"Oh? Young Hero Fang is quite well-connected, to even know Sect Leader Gu?"

Fang Shuwen shrank back slightly. He couldn’t shake the feeling that Yu Yaoguang’s tone was odd—almost dangerous.

Gu Panxi, however, just sneered.

"You killed Monk Jilian... you ruined... you ruined my Flower Moon Technique, preventing it from reaching its peak..."

"Otherwise, just now... just now, Yu Yaoguang would have surely died..."

Hearing her words, Fang Shuwen suddenly recalled something.

Back when he was hunting the Vermilion Bird Hall Master, he had been on a boat with Miao Feichan and encountered people from the Flower Moon Sect and the Joyful Zen Temple.

That young monk had a Lotus Ornament on his forehead, which was quite distinctive.

But what left a deeper impression on Fang Shuwen was the monk’s Inner Strength. It was far beyond ordinary.

Yet, there was a considerable gap between that and the abilities he actually displayed.

’Could it be that this monk and Gu Panxi have some kind of connection?’

But the thought was fleeting, and he paid it no mind.

’What if they have a connection? What if they don’t?’

’One is dead, and the other is about to be. Why waste any more thought on it?’

He raised a palm, about to strike her dead, when he suddenly heard a sharp shout.

"Stop!!"

The voice came from his side. Fang Shuwen paid it no heed, but unexpectedly, someone flew through the air and landed right in front of Gu Panxi.

Fang Shuwen’s palm strike landed, hitting the person square in the chest.

A closer look revealed it was a monk.

A monk from the Joyful Zen Temple.

’No idea where he popped out from...’

But people had been emerging from the various doorways all this time, so a monk from the Joyful Zen Temple appearing wasn’t that strange.

The monk was now leaning against Gu Panxi, seemingly trying to say something, but she didn’t even glance at him. She just popped an Elixir Pill from her hand into her mouth.

Fang Shuwen had one of those Elixir Pills on him as well. Jue Tong, the monk from the Joyful Zen Temple, had wanted to eat one before he died... but Fang Shuwen had stopped him.

Although Gu Panxi had been talking to Fang Shuwen, she had kept the Elixir Pill hidden in her palm the whole time.

She just hadn’t gotten the chance to take it.

Unexpectedly, the intervening monk had bought her a precious opportunity.

The Elixir Pill went down, and an instantaneous blood-red light flashed from Gu Panxi’s hands.

A series of CRACKS and POPS echoed from her bones and sinews. The woman suddenly leaped up from the ground, shaking the monk off her. She sent him flying toward Fang Shuwen with a kick to the waist.

Fang Shuwen’s Palm Technique flickered, and with a Mountain Splitting strike, he sliced the monk in two mid-air.

Gu Panxi’s figure shot through the monk’s bisected corpse, her palm striking straight for Fang Shuwen’s heart.

Fang Shuwen’s right hand formed a seal as he simultaneously unleashed a Demon-Suppressing Seal.

A deafening BANG was heard.

The palm strike didn’t sound like it hit a person. Instead, it was as if it had struck some enormous piece of metal, producing the resonant clang of a great bell.

However, Gu Panxi’s entire body was sent flying backward.

The blow was powerful, and combined with the fact that Gu Panxi’s physique had been altered by the Elixir Pill...

...her body uncontrollably smashed through wall after wall.

She finally came to a stop after flying seventy or eighty feet, crashing through more than ten walls along the way.

At the same time, there were people where she landed.

The wall suddenly shattered, revealing a person, and someone immediately cried out in alarm:

"Who’s there?"

But someone soon recognized her:

"It’s the Sect Leader!!"

It was a woman’s voice, tinged with pleasant surprise.

But her joy was short-lived. Fang Shuwen was looking at the hole, about to give chase, when he heard a sudden WHOOSH.

Something had been thrown out. A closer look revealed a pale-faced, terrified woman.

Fang Shuwen had no inclination to be gentle with a beautiful woman. Besides, he could tell from their words that this woman was from the Flower Moon Sect.

He immediately sent her flying with a backhand slap. The woman died on the spot without so much as a grunt.

But then a second, and a third, came flying out.

This time it was two monks. Their large, bald heads cut through the air. Fang Shuwen first grabbed one monk by his bald head, then, holding on, swung him around and smashed him directly into the second monk.

The two figures were slammed against the wall.

A fierce gust of wind suddenly arose. This time, it wasn’t an ordinary disciple of the Flower Moon Sect or Joyful Zen Temple who came at him.

Presumably, although Gu Panxi’s eyes were blood-red and she had lost her mind, she knew this tactic was utterly useless.

She attacked herself.

Fang Shuwen was suddenly curious about her current state. He dodged two of her palm strikes, then casually slapped her across the face.

"Say something."

A guttural roar was his only response.

’Fang Shuwen suddenly felt that Jue Tong really didn’t have anything good on him.’

’The Elixir Pill he’d pinned his hopes on before death was just a Stupid Pill.’

’After taking it, she can’t even speak like a human anymore.’

Since that was the case, Fang Shuwen stopped investigating. With a shake of his arms, he blocked Gu Panxi’s Palm Technique, reached out, and slammed her head down with a dull THUD.

He pinned her entire body to the ground with sheer brute force.

Pinning her head with one hand, he mercilessly rained down blows with the other, as fast and furious as a downpour on banana leaves.

Just hearing the impacts made the pupils of the surrounding spectators shrink, their hearts filled with dread.

Some even wanted to flee the scene, no longer caring about fighting for the Seven-String Ancient Chapter or the Eight Trigrams Treasure Box.

But they didn’t dare...

Lin Fan had just left. If they left now, would Fang Shuwen think they were going after him?

’What if he got angry and killed us on a whim? What then?’

And so, despite their fear, they could only remain obediently where they were.

The newcomers, especially, watched dumbfounded. Only after asking around did they learn that this was the Demon Evil God, brutally beating the Sect Leader of the Flower Moon Sect. At that, their spirits were instantly roused.

Shui Qianliu, meanwhile, instinctively covered Shui Qianrou’s eyes.

"Don’t look..."

Only Yu Yaoguang watched with great relish, practically on the verge of cheering Fang Shuwen on.

After seven or eight consecutive palm strikes, Gu Panxi’s chest caved in and twisted grotesquely, despite the physique granted to her by the Elixir Pill.

Even the blood-red glow in her eyes was beaten out of her.

Her lost sanity returned. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

She struggled to speak in the gaps between Fang Shuwen’s palm strikes.

"Please... stop... your... hand..."

Fang Shuwen heard her, nodded, and then slammed a palm down on her Celestial Spirit.

A generation’s Sect Leader of the Flower Moon Sect had thus fallen.

Fang Shuwen then spoke softly.

"This Elixir Pill is quite something. It can actually enhance a person’s physique to this degree?"

"Where did it come from?"

This last sentence was not to himself, but a question.

His gaze shifted, and he saw a middle-aged man in his forties, dressed in white. He was cradling a sword, having silently taken a seat on a high platform on the sunny side at some unknown point.

The one Fang Shuwen was asking was him—Ye Wucheng!