The Reticent Blade-Chapter 120 - A New Dawn

Fifteen minutes ago.

In the main hall, Flowerless Butterfly glanced around at the bloodthirsty disciples of Five Gods Summit and couldn't help but gulp.

A thud echoed in the quiet hall, and seemed to wake up the gathered disciples.

"Catch her!" someone shouted.

At the command, the surrounding animated corpses pounced in unison, nearly blocking all of Rao Shuang's escape routes!

Faced with these grotesque animated corpses, Flowerless Butterfly felt a prickling sensation on her scalp and her body was covered in goosebumps.

Left with no time to think, Rao Shuang took a deep breath, used her lightness arts, and leaped onto the altar behind her. She danced about the statue with airy steps, quickly climbing to its shoulder.

The animated corpses couldn't match her agility and couldn't climb up. The disciples had also never trained in such lightness arts, so they could only stand below in the hall, glowering and cursing at her.

"Come down and accept your death!"

"How dare you disrespect our God!"

"Your crimes are unforgivable!"

"We will definitely kill you today!"

Temporarily safe, Rao Shuang ignored the flurry of curses from below and breathed a sigh of relief. Subtly observing her surroundings, she decided to mock the Five Gods Summit disciples to buy some time.

"Heh, you senior brothers are so impressive... Are members of the Five Gods Peak really using numbers to bully a weak girl like me?" Rao Shuang covered her mouth and laughed lightly, her eyes curving into crescent moons, making her look quite beautiful.

As soon as she said this, a few younger disciples lowered their heads shamefully. However, a senior disciple immediately shouted, "Psshh! Don't try to fool us with your words! Once we catch you, we'll cut out your tongue first!"

"You speak so fiercely!" Flowerless Butterfly covered her mouth, her face apparently filled with fear that made her seem rather pitiful. "You are scaring me."

The senior disciple was about to curse at her again when he felt someone tugging at his sleeve. Turning around, he noticed that it was a junior disciple who had only recently joined the sect. This junior disciple looked somewhat flustered as he said, "Senior brother, please don’t be so fierce... after all, she’s a girl... and quite beautiful at that—"

Smack!

A loud slap echoed as the senior disciple knocked the junior disciple down to the ground.

"Get away from me!" the senior disciple yelled furiously, pointing at the dazed junior on the ground. "How can the Five Gods Summit have someone as stupid as you!"

After saying this, the senior disciple turned to his fellow disciples and shouted, "Go get the crossbows! Shoot her down! Hurry!"

Seeing a few disciples hurry off, the smile on Rao Shuang’s face vanished. No matter how confident she was in her lightness arts, there was no way she couldn't dodge a volley from dozens of crossbows!

Before she could think of a solution, the disciples returned. Each carrying several crossbows and bundles of crossbow bolts.

Click.

The senior disciple was the first to claim a crossbow, load it, and aim it at Rao Shuang. The other disciples quickly followed suit, and the sound of crossbows being loaded filled the air.

Flowerless Butterfly inhaled sharply as dozens of crossbows in the hall were now aimed at her, the arrowheads glinting sharply in the cold light.

Rao Shuang saw the senior disciple’s finger gradually applying pressure, tightening around the trigger...

Rao Shuang knew it would be too late if she didn’t act quickly, so just as the disciples were about to pin her to the statue, she hurriedly called, "Wait!"

"What? Finally willing to come down?" the senior disciple asked coldly.

Rao Shuang didn’t answer his question. Instead, she pulled something from her bosom and asked the disciples below, "Do you know what this is?"

"What is it?"

"Never seen it...

"Don’t recognize it..."

"Looks like a box..."

"What's inside that box?"

The disciples whispered to each other, but the senior disciple who had taken the lead turned pale when Rao Shuang took out the box. He exclaimed, "It's... it's the Soul Locking Sunflower!"

"Soul Locking Sunflower?!"

Although the disciples had never seen the glazed box in Rao Shuang's hands, they naturally knew what the Soul Locking Sunflower was and understood its significance to Five Gods Summit. Upon hearing the senior disciple's exclamation, their expressions changed as well.

Seeing that someone finally recognized the item, Rao Shuang let out a sigh of relief. "It seems you all know what this is... So, do you still want to kill me now?"

The senior disciple fell silent, and the other disciples followed his lead. After a moment, the senior disciple lowered his crossbow and begrudgingly said, "Leave the Soul Locking Sunflower... and we'll let you go."

Rao Shuang giggled. "It seems that you are a reasonable person... In that case, catch!"

With all her might, she threw the glazed box with all her might into an empty corner of the hall!

As soon as the disciples saw Rao Shuang's arm move, they knew something terrible was about to happen. Their faces turned pale with fear. How could they let their sect's defining treasure smash to bits on the ground?!

It was worth more than all their lives combined! No longer caring about anything else, the mob of disciples rushed towards the far corner, stretching their hands to catch it.

A flash of cunning appeared in Rao Shuang's eyes. Taking advantage of the distraction, she slightly bent her knees and leapt off from the statue, propelling herself like an arrow straight toward the hall's main door!

Clink!

A crisp sound came from behind, and Rao Shuang knew that the group of disciples had failed to catch the glazed box before it shattered on the ground.

But this also meant that her time was running out.

Sure enough, the next moment, a disciple exclaimed!

"The box is empty!"

"Where is it?!"

"Not good! We fell for her trick!"

"Quick, chase her!"

The disciples turned their heads and saw no trace of the thief on the statue. Turning again, they noticed that she was nearly out of the hall!

Crash!

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Rao Shuang protected her head and face as she forcefully tore through the door with her body.

As she exited the hall, Rao Shuang spotted the detestable man surrounded by a group of people. Thinking of her experiences tonight, a surge of anger rose in her heart, and she couldn't help but swear out loud, "Forsaken Phoenix! Hurry and think of a way out! I'm not ready to die here!"

Rao Shuang's anxious voice traveled quickly, but several disciples of Five Gods Summit were still doggedly pursuing her. At that moment, she was relying on her extraordinary lightness arts to distance herself from the disciples behind her .

Even if she managed to escape them, the four suspension bridges on the central peak had already been completely destroyed by Tang Jinnian. No matter how good her lightness arts were, where could she escape to?

The senior disciple knew he couldn't catch up to the thief, so he faced the sect master and the disciples outside the hall and loudly shouted, "Quick, catch her! She... stole the Soul Locking Sunflower!"

The short sect leader's expression changed instantly after hearing what happened to the sect's treasure. He no longer cared about Tang Jinnian and leaped out of the crowd to block the escaping woman.

However, just as he jumped into the air, someone pulled his calf, and he heard Tang Jinnian say, "Allow me to take care of that lovely lady."

The sect leader was pulled back to the ground. At the same time, Tang Jinnian used that momentum to leap out of the crowd and grab Rao Shuang's waist ribbon mid-air. He gently held her waist to absorb her incoming momentum and landed steadily at the edge of the central mountain.

Rao Shuang felt the warm hand on her waist and blushed furiously. Just as she was about to push him away, Tang Jinnian tightened his arm, holding her closely and urgently asked in her ear, "So? Did you get the item?!"

The words felt like a bucket of cold water splashing over her, and Rao Shuang forcefully pushed Tang Jinnian away. She took out a strange black-purple, nine-petaled flower from her arms and threw it directly at Tang Jinnian, refusing to speak to him further.

Tang Jinnian was unaffected by her temper. He carefully cradled the flower, his eyes revealing excitement and fervor that he couldn't hide! This was the first time that Rao Shuang had seen such a look in his eyes, as if that flower were his entire world.

Rao Shuang shook Tang Jinnian's arm. "Hey, stop staring."

"What’s wrong?" Tang Jinnian raised his head, sounding a bit impatient.

"If you want to look, you have to live through this first!" Rao Shuang furrowed her brow, glaring at Tang Jinnian. "You might not care about your life, but I do! Look around us!"

Tang Jinnian glanced around, taking everything in.

He saw that, at some unknown point, the short sect leader had led countless disciples and animated corpses of the Five Gods Summit to completely surround them. The two of them were already at the cliff's edge, with an army in front of them and an abyss behind them! They had fallen into a situation from which there was no escape!

"What a good strategy..." The sect leader's tone was icy, yet he started clapping his hands. "Drawing the tiger from its den and feint to the east while attacking in the west. However, as long as you return the Soul Locking Sunflower, I can let tonight’s events go and even allow you to descend the mountain. How about it?"

Rao Shuang knew that this dwarf-like old man was not to be trifled with, so she quietly urged Tang Jinnian, "Can you do this or not? Why don’t you just give it back to him? If we can’t think of a way out, we’re really going to die!"

Tang Jinnian calmly ignored both of them, his right hand hidden behind his back as he gazed up at the sky.

Rao Shuang followed his gaze, but saw nothing but darkness.

The sect leader followed Tang Jinnian’s gaze and revealed a look of confusion as if he saw something in the dark sky.

"Huh? What is that...?"

Rao Shuang was even more puzzled, staring wide-eyed at the sky, trying to make out what it was.

The next moment, a shadow of a strange and massive bird loomed out from the darkness!

Before Rao Shuang could grasp what was happening, Tang Jinnian suddenly wrapped his arms around her waist, and teasingly whispered in her ear, "Ready to die?"

"Uh...? Wha..." Rao Shuang was taken aback, but her words cut short as Tang Jinnian grabbed onto her and leapt off the edge!

Whoosh!

The wind rushed past her ears. Rao Shuang saw the surprised expressions on the faces of the Five Gods Summit disciples as they shrank into pinpoints above the edge.

The sensation of weightlessness hit her as she rapidly hurtled down the cliff!

"Ah!!!" Rao Shuang screamed instinctively as she closed her eyes and clutched Tang Jinnian tightly.

"Haha!"

In contrast, Tang Jinnian seemed exhilarated and even took the time to pat Rao Shuang’s shoulder.

"Open your eyes and look! If you don’t, you'll never see something like this again!"

"You madman!!!"

Rao Shuang realized that even after all her efforts, she was sure to die today. She freed one hand to frantically scratch at Tang Jinnian’s face.

"I shouldn’t have come with you! Madman, madman!!! Huh...?"

A dark shadow appeared above the two, and as Tang Jinnian reached his right hand up, Rao Shuang felt her weight return to her as the speed of their fall suddenly slowed down.

What... What's going on?

Rao Shuang blinked, slowly looking up. Above them, a gigantic strange bird soared, occasionally flapping its wings. Tang Jinnian’s right hand was grasping one of its ankles.

This strange bird had the wingspan of three people, and each flap of its wings stirred a strong wind. But what astonished Rao Shuang the most was that this strange bird had no signs of life.

Although it looked incredibly lifelike, Rao Shuang could tell that the strange bird glimmered with a metallic sheen! It was clearly another one of Tang Jinnian's puppets!

"This... you..." Rao Shuang opened her mouth but didn’t know where to start. She could only cling tightly to Tang Jinnian’s clothes, fearing she might fall again.

"Look behind you."

Tang Jinnian's lips curled into a slight smile.

Behind? What was behind her?

Rao Shuang turned around in confusion... behind her was a sea of darkness, and she could only vaguely make out the silhouette of the central peak from Five Gods Summit.

What does he want me to see? Rao Shuang was puzzled when suddenly a large area of the mountainside was illuminated. Then, another spot lit up, and then another, one after another, until the entire mountainside of the central peak was lit up!

Then, a deafening chorus of explosions followed shortly after.

Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom!

"That little guy was just asking me why I didn’t use a puppet to fight him." Tang Jinnian sneered. "He doesn’t even understand how to kill efficiently, yet he calls himself the sect leader. Heh!"

The central peak was shaped like an hourglass with a thick base that tapered into a narrow waist before filling out again.

Under the fiery illumination, it could be seen that the entire mountainside of the central peak had been blown apart. The peak began to tilt, then collapsed and fell.

Booooooom!

The massive mountain body crashed to the valley floor, sending gigantic clouds of dust and debris swirling into the air as the earth shook.

At this point, there was no longer any trace of the Five Gods Summit in the world.

Rao Shuang suddenly remembered Tang Jinnian's words from earlier in the night, and a chill spread through her heart. "I came to eradicate Five Gods Summit," he had said.

At this moment, she finally understood why Tang Jinnian was so intent on cutting off the four bridges... he had long planned to kill everyone from the Five Gods Summit, so he wouldn't leave any routes for escape!

In the air, beneath the strange bird, Rao Shuang tightly clung to Tang Jinnian. Her expression was dazed as she struggled to find her voice.

Finally, a glimmer of dawn appeared on the horizon, casting a warm light on the two figures in the sky.

The first light of dawn dazzled Rao Shuang's eyes.

She squinted and murmured, "It's a new dawn."

Tang Jinnian tilted his head, looking toward the patch of golden light in the east.

"Ah... it's a new dawn indeed."