"You want to swear brotherhood with me?" Fang Xing asked with surprise while pointing to himself in shock. Fang Xing had mentioned swearing brotherhood because he'd expected them to be unwilling and refuse, which would set up the opportunity to talk about buying the Sword Embryos with money. His offer for brotherhood had been nothing more than a trap, yet this mute of the Han clan had unexpectedly agreed to become his sworn brother!

If this mute wasn't an idiot, there definitely had to be some kind of dark schemes, and Fang Xing knew he wasn't an idiot. There was a saying that dogs that bite don't bark, and considering Han Ying's high battle prowess and sly nature, he was the type of person who would bite so hard the wound might take years to recover. How could someone like this be an idiot? It stood to reason there had to be a scheme of some kind.

Even Li Ying didn't understand why Han Ying would agree to such a thing and looked to him in confusion, but the son of the Han clan looked at Fang Xing and declared, "I'll make it clear. After we've sworn brotherhood, I'll help you while inside the Sword Mound, and as long as you do not reveal my identity, I will also help you inside the Mysterious Domain. Once we're out of the Mysterious Domain and the Huangfu clan searches for you, I do not know you. If you are able to escape the Huangfu clan with your life, however, I—Han Ying—will see you as my real sworn brother when we meet again to share all fortunes and misfortunes!"

Li Ying's eyes lit up as he began to consider this as well. As for Fang Xing, he was quietly cursing to himself; this damn mute sure knew how to scheme! No wonder he'd be willing to swear brotherhood—he'd already clearly calculated all the possibilities. Han Ying had clearly stated he would help out on the condition Fang Xing didn't cause any big troubles for him, but he'd simply pretend not to know him if Fang Xing were to be caught up in a great disaster. This was an obvious act of cowardice, but it was spoken so bluntly it seemed rather genuine regardless.

Li Ying smiled as well. "I also agree to swear brotherhood. My conditions are the same as the mute's!"

"You're giving conditions even for something like this?" Fang Xing angrily cursed. "You really think I want your brotherhood so much?"

"It would be insincere without conditions!" Han Ying replied.

Li Ying laughed. "Yeah! Besides, weren't you trying to play us, too?"

Fang Xing could only roll his eyes without responding, and the blue-clothed bandit watched from the side with great satisfaction. As the group of cultivators flew closer, however, things became more urgent and Fang Xing began to quickly weigh the pros and cons.

"Let's do it then!" Fang Xing exclaimed with a cold laugh before pulling out a jade contract and staining it with a few drops of his blood. "I, Fang Xing, will today swear brotherhood with these two bastards. They are timid and useless, so I won't place any hope in them helping me while I fight against the Huangfu clan, but if they do not act from a single one of my commands to help against anything other than the Huangfu clan, they will be struck through their intestines by five heavenly thunders, causing them to lose all their cultivation and suffer a fate worse than death... And even if they do die, they will wind up in hell with their souls ground away, never allowed to enter the cycle of life again... And even if they do find their way into reincarnation, they will become mutts and swines to forever live under the knives of men..."

These words left both Li Ying and Han Ying shocked. Did Fang Xing actually want to become brothers or was he simply cursing at them?

"Stop talking about us, what about you?" Li Ying hastily asked.

"And I will give them an immortal's Sword Embryo each!" Fang Xing added, causing Li Ying and Han Ying's objections to grow silent.

Once Fang Xing finished his vow, he threw the jade contract towards Han Ying who dripped some blood onto it as well. "I don't have the ability and background to offend the Huangfu clan right now and cannot help this time around, but aside from this, we shall share the same fortunes and misfortunes for anything else..." With those words, Han Ying passed the jade contract over to Li Ying, who completed his part and passed it back into Fang Xing's hands. From there, Fang Xing put the contract away and made two copies to hand over to the others.

Li Ying relaxed and smiled as he accepted his copy. "I've never actually sworn brotherhood with anyone so far—this is rather interesting. Now that we're brothers, we'll need to see who's older and who's younger, right? I'm thirteen this year, how old are you two?"

"Twenty-four," Han Ying calmly replied.

"I'm thirty-one. I'm the oldest, so you two are my little brothers!"

Li Ying nearly choked and looked at Fang Xing with disbelief. "You think I'm blind or something?"

Fang Xing rolled his eyes. "I entered the Jianghu 1 early; what's the big deal?" He wasn't completely lying, either—he'd effectively been born in a bandit's nest and had definitely entered that kind of life from an early age.

Before the other two had time to respond further, the cultivators rushed closer towards them like a mighty storm cloud with the most powerful and ambitious cultivators leading at the front. While many fought over the Sword Embryos Fang Xing hadn't taken in the small area near the southeast entrance, those in the lead all wanted to fight for the Sword Embryos found deeper in the Sword Mound.

"Dammit, that little demon is here..."

"Nearly all of the Sword Embryos in the outer areas are gone with only a handful left behind. They were definitely taken by them in advance..."

"Hurry and hand over the Sword Embryos, or don't blame us for not holding back..."

The cultivators all began to surround Fang Xing and the others as they arrived. A few even looked towards the black great hall with glistening eyes, but Fang Xing was blocking off the door and preventing anyone else from entering.

These people weren't stupid; some of them had suspected something was wrong when they didn't see Fang Xing at all during the attack on the Sword Mound, it simply hadn't been urgent enough to investigate, but they still came up with a few theories after entering and finding Fang Xing already inside. This so-called alliance to attack the Sword Mound had been purely driven for self-benefit without any real warmth or friendliness, and their murderous intent immediately began to grow when they realized what had happened. They tried to force Fang Xing to hand over the Sword Embryos, and if it wasn't for the fact they still wanted to keep Fang Xing alive so he could shoulder the blame, they would have attacked him much earlier.

"The Sword Embryos are with me, of course, but who dares to take them from me?" Fang Xing sneered while shaking a storage sack, causing a dozen Sword Embryos to fly out of it and into the air. These were the Sword Embryos he'd taken earlier, and all the cultivators were knowledgeable enough to sense the strong spiritual movements within them as soon as they saw the dozen or so tattered weapons. Their breathing instantly quickened and their hearts began to pump, like perverts ogling a beautiful woman.

"Give us the Sword Embryos!" someone suddenly shouted from the crowd, right before a black Immortal's Snare abruptly flew above the crowd and rushed towards one of the Sword Embryos. Someone had completely disregarded the reactions of everyone else and decided to take one for themself. After this person started, the others became even more excited and no fewer than two dozen people started to ready attacks of their own.

The situation was similar to when Fang Xing had goaded everyone to attack the Sword Mound earlier; with benefits right in front of their eyes, who would care anymore? They needed only the slightest push to start fighting their way for it. Although the cultivators truly did want to keep Fang Xing alive to shoulder the blame, they didn't care about even this anymore. It was even possible Fang Xing's life might be taken in the chaos just as Lei Jiu's had been—this was simply how things happened at times.

Fang Xing was prepared well in advance, however, and as the cultivators began to act, he immediately yelled out, "My two brothers!" With his call, Han Ying and Li Ying both began to move as well.

Li Ying began using ghostly spells and sending ghost Qi all over the sky to block off any attack that got too close, while Han Ying instantly thrust his lance forward, causing its blue aura to linger in the air as it changed its course through the crowd. Before the cultivators had any chance to react, it had already snaked its way through and singled out one shrieking cultivator in particular.

The cultivator that had been pierced through had a black Immortal's Snare in his hand—he was precisely the one who'd tried to take a Sword Embryo amidst the chaos. Han Ying's long lance vibrated and the cultivator immediately became a rain of blood, leaving all the other cultivators utterly shocked and causing them to pause in their efforts.

Fang Xing gave a cold laugh. "How dare you want to take stuff from your little grandpa's hands? Hehe, you surely planned it all out, huh? You really think I'm an idiot who'd be used by all of you for nothing? Since you all want it, well, I'll give it to you!"

After speaking, Fang Xing ordered two of the Sword Embryos in the sky to crash against each other.

Pah . Pah .

These two swords were extremely old and tattered, and a collision like this caused both of them to scatter into ashes all over the surrounding area. Two spiritual lights suddenly appeared in the sky as the Sword Embryos that had lost their container began to rise upwards. A sad and mournful emotion could be felt coming from these lights as though they were spirits from living beings, right until they flew up into the sky like fireworks and exploded out in all directions.

"He.. he actually destroyed two Sword Embryos..."

Silence fell over the cultivators as they looked up with disbelief and hearts that ached as though they'd just been stabbed. These were Sword Embryos—something all the cultivators would risk their lives for—and yet he destroyed them so casually?

And not just one, but two!

"I noticed these Sword Embryos aren't very sturdy. I won't mince words; if anyone dares trying to take a Sword Embryo, I will destroy it and no one will be able to have it. To show I'm not simply bluffing, I'll destroy a dozen more first.." Fang Xing shouted before more Sword Embryos flew up and prepared to crash into each other.

The cultivators were all shocked and called out in unison to stop him. "Wait, wait..." If it weren't for Li Ying and Han Ying standing in front of Fang Xing and protecting him like two door guards, the cultivators truly would have banded together to take the Sword Embryos from this little demon's hands. However, they knew breaking through Li Ying and Han Ying to get at Fang Xing would leave them heavily wounded and it would also take much longer; who could tell how many more Sword Embryos the little demon would destroy in that time?

Seeing this, Fang Xing laughed and revealed the intentions he'd had from the beginning. "Hehe, are you afraid yet? Then how about we talk about how much you're all willing to pay for these Sword Embryos?" It's a sort of concept, basically "the world where anything goes/might makes right". Often used in reference to a more criminal underground, but is more broad in this instance.