Chapter 4598 — Escape from Death

Ma Dangfeng's thinking at that moment was this: he was bound for South Island one way or another this time, so even if he killed Lu Bianren it would not matter—he would simply treat it as lying low abroad.

"Speak up! Why so tongue-tied? Or have you too decided that Pavilion Master Shangguan is blind and bleary, so blind that he picked a worthless piece of trash?" Ma Dangfeng's hand clamped down until Lu Bianren's tongue was forced out of his mouth. He knew perfectly well that the man could not utter a word, yet he felt a rare delight at it—rage could not be held in; it had to be vented this way.

The assembled disciples of the Azure Cloud Pavilion watched this scene from a distance and could not help sweating for Lu Bianren, yet not one of them dared step forward. Lu Bianren was by all accounts an amiable man, and they would not have minded doing him a small kindness—but what faced them now was a freak like Ma Dangfeng, beyond the reckoning of common sense, and they were better off keeping far away lest the fire catch their own coats.

Lu Bianren was filled with utter desolation. To be strangled to death in the Azure Cloud Pavilion before so many eyes, with no one from first to last daring to step forward and stop it—the world's coldness had reached such a depth that it chilled him to the bone, plunging him in despair. And then, all at once, a young girl's voice rang out: "Who says my grandfather is blind?"

With the words came a round, plump little bear appearing before the crowd, its mistress Shangguan Lan'er following behind.

"Greetings, Miss Shangguan!" The Azure Cloud Pavilion disciples watching from the sidelines started in alarm and hastened to bow in unison with cupped hands. She might be the little princess of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion, but even Yu Zhenyang, Pavilion Master of the Azure Cloud, deferred to her with more courtesy than rank required—let alone ordinary disciples such as themselves.

At Shangguan Lan'er's sudden appearance, even the swaggering, eye-over-the-shoulder Ma Dangfeng could not help starting in alarm. For all his lip service about Shangguan Tianxia being blind, as though he did not hold the Soaring Heaven Pavilion Master in any regard at all, if such words ever reached the man's ears, Ma Dangfeng would be frightened until he wet himself.

A top-tier new champion of the Nascent Soul stage—fine, the title did sound impressive. Yet before Shangguan Tianxia he was not worth so much as an ant. The man need not stir a single finger; he had only to open his golden mouth and name a name once, and Ma Dangfeng would not live to see the next day. This he knew perfectly well in his own heart.

Seeing Shangguan Lan'er's pretty face turn cold as she fixed her eyes on him, Ma Dangfeng's heart lurched. What he had said just now had been purely because rage had risen to his head—and of course, had only these Azure Cloud disciples heard it, that alone would have been no great matter; the words could never have reached Shangguan Tianxia's own ears.

But the problem was that Shangguan Lan'er had now heard them clear and true—and she was Shangguan Tianxia's own granddaughter. If she went home and repeated the words, how would Shangguan Tianxia react?

At that thought, cold sweat broke out over Ma Dangfeng at once, and he wished he could slap his own mouth twice on the spot. This time it truly was disaster from the tongue—why had he, in the momentary relish of it, forgotten to keep a door on his mouth?

"For the second time. Who was it that just said my grandfather is blind? Step forward this instant, and know that I will not repeat the same words a third time. When I do not, it will not be I who comes to question you—it will be your Pavilion Master Yu!" Shangguan Lan'er went on, her face still cold. Shangguan Tianxia was her only kin; she would never suffer anyone to show him disrespect, let alone slander him in public.

Every eye in the place swung, as one, onto Ma Dangfeng, and his face turned blue and purple in turns, almost the equal of Lu Bianren's at that moment.

Facing Shangguan Lan'er's deathly, murderous glare, Ma Dangfeng knew there was no dodging it, and could only screw up his courage and put on a placating smile: "Miss Shangguan, you must have misheard. Pavilion Master Shangguan is wise and martial, with a eye that sees all things clear—that is what everyone up and down North Island is singing his praises for. And the Lord Gongyang of the Enforcement Hall stands as a ready example, a pearl already before us. Who would ever say Pavilion Master Shangguan is blind? That would be staring wide-eyed and spouting nonsense—only someone whose brains had been kicked in by a donkey!"

"Is that so?" Shangguan Lan'er glanced at him, then turned to the crowd: "Did he say the same thing just now? It doesn't sound that way to me."

At this the Azure Cloud disciples looked at Ma Dangfeng with hesitation, and seeing the creature glaring ferociously at them all the while, drawing a finger across his throat in threat, they shrank back one by one and shook their heads weakly: "We... we didn't hear clearly..."

They feared Shangguan Lan'er, to be sure, but they feared Ma Dangfeng more. After all, however exalted Shangguan Lan'er's station, she was of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion and would never have dealings with the likes of them—whereas Ma Dangfeng was the second senior brother and steward of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's inner court. If they dared speak the truth now, then even if Ma Dangfeng later fell on hard times, he would first take a savage revenge on them before that fall came. They could not risk such a thing.

"Didn't hear clearly? So many of you, and not one heard clearly?" At the sight of these Azure Cloud disciples cowering, Shangguan Lan'er was at once furious; then her eyes darted and she suddenly pointed at Lu Bianren: "You were closest to this creature—you tell me!"

Lu Bianren was still gripped in Ma Dangfeng's hand, on the verge of fainting and wholly unable to move. Hearing Shangguan Lan'er's words, Ma Dangfeng clamped down even harder, terrified that Lu Bianren would say something to his harm, and at once meant to kill the man to seal his mouth—and, at the same time, to serve those present as a bloody warning.

"Are you not going to put him down? Let me make it plain in advance: if there is anything at all wrong with him, you will answer for silencing him with murder!" Shangguan Lan'er said coldly, and even as she spoke, Little Juanjuan the bear had already darted forward ahead of her, scrambling up Ma Dangfeng's body, pulling and dragging itself up, and then sank its teeth with a chomp into the hand that held Lu Bianren.

Ah! Ma Dangfeng gave a howl of pain; in his agony his grip loosened and he flung Lu Bianren aside.

Little Juanjuan the bear—do not be fooled by its low cultivation, looking like nothing more than a pet that trades on its cuteness; that is only a disguise. The destructive power of the Juanjuan bear clan ranks among the very first of all spirit beasts, and though Little Juanjuan was far from full grown, it was born with a fine set of teeth that could grind even spirit jade to bits. Ma Dangfeng might be a skilled hand of the Nascent Soul stage, but he was still flesh and blood, and of course he could not withstand such a bite.

And so Lu Bianren, suffocating for so long, was at last set free, snatched back from the jaws of death, and lay sprawled to one side in a sorry state, gasping great gulps of air. (To be continued) R466