It was only natural that the embroidered-gown youth would not allow any of the Qing-Yun disciples to leave. If even one of them left and sent a message to their sect asking for help and their Foundation Stage elders arrived as reinforcements, it would bring nothing but misfortune. That being said, the youth was actually relieved when Fang Xing asked him to release his Qing-Yun brothers and sisters; the boy seem to have a fairly good relationship with all these disciples.
"Boy, everything will be good if you hand the manual over so I can have a look. If you don’t, both you and all your brothers and sisters will have to die…" the youth said in a serious manner, his voice filled with bloodthirst.
Fang Xing’s voice shivered in apparent fear, "N— no… you can’t do that…."
The embroidered-gown youth became even more confident at such a frightened response. "You don’t believe I can? Xiongnu, break one of his arms!"
Xiongnu let out a muffled sound in response before grasping Shen Lo’s arm in preparation. This caused Shen Lo to shriek out in fear and cry, "He is lying! There is no such high-tier Ancient technique!"
Fang Xing looked as though he was about to cry. "Shixiong Shen, how are you still able to try to hide it even now?"
When the embroidered-gown youth saw that Fang Xing did not do as he said, his expression darkened and he dropped his hand. Shen Lo’s arm was turned into a fried dough twist[1] while blood sprayed all over the place like a fountain. Shen Lo’s scream of pain went above and beyond even the clouds.
"No… no, don’t…." Fang Xing looked so distraught at the sight it seemed he would go mad with grief. "Don’t do this to my shixiong…."
The youth snickered. "I will count to three. You will throw the manual over, or I will take his other arm!"
"My god… don’t do this…" Fang Xing exclaimed, but he was starting to grow a bit bored. This act was really dragging on.
The embroidered-gown youth coldly smiled before raising three fingers. When the third finger folded, Shen Lo’s remaining arm was torn off, and he experienced so much pain that he wailed out another shriek and lost consciousness entirely. Yet throughout this entire process, all of the Qing-Yun disciples only watched on in silence; not a single one dared to speak a word to stop it.
When the embroidered-gown youth saw Fang Xing had even begun to shiver, he displayed a nasty grin. "You still don’t want to hand it over?"
Fang Xing screamed, "My god! How can this be…. You can’t do this to Shixiong Shen…."
The youth was left speechless by this. "Just kill this one and grab another. I’d like to see how long this boy will endure…" he commanded Xiongnu. The latter let out another muffled sound that was close to a laugh before grabbing Shen Lo’s neck and preparing to take a bite.
"Shidi Fang!" A clear voice suddenly rose up, this time belonging to Xu Linyun. She had her eyebrows slightly creased as she looked towards Fang Xing.
Despite her not saying anything specific, her intentions were very clear. Xu Linyun could somewhat tell that Fang Xing was doing all of this intentionally to have Xiongnu torture Shen Lo, it was just that—at a time like this—it would have been inappropriate to expose Fang Xing and his plan since it would put him in danger. By calling out to him, she was implying he shouldn’t wait until Shen Lo was tortured to death before using whatever else he might still have up his sleeve.
‘Women and their soft spots….’ Fang Xing let out a long sigh and spoke in a sad voice, "Stop…."
The embroidered-gown youth smiled coldly and waved his hand, causing Xiongnu to immediately stop his mouth. "Finally willing to hand it over to me?"
"You…. Is bullying the weak all you know?" Fang Xing angrily asked.
Slightly startled by this, the embroidered-gown youth laughed coldly once again. "If you were stronger than me, you could bully me like this as well. The strong preys upon the weak; is that not how it has always been?"
"Dammit… dammit that my cultivation level is not as high as yours, or else I would definitely teach you a lesson…."
"Haha…." The more the embroidered-gown youth heard, the more he felt Fang Xing was truly just a child acting his age. However, when the youth saw how Fang Xing’s palms began to shake with emotion, the youth actually began to worry that the manual would accidentally be dropped into the altar. In an attempt to calm him down, the youth said, "Fine, don’t say that I’m trying to bully you. How about this: I will find someone who has a similar cultivation level as you? Heh, she is even a little younger than you, and her cultivation level is probably similar to yours. If you can stay alive after ten of her strikes, I will let all of you go. How is that?"
A sense of hope seemed to grow on Fang Xing’s dumbstruck face. "I…. My battle prowess is low, I… I certainly can’t last through ten strikes. So… so I can only do three. If I can do three, you’ll have to let us go!"
"Ahaha," the group of men laughed, marveling at how this child was so stupid but so interesting.
The more Fang Xing behaved like this, the more believable it became. Despite having fewer suspicions, the embroidered-gown youth still gave a meaningful look towards the red-dressed girl and sent a message in secret: "Shimei Qiaoqiao, lure him away. As long as he’s away from that black hole at the altar…."
The girl curled her lips in disdain. "Even if we were to fight for real, he wouldn’t last even three strikes!"
The youth gently smiled. "This is important, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. You’ll only need to lure him away; I’ll sort out the rest!"
Without much choice, the red-dressed girl nodded. "Fine!" She then began to walk towards the altar with a grin. "Little brother, how about you let me play a few rounds with you? As long as you can last through three of my strikes, we’ll let you guys go!"
Fang Xing looked at her with doubt. "You promise?" he asked.
The girl snickered. "Of course, I would not lie to you!" As she spoke, she slowly made her way closer towards the altar’s entrance.
Fang Xing cautiously glanced at the men above riding atop the bats. "Stay away, all of you!" he yelled.
The men laughed and actually backed up with their bats. They were not worried at all; they knew that even though their little shimei was young, as the sect master’s only child, her Qi and physique had been purified many times with the blood essence of beasts, making her Qi more concentrated than most. Despite only being only at the fifth tier of Spirit Stage, an ordinary cultivator wouldn’t be a match for her at all even if the cultivator was a full tier higher. As for this boy, their shimei would probably be able to take him down with a single hand—there was no reason for them to worry whatsoever.
The girl stood around a hundred feet away from Fang Xing and called him over, "Okay, they’ve all backed up. You can come over and battle it out with me now, right?"
The embroidered-youth’s gaze flickered as he gripped a black spell-covered Flying Sword in his hand, preparing to kill Fang Xing the moment the boy was about ten feet from the altar. That way, the Ancient technique manual would easily fall into his hands.
Fang Xing glanced at the distance between him and the girl. "You come closer to me!"
Without a choice, the girl closed in about thirty feet. "Is this enough?"
Fang Xing looked around. "No, a bit closer!"
The girl was speechless and closed in thirty more feet, leaving only another thirty between her and Fang Xing. "What exactly do you want?"
"I can see that you’re quite pretty! Here, have this Ancient technique manual!" Then, just as he said, he threw the book in his hands over towards the red-dressed girl.
The girl was at first surprised and quickly tried to grab it, and even the others from the Myriad Beasts Sect felt a sense of disbelief. However, it was at this precise moment that Fang Xing’s body suddenly transformed into a thin line as he dashed towards the red-dressed girl like a bolt of lightning. The girl caught the manual, but—before she even had a chance to have a look—she felt a strong wind sweeping past her face. "Aren’t you smart!" With a wave of her palm, [Gravitational Force] was activated, and an invisible yet strong dragon-like force went to capture Fang Xing.
Unexpectedly, however, just as the powerful force arrived in front of Fang Xing, it was dissolved by an even greater force. Fang Xing was not affected in the slightest as he dashed right in front of the girl and landed a heavy punch with his right fist right into her lower abdomen, disturbing the flow of Qi within her meridians. He then reached out, took hold of her neck with a single movement, and placed her right in front of him.
The actions were so fast in that movement that no matter whether it was a Qing-Yun disciple or a Myriad Beasts disciple, no one could react in time. The embroidered-gown youth still had his black Flying Sword clutched tight in hand, yet he hadn’t even had the time to activate it. He too hadn’t expected this somewhat timid-looking boy to move so swiftly and with such a high degree of battle prowess. Even his little shimei—who would easily win against anyone around her level—hadn’t lasted even a single round.
After quite a few moments passed, those from the Myriad Beasts Sect finally realized what had just happened. "Let go of Little Shimei!" they yelled out in unison while steering their bats closer.
When the red-dressed girl also realized her situation, her face turned bright red and she began to struggle. "Let me go!"
Fang Xing smirked and pinch her cheek. "Be good, or I—your grandpa—am going to beat you!"
The girl had never anticipated she would be defeated—let alone captured—by a child like Fang Xing, and this caused embarrassment to form alongside her anger. The fact he was so physically close to her also made her feel extremely uncomfortable, and it was for these reasons that she didn’t listen to any of Fang Xing’s threats at all and continued struggling. "Let me go! You fooled me and cheated! We start over!" she yelled.
The Myriad Beasts disciples atop the black bats were quietly closing in, hoping to find a chance to rescue her, yet Fang Xing merely sent a cold glance their way when he saw through their intentions. He suddenly pulled the girl up and—with a loud pah, pah sound—slapped her with his other hand. Blood trickled down the side of her lip, and two red palm marks appeared on her cheeks that were normally as white as a china doll’s.
The girl received such a huge shock from the slaps that she immediately turned silent. Fang Xing then dragged her back towards his chest and used a dagger in his right hand to pierce half an inch into her neck. A small rivulet of fresh blood began to trickle down her neck as he gazed coldly at the Myriad Beasts disciples. "Do you really think I can’t kill?"
[1] Fried dough twist: A sweet Chinese street food, made by deep-frying flour dough, similar to a donut, but hard and twisted into a helix shape. Depending on preference, sesame seeds can sometimes also be sprinkled on top of it.