In actuality, Fang Xing did not land entirely and kept around thirty feet of distance. When he saw Xiao Jianming rush inside the formation, he spoke with a hushed voice, “You better cooperate with me here in a moment. When I ask you to run, you run. I—your grandpa—will promise you that you’ll have plenty of benefits from this. You can have all of the food and wines you can imagine, and all the sexy phoenixes you can bed! But if you don’t cooperate, heh heh, at worst, I’ll just give him back the herb and you’ll be sacrificed along with it. Your choice!”

　　The crow shifted his eyes once again being muttering, “I’ll do as you say if you promise to give me four leaves from the Purple Mist Orchid!”

　　It didn’t take long for Fang Xing to reply. “One leaf!”

　　“Three!”

　　“Two!”

　　“I ain’t doing it if it’s less than three!” the golden crow replied with an unpleasant yell.

　　With a “swoosh” sound, Fang Xing once again placed his saber against the crow’s featherless neck. “Two and a half!”

　　The golden crow was still shifting his eyes back and forth. “Then, can you maybe, like, add in something else for me as well?”

　　Fang Xing was annoyed as he thought to himself, ‘How did I meet such a scumbag?’ If Fang Xing didn’t want to tame this crow to be his flying mount, he would have wished to personally slice this scumbag crow into pieces. Although Fang Xing wouldn’t kill the crow, he didn’t mind plucking out his feathers, and it had gotten to the point that Fang Xing wondered if it had started to grow addicted to doing so. He naturally went for another handful and the crow let out another cry.

　　Not too far away, the steel eagle looked on with a touch of fear, watching them with its large, bright eyes.

　　“What are you looking at? I’ll poke your eyes out!” Fang Xing cursed beneath his breath before—with a flash of insight—he jumped onto the ground and picked up a handful of dirt.

　　The steel eagle watched them closely and with hostility. Although the eagle hadn’t fully understood what Fang Xing had said, it could still sense that it had not been kind. Fang Xing, however, was not worried; despite having some sort of intelligence, the steel eagle was just an ordinary beast. The golden crow’s intelligence had been fully developed, allowing him to not only speak the language of the human race, but to also directly negotiate with humans. This trait was incomparable to any ordinary beast like the steel eagle, which had an intelligence similar to that of the white crane.

　　As the golden crow and Fang Xing finally reached an agreement, a sudden shout could be heard from an angry Xiao Jianming below. “Thief! How dare you!”

　　Fang Xing let out a cold laugh, his gaze brightening as he placed his large saber against the side of the crow’s neck and tightened the [Immortal’s Snare]. The golden crow couldn’t help but swallow his saliva, and he did not dare to do anything funny at this moment. Fang Xing didn’t seem to be lying earlier, and it didn’t sound like he was joking either when he threatened to cut the crow up.

　　A shadowy figure dashed out from the spell formation at lightning speed. Xiao Jianming’s eyes looked as though they were spitting fire, and in his hands was the very same jade platform that had been placed beneath the Purple Mist Orchid’s flower pot. When Fang Xing had first seen that Xiao Jianming had arrived, he’d changed his mind about taking everything; he’d plucked the plant instead and placed it into his storage ring while leaving both the platform and flower pot behind. His storage ring was on the smaller side and couldn’t fit the jade platform, but being small also had its advantages since it was easy to hide the ring itself.

　　After that, Fang Xing had destroyed the spell formation before confirming Xiao Jianming’s location once more, double-checking to make sure there really wasn’t an escape route he could take unnoticed. Under both Xiao Jianming and the steel eagle’s pressure, there was no way of escaping anyway, so Fang Xing had decided to simply show himself.

　　Once Xiao Jianming stepped into the open, the steel eagle flew over and picked him up to bring him towards Fang Xing. “Where did he go?” he asked.

　　Fang Xing pointed towards the southwest. “I only saw a cloud flying that way!”

　　“Come with me to have a look!” Xiao Jianming replied before immediately flying off in the same direction with Fang Xing reluctantly following along behind.

　　As it so happened, it was a clear and cloudless day; there was no “Foundation Stage beast” to begin with, so what was there for them to chase? An hour after Xiao Jianming had started searching, he finally stopped as the eagle halted mid-air. Even though he had been extremely anxious and hadn’t given it too much thought, he in fact knew all too well that even if a Foundation Stage beast did actually exist and he managed to catch up to it, there was no way he could ask the beast to return the plant anyway. Furthermore, Xiao Jianming doubted Fang Xing as well, and by drawing Fang Xing away from the valley, it would be easier for Xiao Jianming to act freely with him.

　　Even though Fang Xing’s words matched those from Xu Linyun and the rest of the disciples, Xiao Jianming still felt that something wasn’t quite right. If there truly had been a Foundation Stage beast, how would this boy have survived, let alone unharmed? Besides, although the Purple Mist Orchid was extremely precious and useful for someone in the Spirit Stage since it allowed them to break through into the Foundation Stage, it was useless for a beast in its Foundation Stage; what would the beast’s purpose be, then?

　　Sitting on the golden crow’s back, Fang Xing flew up to Xiao Jianming.”Haha, you’re not chasing anymore?” he casually asked while drinking from his wine gourd.

　　Xiao Jianming turned his head, his face darkening as he coldly questioned, “What did the Foundation Stage beast that you spoke of look like?”

　　“Its body was shining with a bright light, so I couldn’t tell what it actually looked like!”

　　After a few rounds of questions followed by Fang Xing’s impatient answers, Xiao Jianming couldn’t immediately find any faults. Once a period of silence had passed, he suddenly asked again, “Shidi Fang, would I be able to have a look at the storage sack you have?”

　　“Eh?”

　　Although Fang Xing didn’t look pleased by this request, he had no other choice but to take out the storage sacks from his robe while Xiao Jianming carefully observed. There were no fewer than seven or eight of them in total, which had left Xiao Jianming slightly surprised although he did not question it openly. Instead, Xiao Jianming carefully observed each storage sack while Fang Xing took them out one at a time.

　　There were no signs of any purple mist.

　　This caused Xiao Jianming’s brows to crease. “Do you not have any more storage sacks?” he coldly asked.

　　Fang Xing dusted off his hands. “Nope. Who the hell would have so many?”

　　Xiao Jianming was left speechless, thinking to himself, ‘The amount you showed isn’t exactly normal.’ Nevertheless, his attention had been focused and he’d observed every single little movement Fang Xing had made. He was certain that there was nowhere else on Fang Xing’s body that the boy could hide another storage sack, and so his words shouldn’t be false.

　　However, due to Xiao Jianming’s suspicious nature, he still did not give up on his doubts regarding Fang Xing. After a few moments of scrutinizing Fang Xing once more, he made a decision and suddenly declared, “Come over here and let me search you then!”

　　Fang Xing laughed. “Men and men should maintain a proper distance with each other[1], so it’s best that you forget about searching me!”

　　This caused Xiao Jianming’s gaze to darken. Before he’d arrived, his uncle had told him to not overdo things with Fang Xing. The boy had studied under Bai Qianzhang for three years, after all, and it was best not to anger someone in the Golden Core Stage. It was better to be cautious since nobody knew whether Bai Qianzhang was still alive or had already passed.

　　Now that Xiao Jianming’s hopes for breaking through into the Foundation Stage might be tied to Fang Xing, however, he could not care about these details any longer—if there was even a single trace of doubt, he’d investigate it to the end.

　　“Come and let me search you. If there truly is nothing, I shall personally send gifts as thanks. Otherwise….” Xiao Jianming’s voice lowered even further as he trailed off, and there was a distinct display of murderous intent.

　　Fang Xing’s brain had never stopped considering how to get out of this, even as he put up a false expression as though he had run out of options. “If that’s the case, then there’s no other choice!” He tightened the [Immortal’s Snare] in his hands and commanded to the crow, “We’ll descend first.”

　　Seeing the golden crow fly towards the ground, Xiao Jianming ordered his steel eagle to do the same. Since the crow had begun lowering itself first, his body was also lower than the eagle’s, while Fang Xing himself was level with the eagle. Fang Xing turned around and praised, “What a beautiful bird. Let me feed you something nice!” He then moved one of his hands into his robe, as if searching for something for the eagle to eat.

　　“Hei Yun does not eat any food from other people. You can forget about it!” Xiao Jianming emotionlessly replied. He did not feel at ease having his eagle eating something given by someone he had only just met for the first time. However, it was at this precise moment that Fang Xing suddenly grabbed a handful of soil from his robe pockets and threw it towards the steel eagle’s eyes. Fang Xing let out a laugh and tightened the [Immortal’s Snare] once more to give the signal, and the golden crow increased his speed like that of a whirlwind and lightning as he took off into the distance. As for the steel eagle beneath Xiao Jianming, with its eyes temporarily blind from the soil, it let out cries of stress and chaotically waved its wings in confusion.

　　Xiao Jianming was aghast at the sight. “You want to escape?” he loudly asked while forming a hand seal. His iron sword flew from his hands and cleaved its way towards Fang Xing.

　　Fang Xing only smirked as he turned around, and from within his numerous storage sacks came a large number of Flying Swords that activated mid-air as well, all to counter Xiao Jianming’s single black sword. After a great deal of clings and clangs, the black iron sword had shattered all of the Flying Swords like a fireworks display. The same sword then turned into hundreds and thousands of sword flickers that struck towards Fang Xing from all directions like bolts of black lightning.

　　Fang Xing muttered the spell for [Closed Aegis] and activated it before grasping his [Saber of Azure Dragon] into a single hand. He spun the saber like the vane of a windmill and—using all of his might—most of the sword flickers were blocked. Even so, there were still some that managed to get through and stabbed towards him, breaking the shield formed by his [Closed Aegis] some three or four flickers later.

　　‘So this is the true power of Qing-Yun Nine Swords. I had to give everything I had just to counter a quick strike from him….’ For once, Fang Xing felt somewhat afraid—this was not the same as it had been in the past. Although his level of cultivation might only be in the fourth tier, if he went all-out, even those in the seventh tier might be split in half by his saber. Yet Xiao Jianming had only released a simple strike just now and clearly hadn’t used any of his actual strength.

　　“Hurry and go!” Fang Xing yelled. Even without his urging, the golden crow had already transformed into a golden ray as he flew into the distance.

　　“What a good mutt you are to take a strike of my sword. You can consider yourself as having decent capabilities!” Xiao Jianming cursed in aggravation. He was just about to release his second strike until, all of a sudden, he lost his balance. With the soil in its eyes, the steel eagle had become frantic and could no longer hold itself aloft, and it soon crashed into the ground with cries of pain.

　　“Damn it, using such low methods of a scumbag….” Xiao Jianming was furious now, and his loud curses echoed off the mountains nonstop.

　　—

　　[1] Men and men should maintain a proper distance with each other: The original Chinese idiom is “men and women should maintain a proper distance with each other” (男女授受不亲, nan2 nv3 shou4 shou4 bu4 qin1). Intentional play on words on Fang Xing’s part.