grinned.

Linghu Chong was taken by surprise. “Are you really Elder Bamboo-Green’s auntie?” he asked hesitantly.

“That bloke Elder Bamboo-Green is not someone extraordinary. Why would I want to pretend to be his auntie? What’s so great about been an auntie?”

“Well! I am so stupid. I should have already known.” Linghu Chong heaved a sigh.

“Have already known what?” the girl asked, giggling.

“Your voice is so pleasant. How can there be any eighty-year old granny in this world with such a tender and melodious voice?”

“My voice is so coarse and hoarse, like the croaks of a crow. No wonder you thought I was an old granny,” the girl said, beaming.

“Your voice is like the croaks of a crow? Wow, the world has really changed. So croaks of crows nowadays actually sound more pleasant than the singing of the orioles.”

The girl knew that Linghu Chong was praising her. A quick flush shot across her cheeks as her heart thumped with joy.

“Alright, alright! Grandpa Linghu! Senior master Linghu! You’ve called me Granny for so long, now I’ll call you back. Will that even it up for you? Are you happy now?” the granny reconciled.

“If you are Granny, and I am Grandpa, then we are the Grandpa and Granny. Aren’t we…?” Linghu Chong said in a big grin.

He had always been the unrestrained and uninhibited type, having no scruples when he talked. He was just about to say “aren’t we a couple then” when he suddenly noticed the knitted eyebrows and the angry look on the girl’s face, so he shut up abruptly.

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” the girl growled.

“I said that if we are the Grandpa and Granny, aren’t we…aren’t we both senior masters of the Martial World?” Linghu Chong answered.

The girl knew very well that he had just gone out of his way to change his wording, but decided to not pursue the case, afraid that he might spill out even more coarse terms. Learning on Linghu Chong’s bosom and sensing the strong scent of a male in her nose, she had already felt great distractions in her heart. She really wanted to stand up, but her limbs simply would not comply. With a blushed face, she demanded, “Hey, give me a push!”

“Give you a push for what?” Linghu Chong asked.

“The way…the way we are…is very inappropriate,” the girl said.

“It’s appropriate for Grandpa and Granny,” Linghu Chong grinned.

“If you keep talking rubbish, I’ll kill you!” the girl yelled in a stern voice.

Linghu Chong felt a chill on his back as he remembered how she had made dozens of men cutting out their own eyes and then banished them to the Twine-Dragon Island in the East Sea, and he dared not making any more jokes. Then he remembered, “Even in such a young age, she was able to kill four apprentices of the Shaolin School with simply a raise of her hand. Such excellent Kung Fu skills combined with such ruthless conducts, it is so hard to believe that these traits all belonged to this delicately pretty girl right in front of my eyes.”

“You are getting angry again, aren’t you? You are a man, how come you are so intolerant?” receiving no answer from Linghu Chong, the girl spoke again.

“I am not angry. I am feeling afraid, afraid that you’ll kill me,” Linghu Chong answered.

“If you remain well-behaved from now on, why would I want to kill you?” The girl cackled.

‘But I was born one with a nature of not behaving well, it’s not like that I had a choice. I guess I am doomed to die in your hands.” Linghu Chong sighed.

“When you were calling me Granny, you showed a lot of respect to me. That was good, very well behaved. Just keep that going and you’ll be fine,” the girl said with a snigger.

“No way! Once I know that you are a little girl, I can no longer regard you as a granny.” Linghu Chong shook his head.

“What…what…?” the girl muttered, but suddenly she seemed to have thought of something; she blushed and shut her mouth.

Linghu Chong bent his neck slightly, and took in a good view of the girl’s face. It was a beautiful face, so sweet and charming, still carrying the tender coyness of a young girl, prettier than anything else in the world. In an almost dreamlike state, he felt a slight tickle in his heart, and before he knew it, had already moved his head closer and kissed the girl gently on the cheek.

The girl was shocked, and out of nowhere, she suddenly found some strength inside her that wasn’t there a minute ago. Turning her hand over, she slapped Linghu Chong heavily in the face, and immediately after, she sprang up. But the strength disappeared as abruptly as it had come; still in the midair, she found herself just as weak as a second ago, and a faction of a second later, she fell back onto Linghu Chong’s bosom once again, only this time she felt even feebler than the last time, and could no longer move a muscle.

“If you…if you do that again, I’ll…kill you,” afraid that Linghu Chong might take even more liberties with her and feeling utterly apprehensive, she muttered sternly.

“Whether you kill me or not, I have not much time left in this life, anyway, I think I’d rather do it again,” Linghu Chong grinned.

“I…I…I…,” the girl gasped in great worry, yet found herself at her wit’s end.

After working hard to gather some strength, Linghu Chong propped the girl’s shoulder slightly and then rolled away to the side.

“Whatcha gonna do?” he asked with a grin, but right after these words, he coughed violently and spilled out a few mouthful of blood.

Having become enamored all of a sudden and kissed the girl, he regretted immediately. Then after getting hit on the face, even though he was still firm in speech, he knew he shouldn’t have done so and dared not to stay close to her any longer.

Linghu Chong rolling away from her all of a sudden took the girl by great surprise. Seeing blood coming out of his mouth once again after he used his strength, she felt regretful secretly, but thin-skinned as she was, she could not bring herself to speak any of it.

“Your…your chest is hurting pretty bad, isn’t it?” she finally asked gently.

“It’s not my chest that’s hurting, it’s somewhere else,” Linghu Chong replied.

“Where are you hurting then?” the girl asked hurriedly, her voice filled with concern.

“Here!” Linghu Chong stroked his cheek where the girl had slapped him.

“If you want me to apologize to you, alright, I am sorry.” The girl smiled.

“It’s my fault. Granny, will you please forgive me?” Linghu Chong said.

Hearing him calling her “Granny” again, the girl burst into giggles.

“Where’s that stinking pill from the old monk? You never took it, did you?” Linghu Chong asked.

“I didn’t have time to pick it up,” the girl replied and then pointed at the top of the slope. “It’s still up there.” She paused for a second and then continued, “I’ll listen to you and take it when we get back up there, and not think about the stinking part.”

The two of them lay at the bottom of the slope and looked up. If it had been normal days, a simple leap would have gotten them up the slope, but now it looked almost like a ten-thousand-foot perilous peak that could never be reached. After exchanging some stares between each other, both of them sighed at the same time.

“I’ll mediate for a while. Don’t interrupt me, alright?” the girl finally said.

“Alright!” Linghu Chong answered and then watched the girl leaning against the slope, closing her eyes, holding her thumb, index finger, and middle finger in a unique pose, and froze in a trance. “Even the way she meditate is so different from others. She didn’t need to sit up with crossed legs at all.”

He tried to calm himself and also take a rest, but the energy streams inside him rolled over and over and he could only struggle in vain. Suddenly a few croaks from a frog broke the stillness, and soon a corpulent frog hopped by him along the bank of the gully. Linghu Chong was delighted. After the much fuss over the last half a day, his stomach had been keen for some food, and now food had just hopped right next to him, how perfect! Wasting no time, he reached for the frog, but his aching and limp arm obviously not cooperating, and he missed the target. With another hop, the frog jumped away from him, croaking loudly as though it was quite pleased with the getaway and jeering at Linghu Chong for his incapability, which Linghu Chong returned with a sigh. But there turned out to be quite a few frogs along the gully, and soon another two frogs hopped by Linghu Chong, who still failed to catch either of them. Suddenly, a thin and delicate hand reached out by his waist and with an easy grip, caught the frog. After meditating for a while, the girl had regained her mobility. Although she still felt feeble and weary, it didn’t pose any challenge for her to catch a few frogs.

“Wonderful! Wonderful! We can have a feast of frogs now!” Linghu Chong cheered, which the girl returned with a small grin. She went on catching more frogs, catching a frog with each stretch of her arm. Only a few moments later, she had already caught over twenty frogs.

“That’s plenty! Will you please go collect some branches for the fire? I’ll clean these frogs,” Linghu Chong directed.

The girl went in compliance and soon returned with enough branches. Linghu Chong drew his long sword and began chopping the heads of the frogs off and cleaning out the internal organs.

“The ancients killed the chicken with a cattle knife,[4] and today our Big Hero Linghu kills frogs with the Dugu Nine Swords!” the girl said jokingly, and Linghu Chong broke into a loud laugh.

“If Big Hero Dugu could hear this in the underworld, knowing that his disciple was so unworthy, he had to be enraged to….” he stopped abruptly, thinking that Dugu Seeking-a-loss had been dead for many years, how could he have been enraged to death again?

“Big Hero Linghu…,” the girl spoke again.

“I really don’t deserve the name Big Hero. Where do you go find a Big Hero who slaughters frogs?” Linghu Chong shook his hand together with the dead frog in it.

“Well, there was a Dog-Butchering Champion[5] in the ancient times, why can’t we have a Frog-Slaughtering Hero today?” the girl chuckled. “This Dugu Nine Swords of yours is marvelous. Even the old monk from the Shaolin School couldn’t beat you. He said that the senior master named Feng, who taught you the sword art, is his benefactor. What was that about?”

“The senior master who taught me the sword art is a grandmaster of our Huashan School,” Linghu Chong explained.

“This senior master’s sword skills must have been almost magical. How come he is so nameless in the Martial World?” the girl asked.

“Well…well…I promised the grandmaster that I’ll never let out his story and his whereabouts,” Linghu Chong muttered.

“Humph, who cares? Even if you do tell me, what makes you think I’d be interested? Do you know who I am and what kind of backing I have?” the girl challenged.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know what’s your name,” Linghu Chong answered, shaking his head.

“You are holding things back from me, so I won’t tell you, either!” the girl exclaimed.

“Although I don’t know, I’ve figured most of it out,” Linghu Chong replied.

“You figured it out? How did you figure it out?” The girl’s face changed color slightly.

“Well, I am not a hundred percent sure yet, but it will be all crystal clear tonight.”

“How would it be crystal clear tonight?” the girl couldn’t help but ask, feeling even more surprised.

“I’ll just look up in the sky and see which star is missing, then I’ll know which goddess has decided to descend to the world. You are as beautiful as an angel, and angels don’t come from the secular world.”

“Bah!” the girl spit at him, blushing wildly, yet feeling immense pleasure inward. “You are talking nonsense again,” she murmured gently.

By then, she had already lit the fire with the dead twigs and fuzz sticks. Stringing the already cleaned frogs onto a sharp stick, she roasted them above the bonfire. Frog grease dripped into the bonfire and made funny sounds as the wonderful smell of roasted frogs soon filled the air. Staring at the white smoke rising from the bonfire, she spoke gently.

“My name is ‘Ying-Ying.’ Now that I’ve told you, I wonder if you’ll still remember it as days go by.”

“Ying-Ying? That’s a pretty name. If I had know that your name was Ying-Ying, I would never have called you Granny,” Linghu Chong uttered.

“Why’s that?” Ying-Ying asked.

“The name Ying-Ying obviously is the name of a little girl, then of course you can’t have been an old granny.”

“When I get old and really become an old granny, I wouldn’t change my name. I’d still be called Ying-Ying,” Ying-Ying smiled.

“You wont’ become an old granny. You are so pretty, even when you are eighty years old, you’ll still be a very beautiful little girl.”

“Wouldn’t that make me a monster?” Ying-Ying beamed. She waited for a few seconds and then said with a serious face, “I’ve told you my name, but you are not allowed to use it to call me.”

“Why?”

“You are just not allowed. I don’t want you to.”

Linghu Chong stuck his tongue out and made a face. “This is not allowed, and that is not allowed. Later whoever becomes your….” he muttered. Then at the sight of Ying-Ying pulling a long face, he quickly stopped, and Ying-Ying grunted heavily.

“Why are you getting angry again? I was saying that later whoever becomes your apprentice has gotten to be suffering some hardship.” He had wanted to say “husband” at first, but after sensing trouble ahead, he quickly changed it to “apprentice.”

Ying-Ying of course had a very good idea what he had wanted to say at the first place. “You are neither serious nor honest,” she exclaimed. “Out of every three sentences of yours, there are at least two of them incoherent. I…I won’t force anyone to do anything. If he likes to listen to my words, then he’ll listen. If he doesn’t, that’s his choice.”

“I like to listen to your words,” Linghu Chong beamed at her. Even this sentence had some teasing elements in it.

Ying-Ying knitted her beautiful eyebrows in a straight line as though she was about to have a fit of anger, but suddenly her face turned scarlet and she turned her head away. For a good while, the both of them just set there, neither one said a word.

Suddenly, they smelled a terrible scent. Something was burning. “Oops!” Ying-Ying cried out when she realized that the burning smell had come from the string of frogs on the stick in her hands. They had been terribly scorched.

“This is all your fault!” she complained.

“You should have said that thanks to my joking with you and making you mad, you were finally able to make such splendid scorched frogs!” Linghu Chong grinned. Pulling a scorched frog off the stick, he tore the frog leg off and then gave it a good chew. “Delicious! Delicious! Only this degree of heating would be just right, adding a little bit of bitter into sweet, and then the sweet taste really comes out when the bitter wears out. This has gotten to be the most delicious food in the world!” he praised.

Amused, Ying-Ying broke into a giggle, and also started eating. Linghu Chong hurried and ate the most burnt frog meat and left the not too badly burnt part for her.

After the two of them finished the roasted frog meat, they lay down to the ground. Bathing in the warm sunshine of the afternoon, both of them were taken over by fatigue and before they knew it, they both closed their eyes and fell asleep.

Since both of them had stayed up through the previous night, and both had injuries, the nap was deep and sound for each of them. In his dream, Linghu Chong found himself practicing sword arts in the waterfall together with Yue Lingshan. But suddenly another man showed up, and it was Lin Pingzhi. Then he had a sword contest with Lin Pingzhi, but he had no strength in his arms, and when he tried hard to use techniques of the Dugu Nine Swords, he just couldn’t remember any of it. Again and again, Lin Pingzhi stabbed him in his solar plexus, his stomach, his head, and his shoulders. Then he saw Yue Lingshan bursting into loud laughter. Feeling both shocked and infuriated, he shouted loudly, “Little apprentice sister! Little apprentice sister!” Only after a few cries, he woke up from the dream abruptly. Then he heard a soft voice say, “Did you dream of your little apprentice sister? How was she treating you?”

“Someone wants to kill me. Little apprentice sister not only ignored me, but also…also laughed at me!” Linghu Chong said, his inside writhed with bitterness.

“You have sweat all over your forehead,” Ying-Ying sighed and said tenderly.

Raising his arm, Linghu Chong wiped the sweat off with his sleeve. A cold breeze suddenly blew by him and he shivered. Then he noticed the star filled sky. It was at night already.

As soon as Linghu Chong regained his consciousness, he calmed down. Just when he was about to open his mouth and speak, Ying-Ying reached her hand out and covered his mouth.

“Someone is coming,” she whispered.

Linghu Chong concentrated his attention and listened carefully. Sure enough, sounds of three men’s footsteps rose from a distance.

“There are two more dead bodies,” a while later, one of them spoke, and Linghu Chong recognized that to be Zu Qianqiu’s voice.

“Ah, this one is a monk of the Shaolin School,” another one uttered. It was Old Man who had just discovered Jue-Yue’s body.

Ying-Ying slowly withdrew her hand, and then they heard Ji Wushi’s voice.

“These three are also laymen apprentices of the Shaolin School. Why have they all died here? Oh, this man is Xin Guoliang. He was an elite fighter of the Shaolin School.”

“Who could be so powerful, killing four elite fighters from the Shaolin School all at once?” Zu Qianqiu asked.

“Unless…unless it was someone from the Dark-Wood Cliff? Maybe it was Chief Dongfang, himself?” Old Man murmured haltingly.

“That could well be,” Ji Wushi agreed. “We’d better bury these four bodies in a hurry, so people from the Shaolin School wouldn’t find it out,” he suggested.

“But if it were really someone from the Dark-Wood Cliff who had done this, they wouldn’t be afraid of the Shaolin Temple finding out about this. Perhaps they had left these corpses here on purpose to put on a show of force,” Zu Qianqiu speculated.

“If they had wanted to put on a show of force, they wouldn’t have left these corpses in the middle of nowhere. If we weren’t just happen to pass by here, these corpses would have been eaten by wild animals, and no one would have found out about it. When the Sacred Sun Moon Cult wanted to put on a show of force, most likely they would have hanged these corpses in the middle of the capital city and then marked clearly on the bodies that they are members of the Shaolin School to humiliate the Shaolin School.” Ji Wushi said.

“I think you are right! Most likely when people from the Dark-Wood Cliff killed these four, they were in a hurry to pursue more enemies, and didn’t have time to bury the bodies,” Zu Qianqiu concurred.

Soon, sounds of digging rose as the three began to dig the ground with their weapons, ready to bury the bodies.

“These three men had to be somehow related to Chief Dongfang of the Dark-Wood Cliff, otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble,” Linghu Chong thought to himself.

Suddenly, Zu Qianqiu uttered a cry of surprise. “What’s this? It’s a healing pill,” he said.

“This is the healing panacea of the Shaolin School. It has the power to return dead to life. I bet that it must have fallen out of a pocket of these Shaolin apprentices,” Ji Wushi concluded after sniffing the pill a few times.

“How would you know?” Zu Qianqiu asked.

“Many years ago, I saw one just like this at an old monk from Shaolin,” Ji Wushi explained.

“That’s just wonderful. Brother Old, since this is a healing panacea, you can let your daughter Not-Dead take this and it will cure her disease,” Zu Qianqiu suggested.

“Well, my daughter’s fate would only be the second priority. We should hurry to find Young Master Linghu and let him take this pill,” Old Man replied, which made Linghu Chong feeling utterly grateful.

“That’s the pill Ying-Ying dropped earlier. How can I ask for it back from Old Man, so she could take it?” he thought over.

He turned his head and looked at Ying-Ying. Under the dim moonlight, Ying-Ying grinned at him. She suddenly made a face, looking almost childlike, bearing a most charming smile on her lips. It was so hard to believe that she had just killed four master hands from the Shaolin School not too long ago. Then he heard the sounds of the three filling the grave they just dug up with rocks and soil to cover up the corpses.

“There’s a big problem though. Night Owl, help me think here,” Old Man muttered.

“What problem?” Ji Wushi asked.

“Right now, Young Master Linghu must be together with…with the Sacred Lady. If I bring the pill over, I’ll bump into the Sacred Lady inevitably. It’s all right if the Sacred Lady kills me out of annoyance, but for sure she would have felt very offended and displeased, and that would not be a good thing.” Old man murmured.

“So they are referring you as the Sacred Lady, and are just completely fearful of you. Why are you so apt to kill people?” casting a glance at Ying-Ying, Linghu Chong thought to himself.

“Well, I think those three blind men we saw on the road could be very useful then. We’ll catch up with those three and ask them to deliver the pill to Young Master Linghu. Since they are blind already, even when they find Young Master Linghu together with the Sacred Lady, it wouldn’t end up a fatal disaster,” Ji Wushi replied.

“But I suspect that their eyes were cut out because they saw the Sacred Lady together with Young Master Linghu,” Zu Qianqiu added.

“That’s got to be it!” Old Man struck his own thigh and uttered. “If not, why would three perfectly fine men suddenly went blind? I bet you these four Shaolin apprentices must have had the same kind of misfortune of bumping into the Sacred Lady and Young Master Linghu.”

At that word, the trio fell silent, and Linghu Chong finding himself with more doubts and suspicious. Then he heard Zu Qianqiu spoke again after a sigh.

“I just hope Young Master Linghu would have a speedy recovery from his injury, so the Sacred Lady can make a happy loving couple with him soon. As long as they are not married, there is no peace in the Martial World.”

Linghu Chong was astounded. He sneaked a peek toward Ying-Ying. Under the dim night-light, he could vaguely make out a scarlet face and a pair of bright eyes, which blazed with irritation. Afraid that Ying-Ying would leap out and hurt the three, he extended his right hand and then held onto her left hand gently. He could feel that Ying-Ying’s entire body was shaking wildly, but he could not tell if it was because of rage or shyness.

“Who would have thought the Sacred Lady would get so mad at us for our gathering on top of the Five-Tyrant Ridge,” Zu Qianqiu went on. “Alas, a man and a woman finding themselves in a passion of love is really the most natural thing, and for someone like Young Master Linghu, an exceptional young hero so unrestrained and benevolent, only a girl as beautiful as the Sacred Lady would be suitable as the counterpart. Why would the Sacred Lady, someone so marvelous, act so bashful like any other vulgar girl? She obviously likes Young Master Linghu very much, yet would not allow anyone to mention that, or to see that together. Wouldn’t that have been…been a bit unreasonable?”

“Really? I wonder if these words of his are true or not,” Linghu Chong thought.

Suddenly, he felt a strong jerk from Ying-Ying’s hand in his palm, trying to break free of his grip. He immediately grabbed even tighter, very afraid that Ying-Ying would kill the three of them instantly out of fury.

“Although the Sacred Lady enjoys exceptional status on the Dark-Wood Cliff, even Chief Dongfang never defied her wish, she is just a young girl after all,” Ji Wushi said. “When a young girl falls in love with someone the very first time in her life, even though she likes him so very much in her heart, she would still feel very shy and sensitive about it. This time when we tried to fawn on her, though we had good intention, we still made her very displeased. Too bad that all of us are crude fellows and had no idea about young girls’ feelings. There were a few dozen girls and ladies on the Five-Tyrant Ridge, but unfortunately, their dispositions were not that different from any man. The Five-Tyrant Ridge get-together, the brownnosing the Sacred Lady did not like. When this episode gets out, those bastards from the orthodox schools are going to laugh their ass off.”

“The Sacred Lady has done us great favor, and all of us are grateful to her and only wanted to seek ways to repay her kindness by curing her lover’s injury. A true man remembers his gratitude and his grudges; to a benefactor he pays a debt of gratitude, and to an enemy, he seeks his revenge. What’s wrong with that? If any bastard dares to laugh at us, I’ll skin him alive,” Old Man declared solemnly.

By then, Linghu Chong finally understood. The so many people flattering and fawning on him along his way did so all for the sake of this Sacred Lady named Ying-Ying. And the over one thousand people breaking up a hubbub and leaving in a hurry on top of the Five-Tyrant Ridge was also because the Sacred Lady didn’t want any others to know her feelings and became very displeased when this was made widely known in the entire Martial World. Then he thought of something else: If this Sacred Lady, such a young girl, could make so many fellows of the Martial World to fawn on him, she had to be a world-shaking figure in the Demon’s Cult. According to Ji Wushi, even Dongfang Invincible, the one known as the “Number One in the Martial World” never defied her wishes. Linghu Chong was only a nobody in the Martial World, and happened to made her acquaintance by learning the zither from her with a curtain in between at a small alley in the Luoyang city. There was never any feeling of love involved. Could it be that Elder Bamboo-Green had misunderstood it and let the rumor out, which made the Sacred Lady very angry? Then he heard Zu Qianqiu’s voice again.

“Old Man said it right. The Sacred Lady granted us great favor and kindness. If there is anything we can do to help to bring them together and make her happy all her life, even if we have to have our body smashed to pieces, we will die with nothing to regret. Being snubbed on the Five-Tyrant Ridge is really nothing. But…but Young Master Linghu is the Head Apprentice of the Huashan School, which is at daggers drawn with the Dark-Wood Cliff. I am afraid that there will probably be many obstacles to overcome before this marriage would work out.”

“I’ve gotten an idea. Why don’t we take Yue Buqun, the Head Master of the Huashan School, hostage, and then at knife’s point, coerce him into upholding this marriage?” Ji Wushi suggested.

“That’s an wonderful idea, Night Owl!” Zu Qianqiu and Old Man cheered together. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s set off right now for the capture of Yue Buqun,” they said.

“But that Mr. Yue is the Head Master of a renown school. He must have great attainments in both the inner energy department and the sword art department. If we fight him, firstly, we don’t have a sure win, and secondly, even if we do catch him, I am sure he would rather die than submit. What are we gonna do then?” Ji Wushi asked.

“Then we’ll just have to kidnap his wife and daughter to add pressure for him,” Old Man replied.

“I agree! But we must do everything in secret, and not let anyone else know about it to make Huashan School lose face. Young Master Linghu would for sure be very displeased if he ever finds out that we have offended his Master,” Zu Qianqiu added.

In the next moment, the three began discussing details as to how they could kidnap Madam Yue and Yue Lingshan.

“Hey, you three reckless chaps, get out of here right now and stop bothering me!” Ying-Ying suddenly spoke, her voice loud and clear.

Seeing her opening her mouth and speak all of a sudden, Linghu Chong was stunned. He held her hand with an even tighter grip. Ji Wushi, Zu Qianqiu, and Old Man were simply thunderstruck.

“Yes, yes…I…I…I….” Old Man muttered, but after saying the word “I” three times, the terror started to sink in, and he froze.

“Yes, yes, your highness! We were only talking nonsense. The Sacred Lady will not take that seriously. We’ll head straight to the Western Regions tomorrow and never return to the Central Plains,” Ji Wushi muttered.

“That’s three more who have just been banished for life,” Linghu Chong thought to himself.

“Who asked you to go to the Western Region? I have something I’d like the three of you handle for me,” getting back onto her feet, Ying-Ying said coldly.

“The Sacred Lady speaks the word, and we’ll do it with all our heart,” the trio replied in unison, each feeling overjoyed.

“I want to kill a person, but could not find him right away. You can spread the word out: whoever kills this man will be guaranteed a handsome reward from me,” Ying-Ying instructed.

“We really don’t deserve any reward. If the Sacred Lady wants this person dead, even if the three brothers of us have to chase him to the end of the world, we’ll find him and kill him. May I ask the Sacred Lady the name of the stupid scoundrel who was so audacious to offend the Sacred Lady?” Zu Qianqiu asked.

“With only the three of you, you would not have enough eyes and ears to trace him. You must spread the word to the entire Martial World immediately,” Ying-Ying ordered.

“Yes, yes, your highness,” the three replied all together.

“Get on to it, then,” Ying-Ying demanded.

“Yes, your highness. Will the Sacred Lady please inform us which daring rascal does she wish to kill?” Zu Qianqiu asked.

“This person’ surname is Linghu and his name is Chong. He is an apprentice of the Huashan School.” Ying-Ying let out an irritated snort.

These words struck Linghu Chong