Chapter 26: First Lesson
Ying Xuan looked at Qin Xuan with reddened eyes, filled with uncontrollable anger. “Qin Xuan, if you have any issues, come at me. This matter between us has nothing to do with the other members of the Ying family.”
Upon hearing this, Qin Xuan burst into laughter as if he had just heard a joke.
After he had laughed enough, he looked down at Ying Xuan from his elevated position. “Nothing to do with them? How could it not? Don’t forget how you treated me before.”
“Back then, I was the fish in a chopping board, and you were the knife. In front of you, I had no room to resist and could only be slaughtered at your whim. Now… the tables have turned. I am the knife, and you are the fish. You never considered letting me go, so I, of course, will not let you off either.”
“Just wait! First, it’s you, and then it will be Venerable Yunhuang. I will drag the Ying family down bit by bit, so you can taste the feeling of being trampled… Ah!”
Before Qin Xuan could finish his words, a tremendous force suddenly sent him flying, crashing heavily to the ground, his body slamming into the earth.
Ying Xuechen and the others were startled by this sudden turn of events and quickly turned their heads to see what had happened.
Upon spotting Ying Tong, Ying Xuechen recognized her identity immediately.
Just as he was about to speak, he realized something and quickly changed his tone. “Your Excellency, what are you doing here?”
Wasn’t it said that only cultivators at the Golden Core stage and below could enter this ruin?
He then sensed Ying Tong’s current cultivation level more carefully.
Golden Core stage?
Ying Tong did not respond to Ying Xuechen’s question. Instead, she asked, “In such a dangerous place, why did you come here without bringing the others? Do you want to get yourself killed?”
If it were just Ying Xuechen coming alone, it could be understood since he was the strongest cultivator there.
The concentration of demonic energy here had limited effects on cultivators at the Golden Core stage, yet he had brought everyone with him.
Wasn’t that essentially leading a group of dead weight to their doom?
And he had brought Ying Xuan along too.
Ying Tong noticed that Ying Xuan was acting strangely, staring intently at Qin Xuan’s position, completely oblivious to Ying Tong’s approach.
A faint black aura was beginning to rise around him, a sign of going into a demonic state.
Seeing this, Ying Tong wasted no time and delivered a precise strike to the back of his neck.
“Give him this,” she said, tossing a Golden Spirit Fruit to Ying Xuechen.
Ying Xuechen instinctively caught it with both hands. “Yes.”
At the same time, Ying Ming was the first to speak. “Your Excellency, we didn’t come here voluntarily. It was that Qin—what’s-his-name—who suddenly brought us here.”
“Right, that Qin Xuan had a black fox with him, and everything happening in the ruins now is the doing of that black fox.”
Upon hearing Ying Ming’s words, Ying Tong nodded, though her brows furrowed slightly.
A black fox was not something to take lightly.
Known for their cunning and unpredictable nature, black foxes were also referred to as seductive spirits. Most of the so-called fox spirits were actually transformed black foxes.
They excelled at confusing men, enticing their deepest desires and leading them to corruption and downfall.
Just then, Qin Xuan, who had just been sent flying, stood back up.
Seeing this, Ying Tong was a bit surprised. He didn’t die?
Could it be that she had made a mistake? Or was her cultivation level too weak now? That didn’t seem right; she had clearly aimed for a vital point.
She should have just cleaved him with her sword.
At this moment, Qin Xuan wiped the blood from his face and shouted angrily, “You dare to hurt me? I will make you—”
“Boom!”
Before he could finish, he was sent flying again.
This time, Ying Tong was sure it wasn’t her fault; this guy’s skin was just too thick, so much so that even a sword couldn’t break through.
“You dare to attack again? Don’t you know I—”
“Boom!”
“I don’t care what you are. I want to see how many swords your skin can withstand!”
Ying Tong didn’t give Qin Xuan—or rather, the black fox within him—a chance to speak. She unleashed several strikes with her sword, each one aimed directly at him.
Whoever he was, he certainly wasn’t anything good.
Meanwhile, the Ying family members watching on the side were left speechless.
This was the first time they had witnessed Venerable Yunhuang in battle, and they hadn’t expected it to be so… straightforward and brutal.
They had seen other Golden Core cultivators fight before; although those battles were filled with danger and killing intent, none had been quite like this, where one side was practically dominating the other.
This couldn’t even be called a battle; it was a one-sided beating.
“Your Excellency, aren’t you going to let him finish his sentence?” Ying Xuechen said weakly.
In the midst of her sword strikes, Ying Tong turned to him and replied, “Words without meaning are just a waste of time. This is my first lesson for you: never give your enemy a chance to catch their breath.”
“When a person is about to die, their words become nothing but empty chatter.”
“When dealing with your enemies, there is only one thing you must do: eliminate them completely.”
In the Cangqiong Realm, when cultivators were on the verge of determining a victor in battle, they usually chose to halt their attacks, mocking their opponent or giving them time for final words, as if this could better demonstrate their strength.
However, Ying Tong believed that such behavior was nothing but a way to increase one’s own danger without any real benefit.
Her words left the others in stunned silence.
Was it really like that?
On the other side, Qin Xuan stood up once more. After his earlier experiences, he had learned to be clever this time—he chose to attack directly instead of speaking.
Behind him, a pitch-black, ominous black fox phantom slowly emerged, its sharp fangs bared as it lunged at Ying Tong.
“Die…”
Before his words even finished, Ying Tong slapped him away.
Even though her cultivation was only at the Golden Core stage, she was not something a mere little fox could provoke at will.
“How annoying.”
Ying Tong casually glanced at Qin Xuan, who was on the ground, vomiting blood.
At this moment, the massive black fox phantom behind him had yet to disappear.
Ying Tong suddenly said, “You’ve raised that fur quite well.”
Her words filled the black fox controlling Qin Xuan’s body with profound humiliation and anger.
Especially when it noticed Ying Tong’s gaze, which was as if she were appraising an object, it drove the fox’s sanity to the brink of collapse.
Combined with the earlier frustrations, both Qin Xuan and the black fox within him completely lost their minds.
He pulled out a softly glowing orb from the storage space on his wrist.
This item was the treasure he had just obtained at the core of the ruins, and he had fused with the black fox for this very purpose.
With red eyes, Qin Xuan was no longer concerned about being recognizing as its master; he only wanted to kill the person in front of him.
The humiliation inflicted by Ying Tong far surpassed that of Ying Xuan and Ying Xuechen.
