On the same night, Xie Tian was brought to the brothel's underground dungeon. The elder physician was also with him as he was responsible for Xie Tian's health.
"Stay there for tonight. Once we killed Jia Shan, our mistress will have a chat with you."
The warden sneered at the elder as she locked them behind the bars. The prison cell was humid and wet, which wasn't suitable to keep an injured patient.
"Haiz. I should have fled the sect," The elder lamented his fate. He gazed at the protagonist, who was still asleep, "You're an unlucky kid. What have you done to provoke these nasty girls?"
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Seven days and seven nights passed, but the Nine Fish Killing Formation of Jia Shan managed to hold against three 6th-stage cultivators and their siege arrays.
However, it came with a price. All formation masters ran out of essence from operating the formation for a week without rest. They also suffered minor injuries from the three masters' force, which slipped through the formation of barriers and hit them.
At the morning of the eighth day, the Nine Fish Killing Formation was broken. Yet, Xu Xiuying, Wei Huang, and Fu De stopped attacking.
They spent half of their essence to destroy the protective formation. They regretted that they were underprepared as they didn't bring array masters to battle against the Nine Fish Killing Formation. They had yet to fight against Jia Shan, but they were also half-spent.
Without a choice, the three masters retreated before Jia Shan came after them. They also withdrew their troops back to the outer sect perimeter, so they could recuperate.
At the villain alliance camp, the three masters rested in their perspective tents, absorbing energy from refined stones to replenish their qi and essence. Their subordinates guarded their master while they were recovering their strength.
Elite clansmen could only look around in nervousness after their masters retreated here. Their morale plummeted as they thought that they failed to siege the mountaintop.
Many guards gossiped about their masters.
"This is bad. Do you think Jia Shan and his men will attack us while our masters are resting?"
"I don't think so. We attacked them for 7 days without stopping. There should be some damages to their side."
"Right? Those array masters can't simply feed that spell forever. They must be exhausted, too."
"But… Jia Shan never appeared during the siege."
"…"
Opinions varied. The minority of clansmen still had high hope, but the majority of them already had negative thoughts.
None of them noticed that female clansmen from the Xu Clan and the silver phoenix sect had already packed their belongings. These women were leaving the battlefield at night.
Also, nobody realized that there were too many clansmen among the night guards. These extra men went around and started another gossiping topic.
"Do you know that the silver phoenix sect has already found Xie Tian?"
"Guys, I think the silver phoenix sect has already found Xie Tian."
"Those women have already secured Xie Tian. They've already brought him to their sect in secret."
The gossip was simple and direct. However, they were effective.
Nightguards began relaying words to their superiors, and those superiors reported their discovery to their clan leaders. It didn't take long for Wei Huang and Fu De to hear the rumor.
Although the rumor was baseless and there was no proof, Wei Huang sent his men to investigate Xu Xiuying's camp right away.
When they found out that Xu Xiuying was planning to withdraw her disciples and her subordinate elders, Wei Huang and Fu De were enraged.
Fu De immediately retreated back to the southern district. Meanwhile, Wei Huang lifted the siege and returned to his base in the west district as it was impossible to fight Jia Shan alone.
Just like that, the villain alliance was disbanded. Jia Shan and his sect survived the calamity.
…
Wei Huang might be frustrated by Xu Xiuying's betrayal, but he was still an elite tactician. Shamelessly, he texted to Jia Shan.
"You win. I wish to surrender. Please spare my clansmen."
Jia Shan was also an old fox. Since he successfully drove a wedge among the powerhouses, he capitalized on the momentum.
[Since nobody dies, I'll overlook this incident. However, you and your family members will be expelled from my sect and this city! Leave the mountain goose city within tomorrow, or I'll crush your clan myself!]
"Fair enough. Oh, by the way, was it you that spread the rumor?"
[No comment.]
Jia Shan blocked Wei Huang's MeChat account and cut the communication.
Wei Huang snickered. He could guess that Jia Shan intentionally leaked the intel and ruined their alliance. The oni lord didn't mind that he failed to overtake the mountain goose sect by force.
No matter if the silver phoenix sect had Xie Tian or not, it wouldn't change his goal. He knew Xu Xiuying since childhood that the succubus queen was a capitalist. Therefore, once she extracted Xie Tian's secret, she would immediately contact him to sell the information.
In summary, Wei Huang could leave the interrogation job to Xu Xiuying while he could concentrate on managing his clan and killing Jia Shan.
'Oh, well. It's not like I don't have another trump card. It's a waste of refined stones, but it can get the job done.'
…
Unaware of Wei Huang's stubborn ambition, the mountain goose elders celebrated for their victory. Although they failed to kill any elders or the alliance's leaders, they repelled the evil force that had threatened to destroy their precious sect.
Jia Shan also held a banquet to honor his array masters, who sacrificed their essence and energy for this war.
In the grand hall, over twenty elders were enjoying their spirit wines and food even though they didn't need to eat or drink to live anymore. They were savoring the glory.
"A toast to the brave masters!"
"To our elders!"
"Hahaha! Wei Huang and his clan can't do shit!"
Everybody let their guard down. They forgot about the hardship and the cruel reality while they were drinking.
On the other hand, Jian Meng, the right-hand man of Jia Shan, only had tea instead of wine. He gazed at his colleagues with a faint smile. Then, he turned to his sect master, who had already poured several liters of wine down his throat.
Jian Meng grinned. He took out a transparent bottle of tea, and he walked toward Jia Shan.
"Sect Master Jia, you've contributed a lot to the sect. Let me pour you a cup."
Jia Shan smiled and nodded. He had already drunk a lot, so there was no harm in drinking tea instead of alcohol, "Sure. A toast to you too, Elder Jian. Without you, I wouldn't be able to maintain this sect for this long."
"Hahaha. Cheers."
Jia Shan raised his cup and drank Jian Meng's tea. However, Jian Meng secretly replaced his cup with the tea to his spatial ring with a cup of water. Then, he drank the water instead.
Jian Meng returned to his seat, and he switched the previous tea bottle with a new one. The old one entered his spatial ring.
Five minutes later, Jia Shan frowned. He began to sweat and coughed.
At first, Jia Shan thought that he was drunk. But when he recalled that a 7th stage grandmaster like him couldn't get drunk, he circulated his spirit essence to check his body and his nascent soul.
Within a few seconds, he found the problem. Pathogen parasites had infiltrated his dantian and corrupted his essence.
These parasites were commonly known as essence eaters. One of the unorthodox sects, the Poison Pavilion, had cultivated these pathogen beings as they were odorless and tasteless. When they were mixed in tea or water, nobody could notice or sense them until the parasites had reached their dantians.
The essence eater parasites were harmless against low-level cultivators as their main food was any type of energy essence. However, if the host had condensed at least one essence, these parasites would consume the essence and multiply by a thousand per one essence. The more essence the host had, the faster these pathogens spread.
The host's blood would harden and block the bloodstream. Their Qi wouldn't listen to the owner and ran amok. In serious cases, these parasites would consume all essence and destroy their dantians, which would cripple their cultivation life forever.
In short, essence eater parasites could cripple Jia Shan if he couldn't find a cure within a few minutes!
"BASTARD!! WHO POISONED ME!?"
Jia Shan roared in frustration. He glared at everybody in the grand hall as he suspected all elders here. Because of his panic, Jia Shan couldn't recall or organize his thoughts.
All elders in the hall fell silent. They looked at Jia Shan in shock.
Jian Meng covered his mouth with his arm sleeves to hide his faint smile. He coughed, pretending to choke some food.
The complexion of Jia Shan worsened. His face lost color, and his lips whitened. The parasites already entered his muscle, bones, and skin. 50% of his essence was consumed, and he could no longer summon his persona aura.
"Sect master!" Jian Meng shouted and rushed to Jia Shan's side, "Hurry! Call the physicians!"
All elders in the room were panicked. Half of them rushed to Jia Shan's side while the rest ran out to find physician elders. The latter group even forgot that a few of the banquet participants were doctors.
Intoxicated and confused, the physicians in the grand hall failed to diagnose Jia Shan on time. It took them five minutes to scan through the sect master's dantian to find the source of poison.
It was too late. Jia Shan's life-long hard work was ruined because of a sinister tea from Jian Meng. The culprit tried his best to hide his killing intent and his smile while he touched his J-Phone.
Jian Meng texted to the oni lord.
'Wei Huang. It's done.'
[Good job. Now, control your colleagues for me. Once I return, convince everyone to surrender.]
'The contract is only Jia Shan. I'll have to charge you 100,000 refined stones for the job.'
[Your Poison Pavilion sure is stinky. I've already paid you 300,000 and you want more!?]
'No pay, no job.'
[Well, I'll pay. Be warned, though. The sect's treasury is mine.]
'I know. I won't touch your [Treasures].'
[Good. We have a deal.]
Jian Meng was, in fact, an agent from the Poison Pavilion, an evil sect from another province. He was hiding in the mountain goose province and working for Jia Shan per Wei Huang's request decades ago.
At first, it was only a spy job to learn Jia Shan's secret techniques and weaknesses. But yesterday, Wei Huang invested more refined stones to hire Jian Meng to assassinate the sect master.
The mission was a success. It was too late to cure Jia Shan, so the sword saint was now a crippled old man. Once Wei Huang brought back his forces, the sect would fall.
"Pfft!"
Meanwhile, Jia Shan vomited several mouthfuls of blood. Tears of anger and frustration rolled down on his cheek as he lost all cultivation base. He became nothing more but senile old man with exceptional swordsmanship experience.
Unable to accept the reality, Jia Shan fainted. All elders got more panicked and yelled in chaos.
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The next day
Wei Huang revisited the sect. However, he brought back his clansmen to attack the mountain without the help of Xu Xiuying or Fu De.
As promised, Jian Meng convinced all elders that they were no longer in a good shape to fight against a peak 6th stage master like Wei Huang. As Jia Shan was unconscious and crippled, nobody opposed Jian Meng's idea.
The mountain goose elders reluctantly surrendered to the Wei Clan.
Without resistance, the Wei Clan seized the mountain goose sect. Wei Huang became the new sect master by default.
Jia Shan might have won a battle, but Wei Huang won the war.
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