If he really killed the boy in a fit of pique, the sect master would most likely view him as someone who was unable to see the bigger picture. Even if his hopes of breaking into the Foundation Stage weren’t smothered completely, there would assuredly be punishment, perhaps in the form of delaying his opportunity by ten or twenty years. By then, he would be between forty and fifty years old, and he would no longer be considered as one of the most talented youths of the Chufung Kingdom.
Furthermore, his uncle had advised him earlier about the boy’s relationship with Bai Qianzhang. Although Fang Xing might not have inherited anything from Bai Qianzhang on the surface, no one besides the two of them would know the truth. Bai Qianzhang had also only just recently entered his seclusion and nobody knew whether he was alive or dead, and it would be nothing but trouble if his own actions caused Bai Qianzhang to end his seclusion early. If such a thing happened, let alone himself, not even his uncle would be able to handle a Golden Core Stage cultivator’s burning anger.
It was the first time that Xiao Jianming—with his great status—felt a sense of uncontrollable helplessness.
After a long while, he finally curbed his murderous intent. "You’re— very well. I’ll remember this!" he stoically answered.
None of the Qing-Yun disciples dared to make a sound. In the eyes of the majority, Xiao Jianming speaking such words was effectively a death sentence for Fang Xing.
Upon hearing this, Fang Xing derisively grinned. "Of course I’m ‘very well’. Now don’t you try to go back on the conditions you agreed on. Where is the compensation for the damage caused to my body, mind, reputation, and spirit? Hurry up and hand it over!" he demanded clearly while holding out his hand.
"You—!" Xiao Jianming exclaimed with hate, his glare stabbing right towards Fang Xing. He hadn’t expected that the boy was serious about wanting to claim compensation, especially since he’d decided to give up on the chase for the Purple Mist Orchid.
Seeing Xiao Jianming’s gaze, even the Qing-Yun disciples that weren’t afraid of him all lowered their heads to avoid it. Fang Xing, on the other hand, wasn’t scared at all, and he looked right back. "Trying to stare me down? Think I can’t do that, too?"
"Hahahahaha…." Xiao Jianming suddenly let out a long, loud peal of laughter, yet within that laugh was a contradictory sense of spine-chilling coldness. "Good, you’re very good. I haven’t been back to the Qing-Yun Sect in the past four years, and I wasn’t expecting to have such an interesting little shidi recruited during that time. Interesting. Very. Interesting. What sort of reward do you want? I’ll give it to you, a high-quality Spirit Stone; that should be enough, right?!"
As Xiao Jianming spoke, he waved his hand and a purple stone flew towards Fang Xing like a bolt of lightning. Its speed was so fast that it broke through the winds, containing a hint of a thunderstorm’s raw power. By the looks of it, surrounding the Spirit Stone was a portion of Xiao Jianming’s raw power, an action that was even more terrifying than him using any spells.
This had come from Xiao Jianming’s anger. Even if he were to hand over this stone, he would make sure the person on the receiving end would still suffer somehow. Alternatively, if Fang Xing were to evade the stone, it would simply crash against the stone wall and shatter into pieces. Fang Xing would not be allowed to have it easily.
However, outside of expectations, as soon as Fang Xing saw the stone flying his way, he simply dodged and hid behind Xu Linyun once again. "Shijie Linyun, help!" he yelled out.
Without a choice, Xu Linyun wondered to herself, ‘Since when have I become this boy’s umbrella of protection?’ When the stone flew closer, she waved her palm to activate [Gravitational Force] and covered the area around the stone. It immediately seemed as though the Spirit Stone had fallen into a quagmire, and the thunderstorm-like force surrounding it began to slowly dissipate. Although Xu Linyun might not be as strong as Xiao Jianming, she was more than capable of handling this Spirit Stone, and the elemental force was completely gone a mere three breaths later.
Xu Linyun held out her hand and—with a beckoning motion—the Spirit Stone was immediately sucked into her palm. From behind her, Fang Xing walked out and snickered, "Thank you, Shijie Linyun." He then grabbed the Stone from her hand and threw it into his storage sack. The way he acted, it was as though he was worried she would not hand over the Stone, which once again left her speechless.
Xiao Jianming glanced over at Xu Linyun before turning and walking away with a cold "Hmph!"
"Feng Qingwei, I haven’t searched you yet…."
Fang Xing had wanted to make a few more provocative remarks when he saw that Feng Qingwei was about to follow Xiao Jianming away, but before he could, he felt a small shimmer of flame begin to burn within. His tiny face was instantly bright red, and he could hear the turbulent waves of a large amount of Qi inside him. He could even hear the noise of the blood thrashing about within his veins. His eyebrows creased as he tried to keep himself standing upright, and his entire body began to lightly shiver as though he was in extreme pain.
It seemed that the medicinal power of the three Hibernation Pellets had all been used up by now. Without the pellets’ suppression, the Purple Mist Orchid had now begun to refine itself within Fang Xing’s body, and large amounts of Jing clashed against his Qi and blood like great tidal waves. He couldn’t hide this anymore.
"What’s wrong?" Xu Linyun was the first to realize something was abnormal, as she had immediately noticed that Fang Xing’s appearance was off.
Both Xiao Jianming and Feng Qingwei turned as well when they heard the question, and their faces were filled with astonishment. As cultivators, they were very familiar with anatomy and blood flow, and a quick close inspection showed that the Qi inside the boy was extremely unsettled.
With everyone’s attention focused on him, Fang Xing suddenly had a quick idea. "When I met with the Foundation Stage beast inside the valley, he said I was very handsome, so he didn’t want to kill me, but only under the condition that I take one of his full blows. I had to take his hit from a thousand feet away. I took it, and I thought I was fine…. Who would have thought it would show its effects now…."
The rest of the group also looked astonished as they sent dubious glances towards Fang Xing. But Fang Xing did seem to have an overflow of Qi, just like someone who had been badly injured and was unable to control their circulation. Furthermore, everyone present except for Xiao Jianming had seen the Foundation Stage beast with their very eyes and were amazed at the fact Fang Xing had survived. Now that they saw he was in fact injured, they actually began to believe his words, as this was far more probable. Perhaps the Foundation Stage beast had truly sent Fang Xing a full-force attack, and when it saw that Fang Xing had survived, it simply no longer bothered to send him another.
Even Xiao Jianming creased his brows as he thought to himself, ‘Shimei Feng did indeed mention they saw a Foundation Stage beast, and the boy is certainly heavily wounded. Can it be that I’ve truly wronged him? If so, then there will be some rather large troubles…. Uncle even asked me to get close to the boy so I could squeeze out some information, yet now, for a mere misunderstanding, he will hold a grudge against me with our first meeting….’
At this point, Xiao Jianming had even begun to doubt whether he had truly seen that purple light during the chase, or if he had perhaps been imagining things. He did not even consider the possibility that Fang Xing had taken the herb raw. There were no grounds to be suspicious about that at all, since swallowing the herb raw—especially for someone like Fang Xing in the fourth tier—would only bring about death. If that was at all the case, Fang Xing would have already exploded like a human bomb.
"Heh, that’s karma for you…." When Feng Qingwei realized what was happening, she released a cold laugh. Particularly since she knew what Fang Xing had intended when he called out for her, she found it fortunate that his wound had flared up at this moment; she would have been humiliated by him again otherwise.
"That’s enough, Shimei Feng. Let’s go!" Xiao Jianming stopped Feng Qingwei’s words. He took the lead, walking in front while his mind filled with questions and suspicions.
Xu Linyun was also surprised at seeing Fang Xing’s appearance and began to lecture, "Why did you not mention it earlier? Did you really think a strike from a Foundation Stage beast is that easy to survive? Come with me now, let me have a look and see if I can help you recover faster with my Recovery Pellet!"
As Xu Linyun spoke, her silver sword flew at the nearby stone walls and had already carved out a small stone cave. Just as she was about to drag Fang Xing inside, he suddenly waved his hands and said, "No need, I know my wound. Grand-Shishu Bai already taught me a recovering spell, and there shouldn’t be any problems. However, the process mustn’t be disturbed by anyone, so I will have to trouble Shijie Linyun to act as my guardian during the process."
He had always been cheeky before; since when had he been so polite? Xu Linyun felt somewhat refreshed by this and lightly nodded her head. "I will act as your guardian for the time being."
Fang Xing showed a smirk. "My thanks to you!" Next, he removed his outer robe and picked up all of the treasures from his storage ring that were scattered on the ground, bundling them together into a large pile with his storage sacks before passing them all to Xu Linyun. He would soon need to use his True Samadhi Fire to temper the herb’s medicinal powers, and when using the fire, the flames would actually physically manifest around his body, likely burning up his storage sacks and storage ring in the process. The safer option would actually be to have someone else looking after them during the process.
Of course, he also did this because he trusted Xu Linyun.
As Fang Xing was about to enter the cave, he suddenly swept out his gaze and found the golden crow trying to quietly escape. With a quick mental command, the other end of the [Immortal’s Snare] immediately dragged him back towards Fang Xing. Ignoring the despairing look in the crow’s eyes, Fang Xing once again wrapped him up like a rice dumpling—this time also tying up his beak in case he tried to speak nonsense—before kicking him towards Xu Linyun.
"Shijie Linyun, I captured this beast and would like to tame it as my mount later. Please make sure it doesn’t get away!"
Xu Linyun replied, "Wild beasts are hard to tame. It’s probably easier to just kill it for its beast core!"
The golden crow shivered in fear at her words, but Fang Xing nodded and said, "Sounds good. Just kill it for the beast core if it tries to escape." Then, with a loud laugh and a reassured feeling, he turned and headed into the stone cave.