The smile on Chen Fan’s face remained unchanged as he chuckled. "Immortal, you are mistaken. My tiny Tianlan Kingdom is a remote and poor place; how could we have the fortune to possess such a divine object? I have simply been diligently practicing my family’s Health-Preserving Fist Technique lately. It was nothing more than a stroke of luck..."
"Luck?"
The black-robed cultivator on the right with a mean-looking face let out a sneer, his fingers lightly tapping the table.
"Reaching the Qi Refining Realm is luck? Do you take us for three-year-olds? It seems that unless we show you some real force, you won't speak the truth."
He casually tilted his chin up. "We'll start by breaking your two legs. What does it matter if you are an emperor? In the eyes of us cultivators, you are nothing but an ant."
A cold light flashed in Chen Fan’s eyes. His suppressed arm suddenly jerked, and the meager spiritual energy of the Qi Refining Realm within his body erupted completely.
Forming his fingers into a sword, he thrust them directly toward the throat of the cultivator on the left.
"An ant trying to shake a tree!"
The cultivator hadn't expected this ant to dare resist, which gave him a hint of surprise, but that was immediately followed by deep disdain.
He didn't even bother to use a technique, simply manifesting a layer of protective spiritual qi around himself.
Crack!
Chen Fan’s fingers struck the protective spiritual qi as if an egg had hit a rock, and two of his fingers bent back at an unnatural angle.
The intense pain caused cold sweat to instantly break out on his forehead as he let out a muffled groan.
But his attack was not entirely ineffective.
At the very moment the cultivator on the left had his attention drawn by the broken fingers, Chen Fan’s other hand, which had been pinned down, managed to break free from some of the restraint at some unknown point.
Clenching his hand into a fist, he poured all the pitiful spiritual energy in his body into his knuckles. Taking advantage of the opening created by the enemy’s underestimation, he slammed a fist ruthlessly into the right side of the other cultivator’s ribs.
Bang!
The cultivator was caught off guard and took a solid hit to his ribs. His protective spiritual qi fluctuated violently; although it didn't break, the force caused his blood and qi to surge, making him take a half-step back.
An expression of rage immediately surfaced on his face.
What humiliated and annoyed him even more was that the wind from the punch had actually grazed his sleeve and even left a tiny bloody scratch on the back of his hand.
A single bead of blood was slowly seeping out from it.
For a high-and-mighty Void Core cultivator, this was nothing short of a supreme humiliation!
He had actually been injured by a Qi Refining ant!
"You’re looking for death!"
The injured cultivator was bridge-burning mad, and he no longer held back the spiritual pressure of the Void Core Realm, letting it erupt with a roar.
Like an invisible mountain, it pressed down heavily onto Chen Fan’s body!
Thud!
Chen Fan could no longer hold himself up. He was slammed ruthlessly to the ground by this terrifying spiritual pressure, his face pressed against the floor.
The maids and eunuchs who had been standing on both sides of the hall, as well as the few officials who hadn't managed to slip away in time, had already been scared out of their wits when the conflict first broke out.
Now, under this spiritual pressure, they scrambled and crawled away until the hall was empty, leaving only the daughter of the Prime Minister’s direct lineage still sitting there, forcing herself to remain calm despite her pale face.
The other cultivator also took a step forward, killing intent blooming in his eyes. He raised his hand, intending to deal a killing blow to Chen Fan, who lay paralyzed on the ground.
"Junior Brother, wait."
The triangular-eyed cultivator pulled him back. Although his expression was also unpleasant, he maintained some level of calm.
He glanced at Chen Fan on the floor and then looked at the empty hall, lowering his voice as he said, "Remember the mission given to us from above. He is the Tianlan Emperor; killing him is easy, but the subsequent trouble will be a nuisance."
"Our main goal is to obtain the item behind him or something else. We'll force it out of him and leave once we have it. Why increase our karmic burden for no reason?"
He then kicked Chen Fan on the ground and sneered, "Besides, since he has reached the Qi Refining Realm, there might be shadows of other cultivators behind him. We must finish this quickly, take the item, and flee immediately."
Hearing this, the mean-looking cultivator took a deep breath and suppressed his killing intent, though the ferocity in his eyes did not diminish.
He crouched down and used the hand with the bloodstain to roughly grab Chen Fan’s chin.
He forced that face, covered in blood and dust, to look up.
"Speak. Where did your cultivation method come from? Hand it over, and I will spare your life."
Chen Fan’s breath was weak, but the corners of his mouth curled into an arc, his voice raspy. "I have... I have your mother’s method..."
"Stubborn fool!"
The mean-looking cultivator applied pressure with his hand, and Chen Fan’s jawbone let out a sound, looking as if it were about to be crushed.
His movements suddenly paused, and the triangular-eyed cultivator also snapped his head up, looking toward the entrance of the Main Hall with vigilance.
A person had appeared there at some unknown point.
A young man wearing ordinary green cloth robes, cradling a pitch-black, lusterless longsword in his arms.
He stood there casually as if he had been there for a long time, yet also as if he had just appeared out of thin air.
He looked too ordinary; there wasn't a hint of spiritual energy fluctuation on him, making him look like a mundane swordsman who had wandered into the wrong place.
Chen Fan turned his eyes with difficulty and saw that figure.
His lips moved, pulling into a smile that looked more painful than crying.
"Brother Xuan... I'm sorry... I've made you lose face..."
He knew he looked wretched and useless, pinned to the ground like a dead dog.
But what he feared even more was that Fang Xuan would think he was a source of trouble and a burden.
Only then did Fang Xuan slowly raise his eyes.
His gaze first swept over the wretched Chen Fan on the ground, lingering for a moment on the broken fingers and the blood-stained face; there was no ripple of emotion in his eyes.
Then, his gaze fell upon the two black-robed cultivators.
He spoke softly. "Soul..."
The mean-looking cultivator was stunned for a moment before he burst out laughing as if he had heard the world’s biggest joke, his tense body relaxing for no reason.
He sneered, "Hahaha! Now you know to call us bastards? Isn't it a bit too late?"
"Another one here to play the hero and die?"
He let go of Chen Fan, stood up, and brushed off dust that didn't exist on his hands.
Returning to his condescending posture, he sized up Fang Xuan, who was holding his sword at the entrance, his eyes filled with disdain.
"This emperor just now was using that ridiculous act to beg for mercy at the end. What about you? How do you plan to beg?"
The triangular-eyed cultivator’s brows, however, furrowed even deeper.
He felt that something was wrong.
This person had appeared too abruptly and too quietly.
Furthermore, the way Chen Fan called him Brother Xuan, and that tone of shame mixed with reliance...
This person was definitely not simple!
He secretly pushed his spiritual energy to its peak and swept his divine sense toward Fang Xuan with all his might, trying to see through him.
However, the feedback from his divine sense remained a total blank, like a stone sinking into the ocean.
There were only two possibilities: either the opponent was truly a mortal without any cultivation, or... the opponent’s cultivation was far higher than his own.
Thinking back to the Qi Refining cultivation Chen Fan suddenly possessed, alarm bells rang in the triangular-eyed cultivator’s heart. He subconsciously took a half-step back and barked, "Junior Brother, be careful!"
But the mean-looking cultivator was already clouded by his contempt and the irritation from his earlier injury. Since the divine sense scan had yielded nothing, he was more inclined to believe the opponent was a mortal.
Seeing Fang Xuan just holding his sword and standing there without speaking, his calm gaze making him feel uncomfortable, the cultivator’s anger flared up even more.
"Playing ghost!"
The mean-looking cultivator sneered, deciding not to waste any more time.
Only then did Fang Xuan turn around.
Bastard? What bastard?
He smiled indifferently and continued the sentence he hadn't finished: "Soul-haunting... Wind and Clouds Surge..."
Rate on N.U.
