumors, such as sightings of extraordinary experts and their feats.

Most considered the tales of the Red Flower Taoist to be just Jianghu gossip, merely fodder for casual conversation after meals, and expected it would soon die down.

The hottest topic of conversation remained the capture of another criminal by Phoenix Hall and the resolution of the assassination attempt on the Imperial Court official Song Li.

Phoenix Hall had always stood in opposition to the Imperial Court, striving to overthrow the current dynasty and restore the former. Incidents sparked by their movement were frequent.

Though the dynasty had been established for over a hundred years, whispers of unrest still occasionally surfaced.

******************

In a dilapidated temple outside Suzhou.

The night was deep, and a group of men and women, dressed in sumptuous but now somewhat disheveled and dirty clothes, sat around a campfire.

Yao Yuanhui toyed with a gold ingot in her hand, her mind still on the bizarre spectacle of the ingot squeezing out of what seemed like a toy door earlier.

She had told her father and brothers, but they simply wouldn’t believe her.

After the deputy leader of the hall failed to assassinate the Tartar Emperor, they, who had secretly exerted efforts, had to flee their homes to avoid being executed along with their entire families.

On their flight from the Capital City to their current location in Suzhou, they had endured untold hardships.

From a life of luxury, Yao Yuanhui had fallen from her high perch to become a phoenix in ruin.

She couldn’t help feeling resentful, but when she thought of the greater suffering endured by her father and brothers, her heart was filled with more sorrow and compassion.

"But this gold really wasn’t hoarded by me," she thought to herself, feeling aggrieved, "it came from squeezing through that tiny door."

Now branded as felons by the Imperial Court and pursued throughout the land, they had long since run out of silver coins. The timing of the gold ingot was fortunate, alleviating their immediate financial distress.

Yet she had been unfairly reprimanded by her father and brothers, accused of hiding the gold they previously possessed.

"Eat, eat," a middle-aged man quickly urged, removing a pot of meat soup from the fire and starting to distribute it to everyone with wooden bowls.

"After eating, we must leave right away. The Divine Hunter Duan Tianya might not be far behind," he said.

"Father, the short man who exchanged palm strikes with you the night before last, did you see who he was?" a young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes asked in a deep voice.

"I didn’t see clearly. There were too many pursuing us. At least ten groups from the Green Forest came at us, and that short man was most likely Dugu Lin, a mighty practitioner of the Iron Sand Palm from the Jiuyuan Sect. Only his Iron Sand Palm, having reached Great Achievement, could stand against my own Soul-Dropping Hand," the middle-aged man replied with a wry smile.

"It’s just unfortunate... my final sword strike couldn’t take that short man’s life," a stoic-faced man interjected.

"Wang Jin, you’re too modest. If it weren’t for you coming to our aid, my entire family would likely have been doomed," Yao Shunlin, known in Jianghu as the practitioner of the Soul-Dropping Hand and also Yao Yuanhui’s father, said with a cupped-fist salute.

"Yao, your family has sacrificed so much for our cause, and as long as you don’t blame us for arriving late, that is enough," Wang Jin, a Third Grade expert from Phoenix Hall, said with a look of regret.

When they arrived, the Yao Family residence was already a river of blood; with the Government and Imperial Court offering hefty rewards, the up-and-down ranks of the Yao Family, numbering over a hundred people, were slaughtered, with only these three managing to escape. The rest were brutally killed.

At the mention of this, the Yao family of three all wore somber expressions, and the heroes around them offered words of comfort one after another.

But the more they talked, the more oppressive the atmosphere became.

"Thanks to all the brothers for coming to support us in justice, let’s not talk about this for now. Let’s hurry up and eat, we have to hit the road again after we finish."

Yao Shunlin picked up the meat soup and gestured to everyone.

"Master Yao, we share your sorrow." All the great masters raised their bowls, as everyone was a brother or a sister in the hall, and there was no need for any polite niceties.

"Stop!!"

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman dressed in strong warrior attire shouted loudly.

"Sun Siniang, you...?"

Everyone holding the meat soup looked puzzledly at the woman.

"If we drink this soup, I’m afraid we won’t make it out of this ruined temple within ten breaths."

Sun Siniang slammed the meat soup onto the ground with a crash, and stood up as she sharply drew the twin sabers from her waist.

"The guests outside, it’s about time for you to show yourselves, right?"

She stared icily towards the outside of the temple, where the overgrown grass lay.

Everyone was startled, and those with more experience sniffed their bowls, immediately sensing something was off.

Thump, thump, thump...

All the wooden bowls were smashed onto the ground one after another, as everyone stood up and drew their weapons.

"Damn it, what kind of trashy Sheriffs! As expected of the Imperial Court’s dogs! Such despicable tricks are also coming into play!"

A man cursed loudly.

"Hahaha! I said we should have dealt with this head-on, but you just wouldn’t believe it. And it wasn’t me who gave the order to act."

A long-haired man, wearing a silver iron mask and dressed in red sheriff’s attire, along with a group of others dressed in black, appeared outside the temple gate.

Surrounding the temple, the faint sound of numerous footsteps could be heard, as an unknown number of people had surrounded the place.

Somehow, they had managed to encircle the area so tightly that there was no escape.

"Divine Sheriff Duan Tianya!"

Yao Shunlin uttered each word firmly, staring intently at the other party.

Duan Tianya had profound cultivation, mastered the Swing Hook technique, which was unpredictable in both offense and defense, and had an air of a grandmaster about him. Yao Shunlin knew very well after a quick exchange of blows the last time they met, that even if he and Wang Jin joined forces, they would not be sure to defeat him.

Not to mention the many hounds of the Imperial Court surrounding them, including many powerful figures from Jianghu who were retainers of the Government.

"I never expected that we’d still be intercepted by them," Yao Shunlin said, his face turning grim as he moved his lips in a whisper. "Qing’er, take your sister and make a run for it. Break through from the back; I’ll hold them off!"

"But...!"

"Go! Use Earth Fire bombs as cover!! Brother Wang, may I ask for your help in protecting Qing’er and Hui’er?"

Wang Jin’s eyes filled with determination, knowing Yao Shunlin had resigned himself to death. He stuttered with his lips and then nodded firmly.

"You have my word!"

"Master Yao, your talents are admired by the Emperor himself, who specially ordered me to come and ’borrow’ your head for a moment!"

The Divine Sheriff chuckled darkly, and as the word ’borrow’ fell from his lips,

Swish, swish, swish, swish!

In an instant, a barrage of arrows was unleashed. Hundreds of crossbowmen outside the ruined temple fired their arrows.

The continuous sound of trigger mechanisms snapped into action.

Clang, clang, clang...

The windows and doors around the dilapidated temple were pierced by arrows and bolts, with heads flying like locusts through the air, densely shooting towards the people inside.

"Kill!"

The heroes in the temple were also men of valor. Having chosen to come to the rescue of Yao Shunlin and his family, most of them had already dismissed their own lives as secondary.

With this volley of arrows, three or four men fell, but the rest, being valiant and righteous, cast their lives behind them and dodged the incoming arrows, trying to storm toward the formation of crossbowmen.

Yao Yuanhui, held tightly by her elder brother, retreated backward while crying out loudly for her father.

"Stop crying! Father told us to go first; he will come back to meet with us later." Her elder brother Yao Qing consoled her.

Wang Jin was also feeling sorrowful beside them.

Suddenly, more arrows came shooting from the side.

Clang, clang, clang...

With his Longsword in hand, Wang Jin’s silver Sword Light rolled out, blocking every incoming arrow within a meter from him, a testament to the strength of his swordsmanship.

Together with two comrades-in-arms who were breaking through with him, and the two siblings, they made their way around the Buddha statue and rushed out through a gap in the earth wall at the back.

Already waiting there were three formidable fighters in various attire.

"Wang Jin! Heh, today you’ll meet your end without a grave to be buried in!" A short, elderly man with a shrill voice shouted fiercely.

"You again! And the Red Ghost couple!" Wang Jin’s expression changed; any one of these three was not his match, but to take on the three of them at once would mean certain defeat.

"Go!" He pushed Yao Qing, then with a powerful palm, he safely pushed the two siblings out more than ten meters.

Yao Qing managed to land steadily on his feet.

"Uncle Wang! Let’s go together!!" Yao Qing shouted back, eyes brimming with tears.

"Run! I’ll find you later!" Wang Jin didn’t have time to talk, as he engaged the trio of powerful enemies with his swirling Sword Light.

Yao Qing clenched his teeth, his blood boiling with the desire to fight to the death, yet he ultimately suppressed the impulse, picked up his sister, and ran.

The two disappeared into the thick undergrowth in a moment, unaware that not far away a man was leading several wolfhounds, smiling viciously as he watched their retreating figures.