Chapter 23: The Struggle for the Position of Sect Leader

  Zhang Ping only saw that the two people, one was an old woman with a stern face, holding a knife in one hand, with a large and open knife technique, presumably Shi Tianyi's master, Jinwu Sect leader Shi Bao. The other was a small girl with a delicate face, holding a sword in one hand, with a light and changing sword technique, presumably the Ah Xiu girl that Shi Tianyi often mentioned. Only to see their moves were disorderly, and their strength was getting weaker and weaker. Both of them had several wounds on their bodies, and the situation was very dangerous.

  The two of them heard the earth-shattering cry, but the four Snow Mountain Sect men's offensive was too fierce, and the four sword lights pressed down on the two of them, leaving them no time to attend to anything else. Suddenly, the two of them heard Ah Xiu's cry of surprise, and saw that Ah Xiu had been stabbed in the shoulder by a middle-aged man.

  Shi Tian thought this was not enough, so he quickly pounced forward, grabbing the middle-aged man's back who was fiercely attacking Ah Xiu. The man saw Shi Tian's move and its powerful force, so he hastily dodged to the side and counterattacked with a sword.

  Shi Tianyi's left palm slapped out, his internal energy surging forth, and the long sword in that person's hand was knocked flying. His right hand then launched a splitting empty palm attack towards another old man. But unexpectedly, that old man had launched a preemptive strike, his sword tip already stabbing towards Shi Tianyi's lower abdomen. This move, "Mountain Top Twin Plums", although it was just one move, contained two stabs. Shi Tianyi immediately contracted his lower abdomen to avoid the first sword, and then swiftly swept his left hand downwards, extending his middle finger to flick out. The old man's second sword happened to arrive at this moment, and all that could be heard was a "ting" sound as the sword blade snapped in two. That old man was shaken by Shi Tianyi's internal energy, causing him to drop his broken sword and leap backwards.

  Zhang Ping saw Shi Tianyi take action, and without thinking, he rushed towards the two men who were attacking Shi Po. Although he had no weapons in his hands, Zhang Ping's internal strength was astonishing, and his martial arts skills far surpassed those of Shi Tianyi. He pointed his fingers like a sword, aiming at one of the tall men, who saw someone approaching from behind and turned around to try to retreat with a fierce wind-sand attack. Unexpectedly, Zhang Ping did not retreat but advanced instead, changing his finger-sword into a crane-beak, pointing four fingers on the opponent's sword, and then taking advantage of the man's unstable grip, he pointed one finger at the man's brow.

  Zhang Ping then took the long sword from that person's hand with his left hand, and a move of his modified Upper Clearness Fast Sword technique, Yin Jian, struck out. Another Snow Mountain Sect disciple who was attacking Shi PoPo saw his companion being killed by Zhang Ping's bare hands in one move, and immediately lost all will to fight. Seeing Zhang Ping's sword strike coming, he threw his long sword at Zhang Ping, then turned around and ran away. Zhang Ping used his left hand to control the sword on the sword thrown by the opponent, and with a flick, the sword instantly flipped over. Zhang Ping then used his right hand to muster his internal energy and struck the hilt of the sword. The sword shot back even faster, and in an instant, it had pierced through that person's chest from behind.

  Four white-clad men were defeated by Shi Tianyi and Zhang Ping in an instant, with two of them being killed by Zhang Ping's single move. The old man, though unharmed, was shocked by the divine might of Shi Tianyi and Zhang Ping, his heart and gallbladder shattered, and he stammered: "You... you..." Suddenly, he turned around and rushed out, intending to seize the door and escape.

  Zhang Ping saw the old man trying to escape, while Shi Tianyi was unwilling to kill him. He flew over and struck out with his left sword, hitting the old man's throat. The old man died instantly and fell to the ground.

  Shi Popo laughed as she escaped the danger: "Good disciple, my Golden Crow Sect's first generation disciple is indeed impressive! I don't know who this Taoist priest is, thank you, elder."

  Bai Axiu's face was pale, but her bright eyes were fixed on Shi Potian, and the joy in her eyes could not be concealed.

  Shi Tianyi excitedly said: "Master, Ah Xiu, I didn't expect to see you here, I'm really too happy. This is my sworn brother, Upper Clearness Temple's Xiang Li."

  Zhang Ping saw that Shi Tianyi had finished introducing himself, so he stepped forward and bowed: "The Upper Clearness Observatory has paid its respects to Lady Shi and Miss Bai."

  After the two returned the gift, Shi Po hastily bandaged the wounds of Ah Xiu and herself. Fortunately, neither of their sword injuries was severe, and they were not seriously affected.

  Shi Tianyi said: "I couldn't find you on the Purple Smoke Island, I missed you day and night, today we can reunite, it's really great, hopefully we won't be separated again in the future."

  The old lady smiled and said: "If you can achieve great merits, this matter may not be impossible as you wish, let's consider it as a promise from me personally."

  When Bai Axiu heard Shi Popo's words, her head hung even lower, and she was so ashamed that her ears turned red. However, Shi Tianyi didn't know that this meant Shi Popo had given her consent to their marriage, so Shi Tianyi asked: "Master, what did you permit me?"

  The old lady smiled and said: "I promised Ah Xiu to you as your wife, do you want her or not? Do you like her?"

  Shi Tianyi was both shocked and delighted, saying: "I, I, I naturally want to, naturally like it very much..."

  "However, you must first make an effort and establish a great merit, I can reward you. Now that something major has happened in the Snow Mountain Sect, we must go rescue someone."

  "Right, I and Xiang Li brothers are just about to go rescue my mother, Shi Zhuangzhu, Shi Furen and my brother. Let's hurry up and rescue them."

  As soon as he thought of Mei Fanggu, Shi Qing, Min Ruo and Shi Zhongyu being in a dangerous situation, he hastily replied.

  Shi Po Po heard Shi Tianyi say "his mother and his brother", couldn't help but feel suspicious in her heart, so she asked: "Your mother and brother? Why haven't you mentioned them before. Have Shi Qing and his wife also arrived at Ling Xiang City? No matter, after we settle the internal strife, the rest will be easy to handle. Ah Xiu, go ahead and take care of this last person."

  Asheng picked up the long sword, and saw that the person who was knocked down by Shitianyi and leaned against the wall had a pleading look in his eyes, which made her feel sympathetic. She was originally kind-hearted, and seeing this scene made her even more unwilling to kill him. So she said to Shibabu: "Babu, this man is not the mastermind, let's spare his life for now, and wait until we've interrogated him clearly before killing him."

  The old woman hummed and said: "Hurry up, hurry up, don't delay the big thing." She immediately stepped out.

  Ah Xiu and Shi Tianyi followed behind. Considering that they had no understanding of Ling Xiao City, and the situation in Ling Xiao City was unclear, they also followed along. They saw that Shi Po Po walked quickly through the halls and houses, every time she encountered someone, she hid behind doors or at the corner of a house to avoid them, seemingly very familiar with the doors and gates of each house.

  Shi Tianyi and A Xiu walked side by side, asking in a low voice: "What great merit does Master want me to establish? Who should I go rescue?"

  Axiu was just about to answer when footsteps sounded, and five or six people walked towards them. Shi Popo hastily hid behind a pillar, Axiu pulled Shitiantian's sleeve and hid behind the door. Zhang Ping then displayed his lightness skill, jumping onto the roof beam.

  All they could hear was the few people walking and talking, one of them said: "Everyone worked together to lock up the old madman, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. These past few days, I really couldn't eat or sleep, every time I fell asleep, I would wake up with a start."

  Another man said: "If we don't kill the old madman, it will be a huge future trouble. But Qi Shi Bo is still hesitant, I think this matter may go wrong."

  After avoiding this wave of people, the four of them followed Shi's old mother to the outside of the warm hall, and after listening carefully with their ears for a while without any hindrance, they quietly slipped in.

  As soon as Fang Yi entered the hall, he heard a loud noise of clashing weapons. He saw that there were about two or three hundred people in the hall fighting to the death, all wearing uniforms of the Snow Mountain Sect and wielding long swords typical of the sect. It was difficult to distinguish friend from foe.

  It turned out that this was an internal conflict within the Snow Mountain Sect. Originally, it was a fight between the four branches of disciples and the Longmen branch, the three branches and the four branches, and the two branches and the five branches. As they fought on, everyone's eyes turned red with killing intent. Not to mention outsiders, even fellow disciples from the same branch who had pre-existing grudges took advantage of this opportunity to slaughter each other.

  The chaotic situation in the hall had reached its peak when suddenly a loud crash was heard, and the two doors of the hall flew open. A voice rang out, "Messenger of the Knights' Island, rewarding good and punishing evil, has arrived to pay respects to the leader of the Snow Mountain Sect! The leader of the Snow Mountain Sect is requested to go to the Knights' Island on December 8th to drink porridge." The voice was clear and loud, and it even suppressed the sounds of battle from hundreds of people.

  Everyone was shocked by Zhang San's words, and some quick-witted people immediately stopped fighting and jumped aside. As the first person stopped, more and more people stopped fighting, and in no time, the hall was silent except for the injured. After a while, even those who were seriously injured stopped crying out.

  As everyone's eyes followed, they saw two people standing shoulder to shoulder at the entrance of the hall, one fat and one thin, one yellow and one green. Shi Tian thought that Zhang San and Li Si had arrived, and almost shouted out loud, but immediately remembered that he was now waiting for an opportunity to rescue someone, and couldn't expose himself at this moment.

  Zhang San smiled and said, "No wonder the Snow Mountain Sect's martial arts are unparalleled in the world. It turns out that when your sect's disciples practice their skills, they actually use real knives and kill each other. Such dedication, haha, it's rare, really rare! I admire you, I admire you!"

  The leader of the four disciples, Liao Ziwu, took a step forward and asked, "May I ask if you two are the envoys of justice from Xiake Island?"

  Zhang San said, "Exactly. I don't know which one of you is the leader of the Snow Mountain Sect? We have been sent by the Island Master of Xiake Island with a copper plaque to invite your sect's leader to come to Xiake Island on December 8th for a gathering and to drink a bowl of Laba congee." As he spoke, he reached into his sleeve and took out two copper plaques.

  Before the two envoys of reward and punishment could continue, the five factions of the Snow Mountain Sect began to argue over whether Bai Zixin was dead or not, and eventually clashed again. This great change in the Snow Mountain Sect involved major interests, with the four fellow disciples Cheng, Qi, Liao, and Liang restraining each other, making it difficult for anyone to gain the upper hand for a time.

  Everyone saw that they were about to fight again, Zhang San smiled and said: "Everyone is dedicated to studying swordsmanship, promoting martial arts, which is a great thing. But the days are long, and it's not worth arguing over this moment. Who is the leader of the Snow Mountain Sect after all?"

  Zhang San saw that the crowd had not reacted for half a day and said, "Just now when we two came in, you five were fighting with each other. I thought it was either to discuss martial arts or to determine the master based on strength. We two came in too quickly and broke up your fun. How about this? You continue to fight, and within an hour, there will be a winner. Otherwise, my brother's temper is the most urgent, and if he can't finish this matter within an hour, he might destroy the entire Snow Mountain Sect. At that time, no one can become the master, which would not be good. One, two, three! Let's start!"