If it wasn’t for Yan Liqiang, no one would’ve been able to recognize Xue Cao.

The courtyard was surrounded by burning torches. Xue Cao probably had a fresh change of clothes before he was dragged out here since his clothes were still quite clean. Even so, something was obviously wrong. He remained unmoving with his head drooped down, and he had no strength in his limbs. He seemed to have lost consciousness…

“Senior Martial Brother Luo…!”

“How dare you?! You wish to make enemies with the Divine Sword Sect?! Release Senior Martial Brother Luo at once…!”

As soon as the young men rushed into the courtyard, they surrounded Yan Liqiang and pointed their swords at him while yelling threats. “Enemies of the Divine Sword Sect shall be stabbed by ten thousand swords…!”

Luo Tianyu had never looked so pathetic in front of so many people in his life before. His reputation as one of the Divine Sword Sect’s seven heroes was probably as good as gone.

At this moment, he looked extremely horrible with half of his face swollen like a pig’s. Even so, he turned his head to the side and glared at Yan Liqiang with his bloodshot eyes while pushing threats through his teeth. “You’re so dead! You’re so dead! The Divine Sword Sect will never forgive you for this! They’ll chase you to the ends of the world! You’ll regret this…!”

“We have brought Xue Cao here, release Lord Luo…!” Zhu Changhong announced loudly.

Yan Liqiang scanned his eyes over the faces of the Divine Sword Sect’s disciples. At this moment, no one would ever understand how conflicted Yan Liqiang felt. The last time he was in the Heavenly Realm, he was one of them. Yet now, these disciples were pointing their swords at him, glaring at him as though they couldn’t wait to dismember him.

All of a sudden, Yan Liqiang spotted a young face among the Divine Sword Sect’s disciples. The young disciple was dressed in white. He didn’t really stand out among the other disciples, but Yan Liqiang was slightly taken aback when he saw his face. It reminded him of someone else — former Pingxi Prefectural Governor Ye Tiancheng.

His eyes and nose looked almost exactly like Ye Tiancheng’s, especially now when he had his sword raised at Yan Liqiang while yelling. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they were made out of the same mold. He had a strange look in his eyes, but it wasn’t anger. It was that look in his eyes that bore an uncanny resemblance to Ye Tiancheng.

Yan Liqiang suddenly recalled that Ye Tiancheng had a son who happened to be a disciple of the Divine Sword Sect. However, Yan Liqiang didn’t really stay for a long time in the Heavenly Realm and spent an even shorter amount of time in the sect. Hence, he had never met Ye Tiancheng’s son. When Ye Tiancheng was taken down that day, his son was still in the Divine Sword Sect but he was too far to be able to do anything about it. Since the Ye Clan had been exterminated, Yan Liqiang was benevolent enough to stop at that.

He didn’t expect Ye Tiancheng’s son to show up in front of him at a time like this. Was this a coincidence?

Yan Liqiang looked into Luo Tianyu’s eyes which were filled with hatred, then calmly asked, “Who ordered you to kidnap Xue Cao?”

Luo Tianyu clenched his teeth and remained silent. If he were to answer Yan Liqiang’s question, then his future in the Divine Sword Sect would surely be over. However, he subconsciously threw a glance in a specific direction…

Yan Liqiang didn’t even need his answer because he already got the answer through Luo Tianyu’s subconscious actions.

In a brightly lit room at an inn, a young man dressed in white appeared in front of Luo Tianyu. His eyes and nose were the exact copies of Ye Tiancheng’s…

—— Senior Martial Brother Luo, we discovered something unusual during our training at Gan Province.

—— Oh? What is it?

—— Have you heard of that archery academy in Gan Province?

—— Yes, it was established by a young man named Yan Liqiang. He is a very famous individual in Gan Province. Why?

—— I have an important matter regarding the archery academy that I wish to report to you, Senior Martial Brother Luo!

—— What is it about?

—— I noticed that the disciples of the archery academy hold a very special secret technique that allows ordinary people to very quickly progress into Martial Warriors…

—— Oh? Such a secret technique exists in this world?

—— Senior Martial Brother Luo, it certainly exists! Many of their disciples were people with very ordinary aptitudes. In fact, they were far inferior to the other disciples in the sect. However, within these two years, I realized that many of them have progressed into Martial Warriors…!

—— That’s quite an unusual case. How did you find out about that?

—— I traveled to the Gan Province this time, remember? Then I realized that many places in Pingxi Prefecture, which is now known as Qiyun Prefecture, are clearing up areas to make more conferred fields for the large number of archery academy students who have progressed into Martial Warriors.

Those students were only ordinary youths in their villages. In fact, only one or two of them had promising aptitudes. Even so, they weren’t that impressive. But still, they managed to progress into Martial Warriors out of the blue after joining the archery academy. It’s simply unbelievable! It wouldn’t be surprising if it was only a small number, but there were batches of them and nearly several hundred in total. Not that many Divine Sword Sect disciples progress into Martial Warriors, let alone an archery academy. They must possess some secret technique that allows people to quickly progress into Martial Warriors!

—— Hm, that’s really interesting.

—— If Senior Martial Brother Luo can bring back Martial Warriors from the archery academy with the secret technique, it’ll definitely be a great achievement!

One party was trying to scheme against Yan Liqiang through the Divine Sword Sect while the other party was being extremely greedy, hoping to gain some merits from the Divine Sword Sect by bringing a secret technique like that back to the sect. With some preparations that involved the Zhu Clan, Xue Cao became their target and hence they turned the Divine Sword Sect into Yan Liqiang’s enemy…

To think that a descendant from the vile Ye Clan who had escaped his fate dared to scheme against him after so many years as revenge! Ye Tiancheng’s son was weak and wasn’t Yan Liqiang’s match, so he tried to use others to do his dirty work by involving the Divine Sword Sect. Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but break out in cold sweat because he could instantly understand how the situation would play out.

At this point in time, even if he didn’t wish to make enemies with the Divine Sword Sect, he would have no choice but to take action since Luo Tianyu and Zhu Clan had made their moves. If the descendent of the Ye Clan managed to discover the secret of the Five Animal Frolics technique, then this secret wouldn’t be kept for long. People would definitely find out if they wanted to, and what awaited him would be a throng of problems. If that was the case, he might as well take this opportunity to show the world the consequences of those who were after his secret technique…!

So what about the Divine Sword Sect? It wasn’t a sacred place either! When Yan Liqiang remembered how he was assassinated in the Divine Sword Sect back then, he instantly made up his mind!

Yan Liqiang snorted coldly at Luo Tiancheng’s silence. “How tight-lipped you are. As expected of a high disciple from a famous sect. In any case, I would love to see what all of you are capable of!” After saying that, Yan Liqiang turned his head around to look at Xue Cao. His eyes were icy as his voice instantly turned frosty.

“Roll up Xue Cao’s sleeves and take off his shoes! Why are you hiding them?”

No one moved.

Yan Liqiang’s sword gleamed and Luo Tiancheng’s left pinkie dropped on the ground — it was cleanly sliced off. Luo Tiancheng instantly yelled in pain as he trembled like a leaf in the wind…

The others were shocked. They hurriedly rolled up Xue Cao’s sleeves and took off his shoes…

As soon as Xue Cao’s sleeves were rolled up, all Yan Liqiang could see were his mangled arms. All of his fingernails had been pulled out, and his fingers were tangled up like tree vines. It would seem like they had been forcefully twisted and broken by someone.

By the time Xue Cao’s boots were removed, their insides were pretty much flooded by blood. Those people had probably forced the boots on him. Like his fingernails, all of his toenails had been pulled out too. His feet were badly mangled flesh now — Yan Liqiang couldn’t even make out which were his toes…

It wasn’t hard to imagine what kind of torture they had inflicted on Xue Cao’s body just by looking at his limbs…

Seeing his own student being subject to such inhumane torture, Yan Liqiang’s hair immediately stood up on end as anger rushed to his head…