Chapter 356 - One Dies (Part One)
Translated by: Pipipingu
Edited by: Michyrr
The carriage for the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green left, but the female disciples stayed behind. They and the disciples of the South Stream Temple, as well as the priests from Li Palace, were all healing the injured people in the forest.
At that time, it was currently an age of blossoming flowers for the world of cultivation. Even more so, it was a great year for the Grand Examination, and with the starlight in the Mausoleum of Books, there were actually several dozen young cultivators under the age of twenty that surpassed the barrier of life and death to successfully enter Ethereal Opening. The future of the human world seemed to be extremely bright, however, nobody had expected such a great matter to occur in the visit to the Garden of Zhou. No matter if it was the Orthodoxy, the imperial court or the southern sects, they were all naturally extremely anxious.
Fortunately, the injuries of the injured were not too heavy. Most of them had been struck by the falling mountain rocks when they fled from the Garden of Zhou, so after a simple treatment, there were no great problems. Also, the several dozen cultivators from all over the empire who were heavily injured by the ambushes of the first two nights from the demons had already received treatment from Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng, so they also did not have any great problems.
Amongst these individuals, Qi Jian suffered the greatest injury. The treacherous sword had directly pierced through her lower abdomen, which severed several of her meridians. With the pain from fleeing for several dozen days and the effects of medicine, she was currently unconscious. No one knew when she would awaken. The expression of the elder from Mount Li who watched over her on one side was extremely ugly.
With a teacher from Mount Li looking after her, Zhexiu naturally could not approach too closely to her. However, he was not too far away either. He stood under a scholar tree not far away, and his eyes were closed. Compared to the chaotic activity in the forest, he seemed rather lonely.
Actually, he was also extremely heavily injured, especially due to the fact that the poison from Nanke had already inundated his body. However, he did not request the priests of Li Palace to treat his injuries. He did not show any expression on his slightly pale face. Ignoring the fact that he may have been denying the people, other human cultivators were also hindered by the relative rumors of him, and did not want to take the initiative to go up and ask him.
The elder from Mount Li turned around and glanced at Zhexiu. There were questioning and alertness in his gaze. He wanted to ask something, but he could not turn his head again in the end. He put his mind on the heavily injured and unconscious Qi Jian.
Qi Jian was the final disciple of the Mount Li Sword Sect master. Her identity and status were naturally different. As soon as she had left the Garden of Zhou, there were already two cardinals of the Orthodoxy that carefully attended to her wounds. They confirmed that her life was no longer under threat, but the injury was extremely heavy. Especially due to the fact of the severed meridians and that she was unconscious, they could not think of any good methods to help her, and she needed to be taken to the capital or Mount Li as soon as possible.
The elder of Mount Li knew Qi Jian’s background. What made him even more uneasy was that if she really did fall into a coma, just who knew how crazy his martial uncle would become? However, what made him feel the most uneasy and even vaguely fearful, was the sword injury in her lower abdomen.
Swords had sword intent, and there would often be traces of sword intent in injuries caused by swords. What Mount Li focused on was the sword, so the elder only needed a glance to understand just where the sword that heavily injured Qi Jian came from.
Just when he felt uneasy, there were a few cries of surprise from the depths of the forest, “Someone come quick!”
The elder of Mount Li turned around to see what was going on there. His expression suddenly changed, and he no longer could care for Qi Jian anymore. He ordered disciples to watch over her carefully, and personally rushed over. He waved his hands and made through the crowd, yelling angrily, “Just what is happening!?”
In the center of the crowd was a stretcher. The person who lay on the stretcher was Liang Xiaoxiao.
Liang Xiaoxiao was suffering from heavy injury for some reason, and there were a dozen or so sword slashes on his body. Two female disciples from the South Stream Temple helped bandage him on the side, but they were unable to stop the fresh blood from flowing out from under the bandage. The scene seemed extremely brutal.
His face was pale like paper, his lips were blue, his gaze was gloomy and his Qi was rather weak. The teenage genius who was once valiant and heroic-looking was now only an inch away from death. The two female disciples of South Stream Temple squatted down on the two sides of the stretcher, and constantly used bandages to attempt to stop his bleeding. However, they were unable to stop the blood, so they could not help but become panicked. The slightly younger female disciple even cried, and said tearfully, “Senior Liang, you can’t die!”
The forest fell into a deathly silence. The crowd was stunned. Liang Xiaoxiao was not an ordinary cultivator. He was an inner disciple of the Mount Li Sword Sect, and a member of the Divine State’s Seven Laws. He was the first place on the first banner in the Grand Examination last year, but now, he was actually almost dead.
Just what happened? Who injured him?
A cardinal from Li Palace hurried over. He looked at the scene and could not help but be extremely shocked. He used the Sacred Light Technique without the slightest hesitation, which caused clear light to land on Liang Xiaoxiao’s body without stint.
There was silence, and the people waited anxiously. A while later, Liang Xiaoxiao’s bleeding stopped, but… his face remained pale and his gaze remained gloomy. The cardinal slowly shook his head.
Seeing the expression of the cardinal, the body of the Mount Li elder swayed a few times, before forcefully withstanding it. Through the description of some people present, he learned that Liang Xiaoxiao was carried out by Zhuang Huanyu in the end. His glanced over coldly.
“Just what happened?”
Zhuang Huanyu also had several sword slashes on his body, except not as severe. His face was also very pale, but not because of the injury. Rather, it was because his state of mind was in a flurry. Hearing the loud question of the Mount Li elder, he looked at Liang Xiaoxiao on the stretcher, and slightly hesitated.
Liang Xiaoxiao lay on the stretcher. His vigor was a little better than before, and his Qi had increased slightly. However, when the sunlight hit him, objects that seemed like small fragments of colored glass could be seen on the surface of his clothes.
This was the sign of dispersion. The Third Law of the Divine State was dying.
The forest became even more deathly silent. The feeling of depression increased slowly, and the girl from the South Stream Temple began crying again.
The Mount Li elder looked at Zhuang Huanyu and yelled angrily, “Speak!”
With the angry yell, a sword intent burst forth. It enveloped Zhuang Hanyu, as if Zhuang Huanyu had taken a little longer, the sword intent would have directly chopped him into pieces.
Zhuang Huanyu was also not an ordinary cultivator. He was a student of the Heavenly Dao Academy. However, even with that, the Mount Li elder actually ignored it completely. It displayed just how angry he was at that moment.
As the main person who presided over the opening of the Garden of Zhou this time, Zhu Luo was also at the scene. He naturally could not just let Zhuang Huanyu die like this, and said while looking at the Mount Li elder, “Calm down a little.”
Just at that moment, a weak voice could be heard from the stretcher.
“Martial Uncle, it had nothing to do with young master Huanyu.”
The Mount Li elder looked at Liang Xiaoxiao, and said with a slightly trembling voice, “Who was it that injured you so badly?”
At that moment, most of the people in the forest believed that it was the demon experts that had infiltrated the Garden of Zhou who injured Liang Xiaoxiao so heavily. After all, Liang Xiaoxiao held the first place upon the first banner of the Grand Examination from the previous year, and also had spent a whole year in the Mausoleum of Books, comprehending monoliths. His level of cultivation was extremely profound, so logically, only the demon experts could injure him so badly.
However, the Mount Li elder knew very well that Liang Xiaoxiao was not injured by the demons. It was because he knew that the sword slashes on his body were the same as the injury in Qi Jian’s lower abdomen. They were all… of the Mount Li Sword Style.
The only Mount Li Sword Sect disciples that had entered the Garden of Zhou were Qi Jian and Liang Xiaoxiao.
The Mount Li elder had a vague conjecture, but he was unable to believe it. As a result, his voice trembled very heavily.
Liang Xiaoxiao looked at his martial uncle, and shook his head slowly but firmly.
The Mount Li elder understood what he meant. An expression of disbelief appeared on his face.
Liang Xiaoxiao was in the state of momentary recovery right before death. He was slightly more energetic than before, and his gaze moved slowly. When he saw Qi Jian in the distance, he paused slightly in a fashion that was hard to detect, before continuing his movement. The Mount Li elder and Zhu Luo sensed that, and even saw that in Liang Xiaoxiao’s gaze towards Qi Jian, there was self-blame, frustration, distress and sorrow.
The gazes of the people followed his gaze, and vaguely understood what he was looking for.
In the end, Liang Xiaoxiao’s gaze landed under a scholar tree.
The one under the scholar tree was the wolf tribe teenager.
Countless gazes also landed on his body.
Zhexiu’s eyes remained closed, as if he could not sense it.
“It’s him.” Zhuang Huanyu’s voice seemed a little dry. He said, “Wofu Zhexiu… is the demon traitor. He ambushed us in the Garden of Zhou. Senior Liang was taken advantage of in order to save me.”
Hearing that, the forest first fell into a deathly silence, before becoming an uproar.