The third disciple Yunxi stepped out of the group of Haitang Jian Pai followers, dragging Zhu Baique into the center of the arena. Zhu Baique's condition was not good, she had been beaten, and her face was pale and swollen. Some of her clothes were torn, it seemed she'd been tortured by her seniors.
"This daughter of Zhu Zixing was handed over to our Haitang Jian Pai when she was a child, in order to study well to be a virtuous human being," Yunxi spoke to everyone. "But instead, she secretly learned heretic arts to one of Yumen's guardians, becoming a traitor to our sect. She had already received half the punishment according to our Haitang Jian Pai rules last night."
"Torturing a girl is half the punishment," Huang Yu immediately said, his tone devoid of emotion, knowing Yuan Wancui was deliberately displaying Zhu Baique's condition in such a way just to provoke Jinshui, "Haitang Jian Pai is no better than demonic sects."
"It is necessary to act ruthlessly against you from the heretic sect," Yuan Wancui said. "Half the remaining punishment will be carried out here."
"Yuan Zhangmen, I see that this girl is still young, maybe when she was taken by Yumen's guardian she was just a child. I'm sure, as long as she gets a good education, she still has a chance to improve herself," a young man among the guests spoke. "Beating her like that is not necessary."
The young man was dressed like a scholar, his face was handsome and his tone was polite, his voice contained a sense of thrilling effect to everyone. Everyone was looking at him and Haitang Jian Pai ladies were quiet for a while.
"My mother handed me to Haitang Jian Pai when I was a child, hoping that I would become one of Yuan Zhangmen's disciples," Zhu Baique spoke bravely. "But you all only think of me as a slave, never in the slightest treat of me as a human. Only Huling Shifu was kind to me. Too bad Huling Shifu left too soon. Now I fell again into your hands, forced to betray my brother and sister, but also treated as a convict. Really don't know, what kind of righteous sect are you."
"Yuan Wancui, I know you hate me so much because three years ago I killed nine of your sect's elders," Jinshui said. "Hua Jinshui will take all the responsibility. You can charge me those nine lives, no need to involve another Yumen descendant."
"Your head only will not be enough," Yuan Wancui replied, "after all, you are the son of the ruthless demon Wu Youwei. You don't deserve to live in the first place. Today if you kill yourself here, I can consider sparing your friends. If not, then I will really finish Yumen to the root."
"Yuan Zhangmen, you talk more than me, how boring." Lin Jixuan said impatiently. He immediately reached out, pulled the black cloth covering the faces of the two captives, then threw them to the ground. "Eh, they're not real Yumen descendants," he said loudly.
The people who were there were silent, looking at the faces of the two prisoners who were kneeling in the center of the arena. Zhou Sangong and his followers were the first to recognize one of these two people, who was a woman. Some of his followers were pale, Zhou Sangong himself seemed to be glaring in shock.
A young girl came running from the crowd to the center of the arena, went straight to Lin Jixuan, and hit him on the arm.
"Lin Jixuan, why did you catch my sister?"
The young girl who hit Lin Jixuan was Yanzi, the poisonous little girl who had been following him since their first encounter on Bai Tu Shanzhuang. Last night they parted ways when Lin Jixuan went to catch some captives, and this morning Yanzi also just watched everything from behind the crowd with Qin Liangjie and the others.
"Your sister?" Lin Jixuan asked in confusion. "How do I know she is your sister? Your sister Jiuwei Bian Zhou Xiangnu is famous for her nine-tailed whip, I didn't see her carrying a nine-tailed whip."
Yanzi stomped his foot in annoyance, then left him.
"Yanzi," Zhou Sangong called her. "Take your sister here, now."
Yanzi returned to the center of the arena, unwillingly, and she did not immediately approach Zhou Xiangnu to let her go. Presumably, because her older sister of hers bullied her a lot when she was a child, she wanted to keep her as a captive for a bit longer.
Meanwhile, Xu Qiao approached the other captive, the male one, and recognized him.
"Dashixiong," she called.
"Qiao-er," Jinshui quickly grasped her hand before she came any closer to the captive and freed him, as it would give Bao Xinfei or Yuan Wancui a chance to catch her and use her as hostage.
Bao Xinfei also quickly realized that the male captive apparently was Xu Chenghai's first disciple, Yang Lei. She immediately released the captive's mute acupuncture point, asking him, "Yang Lei, how did you get to be here?"
"I don't know," Yang Lei replied in panic, "I was with Zhou Guniang last night, and suddenly someone knocked us unconscious. When I woke up, I had been brought here, and I heard people say that I am the descendant of Yumen."
"Dashijie, who is he?" Yunxi asked Bao Xinfei.
"He is Chenghai's first disciple, Yang Lei," said Bao Xinfei. She had already untied Yang Lei and pulled him up. Yang Lei quickly walked over to Zhou Xiangnu and released her. Instead of saying thank you, the fierce girl slapped him once hard, then ran away. Yang Lei didn't care about anything and quickly followed her.
Xu Qiao was about to call him. Bao Xinfei no longer acknowledged her as the daughter of Huofeng Lou's late owner, but Yang Lei would be able to elaborate on it. But she realized that it would be pointless. She then retreated to Huang Yu's side, letting Yang Lei go after Zhou Xiangnu.
At that moment from the back of Haitang Jian Pai's entourage came a voice. Yunxi was just about to beat up Zhu Baique for giving away two useless captives, Huang Yu had already flicked a chess piece at Zhu Baique, releasing her acupuncture points. The descendant of Huling snatched her flute that was in Yunxi's hand, then used it to hit Yunxi using the energy given by her master. Yunxi was instantly thrown away, almost hitting several of her sisters who were standing not far away, and she thought she was dead.
"Zhu Jiejie, I once went to great lengths to save her when she was poisoned," Yanzi protested, "if you just killed her, my work back then was wasted."
"I didn't kill her, only destroyed her pure energy," said Zhu Baique, and she was already standing beside Jinshui.
At the very same time, a shadowy figure floated past Haitang Jian Pai members, heading straight for Jinshui. It was Li Qian. He had managed to free himself, completely unharmed or tortured by Yuan Wancui's disciples. He even brought a young woman and a small child with him, both looking thin and pale but quite healthy. Those were Nan Xinglie and her daughter.
From the line behind the Wine Valley group, a one-armed young man ran into the center of the arena, directly approaching the woman Li Qian was carrying and the small child with her. He was Li Qian's brother Li Jue.
Li Jue and Nan Xinglie had been separated for three years. The two years old Ruo-er was their daughter. This little girl was very beautiful, her eyes looked at her one-armed father with a strange look, then she hid her face in her mother's arms.
"Ruo-er, call him father," her mother asked but the girl was scared. That little girl was taken by Yuan Wancui disciples when she was a baby and only saw her mother several times since. While her mother was still a stranger, her one-armed father was a total outsider.
"We have time, don't worry about it," Li Jue said. "Let's give the Yumen descendants a chance to settle things here, then find a quiet place to talk things over."
Nan Xinglie nod her head and took her daughter following Li Jue back to the back row.
"I'm Li Qian, the descendant of Ducao," Li Qian introduced himself to the crowd. "They separated me, Liuxin Meimei, and Zhu Guniang," he said to Jinshui personally, "I only managed to take away Nan Guniang and her daughter. I don't know where Liuxin Meimei was taken."
"It's okay," said Jinshui, "we will find her."
"I'm Qin Liangjie, the descendant of Menggui," Qin Liangjie stepped out of the crowd and joined his friends.
"Six are here, where are the other two?" the handsome scholar who had asked Yuan Wancui to spare Zhu Baique spoke, "There were eight guardians of Yumen, weren't they supposed to have eight descendants as well?"
"Sorry I'm late," someone's voice gave the answer to his question. A second later two white shadowy figures had already floated down from the top of the cliff, their style was exquisite. They gracefully landed on Qin Liangjie's side at the center of the arena. "Liao Xian, Baigu's descendant," he introduced himself.
Liao Xian of course came with his cousin who was also his future wife, Yin Xiuchen.
"Yuan Zhangmen, the seven of us are already here, only one remains. If I'm not mistaken, she is still in your hands." Huang Yu said to Yuan Wancui. "You want to let her go, or do we need to pick her up ourselves?"
"The descendants of Yumen," Yuan Wancui said in a deep voice, watching one by one the faces of the seven youths standing in a row before her, making sure that she would not forget any of them for the rest of her life. "Finally you all showed up."
"Yuan Zhangmen, you know that today we Yumen descendants will gather here, and you invite a number of figures from the martial world to join you," Zhu Baique said, "you told them you would prevent the return of our Yumen Jiao, but I know this is all just because of your personal business because Jinshui already killed nine of elders three years ago. It's because of you Haitang Jian Pai people who are incompetent that thirteen years ago many of your seniors died at the hands of our predecessors."
"I killed your elders because you attacked first, killed my master Moying, locked me up for months, and gave me poison," Jinshui continued, "That's right, my dispute with Haitang Jian Pai is personal. It has nothing to do with the rest of the martial world."
Seven of the eight descendants had all prepared their weapons, and immediately engaged in a battle with Yuan Wancui and her followers, including Bao Xinfei. Xu Qiao, Yin Xiuchen, and Yanzi retreated backward, joining their other friends who were there.
The two brothers of the Wine Valley came forward, expecting to help the ladies of Haitang Jian Pai, but the handsome scholar stopped them. "You two have heard for yourself, they are having personal matters," the scholar said. "None of us should interfere."
Several other figures from various sects and fighters who hold their grudge against Yumen also wanted to involve in the fight in the center of the arena, but Prince Yi's two bodyguards, Wang Chun and Sima Yi Sheng, had already prepared. They were repelling anyone else who seek a fight. The atmosphere was a bit chaotic for a moment, but the two bodyguards, as well as the handsome scholar, managed to control everything.
"Qiao-er Jiejie, who is he?" Yanzi asked Xu Qiao, pointing at the scholar.
"I don't know," said Xu Qiao, "his eyes were always on Zhu Guniang. Perhaps, he is an old friend of hers."
In the arena, it seemed that the main disciples of Yuan Wancui had already formed some kind of formation. Swords clasped in each other's hands, they surrounded tightly, trying to keep Qin Liangjie and Zhu Baique away from the others first, then also forcing Li Qian and Liao Xian to scatter, finally pushing Lin Jixuan to step into Xianjing Wang's chair.
The formations set up by the Yuan Wancui disciples aimed at scattering their opponent's strength, and this tactic was quite successful. Qin Liangjie and Zhu Baique were trapped on two different sides. Qin Liangjie was however the weakest of them all, apart from the fact that Menggui's inner energy was only the result of dozens of years of training, not decades like the others, and also because he himself had not trained well for the last few years. Zhu Baique was injured, and she wasn't able to control her emotions from being tortured all night. Both of them seem to be getting cornered by their opponents.
Jinshui fought Yuan Wancui alone, Huang Yu fought Bao Xinfei. Under normal circumstances, Jinshui and Yuan Wancui's abilities were actually balanced, while Bao Xinfei was slightly better than Huang Yu only before she lost her left arm. Three years ago Jinshui could easily kill the nine Haitang elders of Jian Pai because he allowed himself to be consumed by anger, causing his inner energy to explode and he did not hesitate to show ruthlessness.
But now, Jinshui knew that he couldn't just use Moying's energy and kill everyone as he pleased because there were so many people who wanted to see what the true descendants of Yumen looked like. He used the xuanlong sword to deal with Yuan Wancui's twin swords, and it was the twin swords he was aiming for. He knew if he can subdue that weapon, then maybe he would be able to end today's dispute without increasing people's hatred for Yumen.
"Shifu, I'll help you," Bao Xinfei suddenly abandoned her opponent. She had recently lost an arm, even though her ability should be at least equal to Huang Yu's now, but that new handicapped condition cost her at least one level. She had no grudge against Huang Yu, her hatred was towards Jinshui, and today she was determined to kill Jinshui.
Huang Yu certainly knew of this tactic, he didn't let her and rushed towards her, blocking every time the madam was about to seize the opportunity when Jinshui clashed swords with Yuan Wancui by attacking her continuously.
Anyone could now see that the master and disciple of Haitang Jian Pai did not hesitate to use cunning methods against the primary descendant of Yumen, while Jinshui and Huang Yu instead showed their friendship, protected each other, and cooperated fairly.
Meanwhile, Zhu Baique vented her frustration on Yunli and Yunxue by snatching their weapons and breaking them, about to smash them both in the head with the flute in her hand. Qin Liangjie couldn't stop Huling descendant, but by that time Li Qian had grabbed Yunli and Yunxue both, pushing them aside.
"We are not supposed to kill anyone today," Li Qian reminded Zhu Baique.
"We are not supposed to kill, but playing a little shouldn't matter." Lin Jixuan commemorated his words, he purposely grabbed the shoes of two of Haitang Jian Pai disciples who were dodging his folding fan's attack, then threw them to a faraway place. Two others attacked after, and the wayward young master casually grabs their hairpins, blowing their hair loose.
"Lin Jixuan," Liao Xian pretended to rebuke him, but he used the energy given by Baigu to lock up a number of his opponents, giving Lin Jixuan an opportunity to seize their beloved swords, then threw them at Zhou Sangong and the Wansui Gu people.
There was a chaotic situation. Half of Yuan Wancui's followers had lost their weapons, some were taken by Lin Jixuan, the rest were broken by Li Qian, and some were dropped by Liao Xian. But one might say that none of those women were actually injured by the hands of the Yumen descendants during the fight.
Jinshui once again dodged Bao Xinfei's attack which nearly broke his ribs, he took the opportunity to purposely spin his sword around Bao Xinfei's one remaining arm, tore off the sleeve, then with the hilt of the sword to strike the madam, forcing her to retreat. Huang Yu was already impatient, he quickly flicked his chess piece, hitting the madam's acupuncture points until she was immobilized.
Yuan Wancui seemed to be exhausted too, starting to despair as she watched her disciples lose their weapons one by one. Her attacks became more and more chaotic, and her sweat seemed to flow, something she had never shown before in any fights. She knew the descendants had no intention of killing her, nor did they intend to give her an honorable death. When she saw Bao Xinfei being petrified, she naturally drew her weapon, not wanting to be embarrassed even more.
"Yuan Zhangmen, you lost," Jinshui told her blatantly.
"The descendants of Yumen have the inner energy given by the protectors, their strength is far higher than one can imagine." Yuan Wancui spoke, not willing to admit that she had lost to the youth, but still willing to admit defeat by the guardians of Yumen. "Hua Jinshui, considering that you haven't done anything that threatens the peace of the martial world, I can consider today's fight to be a personal debt settlement. Another day, if I hear you repeat Yumen's past atrocities, then I will pit my soul against you, won't stop until one of us dies."
"If Yuan Zhangmen is willing to return Liuxin Meimei to us, Hua Jinshui will be very grateful," Jinshui said. "Liuxin Meimei is the daughter of the noble Xianjing Wang, as well as the descendant of Shuiyao Shishu. While her father is here, Jinshui hopes Yuan Zhangmen doesn't make things difficult for him."
Those who heard his words had mixed reactions, on average they were surprised to hear that one of the descendants was a junzhu. Xianjing Wang stroked his chin with an emotionless expression on his face, and no one could guess what this old prince was thinking. Liuxin was his daughter, and no one could tell if he knew anything about the descendant of Shuiyao.
"Liuxin Junzhu has the intention of studying religion, and I've invited several nuns to give her some lectures," Yuan Wancui replied without looking at Xianjing Wang. "When the lesson is finished, we'll take junzhu home. Hua Jinshui, I'm sure you won't fight with her father."
Xianjing Wang came forward to speak to Yuan Wancui and Jinshui in the center of the arena, his two bodyguards following faithfully while guarding him. The old prince smiled briefly at Jinshui and the others, showing admiration for the youths.
"Yuan Zhangmen, it's a good thing you're willing to invite some nuns for Liuxin to study religion. I won't get in the way," the old prince spoke calmly. "Let's just say, in two days I will leave this place and return to the capital. At that time Liuxin should come along, and she doesn't need to trouble you have to take her all the way to our wangfu."
Yuan Wancui didn't answer, turned around and put away her twin sword, and walked away. Xu Qiao approached Bao Xinfei and handed her a coat to cover her sleeve which was torn by Jinshui's sword. Bao Xinfei looked at her poignantly, not saying a word. Yunhe took her over from Xu Qiao, and assisted her away.
Zhou Sangong and Wansui Gu's people saw them off, quickly also withdrew, and left the place without saying much. Jiuya Ersheng along with his followers and a few members of the minor sects also quietly slipped away, only a few people left who would also not dare to act on the Yumen descendants who were so shrewd.
Xianjing Wang was not offended by Yuan Wancui's arrogancy. He turned to Jinshui and the others.
"Kewei Shaoyingxiong (Young Heroes), benwang (I, prince) is a person who really likes young talent, and I also like to make friends with anyone, especially you all have a good relationship with my daughter, benwang really appreciates it," he said. "Benwang stays in Yunshan Kezhan nearby. If you don't mind, I welcome all of you to visit me there and we shall have some drinks together."
Even Xianjing Wang showed his support for the Yumen descendants, the rest of the people present there didn't dare to say anything, just looked at each other and secretly whispered to one another.
"Thank you Wangye, Hua Jinshui will definitely come to fulfill your invitation."
They agreed that the Liuxin problem no longer needed to be worried about. Jinshui then saluted Xianjing Wang before turning around and walking away from the place followed by Xu Qiao, Huang Yu, and the others.