Lu Qingshan slowly breathed out. He would be lying if he said he wasn't shaken by what he saw.

  It was not safe to explore the Scripture Pavilion at this time. There was no guarantee he wouldn't melt as well just because the suspicious man had left. He needed to find a scapegoat to test out the waters.

  Lu Qingshan backed away from the area and returned to the forest. He didn't know if dead bodies would activate the same effect, so it was best to find a living person. Preferably an enemy and not a Seven Mysteries Gate disciple.

  Another Elder lived close by. Yan Xi was a taciturn man, who usually preferred to keep to himself. He was known to be a great cook though. Those in the know would frequently visit, and more often than not, they'd have considerable influence in the sect. Perhaps he could mount a resistance against their attackers.

  As long as he wasn't the traitor. But even if he was, Lu Qingshan was confident in defeating an entire group of Bone Tempering experts.

  After creeping away from the dangerous Scripture Pavilion, Lu Qingshan rushed towards Yan Xi's lodgings deep in the forest. Twenty years of service to the sect gave Yan Xi one of the best places to live. Luxurious in beauty, a waterfall's roar masked the sounds of battle, but Lu Qingshan still managed to hear it.

  He dashed up the hill and took a look. Surrounding an injured Yan Xi and a band of nine fellow disciples was another group of martial artists. Two were clashing — he recognized another friendly elder, Dong Qianyu, evenly matched against his enemy.

  From the looks of it, these people were weaklings. Lu Qingshan no longer bothered holding back. By the time one of the bandits looked backwards, the roars of a tiger had already plunged deep into their midst.

  "Kill!" Dong Qianyu roared, swinging his sabre faster and faster.

  Lu Qingshan withdrew a fist from the martial artist closest to him and shattered the ribs of another with a kick. He became entangled with another two Bone Tempering experts as the rest of the enemies scattered. But Yan Xi's group moved to block their way.

  Lu Qingshan met an incoming enemy's blow head-on with his bare fist, crushing straight through their staff without even a scratch. Then he lightly dodged an axe swing from the second Bone Tempering expert and retaliated with a savage claw through their chest. The man’s face seized in pain as they crumpled to the ground.

  Broken wood fragments cascaded off his palm. Dong Qianyu’s enemy was trying to disengage, only to be blocked by Dong Qianyu trading injuries for injuries. Yan Xi’s disciples were slowly gaining the edge in battle.

  Lu Qingshan rushed to help the injured Yan Xi first, shattering the enemy martial artist’s guard before they could flee. He made sure to not aim for vitals, keeping the man alive albeit heavily injured.

  “We need some alive!” he roared before dashing off again. Blood danced through the air in celebration with each enemy’s fall. Finally, Lu Qingshan emerged right before Dong Qianyu could no longer hold the final Bone Tempering expert back.

  Lu Qingshan clawed at their flank, drawing a scream quickly silenced by Dong Qianyu’s heavy saber. He then looked around. All the enemies were now laying on the ground, either unconscious or groaning.

  The rest of the Seven Mysteries Gate disciples gathered around the fallen bodies.

  “Congratulations on your breakthrough,” Yan Xi said. It was only now clear to all that Lu Qingshan was at the peak Bone Tempering stage during the throes of combat. Otherwise, the two experts he had faced would’ve tried to run as quickly as possible with how lacking their cultivation was against him.

  “What’s the situation?”

  “We were attacked several times and drove them off for now. I think more will be back soon.”

  Lu Qingshan nodded. “Help me drag them to the Scripture Pavilion. There’s something dangerous there,” he said.

  They worked fast, each outer disciple heaving an incapacitated prisoner over their shoulders and setting off. Meanwhile, Lu Qingshan moved ahead. The other two Elders remained silent as they followed.

  By the time they arrived at the Scripture Pavilion, a few rays of light were emerging above the horizon. Lu Qingshan guided them to the entrance and stopped.

  “Watch out,” he warned. “Drop the bodies here.”

  Lu Qingshan took one of the prisoners and squeezed shut his hand on their wrist, awakening them with a scream. He then threw the man directly into the pavilion. As he feared, the man withered away, eventually becoming a puddle of blood.

  It looked all the more grotesque now that he was this close. The prisoner’s face had melted first, then his limbs, and then the rest of the body seemed to collapse into itself. Lu Qingshan couldn’t tell what was happening yet.

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  He was worried that throwing more bodies in would empower whatever phenomenon was causing this instead of weakening it.

  The others seemed horrified, the shock clearly visible on their faces. Lu Qingshan clapped his hands to silence them.

  “Do any of you know what this is?”

  Only some shook their heads no, the rest too frozen in fear. Some were even backing away from the entrance.

  He sighed. It looked like he’d have to take a gamble. Since there was no way to accurately gauge the phenomenon from what he could see, a brute force solution was all he could come up with.

  “Help me throw them in,” he ordered. “Then we’ll go get more.”

  A few brave disciples quick to recover immediately moved to obey. Lu Qingshan was the fastest — his nonchalance made the rest recover quicker.

  After throwing all of their prisoners in, there didn’t seem to be much change. But Lu Qingshan’s senses detected a hint of struggle from one of the Bone Tempering prisoners.

  He frowned. Unsure whether or not that was an illusion, he continued to follow his original plan. Yan Xi and Dong Qianyu were more well-connected than him, and he asked them where they could find more disciples to rescue.

  They pointed out three different places: the Sect Master’s peak, the Inner Disciples’ general resting area, and a small hidden shack in the wilderness. Lu Qingshan thought deeply over which one to go to first.

  “Before the sect master disappeared, some of us Elders came up with plans,” Dong Qianyu said. “I was supposed to head to the shack first. But I was ambushed on the path, and driven here instead.”

  “Is there a traitor in your group?”

  Dong Qianyu looked hesitant.

  Lu Qingshan nodded. “To the Inner Disciples, then.” He believed the Sect Master’s peak would’ve already been ransacked. It wasn’t really low-profile.

  Some of the disciples following them looked excited at the thought of rescuing their fellow sect members. Lu Qingshan himself was hoping they could encounter a Marrow Tempering expert, who would almost certainly affect the Scripture Pavilion blood melting phenomenon more than any other martial artist. His blood almost sang as they traveled. He wanted to test the limits of his newfound strength.

  It didn’t take too long to reach the Inner Disciples’ resting area, located at the center of the sect. Lu Qingshan’s group gazed down at the buildings and tried to see what was going on.

  Whatever battles had occurred here had already ended. They came early enough to see a few embers still burning, but there were no signs of movement.

  Lu Qingshan shook his head. An air of solemn silence fell over their group as they started to head towards the Sect Master’s peak.

  Climbing the mountain took quite a bit of energy, enough for a small conversation to start during a brief rest. “The Elder who betrayed us must’ve really hated us,” a disciple whispered, his face pale. “The entire sect is gone.”

  The Seven Mysteries Gate had many enemies; this was inevitable for any martial organization in the Jianghu. They too had wiped out a few other sects in the past. Lu Qingshan guessed it was probably one of these remnants coming out to cause trouble.

  He made his thoughts known. Dong Qianyu hesitated again, but he spoke clearly this time.

  “The Elder we were supposed to be meeting with was a Grand Elder,” he said. “His knowledge of our defensive arrangements would certainly be able to cause such destruction in the sect, if told to others. If there’s no one in that cabin…” he trailed off.

  “The others would’ve all been ambushed as well,” Lu Qingshan finished.

  Silence fell once again. Then, Yan Xi simply continued heading up the mountain. The rest followed.

  Assuming each Elder in Dong Qianyu’s group met with misfortune, the enemy’s forces outnumbered theirs by double. Lu Qingshan smiled grimly. Either a large sect was attacking, or multiple medium sized sects were. And the existence of that blood melting phenomenon gave him a clue — no matter how many medium-sized forces gathered, they should never have been able to create such an effect.

  They arrived at the Sect Master’s lodgings with nothing to show for it, except the mutilated corpses of a few of the Sect Master’s personal disciples and the hidden expert guarding them. This expert’s bones were extremely tough, but had still been shattered in the battle. Even at the grand stage of Marrow Tempering, this never-before-seen expert silently passed away without any glory.

  The disciples dug graves for them, while Lu Qingshan searched the abode for anything that could help. He didn’t succeed, but then Yan Xi came over.

  The man quietly went outside and started digging as well. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Lu Qingshan watched as he pulled out a small lockbox from the hole, which he opened with a key. His hand stroked the object inside and brought it to Lu Qingshan.

  Lu Qingshan let the object fall into his hand. It was a small piece of jade, unnaturally cool to the touch even under the sun. He looked at Yan Xi with a questioning look, but the man shook his head.

  “Just something the Sect Master told me to take in case of emergencies,” he said. “It’ll be better if you hold onto it for now.”

  Yan Xi was somehow a confidant of the sect master. Lu Qingshan nodded in response; he didn't feel the need to ask questions. Giving him a presumably important treasure heritage slightly improved his impression of the sect.

  They descended down the mountain after a period of mourning. This time, they hurried to reach the small cabin. As Lu Qingshan drew closer to the location, he smelled blood.

  He stopped. Sitting in front of the cabin was an aged man. Three scars marked the left side of his face, crawling up his eye and down his neck. It was Grand Elder Hu Qing. He was beckoning them in with a smile.

  But as the others following behind Lu Qingshan came to a stop, Hu Qing’s expression turned cold.

  Behind them emerged another group of people - who they all recognized. Their uniforms were all decorated with a heart-gripping symbol. The White Cloud — chief emblem of the Jade Skies Sect, a large sect in the area. That confirmed who their enemies were.

  And leading them was another Marrow Tempering martial artist. He donned a saber and a white cloak: the symbol of an expert in their sect's primary art, aptly named the White Cloud Fist.