Chapter 800

Worried at heart, he stayed up past midnight to practice his art here.

Who would have thought, the bad news had finally arrived.

"Hero Fu, please go on."

"Sigh! It's like this…"

Fu Qingzhu sighed again and once more gave a rough account of the impact of this weapons ban and the chaos within the pass.

At last his words shifted, and he spoke of someone having betrayed Liu Jingyi.

Letting the Qing court know that the Qinglong Society's contact with the Heaven and Earth Society was none other than the Northwest Branch.

For the bounty on the weapons ban, Fenghuo Liancheng and all manner of unorthodox cultivators, and even the Prince of the Blood Duogeduo himself leading a great army in person,

were several hundred li away, marching day and night toward Wu Estate to kill.

"What? How could this be?"

Hearing Fu Qingzhu out, Liu Jingyi felt a cold sweat break over his whole head.

He never imagined that the break in contact with the Heaven and Earth Society's main branch was because the Heaven and Earth Society inside the pass had already been all but wiped out.

Such a vast organization spread across the five lakes and four seas, gone just like that before the weapons ban?

Even more terrifying, the Qing army and the unorthodox cultivators were bearing down on Wu Estate to kill.

"Hero Fu, is all you've said really true?"

With the Heaven and Earth Society mowed down to such a degree, in his heart Liu Jingyi was resolved to fight to the death.

After all, when he joined the society, he had sworn a blood oath.

To drive out the Tatars and restore the rivers and mountains of old.

To live and die with his sworn brothers in the society.

The oath still rang in his ears; hearing the sudden news of the bereavement, he naturally would not grudge a death-fight.

But he then thought: he himself had no bottom line to fight to the very end!

Wu Estate was, in name, the Northwest Branch of the Heaven and Earth Society, but in fact not everyone in Wu Estate was a member of the Heaven and Earth Society.

At least more than half of them were just ordinary folk.

To live and die with his Heaven and Earth Society brothers, to resist the Qing court together, to cast out the tyranny—

to die for the ideal, that was of course a duty one could not shirk!

But if he dragged along a bunch of fathers and elders, fellow villagers, how could he bid them throw their lives away?

"Of course it's true!"

Fu Qingzhu sighed once more.

He was long experienced in the jianghu and skilled at reading faces.

Seeing Liu Jingyi's expression shift again and again, how could he not know what was in his heart?

He understood him all the more, knowing that with families in tow this was not the time to throw one's life against the Qing court.

He spoke up at once to counsel him,

"Lord Liu of the estate, as long as the green mountains remain, there is no worry for lack of firewood.

At present the enemy is many and we are few; ten thousand horses fall silent.

The world's martial artists, the Gedamen Sect and others hunted down by the Qing court's weapons ban, are beyond counting.

Countless men of goodwill and lofty ideals could only swallow their grievances beneath the Qing court's swift blade.

Still more people lie hidden in the dark, awaiting the moment to strike back.

Lord Liu must not seek a moment's satisfaction and insist on tangling with the Qing court now!"

"Yes! Lord Liu, the cruelty of Fenghuo Liancheng and his lot is enough to make one's hair stand on end."

Wu Yuanying chimed in at this point, taking that blood-soaked bundle from Fu Qingzhu and opening it right there on the stone table.

Looking at the bundle, it was packed full of heads of those who had died with eyes unclosed.

Even the Heaven and Earth Society branch master, long inured to life and death, felt his scalp prickle at this moment.

"These are…"

"They're all common folk of Liucheng, wu wu wu…"

Wu Yuanying covered her mouth and nose and broke into sobs.

This Liucheng and Wu Estate looked far apart, but in the vast, sparsely populated Northwest they were near neighbors.

The common folk of the two places had always been trading back and forth.

Wu Yuanying also had some acquaintances on the Liucheng side.

Judging by the way things looked now, they were all probably dead!

"How could this be…"

Liu Jingyi was utterly stunned.

In jianghu strife, even when an anti-Qing organization like the Heaven and Earth Society fought the court, it had never been so cruel.

Now, looking into that pile of heads, there were even children among them.

Clearly this slaughter made no distinction of sex or age.

"Sigh! The Qing court has gone mad this time."

Fu Qingzhu also sighed; when the new dynasty replaced the Great Qing, it had never been so cruel either.

It only executed the chief villains of the Great Qing, and let the Great Qing imperial clan go.

Otherwise, how could the Great Qing have staged its comeback?

Thinking of this, Fu Qingzhu truly felt that back then the rulers of the new dynasty should have slaughtered the entire Great Qing imperial clan.

How many fewer innocent people would have died in the world!

"Old Man Liu, hurry and gather the village elders, and urge everyone to retreat into the mountains!"

Fenghuo Liancheng has already slaughtered Liucheng, and will arrive here any day now.

By the time they get here, it may already be too late."

With no time to explain much to Liu Jingyi, Wu Yuanying pleaded with him.

Liu Jingyi was also in turmoil; he had considered making a final stand against the Qing court and the evil sects.

To avenge the Heaven and Earth Society, and to repay the Qinglong Society's kindness!

But the Qing court and the evil sects' methods were truly horrific.

In the martial world, slaughtering entire families was not common.

And this was not even slaughtering a family—it was a city-wide massacre!

The most terrifying part was that after the massacre, they cut off heads to claim credit!

"Fine! I'll summon the village elders right away to discuss this."

Liu Jingyi hesitated for a moment, then sighed deeply.

Now was not the time to risk the villagers' lives; if he must fight, he would wait until they were safely settled.

Just as he was about to rise and summon the elders, a figure stepped out from the darkness.

"Big Brother, it's this late at night and you can't sleep? What are you doing here?"

"Yuanying, why are you back? Aren't you still studying swordplay at Tianshan?"

"Huh? Who is this person? With the current situation so unstable, how did someone of unknown origin slip into Wu Zhuang?"

"Did you bring them in, Yuanying?"

Before he could even make out the man's face, he launched into a furious tirade.

Wu Yuanying seemed somewhat impatient with him, yet still bowed in Gao Jianli.

"Vice-Commandant Qiu!"

"Hmph!"

Hearing Wu Yuanying's address, Vice-Commandant Qiu let out an even more irritated snort.

"Donglu! You've arrived just in time—I'll introduce you to this person…"

When Liu Jingyi recognized the newcomer, his face lit up with joy; he immediately grabbed his arm, ready to introduce Hearing Fu Qingzhu.

But the man's eyes fell upon the severed head on the stone table, his expression changed instantly—he yanked Liu Jingyi behind him.

"Where did this scum come from, bringing so many heads?"

"Big Brother, have you been deceived by them? Leave this place at once—I'll hold them off for you."