Fang Shuwen held Cao Jiuyin’s head in his hand, quietly observing the blade marks upon it.

’Bai Liuxian had said that Cao Jiuyin was injured by someone from Jinghua Pavilion,’ he thought. ’These must be the marks left by that Jinghua Pavilion master.’

The sound of hurried footsteps approached from behind. He turned to see it was the masters of the Seven Sects.

Each of them bore injuries, but none were missing. They had previously watched Fang Shuwen go after Cao Jiuyin alone.

Though once again astounded by Fang Shuwen’s Martial Arts, they couldn’t rest easy letting a young man like him face a great Demon single-handedly.

That was why they had all charged over, dragging their injured bodies along...

Whether they could be of much help was another question, but they still had the strength to give it their all.

But the scene within the courtyard made them all gasp.

A field of stark white bones, a gruesome sight filled with blood. And there stood Fang Shuwen, holding Cao Jiuyin’s enormous head, yet not a single drop of blood stained him.

His detached gaze softened considerably only after it fell upon the masters of the Seven Sects.

"Everyone, the arch-villain has been eliminated."

The masters of the Seven Sects looked at each other in bewilderment. Fang Shuwen had charged in to hunt down Cao Jiuyin, and they had followed right on his heels.

There was barely any time between his arrival and theirs.

In that short span, the two could have exchanged two or three moves at most...

’And in that exchange of two or three moves, Fang Shuwen had already killed Cao Jiuyin?’

What they didn’t know was that Fang Shuwen, for once, had actually exchanged a few words with Cao Jiuyin, which had wasted a bit of time...

In reality, he hadn’t even needed two or three moves; he had killed him with a single palm strike.

The reason he hadn’t done so in the front courtyard was that he had wanted to get some information about Jinghua Pavilion and Flying Snow City from Cao Jiuyin.

But after seeing the horrific scene in the backyard, he lost all interest in asking any more questions.

He felt that as a human being, to delay killing this man by even a minute or a second was a desecration of human life itself.

Fang Shuwen didn’t even want his Inner Strength.

"Young Hero Fang, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

After snapping out of their shock, the crowd hurried forward to show their concern.

Fang Shuwen smiled and shook his head.

"This Demon couldn’t hurt me... Please, don’t worry."

"However, the Martial Arts he cultivated are bizarre and treacherous... In my opinion, this place cannot be left as it is. It would be best to burn it to the ground, lest this Demon Dao fiend have some other tricks up his sleeve that we don’t know about."

He had expected the masters of the Seven Sects might have differing opinions upon hearing this.

To his surprise, however, they all nodded in agreement as soon as he spoke.

"Young Hero Fang speaks sense."

"Those of the Demon Dao have countless methods; we must indeed be on our guard."

"Exactly."

After all, as the Seven Righteous Sects who constantly battled the Demon Dao, they had a deep understanding of their enemy.

The Demon Techniques these people cultivated were powerful and their methods endlessly strange. Although they lacked the stable foundation of the Xuanmen Orthodox Sects, most of them were incredibly difficult to kill.

Flesh King Cao Jiuyin was a perfect example... Otherwise, they might have been able to finish him at Taixu Dao three years ago, and he wouldn’t have been left to endanger the Jianghu for another three years.

The group immediately split up to search Qiuyue Nunnery for any other living people. Were there any survivors among those who had been abducted and brought here?

Fang Shuwen, meanwhile, went to the front courtyard.

There, he saw that Zhou Qingmei, Lu Guiyan, Mo Beidou, and the others had already arrived.

Zhou Qingmei was currently squatting before Zuo Qingshuang, her face full of worry.

The master and servant pair were performing acupuncture on Zuo Qingshuang... a sight that naturally made Lu Guiyan’s expression grow even uglier.

’These two are absolutely detestable.’

’I was hit by a Poison Dart protecting them. My skills may be limited, but I did my duty. And they, with their supreme medical skills, just stood by and watched me die.’

’How could such actions not make one’s blood run cold?’

"Little... Shuwen, are you okay?"

When Mo Beidou saw Fang Shuwen come out, he rushed over to check on him. Seeing him completely unscathed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning his head, he then noticed the enormous head Fang Shuwen was carrying.

He froze for a moment.

"Is that...?"

"Oh, I forgot..."

Fang Shuwen casually tossed the head away and immediately sent a palm strike flying after it.

The Palm Power shot through the air, instantly blasting the head to pieces.

Only after he was done did he turn to the horrified Mo Beidou and say:

"That was Cao Jiuyin, the evil mastermind of this Qiuyue Nunnery."

At that moment, Zuo Qingshuang let out a soft groan and slowly opened her eyes.

"Young Hero Fang, you killed that Cao Jiuyin?"

"Yes."

"That’s wonderful."

Zuo Qingshuang let out a long sigh of relief.

"That man committed countless evils, enraging both men and gods. Young Hero Fang, by ridding the Jianghu of this great menace, you have performed a truly meritorious and commendable deed."

"Elder Zuo, how are your injuries?"

Fang Shuwen paid no mind to such things, instead inquiring about Zuo Qingshuang’s condition.

Zuo Qingshuang smiled.

"Thanks to Young Hero Fang’s Inner Strength, which protected my heart meridian, and the superb skills of these two doctors, I’m out of danger now... I just estimate I won’t be able to fight anyone for a short while."

"Junior Sister Zuo, you needn’t worry."

The beautiful woman from Yuqing Pavilion stepped forward and said:

"I will take the people of Yuqing Pavilion and escort you back to Zhuji Pavilion."

"It’s been a long time since I visited Zhuji Pavilion. I do miss the scenery of Jiuning Mountain."

A voice rang out. Everyone turned to see the other masters from the Seven Great Sects of the Eastern Domain walking out from the inner courtyard. The one who spoke was a master from the Cangwu Sword Sect.

"On this trip, we will accompany Yuqing Pavilion in escorting Fairy Su Yue back. We can look out for each other along the way."

After this was said, a few others also offered to help with the escort, but Zuo Qingshuang politely declined.

There was no need for such a large, conspicuous crowd.

Having Yuqing Pavilion and the Cangwu Sword Sect was more than enough.

The search of Qiuyue Nunnery was mostly complete. However, no one dared to touch the ghastly white bones... Cao Jiuyin’s Martial Arts were related to flesh and skin. Logically, leaving these bones here should serve no purpose for him.

And yet, he hadn’t actually thrown them away...

Thus, everyone suspected he might have tampered with the bones in some way. Moving them rashly would be a bad idea.

So they decided to leave them in Qiuyue Nunnery and let them be consumed by the flames, to avoid any future trouble.

The great fire blazed. The Seven Righteous Sects, along with some righteous Jianghu heroes who had rushed over, stood watching from the perimeter to prevent the flames from spreading.

With nothing else to do during this process, the crowd began to chat.

Naturally, they were most curious about Fang Shuwen’s origins. However, his background was unremarkable—merely an apprentice from the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall, hardly worth mentioning.

Because of this, they all knew he must have had some other fortuitous encounter to have gained such powerful Martial Arts.

But this question touched upon Fang Shuwen’s privacy, so everyone had a tacit understanding not to pry.

And when the conversation turned to the relationship between Zhuji Pavilion and Fang Shuwen, the people from Taixu Dao finally learned that the traitor they had been hunting for years, Qing Yangzi, had already died at Fang Shuwen’s hands.

For a time, they were endlessly grateful to Fang Shuwen, repeatedly inviting him to visit Taixu Dao as a guest of honor.

Fang Shuwen simply demurred, saying he had matters to attend to and couldn’t go for the time being, but would definitely do so in the future...

And so, as the great fire gradually died down, the matter of Qiuyue Nunnery came to a close.

In the early stages, the battle had benefited from proper planning, so there had been no loss of personnel.

It was only when Cao Jiuyin appeared later that they suffered casualties.

But with Fang Shuwen’s appearance to slay the Demon, everything was settled. The outcome could be called a resounding victory.

However, it also meant that all the other sects, aside from Wentian Mansion, now owed Fang Shuwen a considerable favor.