Hearing the mad woman's screeches behind him, Tie Dan couldn't be bothered to look back at her. Without saying a word, he climbed down along the Yanzi Peak mountain path. In the breath of a moment, he descended the Yanzi Peak to reach the halfway up the mountain where the Guangxia Mountain disciples and children temporarily resided in their mountain lodges.
It was still early—the sun hadn't risen yet—and the huts were silent; the other children were still in their dreams.
Only Tie Dan, with his habit of late nights and early risings, and Jian Jia muttering her revenge for her beloved, were up early, like the worm that the early bird catches.
Tie Dan went alone to the backyard pond, drew some water, and washed the blood off his face. Lifting his head, he saw a reflection in the pond that wasn't there before.
"Senior Brother."
"What, she's causing trouble for you again?"
As Tie Dan wiped his face, the squinting Senior Brother Zhou appeared, tossing him a pill.
"Hmm."
Tie Dan took it, proficiently broke it in half, ground half into powder to apply on his wounds to stop the bleeding, and put the other half under his tongue, sitting by the pond to absorb the medicinal power.
Senior Brother Zhou squinted at him, seeing no significant dirt or injuries, clearly having not fought seriously, and casually offered some advice,
"Why don't you strike back with two swords? Even if you only injure her, it would be peaceful for a few days."
Tie Dan shook his head,
"Magic artifact."
"Oh, well..."
Hearing this, Senior Brother Zhou understood. Even the maids of the Marquis Mansion had magic artifacts for protection. With just a mouthful of sword energy, it was impossible to break through, and failing would mean losing the chance to escape. Someone as poor as Tie Dan, with nothing on him, going up against someone with a pile of artifacts, could easily end up grievously injured with no healing medicine, which was simply not worth it.
Even Zhou Feng had no solution. Their master owed a life to someone else, so killing her with a single sword wasn't an option—he could only shake his head and let them be.
This matter was indeed difficult for outsiders to intervene in. Aside from old emotional ties, the rules of the Beichen Sword Sect never prohibited disciples from sword fighting; they even encouraged challenges among sect members.
Life-and-death sword fights, one could say, were meant to spur and train disciples not to neglect their cultivation. Plus, it weeded out the incompetent, saving the sect resources like elixir pills and magic artifacts for Foundation Establishment...
So ever since Shen Jianjia first entered the sect, she never forgot to avenge her beloved who died in front of her eyes.
At first, she knew well that she was no match for her enemy and didn't dare to go too far, but first, she focused on cultivating assiduously and didn't seek trouble. But these days, relying on the Marquis Mansion's abundant cultivation resources and the foundation laid by her family education, plus the Sword Sect Secret Skill passed on by Immortal Chen, she suddenly managed to establish her Foundation first.
Now she was emboldened, running to Yanzi Peak every three days, lurking on the mountaintop exclusively to ambush and assassinate Tie Dan when he practiced Qi Refining alone.
After all, the opponent was just a young lady, not a great man, so there was no need for an open and fair fight. Moreover, even an official invitation for a sword fight, Tie Dan wouldn't foolishly accept it.
But Tie Dan didn't care.
In fact, he had seen plenty of life and death from a young age, being bitten by dogs over a piece of meat or beaten for no reason, always at the edge of death. So a few more inexplicably mad people wanting his life didn't make much difference.
Moreover, he had secretly tried to counter-kill in return, reciprocating equally.
Yes, Tie Dan indeed coveted the wealth of these rich folks, contemplating that if he could kill that mad woman and seize that cart full of the Marquis's treasures, not only Foundation Establishment, but even the resources needed to cultivate to the Golden Core Realm wouldn't be lacking...
Thus, taking advantage of Jianjia's cultivation bath, sleep, and underestimation due to carelessness, he attempted to assassinate her by spitting sword energy twice, only to fail.
After all, if it was just a single magic artifact, he might have had a fighting chance, but upon probing, Tie Dan discovered that on her, besides that treasure sword from the dead Marquis that could cut through iron like mud, there were at least three other magic artifacts!
She had a golden bell on her waist, which would ring automatically as a warning if there was any hostility nearby or if one lingered too long.
A golden bracelet on her wrist could create a Qi Shield in front of her, significantly weakening his Divine Gang Sword Qi's sword power. With Tie Dan's current sword power, he could at most strike around the Qi Shield's edges, making it difficult to break directly.
Additionally, she wore a spiritual silk belly band with talismans etched on it, even when bathing, to protect herself and ward off evil, which could also emit spiritual breath to accelerate wound healing.
Though Tie Dan, through the inner core dug from a human head, managed to nourish himself enough to open the Divine Gang Sword Vein and cultivate a Circulation of Qi Body, he was stuck at the Foundation Establishment bottleneck and couldn't break through, only able to painstakingly refine a single mouthful of sword energy over and over.
With just one mouthful of Qi, none of the top-notch sword techniques of his sect could be wielded. The sword energy he spat had a limited range, and he had to avoid golden bell detection, unable to carefully aim at her weaknesses, so even if he broke through the bracelet shield, piercing through the protective belly band was extremely difficult.
And after a few assassination attempts from Tie Dan, Jianjia was now alert. The mad woman, cunning as she was, used the excuse of gender difference and consulted Chen Huzi several times. Consequently, considering the care of female members, Chen Huzi allowed her to live in a house in the Maple Forest at the foot of the mountain and even set up protective arrays, making night assaults impossible for Tie Dan too.
Moreover, this mad woman took great precautions when attending lectures on the mountain. Typically, she hid in that cart filled with unknown treasures, resting there, which had many talismans stuck, steel-reinforced wheel axles, and hidden iron plates. The cart even had hidden crossbow mechanisms capable of shooting hidden poison darts at any given time, making it even harder to approach and find an assassination opportunity.
It was tough.
Without Foundation Establishment, no spell or sword move could be utilized, with only one mouthful of sword energy, it was difficult indeed to break through her protective artifacts. Yet the opponent relied on a vast number of resources; having broken through the Foundation threshold, the gap in cultivation level would only widen, let alone the disparity in magic artifacts, making the situation increasingly dangerous.
Perhaps poison would work.
At least in front of Senior Brothers Yue and Zhou, neither the mad woman nor Tie Dan could act, and usually, they all ate together. Come spring, if some Wutou Grass could be found and secretly mixed into the food, there might still be a slim chance...
"Ah!"
Suddenly, a scream came from inside the lodge, accompanied by the smell of fresh blood. Tie Dan immediately ducked to the ground, eyes on all sides, ears attentive.
Meanwhile, Zhou Feng darted back from the snowy forest, glanced at Tie Dan, and pushed the door open to inspect inside.
Tie Dan waited for a moment before also entering through the doorway to check.
He saw a crimson mess in the shared bunk, with dismembered pieces of flesh, as if a water jug had burst on the bed, spraying blood that gushed out like a flood over the bed and onto the floor.
"Ah, ah..."
Tie Dan glanced over, finding six children with two dead and one crippled. One had an open belly and the other was severed at the waist. Another had a leg chopped off and was bleeding like a fountain, already passed out from pain.
Judging by their smooth cut bones and wounds, and the sword marks on the bed, it was clearly caused by sword energy twisting them apart.
Meanwhile, the three children on the opposite bunks, waking up in shock, were ashen-faced and speechless out of fear.
Tie Dan looked in silence at the bloody, chaotic mess on the bed.
Because he too slept in this bunk.
If not for getting up early to practice Qi Refining on the mountain peak to guard against that mad woman's sneak attacks, he probably wouldn't have escaped death either.
"Sword energy gone wild...either secretly refining or having a nightmare and becoming possessed by a demon."
Squinting, Zhou Feng examined the scene and understood at a glance, casually touching and pressing acupuncture points to stop the bleeding of the legless child. He picked him up and slung him over his shoulder and glanced at the frightened few who had wet themselves, tossing a healing elixir to Tie Dan.
"Clean it up and take it to the medicine garden for fertilizer."
"Yes."
So Tie Dan went to the storehouse to fetch a handcart and a hoe, wrapped the two corpses and a leg in a hemp mat, loaded them onto the cart, and pushed them down the mountain along the stone path.
Hmm, possessed by a demon.
This sort of thing was really quite commonplace, after all, sword energy inherently kills, thus refining Qi naturally leads to deaths.
Even with regular cultivation techniques, a lapse during practice could result in possession, at best paralysis, at worst exploding into death.
And when it comes to Sword Immortals refining sword energy, naturally, the consequences were even harsher, often leading to decapitation or gut-wrenching outcomes.
Qi cultivation demanded utmost focus; any lapse could harm both oneself and others.
So even knowing that a mad woman lurked outside the mountain, waiting to ambush him, Tie Dan still sought a quiet place to enter closed-door training, for that very reason.
Hence, despite knowing there's a mad woman lurking outside the mountain ready to ambush him, Tie Dan still sought a quiet place for solitary cultivation, for this same reason.
Thus, in the eyes of Sword Sect elders, instead of seeing them as engaged in a deadly duel, they seemed more like two people jointly advancing in the same path of cultivation, chasing and spurring each other onward...
Pushing the cart to the foot of the mountain's medicine garden, Tie Dan buried the bodies in the flower beds. Suddenly, something shiny fell from one of the bodies.
Tie Dan glanced at it, spotting a piece of Red Jade glistening in the morning light with a bloody hue.
He picked it up to inspect, seeing that the Red Jade was blood-like, with a woman's face carved on the Jade Pendant, which was indeed a beauty that would shame the moon and flowers alike, a national charm.
Tie Dan couldn't immediately discern whether it was a mere decorative trinket or some kind of magic treasure. However, the bloodstains on the Jade, seeming more and more bewitching, made it look vivid and lifelike, as if those beautiful eyes were about to slowly open...
But Tie Dan showed no special reaction to such seductive techniques, after all, he had seen his fair share of stunning beauties since childhood, and each one was like those mad women, all wanting him dead.
So Tie Dan casually wiped off the bloodstains from the Jade and tucked it into his sleeve before putting his head down to continue his work.
He had to bury them before that mad woman came looking for him.

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