The abbot made his decision. Gritting his teeth, he let out a cold laugh. “That’s right! I’m Zhu Lengquan from Bixia Sect! The current Sect Leader Zhao is my shizhi.21 If you have any relationship with Bixia Sect, please let me and my disciple go. I’ll be sure to ask the sect leader to express our gratitude someday!”
Xiao Se burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, but we must disappoint you. We don’t have any dealings with Bixia Sect. Furthermore, you’ll bear a grudge for what happened today regardless. So why don’t we settle this matter a little more absolutely, to avoid future issues?”
Right as he finished, Yan Shou slammed his palm down onto Chuyi’s head.
Blood streamed from Chuyi’s mouth and nose. He didn’t even have time to make any noise—he simply fell to the ground without a sound.
“Chuyi!” The abbot’s eyes bulged as grief ripped his heart in two. Unthinking, he lunged at Yan Shou with his sword.
Yan Shou didn’t move—Xiao Se did.
Xiao Se spread his fan, and the blades tucked against its ribs sprang forth, gleaming with a shiver-inducing cold light. With a flick of his wrist, the folding fan itself flew at the abbot, circling him as if it had a mind of its own.
Seized with heartrending grief, the abbot’s level of swordplay surged to new heights. Back during his days at Bixia Sect, everyone had thought that his aptitude was mediocre, and he’d done nothing to disabuse them of the notion. Instead, he spent his days loafing around. That was why he’d never mastered the last few moves of “Nineteen Moves of the Eastern Mountains,” nor could he ever satisfy his master and elders.
But if Bixia Sect’s previous generation could see his swordplay now, they’d be completely astonished.
This didn’t look at all like someone with mediocre aptitude!
His sword glare spilled forth relentlessly, the blade undulating with a dazzling light. The sight of it would have had Chuyi yelling and cheering, going, “Shifu, I’ve never seen you look so majestic!”
But Chuyi was dead.
He’d never speak again, never bother anyone again, never loaf around and slack off ever again.
The abbot’s eyes were bloodshot. Every swing of his blade brimmed with icy, murderous intent.
But even before his sword glare could pierce through the blades of Xiao Se’s fan, it was knocked away.
One moment of carelessness later, the fan’s blades sliced a long gash into the abbot’s wrist, and he involuntarily loosened his grip.
The sword fell to the ground with a clang.
As Xiao Se withdrew his hand, he jabbed his elbow into the other man’s chest. Then, when the abbot stumbled backward, Xiao Se grabbed his shoulder and yanked him forward again. In an instant, he’d sealed three major acupoints on his chest, and the abbot collapsed into a kneel, unable to move.
“You’ve already seen it—this isn’t an empty bluff. Your disciple is already dead. Surely you don’t want to follow him, hm?” Xiao Se was smiling brightly. “Just how charismatic is Shen Qiao that you’re willing to risk your life to hide him?”
The abbot spat a mouthful of foamy blood at him. “Pah! What Shen Qiao, I already said I don’t know him! Can you not understand human language?”
Xiao Se’s smile faded. He pulled a handkerchief out of his sleeve and wiped the bloody foam from his face. Then, quick as lightning, he sliced off the abbot’s left ear.
With his mute acupoint struck, the abbot couldn’t even scream. He could only open his mouth and glare desperately at Xiao Se with rounded eyes.
Xiao Se squatted so that their gazes were level. “You’ve already had a taste of what Hehuan Sect is willing to do. Is Shen Qiao really worth throwing your life away like this? If you tell us his whereabouts, we’ll let you live. It’ll benefit all of us.”
He waited a long while before unsealing the abbot’s mute acupoint.
The abbot panted, his breath shuddering. Blood still dribbled from where his ear had been. He was in a wretched state, almost too awful to behold.
“I’ve already said…I don’t know any Shen Qiao!”
“Xiao-shixiong, why waste your words on him?” Bai Rong cut in, smiling. “If he’s trying to hide someone, he must be hiding him inside the monastery. Why don’t we simply search the place?”
Then, to Yan Shou, she said, “No need to trouble Elder Yan for this. Xiao-shixiong and I will look.”
Yan Shou neither spoke nor moved, giving her his tacit approval.
Bai Rong first went into the room the abbot had exited earlier. After a moment, she came out and said, “I didn’t see any mechanisms inside. I’m certain they didn’t hide him there.”
Xiao Se searched several other locations and found nothing either.
The monastery might have been dilapidated and falling apart, but the one point in its favor was its sheer size. It’d take quite some time to find someone who’d hidden themselves in one of its many crannies, even without considering that most old monasteries came with concealed escape tunnels.
Yan Shou grew tired of wasting time. “I’ll give you a quarter of an hour,” he said. “Tell us by then, or die.”
The abbot said nothing.
A quarter of an hour passed quickly. Bai Rong and Xiao Se returned one after the other, both saying they’d found nothing.
Xiao Se glanced askance at Bai Rong. “Bai-shimei, you searched quite a few places. Did you perhaps see something but deliberately said you didn’t? I remember you had quite the relationship with Shen Qiao.”
Bai Rong didn’t get angry—she even laughed. “What a strange thing for Xiao-shixiong to say! What relationship could I even have with Shen Qiao? If a fight constitutes a relationship, then Xiao-shixiong has quite the relationship with Shen Qiao too, no?”
“You…”