Fang Wen was nearly amused by the man's words. He gave a gentle shake of his head.
"A true man stands by his word. Since you just said living wouldn't do, how can you go back on it now?"
The red-robed man was overcome with bitter frustration.
He had come under orders, and the only reason he had been so brazen was that he had never regarded Fang Wen as anything worth noting.
How could he have imagined that Fang Wen's martial arts would be exalted to such an extent?
Even a coordinated strike from all the men he brought could not subdue him.
Though his earlier palm strike had been launched in haste, it was packed with internal force, condensing his lifetime of cultivation into a single blow. Yet it had shattered upon contact.
Just what... was this person's background?
While he wallowed in his misery, Fang Wen suddenly spoke:
"Still, I really am quite curious about you people. If you answer my questions honestly, maybe..."
The red-robed man's heart stirred faintly, but he gave a bitter smile. "I cannot speak. Speaking means death."
"Then start with things that won't get you killed," Fang Wen said casually. "I'll decide whether you live or die based on the value of your information."
The red-robed man fell silent for a moment before speaking. "We are not the only ones heading to Feixue City to seize the Seven-String Ancient Chapter. Because Immortal Murong Qingchen is also there... we mobilized many hands. I was merely ordered to take care of you in passing..."
"Quite the 'in passing.'" Fang Wen chuckled, shaking his head.
The red-robed man hurriedly said, "I certainly wasn't underestimating you..."
"No need to be nervous," Fang Wen said dismissively. "How you view me doesn't matter to me in the slightest. However, I have no interest in the Seven-String Ancient Chapter, so that information is utterly meaningless to me."
The red-robed man went quiet again before saying, "But aside from the arrangements in Feixue City, I dare not speak of anything else..."
Fang Wen nodded. "Then tell me about that. I might not care about the Seven-String Ancient Chapter, but I never said I wasn't interested in your intelligence."
"...There are still experts from our ranks in Feixue City right now." Having said this, the red-robed man glanced at Fang Wen's expression. Seeing no change, he continued, "While guarding against Murong Qingchen, our primary aim is to ambush the people from Jinghua Pavilion... They made an agreement with Wu Lingxiao: they would provide physicians to save his life, and Wu Lingxiao would give the Seven-String Ancient Chapter to Jinghua Pavilion as payment. Yet where the experts of Jinghua Pavilion are hiding remains unknown for now."
"Jinghua Pavilion..." Fang Wen pondered for a moment and said, "Tell me about Jinghua Pavilion."
"...I don't know that much about them either," the red-robed man answered without hesitation. "I only know that the Pavilion Master of Jinghua Pavilion is named Ye Feihua. When people in the world describe him, they often use two lines: 'Neither mist nor flower, nor what meets the eye; as if heard, as if imagined, like a thousand guises.'"
Fang Wen silently repeated the two lines, then asked, "What does that mean?"
"He has mastered Feihua Guidance and can assume myriad forms, becoming anyone in this world. Such is the subtlety of this art that even a person's closest companions cannot detect the slightest flaw." The red-robed man said in a deep voice, "Because of this, traces of Jinghua Pavilion are notoriously difficult to find. As the saying goes, a golden bell is easy to find, but Jinghua is hard to seek."
"From what you're saying, do you mean to tell me... Ye Feihua is currently in Feixue City?" Fang Wen's heart stirred slightly. He could not resist glancing toward Feixue City. From the looks of it, the spectacle brewing in Feixue City was indeed extraordinary.
First was Immortal Murong Qingchen, and now Pavilion Master Ye Feihua of Jinghua Pavilion.
Sure enough, the red-robed man nodded. "The Seven-String Ancient Chapter is of immense importance, so it will naturally attract many prominent figures of the jianghu."
Yet Fang Wen was still puzzled. "If they are so formidable, why do they still need others to escort them?"
"...Only the Pavilion Master can cultivate Feihua Guidance; no one else knows it. Those two physicians specialize purely in medicine, and their martial arts are mediocre. They didn't want to draw attention, so naturally they had to find a way to blend into the crowd. As for Ye Feihua... how do you know he isn't right among your party?"
These words sent a chill down Fang Wen's spine.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Fang Wen smiled an instant later. "And what about the prominent figure on your side?"
"He cannot come..."
The moment those words left his mouth, Fang Wen's brows suddenly furrowed.
Wisps of green smoke rose from beneath the hood. The red-robed man panicked and scrambled to rise.
Fang Wen's eyes narrowed slightly as he clamped a hand onto the man's shoulder. Channeling the Beiming Divine Art, the red-robed man felt all the qi in his body rush violently toward the Laogong acupoint in Fang Wen's palm, including the fiery force erupting within him.
In mere moments, his entire store of internal force had been drained empty.
Yet he could not be bothered by that. Instinctively, he patted his chest and arms. Even though he had suffered severe injuries from Fang Wen's earlier palm strike and intense pain wracked his body, he paid it no heed, exclaiming in pleasant surprise, "I... I'm actually still alive! Wonderful, I'm still alive!"
Fang Wen clicked his tongue twice. "Careless, truly careless. How did you suddenly blurt out something forbidden? Still, judging by your words, the person backing you didn't come? So he sent you all here to ambush Jinghua Pavilion's people in hopes of seizing the Seven-String Ancient Chapter? Yet how can you be certain that the Seven-String Ancient Chapter will end up on them in the end? What if Ye Feihua took it directly? After all, based on what you said, his methods are neither flower nor mist—quite remarkable, it sounds."
"..."
The red-robed man went silent. Only then did he remember the lethal threat standing right in front of him. Moreover, with his true qi swept clean by Fang Wen, though he hadn't died, his future was bleak and ruined.
Yet at this moment, he could not dwell on that. Thinking for a moment, he said, "That is not for us to worry about... It relies on the one in Feixue City."
"Who is that person?"
"...A prominent figure. Highly valued, raised from childhood by... that person's side, studying literature and martial arts, far surpassing their peers. Upon seeing their face, we must obey their commands unconditionally."
Fang Wen nodded upon hearing this and asked again, "It seems the Divine Fire Seal on you has been dispelled. Why not tell me what those six words actually mean?"
"It isn't six words," the red-robed man replied, shaking his head instinctively. "It is: A ten-thousand-li dragon roar shakes heaven, upon the ten directions sits..."
At this point, his voice slowed to a crawl.
As Fang Wen looked on in astonishment, the red-robed man's head swelled larger and larger, stretching the hood taut.
Acting instantly, Fang Wen unleashed a sudden kick, sending the man flying three to five zhang away. Before the body could touch the ground, a thunderous explosion rang out.
A billowing heat wave surged in all directions, and the red-robed man's headless corpse was swallowed in a blaze.
In that instant, even Fang Wen could not help his pupils constricting slightly.
He had clearly used the Beiming Divine Art to drain every shred of true qi from the man's body. How could there still be a hidden trick? And he had remained completely unaware of it?
"Stopping halfway through a sentence... heaven ought to strike you with lightning," Fang Wen muttered with knitted brows. "'A ten-thousand-li dragon roar shakes heaven, upon the ten directions sits...' what Sovereign?"
After pondering briefly, Fang Wen let out a cold harrumph, flicked his sleeves, and returned to Lu Guiyan and the others.
Chapter 89