Ren Baqian was waiting anxiously in the mountain, and it was impossible not to worry. But, he could only move his fingers at this moment, so what else could he do?

After waiting for at least eight to ten hours, Ren Baqian finally saw a red shadow appearing in front of him.

The empress at this moment, was in a very sorry state. The red muslin dress with a white s.h.i.+rt beneath was torn and stained with blood. Fresh blood was still dripping from her waist and shoulders. Her face was pale and the trace of blood at the corner of her mouth was not wiped clean.

"Zixiao!" Ren Baqian was shocked to see the empress in this condition, he felt as if he was being stabbed by a knife.

In his eyes, the empress was always majestic looking and since when did she look like that? Since when did she land herself in such a sorry state?

Who did she do it for?

He was wrestling with his thoughts and wasn't able to say anything at this moment. The matter of the antidote was also thrown to the back of his mind.

"Open your mouth!" The empress stood in front of him and said. She had a pill, which was about the size of a longan in her hand and threw the rest of the boxes onto the ground.

Seeing Ren Baqian in a daze, the empress forced open his mouth and popped the pill in. It almost got stuck in his throat and choked him to death. Seeing him unable to breathe, she pounded his back to get the pill out and then promptly stuffed it into his mouth again.

With great difficulty, Ren Baqian finally managed to chew and swallow the pill as the empress poured a mouthful of water from the water bag into his mouth.

As the empress always behaved this way, Ren Baqian did not complain about her almost choking him to death. This was a small matter and not comparable to what she had done for him.

"Are your injuries serious?" Ren Baqian finally asked.

"During this month I will only have thirty percent of my power, but even with this level of power, no one can withstand me." The empress was forever full of confidence.

"However, I am hungry now." The empress changed her tone.

The battles that she just went through had taken a heavy toll on her body and resulted in intense hunger.

Aboriginals needed a large amount of food or medicine to replenish their qi and blood.

Ren Baqian tried to move his fingers, but still, he couldn't move them.

The empress looked at him and said, "The medicine will take some time to take effect. I will look for something to eat."

Ren Baqian nodded his head, the antidote was not an elixir and naturally did not take effect instantly. He looked on as the empress left again.

After the empress's departure, Ren Baqian tried to move his body from time to time. But ultimately, he still was unable to move at all. Right at the time when he was doubting whether the medicine brought back by the injured empress could really work, he felt his shoulders twisting about.

This made Ren Baqian immediately ecstatic.

Although it was just a slight wrenching movement in his shoulders, he was extremely excited as he hadn't been able to move for more than ten days. As such, he was extremely attuned to any small changes at the moment.

This showed that the antidote was real.

Following the movement of his shoulders, his hands, arms, and calves started to move as well.

By the time his waist could move, he felt himself coming to life again.

Ren Baqian held on to Qi Shui, who was at the side as he tried to stand up, but his body was rusty from inactivity for more than ten days. His joints were creaking, and his legs were like jelly. He felt as though he was getting old in advance and to recover he needed to move about more.

While Ren Baqian was moving about, the empress came back with meat wrapped in oil-paper, which exuded nice aroma.

Seeing that Ren Baqian was cautiously moving about, a happy expression appeared on the empress's face.

She had finally saved him.

This brought out the greatest joy in her.

"Zixiao!" Ren Baqian looked at her with joy and happiness.

The empress suppressed her joy, held up the meat wrapped in oil paper and offered, "Do you want to eat?"

Her voice was clear and a lot less cold.

"Alright." Ren Baqian nodded his head in delight. As to how the meat was obtained, he wasn't interested. In any case, the empress certainly didn't carry any money with her.

The empress indeed came back with a lot of meat, and even wine. Ren Baqian only ate a bit and quietly looked at her while she was eating, as if he could never see enough of her.

"It has been hard on you," Ren Baqian said sincerely. He didn't say thanks as there was no meaning in saying it right now.

The empress swallowed one mouthful of wine and said, "You better not lie to me in future or I will kill you."

Ren Baqian laughed nonstop after hearing this, annoying the empress a little as she felt this rascal was getting more and more impudent.

It took awhile for Ren Baqian to stop laughing. Then, he looked at the empress and said in an earnest tone, "There is no need for you to intervene when the time comes."

The empress kept mum and ignored him.

The meat and wine took quite a while for the empress to finish. Only when she felt no longer felt that hungry, she then said, "We better get moving—two people ran away just now and the news will spread. We have to leave Great Xia before they respond to the situation"

Earlier, five people ran away, but the empress caught up and killed three of them. The other two went into hiding, and the empress didn't bother to look for them.

...

One day after the two of them had left, a group of people gathered outside the col where the Nine Pavilions was located and among them, was a young man in his thirties wearing a brocade robe.

Although the Nine Pavilion was feared by many, they still had some dealings with the outside. Otherwise, the Lian Family wouldn't have been able to obtain Torment.

This convoy was at the Nine Pavilions for a reason.

However, they were shocked when they reached the mountain pa.s.s and everyone paled.

Below, countless bodies could been seen lying around haphazardly, and almost all the buildings near the Nine Pavilion's archway had already collapsed.

"What's happened here?" Everyone was shocked. Did someone aggressively attack the Nine Pavilions? How was that possible? And who had the guts to do so?

More importantly, the Nine Pavilions was like a haunted house with no sound or movement inside.

The last time they were here, not only were there many disciples, there were also many domestic animals. But this time, even a bug couldn't be found.

Everyone stood at the mountain pa.s.s and momentarily was unsure of whether to advance or retreat. They thought of going forward to take a look but were afraid the enemies might still be inside.

After waiting for over one hour and hearing no sound coming from inside, the crowd was emboldened to go inside.

The man wearing the brocade robe led the way, and the further he went inside, the more shocked he was. It was because the dead bodies of the Nine Pavilion's disciples were lying all over the place.

Soon enough, they discovered that all these people were all poisoned to death.

The Nine Pavilions was famous for using poison, which poison specialist in this world could actually kill all the disciples of the Nine Pavilions with poison?

What about Hua Sanliu? The rest of the eight pavilion masters?

Even if ordinary disciples might be poisoned to death, but was it possible to poison these few people to death?

Until he saw a corpse with half a body, he froze immediately.

This corpse only had the upper chest and head, but he had seen this face before. It was Hua Sanliu, who was the fifth most powerful expert in the world.

Previously, he had only seen him twice from afar. At that time, he seemed so mighty. How did he die so tragically over here?

If even Hua Sanliu died here, were the rest of the pavilion masters also dead? Otherwise, why wasn't there a single soul to clean this place up?

He had a sudden thought which was scary to behold. If this information spread, it would shake the whole world.

The Nine Pavilions was actually decimated by someone.

Soon after, he had another thought. Since the Nine Pavilions was decimated, were the a.s.sets and various secret manuals that were acc.u.mulated over the past few hundred years still over here?

As he thought of this, his heart was consumed by fire, and he raised his head to look at the nine high towers with a gaze full of fury.

However, when he reached the entrance of the village, one person beside him suddenly fell to the ground, followed by a second and a third person. He suddenly thought of something, was the poison still around?

As he was about to rush out to leave, his whole body fell to the ground after running a short distance.

Yes, although already more than one day had pa.s.sed, there was still remnants of sarin gas in the air and the residue remained attached on the corpses.

Naturally, they were contaminated by the poison when examined the corpses earlier on.

Only those that stayed behind at the mountain pa.s.s were spared. Several people rushed to take the man away, but he was already foaming at the mouth and was dead.

Upon seeing this, the rest of the people hurriedly ran out of the mountain.

Following their departure, the news that the Nine Pavilions was totally destroyed spread quickly and countless people gathered outside the mountain in the short span of two days.

The two disciples who managed to run away, thought of coming back after a few days to take a look and to take all the secret manuals and ancient records away. Therefore, they hadn't announced the news of Qi Zixiao coming to Great Xia.

They didn't dare to come near here for a period of time, and hence, other people discovered this matter.

It was only at this time that they learned from the two disciples that the Dayao empress, Qi Zixiao, came personally to the Nine Pavilions and defeated Hua Sanliu. In addition, they didn't know what poison was used to kill the other eight pavilion masters as well as all of the other disciples.

Everyone was shocked!

Subsequently, the entire world was in shock too!

Numerous flying pigeons were used to spread the news within two short days in Great Xia, and then spread to the entire world.

Numerous people spread the news by word of mouth and countless people were stunned by the fact that the Nine Pavilions was destroyed. More people speculated on the power of Qi Zixiao. After all, since she could defeat Hua Sanliu, she should be ranked as the fifth most powerful expert in the world.

Even more people speculated on what type of poison Qi Zixiao used as it killed up to thousands of people in the Nine Pavilions within a short time. This also included the eight pavilion masters.

n.o.body ever knew that the Dayao empress, the seventh most powerful expert in the world, Qi Zixiao, was actually a poison expert.

Her status, her display of power, and the methods she displayed shocked the world greatly.

At the same time, the border was also getting ready their soldiers and horses. Countless of experts were dispatched. No matter what, Qi Zixiao must be contained and not allowed to return to Dayao.

According to rumors, Qi Zixiao was seriously injured at the moment.