With his dart attacks having failed, the shadowy figure revealed himself. He was clad in dark robe, which had become singed, while a hood and a black mask covered his face. His figure was tall and he walked forth with confidence. There was a smile on his face, which the mask hid. "You asked me who I am."

He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the two students. "I am Duan Xiren, the 'Sword Demon'."

"Sword Demon?", Feng asked. "I've heard that name before."

"He is one of the three Demon Disciples of the Demon King.", Xiao said. "I will face him."

Xiao channeled his internal energy into his palms and lashed out with the force of an avalanche. Xiren stood still almost to the last moment; he then moved to the left, dodging Xiao's palms. So, Xiao splintered the trunks of two peach trees that were in front of him instead. The sky was briefly obscured by a shower of peach blossoms fluttering to the ground.

Xiren clapped and laughed. "You are pretty fast, aren't you? Instead of punching me, you punched the trees."

"Why don't you try me?", Feng said and smiled confidently.

"I do hope you will provide me more of a challenge than your friend."

Xiren slashed three times; Feng blocked each slash. Xiren shouted and slashed his sword from his upper left straight downward. The slash was powerful and fast but Feng was too agile to be caught. A simple jump got him out of the way.

"Not bad.", Xiren said. "Not bad at all."

He then channeled his internal energy into his sword and rushed forward with overwhelming strength. Feng was able to block him twice, but he then got slashed across his chest. Although he retained his composure and tried to show no pain, the slash was pretty painful to him and he was bleeding.

Xiren sheathed his sword and said, "I do not even have to use my sword to beat you."

Xiren mustered his internal energy and directed it at Feng; a beam of energy was fired at him, but Feng managed to dodge it. He then rushed forward and thrust his sword. Xiren evaded the attack and punched his palm on Feng's chest. Feng vomited blood and was forced to retreat.

There was a look of surprise on Xiren's face and he gaped with astonishment. "You are still alive?"

Feng coughed and spitted some more blood before replying. "Yes. What is so weird about it?"

“Impossible...”, he murmured. “No one can survive my ‘Poison Palm’. Who are you?”

Feng grinned. “Qiang Feng is my name. It seems that your palm is not as strong as you thought.”

Fuming with anger, Xiren unsheathed his sword and charged at Feng with overwhelming force. Suddenly, a figure clad in white jumped in front of Feng and parried Xiren’s attack with his sword; it was none other than Master Xuan. As soon as his attack was parried, Xiren found himself under attack by both Xiao and Feng. He was barely able to avoid their blades and retreated by a few steps.

“You may have ruined my plan for now”, Xiren said, “but I will come back; I promise you that!”

He then used his internal energy to lift his sword and flew away on it. Xiao was going to pursue him but Master Xuan stopped him from doing so.

“You are not his match.”, Xuan said. “We may have been able to make him retreat, but he won’t be easily killed.”

While Xuan was talking, Feng was feeling strange. It was as if his entire body was burning and he felt overly energetic. “For some reason, I feel better now than before.”

Feng breathed as Xuan had instructed him and then directed his internal energy towards lifting his sword. To his surprise, the sword was actually lifted. He laughed heartily. “I can actually use my internal energy!”

Master Xuan too was surprised. It took a second or two for the fact that Feng managed to use his internal energy to sink in, even though it happened right before his eyes. “How did you manage to use your internal energy?”

“I do not know. I was able to use it right after after being punched by Xiren’s ‘Poison Palm’.”

“That probably means that you could not use your internal energy because you had been poisoned. When this poison and the poison of Xiren’s palm met, they counteracted each other and thus you both survived the palm attack and can now use your internal energy. That seems to be the only logical explanation.”

“Congrats!”, Xiao smilingly said. He then turned to Master Xuan and asked, “Why did this Demon come here?”

“He wanted to steal the ‘Magic Sword Sutra’. It is the treasure of our Sect and whoever learns it can become the No.1 swordsman in the world.”

“How come I’ve never heard about this book before?”, Xiao asked.

“No one has learned the Sutra for five hundred years and it is kept a secret. It is considered to be just an old legend by many, but I am sure that Xiren came here for it. The Demon King knows that by his own strength, he will not be able to defeat the Orthodox Sects and so he has dispatched his disciples to get the ‘Three Heavenly Texts’ of the Orthodox Sects. At least, that’s my understanding of the situation after the attack on Changsan Sect and the attack here.”

“Three heavenly texts...”, Feng said. “What are those texts?”

“The first is the ‘Five Elements Scroll’ of Changsan Sect. It was stolen by Yang Jiang. The second is the ‘Magic Sword Sutra’ of our Qingxao Sect. The third is the ‘Book of Supreme Power’ of Hongchang Sect. Those three books of the three Orthodox Sects are known as the ‘Three Heavenly Texts’. Thankfully, this time the Demons failed. Each one of those texts can give someone god-like powers. If one learns all three texts, he will become God on earth. Not even a million men would be able to stop someone with such powers.”

“If they already attacked Changsan and Qingxao Sects”, Feng said, “then their next target must be Hongchang Sect. We’ve got to warn them.”

“Indeed. But you must follow me to the Main Hall. We must inform the other Masters about what happened before taking action.”

Master Xuan went to notify the other Masters while Feng and Xiao waited outside the Main Hall. Once all the Masters had come to the Hall, Feng and Xiao were allowed to come in. They bowed before the Masters, who were sitting on their golden seats and arguing about the situation. Master Sheng with a wave of his hand signaled them to get up. He then said, “I am impressed. You two managed to last long enough against Xiren for Master Xuan to come and save you. Xiren is not known as ‘Sword Demon’ for nothing. He is an excellent swordsman and his ‘Poison Palm’ too is deadly.”

“We do not deserve such praise.”, Feng said.

“Indeed.”, Xiao added. “If it wasn’t for Master Xuan, we would have been killed.”

“No need to be so modest.”, Master Sheng said. “I have a mission for you; you should head to Hongchang Sect and inform them about the Demons’ plot.”

“Shouldn’t we send some more experienced students?”, Master Peng asked. “Feng has been in our Sect for only three weeks and despite his rapid progress, he does not have much experience yet. Xiao has been in the Sect for ten years and is capable but he too lacks experience and his skills are not top notch.”

“That is true.”, Master Xuan replied. “But I believe that we should not send away our most capable students right now. Xiren has threatened to come back, so we must be vigilant. We need our most experienced students to face him in case he attempts again to steal the ‘Magic Sword Sutra’. It must not fall in Demon hands. The Demons already have possession of the ‘Five Elements Scroll’. If they get the Sutra too, it will be catastrophic.”

“I agree with Master Xuan.”, Master Rong said. “Also, this mission will allow Feng and Xiao to gain experience about the world outside the Sect. I have confidence in their skills. They did manage to hold on their own against Xiren for a while.”

“That was the reasoning behind my decision.”, Master Sheng said. “You two should leave as soon as possible.”

“We will not fail you, Masters.”, Feng said.

Less than an hour later, Feng and Xiao had left behind Qingxao Sect and began descending the Qingxao mountain. The yellow shining sun started rising from the ground. It filled the sky with mighty colors of red and splashed the clouds with endless orange hued rays. Birds began chirping, singing a beautiful melody. The fragrance of mountain flowers filled the air.

“Why don’t we use our internal energy to fly to Hongchang Sect?”, Feng asked.

“It is too long away.”, Xiao replied.”I doubt either of us has enough internal energy to make such a long journey.”

“So, we will make the whole journey on foot?”

“No. There is a town nearby. We will buy two horses from there.”

Feng let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “Good. We need to make it to Hongchang Sect as soon as possible. The Demons may attack at any moment.”

“Indeed. By the way, there is a question I wanted to ask you since yesterday but did not find the chance to do so. You have been in our Sect for three weeks and yet you do not seem to be curious or anxious about your lost memories.”

Feng sighed. “I do not know why, but for some reason whenever I ask myself questions about my lost memories and my past, I feel as if I am better off not knowing the answer. Maybe my past life was awful and this is a way of my subconscious telling me to leave it behind.”

Feng and Xiao walked for about three hours before reaching the nearest town; Yi Town. Although called a town, it looked more like a large village. Most of the buildings were modest and made of wood. The two Qingxao students walked inside an inn, which was crude and simple to the extreme, with earthen walls and mud floors. They sat on a table and ordered some tea. Once the tea was brought, Xiao proceeded to leisurely sip it.

“There is nothing better than good tea.”, he said.

Feng, however, did not drink the tea. Instead he noticed that there was something weird about the waiter that brought them the tea. “The way he moves shows that he knows at least some martial arts. He also seems to be too muscled to be a simple waiter. I may be oversuspicious, but I do have a bad feeling about this.”

“Relax, just because he knows martial arts it does not mean that he is an enemy.”

Before Feng could reply, he noticed that the other costumers were collapsing on the ground, unconscious.

“What happe-”

Xiao suddenly felt sleepy and collapsed on the ground.

“Wake up!”, Feng shouted but Xiao did not reply. He then saw that the waiter was awake and smiling.

“Did you poison them?”

The waiter laughed. “Indeed. Do not worry, they are not dead. They will wake up in an hour or so. And they will blame the real waiter for the robbery.”

“Real waiter?”

“Yes, this is not my real face. I am the ‘Thousand Faces Robber’. I drugged the real waiter this morning and took his identity.”

Feng was curious as to why the robber even bothered telling him his identity and his plan. If he was in his place, he would have already attacked.

“And you are telling me all this because….”

“You will die. It is a shame not to tell to anyone my ingenious plan and since you will die, I saw no harm telling you about it.”

The robber unsheathed his sword. He then charged forward, sword raised, and chopped at Feng's thigh, but Feng jumped and dodged the blow. The robber attacked again and Feng leaped backwards. He grabbed his sword, which he had left on the table, somersaulted and thrust his weapon at the robber. The thrust was too fast to be avoided and the robber’s shoulder was stabbed. He screamed in pain and let his sword fall from his hands.

Feng pointed his sword at the robber’s neck and said, “Give me the antidote to wake them up or I shall kill you.”

“There is no antidote. They will wake up in about one hour.”

“Alright. Then I will take you to the local Magistrate.”

The robber’s face became ashen white and there was cold sweat on his forehead. “I am sure we can talk about this, don’t do anything rush.”

“I do not believe we have anything to talk about.”

Suddenly, a figure clad in green silk robe charged forward, sword in hand, and attacked Feng. Feng managed to parry the attack but the robber took the chance to escape the inn.