After a brief hush, the great free-for-all erupted—predictably enough.
Xue Mu had noticed: the righteous path hadn't sent anyone of big-shot caliber. Maybe none of them were in the capital. That was interesting in itself—the righteous path had no big names stationed in the capital... Hmm, and come to think of it, neither does the Star Moon Sect. Xue Qingqiu and her disciple only arrived a day ago.
And really, it made sense. The capital's formation suppressed half of a cultivator's power; big shots generally weren't keen to set foot somewhere they couldn't perform at full strength. It was probably one of the ways the court kept the capital under its thumb.
So the so-called great brawl was Yue Xiaochan unilaterally humiliating the righteous path. On the Star Moon Sect's side, not even Qingqing or Meng Lan lifted a hand—no sense in stealing the Young Sect Mistress's fun.
Giggling, Yue Xiaochan wove through the crowd like a butterfly flitting among flowers; one brush of her slender hand and another man dropped. The scene really did match those dramas where a demoness runs rampant, and compared with the little loli of the past two days—who blushed to the tips of her ears and neck at the slightest thing—the contrast was stark. Even Xue Mu felt a chill run down his spine.
Yue Xiaochan tapped down a Wenjian Sect female disciple and casually tossed her to Meng Lan. "Here's another outfit—strip her first."
Right, then. So in her eyes, this bunch came here to deliver uniforms.
A young Daoist cried out in grief and fury, "Demoness! You'll pay for—" Before he could finish, one careless kick from Yue Xiaochan sent him flying; he spun three and a half times in the air and landed with a thud... right in front of Xue Mu.
Xue Mu blinked and blinked.
The Daoist, mouth full of blood, painfully lifted his head and met Xue Mu's wide-eyed, clueless look.
"Die, you monster!" Finding some unknown reserve of strength, the Daoist scrambled to his feet—his sword had long since gone flying—and swung his palm to strike.
"Shit..." Xue Mu bolted, and the Daoist hobbled after him.
Two feminine cries rang out at the same instant: "Don't you dare!" "Young Master, look out!"
Yue Xiaochan hadn't expected a casual kick to send a man right to Xue Mu's feet, and it hit her all at once that Xue Mu was an ordinary man with not a scrap of cultivation. "Don't you dare!" burst from her lips as she flicked out a silver hairpin straight at the back of the Daoist's skull.
At the same moment Meng Lan flew over, face stricken, and from far off the wind and waves of her palm strike rushed at the Daoist's back.
Everything in the hall stopped. Every eye turned to where Xue Mu stood. The scene might have dropped into slow motion—no one could tell whether the Daoist's palm would kill Xue Mu first, or the Daoist would have his brain pierced and his heart shattered first.
The outcome stunned everyone. The Daoist's palm was a hair from striking Xue Mu's back when it suddenly snapped back—he clutched his own throat in agony, and in an instant blood poured from every orifice. Then Yue Xiaochan's silver hairpin and Meng Lan's palm wind arrived together, and the Daoist was blasted into a puddle of meat paste.
Yue Xiaochan, still shaken, gasped for breath a few times, then suddenly laughed and pointed at Xue Mu. "You didn't take your medicine today."
Xue Mu caught on too. "So it was the poison-poison that got him?"
Meng Lan, now at Xue Mu's side, also paled slightly and took half a step back. "Young Master's poison arts are truly vicious," she murmured.
Xue Mu smiled awkwardly. Looking at the Daoist's corpse on the floor, he felt... strange. Guilt wasn't quite the word—the man had tried to kill him without a word of warning—but still, how to put it... a man was dead. A modern person raised in a civilized society had a psychological block about this sort of thing, after all. Fortunately the man had been poisoned passively rather than beaten to death by his own hand; the sensation wasn't as violent, and he just about managed to keep that odd feeling under control.
Exactly so. The drug that suppressed Xue Mu's toxicity wore off after twelve shichen—today, Xue Mu hadn't taken his medicine... The Daoist had been invaded by the whole jumble of mutant viruses radiating from Xue Mu's body. Already gravely wounded, he plainly had no strength to resist, and was poisoned to death.
The handful of righteous disciples left in the hall retreated as one. Only now did they realize they had no chance at all. Yue Xiaochan alone could toy with every one of them; Qingqing and Meng Lan hadn't lifted a finger; and behind them lurked a monster who looked like he had no cultivation but whose poison arts were of unknowable depth...
Yue Xiaochan was in a fine mood. Smiling, she said, "Did I say you could leave?"
Someone said furiously, "Demoness! Do you mean to wipe us out to the last man?"
Yue Xiaochan pursed her lips. "None of your sects has any elder stationed in the capital. Just a few shrimp soldiers and crab generals like you, and you still come imitating your betters and demanding an explanation. What a bunch of pigheads."
The man said angrily, "If you hadn't sneak-attacked Senior Uncle Dongfeng of our sect..."
Yue Xiaochan stuck out her tongue and dragged a finger down her cheek. "Give him a fair fight, and would he have lived?"
The man was struck speechless. Anyone could see the demoness's power was extremely high—they couldn't even gauge her cultivation level. In other words, these people weren't even qualified to force out her trump card. More interesting still: looking at Yue Xiaochan's sweetly smiling, pretty, charming face, he found he simply didn't want to speak harshly.
Laughter drifted in from beyond the door. "A little girl and nothing more, yet she already has the potential to bewitch the world. The Star Moon Sect's Young Sect Mistress is truly extraordinary."
With the voice, a man and a woman stepped in from outside. The man was an old man in a blue-green robe, white beard drifting, every inch the otherworldly immortal. It was he who had just spoken.
The woman was about twenty-five or twenty-six, in the typical garb of a Six Doors constable: a dark red uniform jacket over a tight black combat suit, the black showing through the red, black and crimson woven together on the outside, dashing yet dignified.
As she strode in, the long, straight legs sheathed in those tight clothes drew every eye, full of a cheetah's athletic grace. A scarlet cape hung from her shoulders and streamed out behind her with each step—she looked outrageously cool.
No hat on her head; her hair was tied back in a casual high ponytail, and her cold eyes held a startling keenness. Her features weren't exactly delicate, but that dashing, spirited air gave her a most distinctive charm.
Xue Mu's gaze was snagged in an instant. Is this the "madwoman" Xiahou Di they mentioned? A healthy, wholesome, heroic sort of beauty—not some old spinster at all!
Yue Xiaochan tilted her head, propped one finger against her cheek, looked the two of them up and down, and then said with a gossipy grin, "Chief Constable Xiahou, and this grandpa here—walking in together so intimately. Are you two courting?"
The two had entered with a dragon's stride and a tiger's bearing, imposing enough, but at that they nearly stumbled in unison and awkwardly put two chi between them. Xiahou Di said coldly, "Save your coy little games. Murder in broad daylight at the feet of the Son of Heaven—has your Star Moon Sect stopped regarding the Six Doors as worth a glance at all?"
Yue Xiaochan put on a look of utter devastation. "Constable Xiahou, you must see justice done for this humble girl... Look at these people, barging into a brothel with blades and swords. Every girl in our Baihua Garden is a weak little woman who couldn't truss a chicken. If Xiaochan hadn't happened to know a trick or two, the girls would have met with disaster long ago, boo hoo hoo..."
Xue Mu nearly laughed out loud. Seeing the whole righteous bunch looking like they'd just been made to eat shit, he knew the matter held up legally—no wonder she'd killed them so cleanly and efficiently.
Xiahou Di opened her mouth, then closed it again. By the court's law, Yue Xiaochan had killed a pack of blade-carrying jianghu men who had forced their way into her own establishment—she was entirely within her rights. If Yue Xiaochan seized on that and demanded she prosecute these righteous folk, she wouldn't know what to say.
The old man picked up the thread. "This old man is Miao Yue of the Xinyi Sect."
Yue Xiaochan batted her eyes. "So it's Senior Uncle Miao of the Xinyi Sect. But your sect goes by the heart's own intent and has never worn a unified uniform—this business has nothing to do with your sect at all."
Miao Yue said mildly, "Among the righteous sects, one insult is shared by all; we are one breath and connected branches. And even setting aside your costume affair, Martial Niece Yue has slaughtered so many righteous disciples—how could my Xinyi Sect stand apart?"
Xue Mu had been studying Xiahou Di all the while, and he suddenly noticed that the moment the words "one breath and connected branches" left Miao Yue's mouth, she frowned slightly, plainly displeased to hear it. Xue Mu's mind raced. Now that's interesting... the court doesn't actually like the so-called righteous sects standing too close together, does it?
Yue Xiaochan was still all smiles. "So what does Senior Uncle Miao plan to do? Bully the small with the great, and favor little Xiaochan with a pointer or two?"
Miao Yue had a full beard on him; trading blows with a thirteen-year-old girl in full public view really was beneath him. He stroked his beard and thought, and then his gaze suddenly landed on Xue Mu. He smiled slightly. "This young hero is probably not one of the Star Moon Sect's people. You poisoned a Xuantian Sect disciple to death—shouldn't you give this old man an explanation?"
Xue Mu rolled his eyes. That Daoist tried to kill me first—why don't you mention that? What it really is, old man, is that you figure the Star Moon Sect won't protect a man too hard, so you're deliberately picking the soft persimmon to squeeze, and that way you'll have something to report back to the righteous disciples here. Right?
Yue Xiaochan had clearly seen through him too. She smiled, lips pressed together. "He really isn't one of ours at the Star Moon Sect. But you'd better take note, Senior Uncle Miao—his surname is Xue."
Xue Mu smiled and cupped his hands. "Xue Mu greets all of you."
The surname Xue... Miao Yue froze for a moment, then his expression changed drastically. Every righteous disciple present erupted in uproar, and even Xiahou Di's gaze on Xue Mu turned very grave.
Xue Qingqiu's tiger-skin banner really did carry extraordinary deterrent force.