Chapter 1: Deadly Poisonous Kill

At midnight, Seven Star Village was so quiet it seemed as if no sound could be heard at all, but if one listened closely, there seemed to be faint noises lingering in the air.

The sound of fighting drifted in, starting from somewhere very far away, and then, slowly, it grew closer and closer.

Yun Ling narrowed her eyes and looked up at tonight's moon. The moonlight was beautiful and the moon was full, hanging over Seven Star Lake with a clear, cold brilliance, quiet and ethereal.

A slight breeze stirred the waters of Seven Star Lake. Yun Ling narrowed her eyes again and gazed toward the other side of the lake; she could faintly discern two figures engaged in a violent struggle. One was dressed in dark red clothes with a slender build, appearing to be a young man, while the other was clad entirely in black.

Yun Ling did not like black.

The sounds of combat drew nearer. As if they had not expected anyone else to appear at this time and hour, both parties froze in momentary shock. In that very instant of hesitation, the man in black was the first to react; he let out a sudden, cold laugh and unleashed a palm strike directly toward Yun Ling's position!

Water instantly splashed everywhere, but Yun Ling was no longer in her original position!

She was in the water, silently holding her breath. After the man in black struck, the man in the dark red clothes had actually attempted to counter with a palm strike of his own, but he was a step too late. His palm wind could only shield Yun Ling a little. It felt as though every bone in Yun Ling's body had been displaced; it was painful and numb. She moved extremely slowly through the water, and after a few movements, she came to a halt.

"Despicable!" the man in red hissed in a low voice. His body flipped down from the air, landing as gracefully as an immortal upon the very spot where Yun Ling had just been standing. His gaze was heavy, as if he were searching for something.

The Sect Master of the Heavenly Mystery Sect let out three cackling laughs and suddenly let out a whistle. Instantly, violent, strong winds whipped across the surface of Seven Star Lake. Over a dozen pitch-black figures swept rapidly across the water, and Yun Ling's submerged figure became visible and then obscured.

A few nearly invisible bubbles rose to the surface of the water beneath her feet. A cold light flashed in the red-clad man's eyes; before the men in black could reach him, his body suddenly surged upward to meet them. The Jinghong Sword in his hand whirled through the air, spinning out countless silver-white sword flowers. Those dazzling sword forms intertwined among the dozen or so men in black, sometimes as fleeting as a startled rainbow, sometimes as fluid as a roaming dragon. That figure, soaring up and down, was like an immortal from the highest heavens, dancing gracefully amidst the mountains, forests, and water.

An Mei was surrounded by over a dozen experts, already fighting enemies from both front and back, and just as Lu Qianxi, the Sect Master of the Thousand Machine Sect—who was originally his equal—launched a sudden attack at this moment, Yun Ling had no time to cry out before she saw the man in black strike a vicious palm toward the red-clad man's crown!

Immediately following this, the dozen or so men in black exerted their strength all at once. After a series of heart-trembling *puf-puf-puf* sounds, the red-clad man's slender figure suddenly plummeted from the air, and the Jinghong Sword in his hand was snatched away by a man in black as his arms fell helplessly at his sides.

The man in red crashed onto the solid ground. Hearing the heavy thud, the group of men in black, perhaps not feeling secure, chased after him after he hit the ground and unleashed several more palm strikes, each one landing solidly on the red-clad man's body.

"The famous An Mei is nothing more than this!" the Thousand Machine Sect Master laughed loudly, then led his subordinates away arrogantly.

Yun Ling struggled to climb to the surface of the water. The man was already lying motionless on the ground. She reached out and probed several of the man's major acupoints, and suddenly, a look of joy appeared on her face: he still had one breath left!

She looked up at the position of the moon. There was still half a *shichen* until the hour of the Rat, and within this half *shichen*, the man before her could lose his final breath at any moment!

"Eighth Sister!" Yun Ling cried out toward the sky.