Of course, the latter option would certainly entail a high chance of death, but I knew Tang Qi Hong well enough to be confident that she would rather choose to fight to the death to protect her sect, even if the effort proved to be futile. The Nine-Tailed Fox Sect was her home, and Sect Leader Zi Shou De and Sect Lady Zi Da Ji were her adopted parents, and Zi Xiao Ji her adopted sister. There was no way she was going to abandon them!

Once I reached ten (yeah, I know I ended up counting up instead of down, but let"s not sweat the details), Tang Qi Hong suddenly blinked once.

Pang Feng and Pang Yun relaxed, joy spreading across their faces. I scoffed inwardly when I caught sight of their expressions. Weren"t they happy too soon? Then again, I couldn"t help but feel a bit of tension. What if I had been mistaken?

"Yeah, in the face of death, no one will be able to maintain their calm," Pang Yun murmured to herself. I had to confess that she had a point. In the end, most people would want to live. Honor and love were concepts that, though n.o.ble, were intangible at best. Whereas if you were dead, then it was over for you. Honor wasn"t going to keep you alive – rather, it was more often than not going to cause your death. As such, it wouldn"t be surprising if Tang Qi Hong chose to live over n.o.bly sacrificing herself for her sect, obligations be d.a.m.ned.

However, I knew Tang Qi Hong very well, and as such I said nothing while inwardly suppressing both a smirk and a slight tinge of worry that I might possibly be mistaken. Unlike me, the Pang siblings were completely confident.

From their point of view, Nine-Tailed Fox Sect was most definitely doomed. There was no way we would survive the invasion of ten different sects, and we would certainly be destroyed and our a.s.sets divided and distributed among the other sects.

Despite me pointing out that it was highly unlikely that the other sects would kill Tang Qi Hong because she was too talented a blacksmith for them to wastefully kill off, and that would defeat their purpose of invading the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect in the first place, the Pang siblings believe that Tang Qi Hong would trust their words over mine. That was why they thought she would immediately jump at the chance for survival.

They were extremely rude, clearly thinging something along the lines of "as long asTang Qi Hong wasn"t stupid, she would naturally choose to follow the Pang siblings, and choose to continue living with them."

The stupid ones were them, but I tactfully refrained from saying that. I had to continue counting to thirty, after all.

As I expected, Tang Qi Hong didn"t blink again. She continued to stare at me, almost fiercely, as if demanding that I hurry up with the counting. I forced myself to calm down and count accurately, and for good measure, even after I reached thirty, I counted another ten, to forty.

Tang Qi Hong did not blink a second time.

"There you have it," I said with a shrug as I turned to the Pang siblings. Tang Qi Hong relaxed and exhaled wearily, finally allowing herself to blink.

"Impossible…"

"No way…"

The Pang siblings were absolutely flabbergasted. They exchanged a stunned glance, and then turned back to Tang Qi Hong, who glared at them defiantly. The premature celebration died down on their faces, their joy replaced by utter disbelief.

I told you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds so. I told you she wouldn"t go with you. Inwardly, I was relieved to confirm that I knew Tang Qi Hong a lot better than the pair of idiots.

"Are you really seeking death?" Pang Feng blurted out, but obviously Tang Qi Hong couldn"t answer. She merely glared at him stubbornly, rage boiling in her usually warm eyes. Pang Feng couldn"t mistake the displeasure in her expression and his heart sank.

Pang Yun was also not satisfied with the outcome, and she spoke up, raising her voice. "Senior Tang, only my brother can guarantee your life! If you refuse to come with us, then you might not even survive tonight!"

"Don"t you get it?" I asked, my tone dripping with contempt. "Qi Hong does not want to become a slave, imprisoned by your sect and forced to forge Spirit Weapons for them. There are more important things to a martial artist than one"s life. Like honor, values, moral code, freedom, independence, and integrity. One would rather die free than live like a slave under tyrants!"

Pang Feng snorted. "What bulls.h.i.t. What use is honor and righteousness if you"re dead? If you"re dead, everything is over. Your moral code won"t bring you back to life!"

"But if you compromise your values, then what is the point of living?" I countered. "Are you going to live the rest of your life as a villain, at the expense of others, changing and discarding your values as you see fit? What kind of life is that? And you call yourself a martial artist?"

Tang Qi Hong furiously glared at the Pang siblings, as if she totally agreed with me. Her eyes blazed with righteous fire, and I was sure she was telling them that they should be ashamed of themselves.

Evidently, Tang Qi Hong felt betrayed by them. After everything the sect had done for them, nurturing them, investing significant amount of resources in developing them, and protecting them from danger, they turned their backs at the first sign of trouble and abandoned the sect so easily. The callous ingrat.i.tude was unforgivable.

With a shrug, I confronted the two Pang siblings. "I will honor her decision," I declared, and even though I already knew the answer, it was still a matter of protocol to ask them. And it was polite, too. "What about you two?"

Pang Yun sighed heavily and shook her head. She glanced at Pang Yun. "Brother, are you still going to force the matter?"

Pang Feng suddenly moved in front of me, his stature resembling a towering mountain. He cast a dark stare at me and spoke in a low tone. "I don"t care how she looks at me. I just want her to live! That"s why, I don"t care whether she wants to or not, as long as I believe that my actions will ensure her survival, I will behave accordingly!"

"What makes you think I won"t ensure her survival?" I snorted. "And what right do you have to force your decisions upon other people?"

Ignoring me, Pang Feng issued an order to his sister. "Yun"er, leave first. Go find Wu Tuo and the rest. I"ll only need a moment."

"All right." Pang Yun nodded. She knew her brother well enough to realize it would be useless to persuade him. Before she left, she had a request of her own. "Brother, Junior Fei is the hope of the sect. so please don"t kill him."

She knew how strong her brother was, and thus she was highly confident in his strength. She obviously believed I was no match for him. Hah! What a deluded fool.

"Fine. I promise that I won"t kill him." Pang Feng took a deep breath and stared at me sorrowfully. "We were friends, after all, comrades who fought side by side. But even so…even if I don"t kill him, there will definitely be others who will. There is absolutely no way that he will be able to escape from Tushan City."

"You underestimate my power," I sneered in a manner reminiscent of Anakin Skywalker. Of course, neither of the Pang siblings paid any attention to me. Wow, I was really getting p.i.s.sed off at them underestimating me.

"Whatever, he just cannot die by your hands! I won"t allow you to kill even a single person from the sect!" Pang Yun shouted.

"All right, all right. I promise." Pang Feng relented wearily, surrendering to his sister"s selfish wishes.

While watching the scene, I couldn"t help but burst out laughing at the two. Shaking my head, I slapped my forehead with my palm.

"What the f.u.c.k is wrong with you two?" I was so incensed that I couldn"t restrain myself. "Both of you are such shameless hypocrites! Just listen to what you"re saying, and tell me you honestly don"t believe you"re not being shameless." I pointed rudely at Pang Yun and mimicked her to the best of my ability, pitching my voice.

""Don"t kill Junior Fei and leave some hope for the sect!""

Then I pointed at Pang Yun and imitated him, bringing my voice down as low as possible.

""I won"t kill him, but others will.""

Then I jabbed my finger at Pang Yun again.

""Okay then. Just don"t kill him yourself.""

Throwing my hands up, I began yelling furiously, unable to contain my anger at the sheer hypocrisy.

"Just listen to yourself! You clearly know that n.o.body will be alive after your traitorous attacks, and you speak about "hope" and plead with your brother to "don"t kill"!" what, you think you will be absolved of your betrayal if your brother is not the one who killed me? You are an active and knowing partic.i.p.ant in this treachery, and you jolly well know that no one is going to survive this, but it"s okay as long as you"re not the one who does the actual killing and dirty your hands with blood? Your hypocrisy is just immeasurable!"

While Pang Yun recoiled, shocked by my harsh reprimand, I rounded on Pang Feng.

"And you! If you"re going to pull this f.u.c.king bulls.h.i.t, then why even go to the pretense of listening to Qi Hong?"

I tried to mimic him.

""I love Tang Qi Hong and will listen to her choice.""

Then I gestured toward Tang Qi Hong, who was still lying on the ground, immbolized, and probably taken aback by my yelling and antics.

"She clearly told you to f.u.c.k off, and how do you respond? "Okay then. I will take you by force." Really? You have no honor. You can"t keep your word, can you? And you call yourself a man?" I threw my hands up in exasperation. "What the f.u.c.k is wrong with both of you?!"

The Pang siblings gaped at me for a moment, looking like the utter buffoons that they were. Then Pang Feng closed his mouth.

"Hurry and go, Yun"er," he instructed severely. Pang Yun snapped out of her stupor and nodded. She glanced at me and Tang Qi Hong one last time before she sighed heavily and turned around to leave as quickly as she could.

The moment she disappeared, the imposing aura that shrouded Pang Feng"s body suddenly felt several times heavier. He stood in front of me like a towering mountain, and I was somehow reminded of an immovable object.

Well, if Pang Feng was an immovable object, then I was an unstoppable force. I couldn"t help but wonder what would happen when we clash.

But before that happened, I couldn"t help but feel disappointed. Even though I was somewhat aware of what the outcome of this would be, I was hoping that it would deviate somewhat. After all, Tong Xue did not follow the Yi Yuan route and betray the sect. Instead, he renounced Smart Shadow Sect and stayed true to Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, which was the complete opposite of what Yi Yuan did in the original story. Furthermore, Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou weren"t complete idiots like the original characters in Spirit Realm and engaged in unnecessary, ridiculous angsty teenage romance drama, and then decided for some unfathomable reason to go back to a dangerous place where Tang Si Qi had been attacked by Gray Shadow and Black Shadow months ago when the sect was currently at war with Dark Shadow Tower. You know, a lot of the scenes and events in Spirit Realm were pretty contrived and absurd, now that I thought about it. Thankfully, reality did not work that way, and the kidnapping and betrayal inevitably happened, it wasn"t identical to the contrived and forced manner in which Ni Cang Tian hammered his plot through. There were plenty of differences, and I was hoping against all odds that Pang Feng would take a leaf out of Tong Xue and Tang Qi Hong"s book and behave sensibly like them instead of pulling this ridiculous stunt.

But I guess everyone wanted to see me fight him, and so the story had to develop in a way that we would have a reason to fight. I was really reluctant to fight against my friend, someone I had trusted and fought alongside over the last year or so, but if he insisted on being brain dead, then there was nothing I could do.

I picked Tang Qi Hong up and placed her on a safe place in a distance, while closing my eyes briefly to feel for any nearby martial artists. It would be utter stupidity if I fought Pang Feng to defend Tang Qi Hong, only for someone to swoop by and abduct or a.s.sa.s.sinate her while we were too busily battling each other. Thinking for a bit, I activated my Snow Aegis and used it to shield her, the Spirit Armament hovering above her protectively.

With that settled, I then turned toward Pang Feng and c.o.c.ked my head. My shoulders slumped when I realized that this was the first time we were in a fight, for real. I mean, we did spar, but we never disagreed to the extent where we actually came to blows.

"Fei Wu, I shall ask you one last time." Pang Feng looked at me seriously. "Will you not hand her over to me?"

"Qi Hong has clearly made her decision," I replied somewhat coldly, glancing at Tang Qi Hong, who nodded in confirmation. "She doesn"t want to go with you, and she doesn"t want to be enslaved by Cloud Sky Mountain. I will respect her choice."

"To seek life is the right choice. To seek death is ignorance!" Pang Feng yelled.

"Don"t give me that bulls.h.i.t," I snapped irritably. "Let"s be honest, you"re just "in love" with Qi Hong because you want her body. You should stop the nonsense about wanting her to live and be honest with yourself."

"You…!" Pang Feng"s face turned red. A terrifying surge of qi burst out of his body, coalescing in a golden light. I merely sighed and waited for him to charge at me.

Of course, I was not idle too. I narrowed my eyes and channeled my frosty qi, and the temperature around me plummeted as fog began to billow about the street. When I took a step forward, the concrete froze under my foot. While I approached the charging Pang Feng, the blazing flames that immolated the buildings on either side of me gradually faded away, their heat sapped away by the mystic chill that blew around me.

We collided in the middle of the street, with Pang Feng raining down a barrage of punches on me. I used Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps to evade his attacks, dodging them by the narrowest of margins and sliding to the side before he could hit me. Deflecting his arm to the side before he could shatter my skull (despite promising his sister Pang Yun not to kill me – yeah, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d really was not a man of his word), I rammed my elbow into his chest and caused him to stagger.

With a roar, Pang Feng swiped at me with a vicious hook that would have laid me low, but I managed to bend my back to avoid it, and then sprang back up with a counterattack in the form of a kick that struck his midriff and sent him staggering a few steps back.

Realizing that I couldn"t withstand his attacks for too long, I quickly used Tui to retreat, pulling back to a safe distance and making use of my superior speed and agility to prevent myself from getting caught by Pang Feng"s punches.

"You think you"re safe as long as you stay away from me?" Pang Feng sneered. Raising his hand, he manifested his qi into a spiritual technique.

Rock-hard fists materialized in the night sky above me and streaked forward like shooting stars, smashing toward me while leaving a trail of sonic booms in their wake.

I merely tilted my head to the side and watched them descend. In an instant, the s.p.a.ce around me froze, my concept of Absolute Zero freezing everything in place and leaving the plummeting rock fists suspended in midair. They weren"t just suspended, but entombed in ice before shattering into countless frost fragments.

"Amazing," I remarked as I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose. "You really are powerful."

Pang Feng had turned pale when he saw how easily I had stopped his attacks. He glared at me spitefully.

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No," I replied honestly.

Gritting his teeth, Pang Feng intensified his barrage, and bit by bit, the rock-hard fists were smashing through my defenses. This time, I was unable to freeze them in time. The rock-hard fists were coming so fast and hard that they almost reached me before I could freeze them in time. At first, I was able to stop all of them, but I realized that they were getting closer and closer, until I was no longer able to hold the tide back.

Sighing, I conjured a glacial wall in front of me. Made of thick, dense ice, the glacial wall served as a shield and momentarily halted the rampaging hail of rock fists. I could feel tremors reverberating as they smashed into the ice barrier with the force of meteors, cracking the dense surface despite my best attempts to infuse it with my qi. Undaunted, the rock fists continued to hammer through my last line of defense.

Fragments of ice crumbled away as the rock fists violently collided with the glacial wall, gradually breaking it apart. At first, a tiny cobweb appeared, then more of them, linking and merging with each other to form a gigantic cobweb of cracks that threatened to tear my shuddering ice shield apart from the continuous blows.

If I had Snow Aegis, it would be a different story, but the joke would be on both me and Pang Feng if someone swooped in and stole or a.s.sa.s.sinated Tang Qi Hong right from under our noses, so I had no choice but to a.s.sign Snow Aegis as her guard. As such, I could only rely on this glacial wall for my own defense.

Despite infusing the glacial wall with my qi, I couldn"t help but stagger, my knees buckling as I was no longer able to withstand the ferocious blows.

"I told you that you"re powerful," I growled through clenched teeth. Pang Feng didn"t reply, too busy trying to kill me.

Sighing heavily, I reflected on how Pang Feng was truly worthy of the t.i.tle of being Cloud Sky Mountain"s genius, for he was one of the strongest and fiercest martial artist in my generation that I had ever faced. Not even Liang Shao Yang could compare to his relentless onslaught of attacks, but then again Liang Shao Yang was a pathetic, spineless wimp who could only rely on sneak attacks and deceit to defeat others.

Maybe he was on par with Zhu Jiao. Of course, Zhu Jiao was better, but Pang Feng was probably just below him. Then again, Zhu Jiao had the overwhelming advantage of being the protagonist. All geniuses would fall before him like Six-Star Bone Frame "geniuses" wilting like mere weeds in front of Li Fu Chen.

The night was lit up by Pang Feng"s golden fists, the golden qi glow around them illuminating the darkness. Pang Feng himself was a golden figure who was pummeling my shield with his golden fists. Okay, you get the picture. In any case, at some point of time, he had closed in and joined his barrage of rock fists with his own two fists.

His presence was an added boost to the offensive. Within a dozen blows, he actually shattered the glacial wall and smashed past the hurtling fragments to strike me in the chest.

If readers were expecting me to use Tectonic Shift or whatnot, they were to be sorely disappointed. After all, I was not Qin Lie. I didn"t know he could use ice until long after I started my path to being a martial artist, and that whole Absolute Zero concept was a pure coincidence, but obviously I didn"t have geocentric magnetism or Heavenly Thunder Sacred Body or lightning techniques like Qin Lie. I wasn"t some genius protagonist who could master multiple elements like Qin Lie or Fan Mo. I was just an ordinary guy who learned extraordinary techniques.

For now, I was going to just rely on the basics.

Just as Pang Feng"s golden fist smashed through my chest, my body shimmered and disappeared. His eyes widening, Pang Feng whirled around, but I delivered a Shadow Kick right into his face, causing him to stagger.

"Whoa, you really were trying to kill me, weren"t you?" I grumbled as I hopped back to maximize the distance between us. "What would you have done if I didn"t dodge that? Your fist would have gone through my chest and destroyed my heart!"

Pang Feng stared at me sourly. "It doesn"t matter, does it? You"ll die anyway. You will never be able to escape the ten sects coming to destroy Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. Since you"re so determined to die with the sect, it makes no difference if you die by my hands or by the hands of the martial artists from the other sects. Besides…" Pang Feng cast a glance at the nearby Tang Qi Hong. "As long as you are alive, you"ll continue to threaten my love for Senior Tang."

Ah, jealousy. He was envious of my relationship with Tang Qi Hong, and knew that to stand a chance with her, he would have to kill me. Except that if he killed me in front of her, he would effectively end any chance of getting together with her, because Tang Qi Hong would never forgive him for murdering me.

Then again, I already knew that he was an idiot, so I wasn"t surprised that he didn"t think things through.

"Well, I didn"t expect anything less, but why bother to promise your sister then if you never intended to keep it?"

Pang Feng stiffened. "What she doesn"t know won"t hurt her."

"Uh…" I glanced at Tang Qi Hong. "You do realize you"re trying to kill me in front of Qi Hong, right? What makes you think she"ll keep it a secret for you?"

As I thought, Pang Feng never thought of that. He frowned, evidently struggling to think his idiotic plan through, and finally gave up.

"Doesn"t matter. What is Yun"er going to do when she finds out? Kill me?" he snorted. "She"ll forgive me and move on. Besides, you"re right. Even though she knows no one will survive the purge, least of all you, she insists that it"s all right as long as I"m not the one who kills you. That"s very hypocritical of her."

"Now that"s something we agree on." Using Tui again, I flickered out of existence before Pang Feng could punch me again.

Pang Feng turned around, trying to track me, but I delivered a low kick that caused his leg to buckle. He swung his arm wildly, almost catching me, but I made use of my superior speed to escape to safety.

"Ugh…"

I could feel my leg throbbing from that last kick. Obviously Pang Feng was physically stronger and st.u.r.dier than I was, so it was disadvantageous for me to continue fighting him barehanded. I needed a weapon.

Jerking my right hand in front of me, I snapped my fingers and yelled, "Come!"

Pang Feng apparently thought I was calling for him, and he indulged happily, lunging at me with another of those terrifying gold fists c.o.c.ked back to strike a lethal blow.

At the same time, my Azure Lotus Sword materialized into existence as it slid out of the spatial device portion of Snow Aegis and then streaked toward me. While I spun around to evade Pang Feng"s devastating punch by a hair"s breadth, I reached out and grabbed my Azure Lotus Sword with my right hand before slashing at my opponent.

Crack!

The collision of our qi exploded and Pang Feng was actually hurled back by my counterattack, his body tumbling helplessly in the air for a few moments before he eventually righted himself and landed on his feet and knee.

"Of course…" Pang Feng murmured as he raised his head and studied me. "I forgot that you"re a swordsman."

"…"

I watched him grimly, noting that he was unscathed despite taking a direct hit from my sword at pointblank range.

As if he noticed my curiosity, Pang Feng slowly rose to his feet. His body was glowing golden, his qi coalescing protectively over him. Underneath his ripped clothes, I caught a glimpse of golden armor, which melded almost seamlessly with his body. To my astonishment, even Pang Feng"s skin had actually turned golden.

I wondered briefly if the golden armor was a Spirit Armament, or a part of his body.

"Let"s see if your sword can penetrate my armor, or if I"ll be able to crush you first!"

With a roar, Pang Feng charged at me again. I wasn"t stupid enough to confront him in a head-on duel, so I used my footwork techniques to run rings around him, evading his attacks and striking as he sped past. However, I couldn"t find any gaps in his defense to exploit – his golden armor seemed to deflect my sword no matter where I sought to pierce him.

Pang Feng spun around and grabbed for me, as if determined to grapple with me. It was understandable – he was much slower. Even if he possessed tremendous attack power, it would be useless if he couldn"t get a clean hit on me. He would have to rely on stillness and steadiness and look for an opportunity to land a hit.

As for me, I was playing a dangerous game – not willingly, of course. I was highly aware that all it would only take one clean hit to grievously wound me, or potentially kill me. Unlike Pang Feng, I didn"t possess a formidable defense. I had superior speed, but if I wanted to break through that armor of his, I would need to channel more of my qi into my attacks. That meant sacrificing some speed and making myself more vulnerable to Pang Feng"s. .h.i.ts.

But I would have to risk it eventually. As good as my stamina was, I couldn"t keep running around like this indefinitely. I would need to end this battle eventually.

"!"

Pang Feng"s fist almost took my head off, but I managed to duck my head back. Spinning around, I thrust my sword forward, but it harmlessly bounced off Pang Feng"s chest. He countered with a punch from his other arm, but I managed to dodge it by a millimeter. Whirling to the side, I decided not to retreat this time and poured the qi that would otherwise be used for speed into my Azure Lotus Sword. Inhaling deeply, I struck with all my might.

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike!

"!!!!"

Pang Feng recognized the threat and he immediately raised both his arms up to block my strike. The moment my blade made contact with the golden glow suffusing his arms, our volatile qi exploded upon the violent collision and sent the both of us flying apart.

"Kuh!"

"Ugh…!"

I skidded to a stop and swung my glowing sword, taking a deep breath and glaring through the smoke. Similarly, a few dozen meters away, Pang Feng also just barely managed to skid to a stop, and he lowered his fuming arms.

"That was a powerful blow," he admitted, shaking his trembling arms. "But if that was your trump card, then your defeat is inevitable. You"ll never be able to break through my defenses."

So he said, but I focused my eyes on his smoking arms, and my lenses magnified the view conveniently for my view. I could see a huge scratch on his arms where I had struck them, with a trail of blood leaking profusely from the wounds. The golden glow had diminished slightly, but while Pang Feng restored his golden armor and glowing skin by infusing them with his qi again, he was unable to suppress the bleeding.

"No," I smirked as a smile spread across my face. "In fact, I believe I"ve found the c.h.i.n.k in your armor."