Chapter 232: Agony

Yan Liqiang and Mo Ziye made their way back along the same route.

Along the way, they’d occasionally come across the bodies of the Blackwind Bandit lackeys whom Mo Ziye had killed. Apart from those, most of the Blackwind Bandits had withdrawn from the wilderness.

Yan Liqiang first returned to the gully where he had abandoned his Horned Python Bow. After retrieving his bow, he returned together with Mo Ziye to the mountain cave where he had hidden them earlier.

Mo Ziye didn’t speak much along the way. The atmosphere was very heavy. Yan Liqiang walked in silence. Although he survived, Mo Ziye lost her senior martial brother. Yan Liqiang didn’t know about the relationship between Mo Ziye and her senior martial brother. They could have been lovers or very close martial siblings. Regardless, he knew Mo Ziye was probably really upset right now. Since he could understand her feelings, he didn’t try to start a conversation.

By the time both of them reached to the mountain cave where Yan Liqiang had hidden Mo Ziye and her senior martial brother, the sky had already turned completely bright.

As soon as Mo Ziye recovered her strength, she went to rescue Yan Liqiang. Hence, her senior martial brother’s corpse was still in that mountain cave. Without waiting for Mo Ziye to open her mouth, Yan Liqiang took the initiative to move the corpse out from the mountain cave.

The disciple’s body, which was once in its prime, had completely darkened over just a short night. His complexion, which was as dark as coals showed just how toxic that centipede was. Yan Liqiang felt conflicted when he looked at the corpse. Mo Ziye’s eyes were once again glistening in tears as they silently cascaded down her cheeks.

“Sister Mo… It might be impossible for you to carry your senior martial brother’s body back to the Wise Ruler Sect alone. Should we cremate him here?” Yan Liqiang carefully asked.

Mo Ziye wiped away her tears and shook her head. “No need. We, the disciples of the Wise Ruler Sect, are all veterans of battles. We shall be buried where we die!”

After she finished her sentence, she started digging a pit with her sword in an empty spot near the mountain cave which could get ample sunlight.

Yan Liqiang put Goldie and his Horned Python Bow down and went over to help. With the Black Scale in his hand, he started digging too. In times like this, the sharpness of the Black Scale was very useful. As soon as Yan Liqiang stabbed the shortsword into the ground and pulled on it, a huge chunk of soil was cut open like a cake. With his hands, he was then able to scoop a huge amount of dirt out.

Both of them spent about an hour digging a huge pit about a meter deep. Yan Liqiang then lowered the male disciple’s remains into the pit and buried him. The forest had now gained another new grave without a headstone.

After they were done, Yan Liqiang finally remembered something when he saw Mo Ziye standing blankly before the new grave. He took out the shiny object that resembled a bronze mirror which he found on the old Shatu man, and handed it to Mo Ziye.

“Um… I found this on that old Shatu man back there. You can have it…”

Mo Ziye finally shifted her gaze from the grave to Yan Liqiang’s face. She seemed rather surprised, the sorrowful expression on her face shifted slightly. “Do you have any idea what this thing is?” She asked as gave Yan Liqiang an astonished look.

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Yan Liqiang shook his head.”No, I don’t! I’m from a small place and I have never left Pingxi Prefecture. I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

“This is a spirit talisman with the core crystal of a rare beast embedded in it. It’s useless now but you can use it again as long as you can replace its core crystal with that of a rare fire beast. If you were to sell this thing, it can easily fetch you ten thousand taels of gold. After knowing this, do you still want to give it to me?”

The expression on Yan Liqiang’s face remained unchanged. He only gave her a small smile. “It’s just an object that is hardly worth more than my dog. Your senior martial brother sacrificed himself to kill that old Shatu man. Just keep it as a memento or as a spoil of war. At least your senior martial brother didn’t die in vain!”

Mo Ziye stared at Yan Liqiang for a few seconds. After making sure that Yan Liqiang’s words were genuine, she finally reached out and accepted the spirit talisman from him. “Thank you!” She expressed her gratitude to him again.

“What’s a spirit talisman? How come I’ve never seen one before?” Yan Liqiang casually asked.

“It’s an extremely valuable item. All spirit talismans are crafted by a talisman master, so they are very rare to come by. Among the Chinese and other tribes, there are not more than six known talisman masters in this world!”

Yan Liqiang drew a sharp breath. “Just who was that old Shatu man? How did he have something like this on him?”

“You’re saying that you still don’t know who he was after killing him?”

“You may find it unbelievable, but I honestly have no idea who he was. I didn’t know there was someone like him behind those Blackwind Bandits either!” Yan Liqiang smiled wryly. “I merely bumped into him by coincidence!”

“That person was no ordinary man. He was the priest of the Sacred Flame, a religious sect which emerged in the recent decades among the Shatu Alliance. In just a few decades, the Sacred Flame became the official religion of the Shatu Alliance and expanded rapidly, converting every Shatu Alliance aristocrat into a follower…”

“Why would someone like him appear at Lan Province of the Great Han Empire?”

“That’s because someone didn’t want Ye Tiancheng to return to the Imperial Capital alive. As Sun Bingchen’s personal attendant, how could you not know?” Mo Ziye’s voice turned serious. “This person ordered the Blackwind Bandits to come and stop you. Given the Blackwind Bandits’ strength, it wasn’t certain if they were enough to stop you. However, the priests of the Sacred Flame have extraordinary abilities and are able to control living creatures and animals. By allowing this person to move with the Blackwind Bandits, every move you make would not escape their eyes. With that, obliterating all of you would naturally be as easy as turning over a palm!”

“So you and your senior martial brother…”

“This person wanted to obliterate all of you guys. We, the disciples of the Wise Ruler Sect, came to assist Sun Bingchen because we received orders to find that person and intercept him in order to verify some information…”

“So you’re saying… Lord Sun has known about this since the beginning?” Yan Liqiang asked in disbelief.

The question silenced Mo Ziye for a good while, before she finally nodded slowly.

Yan Liqiang’s heart was instantly filled with agony…