Rong Yueshan begged for mercy on Feng Mian’s behalf.

“You’re not wrong,” Pi Batian murmured. “Killing him would be far too painless for father and son both. I’ll cripple him and send him to the battlefront to serve as a meat shield.”

“You—Just kill me!” Feng Mian called out in agitation.

“Don’t worry, I’ll cripple you first. I just learned a wonderful technique for causing internal injuries, and you’ll be my first guinea pig.”

Following Pi Batian’s words came the particularly clear crack of bone, trailed almost immediately by a chilling scream of pain from Feng Mian.

“Now, now. That strike only broke your leg, and my next strike will distend your spiritual vortex, leaving you a cripple forever unable to cultivate.”

Just as Pi Batian made to strike at Feng Mian’s body, someone suddenly broke through the wall of the suite and defended against Pi Batian’s blow.

As his palm met Li Mo’s, Pi Batian felt an immense wave of spiritual energy rushing toward him, one that forced him to stumble a few steps back before he stabilized himself.

“Yun Ruoyan, Li Mo!” The two of them had appeared in front of Feng Mian.

“Long time no see, Pi Batian,” Li Mo greeted him.

“As they all say, good men don’t live long, but bad men live forever,” Yun Ruoyan quipped. Although both she and Li Mo had learned that Pi Batian was still alive, it was still shocking to see him in person. After all, they had seen his arm being cut off with their own eyes, and Pi Yan’s sword through his heart was a lethal blow.

“Ha, aren’t the two of you still going strong? But it’s only those who can survive until the end who will be the final victors.” Pi Batian’s gaze swept over Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo. “Where’s Zhuo Yifeng? Why didn’t he come to die with you?”

Pi Batian had suffered a few embarrassing losses to Zhuo Yifeng, and he was determined to kill all three of them.

“Come to die?” Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo both began to laugh. Li Mo sneered at Pi Batian disdainfully. “Die to whom? My wife and I can enter and leave the Pi city at our leisure.”

Pi Batian shouted, “Swordsmen, to me!”

Eight swordsmen jumped into the suite from outside the teahouse, each with their aura fully exposed. None among them were below the level of a first-rank sword saint. The suite wasn’t particularly large, and now it was completely filled—eight swordsmen surrounding Yun Ruoyan, Li Mo, and Feng Mian, along with Pi Batian and Rong Yueshan, standing behind the swordsmen.

“As expected, it was a trap,” Li Mo murmured.

Yun Ruoyan glanced around her. “A trap, but one we had to spring.”

Li Mo didn’t reply. He glanced at Pi Batian with narrowed eyes. “Was this all to lure us in?”

Pi Batian snickered. “The two of you are so adept at running away, so familiar with the Pi city and the Pi manor, that I had to devise a plan to make you stay put. It’s true that I don’t know how or when you entered the Pi city, but I was quite certain that you would be here—if not for Feng Mian, then at least for the women of the courtesan troupe.”

“So the reason you hung them up on the city gates was just to lure us here?!” Yun Ruoyan cried out.

“Exactly. I guessed that you would scale the guard tower and find out where their head was being kept, so I’ve been keeping those two women under hidden surveillance. From that, I discovered traces of your break-in and the fact that you saved one of them. Given the impending battle, I was certain that you would try to save Feng Mian, but I wasn’t confident of capturing the two of you within the manor itself.”

“So that’s why you used Young Master Feng to lure us out,” Li Mo added.

“Exactly. Now that the entire teahouse is swarming with Pi swordsmen, let’s see how the three of you are going to escape.” Pi Batian’s expression was cocky and conceited.

If they didn’t have to bring Feng Mian with them, it wouldn’t be impossible for the two of them to avoid capture. However, Feng Mian’s legs were broken, and it would be difficult for him to even stand. Wouldn’t it be great if she could keep him in her silver bracelet, just like Qiuqiu?

The moment that thought flashed through her mind, Qiuqiu chirped in her mind, “Mistress, there’s something that you haven’t been using. I think it could play an important role in this fight.”

Yun Ruoyan’s gaze swept through the pocket dimension until she noticed what Qiuqiu was referring to, and she began to smile. Then, she had Qiuqiu inform Li Mo of the news. He turned to Yun Ruoyan, and she nodded briefly, almost imperceptibly.

“Leave me behind,” Feng Mian croaked. He lay behind Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo, severely injured.

Yun Ruoyan turned back to him. Blood trickled out of the corner of his lips, signifying a rather serious level of internal injury. She knelt down and handed him a pill for his wounds, as well as a small object. “When we fight, tear this,” she whispered. [1]

Feng Mian took the object and nodded, and Yun Ruoyan once again stood up beside Li Mo.

Li Mo glanced askance at Yun Ruoyan, and she nodded. Only then did he turn to Pi Batian. “You think this enough to entrap us? Young Master Pi, we came prepared.”

“Oh? I look forward to seeing how prepared you’ve been.” He turned to his swordsmen and commanded, “Capture these three cultivators!”

The eight Pi swordsmen drew their weapons and began charging toward Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan.

“Now, Young Master Feng!” As Yun Ruoyan retrieved her Scarlet Eye, she called out to Feng Mian.

Feng Mian tore apart the scroll that Yun Ruoyan handed him, causing a flurry of spiritual energy to cocoon him. In the blink of an eye, Feng Mian disappeared within a ball of light.

“A teleportation scroll!” Pi Batian clearly hadn’t expected them to have such an ace up their sleeve.

Yun Ruoyan smiled gently. “I’ve never had a good opportunity to use it until now.” The first elder of Kongming Academy had made the scroll back on the Chenyuan continent, and this was the last of the scrolls that she had left. She had kept it in her silver bracelet, and if not for Qiuqiu’s reminder, she would have forgotten entirely about it.

“If there’s nothing else, Young Master Pi, we’ll be leaving now.” Li Mo’s sword traced a graceful arc in the air, and imposing sword aura instantly scattered the gathered cultivators. The furniture in the room cracked and splintered, and the walls came crashing down. As a path to the outside opened up, Li Mo pulled Yun Ruoyan up into the skies.

“Capture them!” Pi Batian pushed aside a beam that had almost landed on his head, then pointed at the fleeing Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan.

Yun Ruoyan turned back to see an ancient ring on Pi Batian’s hand, none other than Lin Qingchen’s spatial ring. Given the present circumstances, however, it was almost impossible to retrieve it. She gritted her teeth, forced herself to look away from the ring, and focused on her enemies.

The eight swordsmen all soared up into the air, chasing after Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan. Behind Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan continuously lobbed fireballs at the cultivators to get rid of them. None of them could rival Li Mo in terms of speed, and with Yun Ruoyan’s harassment, the two of them soon broke free from the pursuit.

Instead of immediately leaving the vicinity, however, they circled back to the Pi city once more, heading to a small alleyway near the teahouse, where a number of beggars gathered.

“Young Master Feng, we’re here to fetch you,” Yun Ruoyan whispered.

“I’m over here,” came a response from one corner of the alleyway. Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo walked closer to see Feng Mian trying desperately to stand amidst a pile of beggars. Because of the injury to his legs, however, it was ultimately Li Mo who had to drag him out.

Feng Mian was clothed in rags and looked particularly disheveled.

“Guards come by to check on the area in the evening, so I exchanged my attire with a beggar,” Feng Mian began. “If not for your teleportation scroll, Miss Yun, it would have been near-impossible for me to escape. I’ve only ever heard my father bring up the like, and I never thought I’d see or use one for myself.”

“It’s only a low-level teleportation scroll with a range of about a hundred meters, Young Master Feng. We hadn’t expected it to come in so handy either,” Yun Ruoyan replied. “We’ll take you from the Pi city immediately.”

Because of the short range of the teleportation scroll, it had never come in handy—until now.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo, along with Feng Mian and A Fei, who was waiting for them by the outskirts of the Pi city, rushed out of the eastern gate and rapidly began flying toward the Feng city. A Fei followed behind them on a white sword. As she turned back and saw the fifteen corpses of her sisters, tears streamed uncontrollably from her eyes. Perhaps not too long from now, her mistress, the woman she respected and loved above anyone else in the world, would join their ranks…

“When we return, we’ll send people over to take their corpses down,” Yun Ruoyan murmured by A Fei’s side, her eyes also tearing up. “Madam Hong—”

“I know what my mistress is like.” A Fei wiped at her tears. “She would rather die than leave her sisters behind.”

Yun Ruoyan nodded. “I have the deepest respect for her, but as for Feng Yicheng…”

1. Thought the Feilai Blade was going to make a reappearance for a moment…