Yongjie's lips parted, but he couldn't speak.
However, his feet involuntarily stepped forward, his genuine qi surged, and his hands clenched into fists.
"Master!"
"Master Yongjie, have you made up your decision?"
Two voices rang out at the same time.
One was An Ziyang, who was following behind Yongjie. Seeing him seemingly lost in thought, as if he was about to step forward and attack, he quickly spoke to dissuade him.
The other was Li Miao.
He had heard Yongjie and An Ziyang's footsteps long ago, but he had ignored them.
Li Miao had An Ziyang bring Yongjie over because he thought there was a good chance Ji Tianrui was hiding in Miao territory, so he wanted Yongjie to come and take revenge. Who knew that after all this, the matter would circle back to Yongjie himself?
The entanglement of grievances was too deep, and Li Miao had no intention of clarifying it for Yongjie. He simply waited for Yongjie to make his choice before speaking.
Therefore, he only spoke when he sensed Yongjie's intention to attack.
"Master, look around you."
Li Miao said.
Yongjie suddenly came to his senses.
Ever since he saw the Miao King, his mind had been fixated on her, with no time to spare for anything else. After Li Miao's reminder, he shifted his gaze to the surroundings of the pupa chamber, seeing the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, and the skeletons of young girls toppled over on jars.
"This, how many people have died..."
An Ziyang murmured.
He had walked the jianghu since childhood and had seen many corpses and witnessed many horrific scenes. But he had never seen anything like this, truly like the hellish scenes described in storybooks.
Just the mountain of corpses in the front left, a rough glance showed no less than several hundred skeletons. And the jars in the front right contained several hundred skeletons of young women.
A trace of clarity flashed in Yongjie's eyes, and then he looked at the Miao King, whose heart had been dug out by Li Miao.
"Master, when we first met, we encountered your former subordinate in prison."
"When we left, you didn't ask me to save her."
"At that time, I asked you why, do you still remember your answer?"
Li Miao said indifferently.
Looking at the Miao King's familiar face, Yongjie's lips trembled as he said, "I remember... I remember."
"The monk said that one reaps what one sows, and retribution is swift. If one does evil, one must repay it. The monk wanted to save her, but could not save her, otherwise, it would be aiding a villain..."
"The people she killed would also be attributed to the monk..."
Li Miao nodded and said,
"It's good that Master remembers."
"This person is the Miao King, the mother of the murderer who killed Master Xing Chi, the source of the thousands of casualties in Tai'an City, and the origin of Witchcraft."
"No matter whose wife or mother she was before, I will kill her today."
Li Miao slowly tightened his fingers, crushing the heart into a pulp amidst the Miao King's painful screams.
"I won't ask you to uphold righteousness and destroy your family."
"But if you try to stop me from killing her... I wouldn't mind teaching you a lesson on behalf of Master Xing Chi."
With that, Li Miao withdrew his hand from the Miao King's body and then clenched it into a fist.
He punched the Miao King in the back!
"Pfft—"
Blood and minced meat gushed from the Miao King's mouth like a fountain. She flew high like a kite with a broken string and crashed into the pile of bones.
After a long while.
"Cough, cough."
She stood up from the sticky corpses, the large hole in her chest already healed. The Miao King raised her head, first glancing at Li Miao, then shifting her gaze to Yongjie.
"Ah, husband. You are so cruel."
Her tone was resentful, as if a woman was complaining to her husband.
Yongjie, however, couldn't help but shiver.
Hearing this, he finally confirmed that this was not his wife... definitely not.
The Ge Pu Qi of that year was a woman with a gentle and graceful appearance, but stronger than a man in her bones. If the situation were reversed and Yongjie had fallen into the demonic path, Ge Pu Qi would not have hesitated in the slightest. No matter how heartbroken she was, she would have directly struck to kill.
She would never speak in such a tone.
His wife was dead; now it was the Miao King wearing his wife's corpse, speaking to him.
"Benefactor An, step back, retreat into the cave."
Yongjie said hoarsely.
"Master."
An Ziyang frowned and called out.
"I have thought it through."
"What happens here does not involve the Ming Cult, and it has nothing to do with you. You should leave so as not to be caught in the crossfire."
Yongjie said.
An Ziyang thought for a moment. He had already said everything he needed to say. The subsequent events were not something a second-rate expert like him could get involved in. So, he slowly retreated as instructed.
In the pupa chamber, only Li Miao, the Miao King, and Yongjie remained.
"Benefactor, thank you."
Yongjie bowed to Li Miao.
Then he took a string of prayer beads from his wrist, plucked one, and put it into his mouth.
This was given to him by the sweeping monk in the Scripture Depository. It was also something every Shaolin Abbot carried with them—the "Great Tan Pill."
It was by taking this item that Xing Chi entered the Celestial Human Realm and fought against Ji Tianrui.
In an instant, Yongjie's genuine qi suddenly became heavy and stagnant. It flowed along his meridians into his bones and muscles, enveloping them. And Yongjie's skin also slowly became covered in a layer of gold.
After taking this item, although Yongjie would not die in three days like Xing Chi, his lifespan would be greatly reduced. But at the same time, he officially stepped into the Celestial Human Realm, gaining the qualification to participate in the battle between Li Miao and the Miao King.
His current "Vajra" was already stronger than the perfected "Vajra."
"Master, have you understood?"
Li Miao said.
"Yes, Benefactor."
"This matter, it is fitting for this monk to bring it to an end."
Yongjie said in a deep voice.
He clenched his fists tightly, his muscles and bones resonating with the sound of a tiger and leopard. His left fist was raised to his eye level, his right fist was held below his waist, his feet formed a T-shape, and his tiger-like eyes stared fixedly at the Miao King.
Yongjie said in a deep voice,
"The hatred of killing my wife, the vengeance of murdering my Master, and the lives lost in Tai'an City, the human lives piled up here."
"I am the Shaolin Abbot, a disciple of the 'Holy Monk' Xing Chi."
"Exterminating demons and defending the Dao, it is today."
The Miao King looked at Yongjie, a sinister smile appearing on her face.
"Husband, how cruel you are, to conspire with an outsider to kill your wife?"
"So be it."
"One unfathomably deep Three Paths Combined, one Shaolin secret Vajra."
"If I hesitate any longer, I'm afraid it won't do."
Before her words finished, Li Miao had already appeared before her.
His hands fluttered up and down like dancing butterflies, it was precisely "Leaf Removal."
Looking at the Miao King again, the right half of her body, from her shoulder to her fingertips, was already nothing but bare white bones. But she showed no reaction at all, merely sneering, driving the Witchcraft insects on her body to pounce towards Li Miao.
Li Miao's palm blade cut through the air, his genuine qi expanding, slicing the Witchcraft insects in mid-air. The foul blood splattered on the ground, hissing and instantly corroding a large hole.
And a thin layer of fascia had already grown on the Miao King's right arm.
She was truly difficult to kill, even more difficult than Wan Tianzong.
Almost every part of her body had been destroyed by Li Miao at least once.
Her body was no longer human.
To kill her, one still had to find the Witchcraft insect that the Miao King was parasitizing within her.