After hearing a few yells back and forths, Fang Xing understood what was going on. These two were the Sword Cleansing Court’s genius—Xiao Xue—and the elite youth of the Ephemeral Butterfly—Hou Guimen. Despite being female, Xiao Xue favored battles over everything else and had come for a battle after hearing Hou Guimen had successfully formed his foundation. Hou Guimen wasn’t stupid, however, and he refused to fight her despite Xiao Xue sealing two tiers of her foundation power. Faced with Xiao Xue’s persistence, he eventually created a large formation to hide inside, but Xiao Xue refused to leave and decided to brute force her way through the formation to teach Hou Guimen a lesson.

　　Hou Guimen was a genius in formations and was certain the formation he’d placed here was something Xiao Xue wouldn’t be able to break. His courage only grew larger and larger, and after a few exchanges from inside, he simply quietly waited for Xiao Xue to try to do so while he languidly hid inside.

　　Fang Xing’s little brain moved extremely quickly and he soon came up with an idea. ‘Very good. Since the two of you came knocking on my door, I—your little grandpa—will gift you with a grand opportunity….’ He began to quietly sneak towards the formation without revealing himself.

　　Hou Guimen might be a genius in formations from the Ephemeral Butterfly Sect, but his formation wasn’t particularly special to Fang Xing; with Fang Xing calling out the locations of the eight passages and the Peng King calculating the paths, the pair predicted the formation’s rotation rather easily. Xiao Xue was also flinging sword lights all over the place to try to overpower it with brute strength, while Fang Xing on the other hand borrowed the Mask of Wanluo’s ability to hide his aura to try to sneak inside. Hou Guimen’s attention was focused on Xiao Xue, allowing Fang Xing to sneak inside without him even noticing.

　　Once inside the formation, Fang Xing saw a black-robed man hiding within. His stature was tall, but his clothing seemed tattered as though he’d been beaten just earlier—this had to be Hou Guimen alright. His back was to Fang Xing while his hands formed into a seal and sent formation flags out one after another to control the formation’s Qi and block off Xiao Xue.

　　“Xiao Xue, I shall battle with you if you can break my formation. Hurry and come!” Hou Guimen loudly yelled towards Xiao Xue before muttering to himself, “How dare this stupid girl look down on me. Take your time trying to break this formation, I on the other hand won’t waste so much time on you. I’ll go back to the Demon God Valley to spend some time with my little shimeis….” With that, he let out a soft laugh and turned to walk away.

　　In truth, he intended to lure Xiao Xue into breaking his formation to trap her inside it while he himself fled. The formation wouldn’t be able to trap her too long without him here to personally activate it, but it would be more than enough for him to leave with plenty of time to spare.

　　While Hou Guimen was thinking about how flawless his plan was, someone was sneakily creeping up closer to him from the back. Fang Xing spat into his hands, raised his one-legged-man lance, and bashed it over the back of Hou Guimen’s head.

　　Bang ….

　　Hou Guimen’s body shook for a moment in surprise. He slowly turned his head around in a daze, trying to see what had just happened.

　　“Sh*t, why are you so sturdy?” Since Fang Xing had already done it, he may as well do it well—he soon went in for another whack.

　　BANG !

　　Regardless of how sturdy Hou Guimen was, two whacks against the head was too much for him and he fell flat on the ground.

　　It was quite a pity. This person was extremely talented in the art of formations and considered a genius of his generation, even titled as one of Chufung’s top three Spirit Stage cultivators. Yet just after forming his foundation, he was blocked off by Xiao Xue to the point he hid inside his formation without daring to escape, only to then be knocked unconscious by two whacks from Fang Xing’s lance. Even to the very end where he slipped unconscious, he still didn’t know what had just happened—how incredibly sad.

　　Fang Xing kneeled down with a smirk before reaching for Hou Guimen’s storage sack. Opening it, he grabbed anything valuable for himself before finally placing a Dragon Blood Pellet inside, albeit with much regret and reluctance.

　　The thick black malice used by the Peng King to cover the pellet and temporarily seal the draconic aura had begun to thin out, and the essence struggled violently to break free. As one increased, the other decreased, and it wouldn’t be long before the malice would be used up completely, allowing the draconic spirit essence to swell and expose this pellet’s location. Since the amount of malice over each of these five pellets was different, the timing at which they’d be exposed was also different.

　　Once that was finished, Fang Xing’s heart shuddered before he took out another storage sack, placed a Dragon Blood Pellet inside, and casually tossed it to the ground. All of this was followed up with a devious smirk as he sent out his Qi attacks, causing the rotation of the formation to break.

　　When Xiao Xue—who’d been trying her best to break the formation—suddenly felt the formation’s strength begin to wane, she sneered and called out, “Hou Guimen, weren’t you boasting about how your formation skills are unmatched within the younger generation? This is so easy, how could this be enough to stop me? I have already sealed two tiers of my foundation; it’s not considered bullying even if I were to battle you now. Hurry and show me your Ephemeral Butterfly’s Ephemeral Demon God technique….” Her longsword began to wave around as she spoke and her sword intent rose higher and higher, causing the fourth crux of the formation to be destroyed.

　　“Let’s go!” Fang Xing grabbed Hou Guimen and quietly flew away. After two or three miles later, he saw a snow-covered lake and simply tossed him inside. Although Hou Guimen had been smacked unconscious, he was still a Foundation Stage cultivator with a powerful physique; his unconsciousness wasn’t very serious and he woke up the instant he came into contact with the freezing water.

　　Hou Guimen looked dumbfoundedly at the empty land around him before jumping out of the lake. “What just happened?” he wondered aloud while reaching for the big lump on his head.

　　“How dare you cheat me, Hou Guimen? I’m going to make you regret it!” A loud shout could be heard from the west and a cloud filled with murderous intent began to rise. Just before Xiao Xue could start giving chase, however, she saw a storage sack on the ground and—mistakenly believing Hou Guimen had dropped it in the process of running away—she picked it up before hurriedly giving chase from atop her cloud.

　　Hou Guimen was startled by this and became fearful when he remembered how he was trying to deceive Xiao Xue just recently. “Miss Xiao Xue, calm down first, let’s battle it out in a minute…” he yelled back, “Something’s wrong, a little thief sneak attacked me….”

　　Xiao Xue wouldn’t have found him so quickly herself, but she immediately found out where he was by following his voice. Still, though, they’d been shouting each other down just minutes ago, so how could someone sneak attack him in such a short period of time? When he said “little thief”, had he been referring to her? This left her feeling even more enraged and she furiously replied, “Are you saying I sneak attacked you? In that case, come and fight me fair and square!” A sword light suddenly streaked out, causing tall waves to stir beneath the surface of the usually calm lake.

　　Hou Guimen was acutely aware of how strong Xiao Xue was, so he flinched away and became timid and fearful. He was aware his tactic of placing the formation and then fleeing while it kept her occupied had angered her, and he was afraid she’d truly end up killing him at the peak of her rage. He immediately activated his flying spirit tool with a yell and hastily made his escape.

　　“My grand aunty, someone really did sneak attack me just then….”

　　“Nonsense! It someone was close enough to sneak attack you, how would I have not sensed it?”

　　“Can we pause for a moment? I really feel something’s not right….”

　　“You’ll feel alright, right after I—your grand aunty—give you a few chops….”

　　“F*ck, damn woman, why do you not listen to me?”

　　“How dare you curse me! Watch me strike you with my sword!”

　　“…”

　　“…”

　　The two people—one chasing, one fleeing—gradually flew off far into the distance. Fang Xing simply jumped out from the back of the snowy hill and sighed as the pair disappeared into the distance. “This is perhaps the very first time I’ve ever given away such good stuff. You two are in my debt for this one….” After sighing, he quickly picked up his speed and fled in the opposite direction.

　　—

　　Meanwhile, after confirming the precise location the draconic essence had originally been seen, Chu Taishang and Prince Chu Huang realized the aura had disappeared. “To be able to cover up the aura of the Dragon Blood Pellets, seems they’ve got the help of someone powerful,” Chu Taishang coldly spoke. “Good. I shall borrow this chance to test my skills against yours and see how long you’ll be able to seal them in for….” As he spoke, the Dragon Lotus Platform appeared atop his cloud once more and he began to perform the secret spell to activate the Dragon Blood Pellets’ aura. After a few more tries, the Peng King’s seal couldn’t hold it in any longer and the same light as before shot up from the eastern skies with a loud bang. Both Chu Taishang and Prince Chu Huang were overjoyed to see this and chased forward as fast as lightning.

　　Not far away, Xiao Xue was making her way back to the Sword Cleansing Court. Hou Guimen had shamelessly decided to hide inside his Demon God Valley, and since it would have been too improper for her to continue further, she could only return with heavy regret. At least she had Hou Guimen’s storage sack and it was very likely he’d come to ask for it back—she’d make certain he showed her the Ephemeral Demon God technique for her to test her sword techniques on at that time.

　　Xiao Xue suddenly began to hear a buzzing sound, and the storage sack she’d picked up abruptly filled with a purple light before dense spirit essence shot right up into the sky. Startled, she opened up the sack and dazedly wondered just when Hou Guimen had gotten himself such a valuable pellet.

　　Xiao Xue didn’t know what this pellet was called, but she was knowledgeable enough to tell with a single glance it wasn’t something ordinary. With its purple shine, it was obvious its value was beyond imagination; even someone like her at Foundation Stage tier three was slightly moved. When she saw this pellet and how such a valuable item had come into her hands, she was even more certain Hou Guimen would come back for it and she’d be able to force him into a good fight.

　　A golden cloud flashed right in front of Xiao Xue before an elder and youth moved to block her path. The elder was surprised at first, but he quickly began to call out, “Well well, I’d been wondering who had enough ability and it turns out it was you who caused this trouble, little girl. Hurry and return the Dragon Blood Pellets to me before coming along so we can reason it out in front of that old man Hu Qin. Call your shifu here as well; I’m going to ask him why he’d allow his pupil to interrupt my business and what kind of reason you had to do so….”

　　“Esteemed Senior Chu….” Xiao Xue had originally wanted to greet him, but she was incredibly confused to hear such angry words. Adding in the fact Chu Taishang was being rather rude, she began to grow annoyed and coldly replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

　　Chu Taishang didn’t have the patience to speak with her nicely either and coldly snorted. “Girl, come over here!” He waved his large hand forward and attempted to seize Xiao Xue into his grasp.

　　“What are you doing?” Xiao Xue began to feel fear on top of her anger. With awoosh sound, her longsword was drawn from its sheath and she thrust it straight towards Chu Taishang’s palm.