Chapter 44: Internal Troubles and External Threats (Part 3)

Meng Xiaoli repelled the dark-faced woman, while another man shouted from the side, "You female fiend, what kind of disciple did my wife become under you, abandoning her own home entirely? The Crimson Sect is utterly corrupt and utterly shameless!" With that, he swung his hoe and smashed it downward. Meng Xiaoli caught the hoe casually in her hand, smiled at the man holding the handle, and said, "She came here of her own accord, what does that have to do with me? And which one of you is your wife anyway?"

As her voice trailed off, Meng Xiaoli sensed someone attacking from her left. She instantly flew into the air, kicked the man away, and whirled around to intercept the attacker on her left. The newcomer cried out, "Release all the male slaves, and we shall call it even!" Suddenly, a silver sword thrust straight toward her chest. Meng Xiaoli spun gracefully, slipped behind her assailant, and locked the Golden Scaled Blood Armor onto the back of the intruder's neck. With a firm grip, she slapped the silver sword out of the person's hand with her palm, then used her other hand to immobilize both of their wrists. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a youth. Meng Xiaoli asked, "And who might you be?"

Realizing he was captured by Meng Xiaoli, the youth shouted angrily, "I am a Wudang disciple! I simply despise your methods, and I am determined to kill you to rid the world of a scourge!" Meng Xiaoli shook her head and smiled. "If you want to kill me, go practice your martial arts for a few more years first. Do the various Daoist masters of Wudang know that you came to assassinate me?" With that, Meng Xiaoli pushed the youth away. The youth stumbled to the ground, immediately picked up his sword, and retorted, "I came of my own accord. Seeing injustice on the road, one may act first and report to the superiors later!"

Meng Xiaoli burst into loud laughter, tidied her red robes, and chided playfully, "Oh you people, you really make it impossible for me to hate you." At this moment, the dark-faced woman attacked once more. Meng Xiaoli dodged a few moves. As the dark-faced woman whirled her broadsword around, Meng Xiaoli seized the opportunity to grip the blade by its edge. Utilizing the move "Wild Horse Flying Hooves," she raised her leg and kicked toward the upper part of the dark-faced woman's body. The dark-faced woman staggered and fell forward, yet she refused to yield, sweeping her broadsword upward toward the approaching Meng Xiaoli. Meng Xiaoli dodged gracefully. The dark-faced woman quickly got to her feet and brought her blade down in a downward slash. Meng Xiaoli easily stepped aside and struck the dark-faced woman in the chest with a punch. Enduring the pain, the dark-faced woman swung her blade back. Meng Xiaoli bent backward to duck underneath it, then struck the dark-faced woman's liver and lungs with another palm strike. Having suffered two heavy blows in succession, the dark-faced woman retreated several steps and finally could not suppress a mouthful of blood, spitting it out with a gasp.

The dark-faced woman propped herself up with her broadsword planted in the ground, still attempting to raise her head to attack. Seeing that these people hated her to the very bone and were willing to throw away their lives just to kill her, Meng Xiaoli cast aside her sympathy. With a sudden leap, she spun in mid-air. The dark-faced woman's broadsword tore through the air with a whistling sound, aiming straight for Meng Xiaoli. The moment Meng Xiaoli's feet touched the ground, the dark-faced woman's broadsword came pressing down. Just as the blade descended, Meng Xiaoli's figure flickered and vanished without a trace. Suddenly, the dark-faced woman heard a fierce rush of wind diagonally above her. The instant she raised her head, Meng Xiaoli's feet were already closing in on her upper body. With the technique "Falling Astral Meteor," Meng Xiaoli kicked the dark-faced woman straight in the face. Driven by the immense force, the dark-faced woman's head smashed hard against the ground, and she collapsed rigidly, without uttering a single sound.

Seeing the dark-faced woman fall, the Wudang youth who had been fighting nearby moved in to take her place. Meng Xiaoli dodged a few blows before finding an opening, then kicked the youth flying several meters away, holding back her internal energy so as not to injure him too severely.

Refusing to admit defeat, the youth leaped forward with his sword and engaged her again. Meng Xiaoli flipped over to the youth's back and simultaneously delivered a rear kick, using the "Wild Horse Flying Hooves" technique to send him stumbling backward. The youth quickly spun around and thrust forward with his sword. Meng Xiaoli stepped back to yield, and the youth lunged forward with another thrust. Meng Xiaoli raised her foot, kicked the blade aside, and then whipped her right foot upward to strike the youth in the abdomen.

Clutching his stomach, the youth retreated several steps, glaring viciously at Meng Xiaoli as blood began to seep from the corner of his mouth. Wiping the blood away with the back of his hand, the youth raised his sword once more and charged forward with a battle cry. Meng Xiaoli stood firmly in her spot, watching the youth run toward her. The youth's sword point was aimed directly at her throat, yet she neither dodged nor parried. The youth paused in confusion, suddenly halting his advance, and asked incredulously, "Why aren't you dodging?" Meng Xiaoli smiled faintly and retorted in turn, "Do you think I wouldn't be able to dodge?" Possessing some self-awareness, the youth knew that his sword strike was neither fast nor slow; given Meng Xiaoli's martial arts foundation, dodging this strike could not be easier. He therefore replied, "Of course you can dodge, and you even have enough leeway to kill me at the same time." Looking at the youth, Meng Xiaoli asked in bewilderment, "Knowing full well that is the case, you still come to throw your life away? What are you even after?"

Filled with righteous indignation, the youth puffed out his chest and answered, "Because I represent righteousness and you represent evil! You deserve to be killed. What does my death matter? I want justice to endure forever!" Meng Xiaoli refuted him, saying, "On what grounds are you righteousness and I am evil? Do you understand me? Do you truly know what I have done? If you merely listen to the legends told by others and take things out of context, using your sword to slaughter the innocent, does that not make you the evil one?"

The youth was momentarily left speechless. The Ghostly Rakshasa of the Netherworld had indeed committed numerous misdeeds, but he had merely heard about them from others. Because everyone said the Ghostly Rakshasa was the leader of the demonic cult, he had firmly believed in his heart that she could not possibly be a good person. Was he truly acting like the narrow-minded villain taking things out of context as the Ghostly Rakshasa suggested, just because he wanted to kill someone based solely on legends? Yet, the fact remained that the men abducted up the mountain were indeed turned into slaves on Isolation Island—that was an undeniable, unarguable truth.

While the youth lowered his head in self-reflection, Meng Xiaoli gathered her internal energy within her body and thrust forward, sending the youth flying backward with a powerful shockwave. She sighed, "Come back to kill me when you've thought it through!"

Knowing that these people had harbored their grievances for a long time with hatred surging in their hearts, and that they would not easily let go now that they finally had a chance to kill her, Meng Xiaoli watched as the youth was knocked down and another group of men rushed forward wielding staffs, shouting aloud, "Female fiend, release Li Yaorao, or else we will raze the Crimson Sect to the ground!"

Meng Xiaoli was completely baffled by this. These people had all gathered together carrying their own separate grudges, rushing rashly into Isolation Island without a plan. The weaker disciples of the Crimson Sect had been brutally slaughtered, and most of the rest were nursing various injuries. While they originally held the tactical advantage, dragging out the battle would only turn increasingly unfavorable. Mercy toward the enemy was cruelty to oneself.

Meng Xiaoli kicked aside an incoming staff first, spun into mid-air using the technique "Splitting Flowers and Pointing at Generals," revealed the Golden Scaled Blood Armor, and began a bloody massacre, asking, "And what relation do you people have to Li Yaorao?" Someone answered, "We are her opera fans! How on earth did a fine person like her end up running off to your place? Without Li Yaorao's performances, there is so much less joy in living." As he spoke, the Blood Armor flashed with golden light, and everyone fought with lethal intent. After making a circle of engagement, Meng Xiaoli landed lightly on the ground with her hands covered in blood. In an instant, demonic energy overtook her mind, and she laughed bizarrely, "That's right, slaughtering you lot is also my joy."

She immediately turned around and ordered, "Kill them all! Not a single living soul is to be left behind." Having given the command, she charged into the ranks and held nothing back.

A roaming martial arts vagrant intercepted Meng Xiaoli from behind with a saber strike. Meng Xiaoli spun around and swept her sleeve, deflecting the vagrant's blade aura before thrusting her massive claw forward. The Golden Scaled Blood Armor grabbed straight into the vagrant's heart. With a squelch, blood spurted from the vagrant's chest cavity as a bloody, beating heart was crushed to powder within Meng Xiaoli's grasp. Shaking off the corpse, Meng Xiaoli rushed back into the center of the fray.

Seeing that Meng Xiaoli's martial arts were terrifyingly fast and that no one could parry her wherever she passed—even the martial arts experts and wandering vagrants who had come just to join the commotion could not survive a few dozens moves before being brutally slain—a portion of the crowd began to lose their nerve and retreat. The Wudang youth, caught in the midst of the formation, prepared to fall back only to have his retreat blocked by Wuying guarding the rear.

Wuying swung his sword to bar the youth's path, and the youth immediately countered with a retaliatory strike. Wuying's swordsmanship was bizarre and uncanny, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the orthodox and conventional sword techniques of the youth. After exchanging a few moves, Wuying realized the youth possessed only light martial arts and had not been initiated for long. Pressing his advantage, Wuying executed several consecutive applications of the "Clearing Sun Shield" from the "Slashing" character formula, easily breaking through more than a dozen of the youth's moves.

Seeing every move fail and unwilling to become bogged down in a protracted fight, the youth attempted to punch his way down the mountain while continuing to exchange blows. However, Wuying used the technique "Drawing the Firewood from the Bottom of the Cauldron" to cut off the momentum and rear flank of the youth's sword style. Unable to successfully parry, the youth was pierced through the back by Wuying's sword and died on the spot.

Observing that the battle remained fierce and unrelenting, Wuying's eyes flashed with a ferocious glint. He turned around, slew another person with a single stroke of his sword, and looked toward the intense carnage further up the mountain. Wuying's eye sockets were pitch-black and his lips were purple, looking identical to how Meng Xiaoli had looked years ago when she suffered a deviation in her cultivation. He let out a furious roar and charged back into the thick of battle.

On the other side, the opera singer Li Yaorao, having received the order to leave no survivors, flicked her twin silk sleeves, wrapping them tightly around the neck of a fighting man before pulling back with fierce strength. Deprived of air, the man collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath for a long while. She then lashed out with her other silk sleeve toward another man with gathered force, striking him squarely on the forehead. The impact carried immense power, causing the man to tilt backward and sit heavily upon the ground.

With a flick of her left sleeve, the singer Li toppled an aggressive shrew, while her right sleeve thrust forward to strike a rugged fellow in the chest. Firing both sleeves simultaneously, she struck two female bandits, then whipped her sleeves backward to bind two men before slamming them forcefully downward onto the ground. A crowd of people already lay writhing on the earth, crying out in agonizing pain.

With another leap, the singer Li vaulted into the fray of yet another group, rolling her silk sleeves to drag a burly fellow right up to her before sending him flying with a single palm strike. She then kicked backward to repel someone attempting a sneak attack from behind. As her silk sleeves brushed past a man's face, an intoxicating fragrance washed over him, hitting him so intensely that he momentarily forgot to attack, standing dazed and enchanted for a fraction of a second. Showing no mercy whatsoever, the singer Li launched a flying kick that sent the man hurtling away, crashing down to his death in some unknown spot.

Spinning and dancing like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers with her skirt fluttering, the singer Li mesmerized the surrounding men, though she paid them no heed. Turning about, she brought her palms down upon several individuals, then swept her legs horizontally to knock over a crowd. Finally, unleashing her silk sleeves, she snared a burly fellow and hoisted him high into mid-air. The man flipped over in the air and hurtled straight toward Military Advisor Ji Hongluan. Military Advisor Ji, who had already been waiting in place, folded up her white-boned umbrella and thrust it upward, piercing it straight into the man's back. Tossing the corpse aside onto the ground, Ji Hongluan flicked her white-boned umbrella backward, striking a female bandit in the spine. As the female bandit turned around to fight back with a hatchet, Ji Hongluan immediately opened her umbrella to block the axe blow, seized the momentum to kick out from beneath the umbrella straight into the female bandit's abdomen. The female bandit flew backward, rolling onto the ground where she remained motionless for a long while, unsure whether she was dead or alive.

Spinning with her umbrella, Military Advisor Ji swept through the area. Everyone behind her was slashed by the razor-thin blade edging the umbrella, and they clutched their wounds amidst a chorus of shrieks.

Immediately afterward, propping up her umbrella with the tips of her toes, Military Advisor Ji leaped into mid-air and executed the technique "Splitting Flowers and Pointing at Generals," spinning rapidly as she moved. Wherever the edge of her umbrella passed, wailing and cries of agony echoed endlessly, accompanied by the frantic spraying of fresh blood.