Someone shouted "Kill!" and Zhu Chong's men immediately charged forward. As expected, Tang Yuanjiang took them down in a few moves. Zhu Chong, being hot-tempered, saw his subordinates being beaten and charged forward himself. The two hall masters then engaged in a fierce fight.
The strength of a hall master was not to be underestimated. Every move was accompanied by a sharp gust of palm wind. During the fight, other people were inevitably injured. Although the fight started as one against many, it gradually reduced to just Zhu Chong and Tang Yuanjiang.
Neither of them yielded, and the sound of their fighting carried far.
In a nearby alley, Xia Yunting listened quietly to the commotion. He knew that even if they ended this conflict, the enmity between them would never be resolved. He then turned to look towards the outskirts of the city. After arriving in Changping County, Zhu Chong's men were stationed in a manor outside the city. While the hall masters were out, he intended to cut off the roots of the problem.
This night was destined to be a turbulent one. Continuous sounds of fighting echoed from the county yamen and the outskirts. However, neither Zhang Chu's family nor the common folk living in the countryside would foolishly go out to investigate, because even from within their homes, they could feel a strong killing intent.
Meanwhile, in the mass grave, Chu Qing searched every tombstone and finally discovered a person behind a collapsing grave mound—a person wearing a short sword, unconscious.
Chu Qing's heart beat rapidly twice. Someone was indeed out there. He had searched diligently for the past two days without any sign, which showed how profound the person's concealment techniques were. Therefore, he changed his approach. He smeared an anesthetic in the grass and plants of the mass grave, using the wind to blow it, causing the person to inhale it. Then, he went out to search again and, as expected, found him.
He was worried that there might be others nearby, so he searched the surroundings thoroughly. Finding no one else, he no longer hesitated. He took out a dagger from his embrace and fiercely stabbed the person's neck. With a *plop*, blood splattered. The person was killed in their sleep.
Two days later, the White Rat Hall and the Black Face Hall had both suffered heavy losses.
After Tang Yuanjiang finished fighting with Zhu Chong, Tang Yuanjiang told Zhu Chong his suspicion, suggesting they might have been provoked by someone else. Zhu Chong naturally didn't believe him. Tang Yuanjiang was more rational and analyzed it for him. Just as Zhu Chong was about to believe him, a stone suddenly flew from nowhere and hit Zhu Chong squarely in the chest. Zhu Chong clutched his chest, but he couldn't stop a token from flying out—it was the White Rat Hall's token. This reignited Tang Yuanjiang's anger, and the two started fighting again, this time even more fiercely than before.
During their fight, neither of them noticed that their subordinates were being killed one by one by Xia Yunting's fists and feet. The subordinates didn't even have time to report, let alone see who was attacking them before they were sent to the Yellow Springs.
At this moment, something also happened on Swallow Mountain.
Two days later, the patients began to show reactions. The main symptoms were irritability, restlessness, and some, with a sliver of energy left, even started fighting with those around them. However, most were the old, weak, sick, and disabled, unable to cause much trouble, only writhing in pain on the ground.
"Still not working," Bai Shu threw Rong Zhi a glare. Was this the result she gave him?
Rong Zhi explained, "Compared to Li Hao, their reactions are very mild. This shows the medicine is still improving. We just need to adjust the dosage next time."
"Li Hao? What was Li Hao's condition?"
The few doctors who had not experienced Li Hao's treatment naturally did not know the inside story.
When they turned their gaze to Li Hao, they suddenly noticed his eyes were red and his whole body was trembling, as if he had epilepsy.
"What are you doing? Are you going crazy?"
Bai Shu frowned. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Hao lunged at him and, without a word, bit off his ear.
"Ah!" Bai Shu cried out and retreated. The other doctors also backed away.
They were doctors, not martial artists. Facing such a situation, they naturally dodged as much as possible.
In almost an instant, the Five Ghosts leaped out and simultaneously attacked Li Hao.
Rong Zhi shouted, "I'll help you!" and joined the fray.
Although she appeared to be helping, whenever the Five Ghosts were about to catch Li Hao, Rong Zhi would use a subtle technique to block them. Her methods were extremely tricky, making it look to outsiders as if they were disrupting themselves. Thus, the normally fierce and highly skilled Five Ghosts couldn't even catch one Li Hao.
The doctors cried out anxiously.
"Quick, catch him!"
The smart ones slipped into the room. Only Bai Shu watched the battle and gradually saw through the deception.
"You! Get out of the way! Stop causing trouble!"
He cursed at Rong Zhi. Rong Zhi had to step aside, saying somewhat sheepishly, "I was just trying to help, wasn't I?" It truly seemed like good intentions gone wrong, and Bai Shu's newly formed suspicion subsided.
He was, of course, unaware that during the fight, Rong Zhi had crushed small pills and flicked them into the mouths of the Five Ghosts. These were the same pills that made Li Hao go mad, a prescription she learned from Chu Qingze.
The Five Ghosts gradually began to act abnormally. Although they were all fighting Li Hao, they unknowingly attacked each other. One moment, the blind man hit the deaf man; the next, the lame man hit the short man. The situation gradually became chaotic, and Li Hao also realized that it was dangerous here and started to run out.
As he ran, he kicked up a cloud of dust, and the patients became more agitated. The scene was in chaos. Bai Shu suddenly pointed at Rong Zhi, "You caused this... Ugh!"
Before he could finish, Rong Zhi grabbed him by the neck and struck him. A silver needle deeply penetrated his throat. Bai Shu's eyes rolled back, and he died.
At the same time, Rong Zhi was surrounded by a killing aura.
Around her, a circle of people had appeared. They were dressed in red, holding similarly long swords, and eyeing her menacingly.
These were the assassins Xia Yunting had mentioned, hidden in the side rooms.
A gust of wind swept past Rong Zhi's side. She dodged to the side, evading a falling sword. Then, with a toe-tap, she stepped on the sword and leaped into the air, landing outside the encirclement.
She clapped her hands at the enraged Five Ghosts, "Go, they looked down on you! Kill them!"
The Five Ghosts paused, then turned and attacked the group of red-clad swordsmen.
There were at least twenty to thirty red-clad swordsmen. The Five Ghosts were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, and moreover, the red-clad swordsmen were more skilled than them. They had hidden in the side rooms precisely for a final battle when the Five Ghosts couldn't win. Now that they were fighting, the outcome seemed unsurprising.
However, the Five Ghosts were still the Five Ghosts. Although they couldn't win, they could hold on for a while.
Just then, Rong Zhi went to the patients and called them one by one, telling them to find a place to hide behind the manor.
"It hurts! My head hurts so much!"
The patients seemed to be in extreme pain, clutching their heads and screaming. Rong Zhi quickly took out pills from her embrace and fed them one by one, which brought them some relief.
"If you want to live, hurry up and hide in the back. You can all go home today."
Rong Zhi's voice was not loud, but it was powerful. They had all been captured, and who didn't want to go home? So, even though they were in great pain and lacked the strength to even stand, they still struggled to get up and crawled towards the back.
Although their movements were slow, under the chaos of the battle, it was enough.
The red-clad swordsmen had also eaten the drugged steamed buns from Rong Zhi. As they fought, their eyes gradually turned red, and they began to distinguish friend from foe. Rong Zhi seized this opportunity, took out silver needles from her embrace, and shot them from hidden positions. The needles flew true, each hitting a throat. In a blink of an eye, several people had fallen.
Rong Zhi suddenly sensed a gaze from inside the room. She turned her head and saw a doctor preparing to throw a dart at her. Seeing Rong Zhi's gaze, the doctor threw it. Rong Zhi dodged the attack, then plucked a fallen leaf from a tree and shot it out. The leaf seemed to come alive, flying straight into the doctor's throat.
Next, Rong Zhi focused on the easier targets. Seeing someone faltering, she would discreetly administer another needle. Gradually, the number of people in the courtyard dwindled, until only the Five Ghosts remained.
Unexpectedly, the ones standing at the end were the Five Ghosts!
The Five Ghosts turned their heads, finally realizing that this woman was behind the deception.
"I'll kill you!"
The short man crawled on the ground like a snake and lunged forward, trying to grab Rong Zhi's ankle. Fortunately, Rong Zhi easily dodged. She grabbed the short man's clothes with one hand, twisted him around, and stripped him. She then untied his belt and bound him securely. The short man was tied up like a crab, unable to escape no matter how he struggled.
The short man was known for his strength. Although his body was agile, it was stiff, which was why he was so good at digging underground. Rong Zhi used the principle of yielding to overcome the hard; he naturally couldn't break free.
Then, the lame man took out a hidden weapon from his embrace and threw it at Rong Zhi. Rong Zhi turned and kicked. The weapon changed direction in mid-air and flew towards the deaf man, hitting him squarely in the eye. The entire process was extremely fast. The deaf man's eye had already been injured, so he didn't have much time, and thus a deaf man with excellent vision became a person who was both deaf and blind.
The lame man, the mute, and the blind man rushed forward. Rong Zhi dealt with them swiftly, and in a flash, she had all of them under her feet. These men had all been injured earlier, so dealing with them was a piece of cake.
In an instant, the entire manor fell silent. Only the unhealed wounds on the corpses continued to bleed, and besides that, there was only the sound of wind rustling through the trees.
"Next are those people."
Rong Zhi had intended to deal with the group of people in the open space, but then she thought about the patients. As she hesitated, a voice suddenly came from behind her.
"Xiao Mo."