"That brat must have used teleportation spirit tools…."
All of the people surrounding the Thousand Cliff were Foundation Stage cultivators, and they quickly realized what had happened. With a loud howl, Xiao Shanhe immediately flew into the air and poured as much Qi as he could into activating his Mystic Eye. As he swept out his gaze, he soon noticed a ripple appear above a deserted forest west of the Qing-Yun Sect, followed by the sudden appearance of a small child yelling as he fell.
Swoosh….
Within the tall trees near where the boy was falling, a giant golden crow flew out to immediately catch him and fly away with extraordinary speed.
Xiao Shanhe watched with anger before quickly rushing over on his cloud. "Trying to escape, brat?" As for the other elders, they were more concerned about the explosive sounds from earlier and did not chase after Xiao Shanhe, instead flying in the direction of their own valleys.
Sect Master Chen Xuanhua looked towards where Fang Xing had fled before letting out a long sigh and casting a spell to pull over a dark cloud to extinguish the fires with its rainfall. The fires in the Danxia and Shanhe Valleys had already spread into the nearby forests by now; if it wasn’t stopped now, it was likely the entire Qing-Yun Sect would be burned to ashes.
Everyone from the Qing-Yun Sect rushed about in all directions to try to salvage their belongings and prevent the fire from spreading further. Among these people, a plump-bodied Yu Sanliang stood under a pine tree while looking towards where Fang Xing had just fled, his expression twisted as though trying to smile and cry at the same time. Somehow, he still remembered when a beggar-looking Fang Xing had leapt up and was yelling at him:
"How dare you kick me! You freakish fat pig with pus running out of your smelly feet and hemorrhoids probably growing out of that stupid thing of yours you call a head! Oh, and your face is like a cow’s! How dare you call me worthless! You should be thankful that I’m even considering joining your sect! You will regret this; you’ve failed to recognize someone of such great importance, and when I come back to burn your pitiful monastery down…."
That had been the first impression Fang Xing had left on him. How could he have imagined back then that this boy would actually go and do it? That he’d not only kill Xiao Jianming, but burn the Qing-Yun Sect as well?
Just as Xiao Shanhe chased off towards Fang Xing’s direction, Elder Qin’nyao flew anxiously towards the top of her Danxia Valley. She couldn’t help but to feel a sense of panic as she looked down at the mess below, and she hastily rushed towards her own cave estate, only for her heart to sink when she arrived. The door to her estate was wide open, and the interior was a complete mess with shelves and tables scattered all over the floor, as though she’d just been robbed….
Qin’nyao immediately went to the deeper end of the cave, where there was a hidden stone room storing the numerous treasures and resources she’d saved over the years. It could be said this room contained every valuable thing she owned, yet now the door was left wide open; when Qin’nyao stepped in front of it to look inside, her entire body went as rigid as if she’d been struck by lightning and her eyes turned bright red in anger.
All of those rare pellets and herbs she’d saved over the years, all those precious spirit tools and weapons she’d had, none if it had been left behind!
Cultivation resources and technique manuals were essential to a cultivator. She’d recently been given an Ancient technique manual that would allow her to enter the Golden Core Stage, yet she hadn’t even been allowed half a day of excitement before finding all of her life savings completely gone.
"Who was it? That brat was inside the Thousand Cliff the entire time; who did this?" Elder Qin’nyao hatefully yelled towards the sky before chasing off in the s
ame direction as Xiao Shanhe.
At the same time Elder Qin’nyao rose up into the air, another angry howl could be heard from the direction of Shuwen Valley, "Why was I ransacked too?!"
Elsewhere, Fang Xing had activated the Ten Mile Teleportation Talisman to teleport above the forest on the sect’s western side just as he’d agreed with the golden crow. The crow came rushing over to catch him before he’d fallen to the ground below, and the two immediately began to flee. Seeing how excited the crow was, Fang Xing immediately knew everything had gone according to plan, so he sat down on the crow’s back with a smile. "How was the harvest?"
The golden crow laughed. "We’ve gained a huge profit! I didn’t expect the elders of such a small sect to be so rich! Danxia Valley and Shanhe Valley were both emptied and I set off five Exploding Flame Talismans for each. Oh, and on my way past Shuwen Valley, I felt it would be too much of a pity to let it go, so I also emptied them as well while I was at it. As for Duanzhen Valley…."
"You didn’t touch Duanzhen Valley, right?" Fang Xing curiously asked.
The golden crow grinned. "For you, I didn’t touch them!"
Fang Xing sighed. "You know, even if you did, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal…."
This time, it was the golden crow’s turn to be speechless. To think this brat wouldn’t care even if his own shifu’s treasures were taken….
As it so happened, just as the pair were returning from the Yunyin Summit, Fang Xing had noticed that the Meat-Wine Monk taking away the two peaks had broken the protective formation over the Qing-Yun Sect. Put simply, before the formation was repaired again, the entire Qing-Yun Sect was like a treasure vault without any locks. With that knowledge coupled with his hatred towards Qin’nyao and Xiao Shanhe, he’d developed a plan to ensure he wasn’t forgotten.
With his mind made up, he’d decided to not have the golden crow join him inside the Thousand Cliff, and instead had given all ten of his Exploding Flame Talismans to the crow before leaving to face Xiao Jianming alone. The golden crow was then supposed to use this heaven-sent opportunity to rob all the savings of the Danxia and Shanhe Valleys, then blow up their valleys while he was at it.
The crow had been overjoyed to hear of such a plan and had immediately gone to carry it out. Doing such things was like taking a casual stroll in the park for him, and the disappearance of the Qing-Yun Sect’s main protective formation made things even easier. Without the main protective formation, all of the individual formations within the valleys had lost their foundation and become as ineffective as wide-open doors!
Since it was so easy, not only did the crow sneak into the Danxia and Shanhe Valleys, empty Qin’nyao and Xiao Shanhe’s life savings, and place the Exploding Flame Talismans, he even went and looted Shuwen Valley as well. Once he was finished, he waited for Fang Xing at the agreed-upon location while observing what was happening in the tournament, and once he saw things start to grow chaotic, he ignited all of the Exploding Flame Talismans at once.
In the end, their plan had been a great success and they’d completed their largest heist ever. Of course, Shuwen Valley’s Chen Baoyan felt rather aggrieved by all this; Qin’nyao and Xiao Shanhe were one thing, but what did he do to deserve this?
"Oh? That old guy’s catching up..." the golden crow told Fang Xing with a grin. He could feel a murderous cloud coming up close from behind.
Fang Xing laughed. "Let him come a bit closer!"
The golden crow was rather surprised to hear this. "Why?"
Fang Xing cleared his throat. "I can’t defeat him, but I’m still going to curse at him!"
A cloud flew closer behind them at an extreme speed as Xiao Shanhe’s furious voice rang out loud and clear, "Nnnngh, you little livestock, I’ll grind your bones into ash!"
Standing up on the golden crow’s back, Fang Xing put his hands on his waist, drew in a deep breath, and yelled out, "Grind your uncle, you Xiao of an old livestock! You think you can catch up to your grandpa? Just try it, come at me! You’re so sad, that little Xiao bastard must’ve been your son you secretly had with your sister-in-law, right? And now you’re unhappy that your son is dead? Well, I’m going to exterminate your entire Xiao clan one day…."
"I’m going to kill you!" Xiao Shanhe yelled out with rage.
"Kill your uncle! You old bastard, your face is so misshapen it’s impossible to even tell where your nose or eyes are. Your ancestors’ graves must have been pissed on by dogs for something as ugly as you to be born, huh? So poor and pitiful, yet you still want to practice cultivation? Go cultivate your uncle! Oh, why is your face so green? Is that because of me?
"... Sh*t, how dare you send sword force at me! Watch me piss all over your face…." Just as Fang Xing had been enthusiastically cursing, Xiao Shanhe’s sword force had nearly taken him by surprise and Fang Xing—despite being more than a thousand feet away—was nearly hit. Annoyed, Fang Xing dropped his pants and began to splatter urine into the air….
The splatter was huge, and the wind caused it to fly directly towards Xiao Shanhe’s face. Xiao Shanhe didn’t feel any danger, and he was flying as fast as he could while blinded by anger; he wasn’t paying much attention, and he ended up diving straight into it. Xiao Shanhe thought it was poison at first, but he soon realized there was a salty taste to it and recognized what it was. By then, he was so angry he could nearly spit out blood. "Argh! You little livestock, this is unforgivable!"
Even as Xiao Shanhe yelled and cursed, Fang Xing loudly laughed while the golden crow increased his speed to the peak to flee for good. Although Xiao Shanhe was a Foundation Stage cultivator, the distance between him and Fang Xing began to grow larger and larger, until he lost sight of Fang Xing completely. The anger he felt was difficult to put into words; it was as though his entire being was about to erupt, and the only thing he could do was yell like a madman in the middle of the sky.
"Elder Xiao, where did that brat go?" After around the time of a burn of an incense, Elder Qin’nyao on her cloud caught up with Xiao Shanhe. Behind her was the most unfortunate and innocent of them all: Shuwen Valley’s chief elder, who could only shed dry tears.
Xiao Shanhe’s face was cold and his voice was nearly shaking. "That little brat’s mount is too difficult to deal with; it’s too good at running away…."
"Seems like the brat had it all prepared in advance," Elder Qin’nyao replied in hatred. "While we were watching the match at the Thousand Cliff, his accomplice… maybe that ugly crow of his… entered our valleys and robbed everything from my Danxia Valley, your Shanhe Valley, and Shixiong Chen’s Shuwen Valley. They even blew up our valleys…. Danxia and Shanhe don’t even exist anymore…."
"What?" Despite the numb sorrow Xiao Shanhe felt after losing his nephew, he was still shocked to hear such a thing. The most important thing to a cultivator was resources, and if all of a person’s resources were taken—and those that couldn’t be taken, destroyed—wouldn’t that mean all his years of effort had been reduced to nothing but a single Ancient technique?
"It’s true. I already took a look, Elder Xiao, and your Shanhe Valley… nothing was left," Chen Baoyan answered with a bitter smile, his expression even worse than if he’d been crying. Before this had happened, he would never have believed a Spirit Stage child would dare to rob three Foundation Stage cultivators.
"Goddamned little devil…. Whether in the heavens and earth or in the netherworld below, this will not end until I kill you!" Xiao Shanhe madly screamed, his voice echoing off into the sky in all directions.
Elder Qin’nyao’s expression was also gloomy, but she suddenly suggested, "Although the boy managed to run away so quickly, we do still have a way to suppress him!"
"Nn?" Xiao Shanhe’s bloodshot eyes instantly looked to her. "What is your idea? Tell me!"
Qin’nyao revealed a cold smile. "Did Elder Xiao forget about the soul lantern each inner court disciple leaves behind when they enter?"