Yang Wei, the Enforcement Disciple!
"Brother Lingxiao... Fatty Zhan... cough, it's you two. Why are you here?"
The iron chains that had bound Zhang Yuyang lay in pieces where Zhang Lingxiao had torn them apart, freedom finally his. He struggled upright with Zhang Lingxiao's help, his voice thin and heavy with shame.
"Brother Yuyang, tell us first who did this to you, and who took Sister Zhang Li?" Zhang Lingxiao asked, anger sharp in his voice.
"Brother Lingxiao, don't. Neither of you can beat him. Just go beg him for me, ask him to let Zhang Li go," Zhang Yuyang said, pain twisting through every word.
Zhang Lingxiao's frown deepened at that.
Who had the nerve to run wild inside the sect like this, crippling a fellow disciple, dragging off a woman by force, all without a second thought?
And whoever it was had reduced Zhang Yuyang, always so full of spirit, to outright terror.
"Don't worry, Brother Yuyang. I've reached Spiritual Martial Realm Late Stage now, and I'm a Personal Disciple to both the Alchemy Peak Lord and the Ten Thousand Swords Peak Lord. Xuanwu Realm or not, it doesn't matter to me."
Zhang Lingxiao let his Qi flare as he spoke, giving Zhang Yuyang something solid to believe in.
"That's right, Brother Yuyang, I'm Spiritual Martial Realm Late Stage too now, and a Personal Disciple under the Lingxiu Peak Lord. Just give us a name, and we'll get Sister Zhang Li back and make him pay for what he did to you," Zhan Wuji added, releasing his own Spiritual Martial Realm Late Stage Qi to match.
Tears blurred Zhang Yuyang's eyes as the weight of their combined Qi settled over him.
In just a few days, the two of them had surged so far ahead, it was staggering.
Maybe there really was a chance at revenge.
Perhaps Zhang Li could still come home safely.
"All right." Zhang Yuyang forced out a nod. "His name is Yang Wei. Great Hall Master of Warhawk Hall and an Enforcement Disciple, on top of it."
"Yang Wei. Warhawk Hall."
Zhang Lingxiao's eyes narrowed at the name. He reached into the Nine Netherworld Demon Palace and pulled out a healing pill.
He had thirteen of these unmarked healing pills in total, all pulled from the Nine Netherworld Demon Palace's stores. One had already gone to his future father-in-law, Lord Ma, to regrow a severed arm. This one would go to Zhang Yuyang, leaving eleven after this.
He still didn't know exactly what each pill was capable of. Still, every one so far had proven to be a top-grade healing elixir with staggering power, capable of regenerating a severed limb outright. There was every reason to believe it could mend Zhang Yuyang's ruined meridians just as easily.
The moment Zhang Lingxiao drew it out, its fragrance filled the room.
He pressed it to Zhang Yuyang's lips, and warmth surged through his body almost instantly.
More telling still, his shattered meridians began knitting back together as the pill's power spread through him.
"This... my meridians..."
Zhang Yuyang's voice cracked with disbelief.
Watching the pill take hold, watching the meridians actually mend, eased some of the fury still burning in Zhang Lingxiao's chest.
He spent a few moments steadying Zhang Yuyang, then turned, gaze gone cold.
"Brother Wuji, I'm going to cripple Yang Wei myself, right now. You in?"
"Count me in! Leave crippling his cultivation to you. I'll break every limb he's got left! The nerve, setting his sights on my Sister Zhang Li. He'll spend the rest of his miserable life as a eunuch when I'm through with him," Zhan Wuji spat.
The two of them flanked Zhang Yuyang, supporting him between them, and set off straight for Warhawk Hall's headquarters.
Every minor gang inside Qingyun Mountain kept its own headquarters, stone structures the sect permitted them to build privately.
The size of the building tracked directly with the gang's power; a larger footprint meant a bigger, stronger gang, and the number of floors marked the Hall Master's own strength.
Warhawk Hall's building stood ten floors tall, one floor higher than the Sky Tiger Gang's building right next to it, proof that Yang Wei outranked Xing Hu by at least a full Heaven in cultivation.
Xing Hu had stood at Spiritual Martial Realm Perfection. That put Yang Wei at Xuanwu Realm First Heaven, roughly on par with an ordinary Outer Elder.
Worth noting: Yang Wei had genuine talent for the Martial Dao, backed by no small amount of luck. He'd reached Spiritual Martial Realm Middle Stage and Core Disciple status right at twenty-five, timing that opened up far better cultivation resources than Xing Hu had access to at the same age, resources that eventually carried him all the way to Xuanwu Realm.
His talent had its ceiling, though. He never advanced past Core Disciple, missing the Spiritual Martial Realm Late Stage threshold needed to become a Personal Disciple before turning thirty. Once he broke into Xuanwu Realm regardless, he'd chosen to become an Enforcement Disciple instead, an unusual path for someone of his standing.
The three of them walked together in silence at first, Zhang Yuyang leaning on the other two for support.
But as they walked, the pill kept working, and by the time Warhawk Hall came into view, his meridians had fully healed.
His cultivation itself was another matter gone entirely, and there was no shortcut back to where he'd been. He'd have to rebuild it from nothing.
Even knowing his meridians were whole again, the loss still weighed on him.
"Don't worry about it, Brother Yuyang. I'm a Second-Order Supreme-Grade Alchemist now, and I've got no shortage of Supreme-Grade pills. I'll have you back to your old strength in no time, probably past it, honestly. Your cultivation's the least of your problems."
Zhang Lingxiao thumped his own chest, certain of it.
"Really, Brother Lingxiao? You'd barely touched alchemy before all this, hadn't you? That kind of talent our Zhang family's going to rise because of you." Excitement chased the last of the gloom from Zhang Yuyang's face.
"Hold on, Brother Lingxiao, you're already Second-Order Supreme-Grade?! No way! You're refining me some of those Supreme-Grade pills too, understand?" Zhan Wuji demanded.
"Fine, fine. Supreme-Grade pills for both of you, as many as you can stomach," Zhang Lingxiao laughed.
The exchange lifted something heavy off all three of them, if only briefly.
Zhang Li was still the one thought none of them could shake. All they could do now was hope they'd get there in time, and that she hadn't already suffered at that beast's hands.
"By the way, Brother Yuyang, what did you ever do to this Yang Wei to make him go this far? Crippling your cultivation, and now trying to take Sister Zhang Li on top of it?" Zhan Wuji asked, anger simmering underneath the question.
Zhang Yuyang let out a long breath.
"It's simple enough. He wanted your Sister Zhang Li for himself. So he used his position as Hall Master and Enforcement Disciple, both, to fabricate charges against the two of us. Said we were carrying on improperly, neglecting our cultivation, disgracing the sect's name."
"He crippled me as punishment. As for your Sister Zhang Li..."
"He said he wanted to..."
"I can't even say it."
Zhang Yuyang's voice broke, his eyes bloodshot, something feral surfacing behind them.
He never finished the sentence, but neither Zhang Lingxiao nor Zhan Wuji needed him to.
The three of them picked up their pace without a word, united in one certainty: Yang Wei would answer for this in blood.