Dongfang Badao watched the young man leave, then tossed a piece of the sticky cake into his mouth and handed the bag round to the others. He was a little hungry himself. Chewing, he said with some puzzlement, "Tell me, those three from the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect came all the way here just to eat? What is their game? Surely they did not come to this barren village in the back of beyond for a single meal?"

He could hardly be blamed for thinking so. Their first impression upon reaching West Star Mountain Village had been one of utter desolation. They found it hard to imagine what business the three ancestors of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect could possibly have in such a remote, backward place.

Could they be here to survey the terrain, intending to relocate the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect to these parts? Only ancient sects would choose a site in such an out-of-the-way spot, after all. Beyond that, Dongfang Badao truly could not conceive of a second possibility.

"Who knows? Still, remote as it is, it would do well enough for developing a sect. Could it be that the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect feels it has offended too many people and wants to move its headquarters here?" Chairman Qian Boguang of the Black Horse Association took the sticky cake, bit into it, then said with a frown.

"Who cares what they are doing? Let us go straight to them and settle accounts!" Zhong Yongliang was itching for action. He had been dead so long, and revived for some while now, yet he had never once left the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Cult. This was his first return to the jianghu, and naturally he could scarcely wait.

"Quite right, Mr. Zhong speaks truly. We are not tapeworms in the bellies of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect, so why concern ourselves with what they are about? Let us go straight to them and settle accounts," the Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable said at once, upon hearing Zhong Yongliang's words.

"That is so. Then let us be off!" Dongfang Badao nodded.

Together they walked toward Widow Wang's little grocery at the head of the village. At the sight of the ramshackle shop, every one of them frowned. The three ancestors of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect were men who had seen the world, and yet they would deign to eat in such a low-class place? Was there no end to the absurdity?

Nevertheless, they stepped inside. To their great delight, there at a table not far off sat the Bloody Garment Ancestor, the Yellow Springs Ancestor, and the Sinister Ancestor, the three ancestors of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect. Only, across from them sat one more person, whose business here they could not guess.

Naturally, they paid him no mind. What did it matter what he was about? An irrelevant bystander who dared meddle would simply be made an example of, that the chicken might be killed to frighten the monkey.

"Gentlemen, are you here to buy or to eat?" Widow Wang, seeing another great wave of finely dressed folk arrive, took them for companions of the Yellow Springs Ancestor and his party. She thought to herself that joy had truly come to roost on her branch today, and that she was about to make a fortune.

Chairman Qian Boguang of the Black Horse Association took the lead. He paid Widow Wang no heed at all; in his eyes she was much the same as an ant. His purpose here was to make an example of one, to strike down the Sinister Ancestor and force the remaining two ancestors into submission.

In truth, from a personal standpoint, Qian Boguang was hardly the one most wronged by the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect. As for the Grand Elder who had died, Qian Boguang had never thought much of him. The man, resting on his seniority and the fact that he had been the first of the older generation to reach the peak of the late Heaven Rank, full perfection of strength, had looked down on Qian Boguang, the chairman, and even after Qian Boguang himself ascended to the peak of the late Heaven Rank, full perfection of strength, the old thing had still treated him with utter indifference.

To be fair, back when his strength had been inferior, Qian Boguang had simply endured it. After all, though he was chairman, in the world of cultivation strength commanded respect, so it was tolerable that the man ignored his orders. But now he too was a master at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, full perfection of strength, and for the other to keep up such an attitude—that was a problem.

And so, the man's death was merely a death. From Qian Boguang's view, his passing saved everyone further aggravation.

From the Black Horse Association's standpoint, however, it would not do. The man was, after all, a master at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, full perfection of strength, a pillar and mainstay of the Black Horse Association. His death dealt a considerable blow to the association's overall strength.

And there was one thing more: the one who had slain this Grand Elder was a man of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect. By rights, the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect and the Black Horse Association were both ancient sects that took a man's money and spared him his calamity, alike in nature; and since their business did not conflict, they had always held one another in mutual esteem, each keeping to its own side of the fence. Now that the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect had been the first to break the rules, how could Qian Boguang not be furious?

So the grudge was great indeed. Today he must slay the Sinister Ancestor with his own hand to restore the Black Horse Association's face; otherwise he had been chairman for nothing.

"Eh? Gentlemen, what are you—" Widow Wang looked at the men filing in, all with dark, grim faces, and her heart gave a lurch. These people—could it be they were not here to eat, but to wreck the place? Yet she ran only a tiny mountain shop and had never offended anyone. Why would they come to wreck it?

"Stay out of the way. We are here to settle accounts with someone; this is no affair of yours," Dongfang Badao said coldly, with a glance at Widow Wang, his tone overbearing.

"Ah? Looking for someone?" Widow Wang started. In this room, apart from Old Man Wei, there were only those three dressed much like these newcomers. Could it be they had come for those three? A fine pair of troublemakers they were! But they must not drag Dr. Lin into it. If anything happened to Dr. Lin, who would treat the sick folk of these ten miles and eight villages?

Yet anxious as she was, these men were plainly here with ill intent, and Widow Wang dared not say more. She could only cough twice as a warning, hoping Old Man Wei would hurry away. Let these people do as they pleased; if they smashed up her little shop, she would count it her bad luck.

"Bloody Garment, Yellow Springs, Sinister—you never expected this, did you? You fled so far, and still we found you," the Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable said with a cold snort, turning his gaze to the only occupied table in the shop. "There is no use in hiding. We have come today to avenge our fallen brothers. The Pure Yin Heavenly Venerable died at your hands, did he not?"

"Our Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect takes a man's money and spares him his calamity; that has always been our rule," the Bloody Garment Ancestor said mildly. "If all those dead men had harbored thoughts like yours, we should never have taken up this trade at all."

"Ha? Take a man's money and spare him his calamity?" Qian Boguang of the Black Horse Association was at once amused. "Bloody Garment, I say you have not grasped the situation. The Black Horse Association plies this trade as well, yet we know our own limits—we know which money may be earned and which may not. You, though, are a remarkable lot! Even our Grand Elder you dared to slay. Do you fancy your Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect to be so very formidable? Who gave you the gall to do such a thing? Do you perchance have some mighty patron at your back?"