A thin shadow with a giant saber resting on its shoulder strode out from the raging flames. Surrounding the figure was a thin barrier shining in a vibrant pale blue, and any bits of flame that touched the barrier would be automatically flicked away. The person within the shining aura had a cold gaze, and even though he may have been completely engulfed by the fire, not a single one of his hairs had been harmed.

Ye Tianlong was shocked, his face full of astonishment. Such a thin barrier couldn’t possibly block those flames.. yet it had. Such a thing was only possible if the [Closed Aegis] barrier was activated by someone much more powerful than him. If this wasn’t the case, there was no way a protective layer so thin would be able to withstand the flames from his fiery sword. But..

.. This person in front of him was definitely in a lower cultivation level!

"By attacking me with that flaming sword, you’ve revealed your murderous intentions. You cannot pin the blame on me anymore." Fang Xing’s eyes revealed a frigid glare as he suddenly turned his saber. Rather than facing the blunt spine towards Ye Tianlong as he had before, Fang Xing now displayed the tip.

Within moments, murderous intent began to fill the air, causing the blood and bones of those present to seethe. Fang Xing had always used the spine of the blade because he wasn’t allowed to start a massacre within the Qing-Yun Sect, and as long as he used the blunt end, he would at most break someone’s bones without taking their life.

Now that the blade had been turned, the message was clear: he was in for the kill.

It was also at this moment that Ye Tianlong’s expression changed as well. "Wait, it was an accident..." He wanted to clarify things a bit more, as he truly did not want things to get physical. Additionally, he had noticed that even though Fang Xing appeared to be in merely tier four, no matter how one looked at it, the boy couldn’t be treated like normal. Even just the small gesture of turning around the saber caused Ye Tianlong to feel Fang Xing’s strong murderous intent; to have such a powerful enemy like this for no reason was not something a clever person like him wanted to risk.

"An accident? I’ve wanted to slice you open from the moment you lent him your spirit weapon!" Fang Xing yelled and dashed towards Ye Tianlong with his saber, releasing both the flames and the malicious energy at the same time.

"Sh*t!" Ye Tianlong cursed in astonishment. Not daring to take the impact of the [Saber of Azure Dragon] with his bare hands, he made a quick hand seal to cause five Flying Swords to fly out of his storage sack like agile snakes. As quick as lightning, all five of the swords stabbed towards different parts of Fang Xing’s body.

Wooooosh...

Fang Xing whirled the saber like a pinwheel once more, knocking away all five of the swords and shattering them into sharp pieces that lodged into the ground and nearby walls.

Such a scene caused Ye Tianlong a fright. To shatter five Flying Swords with a single wave of a blade, what sort of monstrous strength was this?

After the swing, Fang Xing returned the saber to his front and aimed it towards Ye Tianlong’s head once more, preparing to strike. Ye Tianlong was still reeling from astonishment and had lost all thoughts of wanting to fight Fang Xing with force and quickly backed off. "Let’s talk!"

BAM

A strong gust of wind blew against Ye Tianlong as the saber missed and landed on the ground, and Ye Tianlong was so shaken by the force of the wind caused by the blow that he lost his balance. The earth began to shake along with a loud noise as well, and a crack began to form from where the saber’s blade had landed. A bone-numbing sound accompanied the crack’s formation, until it finally reached Ye Tianlong’s crotch.

Rrrrrip...

The force of the very last crack tore open the seams of Ye Tianlong’s pants.

It could easily be imagined that if the force was any greater, it would have been enough to do far more than simply rip the pants between his legs.

All of the color on Ye Tianlong’s face drained away as he began to practically shriek, "Are you insane? I have no grudges with you! Why are you trying to kill me—"

"—Insane your mom!" Fang Xing interrupted before picking up the saber to go for another strike.

Ye Tianlong swallowed back the remaining half of his sentence and turned to run away as quickly as he could. Whenever the boy looked at him, he could see the clear desire to kill from those eyes and didn’t dare to stay any longer. Of course, if he had his [Yin-Yang Hammers] on-hand, he might have chosen to fight a few rounds, but the weapon had already been destroyed. The fact that he was now empty-handed—without even having the separated hammers—meant he was just digging his own grave if he challenged Fang Xing now.

The Duanzhen Valley disciples studied the art of smithing and heavily relied on their weapons to add to their strength. Without their spirit weapons or one that complemented them, their battle power would also be considerably diminished. This was the main reason Ye Tianlong was able to understand his current situation and had chosen to back off.

"Trying to escape?" Although Fang Xing was slightly surprised by this, resentment began to grow as he gave chase. He might not be tall, but his body was strong and robust, and he ran incredibly quickly despite still holding onto the three-thousand-pound saber.

Ye Tianlong could hear Fang Xing’s footsteps behind him as the latter drew closer. When Ye Tianlong unintentionally looked back, he received a good fright before activating and sending a great number of Flying Swords towards Fang Xing in response.

CLING CLING CLANG

Fang Xing swiped all of these swords out of his way while still chasing close behind. However, even though these swords posed no danger, they still served a purpose in a sense and had managed to slow him down ever so slightly.

"Shifu... dear Shifu, help me!"

Although the distance between Ye Tianlong and Fang Xing had finally increased once the latter had been slowed down, it was still impossible to get rid of the boy. Terrified, Ye Tianlong had started screaming for help, hoping that his dear shifu Tie Rukuang would be able to come and stop this. If it wasn’t stopped, it was inevitable that he would eventually find himself beneath the blade. Yet, for whatever reason, Tie Rukuang did not show himself no matter how much Ye Tianlong called out for help. It made him grow even more afraid, to the point that both of his legs seemed to grow soft.

"Shixiong Ye, over here!" someone suddenly shouted out, beckoning to Ye Tianlong from the entrance of their cave estate. Ye Tianlong dashed towards him without a second thought. The man was a good friend of his, and as soon as Ye Tianlong had made it inside, the man immediately activated the formation on the door, causing it to shut tightly closed.

DING

In mere seconds, the closed stone door was assailed by a huge blade. Sparks flew everywhere, yet the cave and its stone door remained indifferent.

"So he’s taken refuge in the cave..." Fang Xing gritted his teeth. If he had just been that little bit closer, he would have gotten Ye Tianlong. Now that Ye Tianlong had managed to make it inside and tightly shut the door, Fang Xing could no longer make it inside.

DING... DING... DING...

Sparks flew out in all directions and the stone door was engraved with blade marks, yet there was no sign of it opening anytime soon. All the cave estates within the Duanzhen Valley had used full blocks of Black Iron; forget about Fang Xing, not even the core disciples could open them up from the outside.

"Bastard, how dare you hide away! Come the f*ck out!" Fang Xing cursed at the top of his lungs while still chopping at the door.

After a long silence inside the cave, Ye Tianlong’s voice could finally be heard as he panted, "I.. I used the flaming sword because.. because I was simply upset about you destroying my weapon! You’re crazy! Why are you trying to kill me? You.. if you kill me, do you really think our dear shifu won’t punish you?"

"Upset your grandfather! If I hadn’t studied Closed Aegis, wouldn’t your sword of flame have taken my life?" With another loud ding, Fang Xing landed another strike to the door. "Come out now! Let me give you a single strike and we’ll be considered even!"

After hastily taking a few more breaths, Ye Tianlong yelled out in response, "You’ve destroyed my spirit weapon, and I attacked you with my flaming sword. We’re already even!"

"Even your mom! Weren’t you the one as arrogant as a peacock? There weren’t any ill feelings between us, so why did you lend your weapon to Murong Ying for him to use against me? You were the one that started all of this, so don’t hide and pretend to be a sissy!"

By now, almost all of the Duanzhen Valley disciples had been alerted and everyone looked on towards the scene. After seeing Ye Tianlong so scared of Fang Xing and now hiding inside an estate while begging to be let go, the onlookers’ faces were filled with all manner of peculiar expressions.

"Shixiong Ye is frightened to this degree?"

"Yeah. Hiding inside the cave, too scared to come out, that’s a bit too much, is it not?"

"This kid is so powerful, and he’s even got a high-tier spirit weapon. Shixiong Ye’s spirit weapon, on the other hand, was destroyed already; he’s no match for him..."

"Stop calling him ‘kid’. His combat strength was definitely not something someone from tier four should have. Seems like the rumors must have been wrong and he really did learn something powerful from Elder Bai Qianzhang. It’s unwise to provoke him..."

Chatter filled the air as people discussed amongst themselves, yet no one dared to speak out against this scene.

"Ye Tianlong, open the door! You had the guts to cause trouble, but what about the guts to open the door, huh!" Fang Xing jumped up and down in front of the entrance, while it seemed as though the entire valley was watching him dumbfounded. Only silence came from within the cave itself, and no one knew what the two disciples inside could be planning.

"Fine, not coming out, huh? I’m not convinced I can’t open this stupid door!" Filled with hate, Fang Xing walked back to his own cave, where all of those disciples who were supposed to hand in their Refined Iron were. They were shivering as they continued to wait without daring to escape, and when they saw Fang Xing, their expressions twisted as though they had come face to face with a monster. The bucket in front of the cave had also been filled back up with Spirit Stones, and it seemed as though a few had even added a bit more, making the bucket fuller than before.

As Fang Xing walked over, Zhushu also regained his consciousness and began to look at Fang Xing with fear.

BOOM

As soon as Fang Xing drew close enough, he sent Zhushu flying with a single kick. He then pointed his saber right at the rest of them and demanded, "You bunch of cows prefer doing things the hard way! Since you all tried to cause me trouble when I wanted to hand out rewards for good behavior, I’m changing how we do this. Whoever doesn’t hand me their Refined Iron within three days can say goodbye to their legs. If there are any problems with the Refined Iron you hand in, all four limbs will be gone!"

Everyone trembled in fear. Not a single one dared to make a noise.

"Did you hear me?" Fang Xing abruptly yelled.

The air was filled with the sound of disciples falling to their knees in unison. "Yes, we heard you..."

"Then f*ck off!"

After receiving Fang Xing’s orders, the disciples picked themselves up. They grabbed ahold of whatever piece of fake Refined Iron they could without concern for whose was whose and ran back to their own estates.

Fang Xing spat in disgust before cursing, "A bunch of bastards that won’t cry until they see their own graves!" His attention then moved to the separated [Yin-Yang Hammers] that had been left untouched on the ground. After picking them up, he took the Yang hammer with him to the cave Ye Tianlong was hiding in. Once he arrived at the entrance, he poured some Qi into the hammer to enlarge it into the size of a small mountain before grasping the attached chain and brandishing it towards the cave’s entranceway.

RUMBLE...

The entirety of the stone door seemed to shake, soil and mud shuddering as it fell down from the impact. Inside the cave, Ye Tianlong was once again horrified and screamed out, "Hurry! Hurry and ask Shifu for help..."