Chapter 94: The Quan Dao Shen Who Suffered a Setback

Duan Fengyun and his two companions slipped back into the inn amidst the glow of the fire; seeing the Quan Sect on fire, the residents nearby rushed over to put it out.

At this moment, inside the Tianhuang Palace, the scene was one of extravagance, with a group of beautifully dressed women dancing in the center of the palace hall.

The Emperor sat high above everyone else, accepting congratulations from all.

Juexin sat in the first seat to the Emperor's left, watching the dancers before him with a sinister smile.

Quan Dao Shen sat in the first seat to the Emperor's right, sipping wine while watching the dancers.

The sexy dancers and the numbing effect of the alcohol made his mind wander; he was already prepared to go and vent his desires once the birthday banquet ended.

Thinking of the soul-stirring pleasure to come, Quan Dao Shen could hardly sit still; he now wished for the Emperor's birthday banquet to end quickly.

Just as Quan Dao Shen was thinking about where to go to vent after the banquet, a guard from the Quan Sect was rushing toward the Tianhuang Palace in a panic.

The Imperial Palace guards stopped the Quan Sect guard, and an Imperial Palace guard asked:

"What are you doing? Don't you know today is His Majesty the Emperor's birthday banquet?"

The Quan Sect guard replied:

"I am from the Quan Sect. I have come to find my master; a major event has occurred at the Quan Sect."

Seeing that the guard had come to find Quan Dao Shen and that it was a major event, the Imperial Palace guard dared not delay and immediately sent someone to report it to the palace.

Upon hearing the news brought by the guard, the Emperor's attendant called a halt to the dancers' performance.

Quan Dao Shen looked at the Emperor, bewildered; the performance was going well, so why had it stopped?

Immediately after, Quan Dao Shen saw his own Quan Sect guard walk in, kneel on the ground, and say:

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Emperor."

The Emperor waved his hand and said:

"Rise. Tell your master whatever urgent matter you have."

Quan Dao Shen asked in confusion:

"Why have you come? Has something happened at the Quan Sect?"

The Quan Sect guard cried out:

"Master, the Quan Sect has been set on fire by someone.

The Quan Sect is now in ruins; please, Master, return quickly to take charge of the situation."

Upon hearing this, Quan Dao Shen threw his previous plans to the back of his mind, his mood turning into a towering rage as he roared:

"Who? Who is so bold as to dare set fire to my Quan Sect?"

Quan Dao Shen stood up and bowed to the Emperor:

"Your Majesty, please allow me to take my leave first.

I must return to see who is so bold as to dare burn my Quan Sect."

The Emperor nodded and said:

"You may go."

Then the Emperor looked at Juexin and said:

"Juexin, take my Guard Army to the Quan Sect to assist Quan Dao Shen in investigating the ins and outs of this matter."

"Very well, Father."

Juexin replied.

It turned out that after Juexin betrayed Jue Wushen and defected to the Emperor, the Emperor had adopted Juexin as his foster son and made him his Prime Minister.

Quan Dao Shen cupped his hands and said:

"Then, Your Majesty, I shall take my leave."

Quan Dao Shen took his guards and rushed toward his base camp in a flurry.

When Quan Dao Shen saw the Quan Sect, what met his eyes was a raging inferno.

Quan Dao Shen found it hard to believe; he had only left at noon, and in just one afternoon, his Quanfen had become like this.

Quan Dao Shen shouted in despair at his subordinates nearby:

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and put out the fire!"

Quan Dao Shen and his subordinates scrambled to find buckets, trying to extinguish the fire bucket by bucket.

But the three fires set by Duan Fengyun and his companions were too intense, and with the weather in Dongying being dry lately, the efforts of Quan Dao Shen and his men were futile.

As the fire grew larger, Quan Dao Shen had no choice but to give up, watching as the place he had painstakingly reclaimed from Jue Wushen turned to ashes.

At this time, Juexin also arrived at the Quan Sect with the Emperor's Guard Army.

Juexin looked at the ruined Quan Sect and found it amusing; the mighty Quan Dao Shen actually had a day where his base camp was burned down by someone.

Juexin spoke up:

"Uncle, do not take it too much to heart.

These are all worldly possessions; I believe in your ability, Uncle, that you will be able to rebuild the Quan Sect soon.

Look at my father; didn't he establish the Wushen Palace all by himself?

My father?"

Juexin and Quan Dao Shen had been thinking about the fire at the Quan Sect and had not thought of Jue Wushen in the Back Mountain's Quanfen.

With Juexin's remark, the two of them finally remembered Jue Wushen.

Thinking of this, the two were suddenly panicked; if someone had deliberately set this fire to distract them and then run to the Back Mountain to rescue Jue Wushen, then the situation would be dire.

As the combustibles burned out, the fire began to subside, and Quan Dao Shen and Juexin headed straight for the Back Mountain.

The corpses of the guards in the Back Mountain further confirmed their earlier suspicions; the two ignored the corpses and continued toward the Quanfen.

When the two reached the Quanfen and saw the mummified corpse on the giant fist, their suspicions were instantly overturned.

Juexin stepped forward to examine the mummy; the mummy's clothing was exactly the same as Jue Wushen's.

Then he looked at the armpit of the mummified corpse; the scar from where Bu Jingyun had stabbed him in the past was still there, and all signs indicated that the mummified corpse before him was indeed Jue Wushen.

Juexin was a bit bewildered now; he had always assumed that someone had set the fire deliberately to save Jue Wushen.

But now it appeared that someone had killed Jue Wushen first, and then set the fire.

Juexin kept recalling Jue Wushen's enemies in his mind, wondering who on earth would dare to run to the Fist Sect to commit murder.

Juexin looked at Jue Wushen's corpse; the corpse had only that one fatal wound on the chest, but from this single wound alone, Juexin could not determine who the killer was.

Then, the subordinates of Quan Dao Shen and the Guard Army brought by Juexin also arrived at the Quanfen, and Quan Dao Shen spoke:

"Someone come! Take Jue Wushen down and bury him properly.

While he was alive, he was my enemy at every turn, but he was my junior fellow apprentice after all; I cannot let his corpse be exposed in the wilderness."

After making the arrangements, Quan Dao Shen and Juexin walked out of the Quanfen, and the two went to look at the guards' corpses again, but all the corpses had only one fatal wound, which could be seen at a glance to have been caused by a sharp weapon.

Quan Dao Shen said:

"It seems the person who struck this time has extremely high martial arts; so many of my guards only have a single fatal wound—the visitor is not coming with good intentions.

Juexin, can you recognize the style of the wounds on the corpses?"

Juexin shook his head and replied:

"I cannot recognize them; the person who struck killed with a single blow, without any hesitation or delay, and in my impression, there are not many such experts in Dongying."

The two of them could never have imagined that the ones who took action this time were Duan Fengyun, Nie Feng, and Bu Jingyun.

Juexin kept deliberating in his mind, but he had no leads at all.

Having no ideas for the moment, Juexin and Quan Dao Shen slowly walked out of the Fist Sect, while Duan Fengyun and the other two, hiding in an inn room, looked through the cracks in the window and laughed uncontrollably at the frustrated Juexin and Quan Dao Shen.

Now the roles had been reversed; the three of them were in the dark, while the enemies were in the light.

Since that was the case, they prepared to defeat the enemies one by one.