Chapter 50: Bang!

A few minutes later, in the courtyard where Ding Chunqiu was located.

"Bang!"

"You've arrived."

"We've arrived."

After Zhang Chengyi replied in a deep voice, Ding Chunqiu froze. His opponent wasn't playing by the rules at all.

What kind of a response was "We've arrived"? It completely killed the conversation.

"So boring. You didn't even know how to pick up that line. You've wasted all these years wandering the pugilist world in vain," Zhang Chengyi said with a bored expression, glancing around casually before saying, "Hand over the antidote, and I'll grant you a swift death."

"Where... where is Duan Yu?" Duan Yanqing asked.

Murong Bo's eyes were filled with killing intent, but he remained cautious, standing at the very back without saying a word.

Su Xinghe, on the other hand, was rather eager to step forward and have a proper chat with this traitor of their sect.

"Hehe, hehehe, hahahahaha~"

Ding Chunqiu laughed up at the sky—no, laughed up at the ceiling, laughing so hard tears were almost streaming down his face. With his disheveled hair, he bore no resemblance to the revered old immortal he used to be; he looked completely like a madman.

"Do each of you really think this old man is nothing more than a flea in the palm, a fish at the bottom of a boiling pot?"

Zhang Chengyi didn't understand the two idioms at first. After thinking for a moment, he got the meaning and scoffed, "You mean a turtle trapped in a jar, right? Why use such obscure literary terms?"

You're the one using an unfamiliar term like "a turtle trapped in a jar"! Xn

Having spent a long time with him, everyone else had learned to talk back to him silently in their hearts.

As for why it was an uncommon term, it was because the phrase "turtle trapped in a jar" didn't even exist yet during the Song Dynasty—not that a certain illiterate person with poor historical knowledge would know that anyway.

"..."

Ding Chunqiu's emotions suffered a tiny fracture, but he immediately resumed a sinister smile and said, "Feigning madness and acting foolish won't save you. All of you have already been poisoned by this old man. If you don't want to die, kneel down and beg immediately, and this old man might just spare your life."

"Huh?"

Zhang Chengyi was stunned for a moment, checked his status panel to find no negative poisoning debuffs, and casually slapped out with a light palm strike.

"Smack!"

Caught completely off guard by the sheer force, Ding Chunqiu was slapped across the face, stumbled, and barely avoided falling to the ground. Instead of getting angry, he laughed, "I want you..."

"Want your head!" Before he could finish speaking, he was struck like a soccer ball again and forced to his knees.

Just as Zhang Chengyi was about to continue teaching this old madman a lesson, he noticed that Duan Yanqing and Murong Bo nearby had sat down with ashen faces, cross-legged to channel their inner energy.

Su Xinghe rolled up their sleeves and spotted the exact same black-green veins as the ones on Murong Fu.

Hearing Ding Chunqiu's words, the two of them had proactively circulated their qi to check. With their level of mastery, they naturally discovered the mixed toxins within their bodies with ease, but unfortunately, they were equally powerless to expel them.

"Bah!"

Kneeling on one knee, Ding Chunqiu spat out a mouthful of blood and phlegm. He looked at the several people standing completely unaffected with a dazed expression, and soon realized that these individuals must all be immune to poisons. Regardless of whether it was due to something they had eaten or some cultivation technique they practiced, none of them had fallen victim to the poison he had painstakingly laid out.

However, it didn't matter.

He sat down comfortably, grinning to reveal two rows of ghastly white teeth, and said, "If you want to save them—if you want to save every single innocent citizen of this city of Suzhou—cripple your own martial arts and kneel down to beg me."

Xiao Feng's expression shifted slightly, but he remained silent.

Su Xinghe gave Xue Muhua a look, and Xue Muhua quietly slipped out of the courtyard.

"Hold on, it seems we have no grudge or enmity between us, right? Why are you always targeting me?"

Zhang Chengyi was somewhat baffled. Ding Chunqiu acted as though Zhang Chengyi had murdered his parents, unleashing his entire tirade against him from start to finish, as if he absolutely had to see Zhang Chengyi on his knees.

"Hehehe..."

Ding Chunqiu laughed bizarrely. "You're the one who saved that old geezer Wuyazi, aren't you?"

When he heard the rumors that Su Xinghe was willing to serve a stranger as a slave, he had guessed that Wuyazi probably hadn't died back then, though he must have been too weak to exact revenge; otherwise, Wuyazi would have come out to finish him off long ago, instead of waiting until just recently to track him down.

Betraying his master and dallying with his master's wife—he had known all along what the consequences would be if his plot failed. Death, mutilation, or torture, he had factored them all in.

Therefore, he didn't hate Wuyazi, nor did he hate Su Xinghe.

What he hated was Zhang Chengyi, who had appeared out of nowhere, had no blood ties to the Xiaoyao Sect, and was most likely the source of his current misery.

As for whether he might have the wrong person or anything of the sort, it no longer mattered. Having been tortured to this extent, continuing to live would only make him a laughingstock. Dragging down as many people as possible before he died was all that mattered.

He had originally been in too much agony from the true qi Wuyazi had driven into his body to put up much of a fight, but the heavens had taken pity on him by delivering a person carrying a peerless poison right to his doorstep.

"Come out," Zhang Chengyi said, looking toward the window in a calm tone.

"Creak~" The door opened, and yet another bald monk slowly walked out.

Wait, why did I say *another*?

"This poor monk, Kumarajiva, greets you all," the yellow-robed bald monk said, pressing his palms together.

An unexpected bonus?

Zhang Chengyi said, "You've come at the right time. Master, take a trip with me."

Kumarajiva calmly rolled up his sleeves to reveal the bluish-green veins on his arms and said, "Due to a moment of greed, this poor monk failed to stop Ding Chunqiu in time, committing a grave mistake..."

He closed his eyes and chanted a Buddhist proclamation: "Amitabha."

"Did you let that kid Duan Yu go?" Ding Chunqiu sat on the ground, seemingly unsurprised that someone had been hiding in the guest room. He stroked his long beard, which he hadn't trimmed in a long time, and said with a bizarre smile, "Fine, let him go. He's useless anyway."

"Let him escape, so that the world may know the mighty reputation of the Old Immortal of the Xingxiu Sect." As he spoke, a manic gleam seemed to light up his eyes.

If he couldn't leave a legacy of greatness for a thousand years, he would settle for everlasting infamy.

Duan Yu? Poison?

Zhang Chengyi strung these words together in his mind, instantly deducing how that mixed toxin had come to be. Having figured it out, he asked, "How long ago did Duan Yu leave?"

Kumarajiva was slightly startled, not quite understanding the purpose of the question, but he answered honestly anyway, "About the time it takes to burn a stick of incense."

"He probably hasn't run far yet," Zhang Chengyi calculated mentally. A stick of incense in the Song Dynasty was roughly two quarters of an hour, meaning half an hour. Lingbo Weibu was not a movement technique known for pure speed; even if Duan Yu had fled at full tilt, he would most likely have only just managed to leave the city of Suzhou. He thus instructed, "Old Fan, take the Master and bring Duan Yu back."

"Understood." With a single leap, Fan Bailing scooped up the bewildered Kumarajiva and vanished.

"Thud!" Xue Muhua landed on the ground. Clearly deeply shaken, he said, "Grandpa Zhang, Master, everyone outside... they've all been poisoned by that mixed toxin."

"Hahahaha!" Seeing his words verified, Ding Chunqiu burst into loud laughter.

"The Knight of Jinshan, hehehe, the Knight of Jinshan."

"You went to the Mantuo Villa, so you've seen my poison. In this entire world, aside from me, absolutely no one else can cure it."

"If you truly are a knight-errant, kneel down and beg me. Otherwise, you'll have the entire city of Suzhou buried along with me."

His laughter grew increasingly frantic and deranged. His original plan had been to use hostages to shatter his opponent's convictions. Those who called themselves heroes were always the most naive; even if he couldn't kill them, destroying their inner resolve was just as good.

"You mean to say you're threatening me with hostages?" Zhang Chengyi asked in a very gentle tone.

"And what if I am?" Ding Chunqiu smiled maliciously.

"Bang!"