98. A Covert Rescue at the Besieged West Gate

In the basement beneath the Hall of Nourishing Life, Ximen Qiuhuan caught sight of Xie Wuji running toward the hall through a narrow little window. He had never imagined that after a life of dissipation, someone would still come to rescue him in the end.

Tears streamed down Ximen’s face. “Good brother, you knew I’d been locked up, and you actually brought such a huge swarm of hornets to save me!”

What Ximen did not know was that Xie Wuji had also been forced to come with the hornets.

But after the hornets were scattered by Ding Desheng, Ding Xuanming’s condition was beyond miserable.

His clothes had been torn to shreds all over his body, and every inch of his skin was pitted and gouged, like a scalped head covered in bloody little craters, large and small.

Ding Xuanming was a man who cherished his appearance, and now he had been completely ruined from head to toe. The long streaks of white in his hair had also vanished entirely; at that moment, he had no hair, no beard, and no eyebrows.

He had become a frightful creature.

Paralyzed by the hornet venom, he could not move. Xie Wuji immediately pretended not to see him and walked over to the wall.

“Brother!” a faint voice came from the corner.

Xie Wuji glanced around everywhere, but saw nothing. He wondered if something was wrong with his ears.

“Under your feet, under your feet!”

The voice came again.

Xie Wuji looked down and saw a hole on the ground about the size of a brick, and within it, a pair of eyes were staring up at him.

“Brother Ximen?” Xie Wuji cried out.

“Come save me quickly! Those bastards want to pry the ancestral golden elixir of the Ximen family out of my mouth. I’d rather die than tell them, so they’ve placed me under house arrest. That bastard even said he would use me to frame you!” Ximen said.

Xie Wuji replied, “Then I need to find the entrance first. How am I supposed to save you?”

“Go to the woodshed. There’s a downward passage in the woodshed in this courtyard. It leads to a secret chamber. There are all sorts of things in there too. I bet you’ll be surprised when you see them!” said Ximen.

Xie Wuji no longer had time to worry about anything else. Saving a life came first, and he also had to prove his innocence. At once, he vaulted over the wall into the courtyard of the Hall of Nourishing Life.

Fortunately, nearly everyone in the courtyard had gone to the main hall to drive off the hornets, leaving the yard almost empty.

Xie Wuji found the woodshed. He opened the door and looked inside at once, only to discover that bundles of dry firewood were covering something on the floor. He moved the firewood aside and found a wooden board.

Beneath the board was a hidden passage. Xie Wuji entered it, only to find cages lining the way one after another. The cages were very narrow, and inside them were several piles of bones.

It was clear this place had existed for some time, for the webs everywhere proved that it had not been cleaned in a very long while.

“This way, this way!” Ximen’s voice kept urging him on.

Xie Wuji followed the sound and found Ximen imprisoned in a cell. He said, “We’ll talk after we get out. I’ll pull you out first.”

“Right. Sorry to trouble you, brother.”

Xie Wuji went over and opened the cage. Since it was made of iron bars, it posed little difficulty for him. Ximen’s wrists, however, were bound in shackles, which was why he could not free himself.

As Xie Wuji brought him out and reached the doorway of the woodshed, he saw a tall figure appear before him. He had been discovered.

“You are...” Xie Wuji looked at the person in front of him and found him vaguely familiar. “Yan’er?”

At that very moment, several old men arrived as well. Xie Wuji took one look and saw that, apart from the unfortunate Ding Xuanming, the other six of the Seven Elders had all gathered there.

“Good brother, it seems I’ve harmed you,” Ximen said with a bitter smile.

“Calling yourself brothers with a flower thief, and even helping an outsider injure one of our elders—Xie Wuji, you deserve death!” Ding Desheng’s eyes were blazing with fury as he gritted his teeth, wishing he could tear Xie Wuji limb from limb on the spot.

Xie Wuji thought to himself that things were bad. With six elders blocking him now, there would be no way out.

At that moment, he dearly wished his master would appear. But his master was not some all-seeing, all-hearing deity; there was no way he could be here every moment. Xie Wuji would have to find a way himself.

“I say... you are an elder of a great sect, yet you’ve gone to such lengths to scheme against a mere junior disciple like me. Isn’t that a little too troublesome? If I displease you, why not just kill me outright? Why keep using these underhanded tricks?” Xie Wuji said as he shielded Ximen behind him.

Ximen leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Brother, I’ve got a false tooth in my pocket. It’s a storage spirit item, and it holds a good many of my pills. Take it out; it might be useful.”

Xie Wuji nodded. Keeping his body between Ximen and the others, he reached into Ximen’s inner pocket and indeed found a false tooth, apparently an incisor.

To fashion a storage spirit item into the shape of a front tooth was rather a clever idea.

Ding Desheng’s forehead veins stood out in knots. He said, “Men, seize Xie Wuji for me! This time, let Dongmen Yong see what kind of disciple he has raised—he actually joined forces with outsiders to injure an elder of our sect!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding disciples had already sealed the woodshed off completely, leaving not a single gap.

Baili Qingyan could not bear to watch what would follow, but he could not help it. On one side stood his master; on the other, his friend. By comparison, a teacher for a day was a father for life, and the master was clearly more important. Yet he also did not want anything to happen to Xie Wuji.

Xie Wuji quietly held the false tooth and slipped it into Ximen’s hand, while Ximen, with a subtle motion, passed him a small medicine bottle.

“Smash it,” Ximen said.

Xie Wuji clenched his teeth and hurled the bottle to the ground at once.

With a soft poof, smoke and dust surged upward. Xie Wuji was just about to make his escape when the Fourth Elder suddenly thrust out both palms, scattering the haze with a single strike, and his palms slammed straight into Xie Wuji’s chest.

Xie Wuji had never imagined the man’s inner force would be so overwhelming. He was sent flying instantly, his back crashing hard against the wooden doors of the woodshed, which shattered into pieces.

He coughed, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

The Fourth Elder said coldly, “Trying those low-grade tricks again? Xie Wuji, you are full of schemes. This old man and the others naturally had to be on guard against you.”

“Heh heh heh, but you’ve already fallen for it!” Ximen laughed. “You think that was just an ordinary smoke bomb? Wrong. That was poison. This poison is the Ximen family’s supreme secret drug, Seven-Day Blood-Dissolving Powder. If you don’t get the antidote within seven days, all of you will melt into a pool of filthy blood!”

Ximen Qiuhuan laughed heartily.

The Fourth Elder stood dumbfounded. “You traitorous wretch, I... I’ll kill you!”

“Go ahead and kill us. If you kill us, or even lay another finger on my Brother Xie, I won’t give you the antidote. Then every last one of you here can be buried with us!” Ximen snarled.

Ding Desheng growled, “Xie Wuji, make Ximen Qiuhuan hand over the antidote, and I’ll leave you an intact corpse!”

Ximen Qiuhuan said, “Then clear a path for us. As long as we’re allowed to leave the Hall of Nourishing Life, we’ll give you the antidote!”

Ding Desheng was not stupid. He could not allow Ximen Qiuhuan to leave alive. If Ximen saw the sect master and then revealed everything Ding Desheng had done, his standing within the sect would likely plummet.

The best solution was to kill Ximen, eliminate all witnesses, and pin every crime on Xie Wuji. That way, Xie Wuji would shoulder the blame for everything, while Ding Desheng would emerge unscathed.

So Ximen had to die. Xie Wuji could not be allowed to die just yet, but though he could not be killed, his cultivation had to be ruined.

“An outcast flower thief like you dares to bargain with this old man? Everyone, do not worry. There must be an antidote to this poison. Once we have subdued this little thief Ximen and searched his body, we will not fear failing to find it!”

“Yes!”

Hearing Ding Desheng’s words, the others became animated as well. The six elders each took a position, preparing to attack the two of them.

If they truly fought now, Xie Wuji knew he had no chance of winning. But just then, an idea flashed through his mind.

“Ximen, let me ask you something...”