They were the heads of the Wuji Sect, the Iron Sword Sect, and others who had participated in the siege of the Swordsmanship-seeking Mountain. Following Ding Hao’s order, they paid a visit to beg for forgiveness.
“How dare you come!” A disciple of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect dressed in mourning clothes couldn’t suppress his anger any longer. He rushed over and kicked down the head of the Wuji Sect.
That was the man who had killed his senior brother, his blood brother, in the battle.
Another disciple of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect shouted angrily, “Murderer! Your hands are stained with the blood of our fellow disciples!”
Along the way, many disciples of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect reacted as they watched those people arriving. Anger welled up in them, and so did the urge to turn the men into meat paste but they held back. Those people had walked in with bare hands asking for punishment. They had to see them walk on their knees to the tombs of the deceased disciples and kowtow in front of the tombstones to ask for forgiveness.
They faced scolding and hostility all the way.
The bones on their knees and foreheads had already been exposed by the time the six men climbed to the Valiant Burial Ground of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect. They had left streaks of bloodstains behind them.
Not daring to fight back, they knelt in front of the pale yellow stone tablet.
Besides the top nine major sects, ten of the smaller ones had participated in the siege of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect that day. Ding Hao had killed two of the sect heads at the War God Square. However, only six heads of the remaining eight had showed up to beg for forgiveness. It seemed that there were still people who left everything to luck.
Ding Hao was also wearing white mourning clothes.
He smiled coldly and sensed that the positions of the two delinquent Sects had probably sought refuge at the Tranquility Academy.
In his heart, Ding Hao had decided on the fate of those two sects.
Ding Hao looked down at the six sect heads on their knees. He had the urge to kill them, but became a little hesitant when he saw the bloody streaks.
In this cruel world, oftentimes people had to act against their will. Some sects had participated in the battle because the Tranquility Academy had forced them to do so. In the past few days, he had sent people to carefully investigate this. The six sects that showed up had been half-forced to attack the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.
“Let Li Lan decide their fate!” Ding Hao decided not to wave his saber in the end.
But for some unknown reason, Li Lan had not appeared.
It was his parents’ funeral. He wouldn’t have been absent from such an important occasion.
Did something happen?
Ding Hao was a little anxious and was about to look for him. Suddenly, he heard people gasping behind him, and then there was a burst of exclamations as if something incredible had happened.
With surprise, Ding Hao turned around and suddenly froze on the spot, shocked by what he saw.
Under the golden sunlight, a woman in snow-white clothes was slowly approaching, parting the crowd.
It was a slender girl of snow-white skin and beautiful eyes. Her face was delicately flawless with indescribable exquisiteness. Her willow-leaf arched eyebrows in particular, they added an unrivaled charm. Dressed in white clothes, she was elegant, noble, and otherworldly. She walked quietly while the hem of her dress fluttered, like drifting white snow.
Ding Hao’s heart was racing.
It wasn’t because of the woman’s exquisite appearance.
It was because this woman in snow-white clothes looked so much like someone he knew.
She looked like Li Lan.
“Could it be…” Ding Hao’s lips were a little dry.
He thought of a possibility.
The shadow of a doubt that had been on his mind suddenly became clear at this moment.
The woman in white floated over like a cloud and stood quietly under the stone tablet. She knelt on the ground for a long time, tears streaming down her face. Then she got up and approached Li Jianyi and Luo Lan’s cenotaph behind the stone tablet. She knelt on the ground and finally burst into wailing, “Dad, mom…”
The anguished cry shocked everyone on the spot.
Ding Hao no longer had doubts in his heart.
That elegant woman with an exquisite face was Li Lan.
This discovery left his throat dry.
He thought of the time they had spent together and felt a little unsettled.
In the past, he and Li Lan had had abundant skin contact, and they had even spent the night in the same room. When he treated her in the Sage Battlefield, he had taken off her clothes…
At that time, Ding Hao did notice something unusual.
However, after more observations, he had found distinct male features in Li Lan, such as an Adam’s apple and a beard. Ding Hao had also noticed that Li Lan’s chest was flat, which had definitely not been tied up with a cloth, but…
But she was actually a girl.
At this time, when he looked again, Li Lan’s Adam’s apple and beard were nowhere to be seen. The skin of her red lips was flawless and fair. Her neck had the perfect line, like that of a swan. Those were features of feminity. Her bosom was slightly bulging, though it couldn’t be said it was ample.
She really was a woman.
Ding Hao couldn’t figure out how she had managed to disguise herself so perfectly in the past.
It might be reasonable for others to be deceived by this, but he had a natural and keen intuition, as well as acute observation skills for he had practiced the Mind Essential. No slight change could escape his eyes. However, he had never realized that Li Lan was a woman.
Li Yiruo, Zhang Fan, Ren Xiaoyao, and Ximen Qianxue were just as shocked.
Only Wang Juefeng seemed to have known the truth for a long time, so he wasn’t much surprised.
The cynical man glanced at Ding Hao. A hint of schadenfreude flashed in the depths of his eyes. If he had not been in such a solemn cemetery, he would have teased Ding Hao.
Ding Hao remembered the expression on Wang Juefeng’s face when he handed Li Lan a letter a few days before and realized something.
“Dad, mom…” Li Lan cried bitterly.
She had never shown such a fragile side before. It seemed that she had become weak after turning back to a girl. Her thin shoulders twitched slightly. Seeing that, the crowd couldn’t help but sympathize with her.
Ding Hao couldn’t contain himself anymore. He walked over and patted Li Lan’s shoulder to comfort her.
Li Lan wiped away the tears on her face and slowly stopped sobbing.
She kowtowed deeply in front of Li Jianyi and Luo Lan’s cenotaph, and then stood up. When she turned around, the sadness on her face had disappeared; instead, it was the terrible serenity before a volcanic eruption. Her willow eyebrows were curved, and her eyes were like ice and snow. As she looked around, there was a queen-like majesty spreading about.
At this moment, everyone felt the drastic change of this girl.
However, no one noticed—including Ding Hao—that the white shadow of the beautiful woman who had followed Li Lan like a ghost was approaching her little by little. She reached out a hand and gently touched Li Lan’s smooth forehead.
“Should they live or die? Xiaolan, it’s up to you,” Ding Hao said softly.
Li Lan nodded slightly. With a clang, she pulled out a snow-white sword from the sheath at her waist and approached the six men step by step. With a shake of her wrist, she stabbed out mercilessly with her long sword. The blade flashed like lightning. Blood splashed everywhere.
Ding Hao was stunned.
Li Lan chose not to kill those men.
Instead, she just destroyed their cultivation and tore away their Qi.
Li Lan said calmly, “From now on, you will guard the tomb in the Valiant Burial Ground. Use your life to atone for your sins here.” She shook off the blood on the edge of the blade and returned the sword to its sheath.
The six sect heads had escaped from death. Even though they had lost all their cultivation, they survived. It was something that they had not dared to think of before they went up the mountain. They had been prepared for torture and death, but then they were given the chance to spend the rest of their lives in that cemetery. The six of them quickly nodded and agreed.
“Good,” Golden Cicada sighed and said, “You can only gain when you let go. Benefactor Li has great wisdom.”
Li Lan looked back at the young handsome monk and smiled coldly.
After the incident at the cemetery, the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect had set a firm foothold.
In less than five days, the Battle of Frozen Peak would take place.
At this time, Snow Province was already in chaos.
The news came from outside that Mu Tianyang, the Child Prodigy, had finally returned to the Tranquility Academy.
The former first place of the younger generation in Snow Province had appeared by Mirror Lake for a brief moment before he disappeared from everyone’s sight and returned to the Tranquility Academy.
It was said that after the Saint Son of Falling Star had rushed to Mirror Lake as soon as he heard the news, to fight with Mu Tianyang.
Unfortunately, he was a little late, so he missed the chance.
“Humph, what a bullsh*t prodigy. In the face of our young master, he escaped with his tail between his legs!” The white-haired old servant next to Saint Son of Falling Star said insidiously, “The battle of Frozen Peak is a perfect stage to make a name. It belongs to our young master alone. By then, the whole Snow Province will surrender to his divine power!”
Over the past few days, the Saint Son of Falling Star had traveled around the Snow Province and challenged countless famous superiors, including more than a dozen of the famous characters of the older generation who were on the expert list of Snow Province. He had beaten all of them with a single move. As to those who had despised his vicious means and had fought or rebuked him, he had outright killed every member of their families.
The Saint Son of Falling Star, who had benefited from special encounters, stirred up a bloody storm in the Snow Province.
“Hahaha, in the battle of Frozen Peak, I will kill Ding Hao and Mu Tianyang with my own hands. The world will understand who is the real number one expert in Snow Province.” Saint Son Falling Star launched a killing spree and daunted the Falling Star Sect with his cruelty. He killed hundreds of disciples and became the new head of the Falling Star Sect when their sect head lost.
However, that sect was more like his plaything.
He never hesitated. After returning to Mirror Lake, he temporarily stayed there to return to his top shape and recover his Qi.
No one dared to ignore his words.
During this period, as Ding Hao had remained reclusive, Mu Tianyang was also cautious of his whereabouts. The Saint Son of Falling Star had made a name for himself due to all the killing and his display of incredible strength, shocking the world. Even the Holy Guard of Mysterious Frost was unwilling to confront him. They watched him kill many martial arts seniors in Snow Province but did not intervene.
