Board the ship.

As Xue Lingxue’s fingers moved across the strings, a healing melody flowed through the hall. The audience, still thrilled from the stirring scene they had just witnessed, gradually found their excitement soothed away by the music, until their hearts settled into peace and calm.

This Spring-Returning Universal Benevolence Melody carried an entirely different mood from the Canglang Rallying Tune from before.

And the miraculous power infused with true energy worked solely upon Chu Liang.

He only felt a stream of warm force entering his body with the music, gathering at his wound to contend with the power that had been steadily harming him, slowly encouraging the injury to knit itself closed.

As he felt that life-giving strength entering him, his own heart gradually stilled as well.

Though that Lord Lu had been a cultivator of the sixth realm, even the power attached to his weapon was not beyond Xue Lingxue’s ability to dispel. It was simply that the process was quite difficult, and it also shocked her inwardly.

From the stubbornness of that force alone, one could tell how high the cultivation of the person who had struck that blow must have been. Yet Chu Liang had actually fought such an enemy and lived to tell the tale.

Just moments ago, while bearing such grievous injuries, he had still stood against Marquis Dingshan of the sixth realm, enduring his oppressive might without letting his spirit falter in the slightest.

It was no easy feat.

After a long while, the melody finally ended.

The force lingering at Chu Liang’s wound was at last dispelled, and the bleeding had completely stopped. Though the injury had not yet fully healed, it was no longer life-threatening. So long as he could circulate his own energy to treat the wound, full recovery was only a matter of time.

“Thank you, Miss Xue, for saving my life,” Chu Liang said as he opened his eyes and rose to his feet.

“It’s nothing. Young Hero Chu’s righteousness in punishing evil and upholding justice is admirable; I merely did what little I could,” Xue Lingxue praised him. It was clear she had seen the scene earlier and now believed what Chu Liang had said.

In truth, everyone present had already realized that Chu Liang’s words were no falsehood, and that the crimes of the Marquis of Dingshan’s household were no fabrication.

On one hand, there had indeed been frequent cases of missing girls in the southern region in recent years, which lent credence to the matter. On the other hand, the eyes of the masses were sharp.

Right and wrong, good and evil...

Some may fail to see clearly. Some may not wish to see clearly. But in the end, the vast majority can tell.

“I have disturbed Miss Xue’s performance; I am truly at fault,” Chu Liang said, changing the subject to apologize. “Still, if blame is to be assigned, it should ultimately fall upon that father and son pair of utter scoundrels... Hm?”

Chu Liang turned his head and discovered that the Young Marquis, who had only just been beside him, was gone. He was still bound by the Demon-Tying Rope, so where could he possibly run?

Lifting his gaze, Chu Liang saw the Young Marquis, tightly bound in a turtle-shell knot, sprawled face-down on the ground and wriggling forward with his rear stuck in the air, like a squirming maggot. In all this time, he had already inched his way to the edge of the stage. If he were given another piece of music’s worth of time, he might actually manage to flee beneath the platform.

“Hah...” Chu Liang gave a laugh and walked over to drag him back.

The Young Marquis had intended to slip away unnoticed while no one was paying attention. Unfortunately, it was far too difficult. The next instant, he felt a chill at his neck and knew he had been caught again. His face filled at once with despair, his grief as deep as if his father had just died.

Though, in truth, his father had indeed just died.

But perhaps being captured himself made him even sadder.

“Shouldn’t we hand him over to the authorities?” Lin Bei asked.

“Not yet,” Chu Liang said with a frown. “We still don’t have solid proof of the Marquis of Dingshan’s crimes. If we turn him over to the court and fail to extract anything useful, our Shu Mountain sect might even be held responsible. We should find concrete evidence first, then hand him over.”

Hearing this, the Young Marquis suddenly laughed. “Hahaha, exactly! You have no evidence at all! You’re slandering the imperial family! That is a capital offense! I advise you to release me now, and I will not pursue the matter further, otherwise...”

Smack.

Lin Bei strode up and slapped him so hard several teeth flew from his mouth. “Shut your trap.”

Then Lin Bei flicked his hair, drew himself up, and revealed a proud expression. “Such trifling evidence has long been firmly in my grasp.”

...

On the Qinnan River, the last light of dusk was fading.

From afar came the distant, lingering sound of a zither. Xue Hu heard it, and his eyes lit up in response.

“Raise the sails,” he said as he stepped onto the deck and called to his men.

The Dongjing Gang crew around him immediately began to unfurl the sails, and the three great ships slowly moved forward, heading toward the center of the river. Once they left the Qinnan River and followed the Divine Radiance River eastward, they would reach the eastern region.

That would be their territory.

The entire city of Nan Pass was focused on Xue Lingxue’s tour. With everyone’s attention fixed elsewhere, their voyage today would be smooth and uneventful, safer than usual.

Standing at the prow, Xue Hu thought as much.

But scarcely had the thought crossed his mind when a sharp cry rang out from high above, sounding like the call of some divine bird, shrill and imposing.

“Hm?” Xue Hu looked up.

What met his eyes was a ball of blazing fire.

Boom—

An explosive blast struck so hard that Xue Hu’s vision and hearing blurred.

It seemed the blaze had landed on the deck. He turned at once, and when the flames receded, a tall, formidable, and strikingly beautiful woman stood there.

A faint realization stirred in his heart. He had once heard a name like this while roaming the jianghu, and the memory was somewhat vague, yet he still dared not be certain.

So he asked, “May I know which illustrious figure you are, and why you have come aboard my Whale Gang’s cargo ships?”

The woman did not bother with unnecessary words. She merely raised her brow slightly, then gave a crisp command: “Kneel.”

Bang.

An oppressive force descended.

It was as though a vast tidal wave had crashed down from the heavens. Not only on this one ship, but on all three vessels, every single Whale Gang member standing aboard—whether cultivator or commoner—heard that not-so-loud voice.

And all of them dropped to their knees at once.

Not a single person dared hesitate.

It was less an order than a law of nature.

Crack, crack... Only Xue Hu struggled bitterly against it. After all, he was a peak fifth-realm martial artist, seasoned by countless battles and possessed of a firm will; he was not someone who would submit blindly to a strong man’s pressure. Though both knees had already begun to creak under the strain, he still resisted with difficulty.

Yet when the Empress Bird Phoenix saw this, she merely gave a light sound of surprise. “Oh?”

The moment that low murmur escaped her lips, Xue Hu felt as though a heavy hammer had smashed down upon his shoulders, and he dropped to his knees with a thud. Instantly, with a sharp crack, two pits were blasted into the deck beneath him!

His heart was seized with terror, for the pressure the woman before him wielded was unlike the usual coercion of a powerful cultivator. This was the legendary pressure of the divine phoenix!

Pure, absolute supremacy!

Had it not been for such divine-phoenix might, how could that Marquis of Dingshan have stood obediently in place earlier, allowing the Empress Bird Phoenix to kill him with a single punch?

So it really was that dreadful name, the Empress Bird Phoenix of Shu Mountain... In the minds of many in the jianghu, she was nothing short of a demoness who killed without blinking.

To have run into her today, he could only blame his own bad luck.

When Chu Liang and Lin Bei caught up, this was the scene before them: the Empress Bird Phoenix stood brazenly on the deck, the three ships halted in place, and everyone aboard was kneeling, as though welcoming the arrival of an empress.

This was also within expectations. The two said nothing more and immediately opened the cargo hold. As expected, after removing some goods set up to mislead the eye, they discovered a large number of women hidden within.

They had all been seized from various places in the southern region; the three holds together contained well over a few hundred. When they saw daylight streaming in, fear filled their eyes instead.

After a few simple words of reassurance, they returned to the deck to report to the Empress Bird Phoenix first.

“As expected, the holds were full of women who had been captured,” Chu Liang said.

“Hmph...” A streak of murderous intent flashed through the Empress Bird Phoenix’s features. “You bunch of vermin...”

With killing intent gleaming in her eyes, she raised her hand to strike.

Xue Hu saw her intent and looked up, saying, “You may kill me... but could you tell me exactly how this matter was exposed? Otherwise I will die with my eyes open!”

“Ho ho ho...”

At those words, a strange laugh sounded, and a figure leaped forward, swaying his hips at Xue Hu. It was Lin Bei.

“It was you!” Xue Hu recognized him at a glance, his eyes almost splitting with rage. He had never imagined he would fall to someone like this.

“You thought I was really a drunken fool? You thought my appearance there that day was just a coincidence?” Lin Bei wore a wicked, charming smile. “Under the wise leadership of the Shu Mountain sect’s strongest peak master, the Empress Bird Phoenix, two Shu Mountain disciples of great bravery and keen intellect had already seen through your wicked plot. Coming to Nan Pass was our mission, and solving this great case was what we were ordered to do. That day, my pretense of going off to relieve myself and stealing your information was a crucial link in destroying you! None of your deeds ever escaped the discerning eyes of our master, Aunt Empress Bird Phoenix!”

The Empress Bird Phoenix nodded vigorously. “Exactly! That’s right!”