Chapter 147 — The Alliance
劍問蒼天 · Page 7 of 8
Fortunately, however, at this critical juncture Qin Wujiu had at last, relying on the strange arts passed down by the Venom God and the combined use of five deadly poisons—among them the "Seven-Tailed Centipede"—forcibly purged that eerie blood-devouring force from his body. And this momentous matter had occurred only a few days before. Qin Wujiu was deep of mind and had kept the secret all along, knowing well that he was now the target of all, and so he willingly endured in silence.
His patience was soon rewarded. His three senior brothers—Fan Xiong, Cheng Wuya, and Duan Rushan—who had joined forces and formed an alliance to seize the seat of sect master, discovered that this junior brother they had most feared was in fact a half-crippled man, riddled with internal injuries and chronic illness. Moreover, he had most sincerely declared that although their master on his deathbed had indeed passed the seat to him, he himself had no desire whatsoever to occupy it, and had there and then handed over the sect master's seal, placing it before the Venom God's spirit tablet and stating that only the one who became sect master could claim it. With that, the alliance of the Venom God's three heirs swiftly began to fracture and crumble.
The masters, retainers, and disciples of the Venom Sect were now split into three factions. The faction led by Baiduzi stood with the eldest senior brother, Fan Xiong. The Blood-Sucking Old Demon, who in years past had harbored the grudge of a murdered disciple against Zhang Qingyue, together with his friend the Ancestor Duanmu, stood behind the second, Cheng Wuya. As for the remaining third, Duan Rushan—though his cultivation ranked lowest among the Venom God's four disciples, the man had always been shrewd and scheming, and had long plotted in secret; at present his power was temporarily the greatest, for he had drawn over many of the Venom Sect's old monsters who had not emerged in years, and nearly half the sect's disciples stood on his side.
And now, in Snake Valley, it was the final day of the rites for the Venom God's seventh-day mourning. News of the Venom God's death had already spread, and the mourning hall was a forest of white banners, yet one could scarcely hear a sob or two. Most of the Venom Sect disciples wore white silk bands on their heads and hempen garments on their bodies, yet not a trace of grief or pain showed on their faces. On the contrary, many glared angrily, locked in confrontation with those of another faction. Had it not been for the last shred of face owed to the mourning hall, this place would long since have become a martial hall rather than a mourning hall.
The Venom God's four disciples, all in deep mourning garb, knelt before the assembly. But apart from Qin Wujiu, the other three kowtowed only three times before rising and stepping to one side, and behind each of them stood many others, facing one another in confrontation. Countless gazes drifted, deliberately or not, to the offering table before the coffin in the mourning hall, where rested a small green box inscribed with four characters—
The Venom God's Seal.
It was the seal that since ancient times only the sect master of the Venom Sect could possess.
On the offering table were arranged fruits and the three sacrificial beasts, and before the table on the ground stood a bronze basin with a burning flame. After kowtowing, Qin Wujiu—unlike his three senior brothers—knelt silently to one side, took up paper money, and placed it sheet by sheet into the bronze basin, burning it for the dead. His three senior brothers did not look at him directly; after all, whichever of them ultimately became sect master, this cripple would not escape a poisoned death.
Their attention was fixed, rather, on that small box.