The four main gates of the Sunset Sector slowly creaked open, and immediately, hundreds of martial artists from the allied sectors and clans—led by the four spies—poured in, surging toward the main conference hall.
A panicked guard rushed into the hall. "Chief Yuan, Chief Yuan, we are under attack by the seven sects!"
Yuan Yu dropped his wine cup, shattering it on the floor. His face contorted with rage. "What? How dare they attack us! Lead the disciples to defend the gate!"
Before they could mobilize, another guard at the front door screamed "Chief Yuan!" before collapsing. The chiefs of the seven attacking sectors strode into the hall.
Jia Jin glared at the Sunset Chief. "Demon Yuan, today your life ends here!"
Yuan Yu, even facing overwhelming odds, sneered. "Jia Jin, you sure know how to plant your mole. The seven sects are a whole bunch of pathetic, useless men afraid to fight me man to man. How pitiful is it?"
Jia Jin simply said, "We will see who has the last laugh."
Jia Jin flew forward, and Yuan Yu met him mid-air. The battle began instantly, with the rest of the martial artists in the conference hall joining the chaos.
Yuan Yu roared over the fighting, prioritizing the sect's survival. "The five of you are in charge of leading the rest of the people out of here. You five lead the people out of here now!"
The five remaining tigers of the Sunset Sector—Wen Biyu, Lao Tang, Yuan Dai, Fan Gen, and Yang Chao—smashed through the door and guided the sector's women and children into the corridors.
Yuan Dai shouted, "See you at the back door!"
However, as the five tigers led the women and children toward the back exit, they were ambushed by another group of martial artists waiting in the corridors.
The five tigers prepared to fight, but as they tried to channel their strength, they discovered a chilling reality: their internal energy began to drain.
Wen Biyu frantically sent her red thread needles toward the ambushing martial artists. As she withdrew the needles, she choked, spitting out a mouthful of black blood.
Lao Tang rushed toward her. "Meimei!"
Gasping, Wen Biyu stammered, "I... I'm poisoned!"
Lao Tang instantly felt a cough rip through his own chest, and he too spat blood. "Let's go back!" he gasped, before letting out a wry chuckle. "I'm also poisoned. As a yisheng, being poisoned is the most shameful way to die."
A figure emerged from the dark corridor: Cao Zhihan, one of the spies. "It's not ashamed at all. It just proves that you died in our hands. It should be very honorable."
Wang Yang appeared, gloating. "Tonight, I want to thank you all for being the test subjects of my latest creation."
Lao Tang, despite his weakening state, was defiant. "Don't speak too soon!" He fumbled into his inner robe for his golden acupuncture needles and took a determined step toward Wen Biyu. But a sharp, crippling pain shot through his right calf, forcing him to his knees. "You!" he gasped, recognizing the culprit.
Yuan Dai stood over him, holding a hidden weapon. "I'm sorry, Lao Tang."
Wen Biyu, in a desperate surge of strength, rushed forward and slammed a heavy punch into Yuan Dai's right shoulder before helping Lao Tang up. She vomited more blood.
She glared at her brother, her voice harsh with agony and betrayal. "Why?"
Yuan Dai looked back, his expression a mixture of fear and calculated relief. "I don't want to be in a demon clan anymore."
Lao Tang's face contorted with madness. "Because of this, you helped them destroy everything we worked so hard to build!" He spat squarely on Yuan Dai's face. With a final, desperate burst of energy, Lao Tang pierced Wen Biyu's right shoulder with his four golden needles—a shocking, painful way to deliver an emergency burst of internal strength—and shoved her away. "Run!" He wrapped his arms around Yuan Dai, holding him in a death grip.
Yuan Dai violently tore himself free, then quickly pushed the sacrificing Lao Tang straight toward Cao Zhihan and Wang Yang. Cao Zhihan drew her sword and plunged it directly into Lao Tang's chest. Yuan Dai then lunged forward, blocking Wen Biyu's escape path.
Wen Biyu, her own body riddled with poison, pleaded with furious disdain. "So, the price paid by those losers is higher than our brotherhood. If you still have a trace of humanity, please get out of my way!"
Yuan Dai's face was hard with self-justification. "Meimei, you can't escape. Surrender. Don't blame me. Blame da ge."
Wen Biyu smirked, the irony of his cowardice fueling her defiance. "I will never surrender. Why Yuan Dai, when it was clearly your doing? It is the lowest of the lowest to pass the blame responsibility to others."
Yuan Dai, enraged, finally revealed his bitter motive. "I should be ranked second and the one next to take over the leadership seat! Why give the leadership seat to people who are not Yuan surnamed?"
"You knew all along that Chief Yuan would appoint Huangming as his successor?"
"Yes," Yuan Dai admitted.
Wen Biyu spat the word. "Coward."
Yuan Dai swung his sword. Wen Biyu hurriedly jumped back, her left foot accidentally stepping onto Lao Tang's soft body. She spun around and saw Lao Tang lying dead on the ground.
"Lao Tang… Ah…" Her grief instantly transformed into vengeful rage. She wildly loosened her red threads at Cao Zhihan and Wang Yang. As the two recoiled, Yuan Dai slammed his fist into her back. The treacherous punch sent Wen Biyu crashing down onto her knees, where she vomited a fresh mouthful of blood. She slowly collapsed, lying down next to Lao Tang.
She painfully stretched out her hand and grasped Lao Tang's cold one. "Lao ge…"
Yuan Dai showed no mercy. He waved his sword and pierced Wen Biyu's abdomen, then slowly pulled the blade out, and pierced her abdomen again, extinguishing her life alongside her fallen brother's.
Cao Zhihan noticed a small sheepskin scroll sticking out of Wen Biyu's robe. She reached out, snatched it, and read the title written on the old, tightly-bound scroll: "Red Thread Needle Manual."
Wang Yang looked at the triumphant traitor. "Yuan-xiong, what is this?"
Yuan Dai seemed to take pride in the sect he had just helped destroy. "There are six of us. I have nothing special besides sharing the same family line as Yuan Yu, but the five leaders that Yuan Yu had chosen are not ordinary." He shook his head contemptuously at the invading martial artists. "If tonight the four of you had not put poison in the wine and food, you would never be able to defeat Yuan Yu's four leaders."
Wang Yang looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"
Yuan Dai listed their true power. "Yuan Yu's leaders are rare. Zan Huangming's title is Killer Strings. Everyone knows him. But beside him, there is Wen Biyu, the Red Thread Needle Princess. Fan Gen, the Butterfly Swords Master. Yang Chao, the Devil Fist Lord, and Lao Tang, the Silver Leaf Wanderer." He looked at Lao Tang, suddenly suspicious. "This is not right; Lao Tang shouldn't be killed so easily."
The moment Yuan Dai finished speaking, Lao Tang—who had been lying motionless—suddenly sprang to his feet and flew toward Yuan Dai, sending a single silver leaf flying at his head. Yuan Dai narrowly dodged the attack.
Lao Tang vaulted over Yuan Dai, spinning in the air, and sent out four silver leaves straight at the three spies. Two leaves struck Yuan Dai, and the other two pierced Wang Yang and Cao Zhihan. Lao Tang's right arm dropped, and three silver leaves fell back into his hand.
Lao Tang smirked, spitting blood. "If you are brave enough… come forward."
Rao Zimo and Gu Kexin stepped out from the shadows, flanking the remaining Sunset leaders. Rao Zimo aimed his weapon at the remaining leader, Fan Gen. "Put down your weapons, or they will die."
Rao Zimo then moved in front of Yang Chao. "Drop it."
Yang Chao, spitting blood, ignored him, his eyes fixed on Lao Tang. "Lao di, kill them. They killed all the women and children!" He looked at the bodies of his fallen sister, Wen Biyu. "Wen meimei."
Lao Tang vomited more blood and fell to his knees. Gu Kexin swiftly placed her sword against his neck. Cao Zhihan, opportunistic even in the chaos, stuffed the stolen Red Thread Needle Manual into her robe. Rao Zimo grabbed Fan Gen, threatening him.
Yang Chao, knowing the end was near, cried out to Lao Tang. "You promised!"
Lao Tang sent his last silver leaf flying at his brother. Yuan Dai shouted, "Stop that leaf!" But Yuan Dai was too slow. Lao Tang's silver leaf pierced directly through Yang Chao's heart and exited through his left shoulder, killing him instantly and piercing three disciples standing behind him.
Lao Tang collapsed, murmuring, "Yang ge, I'm sorry."
Yang Chao's final breath was, "Thank you." He slowly fell to the ground, freed from the poison and the shame.
Wang Yang, reeling from the poison, asked, "Why?"
Yuan Dai, still able to speak, explained his mercy. "He is the only person that stands a chance to kill Zan Huangming."
Wang Yang, obsessed with the spoils, quickly searched Yang Chao's robes and found nothing. "Where is his manual?"
Yuan Dai pointed. "On his back."
Fan Gen roared in heartbroken fury. "Yuan Dai, you traitor! How can you do this? Da ge is your cousin!"
Yuan Dai screamed back, his voice cracked with resentment. "If he treats me as his cousin... I should be the next one to take over the leadership seat! Not someone outside the family line!"
Wang Yang flipped Yang Chao's body over and stripped off his robe, revealing the tattooed Devil Fist Manual on his back. Lao Tang, forced to watch, spat. "What are you doing?"
Wang Yang ignored him, pulling out a knife and beginning to peel the skin off Yang Chao's flesh.
Fan Gen shrieked. "Don't touch his body!" The disciples quickly subdued and dragged the screaming Fan Gen and the collapsing Lao Tang away.
Yuan Dai, seeing the mission accomplished, spoke to his co-conspirators. "You have killed them; you can now pull your people out of Sunset Sect."
Wang Yang looked at the other three spies, his smirk cold. "We are here to eliminate the demonic clan, why should we pull our people out?"
Yuan Dai was stunned. "That is not what we agreed on!"
Rao Zimo delivered the final, humiliating truth. "Yuan Dai, do you know that one iron rod can be bent easily? A hundred iron rods tied together are unbendable?"
Gu Kexin rubbed salt in the wound. "You voluntarily climbed onto the tiger's back. We did not put you on the tiger's back."
"You deceived me!" Yuan Dai cried.
The four young martial artists laughed cruelly. Cao Zhihan scoffed. "No wonder Yuan Yu didn't choose you as the next leader. How could such a pathetic person become a great chief of Sunset Sect?"
Rao Zimo raised his sword. "Should we kill him?"
The four youth drew their swords on the desperate traitor. Yuan Dai instantly threw four daggers at them and vanished into the dark corridor.
Rao Zimo hesitated. "Should we chase him?"
Wang Yang stopped them, satisfied with their haul. "We got what we came for. Let's pull out and leave the seven sectors to deal with them. If Yuan Dai dare to speak, he knows that the survivors of Sunset Sect would come for him." They began to retreat, leaving the Sunset Sect to be destroyed by the allied armies.
Down the corridor, Yuan Dai ran desperately. Along the way, he saw the horrifying casualties of the night: dead members of the Sunset Sect lying piled atop one another. He searched frantically for survivors, especially Yuan Zixin, until the early hours of the morning.
At dawn, he spotted Yuan Zixin, covered in blood and weeping uncontrollably. Yuan Dai rushed over and grabbed him.
"Father…" Yuan Zixin sobbed.
Yuan Dai quickly wiped the blood from the boy's face, clutched his hand, and rushed back toward the main conference hall.
Inside the ravaged conference hall, the heavily injured Yuan Yu was still locked in a desperate battle with Jia Jin and the chief of the six allied sects.
A chief from the attackers, Lin Gengxi, shouted upon seeing the new arrivals. "There is the co-leader Yuan Dai!"
Ning Weibang pointed a sword at the traitor. "Kill him!"
The chief of the six sectors immediately surged toward Yuan Dai and Yuan Zixin. Suddenly, a deafening blast of powerful internal energy ripped through the conference hall, smashing into the attackers and sending the six sector leaders flying backward.
Zan Huangming stood at the entrance, his eyes blazing with cold fury. He glared at them and issued a chilling ultimatum. "Scram or die."
Ning Weibang, scrambling to his feet, gasped in terror. "Zan Huangming...The Killer String Master..."