After appraising with the Book of Revelation, Fang Xing had already realized this manifestation was simply a strand of reflection left behind by a Golden Core Stage cultivator. The power of such a thing was limited, and although Fang Xing might have been afraid if he were an ordinary early Foundation Stage cultivator, his current battle prowess was well and above. Furthermore, since he had an Ancient weapon like the Flag of Ten Thousand Spirits, Fang Xing was seventy percent certain he would be able to destroy this reflection alongside Ye Gu’yin.
"This pupil of mine is indeed rather proud and arrogant. I shall apologize to my esteemed fellow Daoist on her behalf," the elder calmly replied. "This reflection of mine may not be able to stop you, but please allow me to tell you this: if you kill my pupil, this reflection within her Sea of Consciousness will naturally be destroyed along with her, and there will be unavoidable consequences for you. If you were to get within a thousand miles of me, I would be able to sense it and locate your exact location through spells. My fellow Daoist, if I—Hu Qin—were to intentionally make things difficult for you, I’m afraid your days would not be so easy…."
The voice was calm, as though both threatening Fang Xing and casually stating the facts of a simple matter.
However, Fang Xing was left completely astonished. "Hu Qin?" Hearing this name had left him dumbfounded, and it took him a good long while before he finally responded.
The s.h.i.+fu of Ye Gu’yin was Hu Qin? The Hu Qin that Sect Master Chen Xuanhua spoke of? The person who was able to solve Fang Xing’s demon spirit problem?
Shouldn’t this name belong to a woman? Why was it a man, and an ugly old man at that?
Seeing Fang Xing’s surprise, Hu Qin slowly added, "Fellow Daoist, I understand my pupil’s temperament well, hence I will treat this event as a personal grudge between the two of you, no matter whether it’s a win or a loss or whatever disadvantage she received. However, she is after all my student, and I cannot see her die like this. So I beg you, my fellow Daoist, to spare her life. Consider this a favor to me, the old Hu Qin. What do you think about this?"
Fang Xing’s thoughts quickly raced through his mind. Although he was surprised to find out Ye Gu’yin’s teacher and the person he’d been looking for was one and the same, he hid it skillfully and carefully without leaving a single trace before laughing. "Old man, I can give you this favor and let your pupil off this time, but as you’ve said, you’ll owe me a favor. Let me ask you this: do you mean what you say?"
Hu Qin was slightly surprised upon hearing this and bowed. "Thank you. The words of Hu Qin would naturally be honored!"
Fang Xing lowered his head in thought as though uncertain the old man would really follow through before casually replying, "Ok, I’ll remember this!"
A little taken aback, Hu Qin cupped his hands towards Fang Xing before the manifestation began to disappear. Once it had disappeared completely, Ye Gu’yin let out a soft whimper and her consciousness returned.
"How nice to have such a good s.h.i.+fu. To have plenty of treasures is one thing, but to also have a reflection to help save your life at the most critical moment…" Fang Xing muttered to himself; the difference between the two of them was just too large.
Ye Gu’yin was unaware of what had just happened, and she was rather surprised to see Fang Xing standing a hundred feet away from her. "You… you’re not going to kill me?"
"Such a beauty like you, wouldn’t it be a waste of that good pair of legs if I killed you?" Fang Xing smirked. He immediately walked up to her, grasped her chin, and raised her exquisite face so he could look directly into her panic-stricken eyes. "I—your little grandpa—am a man with a soft heart," he laughed. "Since you’ve been so well-behaved the past few days, I’ve decided not to kill you for now. But remember this: you owe me a life."
That old man Hu Qin had already said that if he were to kill this woman, he would destroy that reflection as well, and cause an effect would lead to an even larger grudge forming between him and Hu Qin. Fang Xing also had a request for the old man, so it was only natural he wouldn’t easily commit murder; it was just that he felt some annoyance at the thought of letting this woman go so easily.
After seeing this woman show a rare weak and delicate expression, Fang Xing began to develop some wicked thoughts, and he puckered his lips before placing a kiss right onto Ye Gu’yin’s pale lips. Ye Gu’yin herself had only just escaped death and was incredibly surprised the boy had spared her life; after so suddenly being kissed, her eyes widened into two round circles and her body became soft and powerless as though struck by lightning.
"Although your grandpa has decided not to kill you, I’m still going to leave something behind for you to remember me by." The truth was, Fang Xing had only lightly pecked her on the lips. He was afraid Ye Gu’yin might try to bite him, so he had to be on guard towards her at all times.
After the kiss, Fang Xing still felt as though it wasn’t enough and sneakily moved his hands to Ye Gu’yin’s chest. He let out a long laugh and dragged away a silky red cloth before fleeing into the depths of the prison abyss.
Ye Gu’yin sat dazed on the ground. After a great deal of time had pa.s.sed and she slowly began to recover from her daze, she felt a chill over her chest and looked down, nearly fainting at what she saw….
Her chest no longer had any cover, and her two white doves had been set free. That brat… actually took her undergarment….
Ye Gu’yin’s fury burned away all of the delicate weakness she’d shown before, and her loud voice echoed within the entire hall, "b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I… I will kill you…."
By the time his loud and prolonged laughter had finished, Fang Xing had already arrived in front of the three formations in front of the giant iron gate. Without any hesitation, he flew up and halted mid-air before shaking the golden wings on his back, causing several hundreds of realistic feather swords to fly towards the first formation. It was the Hundred and Eight Thousand Swords, and its power had increased tenfold now that he’d successfully formed the foundation.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
The streams of Qi flourished as their power flew in all directions, and the first formation was broken by the swords.
Fang Xing’s body moved like light as he swept through this broken formation. As he rushed into the second formation, he wrapped the Flag of Ten Thousand Spirits around his body, and a black smoke began to pour out from the flag like a strange and mysterious armor to protect him. The second formation was filled with an unlimited amount of power over lightning, and it struck down from above to land against the black smoke.
Now that the second formation had been forcibly resisted, Fang Xing wasn’t far from the third.
"Go!" Fang Xing commanded before throwing out the already-prepared Phoenix-Fear Zither from his hand.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
The third formation had the metal property, and in mere moments a large number of Flying Swords were activated to strike against the Phoenix-Fear Zither like a sea of blade. Each sword had been sharpened to the extreme and was nearly as powerful as a supreme-quality Flying Sword, yet this Phoenix-Fear Zither was so extraordinarily st.u.r.dy that not even Fang Xing had been able to destroy it, making it the perfect item to use as a s.h.i.+eld right now. It was struck so many times that clanging sounds could be heard from all over, yet it didn’t receive so much as a scratch.
Hiding behind the zither like a s.h.i.+eld, Fang Xing was able to pa.s.s through over half of the formation. At the final moment, he threw the "s.h.i.+eld" onto his back, formed the Closed Aegis spell with the Qi from his Foundation Stage cultivation, and took off towards the giant iron gates like a small hawk.
Over the beast city ruins, two Foundation Stage cultivators could be seen flying in the air while openly searching for something. One of them wore a wide robe and loose belt, his face like a lion’s and his eyes like a scorpion’s. It was the sect master of the Myriad Beasts Sect—Ying s.h.i.+hou—and next to him was a man as thin as dried firewood with a goatee on his face—Elder Moye.
They’d followed after Ye Gu’yin and Fang Xing during the chase, but the two had been so incredibly fast that it had been difficult to catch up. Now, neither Fang Xing nor Ye Gu’yin could be seen anywhere beneath the blue sky, as though they’d simply disappeared.
The top genius of Chufung Kingdom had disappeared. This was not a responsibility Ying s.h.i.+hou dared to bear, and so he had anxiously sent out everyone from the Myriad Beasts Sect to search for her. After nearly ten days had pa.s.sed and nearly all of Bohai Kingdom had been searched, they finally sensed the faint aura Ye Gu’yin had sent out near this beast city ruins.
"Sect Master, it can be confirmed that Miss Ye should be inside the Yin Prison Abyss of the former beast city. It is a place that holds numerous restrictions and traps, preventing Miss Ye from being able to escape or even use Message Talismans. She was only able to send out such a faint aura in the hopes we would sense it and work together to break open the Yin Prison Abyss to help her escape!" Elder Moye reported, waiting for Ying s.h.i.+hou’s orders.
"Nothing must happen to Miss Ye, or else it would cause calamity for our Myriad Beasts Sect. Do not worry about Spirit Stones; immediately activate the formation to break open this Yin Prison Abyss and help Miss Ye escape…. Also, after somehow falling from the Qingqiu Tomb, I’m afraid that boy has already discovered secrets even our ancestors could not find. We shall not let him off; after seizing him, make sure to question him thoroughly…."
"Yes, Sect Master!" Elder Moye answered before ordering people to lay down a formation to break open the Yin Prison Abyss. Once the formation had been set and they were about to activate it to open the doors, however, a low cracking sound suddenly rose up from within. Moye was slightly startled and looked towards the gates in confusion.
The gates of the Yin Prison Abyss swung open and an excited laugh came from inside. "Haha, I’m finally out!" A silhouette covered in a black flag came das.h.i.+ng out from the iron gates, its speed as fast as lightning.
"How did he… how did he escape on his own?" Elder Moye jumped at this before quickly rus.h.i.+ng forward and commanding the disciples around the formation, "Surround him!"
The person who’d just rushed out from the gates was naturally Fang Xing. He was incredibly excited to obtain freedom once again, yet before he’d even fully come out and was able to clearly take in his surroundings, a voice rose up in his ears and a thin man came das.h.i.+ng towards him. Two gnarled hands sent out strike after strike of invisible, rope-like force towards Fang Xing, leaving him astonished as well before he sent out a slap.
"d.a.m.n your uncle, you scared me!" Although it had seemed nothing more than a simple slap, its speed and strength had far exceeded Elder Moye’s expectations. He’d seen the slap heading towards him but hadn’t had any time to evade at all; all he could feel was a numbness on his cheek before half his body froze. He was sent backwards at a speed much greater than when he’d rushed forwards, and his head was pushed into a broken wall. Whether he was even still alive or not became uncertain.
All of the startled disciples stared at the kid who’d come das.h.i.+ng from the back of the giant iron gates in a daze. No one dared to come forward.
Elder Moye was the one who formed the foundation, yet he’d been sent flying with a slap…. Just what kind of cultivation level did this boy have? Even Fang Xing was left a little surprised by this and felt this Elder Moye was just too easily beaten.