Chapter 1281: You Rat, How Dare You Advise Me?

Of course the Scorpion Emperor was different from ordinary sand scorpions!

Coldness entered Lü Wushuang's eyes. She ignored the jumble of excuses and asked Hua Meiru, "Did you tell him to leave the Scorpion Emperor behind?"

"Yes. I told him repeatedly to leave it behind, but he kept dragging things out."

Lü Wushuang turned her gaze back to Yuan Gang and went straight to the heart of the matter. "You let the Scorpion Emperor escape?"

The single question made Yucang and the others tremble with fear.

Yuan Gang said, "No. I was only afraid it might injure the soldiers behind us, so I had it go underground first. I didn't expect this to happen."

"This Venerable does not want excuses. I want results. Summon the Scorpion Emperor, and this Venerable will spare your life!"

Yuan Gang fell silent.

Hua Meiru suddenly shouted, "Didn't you hear the Sacred Venerable?"

"I heard. But I truly can't do it."

Lü Wushuang said, "If you don't want to die, find a way."

Yuan Gang replied, "I'm not your match. I can't beat you. Whatever you say goes. This matter has nothing to do with anyone else. The fault is mine alone. Kill me or carve me up as you please!"

He did not want to implicate the others. If his death could settle the matter, he was willing to die.

What kind of answer was that?

Yucang and the others were almost ready to cry.

Lü Wushuang's expression became rather interesting. This was the first time anyone had ever dared speak to her so bluntly, almost as though he were accusing her of using her power to bully the weak.

Then again, was that not exactly what she was doing?

"Impudent!"

Hua Meiru flew into a rage and suddenly struck out with one palm, intending to teach Yuan Gang a lesson.

Yuan Gang reacted instantly. His body flashed aside and he threw himself into a hard lateral dive.

Boom!

Sand exploded from the dune behind him.

He had already rolled clear. During the roll, he drew his saber. The moment he came back to his feet, the Three-Roars Saber was already leveled at Hua Meiru.

Yucang and the others were stunned.

It was outrageous enough that he had dared dodge.

He had actually dared point a blade at Lü Wushuang's disciple right in front of Lü Wushuang herself.

Even Lü Wushuang was taken aback.

How many years had it been since she had seen someone this audacious?

For an instant she almost felt as though she had returned to the years when she had first stepped onto the path of cultivation.

It had been far, far too long since anyone in the mortal world had dared draw a weapon before her and point it at someone under her protection.

"Madman! You dare!"

Hua Meiru felt humiliated. She shrieked and prepared to attack again.

Yuan Gang kept his saber pointed at her and thundered, "What skill is there in using your power to bully others? That's the conduct of a petty villain! If you dare stand before me openly and take one slash, I'll find the Scorpion Emperor for your master. Do you dare?"

Mad.

He was absolutely mad.

Sweat poured down Yucang's body. He felt as though he had never encountered anything so absurd in his entire life.

To most people, Yuan Gang was exactly that: an absurd madman.

But to Yuan Gang, he had spoken openly and uprightly. He had said nothing wrong and done nothing wrong. If his conduct was upright, then as a man, what was there he should fear saying?

Did she dare?

How could Hua Meiru admit that she was a petty villain? Nor did she believe she had been using her power to bully others.

Provoked by his words, she nearly agreed on the spot.

But just as the answer reached her lips, she remembered the reports she had heard earlier.

This was the man who had killed a peak Golden Core cultivator with a single slash.

Her heart jolted.

She forcibly swallowed the challenge she had almost blurted out, Yuan Gang's open, upright manner leaving her feeling strangely stifled.

The angry words about to burst from her mouth instantly turned into something more artful.

She cupped her hands toward Lü Wushuang. "Master, you heard him. He has a way to find the Scorpion Emperor. He's simply refusing to summon it on purpose!"

Lü Wushuang gave her a meaningful look.

The gaze seemed to say: You don't dare take his slash?

Then she looked toward Yuan Gang again, genuinely surprised.

Hua Meiru understood the look.

The embarrassment in her heart was beyond description.

But the moment she finished speaking, Yuan Gang pointed the saber at her and shouted, "Shameless villain!"

Hua Meiru exploded. "You think I don't dare kill you?"

Lü Wushuang raised one hand slightly and stopped her.

She stared at Yuan Gang. "Since you have a way to find the Scorpion Emperor, then find it for this Venerable. This Venerable keeps her word. Find the Scorpion Emperor, and I will spare your life."

"I truly can't find it!"

Then Yuan Gang pointed the saber at Hua Meiru again.

"But if she can take one slash from me and survive, then even if I still cannot summon it, I will remain in the Boundless Desert and exhaust every method I possess to search for the Scorpion Emperor for the Sacred Venerable. I will keep searching until I find it or die!"

"If she cannot take this slash, then I would be ashamed to obey!"

He knew he could not defeat Lü Wushuang, so he kept Hua Meiru firmly in his sights.

Tactically speaking, the choice was not bad at all.

Yucang, who had been standing anxiously to one side, finally could not endure it any longer.

Lü Wushuang had already given him a way out. Why did this man have to remain so obstinate?

He immediately tried to mediate.

"Brother Yuan, don't be impudent. Why haven't you thanked the Sacred Venerable for her generosity and promised to do everything in your power to find the Scorpion Emperor?"

Yuan Gang abruptly turned his head.

His cold gaze swept over Yucang.

"You rat! How dare you advise me?"

"..."

Yucang's expression became indescribable.

He had no answer at all.

Before Lü Wushuang, was he not indeed a rat?

His face flushed red, then pale. Inwardly he cursed every one of Yuan Gang's eighteen generations of ancestors.

I was trying to smooth this over for your own good, and you...

Fine!

If we survive this disaster, I can't afford to provoke you. I won't bother you again. Happy?

On this point, Yuan Gang truly lacked Niu Youdao's tact.

If Niu Youdao had been forced into the same situation, he would certainly have handed over the Scorpion Emperor first, preserved himself, and made plans for the future afterward—just as he had once handed the Shang Mirror to Yucang.

He would never be as unbending as Yuan Gang, who would rather break than bend.

Hua Meiru suddenly shouted, "You think I'm afraid of you?"

She flashed to one side and took her position.

"Come!"

Lü Wushuang did not stop her.

She too wanted to see exactly what was so unusual about Yuan Gang's strength.

Yuan Gang wasted no words.

He said he would strike, and he struck.

Whoosh!

He burst forward, sprang into the air, and came plunging down.

The saber-light fell like a waterfall.

"ROAR!"

A tiger's roar exploded like a thunderclap.

A silk ribbon flew from Hua Meiru's sleeve. She drew it taut like a fully bent bow and snapped it toward the saber's edge.

"ROAR!"

Another tiger's roar burst from the blade, this one deep, muffled, and heart-shaking.

The cascading saber-light seemed to blur into traces of rainbow shadow.

Watching coldly from the side, Lü Wushuang narrowed her bright eyes slightly.

Thoom!

The saber struck the springing ribbon with a sound like a heavy drum beaten beneath thunder.

Yucang and the others were still wondering what material could possibly have been used to weave such a ribbon when a tearing sound suddenly burst out.

Rip!

The ribbon split.

The saber-light was already descending toward Hua Meiru's shoulder.

Hua Meiru's face changed drastically.

There was no time to evade.

She was horrified by the terrifying power of the slash—and instantly regretted letting herself be provoked into accepting it.

My life ends here!

But at that very instant, a fierce crosswind struck from the side.

Bang!

It smashed directly into Hua Meiru and sent her flying.

The rainbow saber-light barely grazed past her body.

Yucang and the others saw Lü Wushuang flick one sleeve.

Boom!

Sand blasted outward.

Yuan Gang's slash missed and buried itself in the desert.

The force of the blow had been so violent that even he could not withdraw it freely once committed.

Once the blade was unleashed, ten thousand deaths would not turn it aside!

Hua Meiru stumbled when she landed and barely steadied herself.

She stared in a daze at the two severed lengths of ribbon hanging from her hands.

The ribbon had been woven from silk spun by Jade Silkworms raised in Wushuang Sacred Land.

It was extraordinarily resilient.

Yet Yuan Gang had cut it apart with one slash.

When she looked up at him again, she finally understood just how terrifying that blade was.

She also finally understood how he had managed to kill a peak Golden Core cultivator with a single strike.

Fear still lingered in her heart.

Had her master not intervened, she would probably already be dead.

Which meant one thing.

She had lost the wager.

The sight left Yucang and the others scarcely daring to breathe.

Yuan Gang rose with saber in hand, turned, and looked at Lü Wushuang.

"Sacred Venerable, what is the meaning of this? Are you planning to go back on your word?"

What a joke.

How could Lü Wushuang possibly stand by and let her own disciple die beneath this man's blade?

If that happened, Wushuang Sacred Land would become the greatest joke beneath Heaven.

Lü Wushuang said indifferently, "Did this Venerable promise you anything?"

Yuan Gang replied, "So from now on, no one beneath Heaven needs to believe anything said by anyone under the Sacred Venerable's command?"

Had another person spoken like this, Lü Wushuang might already have slapped him dead.

Yet Yuan Gang had maintained exactly the same attitude from beginning to end.

There was an upright force hidden within it, a kind of stern righteousness that somehow made his words feel less like sacrilege than a demand for a direct answer.

If she refused to answer him plainly, then she would be the unreasonable one.

Lü Wushuang said, "This Venerable did not agree to the wager, but since she agreed, I naturally will not allow her to break her word."

"The matter of the Scorpion Emperor may end here."

"But you spoke wildly before this Venerable. I never said I would spare you for that."

"This Venerable is not entirely unreasonable. I will give you one chance."

"I will stand here and let you run for ten counts."

"After ten counts, if you can withstand one palm from this Venerable, I will spare your life."

Her words had barely fallen when Yuan Gang shot away.

He had already thrown the saber onto the sand.

He turned and ran.

Yucang and the others watched while silently counting.

Soon they began exchanging looks.

Once Yuan Gang accelerated, he became faster and faster until he seemed almost to be flying.

When he leapt and rolled over dunes, every movement linked smoothly into the next, clean and fluid as flowing clouds and running water.

And this was the desert.

Sand swallowed the feet and made running difficult.

Yet this freak...

Everyone unconsciously glanced at Lü Wushuang's reaction.

The same thought ran through their minds.

If she really waits the full ten counts, will a palm strike through the air still be able to reach him?

Yucang and the others became frightened.

They were afraid Lü Wushuang might lose face and kill them all to silence witnesses.

Lü Wushuang remained expressionless.

Suddenly she flicked her sleeve and struck one palm toward the ground beneath her feet.

Yucang and the others felt the earth tremble.

Yuan Gang, who had just landed and rolled, sensed the vibration surging toward him underground.

He used his momentum to charge toward a dune, rolled again as he hit the slope, then suddenly launched himself into the air.

Rumble!

A pillar of yellow sand erupted from the earth like a gigantic dragon and slammed through the air toward Yuan Gang.

Yuan Gang glanced back.

He instantly curled his limbs inward, forming a tight ball and bracing for impact.

BANG!

He shot into the sand like a falling meteor.

The sand dragon hung in the air, preparing to strike again.

Then Lü Wushuang swept one sleeve.

She stopped.

The great dragon collapsed at once, pouring down and burying Yuan Gang alive beneath the yellow sand.

Lü Wushuang flashed upward and landed atop the flying mount circling overhead.

Hua Meiru looked toward the buried Yuan Gang, then flew up after her.

She cautiously asked, "Master, did you kill him?"

"Only a minor punishment. He may still be useful."

Lü Wushuang said, "After the troop transport is finished, take him back to the Sacred Land."

"Yes!"

Hua Meiru accepted the order.

Lü Wushuang glanced toward the place where Yuan Gang lay buried.

Then she murmured, "So the mortal world is not entirely filled with people who scramble like flies and skulk like dogs..."

Only after the flying mount had vanished into the distance did the shaken Yucang and the others dare rush toward the place where Yuan Gang was buried.

As they began using spells to dig through the sand, two arms suddenly burst upward.

Yuan Gang clawed his own way out of the pile.

"Peh..."

He spat sand from his mouth.

Yucang hurriedly asked, "Brother Yuan, are you all right?"

Yuan Gang did not answer.

He simply looked around.

He was fine.

The strike had only stunned him for a moment.

At least, Lü Wushuang had believed her "minor punishment" was enough to leave Yuan Gang severely injured.

She had underestimated just how much punishment Yuan Gang's body could take.

[End of Chapter 1281]