Chapter 49: Double Sparrow

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In the pitch-black kitchen, the sharp long sword whistled down. The little Taoist, with nowhere to escape, watched helplessly as the sword tip grew closer and larger, finally piercing directly into his left eye.

Eyelids were just a thin layer – whether closed or open made no difference now.

The moment the sword edge entered his eye, Xu Yan thought he would die. The two stones gripped tightly in his hands remained motionless.

The reason he didn’t fight back desperately before dying was because what Liao Jiuming had pierced was Xu Yan’s left eye.

When he was young, the little Taoist of Riding Cloud Temple had always lived in fear, because his eyes could see many, many terrifying sights – mountain spirits and strange creatures, as well as demons and ghosts.

A child of just a few years couldn’t bear such horrifying visions. Before learning to see without seeing, Xu Yan had once thought of gouging out his own left eye. He had even tried to do so, but unfortunately, when that iron needle pierced his left eye, he only felt some pain – his eye was completely unharmed.

It didn’t seem like an eye, but like a diamond embedded in his eye socket!

Clang!

A crisp sound like clashing blades rang out in the dim kitchen, accompanied by Liao Jiuming’s incredulous cry and Xu Yan’s fierce roar.

As the blade pierced down, Xu Yan used all his strength to arch his back and waist, seemingly like a twist of fear, but actually he was extending his body to borrow force.

As the blade entered his eye, Xu Yan’s arched back suddenly sank with all his might. Something like a hot current seemed to surge through his body, and his arms swung up with full force when that hot current reached his hands. The stones in his hands weren’t thrown but remained pressed against his palms.

His swinging palms, carrying malevolent wind, struck toward the bent-over Liao Jiuming.

“Double Sparrow!!!”

Smack!!!

Shocked by the strange phenomenon of his sword failing to pierce the other’s eye, and with his foot stepping on Xu Yan while holding his long sword and bending over, Liao Jiuming could no longer dodge in time. Two youthful palms struck directly against his left and right temples, and two clouds of blood mist simultaneously sprayed from both sides of Liao Jiuming’s head.

The first style of the Three Flying Stone Techniques was called Flying Locust, while Double Sparrow was the name of the second style.

Both hands striking together – Double Sparrow’s killing blow!

His two thin arms fell powerlessly like they were broken, while the two stones remained forever in Flying Centipede’s head. Each stone had sunk more than three inches deep, directly splitting Liao Jiuming’s head open like a flower.

Clang.

The long sword fell powerlessly to one side. Liao Jiuming’s face still bore an expression of disbelief. Even now he couldn’t believe that a small Taoist, when completely suppressed by him, could still unleash such tremendous force. That eye that even innate sword qi couldn’t pierce – was it an eyeball or metal and iron?

Using palms to carry stones and using arms to throw stones were completely different concepts.

Being able to carry stones in one’s palms and smash them into skull bones as hard as stone required mobilizing not just strength, but true qi!

Fresh blood poured from his gaping mouth. With his skull cracked, Liao Jiuming’s internal true qi immediately scattered. Once his true qi dispersed, the deadly poison he had suppressed for so long simultaneously surged into his heart meridian. Under the dual severe injuries both internal and external, this Flying Centipede of Yuan Mountain Stronghold breathed out more than he breathed in, and the light in his eyes began rapidly fading.

“Striking stone… into stele, five…”

With a gulp, a mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out. Liao Jiuming’s eyes were filled with complexity – shock and confusion, fear and bewilderment, finally gradually becoming empty. His corpse toppled to one side. Before dying, he only spoke half a sentence that Xu Yan couldn’t understand at all.

Actually, Xu Yan could no longer hear clearly what Liao Jiuming was saying. He was covering his left eye and rolling in pain, knocking over pots and bowls around him.

When young, Xu Yan had indeed stabbed his left eye with an iron needle, but he was only a few years old then with limited strength. Liao Jiuming’s sword, however, carried the true qi of a second-meridian innate martial artist and could pierce holes in stone steles, let alone human eyes.

Xu Yan now only felt unbearable pain in his left eye. He could confirm his left eye wasn’t blind because no blood appeared, but the intense pain nearly made him faint.

After quite a while, the severe pain in his left eye began to subside. Xu Yan tightly closed his eyes and lay on the ground breathing heavily.

Behind his eyelids, a strange scene was occurring in the little Taoist’s left eye. The star-pattern outline formed by absorbing boundless killing aura on the canyon battlefield was slowly dissipating along with Xu Yan’s pain. When Xu Yan felt no more pain and opened his eyes, the star-pattern mark in his left eye also completely disappeared, never to be seen again.

Struggling to get up, Xu Yan staggered out of the kitchen, his hanging arms drooping powerlessly as if broken.

Two Flying Locusts plus one Double Sparrow – this time Xu Yan had truly injured his tendons and bones. He could confirm his arms weren’t broken, but couldn’t judge whether these hands could ever recover.

The small figure stumbled to the well.

The horizon had already shown pale light, with a ray of morning sun appearing in the eastern sky, like a thread of hope driving away the darkness on earth.

Sitting on the well’s edge, Xu Yan rested for quite a while, then actually began laughing. His laughter in the corpse-filled stronghold was like a night owl’s call, yet filled with carefree joy.

“I helped you devour them all. Are you happy?”

Half-tilting his head back, the small Taoist sat with his back to the well opening, not knowing to whom he was confiding. He stopped laughing and silently shed a line of tears.

The Zhao family girl’s soul had long since dissipated. She could no longer hear or see.

The weary figure left the well and walked toward Liao Jiuming’s large courtyard.

Flying Centipede was finally killed. Though it cost him both arms, Xu Yan felt it was worth it. If Mei Sanniang was still alive, it would be even more worthwhile.

Stumbling and pushing open the door, Xu Yan saw Mei Sanniang had collapsed on the ground, trembling all over, covered in sweat, her beautiful face filled with pain.

“Third Sister, Third Sister!”

Xu Yan called out loudly, his expression full of anxiety, gently shaking her with his powerless hands.

“Little Taoist…”

Mei Sanniang barely opened her eyes. She had fainted from pain when she heard Liao Jiuming charge out of the room, and was now awakened by the shaking.

Seeing Xu Yan appear alive before her, the woman’s pained expression became joyful. She said weakly: “It’s good you’re not dead. Go, don’t worry about Third Sister. I’ll stay here and accompany Little Cheng…”

“Why did you eat that food?” Xu Yan asked with complete confusion.

“If I didn’t eat, he would become suspicious…”

The woman’s weak answer made Xu Yan immediately understand the cause and effect.

Although Mei Sanniang basically didn’t eat food made in the kitchen, yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival and the entire bandit stronghold was drinking freely. The roasted lamb smelled extremely fragrant. It must have been lamb meat that Liao Jiuming served to Mei Sanniang. If she didn’t eat it, it would definitely arouse his suspicion. For revenge, knowing the meat contained deadly poison, Mei Sanniang still ate it.

She ate very little, which was why she lasted through the night. But even a few bites of lamb could poison a living person to death. If she waited another half day, Mei Sanniang would also join the dead.

All poisons in the world had methods of removal, but Xu Yan had no antidote. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to prepare an antidote, but he simply didn’t have so many herbs at hand.

To neutralize the deadly poison mixed from gelsemium and centipede grass required at least a hundred types of medicinal materials to prepare an antidote. Never mind small villages and towns – even large city pharmacies might not have everything needed.

There was no way to detoxify now, but Xu Yan had a way to delay the poison’s onset.

“Third Sister, I’ll carry you. Get on quickly – if we’re any later, there’ll really be no saving you!”

With great effort, Xu Yan, whose hands could barely move, finally got the woman who wasn’t much taller than him on his back. Before leaving the room, Mei Sanniang struggled to point toward the east wall, saying: “There’s something there. Liao Jiuming carries it with him every day and only puts it in the hidden compartment a few times a year. You must… must take it!”