Chapter 416: Big Changes

Xue Tong was wholly unafraid when faced with this scene. He laughed coldly, “It seems that the Hall of Healing really has changed hands?”

“Kid, who are you?” The associate’s eyes were sinister as they shone with a violent light.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. I just ask you, where’s Jiang Zheng? Where’s Song Tianxing? Where have Ying Wuyou and the others all gone?”

Xue Tong possessed a decent temper and didn’t fly off the handle despite being surrounded.

“Hmph, you ask too many questions. Take him!” The associate gave the order with a wave of his hand.

When the cultivators heard the order, they all rushed over and swung their weapons, wanting to trample Xue Tong into the ground.

Xue Tong was surprised to see that these were all advanced true qi realm cultivators. When did the Hall of Healing start spending money so easily?

The Eastern Kingdom was just a third rate kingdom.

Someone of the advanced realm of true qi was at the strength of a duke.

When had the Hall of Healing’s ordinary cultivators reach the advanced realm of true qi? Anything out of the ordinary was always to be suspected, so Xue Tong knew immediately that an enormous change had occurred in the Hall of Healing.

However, how would Xue Tong, one who’d set foot in the spirit realm, think anything of these true qi realm cultivators? He snorted lowly and brandished his sleeves, sending out a ripple of spirit qi. It grew into great waves, sending the cultivators who were charging flying backwards.

Xue Tong floated next to the door with a flash of his body. His gaze was cold as he looked towards the associate. “This matter is far from over. If anything’s happened to Jiang Zheng or Song Tianxing, all of you can wait for your heads to hit the ground!”

Xue Tong had only come to gather intelligence and hadn’t received authorization for anything else. Therefore, he didn’t start a fight and decided to leave.

A light huff sounded from within the Hall of Healing just as he’d made it outside the door.

A current of awe-inspiring sword qi screamed through the air.

Spirit qi along with a thick sense of killing intent. A spirit realm cultivator had made their move!

Xue Tong was greatly taken aback. When had a spirit realm expert appeared in the Hall of Healing?

He spun to the side to evade this fierce blow as he protected his vitals with a sweep of the Da Yu bow.

Suddenly, a few figures dashed out from the Hall of Healing as they whoosh whoosh whooshed to the courtyard in front of the Hall of Healing, encircling Xue Tong.

There were four figures, and all of them small spirit realm cultivators.

Xue Tong gaze flicked from one to another, noting their trap formation.

His face grew cold. “What? You plan on killing someone in broad daylight?”

One of the silver armor clad cultivators laughed coldly, “You were the one who didn’t recognize the situation you were in. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for having a fat mouth. Kill him!”

The four spirit realm cultivators formed a circle formation in a breath, surging forward and slicing through the air with their swords.

Xue Tong however, felt greatly reassured with the Da Yu bow in hand.

He gave a clear whistle and a golden shadow broke through the air. It was the Goldwing Swordbird that Xue Tong had ridden on. Its sharp claws made a grasping motion and flung two vicious beams of light at two cultivators.

If any of them were caught by these clawing motions, they would certainly be ripped to pieces.

The two under attack knew the strength behind those beams of light as their swords danced, defending themselves with all their strength.

The Da Yu bow emitted popping sounds that burst through the air as Xue Tong waved it. Air currents shot out of the bow as if silk, slicing down towards the last two cultivators.

One would always end up worse off when fighting two against four.

Xue Tong used one move to force two opponents back and then whistled lowly before crouching. He shot straight up into the sky, intending to land on the Goldwing Swordbird.

“The kid’s getting away, kill him!”

The four cultivators discovered Xue Tong’s intentions and rose into the air before the Goldwing Swordbird could soar away, sending their attacks in midair.

After landing on the Goldwing Swordbird, Xue Tong’s heart felt greatly settled.

He brandished the Da Yu bow and pulled out two arrows.

He shot them in quick succession, sending them drilling straight towards the two pouncing on him with impressive momentum.

Whoosh!

Their two bodies hung in the air as they hadn’t anticipated the speed of Xue Tong’s arrows.

Neither of them reacted in time as the two arrows connected with audible sounds. However, the arrows had landed in their thighs and hadn’t hit any vitals. The two behind Xue Tong drew rainbow arcs in the air with their swords, cleaving through the air towards Xue Tong.

Although the Goldwing Swordbird shot forward, the air current from their swords were faster as they carved bloody gashes into his back with soft sounds.

Xue Tong only felt his body grew cold as blood spurted out of his wounds. It was a good thing that the Goldwing Swordbird’s forward motion had negated much of the force behind the attack. So although he’d been hurt, he hadn’t been split open.

Even so, Xue Tong knew that today wasn’t the day to stay and fight. He gave his steed its head and broke through the clouds.

The four cultivators could only look dumbly at the vanishing golden dot in the air, dejected and regretful beyond belief. It had been four against one, but they hadn’t succeeded!

The silver armor clad cultivator frowned, “Go in and report to the supervisor. This person is of unknown origins, and will likely end up getting in our way.”

Two of them hauled their injured comrades and walked inside.

…...

When a bloody Xue Tong appeared in the inn, Jiang Chen’s expression immediately darkened.

“Young master, your subordinate was inept and couldn’t complete what you’d requested of me.” Xue Tong had a look of chagrin on his face.

Jiang Chen suddenly stood up with a thick sense of killing intent on his face. “The Hall of Healing dared make a move against you? When did Song Tianxing become so bold?”

“It wasn’t Song Tianxing.” Xue Tong smiled ruefully. “It looks like everything’s changed in the Hall of Healing. Song Tianxing, Yin Wuyou, and steward Jiang Zheng are no longer there. A group of complete strangers look like they’re in charge of the Hall of Healing.”

“What?” Jiang Chen was completely taken aback.

The Hall of Healing was the Eastern Kingdom’s representative organization, why had they suddenly changed owners for no reason at all?

“Come, let’s go take a look.”

Jiang Chen wasn’t the sort who liked to start trouble, but he wasn’t afraid of it either, particularly when the other had laid hands on Xue Tong without so much as a by-your-leave. That was no different from them taking action against Jiang Chen.

Even if the trouble had been from the original lord hallmaster Song Tianxing’s hand, that wouldn’t have been acceptable either, not to mention those new owners who seemed to be in charge now!

And speaking of which, why had the Hall of Healing just suddenly upped and swapped out owners like this? There was definitely something afoot here.

Jiang Chen didn’t care about Song Tianxing and the others, but Jiang Zheng was his old steward and confidante. He was someone marked by Jiang Chen, and now that he’d gone missing for seemingly no reason, Jiang Chen would absolutely not sit idly by.

Gouyu also returned from the palace as they were speaking.

“Young master.” Gouyu looked like she had something to say, but stopped.

“What is it?” Jiang Chen’s brow furrowed slightly. Judging from Gouyu’s expression, there was indeed something that she found difficult to speak of.

“I just returned to the palace and saw Zhiruo, as well as the king Eastern Lin.”

“How were they?”

Embers of rage smoldered subtly in Gouyu’s eyes, “Much has happened in the Eastern Kingdom in this half year. The Eastern ancestor emerged from closed door cultivation, but was killed within the capital by an unknown assailant. The Hall of Healing was taken over an an unknown force a few months ago. They said that Song Tianxing and the other senior executives had sold the Hall of Healing to them for an astronomical price and given the organization over to them.”

“The Eastern clan ancestor was killed?” Jiang Chen was also surprised by these words.

Gouyu didn’t have many feelings for the ancestor of the Eastern clan. When the Long family had rebelled, this so-called ancestor had remained in closed door cultivation. Gouyu now thought that the ancestor had likely been afraid of the Purple Sun Sect backing Long Juxue, and so had used closed door cultivation as an excuse to avoid disaster.

Now that he’d been killed, she didn’t mourn at all.

However, that someone had dared kill an Eastern clan ancestor in the Eastern Kingdom was simply too cocky, and they’d seized the Hall of Healing to boot!

Jiang Chen gaze snapped back to Gouyu, sensing she wasn’t quite done yet.

“What else is there? Let’s hear it all.”

Gouyu sighed lightly and looked at Jiang Chen, “The royal family received this news not too long ago either… your Jiang family in the Jiang Han territory.. in the course of a night…”

“What?” Jiang Chen’s heart sank. Although he didn’t have many emotional ties to the Jiang family, that didn’t mean just anyone could bully them.

“The Jiang family was razed to the ground over the course of a night and has become ruins.”

“What?!” A frosty layer covered Jiang Chen’s face in a heartbeat. “Where are the people? Are they all dead?”

“Almost all dead. There are a few core Jiang family members whose bodies we couldn’t find, but the ordinary members, including the servants, were all buried in the ruins.”

Bam!

Jiang Chen slammed a fist viciously onto the table.

This was eradicating his clan!

“Do you know who did it?” Jiang Chen controlled his emotions with great effort as he asked sternly.

“We don’t have any concrete intelligence for now. The news of the Jiang family’s destruction has been cordoned off. However, from the feedback of those who were on scene, it seemed that those who destroyed the Jiang clan were looking for something. The surroundings had been thoroughly turned over.”

It no longer mattered what the reason for this atrocity was.

The important thing was, the Jiang family clan had been annihilated!

Although Jiang Chen had no emotional ties to it, and he and his father had long since drawn lines separating themselves, it was still the Jiang family.

Jiang Chen knew that if his father knew of the Jiang family clan being exterminated, he would be absolutely heartbroken.

“Come, we go to the Hall of Healing!”

Despite the many thoughts running through his mind, he was well aware that he would have to start off with the Hall of Healing first. He had an intuition that all this had much to do with the change in ownership at the Hall of Healing.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Countless streaks of golden light flashed through the skies above the Hall of Healing. The golden light surrounded the upper skies of the Hall of Healing within a few breaths.

“Xue Tong, you stay here and control the Goldwing Swordbirds, encircle the entire structure. From now on, people can only enter and not leave. Kill anyone who leaves!”

The flames of Jiang Chen’s desire to kill had been stoked to new heights.

“Gouyu, follow me down.” Jiang Chen instructed.

“Yes.”

Huang’er had been tagging along behind Gouyu and thus said without thinking, “I’ll accompany Sir Jiang down as well.”

Huang’er had spent quite some time in the Hall of Healing and had some feelings for it. When she heard that something had happened, she felt she couldn’t sit idly by either.

The Hall of Healing was as if facing an enormous enemy. The entire area had been on high alert following Xue Tong’s departure. When Jiang Chen and the two others landed, cultivators rushed out en masse and surrounded the Hall of Healing inside and out.

“Who dares trespass on the Hall of Healing!”

Jiang Chen’s gaze grew cold. “I only ask one question. Is Song Tianxing still in charge of the Hall of Healing?”

“Song Tianxing? Haha! People and matters of days gone by! Piss the hell off right now if you recognize the situation you’re in! The Hall of Healing isn’t the same Hall as before. No matter how great your background, you’re dead without a doubt for offending the Hall!

Jiang Chen revealed a frosty smile upon hearing this. “Then this is indeed not Song Tianxing’s Hall of Healing anymore? Then you lot are invading robbers! Since you wanted to be a robber, then you surely were prepared to die!”

Jiang Chen ignored the hundreds of people in front of him as he spoke, completely sidelined the sharp blades, swords, spears, and axes as he slowly advanced forward.

His powerful aura increased by ten percent with every step, slowly crushing down on the door like an enormous mountain.