Chapter 969: The Alarm Bell Peals Without Ceasing

Seeing Ju An appear at the Maolu Annex now, Guan Qingya thought the man must just have finished exchanging sweet words with Wen Mo'er. Jealousy burned inside him.

He had already placed people around the Maolu Annex to keep watch. That was precisely why Guan Fangyi had sensed the people of the Annex being subjected to tighter restrictions.

He had people watching Ju An as well, hoping to find some opportunity to break Ju An and Wen Mo'er apart.

That was why he knew Ju An had picked wild fruit and come here. The moment his men reported it, Guan Qingya suspected the fruit was meant for Wen Mo'er and immediately hurried over.

Ju An had no interest in standing there trading hostile stares with Guan Qingya. He turned back to Guan Fangyi. "I'll head back first."

"All right. Forgive me for not seeing you farther." Guan Fangyi nodded politely.

Ju An started away. Yet when he reached the only road leading out from the Annex and was about to pass Guan Qingya, Guan Qingya suddenly extended an arm across his chest and blocked him. In a strange, mocking tone, he asked, "Ju An, where are you in such a hurry to go?"

Seeing this, Guan Fangyi sensed something was wrong. She immediately flashed over to see what was happening and landed beside Ju An.

The instant she appeared, two Zijin Cave disciples not far away landed to either side of Guan Qingya as well. They were his subordinates, there to bolster his presence.

Ju An lowered his eyes to the arm blocking his way and said calmly, "Back to Tortoise-Slumber Pavilion, naturally."

Guan Qingya sneered. "Those wild fruits you picked. Did Junior Sister Wen accept them?"

Ju An's gaze swept toward him. "You've been following me?"

"You're thinking too much. Unlike you, I can't just sit at Tortoise-Slumber Pavilion guarding a gate. I have plenty of matters to handle and no time to follow you around. Junior Sister Wen mentioned it just now. A few rotten fruits like that are beneath her notice."

Ju An frowned. Displeasure toward Wen Mo'er rose inside him. If you don't like my fruit, tell me directly. Why tell this man about it? What is that supposed to mean?

Guan Fangyi had seen Wen Mo'er's attitude toward Guan Qingya at the Maolu Annex the previous day. After dealing with Wen Mo'er for so long, she also knew something of the girl's character and knew she was not someone who would gossip like this. Guan Fangyi immediately smiled and cut in. "Miss Wen doesn't strike me as someone who would say a thing like that."

She wanted to warn Ju An not to fall for someone else's malicious scheme or allow himself to be provoked.

Guan Qingya swept her with a cold glance, anger rising inside him. Wen Mo'er truly had not told him about the matter. But from the way his probing questions had gone earlier, he had at least confirmed that Ju An's wild fruit really had been meant for her.

Ju An had no interest in wasting more words with him. "May I leave now?"

Guan Qingya said, "If you haven't done anything shameful, why are you hiding from me?"

"I've done nothing shameful, and I have no need to hide from you. Are you trying to stop me from returning to Tortoise-Slumber Pavilion?"

"It's only a few words. Is it really as serious as you're making it sound?" Guan Qingya gave a disdainful snort and finally lowered the arm blocking Ju An's way.

He might look down on Ju An, but Ju An was still the man who guarded Zhong Guzi's door. As long as Zhong Guzi remained alive, no one in Zijin Cave dared go too far with Ju An. Forget Guan Qingya—even his master Yan Li would not dare act recklessly. Guan Qingya only dared make cutting remarks at the edge of what was permissible, words that would carry no real responsibility if anyone investigated them. He did not have the courage to use force.

Ju An said nothing more and walked past him.

Guan Qingya watched him from the corner of his eye. Then he turned to the two disciples beside him and said coldly, "Later, pass a message to the fellow disciples guarding Tortoise-Slumber Pavilion. Tell them to keep a closer watch. From now on, don't let disreputable outsiders run over there and disturb Elder Zhong's secluded cultivation."

"Yes!" The two men answered with smiles.

Ju An's steps paused slightly. Guan Fangyi frowned as well. Both understood what he meant by "outsiders." Who else could he mean except the people of the Maolu Annex? He was trying to cut off contact between the Annex and Tortoise-Slumber Pavilion. If Ju An did not come over on his own initiative, the people of the Annex might no longer have any way to pass messages to that side.

But Ju An had no authority over such matters. He continued on.

Guan Qingya watched Ju An's back with a cold smile, then turned toward Guan Fangyi. Pointing at the ground beneath her feet, he warned, "Who told you to come running out here? People of the Maolu Annex are not allowed to wander around Zijin Cave without permission. Don't you know the rules?"

Guan Fangyi smiled. "Of course I know the rules. I haven't wandered anywhere. This is still within the area we're allowed to move around in."

Zijin Cave had indeed set limits on the movements of the Maolu Annex's people, but it had not gone so far as to pen them inside the courtyard walls and forbid them from stepping outside. Niu Youdao would never have agreed to restrictions like that in the first place. A large area around the Annex, as well as a mountain behind it, was open for the Annex's people to move through.

It was plainly only a reminder, but Guan Qingya took it very differently. Guan Fangyi's earlier interruption between him and Ju An had already irritated him. He could not vent his anger on Ju An, so now he lost control and lashed out on the spot, swinging his hand in a slap.

Smack!

The slap rang sharp and clear.

Guan Fangyi had never imagined the man would actually dare strike her. Caught completely off guard, she took the blow full on the cheek and staggered sideways. Blood sprayed from the corner of her mouth. Guan Qingya had not held back.

He had already been looking for a chance to make trouble for the Maolu Annex, hoping to vent some anger on his master's behalf and show his master that he had done so.

Inside the Annex, Old Six Xu and the others had already been watching because Guan Fangyi had gone outside to meet people who clearly meant no good.

The instant they saw her struck, Old Six Xu, Old Second Wu, Uncle Chen, and the others flashed out at once and rushed over, ready to stand up for her.

Their speed of reaction startled Guan Qingya slightly. He and the two men beside him immediately fell back on guard, while Guan Qingya circulated his cultivation and shouted loudly, "Men! Men!"

"Stop! Stop! All of you, stop..." Guan Fangyi shouted just as quickly, frantically waving off Uncle Chen and the rest. She was terrified they would make trouble. Once fighting actually broke out here, not only would they gain nothing, everyone in the Annex would be dragged into disaster, ruining all of Master Dao's arrangements.

Old Six Xu and the others were forced to halt. Every one of them gritted his teeth, the anger trapped in his chest almost unbearable.

A group of Zijin Cave guards on duty heard Guan Qingya's shouting and flew over. Their leader barked, "What's going on?"

Old Six Xu immediately pointed at Guan Qingya and said angrily, "He struck someone!" Then he pointed at the bright red palm print already swelling across Guan Fangyi's cheek.

The duty leader's face darkened. "Junior Brother Guan, is the sect a place where you can casually strike people?"

Seeing the situation under control, and seeing that Guan Fangyi's side did not dare move recklessly, Guan Qingya immediately pointed at her and turned black into white. "I warned her just now to obey the rules and told her that, as an outsider, she shouldn't wander around Zijin Cave. She actually told me this land had been assigned to them, so she could go wherever she pleased. Yes, an area was set aside for their activities, but since when did Zijin Cave's territory become theirs? As a Zijin Cave disciple, how could I tolerate an outsider behaving so arrogantly? I lost my temper and taught her a lesson with one slap. She should learn to watch her mouth!"

Old Six Xu and the others had only seen Guan Fangyi get hit. They had not heard what had been said and therefore did not know how to argue on her behalf.

Guan Fangyi herself knew exactly what had happened. Hearing him invert right and wrong so shamelessly, her brows rose in anger. "Guan Qingya, stop spewing lies! When did I ever say this was our territory?"

The moment she spoke, Guan Qingya's two attendants immediately testified for him. "We both heard it with our own ears. Senior Brother Guan only acted because he was too angry to tolerate it."

Guan Fangyi snapped, "Nothing but lies! The three of you are in collusion, deliberately framing me!"

In truth, things like this were extremely common inside a great sect. Disciples below the upper ranks schemed and fought among themselves all the time. Niu Youdao had reached the level of Zijin Cave's senior leadership, so petty squabbles of this sort rarely came before him. Wen Mo'er, however, had suffered plenty of such treatment in earlier years.

"Who's lying?" Guan Qingya shouted back. Pointing straight at Guan Fangyi's nose, he sneered, "A cheap slut any man can have, a whore ridden by ten thousand men. You've probably told plenty of lies in your life. And now you come here acting righteous and proper? What a joke!"

"Dog bastard, I'll tear your mouth apart!" Old Six Xu roared and tried to charge forward, only for Guan Fangyi to grab his arm with all her strength while desperately holding the others back as well.

Being cursed to her face in such terms filled Guan Fangyi with humiliation and grief, but she endured it.

She knew perfectly well that her reputation had always preceded her. Hongniang of the Qi capital was famous for her scandalous charms. Trying to speak of spotless chastity now would only be a joke. She had already walked that road, and everyone knew it. There was no way to hide it.

No matter how humiliated or angry she felt, she could not let the situation grow out of control. Otherwise there would be no bringing it back.

Inside the Annex, Duan Hu poked his head out and asked the gatekeeper, "What's going on?" Guan Qingya's earlier shouting had alerted him.

"That man struck Hongniang..." The gatekeeper quickly explained what he had seen.

Duan Hu immediately turned and flashed back into the depths of the Annex, quickly arriving at Yuan Gang's courtyard.

Yuan Gang was bare-chested and suspended between two parallel iron bars, one hand gripping each side. His arms stretched horizontally as he held his entire body motionless in midair, forming a cross. His eyes were closed. His breathing rumbled faintly like distant wind and thunder, while a hemispherical bulge rolled slowly up and down his abdomen. His stone-carved musculature possessed a harsh, unusual beauty.

"Master Yuan, Hongniang was struck by someone from Zijin Cave..." Duan Hu rapidly explained what he had learned.

Yuan Gang's brows shifted. His eyes suddenly opened, cold light filling them. The red mist that had been flowing from his mouth and nose was drawn deep into his nostrils, and the rolling bulge on his abdomen vanished.

His suspended lower body swung slightly forward, then suddenly swept backward. With one explosive motion, his entire body vaulted into the air. He flipped over the parallel bars, snatched the outer robe hanging from a tree branch while still airborne, landed steadily, and snapped the garment open around himself.

He tied the sash at his waist, strode to a tree, and ripped the Three-Roars Saber from where it had been embedded in the trunk. Then he ran swiftly toward the courtyard entrance, leaving only one sentence behind him.

"Someone has come to our door looking for a fight. Ring the bell and gather everyone!"

"Yes!" Duan Hu answered and flashed away.

Before long, the great bell of Nanshan Temple hanging inside the Maolu Annex began to peal in a rapid, relentless rhythm.

Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!

The alarm bell pealed without cease.

Outside, Guan Fangyi and the others in the middle of their argument abruptly looked back. A figure did not even bother with the gate. He vaulted directly over the wall, saber in hand, and charged toward them like a hunting leopard. Behind him, Lei Zongkang and the others came flying out in pursuit.

Soon Wu Zhaoxing and Yun Ji flashed out as well. Even Hui Qingping, alarmed by the commotion, appeared atop a high pavilion to watch.

Guan Fangyi cursed inwardly. The one person she least wanted to alarm had still been alarmed. She could not stop this man. Something was going to happen.

[End of Chapter 969]