Chapter 416

People with unstable minds are truly useless!

"Andelo, surrender, seeing as we were once colleagues—if you surrender I can leave you a whole corpse." Gu Rongjin said with a smirk.

"Leader, you surely don't still think we're playing master‑servant games in Frostfall, do you?" Andelo laughed, "Just because I respected you before doesn't mean I'll respect you now."

"Looks like you don't need my sympathy—good, it saves me the trouble of expending my rare kindness."

Rongjin, be careful!

Mu Yuanzhi silently prayed in her heart.

And Cao Cixiu, this dutiful child bodyguard, remained motionless, not intervening, just watching from the side.

Even though Andelo was once a top figure in Frostfall, his opponent was the Frostfall leader plus a strong external monk ally; he fought with difficulty and quickly fell into a disadvantage.

The situation was already clear: the four generals he brought—east, west, south, north—were all wiped out by that monk, and the others were even more unable to withstand a single blow.

The assassin he relied on, A Zi, also lost, and his declining momentum was obvious.

But he refused to accept defeat!

After three years of founding the Cold Dew Stronghold, he was unstoppable in the jianghu—except for Juechen Valley.

If Juechen Valley hadn't been blocking the middle, he would have already unified the jianghu!

He had painstakingly plotted for three years; he cannot just lose like this!

"Gu Rongjin!" Andelo swung down with all his might at Gu Rongjin!

At the critical moment, Gu Rongjin suddenly glanced distractedly toward Mu Yuanzhi's back.

"Rongjin!" Mu Yuanzhi's heart leapt into her throat; she couldn't understand why Gu Rongjin, who clearly had the upper hand, suddenly exposed a flaw!

Gu Rongjin had no time to look after himself or shout to others; he lunged forward, fully exposing his back to the enemy!

Little Yuanzhi is in danger!

Only then did Mu Yuanzhi realize something had changed behind her; before she could turn, someone grabbed her from behind and lifted her up!

"Ah!" Mu Yuanzhi cried out, instinctively reaching her hand toward Gu Rongjin.

"Mom!"

Gu Yutong and Mu Yumo both widened their eyes, instinctively wanting to save their mother, but they couldn't break free of Cao Cixiu's grip, so they could only anxiously stand by!

"Don't get worked up, kids—leave it to the adults." Cao Cixiu said.

At that moment Gu Rongjin's mind went blank; he couldn't grab Mu Yuanzhi's hand…

"Little Yuanzhi!"

He could only watch helplessly as the deranged Xiao Yichen embraced Mu Yuanzhi and flew upward!

"Go die, Gu Rongjin!"

Andelo swung a sword at Gu Rongjin's back, full of openings!

"Dad!" Mu Yumo shouted at the top of his lungs.

Gu Yutong closed his eyes.

And Gu Rongjin had no leisure to attend to it.

All of this happened in just an instant.

The Qilin that had reacted shouted loudly: "Yuan Yan!"

The monk had already used a palm wind to sever Andelo's sword blade; the force of that palm wind directly overturned Andelo.

No one had the leisure to give him a finishing blow; everyone's eyes were on Mu Yuanzhi and the Xiao Yichen who was holding her.

The rescued Gu Rongjin watched helplessly as Xiao Yichen abducted Mu Yuanzhi, then turned and roared at the monk: "Why did you save me? Save her instead!"

His eyes were bloodshot; he had obviously lost his reason.

The monk said helplessly: "If I hadn't saved you, you'd have just died—how could I go save your wife then?"

Gu Rongjin also realized he was raging impotently and repaying kindness with enmity; he whispered an apology, then gave chase regardless—but Xiao Yichen vanished from everyone's sight in a flash!

The movement was so swift that no one could clearly see which direction they disappeared.

"Rongjin!"

Only Mu Yuanzhi's lingering call and Xiao Yichen's smug, eerie smile echoed in the air.

Gu Rongjin stood there, dazed; the events came too fast for him to think, and now he doesn't even know where to begin piecing things together.

"How could Xiao Yichen abduct our senior sister right under our noses?!" The Qilin couldn't believe it, still panicking.

"His moves just now were too strange." The monk rarely furrowed his brow, "I've never seen anything like it… and his speed is beyond ordinary human capability."

The Qilin had no time to think about that: "Never mind whether he's human or not—quickly figure out how to rescue our senior sister!"

To fall into the hands of such a pervert—he couldn't have a moment's peace!

It was his carelessness! Their senior sister was actually snatched right under his nose!

Gu Rongjin turned around, only to realize that Andelo had disappeared at some point; there was no way to seize him for questioning now.

In his peripheral vision he saw A Zi still dazed on the ground; he dragged her up and slapped her awake.

A Zi, whose face was already swollen like a pig's head, saw Gu Rongjin's fearsome, Asura‑like visage and felt both hatred and fear.

Her face was laughably grotesque, yet no one was in the mood to laugh.

"Speak! What other plans do you have? If you don't talk, I'll tear this face off!" Gu Rongjin threatened.

Upon hearing that, A Zi was even more terrified; she shook her head: "No! Don't touch my face!"

"Speak!"

"I'll talk, I'll talk! There's really nothing left!" A Zi struggled to move her lips; her sausage‑swollen mouth spoke unclearly: "Andelo didn't think this operation would fail, so he had no backup plan—really, believe me, don't touch my face!"

She had completely lost her former arrogance, now only whimpering and begging for mercy.

The Qilin grabbed A Zi's collar: "What's going on with Xiao Yichen? Why did he become like this? What exactly did you feed him?!"

"Isn't he just a container for poison gas?" A Zi had no idea what the Qilin was talking about: "Isn't he dead?"

Just now after fainting, A Zi didn't see Xiao Yichen's strangeness.

The Qilin had no choice but to patiently explain it to her again.

A Zi still shook her head, "I don't know......"

"You won't cry until you see the coffin!" the Qilin made a move to hit her again.

"Don't! Don't hit my face!" A Zi was terrified to death.

The monk said, "How about we go check out Xuan Palace?"

"You go ahead, I'll go find Little Zhiyan." Gu Rongjin couldn't sit still for a moment; he glanced at his son and daughter and told them, "Take good care of the little ones."

Cao Cixiu: "Don't worry, Young Master Jin."

"Father!" Mu Yumo called out anxiously.

"Will Father bring Mother back?" Gu Yutong held back the tears swirling in her eye sockets, asking full of expectation.

"Of course! You guys had better not cause trouble, just wait obediently for Father and Mother to return." Gu Rongjin flashed him a smile.

The two little beans nodded sensibly.

Cao Cixiu led them to find Pei Si, as well as the settled outer disciples, and the Qilin and the monk rushed to Xuan Palace to investigate.

Upon entering, the poisonous gas that had not yet been dispelled mixed with a strong smell of blood, making people feel nauseous and want to vomit.

Even after taking the Breath Holding Pill, the viscous discomfort in the air remained severe.

The monk squatted down at the spot where the Ruohua had been placed and snorted, "What a bunch of rascals, they even ate people."