The vast, decaying hall of the old temple fell into an absolute, chilling silence. Every single person present—the assembled martial artists of the Central Plains and the rigid members of the Seventy-Two Islands alike—had their gaze locked onto the Chief leader of Seventy-Two Islands.
The collective stare was an enormous, physical weight. The martial artists' eyes burned with a mixture of desperate hatred and tense anticipation, silently daring him to make a move that would break the fragile peace. The Islander members, conversely, watched their leader with an expression of cold, loyal deference, ready to leap into chaos at his slightest command.
The only sound in the oppressive stillness was the passing wind, which whistled faintly through the broken rafters and cracked windows, a mournful sound underscoring the lethal confrontation. It was the silence before the hurricane, every muscle in the room coiled and waiting.
The Chief Leader of the Seventy-Two Islands slowly reached up and took off the mask covering his face. The moment the mask fell to the ground, a collective, sharp gasp erupted from the martial artists inside the old temple. The face revealed was no other than Fu Yuanjun.
Fu Yuanjun smiled, a chilling expression of triumph and scorn, and looked directly at Bazar Batu. "Tsk... tsk... tsk... little Mongol man, you are really smart."
Bazar Batu, his expression sharp and focused, pressed his deduction. "I still don't understand how you poisoned me, because I clearly saw that you were walking away from me."
A new, unexpected voice cut in. Wang Biming stepped forward, looking at Bazar Batu with cold frankness. "I poisoned you. I gave you the wrong poison by mistake."
Yong Taihua shouted, his voice thick with raw anger and grief. "Which of you killed Dandan?!"
Wang Biming accepted the terrible burden with chilling ease. "I killed both of them."
Yong Taihua demanded the motivation behind the senseless violence. "Why?"
Wang Biming looked directly at Mu Dishi, her face contorted by a wounded possessiveness. "Because Ma Jingguo snatched Dishi away from me, I want him to die."
Fu Yuanjun started to intervene. "Biming..."
Wang Biming cut him off with a sharp glare. "Don't talk." He looked at the assembled martial artists, his gaze dripping with contempt. "Killing Chen guniang and Lui gongzi, I don't have to fight Ma Jingguo; everyone else will do it for me." He turned to Ma Jingguo. "You are as stupid as these martial artists. Everyone fell into my trap. I was the one who killed Wen Huifang. You were so angry with everyone else. You also took over Mangsha Sect and deepened your misunderstandings with them. It was me who sent the coffins to Sword Village and Sunset Sect."
Li Kong Bai stepped forward, his face pale with horror. "So, you confess your guilt?"
Wang Biming offered a slight nod. "Yes..."
Bazar Batu, though reeling from the truth, pressed for the full scope of the conspiracy. "Then how many downfalls did you cause?"
Wang Biming sneered. "That has nothing to do with you."
Bazar Batu recalled his earlier conversation with the imposter. "I remember Fu Yuanjun told me that he was the downfall of many people, and every downfall was nothing more than a pile of corpses."
Fu Yuanjun interjected, his voice firm and cold. "He doesn't need to answer you that question." He looked at the terrified martial artists. "I hope everyone will obey us, and those who disobey will be put to death." He smiled, a truly malicious expression. "I'm not Xin Taiyang, who kindly caged you like dogs."
Suddenly, a wave of sickness swept through the crowd. Many martial artists began to vomit thick, dark blood. They coughed violently, clutching their throats before collapsing to the ground.
Li Kong Bai gasped out, staring in disbelief at the conspirator. "Fu Yuanjun, what did you poison us with?!"
Xue Horan grabbed tightly onto Yongzheng's left sleeve, his body trembling. "Yongzheng... I'm not feeling well." He coughed, and blood spat from his lips, staining the stone floor.
Fu Yuanjun smiled at the horrific sight, singling out Yongzheng with casual cruelty. "Number one, you'd better transfer your internal energy and save his life quickly, otherwise he will die within an hour!"
Rao Zhengsheng suddenly coughed and vomited blood. Gu Yingjie acted instantly, sitting behind Rao Zhengsheng and urgently passing his internal energy to stabilize him. Yan Zhanjin also fell to the ground, coughing up blood.
Bazar Batu rushed over, his face pale with alarm. "Zhanjin... Lok gege, quickly help him!"
Across the courtyard, Yong Caixia suddenly collapsed. Yong Taihua grabbed her before she hit the ground. "Caixia..."
Yong Caixia weakly whispered, "Ge..."
Cao Wenyan hurried to Cao Yanmei's side and checked her pulse, finding no immediate signs of poison. "Are you okay?" he asked urgently.
Cao Yanmei looked confused but unharmed. "I'm fine."
Bazar Batu, noticing that she was unaffected while his friends were dying, looked around at the other martial artists who were only exhausted. His friends were the hardest hit. "Except for us, you are not poisoned. How?" he demanded.
Cao Yanmei shook her head. "I don't know."
Bazar Batu pressed her. "Think..."
Cao Yanmei recalled, "After you went out to save Mu Dishi... we had dinner and pears."
Cao Wenyan's eyes widened in realization. "You didn't eat the pear, that's why you weren't poisoned!"
Bazar Batu asked, skeptical. "How do you know?"
Cao Wenyan replied simply, "She doesn't like to eat fruit."
Bazar Batu quickly focused his interrogation. "Cao guniang, who brought the pears?"
Cao Yanmei said, "I don't know."
A new, cold voice cut through the chaos. Wu On walked into the hall. "It's not the pear; it's the morning congee!"
Cao Wenyan stared at the newcomer. "How do you know?"
Wu On merely smiled and walked directly to Fu Yuanjun. "Number Two, everything is ready."
Fu Yuanjun asked, his voice low. "Where are the old guard and his master?"
Wu On reported. "The old guard died to protect his master. As for his master, she is heavily guarded, no different from these people here."
Fu Yuanjun gave a rare instruction, tinged with a strange sympathy. "In any case, treat her fairly. After all, she is a woman who has been treated badly in the hands of a bad man."
Suddenly, Gu Xiaowen cried out in agony and rolled on the ground. Gu Tingfang looked at Fu Yuanjun, his expression chillingly fierce. "Fu Yuanjun, if something happens to him, I will kill you myself!"
Fu Yuanjun looked at the suffering man with a cruel sense of superiority. "Let the mother meet the son before he dies. Gu gongzi, you are more fortunate than me. I was not as fortunate as you to be able to see my mother before she died."
Si Pangfua rushed into the yard and went straight to Gu Xiaowen. She helped him sit up, her own distress overwhelming. "Xiao'er, hang in there."
Fu Yuanjun's expression softened slightly, a flicker of genuine feeling in his eyes. "Gu furen, I'm not a heartless person. Seeing you reminds me of my own mother. I will give you a way to save your son."
Si Pangfua pleaded desperately. "What can I do? Tell me!"
Miao Mingzhu stepped forward, her face twisted in a mocking frown. "To save him, you need the blood of a male relative from the father's side." She looked pointedly at Gu Tingfang, then shook her head with false pity. "But Chief Gu seems to be poisoned too. How pitiful. You must witness the death of your two sons with your own eyes. I truly feel sorry for you."
Si Pangfua cried out, her resolve solidifying through her tears. "Xiao'er, I will not let you die. I was not able to save Guo'er, but today, no matter what the outcome is, I will save you!"
Gu Tingfang, his face drawn with poison, managed to command, "Yingjie, save him!"
Si Pangfua's grief turned into cold fury, directed at her husband. "Gu Tingfang, the blood of your bastard son can only save you, not my son!"
Gu Tingfang stared at her, rage mixing with confusion. "What do you mean?!"
Si Pangfua looked at him with chilling contempt. "You heard clearly. I don't have to repeat it." She pulled a small dagger from her waist and walked straight to Cao Wenyan. Her eyes were pleading. "Cao gongzi, please use your blood to save my son."
Cao Wenyan backed up slightly. "Gu furen, only the blood of his father's male relatives can save him."
Si Pangfua stepped closer, delivering the stunning truth. "That's why I came to you, because the blood in him is the same as yours."
The martial artists in the yard were stunned into a frozen silence.
"What's going on?" "In other words, Gu gongzi is not Chief Gu's son?" "What about Gu er gongzi? Is he Chief Gu's son?"
Gu Tingfang's lips trembled in disbelief and pain. "What are you doing?!"
Si Pangfua ignored him, repeating her urgent request to Cao Wenyan. "Cao gongzi, please save my son."
Fu Yuanjun smiled, enjoying the public humiliation. "Cao gongzi, maybe your blood can help him escape death."
Nun Chingmei spoke up, her voice cutting and judgmental. "Chief Cao was a womanizer when he was young. Who knows how many women he impregnated? No wonder, Cao furen decided to become a nun!"
Cao Wenyan, who was aware of his father's infamous love affairs, sighed, accepting the shameful reality. He knew the nun was right; his poor mother had left the household to find peace because of her mistreatment.
Cao Wenyan nodded to his sister. "Yanmei, bring me a cup."
Cao Yanmei rushed into the room, grabbed a broken bowl, and handed it to her brother. Cao Wenyan took the dagger from Si Pangfua and cut his forearm. Bright red blood poured into the bowl, but in the face of his family's shame, he seemed to feel nothing.
Cao Yanmei quickly took out a handkerchief and pressed it onto Cao Wenyan's bleeding arm. "Da ge, enough blood!" She worriedly took the bowl and handed it to Si Pangfua.
Si Pangfua nodded grimly. "Thank you."
Cao Wenyan then asked, the shame driving him to seek the whole truth. "Gu furen, apart from him, is Gu er gongzi the son of my father?"
Si Pangfua spat the words out. "Yes."
Fu Yuanjun pressed further, savoring the destruction of the Gu family. "What about Gu xiaojie?"
Si Pangfua sneered. "That illegitimate child of Gu Tingfang is not mine. She came to the Gu Manor a motherless child. " She rushed to Gu Xiaowen. "Here, drink this."
Gu Xiaowen, racked by the poison, angrily knocked down the bowl of blood. "Shameless woman! Stay away from me! How can you do that?!"
Si Pangfua grabbed the remaining blood on the ground and forced it toward him. "Following Gu Tingfang is more shameful than having an affair with other men!" She grabbed her son's face, her eyes fierce. "Child, you are the elder in the family. Do you still remember our mistreatments inside the Gu family? While you waited for your so-called father to celebrate your birthday, he was out fooling around with his half-sister! Because of this, he created such a shameful product such as him!" She pointed to Gu Yingjie. "If you want to know what a product of shame looks like, then take a closer look at Gu Tingfang's bastard son!"
Gu Tingfang gnashed his teeth in impotent rage. "Si Pangfua!"
Si Pangfua continued her tirade, her voice venomous. "As the eldest son of the family, you should be the heir to his estate, but he did not choose you... He chose him, a proud son created by him and his half-sister. Do you know that bastard son's mother is another product of your grandfather's shameful act?" She smiled coldly. "At least Cao Fengge respects me very much. Cao Fengge's attitude towards me is better than that fake Gu Tingfang!"
Yan Zhanjin, his body shaking from the poison, laughed, a bitter, rattling sound. "This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!"
Fu Yuanjun asked, his face hardening. "What's so funny?"
Yan Zhanjin spat out his contempt. "Cao Fengge is such a loser. He came to see my shifu, but snatched his wife away. After impregnating her, he left her." Yan Zhanjin slowly started to rise, using sheer willpower. "Actually, I don't feel sorry for that woman. She should bear all the bad things that happened to her. A woman who deceived her husband and had an affair with another man should be buried on the side of the road and no one cares!"
Suddenly, Fu Yuanjun flew across the courtyard and slapped Yan Zhanjin's face severely, sending him crashing back to the ground. He immediately stepped onto Yan Zhanjin's chest, grinding his heel down. He gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing with a deeply personal fury. "You... apologize to her!"
Yan Zhanjin, defiant even on the brink of death, gasped, "That nameless woman who hurts my shifu and steals his medicine scripts, got what she deserves!"
Fu Yuanjun pressed harder, the rage shaking his body. "Her name is Li Liqin! Without her, you idiot master can't do anything!" He demanded through clenched teeth. "Apologize to her!"
Yan Zhanjin looked up coldly into Fu Yuanjun's face. He grunted, a final refusal. "No..."
Fu Yuanjun drew out his sword and, with a terrifying smile, slowly began to pierce the sword into Yan Zhanjin's right chest.
Suddenly, a blinding sword light blasted onto Fu Yuanjun's sword, cutting it cleanly in half. Fu Yuanjun backed away with lightning speed. Zhu Mingyang rushed forward, grabbed Gu Yingjie and Yan Zhanjin, and the three men flew over the wall to escape.
In the same moment, Kuo Lok unleashed a single, powerful dragon palm blow against the high wall nearby, shattering the center of the masonry. He grabbed Bazar Batu's hand, and the two rushed toward the opening, flying over the front wall to follow Zhu Mingyang.