Initially, he had thought that Miao Yi was doomed, and even if he wanted to rescue him, it would have already been too late. But who knew that he would instead see a masked head come flying out. Then what about Miao Yi?
The others were also the same. Nobody moved an inch and were all watching the scene in silence.
The snowflakes began to slowly disperse, and the figure of Miao Yi heaving heavily gradually became visible; he turned his head to look in their direction.
This fierce battle had exhausted him terribly. They hadn't directly crossed spears with each other because he couldn't afford to butt heads with them, but while he was being chased with the intent to kill, he needed to constantly return with spear strikes to destroy the incoming hail of transcendence energy, snow, mud and stones from behind his back. Although these hadn't inflicted any fatal blows on him, the attacks launched with the opponents' cultivation level were still forces to be reckoned with. Utilizing such fierce counterattacks had already caused his transcendence energy to be depleted terribly.
Seeing the appearance of Yang Qing and his men, Miao Yi could already roughly guess why these people were here.
He didn't know why, but when he saw Yang Qing's appearance, Miao Yi then felt that he was safe.
There was one thing that he had to admit, Yang Qing's repeated actions to win his favor had already affected Miao Yi, as without Yang Qing, he wouldn't be who he was today.
But he still did not wish to expose his hidden trump card; the little ones in the snow were speedily approaching him in silence. They emerged from the snowy ground and, using Charcoal as a cover, they dived into Miao Yi's storage ring one after the other.
'Harrumph!' Charcoal shook its head and let out a loud snort.
Miao Yi turned to cast a glance at the enemy's mount, having previously fled, coming back to side of the headless corpse, unwilling to leave. Then, he turned to look towards Yang Qing, and their gazes locked onto each other.
Yang Qing quietly heaved a sigh of relief; it was only at that moment that his dragon steed carried him forth as it dashed over, with the rest also dashing out and following behind.
Once he arrived, Yang Qing halted his steed in front of Miao Yi. He sized Miao Yi up and down, with the rest also doing the same.
Now, Miao Yi definitely appeared to be in a sorry state. His hair had gone from being tied into a bun to becoming semi-scattered and in a disarray; a large splattering of bloodstains were hanging from the corner of his lips and it could be said that the clothes on his body were ragged, covered in mud and dust. Both of the webs between the thumbs and the index fingers of his hands were split by a large cut, and amongst his blood-drenched hands, ghastly white bones could be seen. Yet, he still held onto the silver spear in his hand and did not let it go. The body of the spear had already been stained with a lot of his own blood.
To end up in such a sorry state, anyone could well imagine that this man had thrown all caution to the winds to do his utmost, and also, how precarious his situation had been. With just one glance, they knew that he had just narrowly escaped death; otherwise, he wouldn't be in this battered and exhausted state.
A smile faintly flashed through Yang Qing's eyes as he thought in his mind, 'This kid…'
But on the surface, he still maintained the prestige of a Manor Head as he asked indifferently, "What happened?"
It was exactly at this moment, that another two mounts hurried towards them from a short distance away; it was Zheng Jinlong and Wang Zifa.
Running to the front, the two also had blood hanging from the corners of their mouths, and looked very much in a sorry state as well. They asked pressingly, "Cave Master, are you alright?"
In fact, the two of them had already arrived earlier. But when facing such a strong adversary, they absolutely did not dare to show themselves. Only upon seeing Yang Qing and the rest arriving, did they dare to run out.
Yet prior to this, even hiding in the dark and witnessing their fearsome battle from afar could also be said to be nerve-racking. Cave Master had actually used his weak cultivation to behead the two cultivators who were at least at White Lotus Fifth Grade. Witnessing the scene with their very eyes made both of them feel like they were dreaming.
Miao Yi shook his head, he was not in a hurry to reply to them so he replied to Yang Qing first in a low voice, "Your subordinate is also interested to know what happened. I was about to head back to East Arrival Cave and halfway back, a man suddenly ran out to intercept and tried to kill me. I risked my life to flee towards South Edict Manor, but who knew that the enemy seemed to have anticipated that I would escape back. I then fled here, and fell into an ambush with nowhere to go in front and with one hot in pursuit behind my back. I had no other choice but to go all out and fight back at the risk of my life. Fortunately, I managed to behead these two scums!"
Yang Qing squinted slightly, casting his gaze at the two dragon steeds who were lingering on, reluctant to leave their deceased masters' sides. He laughed coldly, "Take a look and see who they are."
"Understood!" Xiong Xiao rushed out to cup his hands in acknowledgement of the order, and was about to examine of his own accord.
Nobody expected Miao Yi to abruptly extend his spear, pointing it at Xiong Xiao.
Xiong Xiao's face turned sour. "Brother Miao, what do you mean by this?"
"What do I mean?" Miao Yi let out a cold laugh, his expression was suffused with sternness as he said, "Xiong Xiao, you bastardly scum! Do you think I am an idiot? You know perfectly well what I meant. Are you planning to burn the corpse and destroy all traces of your crime?"
After the ordeal he had at Mystic Arts Temple, there were reasons why he had quietly gone to Changfeng Cave, and covertly left with Charcoal to meet Yang Qing alone in South Edict Manor.
Firstly, he was afraid Xiong Xiao would find out and would lay murderous hands on him during the journey again. Secondly, it was so that Xiong Xiao would be unable to grasp the entire situation, leading him to worry about whether he had said anything to Yang Qing, and at the same time, making it hard to pin down the situation from the lack of indication from Yang Qing's side. Only then could he cause Xiong Xiao to be cautious and take care not dare to act recklessly.
But now it seemed like his own forbearance was not returned with mercy by the other party. On the contrary, Xiong Xiao had been ruthless and nearly caused him to lose his life here!
Since it has come to this, then they may as well shed all pretense of cordiality and let Yang Qing know. Otherwise, it would become even more dangerous for him if he continued to endure it.
The moment he finished, everyone's gaze was instantly drawn to Xiong Xiao's face. For his part, Yang Qing only gradually turned to look in Xiong Xiao's direction to see what he had to say.
Everyone knew that Miao Yi would not fire blindly on such matters, he must have discovered evidence.
There was only one point that everyone could not wrap their minds around, 'Why did Xiong Xiao want to kill Miao Yi?'
Suddenly, Xiong Xiao became furious. He pointed at Miao Yi, fiercely shouting, "You ignorant junior! Do not make irresponsible remarks here!"
"I am ignorant? I am indeed ignorant. If I wasn't, how could I have allowed you the opportunity to try and kill me over and over again?" Miao Yi pointed his spear at Xiong Xiao as he bellowed in fury. "Last time, you pretended to request an order from Manor Head to allow me to eliminate the ghost cultivator so I could have an accomplishment, but in reality, the two assistants that were sent instead wanted my life!"
"Full of shit!" Xiong Xiao quickly turned to face Yang Qing, cupping his hands and said, "Manor Head. don't listen to the rubbish this mad person is spouting!"
Yang Qing was expressionless, it was hard to tell if he had believed it or not.
"Xiong Xiao you scum!" Miao Yi had a mouthful of blood, baring his fangs as he said, "Don't tell me that you seriously believed that Mo Shengtu and Zhang Shucheng had died at the hands of the ghost cultivator. Today, I may as well not mince words, those two despicable, vile characters had died under my spear. Before they begged for mercy in the face of death, they had already confessed that you were the one behind this. If it wasn't for you inciting them, we would have had nothing against each other, so why would they want to kill me? Initially, I wanted to expose the incident, but I decided not to because I knew that I was not your match. But who knew that this time around, you scum, you would once again hide a dagger behind your smiles, and lay your murderous hands on me!"
Everyone looked speechlessly at each other, It turned out that the two of them had already been feuding with each other in secret.
Yang Qing narrowed his eyes as he stared at Xiong Xiao tastelessly.
Xiong Xiao laughed heartily and said, "Absurd! You already know that they had nothing against you, so they shouldn't have harmed you with no one prompting them. Then what kind of grudge do I, Xiong Xiao have against you? Why would I want to harm you?"
Miao Yi then pointed his spear at the two bodies. "You dare say that these two are not your men?"
Xiong Xiao gave a look of contempt, "You're asking me? Who should I ask in turn?"
Miao Yi muttered in his heart, 'Could it be that they are seriously not this bastard's men? Otherwise, why is he still so calm?'
Yang Qing tilted his head and discretely shot a glance at the accompanying Qing Ju. Qing Ju understood, urging her dragon steed into a gallop as she went. She collected the two severed heads into her hands, carrying them by their tied hair as she returned. In front of everybody, she removed the masks, showing everyone their faces.
Once the true faces of the two heads were revealed, there were some who were slightly alarmed, while others were muttering, "Fan Renfang, Fang Ziyu..."