Chapter 262: Killed by Niu Youdao!

The tall, thin man staggered backward several steps. At last, he planted his sword in the ground for support and slowly sank to his knees in the sand. The dozen cultivators from the three sects stared in shock. A man that terrifying had actually been finished off just like that? A black cloak flashed.

Niu Youdao flew over and landed in front of the kneeling man. He looked him up and down, then asked, "You were injured?"

There was no sarcasm in the question, nor was he stating the obvious. He was asking whether the man had been injured earlier beneath the sand. Otherwise, even Niu Youdao himself could not believe an expert of this caliber could have been brought down so easily. Blood dripped from the corners of the tall man's mouth. He slowly raised his head and looked at Niu Youdao.

He had already known before that final exchange that he had no strength left to fight. His intention had been to unleash one last all-out strike, terrify everyone into hesitating, and then escape while they were still wary. Who could have guessed that Niu Youdao would not give him the slightest chance? The instant he showed even a hint of weakness, Niu Youdao acted decisively and cut off his path to survival. One hand slowly rose. He pointed at Niu Youdao.

"You..."

The raised hand trembled twice, then dropped limply. His head sagged against his chest. One hand still rested on his sword. His body did not fall.

He remained kneeling quietly in the sand, kneeling quietly in the wind, while blood dripped endlessly from his mouth like beads from a broken string. The sea of sand stretched without end, still strange and eerie beneath the night sky.

The lonely moon shone down on Niu Youdao standing there with his black cloak whipping in the wind, and on the man kneeling before him with one hand resting on his sword. Niu Youdao remained silent. He did not know what the man had wanted to say at the end. For a long time, he simply stared down at him. Even when sand scorpions began swarming in again from every direction, he did not move. The surviving cultivators from the three sects rushed over.

Some formed a defensive ring around them, attacking the sand scorpions and preventing the creatures from getting close. Others looked at the kneeling corpse, then at the silent Niu Youdao, still finding the sight difficult to believe. Anyone who was not a fool understood that the tall man's strength had been terrifying.

His final strike had certainly been so monstrous only because he had poured his entire cultivation into it, but that alone was enough to prove how powerful he was. Even if the whole group joined forces, they might not have been able to withstand him.

Among all three sects, including the sect leaders and elders, there probably was not a single person who could match him. No wonder he had refused to flee even after seeing so many reinforcements arrive and had continued pursuing Niu Youdao. With ability like that, he truly had every reason to be fearless. And precisely because of that, everyone found it difficult to accept what they were seeing. Such a formidable expert had really been killed just like this?

They all knew perfectly well it was not because of their coordinated attack. They had not even managed to get close to him before being injured. Two of them had been killed outright by a single strike. The man's strength could easily be imagined. Obviously, he had already been injured before coming out from underground. Seriously injured. The reason for those injuries was not difficult to infer. That was what made the cultivators' gazes toward Niu Youdao so uncertain.

With Niu Youdao's cultivation, could he really have injured someone like this? It seemed almost unbelievable. Yet they could think of no other explanation.

"To send someone like this means they were absolutely determined to kill you. Who could possibly dispatch an expert of this caliber to assassinate you?" someone asked.

Niu Youdao answered with a question of his own. "Does anyone recognize him?"

Everyone shook their heads.

One man said, "He may not be one of the very top experts, but with strength like this, he definitely isn't some nameless nobody. Compared against the Golden Core Ranking, he should be able to place within the top three hundred."

Niu Youdao reached out, gripped the hilt protruding from the tall man's chest, and pulled his sword free. Then, with a casual sweep of the blade, he cut off the man's head.

He raised his face toward the moon and said slowly, "Take the head with us. Have people identify it and see whether anyone recognizes him. We shouldn't remain here. Clean up and let's go."

He flicked the blood from the sword, drew it beneath the wide folds of his black cloak, and sheathed it with a metallic clang. The others quickly began cleaning up the scene.

Seeing someone collecting the bodies of two disciples from the three sects, Niu Youdao looked around, counted the people, and noticed several were missing.

He walked over and asked, "What are our casualties?"

The man gathering the bodies sighed. "Originally, none. But when that fellow came out just now, he killed two of us in a single strike. Everyone else was injured to some degree."

Niu Youdao looked left and right. "What about the prisoner? You didn't capture even one alive?"

The man replied, "We did capture one just now, but when we went to intercept that fellow, no one had time to watch him. He was lying on the ground and the sand scorpions got him alive. But don't worry. We already captured two prisoners earlier and sent them back to Boundless Pavilion."

Niu Youdao finally relaxed. He had taken such an enormous risk and paid such a heavy price. At least the objective had been achieved.

Before long, the group swept over the swarming sand scorpions, rising and falling as they rapidly vanished into the boundless night. The corpses left behind were immediately covered by the creatures.

The sand scorpions tore into them voraciously. They did not even spare the bodies of their own kind. Bones were crushed and chewed apart. By the time one night had passed, not a trace would remain. The desert would forget everything that had happened here tonight... Niu Youdao's purpose had been achieved.

There was no longer any need for the group to hide their movements, and they no longer dared let Niu Youdao take risks alone. They traveled together, flew directly to the top of the black mountain, and entered Boundless Pavilion.

"Master Dao, are you all right?"

Gongsun Bu had been pacing anxiously inside a pavilion while waiting. The moment he saw Niu Youdao, he hurried over to ask.

"We'll talk later," Niu Youdao replied from beneath the black cloak.

The group strode through Boundless Pavilion. Quite a few passersby watched the hooded man being surrounded and protected in the middle of so many cultivators. They went first to Liuxian Sect's shop. The moment everyone stepped through the door, they froze. Even Niu Youdao, slowly pushing back his hood, stared in surprise.

Shopkeeper Pan stood there completely unharmed, his expression grave as he cupped his hands. "Master Dao, I've heard what happened. Someone impersonated me!"

Niu Youdao could not help glancing at the man's arms.

He clearly remembered cutting one arm off the earlier "Shopkeeper Pan."

One of the cultivators who had escorted the prisoners back first said, "He really was an impostor. His disguise technique is extraordinarily sophisticated. Even someone familiar with Shopkeeper Pan couldn't tell the difference. He could pass for the real man completely. This group is anything but ordinary. The impostor is being held inside."

"Take me to see him." Niu Youdao gestured.

"Please." The real Shopkeeper Pan immediately invited him in.

The group went through the shop and entered a room in the rear. Inside were two injured men under guard and receiving treatment. One was missing most of a shoulder. The other had lost an arm. The moment Niu Youdao appeared, shock spread across both men's faces. They seemed unable to believe he was still alive.

"Master Dao, this is the man who impersonated Shopkeeper Pan." The cultivator who had returned earlier pointed at the middle-aged man missing most of his shoulder.

Then he produced a mask that looked as though it had been peeled from someone's face and held it over the prisoner's features for comparison. Niu Youdao took the mask and examined it. Its workmanship was extraordinarily refined.

He gave a cold snort. "You really do have ability. To make something this convincing in such a short time... Speak. Who are you people?"

He casually tossed the mask back.

The false "Shopkeeper Pan" chuckled. "You really are hard to kill. Even that wasn't enough to finish you."

His voice had changed as well. This was probably his real voice.

"Show them the head." Niu Youdao raised a hand.

Someone behind him immediately stepped forward and held up the severed head for the two prisoners to see. Both men's expressions changed violently.

The fake "Shopkeeper Pan" blurted, "With just you people? Impossible!"

The two clearly refused to believe the tall man could have fallen to this group. Niu Youdao did not bother arguing. He turned and strode away. On the way back through the rear hall, he suddenly stopped and pressed a hand to his chest.

"Cough, cough."

A mouthful of blood burst from him.

The earlier sneak attack from the false "Shopkeeper Pan" had not left him completely unharmed.

There was a significant difference between their cultivation levels. At such close range, that surprise palm had already injured him. Later, underground, Niu Youdao had collided head-on with the tall man twice and suffered further shocks. If the intervening sand had not absorbed part of the force, his injuries would have been even more serious. He had simply suppressed everything until now. Before reaching safety, he had not wanted to reveal any sign that he was injured.

At this point, however, the discomfort had become impossible to hold back, and he finally coughed the blood out.

The people beside him were startled and immediately reached out to support him. "You're injured?"

"It's nothing. A minor injury." Niu Youdao waved their hands away.

After coughing up the blood, his breathing felt considerably easier.

"Water."

The real Shopkeeper Pan personally hurried off to fetch some. Niu Youdao took a mouthful, rinsed his mouth, then turned and spat out the bloody foam so no one outside would notice anything unusual.

He returned the cup to Shopkeeper Pan and said, "Hold the two prisoners separately and interrogate them separately. You must pry their mouths open."

"Also, don't allow anyone to approach them casually. Even our own people must be checked carefully. Their disguise techniques are extremely advanced. Don't give anyone an opportunity to slip in and silence them."

"Yes!" people on both sides answered.

"Bring that head with us. Linghu Qiu has seen and heard a great deal. He may recognize the man." Niu Youdao tilted his head toward Gongsun Bu, then left.

The people who had secretly followed him no longer needed to remain hidden. Gongsun Bu and one representative from each of the three sects accompanied Niu Youdao back to the Heavenly Lake Inn. Watching the group depart, several people inside Liuxian Sect's shop turned back.

The genuine Shopkeeper Pan asked the man beside him, "Senior Brother, whose head was that? Niu Youdao seemed to place great importance on it, and those two prisoners reacted strangely as well."

The senior brother who had participated in tonight's operation sighed. "That man was incredibly strong. I doubt anyone in all of Liuxian Sect could match him. The fact that we came back alive was pure luck."

Shopkeeper Pan was shocked. "Then who had the ability to take his head?"

"Niu Youdao killed him!" the senior brother replied heavily.

"Niu Youdao could kill him?" Shopkeeper Pan's face filled with disbelief.

"I don't understand all the details myself, but he truly did die at Niu Youdao's hands. Record what happened and send a message to the sect immediately..." The senior brother then gave a detailed account of the night's events.

At the entrance to the Heavenly Lake Inn, Black Peony finally could not remain inside any longer. She paced back and forth by the door, craning her neck into the distance.

When she saw Gongsun Bu, and then the figure wrapped in a black cloak, the weight in her heart finally dropped away.

She hurried forward. "Master Dao, are you all right?"

"Put them in rooms next to ours." Niu Youdao pointed toward the people accompanying him and gave Black Peony the instruction, then strode inside on his own.

Black Peony had no choice but to take Gongsun Bu and the others to the counter and arrange rooms. The moment Niu Youdao returned to his own room, he shut the door. He did not even have time to remove the cloak.

He went straight into the smaller inner room, released a Moon Butterfly for light, bent over a copper basin, and began coughing repeatedly.

"Cough, cough..."

Specks of bloody foam splattered into the basin. Once his breathing steadied, he took out a wax-sealed pellet and crushed the shell. He removed the medicine for internal injuries, swallowed it, then stood there silently circulating his spiritual power to regulate his breathing. The outer door opened. Black Peony had returned. Seeing light inside the smaller room, she walked in. The smell of blood reached her first. She stepped forward, saw the basin, and her pupils abruptly contracted.

"Master Dao, you're injured?"

[End of Chapter 262]