Chapter 1014: Never Cling to Life in Dishonor

The Clan Chief also knew that once Niu Youdao truly moved to kill, the people here might not be able to stop him.

Niu Youdao made no attempt to force his way free or silence Chao Jing. Instead, he asked, "Clan Chief, do you believe him rather than me?"

Chao Jing, who had nearly fainted from the pain, seized the chance to catch his breath. His hatred for Niu Youdao ran too deep. Afraid he might be killed before he could finish, he blurted out the most important point first. "He can command Butterfly Rakshasas! He can command the Butterfly Rakshasas of Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm! My grandson saw it with his own eyes..."

Badly injured, his breath came short, but he rushed through everything he knew about the grievances between Niu Youdao and his grandson. He exposed how Niu Youdao had used Chao Shenghuai to steal five large flying mounts from Myriad Beasts Sect, how he had used Chao Shenghuai in the murder of the Song envoy, how he had borrowed Chao Jing's hand to defeat the Song army, how he had used him to secretly send someone into Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm, and how he had framed Yan Baoru inside the Tiandu Secret Realm.

He truly spilled every good deed of Niu Youdao's that he knew about.

The two Myriad Beasts Sect disciples hanging nearby were stunned. They could hardly imagine that a dignified Elder of Myriad Beasts Sect had secretly committed so many acts of outright betrayal behind the sect's back. Judged by sect rules, being cut to pieces a thousand times might not have been punishment enough.

The Demon Foxes exchanged looks. If they had still harbored doubts about Niu Youdao's words when they first met him, this time they genuinely believed him. Chao Jing could not possibly be lying now. He certainly was not trying to help Niu Youdao.

When Chao Jing finally finished and stood there panting, Niu Youdao asked, "Done?"

Chao Jing stared at him with naked hatred.

Niu Youdao turned to the black Demon Fox man. "He's finished. What do you want to do?"

The Clan Chief released Niu Youdao's arm and stepped back twice. "Handle it yourself."

What did that mean? Chao Jing immediately shouted, "Clan Chief, keep me alive! I can be a witness!"

"Enough noise." Niu Youdao cut him off and tapped his cheek lightly with the sword. "Have you gone senile? What use is it telling the Demon Foxes any of this? Are you hoping they'll go to Misty Pavilion and file a complaint against me?"

Chao Jing gave a savage grin. "At the very least, the Demon Foxes now hold leverage over you. They oppose the Nine Saints, and now that they have something on you, you'll have no choice but to obey them from now on!" His expression made it clear that even if he died, he intended to make sure Niu Youdao did not have an easy time afterward.

Niu Youdao's sword flashed. Blood sprayed again.

"Mm..." Chao Jing groaned in agony. Both legs had been severed at the knees, shortening him further. His body trembled as he cried out, "Kill me! If you have the nerve, go ahead and kill me! Either way, you won't have an easy time. Sooner or later, Taishu Shancheng's words will reach Myriad Beasts Sect. Don't forget, my grandson is still at Myriad Beasts Sect!"

Niu Youdao said, "I've already sent people to deal with your grandson. Myriad Beasts Sect probably won't get the chance to question him. Maybe he's already gone ahead of you and is waiting beneath the Nine Springs."

Chao Jing forced his pain-clouded eyes open. "You really do have people inside Misty Pavilion?"

It was hardly strange that he reached that conclusion. He had long suspected Niu Youdao had an inside source within Sacred Realm. Niu Youdao himself had no way to send messages outside, so he would have needed someone capable of transmitting word out of Sacred Realm. The answer seemed obvious.

Niu Youdao toyed idly with the bloodied sword and smiled faintly. "Have you forgotten that I left Sacred Realm once?"

Chao Jing said through the pain, "Taishu Shancheng hadn't exposed anything yet at that time!"

Niu Youdao replied, "If I had to wait until Taishu Shancheng exposed it, if I were always that slow to realize danger, I wouldn't have lived until today. From the moment you wrote down evidence incriminating Myriad Beasts Sect at Shouque Villa, from the moment you began thinking of joining Misty Pavilion... If you really had joined Misty Pavilion..." He paused. "Chao Jing, think about our position. We're the bait the Nine Saints are using to clean up Misty Pavilion. If you joined Misty Pavilion, do you think Misty Pavilion would treat you kindly? The moment your circumstances became difficult and you had no road back, if you wanted to establish yourself inside Misty Pavilion, tell me: would you sell me out or not?"

Chao Jing cried out in grief and fury, "You wanted to kill me all along?"

Niu Youdao suddenly reached out, forced Chao Jing's mouth open, seized his tongue with the other hand, and yanked.

Pop!

Blood immediately poured from Chao Jing's mouth. His tongue had been torn out by the root. His head lolled to one side as the pain knocked him unconscious on the spot.

Niu Youdao could no longer be bothered wasting words on him. He casually tossed the tongue to the ground.

"Master!" Xu Huo cried out.

Niu Youdao tore a strip of cloth from Chao Jing's clothes, wiped his hand clean, then flashed his sword.

Chao Jing's body crashed to the ground while his two severed hands remained hanging above. Both arms had been cut through. He lay motionless in a pool of blood.

Niu Youdao sheathed his sword and turned back to the black Demon Fox man. "Keep one breath in him. Don't let him die. I still have a use for him."

The Clan Chief asked, "What about the other two?"

"Do whatever you want with them. Just don't leave either alive." With that, Niu Youdao planted his sword like a staff and walked away into the passage.

"Elder Niu, spare us! Elder Niu, spare us! I helped you inside the Tiandu Secret Realm! I know Chao Jing's secrets. I'm willing to tell you everything..."

The two Myriad Beasts Sect disciples immediately began shouting, Xu Huo loudest of all, but Niu Youdao never looked back.

The black Demon Fox man and the others watched until Niu Youdao disappeared into the depths of the tunnel. Then the old man with the ghost-head saber lifted his face and released a long howl. "Awooo..."

Demon Foxes of every size immediately emerged from caves all around them. They surged forward in wave after wave and leapt onto the two suspended men, burying them beneath a mass of fox bodies as terrible screams rang out.

When the foxes clinging to them finally dropped back to the ground, only two fresh, bloody skeletons remained hanging. Not even a shred of flesh remained on the bones.

Below the skeletons, foxes fought over the entrails while others licked blood from the ground, eating with relish.

To the Demon Fox race, these cultivators had slaughtered their clansmen. Only devouring their flesh and blood could vent the hatred in their hearts.

Chao Jing was on the verge of death, and someone immediately began treating him.

The black Demon Fox man, meanwhile, found Niu Youdao in a stone chamber within the underground complex. Niu Youdao stood facing the wall, eyes closed, leaning on his sword. The Clan Chief approached from behind and said, "My name is Hei Yun."

Niu Youdao opened his eyes and turned around. "I'll remember it. Hei Yun, there are several matters for which I still need the Demon Fox race's cooperation."

Hei Yun said, "Tell me first."

Niu Youdao asked, "Have you found Ao Feng?"

"Don't worry about that. We've already located him and have people watching him. His movements are under our control."

"Find one more person for me: Taishu Shancheng, Elder of Qiyun Sect."

"No problem. Our Demon Fox scouts are spread throughout the Desolate Marsh Deadlands. So long as he's still here, there is no one we cannot find."

"After some maneuvering, I've bought myself time to slip away and handle matters alone. I'm going to find Ao Feng now. The two people following me cannot know what I'm doing. Send scouts to watch them. If you notice anything abnormal, deal with them for me. They cannot be allowed to leave the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, and under no circumstances can they fall into Misty Pavilion's hands."

Hei Yun nodded. "Rest assured. There won't be a problem."

Niu Youdao continued, "The three men who were just tortured had Demon Fox vertical eyes on them. Give those to me. I have a use for them."

Hei Yun's face darkened. "My clansmen died miserably, their eyes gouged out so that even their corpses were left incomplete. We've finally recovered some of those eyes. How do you expect me to hand them over?"

Niu Youdao said calmly, "I understand how you feel, but I have my own difficulties. Since entering the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, I haven't laid a hand on a single Demon Fox. In other words, I've gained nothing at all. Before, I could still find excuses to put the matter off. Now I can't keep doing that. When I first entered this place, I knew neither the people nor the terrain. I had no grasp of anything and could only feel my way forward blindly. That left quite a few holes in what I've done. I need something in hand to account for myself. And not only the eyes carried by those three. I may need more later. You'll have to think of some way to help me."

This was not an empty excuse.

From the moment he entered the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, he had wanted to move against Misty Pavilion's people in order to learn what was happening inside Misty Pavilion. To create the time and freedom needed to act, he had deceived the others traveling with him. He had succeeded, yet returned with nothing to show for the tempering and claimed he had failed to find Misty Pavilion's people. Then he had blamed the problem on his clothes. Now even the clothing excuse had been disproved. If he continued returning empty-handed, there truly would be no plausible explanation.

This time, he had again used the search for Chao Jing as his reason to secure time to act alone.

The tempering had only just begun, yet he had already left behind a number of cracks. He knew some of what he had done would not withstand a serious investigation. But before returning to Sacred Realm this time, he had already made an enormous decision. There were still many things he had to do. The more he continued, the more flaws he would inevitably leave behind.

There was no helping it. Sacred Realm's circumstances gave him very little room to maneuver. Every direction was constrained. He had come here knowing he would have to force his way through.

His present position truly was perilous. His life could be lost at any moment. All he could do was delay the moment those flaws erupted for as long as possible and use that time to accomplish his goal.

Hei Yun fell silent.

Niu Youdao said, "I know this is difficult for you to accept emotionally, but you should understand what we're facing and what we're trying to do. Every choice demands sacrifice. This is rebellion. Once we act, there will be sacrifices, and even after all those sacrifices we may still fail. But someone has to bear them. To send the former Clan Chief out of Sacred Realm and into the mortal world, how many Demon Foxes went willingly to their deaths? What was it for? The former Clan Chief did not hesitate to leave her own daughter behind and gouge out her vertical eye. What was that for? I don't know whether I'll make it out of Sacred Realm alive this time either. But the outcome depends on what we do. I will never cling to life in dishonor!"

...

At Myriad Beasts Sect, Sect Leader Xi Haitang stood silently in the main hall, facing the statue of the founding patriarch upon the ancestral shrine.

Elder Qiu Shan came striding in. He cupped his hands toward Xi Haitang's back. "Sect Leader, we still haven't found any trace of either man."

Xi Haitang sighed. "Why would the disappearances of Tu Yuanpei and Chao Shenghuai draw Misty Pavilion's attention? Why did both men disappear one after the other on the same day? Could Elder Chao have caused some trouble inside Sacred Realm?"

Qiu Shan remained silent. He knew the Sect Leader was under enormous pressure. Misty Pavilion had suddenly issued an order commanding Myriad Beasts Sect to use its full strength to search for the two missing men.

...

At Dayuan Sacred Land, inside a pavilion set amid beautiful scenery, someone hurried in and presented a Misty Pavilion intelligence report to Ding Wei, who stood by the window. "Mr. Ding, we've uncovered what happened to Chao Shenghuai."

"Oh?" Ding Wei came out of his thoughts, turned, and accepted the report. After reading it, he frowned in suspicion. "Niu Youdao did it?"

The man replied, "There should be no mistake. While the Pavilion was checking everyone connected to the matter one by one, we activated an inside source planted near Niu Youdao. We obtained a clear account of who took part and exactly how the operation was carried out, and it matches what Myriad Beasts Sect reported about Chao Shenghuai's disappearance. Pavilion personnel went to the place where the body was dumped and have already recovered Chao Shenghuai's corpse. That verifies the information supplied by our source near Niu Youdao. There should be no mistake."

[End of Chapter 1014]