Qin Hongdao looked at the two people at the entrance.
The two of them also looked at her. The elegant maiden’s sword in Mu Shan’s hand froze there, almost falling to the ground.
Qin Hongdao grinned. With a flip of her hand, her long sabre appeared in her grip. She held it upright before her chest and asked arrogantly, “Here for a fight?”
This time, the sword in Mu Shan’s hand really did fall.
That showed just how intimidating Qin Hongdao’s long sabre was.
Hearing this, Mu Ziming’s face twisted slightly. He unexpectedly remembered the many times he had once been beaten down by Qin Hongdao. It could be said that Mu Ziming’s rise to fame in the Central Continent had always been shrouded beneath the shadow of Qin Hongdao’s long sabre.
Every time he saw Qin Hongdao, he had the illusion that his bones were aching.
Over time, whenever he saw this person, Mu Ziming could not help wanting to take a detour, so as to avoid facing this violent woman who was nothing like a woman.
Mu Shan, however, was not afraid of Qin Hongdao. She quickly reacted, hurriedly picked up the sword from the ground, and shouted, “I’m looking for Min Xian! Is she here?”
Qin Hongdao frowned slightly and said with a serious face, “Junior Sister Mu, is this how True Monarch Daoyan taught you? Calling someone a wretch every time you open your mouth—don’t you know you’re insulting yourself too? You are a young lady, so why is your mouth so filthy?”
As the eldest senior sister of Scarlet Heaven Sect, once Qin Hongdao put on the airs of lecturing someone, her tongue was extremely sharp.
Although Mu Shan was not a disciple of Scarlet Heaven Sect, the Three Great Sects had always been on good terms and maintained surface harmony. When disciples of the three sects met, they could also address one another as senior and junior brothers and sisters to show closeness.
Mu Shan was stunned by the scolding, then flew into a rage. “Are you calling me a wretch?”
“I didn’t say that. But if you want to think that way yourself, I don’t object.” Qin Hongdao smiled, the long sabre in her hand giving off a chilling aura.
She stood at the doorway, tall and imposing, her aura awe-inspiring. She forcibly made Mu Shan, who had been shouting at the entrance, look utterly disgraceful. Even Mu Shan’s originally pretty appearance seemed to dim somewhat.
Mu Shan did not notice this change. Just seeing Qin Hongdao’s face annoyed her. This woman was not pretty, spent all day fighting and killing like a man, and acted so arrogantly. If not for her high strength, who knew how many people would have wanted to teach her a lesson because they found her unpleasant?
Mu Shan was one of the people who wanted to teach her a lesson.
She held back her anger and said coldly, “Senior Sister Qin, I respect you enough to call you Senior Sister. I hope you won’t just rely on your tongue either. You had better hand Min Xian over.”
“And if I refuse?” Qin Hongdao asked.
“Then don’t blame us for being impolite.”
Qin Hongdao let out a mocking laugh, as if she had heard something very funny. She looked at Mu Ziming and asked, “Junior Brother Mu, do you also want to be impolite to me?”
Mu Ziming’s expression was gloomy. With an apologetic look, he said, “Senior Sister Qin, that Min Xian harmed Junior Sister. She must come out and give Junior Sister an explanation.” Otherwise, Qingyun Sect’s face would suffer.
“Fine!” Qin Hongdao was extremely straightforward, holding her sabre horizontally before her. “Then let’s fight!”
Both Mu Shan and Mu Ziming froze.
A bad premonition rose in Mu Ziming’s heart.
Qin Hongdao was a straightforward person. In her heart, there was nothing that could not be solved with a fight. If one fight did not work, then fight again.
“Min Xian is my guest. I will not allow you to hurt her. Besides, I already understand the grudge between Junior Sister Mu and Miss Min. It was Junior Sister Mu who brought it on herself. You wanted to harm someone else and ended up suffering instead. How can there be such logic in this world? If you want to demand an explanation from her, ask my sabre first whether it agrees.”
Mu Shan screamed, “Senior Sister Qin! Are you determined to go against us?”
“Stop talking nonsense. Either fight, or from now on, don’t go looking for trouble with Miss Min again.”
“On what basis?” Mu Shan blurted out.
“On the basis of my sabre!”
Mu Shan’s face turned livid, and Mu Ziming remained silent.
Seeing that neither of them spoke, Qin Hongdao was too lazy to waste time with them and asked, “Are we fighting or not? I won’t bully you either. Junior Brother Mu, you can fight in your junior sister’s place.”
Now it was Mu Ziming’s turn for his face to turn green.
He took a deep breath and said, “Senior Sister Qin, are you truly going to protect someone who offended Junior Sister?”
“Yes,” Qin Hongdao said without hesitation.
“May I ask the reason?”
“They are my Junior Brother Sheng’s lifesavers.”
Hearing this, Mu Ziming understood. He had not expected those two people to have such ability that they had actually made Qin Hongdao and Sheng Yunshen owe them a debt of gratitude. He naturally knew Qin Hongdao’s personality. She had a chivalrous heart, and once she decided on something, she would never change. If they wanted to deal with those two people, they would have to defeat her first.
Mu Ziming quickly weighed the outcome and said, “Senior Sister Qin, we have disturbed you.”
“Senior Brother!” Mu Shan stamped her foot. Seeing that her senior brother was actually going to let those two go, she was extremely angry.
Mu Ziming said nothing and grabbed his junior sister’s hand to leave.
Qin Hongdao called after them, “Also, cancel the bounty. This matter was originally Junior Sister Mu reaping what she sowed and then venting her anger on others. Isn’t that the behaviour of a petty person?”
“I won’t!” Mu Shan said willfully. “Why should I listen to you?”
As a young miss who had been doted on by her parents since childhood, even when facing Qin Hongdao, whose cultivation was higher than hers, she was not afraid. Because no one had taught her to be afraid. She only needed to live according to her true nature; everything else would be arranged by her parents. Her parents were her confidence.
Since childhood, no one had dared make Mu Shan suffer grievances.
Even Qin Hongdao could not make Mu Shan fear her. This was because Qin Hongdao was a person with strong principles. She would not attack the weak or women unless that person was truly unforgivable.
“Junior Sister!” Mu Ziming called warningly.
Mu Shan raised her head, still looking unconvinced.
Qin Hongdao, however, would not indulge her. “Since Junior Sister Mu refuses to give up, then we can only speak with strength. Let’s go outside the town and fight. Life or death, no complaints.”
“Then fight!” Mu Shan shouted. “Senior Brother, fight her.”
Mu Ziming’s face went black. What was a pig teammate? This was a pig teammate.
Qin Hongdao grinned and was about to speak when she suddenly heard Mu Shan say, “Senior Brother will fight you. I’ll fight that woman.”
Mu Shan pointed toward the courtyard behind Qin Hongdao.
Qin Hongdao turned back and discovered that Ning Yuzhou and Wen Qiao had come out of the room at some point and were standing beneath the corridor, watching them.
Qin Hongdao frowned slightly. Naturally, she knew what Mu Shan was planning. Mu Shan was at the late Yuan Martial Realm, one realm higher than Wen Qiao. If the two of them fought, the person with the lower realm would naturally suffer. At that time, if Mu Shan took the chance to kill Wen Qiao during the match, they would have nothing to say, since both sides had agreed to it.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Qin Hongdao did not intend to let her have her way. “What cultivation are you, and what cultivation is she? Can’t you see? Such blatant revenge, and you think everyone else is an idiot who will let you decide as you please?”
Mu Shan was once again half-dead with anger from Qin Hongdao’s bluntness and screamed, “I wanted revenge on her in the first place! What’s wrong with that? This isn’t allowed, that isn’t allowed—what do you want? I’m going to tell my father you bullied me!”
“Go ahead. I don’t care,” Qin Hongdao said casually. Did she think she could use True Monarch Daoyan to pressure her? Then she would not be the eldest senior sister of Scarlet Heaven Sect.
Mu Shan was half-dead with anger. Her delicate, beautiful face twisted, and she panted heavily.
Mu Ziming remained silent. He knew his junior sister’s temperament; she could not be persuaded. He could only see how Qin Hongdao would decide.
In the end, Mu Shan looked past Qin Hongdao directly at Wen Qiao and said, “Min Xian, do you dare fight me? Life and death are not to be questioned.”
“Really, life and death are not to be questioned?” Wen Qiao asked.
Mu Shan nodded arrogantly and looked at her with disdain. A mere peak Yuan Bright Realm cultivator thought she could beat her?
Wen Qiao said, “Fine. If I win, you will withdraw the bounty and never come looking for trouble with us again.”
“I agree!” Mu Shan said quickly, afraid Qin Hongdao would interfere again.
“Then I’ll be the witness!” Qin Hongdao said with a smile.
Mu Ziming thought, *Not good.* But Mu Shan had agreed too quickly, leaving him no chance to speak. He could only watch with an ashen face as the two made an oath, with Qin Hongdao standing by as witness.
After the oath was made, Qin Hongdao said, “It’s already late today. Let’s leave town and compete tomorrow afternoon.”
Since Mu Shan had obtained the result she wanted, she did not continue entangling them and left with Mu Ziming.
She was not worried that Wen Qiao would be afraid and flee. Although Qin Hongdao was quite annoying, she was a woman of her word and would not go back on what she had agreed to.
Before leaving, Mu Shan gave Wen Qiao a vicious look, then smiled at her smugly and arrogantly, already treating her as a dead person.
On the way back, Mu Ziming’s brows remained furrowed, and a layer of gloom covered his shrewd eyes.
“Junior Sister, you really shouldn’t have agreed to compete with that Min Xian,” Mu Ziming said.
Mu Shan did not care. “Senior Brother, are you worried I can’t beat her? She’s only at the Yuan Bright Realm. Besides, I never said weapons couldn’t be used during the match. Everyone relies on their own ability, don’t they?”
Mu Ziming thought of the various life-saving items their master and mistress had given their little junior sister, and his heart relaxed slightly.
Even so, he was still not very happy. Nothing must go wrong in the fight between Junior Sister and Min Xian. As for his fight with Qin Hongdao, one could tell without even watching that he would probably be beaten by that woman again.
And all of this had been brought about by Junior Sister.
Thinking of this, Mu Ziming glanced at the junior sister beside him and lowered his eyes slightly.
—
After closing the door, Qin Hongdao said seriously, “Miss Min, are you confident about tomorrow’s match?”
Wen Qiao was the kind of girl who said one was one and two was two. She said, “I am.”
Hearing this, Qin Hongdao felt very pleased. She liked confident girls like this. Whether or not one could win, one’s momentum could not lose first. One had to give the enemy an impression that one could not be shaken. Perhaps she really could win.
As for the fact that Wen Qiao’s cultivation was lower than Mu Shan’s, Qin Hongdao did not actually take it to heart. After all, she herself liked challenging opponents above her level, so naturally she felt others could do the same. Mu Shan had been spoiled too much by True Monarch Daoyan and did not cultivate seriously. She was almost twenty, yet only at the Yuan Martial Realm. Clearly, she was a weakling.
Beating up weaklings took no effort at all.
“Good. Tomorrow, when you fight her, don’t be polite. Just leave her with one life,” Qin Hongdao said. “We’re leaving her alive only because True Monarch Daoyan is unreasonable. There’s no need to waste our time on people like that.”
Wen Qiao obediently agreed.
After saying this, Qin Hongdao returned to the middle side room. When she opened the door, she found that Sheng Yunshen in the bathing tub had already woken up.
Sheng Yunshen asked hoarsely, “Senior Sister, what happened?”
“Nothing much. I just ran into Mu Ziming and his junior sister from Qingyun Sect. They asked me to fight,” Qin Hongdao said carelessly.
Sheng Yunshen knew his senior sister’s temperament. He immediately smiled and said, “Then Mu Ziming is definitely going to lose again. What a pity I’m like this right now. Otherwise, I’d also want to spar with him.”
“Don’t worry, there will be a chance.”
Qin Hongdao comforted him, then sat beside the bathing tub with her long sabre in her arms, continuing to watch the talisman fire.
Ten hours slowly passed.
When the time was almost up, Ning Yuzhou entered the room and examined Sheng Yunshen.
The talisman fire beneath the bathing tub was still faintly burning. The water in the tub had changed from dark green to pure black, giving off a fishy stench mixed with a faint cloying sweetness. Sheng Yunshen, who was sitting in the tub, had also undergone a great change. The black lumps on his face no longer oozed pus and blood, and their colour had become much lighter.
If before the treatment, Sheng Yunshen had looked like a hideous evil ghost, now he looked more like someone who had suffered a severe allergic reaction from eating something bad. At the very least, his facial features could now be made out.
Qin Hongdao stood nervously at the side and asked worriedly, “Young Master Ning, how is my junior brother?”
After checking Sheng Yunshen’s body, Ning Yuzhou said, “This time, thirty percent of the poison has been drawn out. It can suppress the poison for half a month. If you want to prolong that time, the treatment must continue.”
“Then I’ll have to trouble Young Master Ning,” Qin Hongdao quickly said.
When the time was right, Ning Yuzhou had Qin Hongdao help him out.
“No need, I’ll get up myself.” Sheng Yunshen still wanted to preserve some dignity. He held onto the bathing tub and stood up himself. “Senior Sister, turn around.”
Seeing that he truly had the strength to stand, Qin Hongdao turned around and walked outside the door.
Outside the door, Wen Qiao was holding Wen Tutu. Both the person and rabbit had spirit pills in their hands, eating them like sweets.
Qin Hongdao’s eyelids twitched when she saw this, especially when she discovered that the spirit pills they were eating like sweets were all supreme-grade pills. She could not help secretly swallowing.
As the eldest senior sister of a top sect, she did not lack cultivation resources. But no matter how well supplied she was, she still could not be like Wen Qiao and a demon rabbit, eating supreme-grade spirit pills like sweets, having as many as they wanted. How many alchemists would it take to support that? Besides, the sect had many disciples and could not possibly provide everything to one person. Qin Hongdao cared for the junior brothers and sisters beneath her and would not domineeringly occupy the sect’s resources.
There was no need to ask. These supreme-grade spirit pills had definitely been refined by Ning Yuzhou.
Back then, she had found Ning Yuzhou because of the supreme-grade spirit pills he had sold. Very few alchemists would be willing to sell thirty supreme-grade spirit pills in one go, unless they were truly short of money or did not lack supreme-grade pills at all. Without a doubt, Ning Yuzhou definitely did not lack supreme-grade pills, and the quality of the pills he refined was extremely good.
Now it seemed that Ning Yuzhou was even more impressive than she had guessed. Among the pills he refined, the rate of producing supreme-grade pills was extremely high.
Inside the room, Sheng Yunshen quickly tidied himself up, put on a loose robe, and sat in an armchair. He still looked somewhat weak, but he was already much better than yesterday.
Qin Hongdao and Wen Qiao walked in.
“Young Master Ning, what should we prepare next? Does he need to continue soaking in medicinal baths?” Qin Hongdao asked with concern.
Ning Yuzhou gave an affirmative sound. “He still needs to continue the medicinal baths. I will also refine some pills to assist the treatment. With both methods used together, a few days should be enough.”
Qin Hongdao was overjoyed and hurriedly asked what needed to be prepared so that she could quickly collect them.
Ning Yuzhou wrote another list of spirit herbs and asked her to gather them according to it.
Qin Hongdao put the paper away, looked at the sky, and said, “It’s about time. We should set off.”
They had agreed with Mu Shan to leave town for the match in the afternoon. It happened to be right after Sheng Yunshen had finished soaking in the medicinal bath. It would not be too late to collect the spirit herbs after the match.
“Senior Sister, are you going out? I’ll go too,” Sheng Yunshen said.
Qin Hongdao was also worried about leaving her junior brother alone. She took out a cloak for him to wear, covering him from head to toe.
Then the group left the small residence and headed out of Cangwu Town.
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