357 One Dies Part One

The carriage for the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green left, but the femaledisciples stayed behind. They and the disciples of the South Stream Temple, aswell as the priests from Li Palace, were all healing the injured people in theforest. At that time, it was currently an age of blossoming flowers for the world ofcultivation. Even more so, it was a great year for the Grand Examination, andwith the starlight in the Mausoleum of Books, there were actually several dozenyoung cultivators under the age of twenty that surpassed the barrier of lifeand death to successfully enter Ethereal Opening. The future of the human worldseemed to be extremely bright, however, nobody had expected such a great matterto occur in the visit to the Garden of Zhou. No matter if it was the Orthodoxy,the imperial court or the southern sects, they were all naturally extremelyanxious. Fortunately, the injuries of the injured were not too heavy. Most of them hadbeen struck by the falling mountain rocks when they fled from the Garden ofZhou, so after a simple treatment, there were no great problems. Also, theseveral dozen cultivators from all over the empire who were heavily injured bythe ambushes of the first two nights from the demons had already receivedtreatment from Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng, so they also did not have anygreat problems. Amongst these individuals, Qi Jian suffered the greatest injury. Thetreacherous sword had directly pierced through her lower abdomen, which severedseveral of her meridians. With the pain from fleeing for several dozen days andthe effects of medicine, she was currently unconscious. No one knew when shewould awaken. The expression of the elder from Mount Li who watched over her onone side was extremely ugly. With a teacher from Mount Li looking after her, Zhexiu naturally could notapproach too closely to her. However, he was not too far away either. He stoodunder a scholar tree not far away, and his eyes were closed. Compared to thechaotic activity in the forest, he seemed rather lonely. Actually, he was also extremely heavily injured, especially due to the factthat the poison from Nanke had already inundated his body. However, he did notrequest the priests of Li Palace to treat his injuries. He did not show anyexpression on his slightly pale face. Ignoring the fact that he may have beendenying the people, other human cultivators were also hindered by the relativerumors of him, and did not want to take the initiative to go up and ask him. The elder from Mount Li turned around and glanced at Zhexiu. There werequestioning and alertness in his gaze. He wanted to ask something, but he couldnot turn his head again in the end. He put his mind on the heavily injured andunconscious Qi Jian. Qi Jian was the final disciple of the Mount Li Sword Sect master. Her identityand status were naturally different. As soon as she had left the Garden ofZhou, there were already two cardinals of the Orthodoxy that carefully attendedto her wounds. They confirmed that her life was no longer under threat, but theinjury was extremely heavy. Especially due to the fact of the severed meridiansand that she was unconscious, they could not think of any good methods to helpher, and she needed to be taken to the capital or Mount Li as soon as possible. The elder of Mount Li knew Qi Jian’s background. What made him even moreuneasy was that if she really did fall into a coma, just who knew how crazy hismartial uncle would become? However, what made him feel the most uneasy andeven vaguely fearful, was the sword injury in her lower abdomen. Swords had sword intent, and there would often be traces of sword intent ininjuries caused by swords. What Mount Li focused on was the sword, so the elderonly needed a glance to understand just where the sword that heavily injured QiJian came from. Just when he felt uneasy, there were a few cries of surprise from the depthsof the forest, “Someone come quick!” The elder of Mount Li turned around to see what was going on there. Hisexpression suddenly changed, and he no longer could care for Qi Jian anymore.He ordered disciples to watch over her carefully, and personally rushed over.He waved his hands and made through the crowd, yelling angrily, “Just what ishappening!?” In the center of the crowd was a stretcher. The person who lay on thestretcher was Liang Xiaoxiao. Liang Xiaoxiao was suffering from heavy injury for some reason, and there werea dozen or so sword slashes on his body. Two female disciples from the SouthStream Temple helped bandage him on the side, but they were unable to stop thefresh blood from flowing out from under the bandage. The scene seemed extremelybrutal. His face was pale like paper, his lips were blue, his gaze was gloomy and hisQi was rather weak. The teenage genius who was once valiant and heroic-lookingwas now only an inch away from death. The two female disciples of South StreamTemple squatted down on the two sides of the stretcher, and constantly usedbandages to attempt to stop his bleeding. However, they were unable to stop theblood, so they could not help but become panicked. The slightly younger femaledisciple even cried, and said tearfully, “Senior Liang, you can’t die!” The forest fell into a deathly silence. The crowd was stunned. Liang Xiaoxiaowas not an ordinary cultivator. He was an inner disciple of the Mount Li SwordSect, and a member of the Divine State’s Seven Laws. He was the first place onthe first banner in the Grand Examination last year, but now, he was actuallyalmost dead. Just what happened? Who injured him? A cardinal from Li Palace hurried over. He looked at the scene and could nothelp but be extremely shocked. He used the Sacred Light Technique without theslightest hesitation, which caused clear light to land on Liang Xiaoxiao’s bodywithout stint. There was silence, and the people waited anxiously. A while later, LiangXiaoxiao’s bleeding stopped, but… his face remained pale and his gaze remainedgloomy. The cardinal slowly shook his head. Seeing the expression of the cardinal, the body of the Mount Li elder swayed afew times, before forcefully withstanding it. Through the description of somepeople present, he learned that Liang Xiaoxiao was carried out by Zhuang Huanyuin the end. His glanced over coldly. “Just what happened?” Zhuang Huanyu also had several sword slashes on his body, except not assevere. His face was also very pale, but not because of the injury. Rather, itwas because his state of mind was in a flurry. Hearing the loud question of theMount Li elder, he looked at Liang Xiaoxiao on the stretcher, and slightlyhesitated. Liang Xiaoxiao lay on the stretcher. His vigor was a little better thanbefore, and his Qi had increased slightly. However, when the sunlight hit him,objects that seemed like small fragments of colored glass could be seen on thesurface of his clothes. This was the sign of dispersion. The Third Law of the Divine State was dying. The forest became even more deathly silent. The feeling of depressionincreased slowly, and the girl from the South Stream Temple began crying again. The Mount Li elder looked at Zhuang Huanyu and yelled angrily, “Speak!” With the angry yell, a sword intent burst forth. It enveloped Zhuang Hanyu, asif Zhuang Huanyu had taken a little longer, the sword intent would havedirectly chopped him into pieces. Zhuang Huanyu was also not an ordinary cultivator. He was a student of theHeavenly Dao Academy. However, even with that, the Mount Li elder actuallyignored it completely. It displayed just how angry he was at that moment. As the main person who presided over the opening of the Garden of Zhou thistime, Zhu Luo was also at the scene. He naturally could not just let ZhuangHuanyu die like this, and said while looking at the Mount Li elder, “Calm downa little.” Just at that moment, a weak voice could be heard from the stretcher. “Martial Uncle, it had nothing to do with young master Huanyu.” The Mount Li elder looked at Liang Xiaoxiao, and said with a slightlytrembling voice, “Who was it that injured you so badly?” At that moment, most of the people in the forest believed that it was thedemon experts that had infiltrated the Garden of Zhou who injured LiangXiaoxiao so heavily. After all, Liang Xiaoxiao held the first place upon thefirst banner of the Grand Examination from the previous year, and also hadspent a whole year in the Mausoleum of Books, comprehending monoliths. Hislevel of cultivation was extremely profound, so logically, only the demonexperts could injure him so badly. However, the Mount Li elder knew very well that Liang Xiaoxiao was not injuredby the demons. It was because he knew that the sword slashes on his body werethe same as the injury in Qi Jian’s lower abdomen. They were all… of the MountLi Sword Style. The only Mount Li Sword Sect disciples that had entered the Garden of Zhouwere Qi Jian and Liang Xiaoxiao. The Mount Li elder had a vague conjecture, but he was unable to believe it. Asa result, his voice trembled very heavily. Liang Xiaoxiao looked at his martial uncle, and shook his head slowly butfirmly. The Mount Li elder understood what he meant. An expression of disbeliefappeared on his face. Liang Xiaoxiao was in the state of momentary recovery right before death. Hewas slightly more energetic than before, and his gaze moved slowly. When he sawQi Jian in the distance, he paused slightly in a fashion that was hard todetect, before continuing his movement. The Mount Li elder and Zhu Luo sensedthat, and even saw that in Liang Xiaoxiao’s gaze towards Qi Jian, there wasself-blame, frustration, distress and sorrow. The gazes of the people followed his gaze, and vaguely understood what he waslooking for. In the end, Liang Xiaoxiao’s gaze landed under a scholar tree. The one under the scholar tree was the wolf tribe teenager. Countless gazes also landed on his body. Zhexiu’s eyes remained closed, as if he could not sense it. “It’s him.” Zhuang Huanyu’s voice seemed a little dry. He said, “Wofu Zhexiu…is the demon traitor. He ambushed us in the Garden of Zhou. Senior Liang wastaken advantage of in order to save me.”