Chapter 304: Depths of the Prison, Reunited Martial Brothers
After holding the position as Dawn Sect’s Sect Leader for such a long time, this was the first time that He Zhang had found himself completely at someone’s mercy. To make matters even worse, he had found himself stumbling to what he had always thought was an insignificant sprout of the younger generation.
As Jun Xiaomo stared down at him from on high, He Zhang felt the onset of a déjà vu. It brought his mind back to another incident that occurred years ago – back when he was competing in a Sect tournament for the rights to become the next Sect Leader, he had found himself beaten to the ground by his opponent, Jun Linxuan. Back then, he could sense that all looks of admiration had fallen upon Jun Linxuan, while he was simply laying on the ground like a family pet, receiving neither looks of respect nor looks of contempt.
It was a feeling of being completely ignored and glossed over.
He was unwilling. He couldn’t take it! He had a far better way with people than Jun Linxuan did, and he was better at negotiating the nuances of human relations. How could a single battle outweigh all these qualifications of his to be a Sect Leader?
Then, as though rubbing salt in his wounds, Jun Linxuan made the decision to relinquish the rights to become Sect Leader after defeating him in the competition.
In Jun Linxuan’s words at that time, he did not understand the nuances of politics between Sects, and he had concluded that his deficiencies in this rendered him unsuitable to be a good Sect leader. Thus, he was content relegating himself to a lifetime of being a Peakmaster.
Despite that, He Zhang was hardly grateful towards Jun Linxuan for ceding the opportunity to be a Sect Leader to him. In fact, he had always maintained that what Jun Linxuan had done had been a form of disrespect and humiliation to him! And what did the other Sects say about this? They whispered behind his back, alleging that he had not earned his rights to his title as Sect Leader, claiming that all of this was a mere gift from Jun Linxuan.
Whenever he thought about these things, He Zhang would never be able to suppress the rage swelling up in the depths of his heart, urging him on to tear Jun Linxuan to shreds!
Then, to make matters even worse, Jun Linxuan even went on to snatch the lady whom he had secretly been eyeing for the longest time – their martial sister Liu Qingmei. In fact, there was not even a single shred of indication they had been together, and the moment their relationship was open to all to know was the moment that they had announced their marriage to each other. He Zhang did not even get the chance to confess to Liu Qingmei!
How could He Zhang not be incensed by this?!
Thus, the fruit of their marriage, Jun Xiaomo, was a living proof that constantly reminded He Zhang of the fact that he had lost out time and again to Jun Linxuan. In turn, He Zhang had previously, time and again, devised and schemed against Jun Xiaomo in order to wipe her off the surface of this world.
In fact, he had thought that he had succeeded, and Jun Xiaomo had perished. Unfortunately, reality proved otherwise. A few hundred years ago, he was tripped up by Jun Linxuan; and a few hundred years after that incident, he was tripped up by Jun Linxuan’s daughter. What a tragicomedy!
Jun Xiaomo squinted her eyes and sized up the expressions on He Zhang’s face. As she slowly watched how his expressions of extreme hatred slowly transformed into a look of complete despondence, she slowly chirped, “Martial uncle He, actually, you shouldn’t hate me. The person you should hate the most is yourself, since it’s your greed that has landed you in your current state. If not for the fact that you’d forced the Heavenly Peak to a corner, and if not for the fact that you’d been eyeing my mother all this time, I might have looked the other way on account for the fact that you’re my martial uncle. But now, I’m sorry, I won’t even let you have the reprieve of an easy death.”
As Jun Xiaomo drew near the end of her spiel, her lips curled up into a vicious smile.
On the other hand, He Zhang’s eyes widened instantly as he stared at Jun Xiaomo with disbelief, “You know about me intentions towards Qingmei…”
“Shh. Don’t say my mother’s name. You’re not worthy!” Jun Xiaomo spoke with a distinct displeasure in her voice, “Your version of ‘love’ that says that nobody can have it if you can’t have it is not love at all. It’s plain, unbridled selfishness!”
Jun Xiaomo retrieved the whip from her Interspatial Ring and lashed it out viciously towards the ground twice as she added with a soft and light tone, “What do I do now? Whenever I think about the kind of nauseating intentions that you harbor against my mother, I can’t resist the urge to incapacitate you. Even if you’re my martial uncle, I don’t think I have any modicum of respect left for you.”
Dressed in striking-red, and with a vicious smile plastered all over her face, Jun Xiaomo’s eyes were filled with frigid intent as she slowly shifted her gaze down from He Zhang’s face, sliding slowly down his body until she finally stopped at a certain place…
In her previous life, after He Zhang had murdered her father Jun Linxuan, he had used precisely those parts to humiliate and tarnish her mother’s body. Even though several hundreds of years had passed by now, the bloody sight of that incident was still deeply etched in the depths of her mind. Nothing she did could erase that horrific memory of hers.
Since that’s the case, it might be good to have some finality in this regard!
Jun Xiaomo was incredibly decisive – she raised her hand and immediately sent her whip lashing down. In the very next moment, He Zhang shrieked with a tragic howl as a pool of blood began to seep out from the lower part of his body.
He had already discovered the strange gaze in Jun Xiaomo’s eyes, and the thought of dodging aside had already occurred to him. However, what he did not expect was how deep and profound Jun Xiaomo’s abilities were. In that instant, he realized that he had been immobilized, and he could only lay there stiffly on the floor, completely subject to Jun Xiaomo’s mercy.
Right now, could He Zhang still be called a man? He did not even possess the pride and crown jewels of men any longer!
He Zhang’s hatred towards Jun Xiaomo had just reached new, unprecedented heights, exceeding even his hatred towards Jun Linxuan.
Is this father-daughter duo a curse to my existence?! Why am I always forced into such a plight whenever I encounter these two people?!
The excruciating pain accompanying such brutal incapacitation was not something that normal men would be able to withstand. He Zhang curled up into a ball. Within moments, the electrifying pain spread throughout every bit of his entire body and numbed his brain. In that instant, He Zhang found himself unable to repress that horrific sensation or distract his mind with other thoughts.
Jun Xiaomo smiled as she slowly quipped, “Martial uncle He, don’t blame me. If I don’t do this, you’ll continue to harbour ill intentions towards my mother. This is for the better. I can finally set my heart at ease at this instant.”
The pain was getting so bad that He Zhang’s eyes were bloodshot and bulging out of his sockets. It was an appalling sight.
The bulging veins on his forehead throbbed uncontrollably as he gnashed his teeth in retort, “Jun Xiaomo, don’t be so pleased with yourself. Do you think you’ll be able to leave the Dawn Sect on your own accord? I’ve already informed Qin Lingyu and the rest. Once you leave this place, you’ll be completely surrounded and destroyed by the rest who are waiting for you outside!”
He Zhang knew that Jun Xiaomo was never going to let him go. In fact, he knew that there was a high likelihood that this was the end of his road. Since that was the case, he was determined to do anything and everything within his capacity to drag his nemesis down to hell with him!
Yet Jun Xiaomo simply chuckled coldly, “Martial uncle He doesn’t have to worry about that much. I’ve made my own arrangements in this regard. As for your life…hah, don’t worry. Before the Dawn Sect crumbles and falls into the annals of history, I can’t bear to see you pass on just like that either. Wouldn’t it be better to let you witness the downfall of the Sect with your very own eyes? I’ve already arranged for a far better ending to this story than you could ever have imagined.”
He Zhang had chuckled coldly at Jun Xiaomo in a similar fashion. However, his face appeared absolutely contorted and twisted due to the pain he was suffering from.
He gritted his teeth and spasmed on the ground from time to time as he exclaimed in his heart – As expected, Jun Xiaomo’s far too naïve. Her hesitation to take my life is going to be her downfall. This is for the best. As soon as Qin Lingyu and the others come in to rescue me, I’ll be completely safe from harm.
He was determined to rise from the ashes again!
Jun Xiaomo glanced at He Zhang curiously, and a mischievous smiled crept up the corner of her lips. However, He Zhang did not notice this. If he did, he would never have been under the impression that Jun Xiaomo had not thought to kill him because of the benevolence of her heart.
Jun Xiaomo was now able to control and manipulate the entire forbidden grounds through the master formation array she had just taken over. In fact, she could even alter and repurpose the formation arrays within the forbidden grounds.
He Zhang was already a spent force by now, so Jun Xiaomo was not too concerned that he would be able to play any cards up his sleeves within the near future. Thus, she knew that her most pressing need at this moment was to locate her martial brother Ye, and then direct him to be reunited with Chen Feiyu and the rest.
Jun Xiaomo retrieved from her Interspatial Ring a formation diagram for tracking people down and connected it together with the heart of the master formation array. Then, she retrieved some items that possessed lingering traces of Ye Xiuwen’s aura with it, such as the teacups that he had previously used, and set them onto the formation diagram.
Finally, she began to suffuse her demonic energy through the formation diagram. As she began to do so, the formation diagram began to float and hover in mid-air, where it projected a holographic image of the forbidden grounds on the ground below.
He Zhang was slightly taken aback. Then, fighting through the pain still lingering in his body, he began to cackle wildly in delight, “Who would’ve thought; who would’ve thought! Jun Linxuan has always been an upstanding and righteous man, yet his very own daughter is nothing more than a demonic cultivator! I’d been wondering why there was no apparent effects even after the incursion of demonic energy into your body. To think that this was all because you’ve already embraced the power and become a fully fledged demonic cultivator! Hahahaha…”
Jun Xiaomo glanced back at He Zhang silently with a faint, cold smile on her lips.
It was simply a person on the brink of death making noise right now, and there was no need for her to get angry or upset about anything he was saying.
Thus, Jun Xiaomo focused all of her attention on locating Ye Xiuwen.
On the other end of the forbidden grounds, Ye Xiuwen was barely hanging on by a thread. Even though he had been baptized by the endless battles against the powerful demonic creatures within the Death’s Gorge, no amount of experience could make up for the relentless wearing down in a battle of attrition where waves after waves of demonic creatures kept coming at him in sheer numbers.
Over the last several hundred years that he had been a Sect Leader, He Zhang had transformed the entire forbidden grounds into a gathering ground for demonic creatures. Almost all of the demonic creatures were at least in the Golden Core stage of cultivation, and there were some that had even attained the advanced-tier Nascent Soul stage of cultivation.
Furthermore, it had to be mentioned that the combat abilities of demonic creatures were second to none. If a demonic creature battled with cultivators at the same cultivation level, the cultivators would invariably lose out in terms of combat abilities to these demonic creatures. If not for the fact that Ye Xiuwen had slightly over a decade’s worth of experience dealing with powerful demonic creatures, he would very well have perished under the claws of these demonic creatures a while ago.
And now, he was already drawing on the last bits of his strength.
Just as Ye Xiuwen found himself on the brink of succumbing to the relentless waves of attacks, a familiar whirlpool suddenly appeared underfoot.
Back then, it was also this whirlpool that had brought him here to this place.
Before Ye Xiuwen could even react to the situation, the whirlpool had already consumed his entire being. At the same time, having noticed how their prey had vanished like that, the demonic creatures standing around immediately stared at where Ye Xiuwen was just moments ago and roared in fury.
Unfortunately, no matter how much they cried out in anguish, nothing was bringing back their prey to them.
In the blink of an eye, Ye Xiuwen found himself expelled by the whirlpool at yet another location.
Having experienced this already once, Ye Xiuwen managed to collect himself very quickly as he glanced nervously at his surroundings once more.
He discovered that he had just arrived at a place that appeared like a prison. He stood on a path that seem to stretch on endlessly, while both sides of the path were surrounded by cells enclosed by bars.
Ye Xiuwen consumed some recovery pills before making his way into the depths of the prison – his intuition told him that the Heavenly Peak disciples ought to be held within this place.
The amount of recovery pills in his Interspatial Ring was running low. He knew that he had to locate the Heavenly Peak disciples as soon as possible and bring them away from this place.
As expected, the moment he neared the end of the prison cells, he could see “Chen Feiyu” and his other Heavenly Peak martial brothers being hung on hooks extending from the prison walls.
“Martial brother Chen!” Ye Xiuwen immediately ran towards the prison cell. However, just then, he felt a person grabbing his arm.
“Who is it?!” Ye Xiuwen found it strange that he had not discovered the existence of any other person within the prison cells despite his divine sense that was actively probing about at his surroundings. Thus, it was evident that this person had concealed both his appearance was well as his aura.
Chen Feiyu tore off the Invisibility Talisman on his body and he looked in surprise and delight at Ye Xiuwen as he cried out with some measure of disbelief, “Martial brother Ye?!”
Ye Xiuwen was taken aback – There’s another martial brother Chen in the prison cell?