Only after confirming there was no one in the corridor did he let out a long sigh of relief, taking two steps back and lowering his voice:
“Don't worry, there's no one.”
“Senior Brother, you are too careless!” Ma Xianyang complained slightly.
“...”
Knowing he was in the wrong, Feng Xiaobao remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking:
“From the looks of it, your guess was right, Junior Brother. That kid definitely has a secret. A mere fisherman sensing his blood qi in just over ten days... Hehehe, he truly is...”
He didn't continue, turning instead to Ma Xianyang. “What should we do next about this?”
Ma Xianyang narrowed his long, thin eyes, pondering for a moment before saying slowly:
“This is an opportunity for both of us. We absolutely cannot let it slip through our fingers!”
“Even though that kid has entered the Mingjin Rank, it might not be a bad thing for us.”
“Because it is highly likely he hasn't offered that recipe to Mei Shuangfeng yet...”
“Exactly!”
Hearing this, Feng Xiaobao's tiger-like eyes lit up. He slapped his thigh and said:
“He has already broken through to the Mingjin Rank. Yu Zhe and Tian Erhu must have been killed by him, so there was no need for him to offer the secret recipe to the Mei family.”
“And what can a greenhorn who has just entered the Mingjin Rank do to us? If he really hides under Mei Shuangfeng's wing, it would actually be troublesome for us!”
“Precisely! However, if you don't kill a snake, it will bite back. I was wondering...”
Ma Xianyang narrowed his eyes slightly and said:
“If we could offer him a high price he can't refuse and buy it outright.”
“Hehe, Junior Brother, stop speaking such childish nonsense. We've already used those underhanded methods. If it were you... would you believe us?”
Feng Xiaobao shook his head immediately, looking at Ma Xianyang with burning eyes.
Ma Xianyang's breath hitched. He remained silent for a long moment. In the end, the fierce light in his eyes overcame his trace of hesitation, and he slowly shook his head:
“...Absolutely impossible.”
“Exactly, right?”
Feng Xiaobao stood up, his fists clenching with a cracking sound, his tone freezing cold:
“We need to plan this out thoroughly. Now that the kid has killed Yu Zhe and the other, the snake has been startled!”
“The heat is on right now. Unless absolutely necessary, we must not easily test him again.”
“But if we must act...”
He paused, killing intent flaring in his eyes. “Then we must find the perfect opportunity to strike with thunderous force and succeed in one blow!”
“Senior Brother is absolutely right...”
Ma Xianyang nodded slowly in agreement.
The room fell into a brief silence.
After a while, Ma Xianyang suddenly looked up at Feng Xiaobao and asked tentatively:
“Second Senior Brother, do you think... we should report this to Master?”
“Forget it!”
Feng Xiaobao immediately shook his head.
“Master's cultivation has already reached the peak of the Anjin Rank, and he is focusing all his efforts on breaking through to the Huajin Rank. The Bai family is pushing us too hard; we must not disturb Master unnecessarily!”
“Alright...”
...
Back courtyard of the Tongbei Martial Arts Hall.
Beneath the main wing of the house lay a dark, secret dungeon that never saw the light of day.
In the center of the cell.
A young man with disheveled hair, completely naked, was bound by his limbs and neck with five iron chains as thick as a baby's arm. He was suspended in midair like a beast waiting to be slaughtered.
By the dim candlelight, one could faintly see that there was not a single patch of intact skin left on his body.
His arms, cheeks, neck, and even the palms of his hands and soles of his feet were densely covered with dark red blade cuts as fine as cow hair!
It looked as though he had been carved slice by slice over months and years!
“...Mother, please just tell Brother-in-law where the complete manual of the 『Tongbei Stance』 is... I can't hold on any longer...”
“Older Sister, Older Sister, your little brother is in so much pain, please loosen them... loosen them a bit...”
“Kill! Kill Song Yanrong! Kill Yan Xiao, that treacherous traitor who betrayed his master! Hack that dog couple into a thousand pieces, shred them to pieces!”
The young man seemed half-mad, suspended in midair, sometimes begging in a low whisper, sometimes screaming in agony.
His wails echoed back and forth within the cramped cell, making one's hair stand on end.
However, standing a few paces away with their hands behind their backs, Yan Xiao and Song Yanrong both looked completely unfazed.
Neither of them even bothered to spare him a second glance.
Their eyes remained fixed on a middle-aged, beautiful woman sitting cross-legged in the corner of the cell, her hands and feet also bound by heavy shackles.
Although she was imprisoned and disheveled, the woman still could not hide her elegant charm.
It seemed that having not seen the light of day for so long had made her already well-maintained fair skin look as pale as paper.
Because of this, even with fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, it was impossible to tell that she was already a woman in her forties.
“Mother, can you really bear to watch Huatang, the sole remaining sprout of our Song family, suffer this kind of skinning and bone-extracting torture day after day?”
Song Yanrong took light, graceful steps, walking over to the middle-aged woman. Slowly crouching down, she reached out to tidy the stray hairs around the woman's temples, her eyes filled with pity.
“Your daughter is unfilial, but doing this is also out of necessity.”
“I am merely obsessed with martial arts and wish to witness the wonders of the Huajin Rank...”
“Mother, you only need to tell me the Huajin Rank mental cultivation method of the 『Tongbei Stance』. I swear to Heaven that I will immediately unlock the shackles for you and Huatang, prepare a generous travel allowance, and send you both far away! To Nanxiang Prefecture, to Cangzhou, or even to the capital, Linzi... How about it?”
The middle-aged woman slowly opened her eyes.
She looked at her biological daughter's beautiful face, her voice numb and devoid of any emotion.
“How many times do I have to tell you...”
“I did not hide the 『Tongbei Stance』. Your father hid it with his own hands back then. When he was alive, he guarded against you like a thief and only trusted Huatang.”
“Unfortunately, before the Huajin Rank formula of the 『Tongbei Stance』 could be passed down, you poisoned him to death...”
“Furthermore, my maiden name is Han, not Song. Song Hengjiang was too busy guarding against me to begin with, so why would he tell me its location?”
Song Yanrong stared at her silently.
After a long moment, the smile on her gorgeous face slowly vanished.
“...You old, ungrateful bitch!”
She slowly stood up, her gaze sweeping toward Yan Xiao, her voice freezing cold:
“Force-feed him the medicine!”
Without a word, Yan Xiao picked up the medicinal decoction prepared on the side table, turned, and walked over to the young man suspended in midair.
Dislocating the young man's jaw with one hand, he poured the entire bowl of medicine down his throat.
Gulp, gulp!
The medicine entered his stomach.
The bleeding from the blade wounds on the young man's body stopped at a speed visible to the naked eye. An intense, bone-gnawing itch, like ten thousand ants eating his bones, made his entire body spasm and shiver.
“Old thing...”
Song Yanrong didn't turn around, her eyes still fixed on Madam Han's face:
“Do not think that just because your maiden name is Han and your family is the Han family of Xinyi Prefecture, I wouldn't dare touch you.”
“Today is the last chance I am giving you. Next time...”
“...it will be your turn!”
The corners of her mouth slowly curled up, forming a morbid, excited smile, as if she could not wait to see that moment.
Flipping her delicate hand from her sleeve.
Swish!
A snowy-white, shiny knife as thin as a cicada's wing danced and flipped between her fingertips.
Song Yanrong giggled coquettishly as she walked toward Song Huatang, who was groaning in pain in midair due to the regeneration of new flesh.
“My little brother, my good brother... Don't be afraid, Older Sister is here. Older Sister is going to pamper you well now... Hahahahaha!”
The next moment!
“Ahhhhh!”
The young man's heart-wrenching, inhuman screams echoed shrilly through the dungeon once more.
Rate on N.U.
