Chapter 2301 — Returning to the Sect

"What! Tagan Long is injured?" The Second Protector was startled by what Lazi said and blurted out, "We're heading back at once!"

"Understood!" Lazi hung up and made straight for the border town. He had to flee this place overnight, no matter what! Luggage and the like—he needed none of it. He had an account at a Swiss bank; as long as the money was there, that was all that mattered.

When the Second Protector took the call, the Third Protector and the Twelfth Elder were both listening at his side, and when they heard that Tagan Long had been wounded by "Zhang Naipao," their expressions darkened at once!

"This Zhang Naipao was playing at luring the tiger from the mountain!" the Third Protector said bitterly. "We all assumed he would surely flee, so we searched the whole street for him—and never expected him to strike straight back into the heart of the Tagan clan and wound Tagan Long!"

"That brat certainly has the nerve!" The Twelfth Elder frowned. "But I know Tagan Long's strength. Zhang Naipao is only Earth-Rank mid-stage; he and Tagan Long should be evenly matched. How could he have been beaten so badly?"

"Who knows? And how did Zhang Naipao even learn where the Tagan clan is, let alone find Tagan Long?" The Second Protector was puzzled as well.

"Never mind all that—we go back and see for ourselves!" The Twelfth Elder was worried sick over Tagan Long's safety. Though the man was a scion of the Tagan clan, he mattered even more to the Twelfth Elder, for that place—his own sect—had placed great hopes on Tagan Long. If anything were to happen to him, the grand plan would be thrown into ruin...

By then, Wei Zhao had long since gone. At his speed, even if the Twelfth Elder, the Second Protector, and the Third Protector hurried back, they could never have run into him. Wei Zhao had already carried the Heavenly Thunder Pig out of Ruileida Town, borrowed momentum off the river, and leapt back over to the border town...

At the Tagan clan estate, the Twelfth Elder caught sight of Tagan Long in Tagan Gan's arms and took him at once, laying his hand upon the young man's pulse—and the moment he felt it, his brows knitted tight!

The pulse was in chaos, true qi running wild, and many meridians severed! For a condition like this, ordinary Lesser Restoration Pills and Meridian-Clearing Pills were useless. The elixirs the Twelfth Elder carried could no longer save Tagan Long!

His face turned ashen at once, and he cursed Zhang Naipao to the depths of his heart. Where had this creature come from? To actually pull off a trick of luring the tiger from the mountain, then double back into the Tagan clan and wound Tagan Long—had it been anyone else, it might have been forgiven, but the one he struck was Tagan Long...

"What exactly happened here?" the Twelfth Elder asked, his face dark.

"I don't know either..." Tagan Gan looked rather awkward; faced with the Twelfth Elder's question, he truly had no answer. By the time he arrived, Tagan Long had already been wounded by Wei Zhao, the culprit had fled, and he had not even caught a glimpse of the man's face. "I was in seclusion when I sensed violent fluctuations of true qi, as though someone was fighting inside the Tagan clan. Once I confirmed it, I came out—but I was still one step too late..."

"I will notify the Sixth Senior Brother. We must take Tagan Long back to the sect at once! Any delay and I fear it will be too late!" Having gotten nothing useful out of him, the Twelfth Elder did not care to press further. Even knowing why Zhang Naipao had come, or how, no longer mattered. What mattered now was how to make Tagan Long whole again!

With that, the Twelfth Elder fished out a slip of paper, wrote down the situation here, bound it to the leg of a flying spirit beast, and released it. That done, he pressed his fingers to Tagan Long's pulse and channeled some true qi into him, barely sustaining the young man's life.

Fortunately, Tagan Long's constitution was rather special, and the Twelfth Elder was his senior fellow disciple from the same sect, cultivating one of the very arts Tagan Long practiced, so his true qi met no resistance inside the young man's body. Still, the Twelfth Elder's true qi had no healing properties; it could only keep him alive.

The Sixth Elder had been up in the mountains searching for Sun Jingyan, and had not expected to receive first one message by flying spirit beast and then another. Could Sun Jingyan have come down the mountain as well?

Taking the note from the beast's leg and reading it, the Sixth Elder's face turned hideous at once!

Tagan Long injured? After descending the mountain, Zhang Naipao had not fled, but had instead detoured into the heart of the Tagan clan and wounded Tagan Long?

Staring at the contents of the note, the Sixth Elder's head swam. How could this be? This Zhang Naipao was far too brazen!

"Zhang Naipao, if anything happens to Tagan Long, the Master will wipe out your entire clan to the ninth degree!" the Sixth Elder snarled. Heedless now of searching for Sun Jingyan, he flew down the mountain at top speed and raced toward the Tagan clan...

At the Tagan clan, when the Sixth Elder saw Tagan Long beside the Twelfth Elder, his heart lurched. Even by the naked eye the injuries were grave—graver than he had imagined!

"Sixth Senior Brother, you're back! We must return to the sect at once and bring Tagan Long before the Master. His injuries are severe, and perhaps only the Master will have a way!" the Twelfth Elder said hurriedly upon seeing him.

"Good!" The Sixth Elder nodded, yet hesitated. "That precious treasure—and Zhang Naipao and the others—we're not going after them anymore?"

"None of that... none of it can compare to Tagan Long. If something happens to him and the Master's grand plan is ruined, then you and I will be the ones to blame!" the Twelfth Elder said.

"You're right. Then we set out tonight!" the Sixth Elder said.

Though neither Tagan Gan nor Tagan Hao wanted the Sixth Elder and the Twelfth Elder to leave, they knew that once these two went, the Tagan clan's strength would plummet. The Grand Protector was already dead; if the Sixth Elder and the Twelfth Elder left as well, the strongest left in the Tagan clan would be the Old Ancestor, Tagan Gan, who could no longer remain in seclusion and would have to emerge to hold the clan together—and that was not what he had hoped for.

But they also knew they could not stand in the way, and they feared all the more for Tagan Long's injuries. So Tagan Hao decided on the spot: "Someone, ready the carriage! See Master Six and Master Twelve off!"

"No need—a carriage is too slow." The Sixth Elder waved a hand. He and the Twelfth Elder were both Heaven-Rank experts; at full speed they would be far faster than any carriage, and they could take shortcuts instead of being confined to the roads.

"Very well..." Tagan Hao nodded and said no more. He watched as the Sixth Elder took Tagan Long on his back and vanished with the Twelfth Elder, one after the other, into the Tagan clan's courtyard—and only then did he let out a long sigh.

For the fastest updates, read without pop-ups at.