Day and night tour

Chapter 466 Boss Zhou of the Fighting Arena
As soon as Zhao Zibi opened the door, she bumped into a Taoist priest.

"Acting sect leader, there is someone knocking on the golden bell at our mountain gate."

After straightening his clothes, the Taoist priest hurriedly said to Zhao Zibi.

"Who is the one who rang the bell?" Zhao Zibi asked.

"do not know."

The Taoist priest honestly said, "I only know that the man's methods are truly amazing. He used only a dry branch to make the golden bell ring extremely loudly."

"It's probably an uninvited guest."

Zhao Zibi walked onto the covered bridge.

In Dunjia Mountain, the few disciples who were qualified to succeed as the sect leader all lived on Jade Mountain Peak, the highest point in Dunjia Mountain.

Their dormitories, connected by a covered bridge, offer a panoramic view of the scenery below the mountain.

Zhao Zibi looked into the distance and saw a withered figure standing in front of the golden bell at the mountain gate, with the demeanor of a scholar.

“We from Dunjia Mountain are not familiar with this scholar, but this scholar is quite familiar with us.”

The golden bell of Dunjia Mountain has many "bell commands". Depending on the number of times, the duration, and the force of the bell ringing, it can convey a variety of orders.

The bell that the scholar is ringing now is the "Lianshan Bell Order," which is struck every half second, and the force of each strike is roughly the same.

If you listen to the bells as a whole, it sounds like a series of urgent urgings.

The Lianshan Bell Ringing is the bell that summons all disciples to gather in front of the mountain gate.

The fact that the scholar could strike such a bell is enough to show that he was very familiar with the rituals of Dunjia Mountain.

Zhao Zibi didn't dare to delay and went down the mountain with the Taoist disciple. Along the way, many disciples also hurried towards the mountain gate.

……

By the time Zhao Zibi arrived at the mountain gate, most of the disciples of Dunjia Mountain had already gathered.

Most of them were baffled and couldn't understand why the Lianshan Bell would ring in the middle of the night.

With his hands behind his back, Zhao Zibi asked the young scholar, "May I ask, sir, what brings you to ring the bell so late at night?"

"A scholar? I am not a scholar. In my heart, the title of 'scholar' is too grand. One must not only be learned and knowledgeable, but also possess the talent to govern the world, and have a heart full of passionate fervor."
Having roamed the world for many years, the only person I can truly call a scholar is probably the great master Zhou Xuan of Mingjiang Prefecture.

"Are you Zhou Xuan's friend?"

Zhao Zibi thought it was Zhou Xuan's friend who came to cause trouble late at night.

He knew perfectly well that last night, Zhao Longhu, Zhao Luosheng, and Zhao Youting from Dunjia Mountain, along with twenty or thirty skilled fighters from Dunjia Mountain and six Supreme Elders, set off late at night to capture Zhou Xuan in Mingjiang Prefecture.

Before the Supreme Master and his fellow disciples had even returned, Zhou Xuan's friend stormed the mountain gate.

“I am indeed Zhou Xuan’s friend, but—I have another identity. I am called Butcher, and I have come today to collect a debt.”

Seeing that the disciples of Longhu Mountain had almost all arrived, the butcher immediately brandished a gleaming pig-slaughtering knife.

"Are you the butcher?"

Zhao Zibi remained calm.
There are two reasons not to panic.
First, although it seems that all the patriarchs of Dunjia Mountain have left the mountain gate, making it appear somewhat empty, in reality, two of those six patriarchs have mastered the laws of space, and their levels are quite high.

After receiving the secret message from the butcher, they would rush back to the mountain gate immediately, leaving the butcher no room to act rashly.

Secondly, Zhao Zibi had no idea about the inside story of the Wuwen Tribulation back then. Before Zhao Qingxiao died, Zhao Zibi had never won the favor of the former sect leader, so how could he have any qualifications to inherit the lineage?

That is why the sect leader and the patriarch would not tell him about the shameful things of the Dunjia Sect.

He was unaware of the inside story, and therefore unaware of the deep-seated hatred between the butcher and the mountain gate, so naturally he felt no fear.

Ignorance is no excuse.
The butcher said he was coming to collect a debt, and he actually believed that the other side was coming to collect a debt!

"The knife in my hand proves that I am the butcher."

The butcher held his knife horizontally in front of him.
Zhao Zibi calmly replied, "Our Dunjia Mountain owes you a lot of money?"

"No debt."

"Is it a house I owe you? Or some treasure or magical artifact?"

Zhao Zibi said, "It is only right to pay back debts. Senior is a master, so this debt must be quite large. However, no matter how big the debt is, our prestigious Dunjia Sect must pay back what it owes."

"That's a polite way of putting it. Your Dunjia Sect owes the lives of eighteen swordsmen from Wuwen Mountain. If you include their families, that's a total of one hundred and thirty-four lives."

The butcher said seriously.

Zhao Zibi was completely confused and said, "Senior must be joking. What kind of sect is our Dunjia Sect? We are a legitimate Xuanmen sect, with impeccable lineage, and we are all monks. We always try to be lenient when we can. More than 130 lives... we can't afford to owe that."

He said it, but he was actually a little anxious.
Although Zhao Zibi was not favored by the former sect leader and knew nothing of the "Cataclysm of No Questions" or the fact that "Zhao Qingxiao entered Mingjiang and colluded with the Zoroastrian sect," he was still aware of the dirty tricks the Dunjia Sect did in secret.

The disciples of the Dunjia Sect engaged in large-scale construction projects, land grabbing, opium dens, and gambling dens in the Jingcheng Prefecture area; they certainly didn't shy away from any shady ways to make money.

"Could it be that my disciples offended the Butcher while doing those shady things? No, no, those disciples are just amateurs, how could they have offended this ruthless person?"

Many thoughts flashed through Zhao Zibi's mind, but after the flow of thoughts subsided, he made only one move: with his right hand behind his back, he drew a tortoise shell pattern in the air.

He needed to inform the six ancestors.

The butcher observed Zhao Zibi's expression but did not believe she was lying. He then strolled lightly and slowly in front of the mountain gate.

As he walked, he said, “It seems that you people don’t know about the calamity of Wuwen Mountain back then. Very well, I will tell you about it again. I will do it as a memory for myself, and you can listen to it as a story from the past.”

"Above the sky, there lives a race called the Heavenly Fire Clan. They consider themselves gods and regard mortals as pigs and dogs."

"One day, in the Heavenly Fire Clan, there was a young master named Linming who, after descending to the mortal realm, committed two great evils. The first was to suck the brains of infants. This young master Linming believed that infant brains were the most delicious food in the world, so he was always hunting infants, eating dozens of them a day."

The second thing was his lust. Any woman he set his sights on could not escape his clutches. He was extremely brutal to women. Although he was said to be lustful and promiscuous, after the revelry, almost none of those women survived.

"Our swordsman Tan Pei of Wuwen Mountain was a wandering knight-errant. When he was traveling, he heard about the evil deeds of Young Master Linming, so he took advantage of a stormy night to kill him with just his sword."

"Tan Pei's methods are very clever. No one discovered his murder, but unfortunately, his killing of Young Master Linming was deduced by one of your Dunjia Sect members."

The butcher, with his hands behind his back, said coldly, "This man is none other than the First Supreme Master of your Dunjia Sect—the Calabash Taoist."

The disciples of Dunjia Mountain, having heard the other party talk about their own grandmaster, all waited for the butcher to continue.

"When the Calabash Taoist's divination reached the point of Tan Pei, Wuwen Mountain also received the news. He then secretly met with the Calabash Taoist, hoping that he would not reveal this matter."

To be honest, Hulu Dao should have turned a blind eye to this matter, after all, his daughter-in-law and grandson in the mortal world had also suffered at the hands of that Young Master Linming.
In a sense, Tan Pei's killing of Lin Ming was also avenging him.

The gourd-shaped Taoist priest promised Wuwen Mountain face-to-face that he would not reveal the truth, and expressed his deepest gratitude to Wuwen Mountain.
But no sooner had the people from Wuwen Mountain left than he went to inform "Dizi" on them.
Then—the Earth God sent Master Ye and the other elders of the Escape Technique to capture Tan Pei.

Everyone was stunned when these words were spoken.
In other words,
The gourd-wielding Taoist priest they respected every day was actually a two-faced coward.

"That gourd-shaped Taoist priest came to our Wuwen Mountain and demanded that we hand over the person. How could we possibly comply? During this time, we not only insulted him many times, but also beat him up."

"However, the six supreme masters of the Dunjia are very powerful, and they also have the paper banner magic artifact brought by Mr. Ye, as well as the assistance of the Chongming Immortal of the Tianhuo Clan."
Wuwen Mountain, the army was defeated like a mountain collapsing.
All the swordsmen were executed, and not a single one of their families was spared, not even a seven-month-old baby; they were all wiped out.

"You're talking nonsense."

Zhao Zibi was furious upon hearing this and immediately cursed, "Our Calabash Ancestor, while not necessarily a paragon of virtue, certainly possessed the spirit of an immortal. How could he do such filthy things!"

"Oh, even the people of the Dunjia Sect think that what the Calabash Taoist did back then was dirty stuff?" the butcher said with a forced smile.

“But those things could not have been done by our ancestors.”

None of the disciples believed it, and each voiced their own rebuttal.

"Since that's the case, then I'll tell you another story about what the gourd-wielding Taoist priest did."

The butcher continued, "Back then, the immortal Chongming of the Heavenly Fire Clan was the father of Young Master Linming. After slaughtering all the swordsmen of Wuwen Mountain and killing all their adult family members, he felt that his great revenge was complete and did not want to continue killing the children of Wuwen Mountain."
But the gourd-shaped Taoist priest suggested, "Immortal, we mortals have an old saying: 'Cut the weeds without leaving a root, for they will grow back in the spring breeze.' When it comes to revenge, it's best to kill everyone completely."

"Nonsense, utter nonsense. You only dare to slander us when our ancestor is away from the mountain gate."

"Slandering, spreading rumors, and ruining the reputation of our Dunjia (遁甲) system that has lasted for thousands of years."

"What reputation do you have, a sect that serves the local lords like dogs?" The butcher gripped his knife tightly and said, "You stubborn Taoists, I'm not here to ask you for an explanation, nor do I intend to ask you for one. I'm here to sever the fortune of your Dunjia Mountain sect."

He ignored the Taoist priests who slandered and insulted him, saying only, "Our Wuwen Mountain has suffered a great calamity. The resentment of those swordsmen before their deaths entered the mountain, turning me into a demon."
However, even if I, the butcher, become a demon, I still have my bottom line. Today, any of you old fogies who want to leave, I won't stop them. But anyone who wants to stay, I will chop them in half.

"Whether you stay or leave is your decision."

After the butcher finished speaking, he slashed at Zhao Zibi with his knife.

He just swung his weapon clumsily, like an ordinary butcher chopping ribs, without much skill, just chopping down hard with a "bang, bang."

But the force of this strike was like a torrential downpour, leaving no place for anyone in an open area to hide.

Zhao Zibi couldn't dodge. He only saw a flash of cold light, and the blade sliced ​​him in two with extreme speed.

Pfft!

His lower body knelt on the ground, but his upper body suddenly fell. He opened his eyes and asked the butcher in a weak voice, "You said it's up to us to decide whether we stay or leave... I... haven't decided whether to stay or leave yet."

“You’re different. If I don’t kill two ruthless people as an example, these old fogies won’t believe me.”

"..." Zhao Zibi.

The butcher walked to the pool of blood and said, "My knife is very sharp, and it will only become sharper when I slaughter pigs and dogs. You will decide whether to stay or leave quickly."

"By the way, I have to tell you, don't expect your great-great-grandfather to come back to save you. He's been entangled with my little friend Zhou Xuan, and he's not coming back."

At this point, the butcher raised his right hand, started counting on his fingers, and began: "Ten...nine..."

It's obvious that once the butcher counts to "zero," he'll unleash a killing spree.
Some disciples who were still relatively clear-headed disregarded their decorum, grabbed their Taoist robes, and ran awkwardly toward the mountain gate.

Some people run first, and naturally others follow.

The disciples who had just crowded the mountain gate were reduced to less than one in ten when the butcher counted to "three".

Moreover, many of the remaining one-tenth of the disciples also showed signs of struggle.

"2...1...0!"

Many more disciples ran away, leaving only seventy or eighty disciples in front of the mountain gate.

These people, however, are resolute.

"I will live and die with the sect!" a disciple shouted.

"puff!"

A human head was spinning on the ground.

The moment the head hit the ground, the surrounding disciples snapped back to reality and began to run away.
But the butcher just numbly raised and lowered his knife, head after head spinning and rolling to the ground.

His eyes were bloodshot.

If the butcher had been suppressing his demonic nature just moments before, at this moment he was truly possessed; his eyes were bloodshot, and his senses were fully unleashed.

He walked towards the summit of Dunjia Mountain. Whenever he passed a building and sensed someone inside, he would act like a god of death, dragging the person out from their hiding place—from closets or under beds—and then striking with his knife.
Just like the bloodbath that swept through Wuwen Mountain back then...

……

The gourd-shaped Taoist priest felt something was very strange.

The six of their supreme ancestors fled separately; he even used the laws of space.

Normally, he could reach the capital in just two steps, but today, no matter how he tried to escape, he couldn't leave Mingjiang Prefecture.
He seemed to be wandering around in a maze.

"Strange, strange."

As the gourd-wielding Taoist cursed under his breath, he suddenly noticed a tortoise shell pattern in front of him.

This is a secret letter from the Dunjia Hall.
He broke the secret letter, and Zhao Zibi's voice came from inside: "Ancestor, the butcher is going to the mountain to pay homage. Return quickly."

"They actually went? Is the Butcher going to destroy the gates of our Dunjia Mountain?"

A real sense of death enveloped the gourd-wielding Taoist priest; the mountain gate was far too important.

The mountain gate is connected to the fortunes of their six supreme masters, and a wisp of their soul is hidden within the mountain gate.

As long as this wisp of soul remains, even if they perish in Mingjiang Prefecture, they can barely save their lives with this remnant soul; however, their cultivation will vanish into thin air.

But it's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death; as long as you're alive, there's still hope for the future.

But once the mountain gate is destroyed, the six elders will truly die.

"The butcher has gone to chop down the mountain gate."

The gourd-wielding Taoist priest conjured six secret letters and sent the devastating news to his fellow disciples.

But as soon as his secret message was sent, it scattered into pools of blurry blood, flowing down haphazardly.

at the same time,

The sky was filled with the fluttering of peach blossoms and willow catkins.

"Where did these peach blossoms and willow catkins come from?"

The gourd-shaped Taoist priest looked around, but all he saw was a giant tree rising up in the boundless wilderness.

This tree is clearly formed by the intertwining of two trees: a willow and a peach.

The branches of the willow and peach trees were growing extremely fast, even faster than the gourd-wielding Taoist priest who turned and ran away.

In no time, the tendrils of the branches pulled at the gourd Taoist's ankles, and with a sharp tug, the remaining branches rushed up, wrapping the gourd Taoist tightly like silkworms.

"I possess righteous spirit, you cannot harm me."

The gourd-wielding Taoist chanted incantations, and the gourd on his back automatically uncorked, releasing a pale blue aura that protected the Taoist's figure.

The peach and willow trees stood with their hands on their hips, their leaves rustling as if to say, "If anyone hurts you, we'll just take you to Xuanzi's stage."

……

When the gourd-wielding Taoist priest awoke, he was already inside the "battle arena stage".

The surrounding area is decorated with reliefs of ferocious beasts, and in the sky hangs a holy eye.

Zhou Xuan, Yun Ziliang, and Li Changxun sat on the second floor of the "battle arena," looking down at the disciples of the Dunjia Sect and the Six-Eared Warrior from the Buddhist Kingdom.

The Six-Eared Warrior, unaware of the current situation, crouched in a corner of the arena, quietly observing.

All the members of the Dunjia sect stood in the sandy arena, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"Gentlemen, we meet again. This is the arena I have prepared for you."

"Within this arena, there are three forces: us, the Buddhists, and the Dunjia Sect. We will fight one-on-one until only one force remains alive before we can leave."

"These are the rules I set for the arena."

Zhou Xuan said coldly.

"In a three-way battle, only the last survivor can leave."

After looking around for a while, the gourd-shaped Taoist priest suddenly became delighted and said, "I sense it, this is a spiritual realm. Since it's a spiritual realm, then Zhou Xuan can't borrow the power of Mingjiang Prefecture."
Without the overwhelming support of Mingjiang Prefecture, what gives you, Zhou Xuan, the confidence to leave here alive?

The gourd-wielding Taoist priest became increasingly smug as he spoke. His original plan was to wait until Zhou Xuan rebuilt Mingjiang Prefecture and a new spiritual realm appeared, then pull Zhou Xuan into the spiritual realm and kill him.

Zhou Xuan in the spiritual realm cannot use the "World Style" of the "True Scripture of the Valley," so the gourd-wielding Taoist is not afraid of Zhou Xuan.

As for Yun Ziliang and Li Changxun, the Calabash Taoist believed that with the combined efforts of the six Supreme Beings, the Dunjia Sect had a very good chance of winning.

With a snap, Zhou Xuan unfolded his folding fan and said calmly, "Grandmaster Gourd, I must remind you that this is indeed a spiritual realm, but at the same time, it is also a fighting arena stage that I built using the art of magic."

“Every stage has its own owner, so, you stupid gourd-wielding Taoist, in the upcoming deadly battle, please be sure to show me some respect and call me Boss Zhou.”

(End of this chapter)