Fang Xing had truly become angry; it seemed just about every random person wanted to cause trouble for him!

　　Li Ying couldn’t understand why Fang Xing was so angry and was nearly struck in the head by the one-legged statue. He quickly dodged backwards to escape the strike and began angrily shouting, “This is all with good intentions, why do you not recognize them? I’ve even thought of an escape route! After this, not only will we have all the spoils, there also won’t be any future problems, so what the hell are you getting mad at me for?”

　　Fang Xing chased after him for a hundred or so feet without catching up to him. Although this ghost kid was a couple years younger than him, his talent was unmatched and he had a very solid foundation; it would actually be quite difficult for Fang Xing to beat him up without using all of his skills, and he didn’t have a good reason to do so right now. He couldn’t really use his apex skill to end this so he could only stop and angrily yell out, “The kind of people I hate the most are people like you who pins blame on others!”

　　Li Ying kept a large distance from Fang Xing and didn’t dare to get close without a good reason. He brought his hands to his hips and cursed back, “Where’s your face? Weren’t you the first person to pretend to be Fang Xing? Not only that, you’re also one of his enemies, and who knows if he’ll come back to seek revenge on you or not once he gets away from the Huangfu clan? This plan of mine is beneficial to you the most; both the Huangfu clan and that little demon will all be schemed against!

　　“Scheme your uncle!” Fang Xing angrily cursed back while folding up his sleeves and picking up the one-legged statue to strike out again.

　　Li Ying’s expression shifted as he jumped another dozen or so feet away. “What is wrong with you? It’s such a great plan!” he shouted. He wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what was going on, either; even the others were looking at Fang Xing in confusion.

　　” Sigh ….” Fang Xing could only stow away his one-legged-man lance and quickly try to think of a way to deal with this. If those Sword Embryos were truly as mysterious and powerful as they said, it was indeed worth fighting over and it wasn’t a good idea to create a deadlock for himself right now. Rather than being inflexible, it would be better to accept the proposal and then go over the details of the plan. If there was the chance, it would also be a good idea to see the bastard who was pretending to be him….

　　“You think I’m stupid?” Li Ying shouted out, “You want to whack me again? Don’t think I’m scared of you! If I’d activated—”

　　“Stop boasting! Hurry and come over, I won’t hit you!” Fang Xing called back while creasing his brows.

　　“I’m not afraid of you!” Li Ying was agitated by Fang Xing’s words, but he still came closer with a look of vigilance. Although he’d always been called crazy and a madman, no matter which way he looked at this situation, Fang Xing was closer to that description than he was—and one that would pull out a giant stick to whack you from time to time, at that. It also just happened that whether it was battle prowess or evil schemes, this person was one of the top, meaning he couldn’t take him lightly. He wouldn’t be worried if he had his Ancient tool his father had given him in the beginning, but the tool had been taken away by his sister….

　　“Alright, let me hear everything you know. I’ve thought about it and decided we can perhaps work together!” Fang Xing put away his statue and leaned against the horse carriage with his arms folded, as though ready to negotiate.

　　“You’ve accepted?” Overjoyed, Li Ying removed the mask on his face to scratch his nose before placing it back on again.

　　Han Jiazi of the western deserts looked at the blue-clothed bandit sitting at the edge of the horse carriage. “What about him?” The others were somewhat interested in the blue-clothed bandit’s background. His rare battle prowess didn’t seem much weaker than theirs at all, and he was one of the masters they wanted to form an alliance with so they were concerned about his stance.

　　The blue-clothed bandit smiled and did not disappoint at all. “This is interesting. I will come and have a look as well!”

　　Han Jiazi, Li Ying, and the three fairies of the northern mountains exchanged satisfied looks after receiving such an answer—the battle prowess of these three was so great there weren’t many people they took seriously. The reason they’d sought an alliance in the first place was because they were planning something extremely dangerous and difficult; if someone weak tried to join, they’d only be a burden, not an ally.

　　Fang Xing was a very suitable candidate for the alliance. First, he had more than enough battle prowess, and this had already received the acknowledgment of Li Ying and Han Jiazi. Second, the Flag of Ten Thousand Spirits in his hands would become an extremely useful asset to help them enter the Sword Mound. The third and final reason was even simpler: he had a longstanding enmity with the Huangfu clan, which would ensure his loyalty to the alliance.

　　“Huangfu Shenji has already entered the innermost depths of the Mysterious Domain alongside four of the Bewitched Follower tribes while the Fiery Cloud, Shaken Cloud, and Black Swamp tribes have stayed behind to guard the Sword Mound. One mustn’t take these three tribes lightly. Among them, the Fiery Cloud’s young leader—Huo Linzi—has the blood of an ancient Kylin unicorn and his talent cannot be underestimated. As for the Shaken Cloud tribe, their leader—Ying Chenzi—is the human form of the ancient Scaled Falcon, and he has the ability to fly into the heavens and dig into the earth, making him a difficult opponent. As for the young leader of the Black Swamp, it is said they all have the blood of the ancient Nine-headed Worm great beast, making them all exceptionally difficult….” Li Ying was trying to show off his knowledge but paused when he saw Fang Xing’s disdainful look. ” Aii , don’t you look at me like that! The Eight Bewitched Follower tribes that belong to the Huangfu clan normally cultivate in secret and only show themselves under Huangfu’s orders. This information was very hard to come by, and for me to have this much is already plentiful…” he tried to explain.

　　“So these Eight Bewitched Followers are all of Mahn blood, right?” Fang Xing did end up realizing something useful: it seemed the Eight Bewitched Followers of the Huangfu clan were all Mahns—half human, half beast.

　　“Most are of Mahn blood, but there are also pure beast tribes and pure human tribes. Within the Eight Bewitched Followers, the Nine Songs tribe is pure human blood and ranked first just beneath the Huangfu family itself. ‘Eight Bewitched Followers’ is just what they’re all called.”

　　The lead fairy from the northern mountains spoke up, “Although the young leaders of these three tribes are difficult, the seven of us have enough combined battle prowess to still have a hope of entering the Sword Mound if we plan ahead. We should honestly feel relieved; Lei Jiu of the Nine Songs is the leader of the Eight Bewitched Followers and is already at mid Foundation Stage, and if he didn’t belong to the Huangfu clan, his name would surely be spreading all over Jambu. He was originally one of the people guarding the Sword Mound, but since that guy named Fang Xing killed four groups of Huangfu clan ambassadors and angered them, they sent Lei Jiu after him. It is good he is not inside the Sword Mound right now!”

　　Further discussion and exchanges of information allowed Fang Xing to have a better grasp of the current situation inside the Sword Mound, and he suddenly realized the Huangfu clan was called the “hidden royal family” of Jambu for good reason—their influence and power was beyond imagination. The battle prowess of their young master aside, even the young leaders of the Eight Bewitched Follower tribes were all mid to late Foundation Stage.

　　One had to know that there was an age limit to enter the Mysterious Domain, and everyone who entered was less than forty years old. A late-Foundation Stage cultivator below forty years, just what kind of people were these young leaders? Put simply, even Sect Master Chen Xuanhua of the Qing-Yun Sect—an old monster a hundred or so years old—was only at the late Foundation Stage! And these young leaders were still considered the younger generation of their fellow tribes; thinking about it this way, what kind of cultivation level would the real power of the clan all have to have? Wouldn’t they have to be at least late Golden Core Stage?

　　It was frightening to even think about how much influence the Huangfu clan must have in order to keep late-Golden Core Stage cultivators as flunkies. Fang Xing didn’t feel too concerned, however; if this was something even the three fairies of the northern mountains would dare to do, then why wouldn’t he? Besides, what the hell was wrong with that Huangfu clan’s young master? He’d sent out a bounty for his head before even seeing him, and this enmity really couldn’t be pinned on Fang Xing at all. If it couldn’t be resolved, it was better to have a better understanding of their actual battle prowess first.

　　Once the plan was decided, all four groups clapped to confirm their vows before leaving on their own. They’d agreed to meet up at Sword Mound, but if they left as a single large group, it would be extremely easy to run across others which would only hinder their plan.

　　The horse carriage began running again as it gradually moved towards the Sword Mound. During the journey, Fang Xing didn’t think about needless things and only focused on two things. First, were these guys genuine about wanting to form an alliance with him? He had to be careful to make sure they didn’t sell him out. Second, he was trying to figure out a way to sell them out!

　　—

　　After a full day had passed, Fang Xing arrived near the area of the Sword Mound Li Ying had mentioned. On the way here, he’d also noticed there were significantly less cultivators, most likely because most cultivators didn’t have the battle prowess to come so deep and they’d already left the Mysterious Domain using the altars after gaining from earlier opportunities. The opportunities within the center area were also much less frequent and very scattered about.

　　By lunchtime of the second day, however, Fang Xing began to notice cultivators had been arriving from all directions, that all of them seemed to be covered in a malicious aura, and they were all in an urgent hurry towards the same location. Since this was so close to the Sword Mound, Fang Xing was concerned they were all heading towards the Sword Mound just like he was and blocked one of the cultivators in order to find out some answers.

　　“Fellow Daoist, from the looks of it, you must have entered from the outside. How can you not know about such a great opportunity?” The cultivator had originally seemed incredibly ferocious and scary, but he became far more pleasant after receiving a couple of Fang Xing’s fists.

　　“What opportunity?” Fang Xing was even more certain everyone was here for the Sword Mound when he heard this, but the cultivator unexpectedly pointed towards the northwest with some excitement. “A great opportunity has fallen from the heavens! Have you heard of a little demon named Fang Xing? This person has guts larger than the heavens and dared to oppose the Huangfu clan. The mighty Sir Lei Jiu from the Nine Songs tribe chased after him for nearly eight days and finally managed to block him inside Chaotic Stone Valley. He couldn’t leave even if he had wings….”

　　“Fang… Fang Xing? He’s been trapped?” Fang Xing was left dumbstruck; he hadn’t thought this fake would actually wind up trapped by others.

　　Before the cultivator could reply, another voice abruptly cut in, “Has he been hurt by others?” The person who’d interrupted was none other than the blue-clothed bandit, although it was hard to tell why he would be so anxious.

　　“Hurt, not really. He’s simply been trapped inside Chaotic Stone Valley,” the cultivator quickly replied. “The valley’s landscape is extremely complicated, and Sir Lei Jiu was worried he would manage to escape. Rather than going inside, he placed a large formation outside the valley and sent an order from the Huangfu clan’s young master than any cultivator in the Mysterious Domain is allowed to search for that little demon. Whoever catches him will be able to receive an official summons from the Huangfu clan in order to enter the Sword Mound and choose a Sword Embryo as their reward…. You tell me, is this not a great opportunity straight from the heavens?”

　　“Where’s Chaotic Stone Valley?” Fang XIng and the blue-clothed bandit actually asked at the same time.