Eternal Evil Emperor

These past two days, Yin Fang had been very busy. He had assumed Yin Tian'er, overworn from her labors, would take a good rest for a few days, but to his surprise, soon after the ringleader of the Hexi bandits departed, the young lady would call him to her side every so often, pressing him with endless inquiries.

At first, he was perplexed by her interest, but then it suddenly dawned on him. The young lady incessantly brought up the Hexi bandits—was she subtly warning him to stay vigilant against them?

Considering this, a shiver ran down Yin Fang's spine. What a figure the young lady was; if she was urging caution, then the Hexi bandits must harbor ill intentions toward the Yin family. Therefore, he immediately dispatched two teams of guards to gather information and stepped up security measures, even formally incorporating the recruited Martial Artists into the guard force.

Soon, Yin Fang received a message: the Hexi bandits were amassing on a large scale, and their assembly point was located less than eighty miles from the exit of the Hexi Corridor, at Shashen Fort.

Upon hearing the report, a chord snapped in Yin Fang's head. When he came back to his senses, he rushed to the young lady's carriage like the wind, his insides burning with urgency.

"What's the matter?" A gentle voice came from inside the carriage. "Are the Hexi bandits making a move?"

"Young lady, just as you predicted, the Hexi bandits are gathering at Shashen Fort, intending to harm the Yin family!"

As expected? Harm against the Yin family? Yin Tian'er pondered for a long while before she understood everything, and couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. Seeing that Yin Fang's face turned almost black with anxiety, she felt somewhat guilty and soothed him softly, "Rest assured, the Hexi bandits aren't targeting us. Go and take a proper rest."

"Ah?" Yin Fang's eyes widened in shock. "They're not going after us?"

Yin Tian'er smiled gently, "The attitude of the Hexi bandits that day revealed everything. Yin Fang, you've been worrying unnecessarily."

"Oh, then I can rest easy," said Yin Fang, still somewhat confused. But whatever the young lady said was law, so he breathed a huge sigh of relief and turned to leave.

"Wait a moment," Yin Tian'er hesitated for a short while before calling Yin Fang back. She asked, "Did you find out why the Hexi bandits are gathering?"

"Young lady, I haven't found out yet."

"Send someone to investigate."

"Yes!"

Watching Yin Fang leave, Yin Tian'er let down the carriage's curtain. A hint of guilt flickered in her bright eyes, but this trace of guilt couldn't mask the shock that had lingered there for two days.

She was eighty percent sure that the person the leader of the Hexi bandits was looking for was the youth who had refused her kindness that day and set off on his own.

That day, the youth had exhausted all his strength to barely leave a mark seven parts deep on the power stone; now, however, she had heard that he had slain an expert almost breaking through to the ninth level of Brute Strength.

That day, the youth's face, overindulged in carnal desires and lacking in vital energy, had disgusted her; but now, that face shone with an astounding light in Yin Tian'er's heart.

Without your Yin family, I can still traverse the Hexi Corridor!

At this moment, Yin Tian'er seemed to grasp the meaning hidden within the youth's eyes upon his departure—the Yin family had bought peace for their lands with slaughters decades ago, while he, relying only on today's slayings, would carve out a bloody path of his own!

Suddenly, Yin Tian'er's heart began to pound. She lifted the curtain once more and gazed out towards the forest beside the road. The youth was out there, nearly keeping pace with the Yin family's trade caravan. At that moment, she was almost certain that there was a gaze in the woods, calmly looking at her.

Almost, but not quite.

Yin Tian'er let the curtain fall, and the shade of guilt in her clear eyes deepened. That gaze should have been there; she had personally exposed it to the roving eyes of the Hexi bandits spread over the mountains.

Just as Yin Tian'er was berating herself, a cavalry unit of over a hundred riders entered from the other end of the Hexi Corridor.

The troop was clad entirely in black, their faces concealed by black cloth, leaving only a glut of steely eyes exposed. As they galloped, the clanging of metal echoed around them. The hundred men moved as one, their coordination razor-sharp.

After entering for ten miles, Hexi bandits appeared. Before the bandits could declare their allegiance, the cavalry split a dozen riders off, who charged like arrows into the midst of the bandits. In a few breaths, over twenty Hexi bandits lay dead, their severed limbs and bodies scattered across the ground.

Twenty miles in, the Hexi bandits emerged again. Moments later, leaving a trail of corpses, the hundred horsemen accelerated their advance. Thirty miles, forty miles—by the time the troop neared Shashen Fort, the leader raised his hand and a hundred horse heads neighed skyward, their front hooves hitting the ground simultaneously, causing the earth to shake and dust to fly like wolf smoke.

"Yin family guards?" The leader narrowed his eyes slightly, surprised as he observed the two individuals dressed in Yin family guard attire, who were vigilantly looking around in the distance.

"Master Xu, should we take care of them?"

Master Xu slightly shook his head and smiled, "Yin Tian'er is just being Yin Tian'er, so thorough in her actions. My visit has not been in vain."

"Haha! Master Xu, is this what they call 'love for a person extends even to the crows on their roof?" teased a burly man in black to Xu's right, with a wide grin, "Just a mere girl, and even if she became your ninth wife, don't flatter her shamelessly!"

"Black Savage, could you speak any louder?" scolded the horseman to Xu's left, "Our expedition this time is a breach of military discipline. If not for learning of Yin Tian'er's whereabouts from someone in the Yin family, Master Xu wouldn't have taken such action. With your loud voice, do you want everyone to find out that the first general of the Song army, disregarding military discipline, led his men on a personal crusade for a woman?"

"Enough." Master Xu reigned in his emotions and issued a calm order, "The woman is clever; I like that, and she's a great help to me. Qiu Ming, don't worry about the deal with that other person. If the Yin family's caravan resists, give the order to show no mercy!"

"Understood!"

Looking at the brashly leading Xu Shao, Qiu Ming glanced at the baffled Black Savage and bitterly smiled repeatedly in his heart. He knew that Xu Shao was attempting to frame the Hexi thieves and thus destroy the decades of peace between the Yin family and the Hexi thieves.

"Ah, I wonder how badly Xu Shao will swindle Yin Rong this time," sighed Qiu Ming.

"Pah! He's willing to betray his own niece; who else would Xu Shao swindle if not him?" Black Savage chuckled sinisterly and, with a flick of the reins, chased after Xu Shao.

"What did you say?" Yin Tian'er suddenly stood up from inside the carriage, completely disregarding the sore bump she got from hitting her head on the carriage roof, and asked in utter astonishment, "Kill to cultivate?"

Yin Fang nodded firmly and replied gravely, "Miss, it's true. The Hexi thieves haven't sealed off the news; instead, they're spreading it widely. They're saying that a Martial Artist dared to commit murders in the Hexi Corridor for cultivation purposes, an act abhorred by heaven and man alike. The Hexi thieves are preparing to act in heaven's stead!"

"Kill to cultivate, kill to cultivate, there's no doubt about it. If not for killing to cultivate, how could your progress be so rapid..."

Yin Tian'er sat down distractedly, her eyes full of shock. Although she had never practiced martial arts, she knew that killing to cultivate was the most malicious method of cultivation. Even if they targeted the Hexi thieves, who were nefarious, no one would approve. Instead, they would be jointly executed by the martial artists of the world, for all who killed to cultivate eventually lost their humanity and became enslaved to murder.

"Miss, are you alright?" Seeing that Yin Tian'er was somewhat out of sorts, Yin Fang asked worriedly.

Yin Tian'er sighed and shook her head to indicate she was fine. Then, after a moment, she instructed, "Withdraw everyone... Eh, Yin leader, did you hear that?"

Yin Fang swiftly turned around and looked up the road. "Strange, those regular hoofbeats, could it be the Mulan army? But there hasn't been any news about the Mulan army mobilizing recently. Miss, I'll send someone to check!"

For some reason, Yin Tian'er suddenly felt a tightness in her chest, unsure whether it was the terror from first hearing about killing to cultivate or the galloping beats that shook her heart.

At the south fifteen miles from Slaughter God Fort lay a broken hideout, with Xie Tian inside.

The cave, which should have been quiet, was filled with his labored breathing. The breathing was so grating that it sounded like a bellows in the broken cave, occasionally mixed with specks of blood foam being expelled through nose and mouth. Barely twenty breaths later, the ground two feet in front of him was shrouded in a bloody mist.

"Cough cough... cough cough..."

Finally, unable to bear the intense pain in his chest, Xie Tian coughed several times, resulting in a few clumps of already congealed black blood on the bloody mist.

Listening to the cough sounding like the clash of swords, Xie Tian knew his lungs had suffered a severe injury. Fear unconsciously flashed in his eyes, and he remembered the unmatched palm strike from Li Yuanyang.

Unmatched was Xie Tian's only sensation. Having fled for two days, nearly every time Li Yuanyang caught up with him, he had felt this sensation, because he was injured each time, with each new wound worse than the last.

His opponent didn't seem to want him to die immediately; it was more like he was toying with him. That was one of Xie Tian's realizations during his two-day flight. Therefore, he didn't try to escape this time; he had no strength left to run, nor had he set up any traps outside the cave. One reason was that it would be futile, and the other was that his gains from Anlan Mountain had already been exhausted.

Thus, when Xie Tian noticed an extra pair of human legs at the cave's entrance, he wasn't surprised. He just shifted his body to a more comfortable position and quickened the circulation of the Cultivation Technique for Cultivating the Origin.

The Cultivation Technique for Cultivating the Origin had completely become an instinct for his body, another realization from his two days of fleeing. Even if he didn't move, the eighteen channels inside his body would automatically contract his muscles, completing three sets of the Cultivation Technique for Cultivating the Origin's movements. That was the only reason he had survived thus far.

"Thank you for finally not running," said Li Yuanyang with a sigh. He walked around Xie Tian, who was five feet away from him, and after making sure there were no traps nearby except for a water jug beside Xie Tian, he finally relaxed. Counting on his fingers, he recalled, "Two legs, back each poisoned with my Black Bone Poison once, left shoulder broken by my Black Bone Fan, abdomen hit by my Midday Pestle— I seemed to see you stuffing your intestines back in. And then, two hours ago, you were struck by my Black Evil Palm."

"Can't run anymore," muttered Xie Tian, his lips cracked and his voice faint.

Li Yuanyang nodded in agreement, and with a touch of admiration, said, "Not even I, with my level of Inner Qi, could bear to run crazily for two days. I truly admire you. You are determined, brave, intelligent, and especially, you have an incredible learning capacity. Honestly, when I was following you, there were times when I really didn't want to hurt you anymore."

If he didn't want to be humble, he was almost as Li Yuanyang described, so Xie Tian thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

Li Yuanyang laughed, not bothering with the dignity of a martial arts expert, and sat down on the ground. He then asked with concern, "You'll be able to hold on, right? Soon you'll have to go up to Slaughter God Fort, and I expect you'll be tortured by the leaders before Zhao Xuyang dismembers you."

"I am very hungry, very thirsty," Xie Tian said, glancing at the nearby water jug, but he lacked the strength to pick it up.

Li Yuanyang smiled, "No rush, no rush, I still have some things to say. After we're done, I will attend to your needs for food and drink. It's a pity you killed Zhao Xuyang's only son; no one can save you now. Otherwise, I would truly want to befriend you. Aye, fate can be cruel."

"Are you perhaps asking about Li Yuanyang's matter?" Xie Tian suddenly said, apparently thinking of Xie Yun, and shook his head, "It's written all over your face."

Li Yuanyang touched his pale cheek sadly and his expression slowly turned sorrowful. "Twenty-five years ago, I was the top talent in Purple Willow City. That year I was fifteen, at the eighth level of the brute force realm, unmatched in the martial arts tournament. Unfortunately, the night before the final, the Xu family from Bianliang harmed me in secret. Not only did they take my virginity, but I was also wanted, forcing me to become a thief along the Hexi Corridor."

"What is virginity?"

Li Yuanyang's sorrow, which he had managed to muster to move Xie Tian, was shattered by this question, rendering him inwardly frustrated. Without any more inclination to feign emotion, he explained bluntly, "Your virility is gone, a fate worse than mine. Yet, I see you not only without weakness but with a surprising endurance. I wonder what Cultivation Technique you practice; could you teach it to me?"

Without hesitation, Xie Tian nodded and said, "The technique I practice is called Cultivation Technique for Cultivating the Origin. I'll teach it to you."