Chapter 399: Truly a Mighty Warrior

And just as Elder Bai had said, he had long since prepared a careful retreat route for Su Zhao. If something went wrong, he wanted to minimize any danger to her life. For that reason, he had deliberately kept her away from certain major secrets. Qin Mian, on the other hand, actually knew more, making it appear as though Qin Mian were the one he valued more highly.

But so long as Qin Mian rendered meritorious service, with Elder Bai looking after matters from behind the scenes, Su Zhao would naturally benefit as well. The one thing Su Zhao absolutely should never have done was defect. What did betrayal of Xiaoyue Pavilion mean?

Defection!

That made her a traitor. And once someone became a traitor, no one could protect her. Otherwise, Elder Bai would have no way to answer to the Pavilion Master, no way to answer to the others, no way to answer to anyone above or below.

Once someone became a traitor, even the Pavilion Master could not protect her.

And the Pavilion Master had already done everything that could reasonably be expected for both master and disciple. Elder Bai himself had guaranteed that no further trouble would arise. If anything did happen, he had promised to handle it personally. Yet matters had truly reached this point. Now he had to give the Pavilion Master an explanation. He also had to give everyone above and below an explanation.

That was why he had personally come after her. Su Zhao bit her lip with pearly teeth, her expression dimming. She understood what her master meant.

When it came to traitors, Xiaoyue Pavilion would spare no cost to eliminate them. It would never make such an exception. Otherwise, how could it deter anyone else? The consequences for the entire Xiaoyue Pavilion would be endless.

She looked at Yuan Gang, but her words were for the bearded man. "Master, every wrong here is mine. As long as you spare his life, I'll submit to whatever punishment you choose!"

Yuan Gang snapped his head around toward her. "No need!"

The bearded man said through clenched teeth, "You're still trying to protect him? Does he need you to protect him? Niu Youdao already prepared a retreat route for him. The person the organization intends to clean up this time is you. If he wants to leave, no one will stop him. Those above have also ordered that he be spared. Niu Youdao gave him protection against the organization long ago. Didn't he tell you? Why did you foolishly run away with him? The world is so vast. What kind of man can't you find? Is it worth throwing away your life for a man who deceived you like this?"

Yuan Gang froze. Master Dao had actually prepared a way out for him? For a moment, his feelings were extraordinarily complicated.

All he knew from Su Zhao was that Xiaoyue Pavilion's upper ranks had issued an order forbidding anyone from acting recklessly against Niu Youdao. He had not known that the arrangement involved him as well. Yet he believed the man's words. He knew Niu Youdao too well.

For Niu Youdao to do something like this did not surprise him in the slightest. It was entirely something Master Dao would do. When storms came, Master Dao was the sort of man who would step forward and help shoulder them for him. Su Zhao likewise stared blankly at Yuan Gang.

Yuan Gang turned back to her. "I didn't know about this."

Su Zhao smiled and nodded. "Mm."

She believed him without needing a reason.

Yuan Gang said with self-reproach, "I dragged you into this."

Su Zhao understood what he meant. If they had known this from the beginning, there truly would have been no need for him to take her and flee. He could simply have left alone. Then neither of them would have faced much trouble. Instead, he had turned her into a traitor of Xiaoyue Pavilion.

After all that desperate flight, it turned out the entire escape had been unnecessary.

Even so, Su Zhao smiled and shook her head, telling him it did not matter. At the sight, the bearded man nearly coughed blood from anger.

Now he truly understood the saying that a grown daughter could not be kept at home. Now he truly understood what it meant to remain stubbornly unrepentant.

The qi around his body began to whirl. A faint cyclone slowly gathered around him.

Yuan Gang immediately stepped in front of Su Zhao and raised his saber across her path.

The Three-Roars Saber gleamed beneath the sunlight as he watched the other man with extreme vigilance.

The bearded man tilted the point of his sword toward him. "I'm cleaning house. This has nothing to do with you. If you don't want to be injured by mistake, get lost immediately!"

Su Zhao became anxious and tugged at Yuan Gang. "He's my uncle. Nothing will happen to me. Go!"

Yuan Gang ignored her. He stared at the bearded man. "What will it take for you to spare her?"

The bearded man looked at Su Zhao and enunciated each word. "A traitor has only one road: death!"

Yuan Gang suddenly whipped his arm out with tremendous force, throwing off Su Zhao's grip.

Whoosh!

He charged. His full strength erupted at once. Saber in hand, he shot toward the bearded man and attacked first without hesitation.

"No!" Su Zhao screamed in terror.

She knew perfectly well Yuan Gang could not possibly be this man's match. The bearded man gave a cold snort.

Ripples spread through the sand beneath his feet as a sphere surged outward from his body and expanded around him like a transparent shell. It was a protective aura.

He had never regarded Yuan Gang as a threat in the first place. He did not even move from where he stood.

"Wu-aow!"

A fierce tiger roar suddenly erupted from the Three-Roars Saber. The sound was enough to shake the heart, as though a real tiger were roaring right beside them.

Yuan Gang leaped into the air and brought the saber down in a furious overhead chop.

It was the first time he had ever forced a tiger roar from the Three-Roars Saber. That alone showed how fast this strike was, and how brutally powerful.

Under the sunlight, the saber flashed downward like a strip of white silk, astonishing in its momentum.

Good saber!

The bearded man praised it inwardly. His gaze fell on the blade. He could see that it was no ordinary weapon. And he could also see that Yuan Gang's ferocity was extraordinary.

Boom!

The bearded man's protective aura shattered beneath a single strike. His calm shattered with it. His expression changed abruptly.

He had never imagined that this ordinary mortal, a man who could only run across the ground on two legs, could break his protective aura with one blow.

Su Zhao, who had already drawn her sword and was preparing to rush forward to help, was equally stunned.

She had never imagined Yuan Gang's attack could possess this kind of power. She knew very well what level of strength her master possessed. Never had she expected Yuan Gang to break through his defense.

Before this, she had only known Yuan Gang was immensely strong and possessed terrifying stamina. The sight before her was something she would never have dreamed of. The exploding force blasted sand outward in every direction.

The bearded man's earlier calm, carrying even a hint of disdain, vanished completely. The saber was already about to crash down on his head. How could he remain calm?

Whoosh!

Cold light flashed in his hand, swift as a phantom. His treasured sword came up horizontally above his head.

Clang!

A long metallic peal rang out. The sword blocking the descending saber sank several inches, nearly pressing into the bearded man's skull. His heart jolted again. It was not spiritual power. It was brute force.

Until that instant, he had thought Yuan Gang was playing the pig to eat the tiger, concealing his identity as a cultivator. Only after this clash did he understand. There was no fluctuation of spiritual power. No spiritual power was acting at all. It was genuine, unadulterated brute strength. Could anyone beneath Heaven truly possess such strength?

Truly a mighty warrior!

The bearded man marveled inwardly.

At the same time, a powerful spiraling gale rose around his feet. With one hand holding his sword, he thrust upward and knocked aside the saber bearing down on him.

Bang!

The violent gale exploded outward. Yuan Gang was blasted sideways through the air.

He crashed to the ground more than ten zhang away, rolled, sprang back to his feet, and immediately charged again with saber in hand.

The bearded man glanced at him from the corner of his eye and was startled yet again. The fellow could even take a beating like this?

An ordinary Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator would not have endured that strike. Even if it did not kill him, it would leave him heavily injured. Yet this bastard had climbed up almost as though nothing had happened. His body's ability to withstand impact was astonishing. Across from him, Su Zhao was already charging in with her sword. The bearded man flew into a rage.

He had raised this girl all these years, had spent so much effort teaching and guiding her, and now she was joining an outsider to attack him?

Outrageous!

He swept out a broad sleeve. A wall of sand rose from the ground and surged toward Yuan Gang like an overturning mountain and sea. Then he pointed his sword toward Su Zhao. His warning had failed. He stamped one foot lightly. The ground rippled. Su Zhao, skimming toward him, seemed to fly straight into a trap. With a whoosh, a powerful tornado erupted from the sand beneath her.

Whirling sand wrapped around her in an instant and trapped her inside. The storm made it impossible for Su Zhao to open her eyes.

The fierce spiraling wind threw her around until she no longer knew which way was up.

Whoosh!

The bearded man swung his sword. A razor-sharp wave of sword qi slashed toward the tornado.

Boom!

The tornado collapsed instantly beneath the sword qi. Su Zhao had only just brought her sword up to protect herself when she coughed blood violently. Her head snapped back.

A torrent of blood sprayed from her mouth as her entire body flew away like a kite with its string cut.

Boom!

A hole suddenly burst through the towering wall of sand. Another savage tiger roar sounded from within. Yuan Gang smashed through and charged out, saber in hand.

The moment he broke free, he saw Su Zhao suffer that devastating blow with his own eyes.

"AAAH!"

Bare-chested, Yuan Gang unleashed a furious roar. Veins bulged across his neck and body.

Like an enraged beast, he accelerated again, dragging a streak of saber light as he charged the bearded man.

The sand scorpions nearby seemed to sense the savage aggression within his roar. One after another, they shook their pincers.

The poisonous stingers on their tails began vibrating violently in small, rapid motions, producing a strange buzzing sound. Every sand scorpion grew restless. The reaction spread across the desert like ripples. Sand scorpions that heard the strange buzzing began to imitate it.

Ring after ring, farther and farther outward, the buzzing seemed to carry some kind of message across the sands.

Even distant sand scorpions raised their tails and vibrated their stingers rapidly, producing the same strange hum. Then all the sand scorpions in the immediate area suddenly moved. At full speed, they rushed toward the battlefield. The phenomenon spread outward in widening circles.

Near and far, ring after ring of sand scorpions began moving, all racing madly toward the same place...

Far away in the sky, a giant multicolored flying bird sailed through the air like a brilliant phoenix, trailing long, elegant tail feathers. A man and a woman stood on its back.

The man was a handsome middle-aged figure with a faint air of weathered experience. His long hair fell to his shoulders. He wore a simple gray cloth robe, and an ancient broad sword was strapped across his back, its blade visibly wider than an ordinary sword. His expression was tranquil. The woman wore black men's clothing from head to toe.

Her clothes were simple as well, yet they could not conceal the noble grace in her picturesque features.

The obvious piercings in her earlobes and the fullness of her chest made it clear that she was a woman. Dressed as a man, she carried a rare and distinctive heroic air.

She wore no powder or rouge, yet her natural beauty was stately and striking. Both her appearance and bearing drew the eye.

Across the desert below, holes suddenly opened one after another as though bamboo shoots were bursting from the earth after rain.

The scene was spectacular enough that the two people in the air could hardly fail to notice. They looked down and saw sand scorpions emerging one after another.

"Sand scorpions..." the woman said, staring below. "According to the stories, when they move like this, doesn't it mean they've caught the scent of prey?"

"It should," the man replied.

Then he suddenly made a puzzled sound. He guided the flying bird lower so they could see the ground more clearly.

"Something isn't right. I've seen sand scorpions hunt more than once. What does it mean that every one of them is shaking its tail so violently? Look at the ones farther away. They're all racing in the same direction, and every one of them shakes its tail first before charging that way."

He had barely finished speaking when the desert below suddenly exploded in a fountain of sand. A colossal creature burst from beneath the ground.

[End of Chapter 399]