It was a given that Fang Xing didn’t actually want to kill him, or he could have simply burned him to death the moment he’d entered Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness. Instead, Fang Xing wanted to see if he could squeeze out something beneficial from this; the bird was a Golden Core Stage master who had been sealed for three hundred years, after all. Of course, it would be better if the bird willingly volunteered it himself rather than having Fang Xing force it out of him.

　　Considering it, Fang Xing stomped once more and cursed, “You wanted to take me over, so why would I let you live?”

　　The Demonic Peng King let out a miserable cry. “Keeping me alive will bring you benefits!”

　　Pah , Fang Xing’s slap caused him to fly a few hundred feet away before he chased to stomp down on him some more. “You’re so poor that you’ve got only a single trace of spirit left; what could you possibly offer me, your uncle? Might as well eat you and have you nourish me….” While stomping his foot, he paid a great deal of attention to the Demonic Peng King’s words.

　　After being trapped for the past hundreds of years, the Peng King had given up all of his cultivation just for a shot at escaping the seal and having a life once more. Who would have thought that just as he fled the wolf’s den, he’d arrive at a tiger’s cavern? His past three hundred years’ desire for life had reached its peak, and seeing the boy intent on burning him alive for nutrients caused fear to sink deep in the Peng King’s heart.

　　“You… you bastard, can you not think? I—your great master—have already lost my cultivation. I’m now no more than this thread of spirit, and even if you did eat me, there’s not much nutritional value left anyways. Why not leave me here so I can help you with your future cultivations instead…?” the Peng King yelled out.

　　Some legends said that in the case of a failed Spirit Possession, there were cases where the outsider spirit joins forces with the host spirit.

　　The Demonic Peng King was trying to persuade Fang Xing to keep him alive while also trying to maintain some of his dignity at the same time. Yet, upon hearing this, Fang Xing began to stomp over him even more vigorously while cursing out, “What sort of qualifications does a stupid idiot like you who has been sealed for hundreds of years have to teach me, your grandpa? Besides, if I were to learn your skills, others would probably try to seal me up as well…” Fang Xing looked and spoke towards the Peng King in disdain, as though such skills weren’t even worth learning.

　　The Demonic Peng King’s body would shrink with every stomp, each instance showing how he was inching closer and closer towards death. This caused him to scream out in panic once more, “That was an accident! Back in the days when I—the great Demonic Peng King—traveled unhindered throughout the entire South Jambu Continent, how many Golden Core Stage cultivators were good enough to be my opponent? I may have been heavily wounded back then, but if it wasn’t for the sudden actions of that white-haired freak, I wouldn’t have blinked an eye at the battle prowess of even ten Golden Core Stage cultivators from the Qing-Yun Sect….”

　　“Just keep on boasting while I stomp you to death.”

　　” Aoo …. I had a few secret locations back in the time. All of these treasures will be yours….”

　　“Don’t need it. Still stomping!”

　　” Aoo … all my knowledge as a Golden Core, numerous techniques and skills, all of them passed on to you….”

　　“Pfff, I’m a human. How the hell would I learn your beast skills? Gonna stomp you more!”

　　” Aooooo …. You— you can, you can…. All techniques in this world have their similarities. With a few small tweaks, all of them are learnable….”

　　“Don’t need it. Stomp.”

　　” Aooo …. I have the biggest secret. I can tell it to you….”

　　“I don’t believe it. Stomping you to death now….”

　　“Aooo…. It’s real! It’s about the nine coffins in the sky….”

　　“Nine coffins? Never heard of it. Stomping!”

　　The Demonic Peng King was left nearly in tears. He’d mentioned his biggest secret in order to save his life, yet this little turtle-egg bastard surprisingly didn’t even know what the hell these “nine coffins” were and showed no signs of being swayed. His body was shrinking smaller and smaller, and the strength of his True Spirit was also weakening at an extraordinary rate. This triggered a great sense of despair, and he lowered his head while silencing his words.

　　Just as the Peng King stopped speaking, Fang Xing stopped his stomping. “How come you’ve stopped begging?”

　　“Are you going to spare me if I beg?” the Peng King sorrowfully replied.

　　“Not really!”

　　The Demonic Peng King released another mournful cry and grew silent once more. He closed his eyes and awaited his death.

　　After some thought, Fang Xing believed he’d already forced all of the secrets from this old man. He stopped his attacks and instead spoke with a smile, “If you want to live, it’s not exactly all that impossible….”

　　The Peng King’s eyes lit up. “You’d spare me?” he asked in surprise.

　　Fang Xing snickered. “I originally wanted to consume you for nutrition, but seeing how pitiful you look right now has actually made me feel sorry for you, and I don’t feel like hitting such an old man like you anymore. Let me give you a chance: you’ll be able to exchange what you know and own for an extension of your life!”

　　Surprised, the Demonic Peng King asked, “What… what do you mean?” He’d been expecting death. To suddenly be given the chance to live, it was obvious he would not let it pass him by.

　　“It’s very simple. All those treasures and techniques you spoke of before, tell me all of them. If I feel it is useful to me, I will then allow you to live an extra day or two. The higher the value and usefulness I feel it has, the longer I allow you to live. But if you tell me something I’m not satisfied with, or if it doesn’t benefit me, then there’s nothing left to say—I will stomp you to death immediately!”

　　“That…. That’s not fair…” the Demonic Peng King screamed. If it was using one of his secrets in exchange for his freedom, it would have been a fair trade, but to exchange it for only a few more days of life? No matter how many he had, wouldn’t he still end up burned to death in the future?

　　Fang Xing’s expression dropped and he stomped down again. “Why didn’t you say it wasn’t fair when you tried to use Spirit Possession on me?”

　　Speechless, the Demonic Peng King could only blame himself for being so blind. Just why did he have to choose such a difficult potential host body?

　　“Why have you stopped speaking? What are you scheming?”

　　“I—your great master—am… I am really feeling regret about fleeing the altar right now….”

　　The Demonic Peng King truly was filled with regret at this moment, as he realized now that Fang Xing might actually burn him to death. It was obvious that even though the boy’s age was not very great, he had guts—guts enough to kill the Peng King even if it meant giving up on all of the secrets he knew. On the other hand, the Demonic Peng King himself did not have enough guts to give up on his life just to retain his secrets. With such a situation, it was inevitable that the Demonic Peng King would end up under Fang Xing’s control.

　　—

　　In the outside world, the Qing-Yun disciples had already reactivated the seal. The black smoke ceased to rise up out of the altar, and the smoke that had covered the nearby area began to clear up as well. Even that ghostly smog that had hung above the entire mountain seemed to grow thinner, and all of Mount Desolation seemed to become unclouded and bright.

　　“Shijie Xu, that beast king… is it dead?” Despite the seal’s reactivation, some of the Qing-Yun disciples were still somewhat frantic after witnessing such a strange event.

　　“Most likely…” Xu Linyun hesitantly replied, her brows creased with severity. She then turned towards Xiao Jianming, “But since this is quite important, let us end the mission here. We will need to return to the sect immediately and let the elders and sect master know about this strange phenomenon so they can check on this. After all, the beast king is too powerful; it’s better to be safe than sorry!”

　　“Sure,” Xiao Jianming calmly replied with a look of disinterest.

　　Xu Linyun kneeled beside Fang Xing and softly asked, “Shidi Fang, are you okay?” When the Qing-Yun disciples were instilling Qi into the formation, Fang Xing had sat on the ground here the entire time without joining the effort. However, everyone believed he was simply trying to recover from the damage received from Xiao Jianming’s sword strike, and so no one had given him a second thought. Now that the main problem was out of the way, they all started to pay more attention to him.

　　“Nnngh…. I’ve been heavily wounded…. My head hurts…” Fang Xing weakly spoke while opening his eyes, as though he had actually been heavily wounded. He then fell back and landed conveniently into Xu Linyun’s chest.

　　Xu Linyun tilted herself slightly backwards and questioned in a low voice, “Did you really think I couldn’t recognize the scent of a Blood Pellet?”

　　Initially dumbfounded, Fang Xing only just now realized Xu Linyun was the next-best alchemy master in the entire Qing-Yun Sect, just behind chief elder Qin’nyao, her teacher. How could she have not noticed he’d used a Blood Pellet? She might not have realized it straight away, but of course it wouldn’t have taken long before she began to recognize it for what it was.

　　Fang Xing remained seated but straightened his back. “We’re leaving now that the mission is completed, right?” he changed the topic with a straight face.

　　Xu Linyun did not intend on exposing Fang Xing. She merely smiled and stood back up. “Just waiting on you now!”

　　“Give me a hand.” Fang Xing held out his hand and—although the act left her rather speechless—Xu Linyun still offered her hand to help pull him up.

　　“Shijie Linyun, your hand is so soft…” Fang Xing snickered as he pulled himself up from the ground. Xu Linyun was once again left speechless by such playfulness before she calmly took her hand back and paid him no more attention.

　　Not far away, although Xiao Jianming appeared to be watching the distant sky, he had actually seen every bit of the banter and laughter shared between Fang Xing and Xu Linyun, causing him to feel a great deal of anger. From the very beginning, although he had never been too close with Xu Linyun, he’d actually viewed her as his future partner. Seeing her laughing and chatting with Fang Xing as though they were really close caused the hatred in his heart to rise even higher, changing it from a three out of ten to a full ten out of ten.

　　Xiao Jianming didn’t say anything. He looked at Fang Xing with a calm gaze before he waved his hands to call back his steel eagle and rode it into the sky.

　　Although Xiao Jianming hadn’t shown much of a reaction, there had still been a moment filled with killing intent. Sensing the silent yet extremely intense hatred directed towards Fang Xing, Xu Linyun helplessly asked, “Shidi Fang, why did you have to antagonize him?”

　　Fang Xing smirked. “What’s wrong with antagonizing him? I’m going to have him dead!”

　　Xu Linyun’s face froze. Although Fang Xing was showing the same playful expression he always wore, she could also feel an undercurrent of seriousness within these words.