Chapter 268

The territory of the Emei Sect is not large; inside the mountain gate is a wide square, with two courtyards on the left and right. On weekdays, disciples rest in the left and right courtyards at night and practice martial arts in the square during the day.

Walking through the square, you reach the main hall of the Emei Sect. Behind the main hall is a three-entry courtyard where the sect leader, elders, and inner sect disciples live.

Li Miao walked slowly to the center of the square, raised his hands into claws on both sides, and pulled violently toward his front!

Boom!

Dozens of doors of the buildings on both sides of the square exploded.

Li Miao looked left and right and let out a cold laugh.

"No wonder I couldn't hear a sound; it turns out they all hit the street."

Inside the buildings on both sides, human bodies were lying on the ground in a mess, all without a sound. Looking at their clothing, they were all outer sect disciples.

It was just like the inner sect disciple lying at the mountain gate; the long swords at their waists were all lying well in their scabbards, and there were no external injuries on their bodies, their clothing was neat, and there was not the slightest trace of a struggle.

If you look closely, the positions where these people fell were all different; some were lying on the table, some were lying in front of the desk, some were still tightly gripping bowls and chopsticks in their hands, and some were lying on the bed wearing only undergarments, looking like they were in a deep sleep.

It was as if these people were living their normal lives, but lost consciousness all at once.

Li Miao raised an eyebrow and continued to walk forward.

Entering the main hall, Li Miao scanned the surroundings and sighed lightly.

On the main seat of the main hall, a person was sitting there.

His body was leaning forward, his hand tightly gripping the hilt of the sword at his waist, as if he were about to draw his sword to fight someone. But his whole body had already developed blue-purple corpse stiffness, the long sword was tilted forward, the drooping arm pulled out half of the sword body, and the sword tassel was swaying gently in the wind.

This was the first deceased person Li Miao saw after entering the Emei Sect, but it was someone he knew.

The Peak-level expert of the Emei Sect who attacked the Twelve Sects' mountain stronghold that day.

The sword had not yet been drawn, and he was already dead.

And, there was not a trace of external injury.

And on the left and right of the main hall, three old men were sitting on chairs, also with their eyes closed, leaning to the sides. Looking at their clothing, they should be elders of Emei, and they were also truly lifeless.

Half of the Emei Sect's foundation was gone in this main hall.

Li Miao bypassed the main seat and walked toward the courtyard behind the main hall.

After passing the main hall, Li Miao smelled a faint smell of blood.

Following this scent, Li Miao passed through several courtyards, crossed several unconscious inner sect disciples, walked out of the Emei Sect's station, and arrived at the edge of a cliff.

The place where the Emei Sect's mountain gate is located is called "Golden Summit," which is an open space on the main peak of Mount Emei. Behind this open space is a steep cliff of several hundred zhang, named "Cliff of Abandoning the Body," which is bottomless and makes one's feet numb at a glance.

Li Miao walked to the edge of the cliff and squatted down, twisted his fingers on a stone, and rubbed them together, and a pinch of scarlet powder drifted down from between his fingers.

This was a drop of dried blood.

There were several other bloodstains distributed on the mountain rocks nearby.

Li Miao picked up a blood-stained stone and observed it carefully; this bloodstain was oval-shaped, with burrs on the edges, and extremely tiny blood dots distributed around it.

The oval shape of the bloodstain meant that the blood was "dripping," not "splashing." And from the size of the bloodstain and the length of the burrs on the edges, one could roughly calculate the height from which the blood dripped, which was about three or four feet, roughly at the height of the cuffs and waist.

And looking at the orientation of the oval shape of the bloodstain, one could see that the trajectory of movement was toward the bottom of the cliff.

A person, wounded, walked slowly to the edge of the cliff. Blood dripped from her cuffs and palms onto the stones, leaving oval bloodstains.

There were no round bloodstains here, which meant she did not pause here.

She jumped down without a trace of hesitation.

Li Miao stood up and let out a scoff.

"Interesting."

And then he turned over and jumped off the cliff!

Except for the whistling of the mountain wind, there was only dead silence on Mount Emei.

————————

"Hiss—"

The Emei Sect inner sect disciple who was awakened by Li Miao suddenly let out a gasp, but his hands involuntarily hugged his arms, and his whole body curled up on the ground, trembling continuously.

Hong Chou let go of the hand pressing on his throat and turned to slap his heart with a palm.

"Calm your mind; you have no true energy now, but your meridians and muscles have long been accustomed to the feeling of true energy flowing, so itching and severe pain throughout your body are normal reactions."

"I will pass a trace of true energy into your meridians; you circulate the cycle and disperse my true energy into your meridians, which can roughly alleviate it. But do not circulate your Emei Sect's internal energy, otherwise, it will clash with my Beggar Gang's internal energy true energy, and you will immediately suffer a Qi deviation."

"At that time, even the gods cannot save you."

Chattering—

This person's teeth collided continuously, and his whole face was flushed red, clearly in extreme pain. But after all, he was also an inner sect disciple of Emei, his temperament was not bad, and he immediately calmed his mind and followed Hong Chou's words.

A moment later, he finally stopped trembling and stood up shakily.

Seeing that he had regained his sanity, Hong Chou hurriedly asked.

"Are you an inner sect disciple of Emei? What is your name?"

"Reporting to... senior, I am... Lan Chongyi..."

His throat was slashed by Li Miao and had just been healed by Hong Chou, but Hong Chou's attainments in healing techniques were not deep, and he could not achieve the effect of "being able to use it once healed" like Li Miao, so he spoke word by word, only barely able to piece together sentences.

"Senior... Beggar Gang?"

He asked with difficulty.

Hong Chou nodded.

"I am a former elder of the Beggar Gang, and the current Beggar Gang leader is my grand-disciple."

Lan Chongyi showed a look of suspicion.

Hong Chou slapped his forehead; he had not walked in the Jianghu for more than twenty years, and he had faked his death to escape the imperial court's pursuit before, so it was no wonder Lan Chongyi would believe him when he talked about elders and grand-disciples.

So he hurriedly added.

"I came with Lord Li, the Embroidered Uniform Guard Regional Commander; he was the one who saved you just now, and you should have seen him when you opened your eyes."

Hearing this, Lan Chongyi widened his eyes and scanned left and right.

"Lord Li has already gone into your mountain gate to check the situation, leaving me here to heal your wounds."

Hong Chou said.

"Let's not talk about these; what kind of disaster did your Emei Sect suffer! Who could have knocked down everyone in the Emei Sect without a sound!"

"Where is your Elder Liu? He is also a long-time Peak-level expert; why is his figure not seen? Did he already take the disciples and flee?"

Hearing this, Lan Chongyi was suddenly filled with grief, and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.

He suddenly fell to the ground.

"Elder... is dead..."

"Founder, protecting the true inheritance... jumped off the cliff..."

"That person... also went down... together..."

Hong Chou's pupils shrank.

"Someone killed their way into your Emei mountain gate, killed Elder Liu, your founder Ruan Mei returned, and took the true inheritance and jumped off the Cliff of Abandoning the Body. And the person who killed his way into the mountain gate also followed down together?"

Lan Chongyi wept uncontrollably and nodded slowly.

(End of chapter)