The brutal slaughter reached its midpoint, and the disorganized troops, suffering heavy casualties, finally had their morale completely collapse. They scattered in all directions, no longer having the courage to resist.
Looking around: blood splattered, bones shattered, armor fragments scattered everywhere, with broken blades and bodies all around, blood converging into streams as it flowed.
The smell of blood filled the entire courtyard, with many severely injured soldiers lying on the ground howling in pain, making the place feel like a purgatory on earth.
"Huff, huff..."
Zhang Yao was panting heavily, his eyes red, almost sitting down on the ground from exhaustion.
The life-and-death battle that lasted just over ten breaths had drained his strength intensely, far more than an hour of practicing fist techniques.
"How are you, junior brother?"
Off to the side, Meng Zongwei approached, patting him on the shoulder.
His voice came through the visor of his armor, sounding a bit muffled: "Feels good to take revenge with your own hands, right?"
"You were so fierce just now, at least killed five or six people."
Zhang Yao waved his hand, about to speak, when he suddenly heard the booming voice of his master, Zhou An: "Did anyone just see that Captain? It seems like no one is commanding these rebel troops!"
"No."
"No one saw him."
Lord Guan Yuan held up his sword, with blood dripping down the blade, and shouted: "Not only the Captain, we didn't see any of the leaders either, they must have fled!"
"Everyone, if we cut the weeds, we must dig up the roots. Letting them escape is out of the question!"
He still felt a little agitated in his heart: These rebel troops were defeated, but if their leader survived, they could still regroup.
If the martial artists and escort agency guards left, those rebels could storm back, and he alone definitely couldn't hold Qingping Palace.
"Yes, cut the weeds and dig up the roots!"
The hall masters exchanged glances and decisively said: "Leave a few people to finish off the wounded, while the rest split up and pursue the fleeing rebels."
"Especially the leading Captain and other heads, they haven't gone far yet, there's still a chance to catch them."
"Yes!"
Everyone responded in unison, scattering in all directions.
Zhang Yao also joined the pursuit team, and together with Meng Zongwei and Zhang Yannian, chose a direction to chase.
...
Cuiping Mountain, the back mountain.
A burly man with a bushy beard was frantically fleeing, like a terrified stray dog.
As he fled, he kept tearing off the shoulder guards and hand guards from his armor to run faster, his expression extremely panicked.
He occasionally turned his head to look, afraid that pursuers would appear in his sight.
"Damn it, damn it!!"
"It must be the remnants of Qingping Palace! Damn bastard animals..."
He cursed incessantly in his heart, regretting so much that his intestines felt like they were in knots.
When the alarm bell rang, he was with a woman, almost scared stiff.
With the help of two personal soldiers, he hastily donned his armor and ran to the courtyard to try commanding his subordinates, but was stunned by the sight.
Slaughter!
A one-sided slaughter!
Over twenty heavily armored martial artists seemed like killing machines on the battlefield, not to mention the few leading them who were clearly Perfection level experts!
Once he regained his senses, his first thought was—finished, it's all finished!
Without a word, he abandoned his men and fled, and the few personal soldiers and leaders left behind emulated him, scattering and fleeing without even gathering any gold or silver.
"Damn it!"
The bearded man greatly regretted not taking the remnants fleeing from Qingping Palace seriously earlier.
And in the blink of an eye, they somehow found such a powerful group of martial artists to storm in and destroy everything he had.
"Once I escape, I must..."
His mind was in chaos, gritting his teeth, instinctively turning to check for pursuers again.
But this time, in his panic, he didn't see clearly and accidentally stepped on empty space, falling suddenly and rolling down the cliff.
"No..."
He let out a terrified scream as he fell seven or eight meters down the cliff, his body rolled a few times, twitched twice, then stopped moving.
...
Over an hour later.
Everyone gathered again in Qingping Palace, exchanging their battle results.
"He fell to his death?"
Zhang Yao wore a peculiar expression, unable to help but say: "Wasn't it said that he wasn't weak in martial arts, how did he fall to his death?"
"It was dark and he couldn't see clearly, plus he was panicking and running in haste, so slipping and falling to death isn't unusual."
Zhou An shrugged, casually saying: "I followed the clues and found his body at the bottom of the cliff, this manner of death was kind of a cheap way out for him."
Zhang Yao shook his head, thinking to himself: "Still not cautious enough..."
"Having occupied Qingping Palace for several months, he hadn't familiarized himself with the surroundings, nor planned an escape route, dying like that is not undeserved."
With the leader dead and only a few soldiers who managed to flee, and even fewer after they were hunted down, they were no longer a threat.
This surprise attack on Qingping Stockade was a sweeping victory.
"Master!"
A disciple from Hong Yun Martial Arts Hall hurried in and said quietly: "We've found the Treasure Vault and a secret chamber inside Qingping Palace, and there are quite a few women from good families who were captured."
"Hmm..."
Upon hearing this, the hall masters and escort leaders discussed briefly and quickly reached a conclusion.
As agreed earlier, all the accumulated wealth and treasures of Qingping Palace would belong to the three martial arts halls and two escort agencies.
Therefore, they decided to pack up the gold and silver items and wait until dawn to take everything away, while escorting the wronged women down the mountain.
As for how to distribute the gold and silver, that could wait until they had the true transmission of Qingping Palace, as that was truly their most prized possession.
...
Two hours later.
When the group appeared in Sishui Town, it caused an uproar.
Upon learning about the destruction of the rebel troop that occupied Qingping Palace, the local residents were overjoyed, spreading the news eagerly, almost breaking into a celebratory fanfare.
Master Huang of Sishui Town was the first to invite everyone into his mansion, hosting a banquet in their honor.
The banquet was a scene of great joy and harmony for both hosts and guests.
During the banquet, Master Huang voluntarily addressed the issue of handling the captured women from good families, and everyone was glad to leave the follow-up matters to him.
Just as the banquet concluded, a messenger from Huang Mansion, sent to inform Qingzhuo at a farm, returned with Qingzhuo.
"That's great, that's great..."
Qingzhuo's face seemed to still have tear streaks, with slightly red and swollen eyes.
Yet, undoubtedly, his mood was extraordinarily elated, as if a massive burden had been lifted off him.
"Thank you all so much, your great grace and kindness will never be forgotten!"
Qingzhuo bowed in gratitude, and Lord Guan Yuan followed with a bow, solemnly saying:
"Your kindness will forever be remembered by Qingping Palace."
"According to our previous agreement, it's time for this old Daoist to hand over Qingping Palace's true transmission, the 'Taiyi Hun Heaven Skill', to all of you..."