Where Did You Find This Guard?

After Fang Shuwen attempted to dissuade him with a few words, Master Fang still decided to come down along with them. His mind was made up, leaving Fang Shuwen with nothing more to say. Fang Shuwen resolved inwardly that once they were down there, he could not allow the old man to take any risks. Afterward, others stepped forward, wanting to follow them down as well. Fang Shuwen felt that the underground situation was unknown and having too many people was inadvisable; if there was no room to maneuver, a crowd would only be an encumbrance. He simply had them wait up top. After roughly arranging the affairs outside, Fang Shuwen and his party of four arrived at the entrance and followed the steps downward. Before they had walked long, a series of weeping sounds reached Fang Shuwen's ears. It was the weeping of women. Fang Shuwen narrowed his eyes slightly, yet said nothing. The stairway was long, and after walking a bit further, Zhou Qingmei and the others could hear the sounds as well. Their expressions changed slightly. Fang Shuwen picked up his pace, finally arriving in the subterranean world beneath Qingyang Manor. A glance swept across the space, locking eyes directly with two men in black robes. In the next moment, the two men abruptly reacted, their eyes going wide, and they were about to cry out in alarm. Fang Shuwen had already leapt into the air. With the move Vajra Throws the Pagoda, while still suspended aloft, his palm wind crashed down with a roar, instantly enveloping both men within its sweeping momentum. Two dull thuds rang out. The palm force struck straight from their crowns, driving them halfway into the ground like seedlings planted in the soil. Bleeding from all seven orifices, they died on the spot. "What fierce and ferocious palm technique!" Master Fang's eyes held an unusual gleam. "Little Brother Fang, to possess such martial arts at such a young age is truly admirable." "You flatter me." Fang Shuwen waved a hand. He actually disliked talking to Master Fang. The old man called him "little brother" with every breath. If their true relationship remained hidden forever, it would be fine... but if it were exposed one day, wouldn't it be utterly awkward? However, there was no chance to converse further with Master Fang right now. Cries for help echoed from all around. Looking around, cages lined the surroundings, imprisoning young women with pallid faces. Fang Shuwen's expression darkened. In truth, after arriving in Guangning City and hearing that six bloody cases had occurred over the past half year, a question had arisen in his mind. The method of cultivating the Black Fiend Demon Skill was to open a hole at the Baihui acupoint on the head of the girl used for cultivation. Aligning the Laogong acupoint on the palm with this hole, one used the demonic art's secret technique to draw out blood and channel the innate primordial yin within the blood into one's body, bringing it into the sea of qi. Afterward, one circulated the art, refining the innate primordial yin within the sea of qi into Black Fiend true qi. Nothing in the process said that the woman had to be killed. One could easily pierce a hole in the girl's head, bandage the injury or apply wound ointment after finishing cultivation, and tear the wound open again the next time one practiced. In this way, she could be used repeatedly. After all, though the Baihui acupoint was one of the human body's fatal points, as long as the force was applied properly, it would not necessarily result in death. Of course, doing so meant the suffering and torment these girls endured would be far greater, but at least their lives could be preserved. Yet why had so many people died in succession across Guangning City? As it turned out now, it was not that the people of the Black Fiend Cult lacked brains or could not think of such a method. It was simply that each person handled things differently; the instigator behind those six bloody cases perhaps just did not care. Thus he was all the more reckless, killing and taking lives at will. Meanwhile, these women had been treated by the Black Fiend Cult as cultivation materials, used and reused whenever needed. Fang Shuwen did not immediately set about freeing them, but told them to quiet down for a moment first. He had several questions to ask. The girls were very compliant, watching him with longing eyes. Whatever Fang Shuwen asked, they answered what they knew and admitted what they did not. Soon, Fang Shuwen found the answers he was looking for. The Black Fiend Cultists were indeed down here right now, but in the innermost cultivation room. That was where they cultivated the Black Fiend Demon Skill, converting the innate primordial yin into Black Fiend true qi. In the first half of tonight, they had just drawn blood from these women. Based on past experience, they would spend the second half of the night in the cultivation room and not emerge until the following morning. Hearing this, Fang Shuwen felt quite fortunate. It was already late in the second half of the night when they arrived. Originally, he had intended to catch these demonic runts off guard during this hour. Unexpectedly, through a stroke of fortune, it had given them a chance to rescue the captives first. Having obtained the answers he wanted, Fang Shuwen and the others conferred briefly, then began rescuing the captives. There were no keys for the iron cages. Relying on his domineering, unreasonable internal force, Fang Shuwen crushed the locks with a casual grip and effortlessly tore apart the manacles and shackles binding the girls. It seemed as effortless as tearing paper rather than ripping through iron shackles. Watching this, Zhang Fang's eyelids twitched wildly. He whispered secretly to Zhou Qingmei, "Where on earth did you find this guard? How much silver did you spend?" How could Zhou Qingmei know any of that? She could only reply, "My father found him for me." "Did your Zhou family offer up half its fortune? Otherwise, how could an expert like this possibly serve as your guard?" "...Then I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask my father." "Where is your father?" "I don't know," Zhou Qingmei said faintly. "Fine, pretend I never asked." After escorting the girls back up to the surface and summoning a large contingent of those waiting above, the group had gathered ample hands and advanced straight in without hindrance. Guided by the girls' descriptions, they finally located the cultivation room at the deepest part of the underground compound. A massive iron door sealed off the interior from the outside. Fang Shuwen struck with a palm. The iron door blasted outward to both sides with a thunderous roar, making the flanking walls shake and rumble violently. What met their eyes was an enormous stone chamber. Cultists of the Black Fiend Cult sat cross-legged, refining the innate primordial yin within their bodies. Seated at the very head was a fat man. He had a ruddy complexion and a protruding belly. Jolted by the concussive sound of the door blasting open, his internal true qi seemed to derail, and fresh blood abruptly seeped from the corner of his mouth. Opening his eyes, a bloody sheen surfaced in his gaze. "Who is it!?" In fact, it was not just the fat man. Fang Shuwen's strike had been deliberate. Knowing they were cultivating here, he had intentionally made an enormous racket precisely to disrupt them. Under this shockwave, nearly every cultivating Black Fiend cultist bled from the corner of their mouths. As they turned to look toward the doorway, ferocious malice glinted in every pair of eyes. Fang Shuwen stepped into the massive stone chamber. Sweeping his gaze across the room, he chuckled softly and spoke: "Do not take offense, everyone. We did not come here intentionally to disturb you. "We only came to slaughter every last one of you." Unless he exterminated them all, his quest would likely never end. Zhang Fang blinked. Was that something a human would say?