The two, who had just been on the verge of letting out a breath of relief, died without ever understanding why.
At that point Li Musheng's gaze shifted, coming to rest on the two courtesans in the hall with the highest martial cultivation, and he said suddenly, "One of you go to Hundred Refinements Peak right now and tell their Peak Master that I have killed his son. If he has the nerve to seek revenge, he can come find me here at the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion."
"The other goes to whatever the Ninth Peak is. Same message, just tell the truth."
As he spoke, Li Musheng pointed at the bodies of Zheng Zi and Yuwen Feng on the floor.
The courtesans who had been staying quietly in their corners throughout, too afraid to move rashly, now had their beautiful faces painted with expressions of terror.
The two courtesans Li Musheng had singled out looked around the hall with ashen faces, then steeled themselves to look at Li Musheng and ask, "Is young master truly willing to let the two of us leave?"
Li Musheng waved a hand, saying, "The martial world has too many grudges and entanglements to count. Who has done what wrong, and who truly deserves to die, is not easily said. But as long as you do what I have asked, I can not be bothered with you."
Hearing this, the two courtesans exchanged a glance, then carefully rose from the floor, saying, "We would not dare disobey young master's instructions. We will deliver your words without fail."
With that, both of them forced down the terror in their hearts, looked at Li Musheng once more, and then slowly walked out of the hall.
Fortunately, both were completely unharmed, and nothing had happened to either of them.
"What do we do now?" one of the women asked in a quietly rattled voice, and the other swept a quick look around the surroundings, her expression going through several rapid changes, then said, "Follow that young master's instructions first. There may be someone watching us from the shadows."
The first woman thought it over and then gave a slight nod. For the two of them, putting as much distance between themselves and the trouble at the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion as quickly as possible was the only sensible course.
Then without another word between them, the two hurried away.
The martial artists hidden within the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion did not dare to spy on or disturb whatever was going on in the hall with Zheng Zi and the others, and so even seeing the two courtesans leave, they did not dare to stop them or ask questions.
At the same time, Li Musheng glanced in the direction the two courtesans had gone and gave a satisfied nod.
Then he looked at the remaining courtesans in the hall, rubbed his chin, and said, "Telling you all to leave this life is a little outside my usual line of work, but the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion is clearly not going to survive tonight. If any of you want to run, now is the time."
Hearing this, the remaining six courtesans all blinked, seeming not entirely to have taken in what Li Musheng was saying.
In the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion they had always been playthings for Falling God Peak's disciples. Though they were called courtesans and appeared to have the right to choose their own patrons, they all answered to the madam's arrangements in reality.
They had long since grown accustomed to this, never daring to show any resistance or voice any complaint, only hoping to scrape by on the strength of their looks.
They had never allowed themselves to hope for escape from this kind of life, lived at others' pleasure and without any real choice, and they had never truly believed that the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion, backed by a colossus like Falling God Peak, could simply cease to exist.
All they had ever thought was that when they finally aged and were discarded without a second thought, they might have some small chance of leaving the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion then.
So in truth, from the bottom of their hearts, they did not believe Li Musheng's words. Even though he had killed Zheng Zi and the others, even though his martial strength was formidable enough to end their lives at will, they still did not believe he would come out ahead against Falling God Peak.
This was the fear that Falling God Peak had built up over countless years in the martial world, and it was branded into their bones as something they had simply always known.
Li Musheng had no idea what was going through the courtesans' minds, and he did not particularly care. He left a few words and then his figure blurred and disappeared from the hall.
In an instant, he appeared at the very top floor of the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion, sitting alone on the ridgeline of the roof, looking out over the whole of Hundred Refinements City below.
In the third-floor hall, the courtesans, seeing Li Musheng suddenly gone, stood frozen for a moment before coming back to themselves.
Startled and relieved in equal measure, they did not dare linger for even a moment, and scattered immediately out of the hall in a hurrying rush.
As this unfolded, the people hidden throughout the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion finally realized something was wrong. They seized several of the courtesans, learned what had happened, and immediately rushed into the hall.
Upon seeing the bodies of Zheng Zi and the others, they turned pale with shock and terror, and the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion erupted into chaos.
At that moment, Li Musheng sat on the roof of the building, entirely unconcerned with what was happening below. The small fish and shrimp held no interest for him. He was waiting for the big fish to come swimming into Hundred Refinements City.
...
At the same time, the hemp-robed elderly man carried the little girl in pink in one hand, his figure blurring as he moved at speed.
Behind them, two Falling God Peak elders kept up a relentless pursuit.
"This is a disaster. Why did both of them come after us? That insufferable man is back there facing a bunch of small fry and probably has it easy right now."
The little girl in pink, dangling as she was carried, squinted against the oncoming wind with an extremely irritated expression.
The hemp-robed elderly man let out a sigh, and it was unclear whether he was agreeing with the little girl or lamenting the soft warm hands of the courtesans he had left behind.
At that point the little girl in pink seemed to remember something and suddenly turned to fix her grandfather with an indignant glare, saying, "And you, behaving disgracefully at your age. We came to Falling God Peak for revenge. This journey is probably a one-way trip, and you still had the mind to go to that kind of place..."
But before she could finish, the hemp-robed elderly man gave a loud, deliberate cough that cut her off, saying, "Now is not the time for this. Quickly get out the Hundred Poisons Pill. I need to find the right moment to lay down a poison mist and stop them."
Hearing this, the little girl let out a cold snort, but she knew this was not the moment for anger.
Her small hand reached into the little pouch at her waist and rummaged around, producing a brilliantly colored poison pill.
Then she flung it fiercely at the two elders pursuing them from behind.
"The moment is not quite right yet... but... so be it."
Seeing this, the hemp-robed elderly man had no choice but to turn and drive a horizontal palm strike behind them.
In an instant, the darkness behind them seemed to be torn apart by a pair of invisible hands, and rolling True Qi from all directions surged backward in a massive current.
The air for more than a dozen yards above the street condensed into something almost physical, bricks and stones all around were lifted into the air and then blasted to powder, and the entire space seemed on the verge of being crushed and collapsed inward.
Under the force of the hemp-robed elderly man's horizontal palm, the poison pill the little girl had flung erupted violently, and a potent poison mist capable of corroding everything it touched reduced the street below to a pitted ruin, then engulfed the entire space above.
The two elders coming from behind had intended to protect themselves with their martial True Qi and push straight through, but the hemp-robed elderly man's palm had been extremely powerful, and the poison mist's ability to corrode martial True Qi made it a troublesome obstacle in its own right. The two had no choice but to deal with it as best they could for the moment.