When Fang Xing tried to persuade Ying Qiaoqiao to let go of her hatred, he was being uncommonly genuine. He wasn"t the kind of person to leave behind small problems so they could grow bigger later, and when he heard how strongly Ying Qiaoqiao hated him, he nearly decided to "accidentally" throw her over the side of the s.h.i.+p. He quickly thought better of it, however; he still needed this girl in order to sneak into the Melodic Ice Palace, and her father was already one of his people. It was best to just convince her to let go of this hatred.

As for Ying Qiaoqiao, when she heard "let go of your hatred", her stomach began to bubble with fury and her responding "why?" was filled with anger. But when she heard Fang Xing"s follow-up about how her life would be filled with even more sadness, her entire body froze and she subconsciously muttered, "That little devil has made my life so miserable already; how could I become any sadder?"

Fang Xing responded with even more seriousness, "Think about it. If you hate him so much, you will surely try to agitate him again. With him being as strong as he is, are you not simply seeking death? What if he comes and then kills your father, would that not be worse?"

Ying Qiaoqiao snorted. "How could he match up to my father?"

"That, you can"t be certain!"

"He is definitely not as strong as my father!"

Speechless, Fang Xing replied, "Fine. Then what if he were to come and kill you?"

Ying Qiaoqiao"s face flushed before she yelled out, "I"m not afraid of death!"

"Then what if he were to strip you naked and hang you from a tree?"

This caused Ying Qiaoqiao"s face to pale. "Why… why would he do such an excessive thing?" she exclaimed.

"You were the one to agitate him first. What he does after that wouldn"t be considered excessive anymore."

This left Ying Qiaoqiao unable to respond, and a sense of helplessness rose up from the bottom of her heart.

In truth, the girl"s thoughts were extremely difficult to guess. After Fang Xing"s actions the first time at Mount Desolation, she had naturally hated him to the core. The second time around, the little devil fell from the sky and—with a single strike—killed someone who had a very large presence in her heart. Her big brother Chu Zhaoyang"s head had even landed in her hands and splattered her body with his fresh blood, instilling her with a deep sense of fear.

Others always told her that if she diligently practiced her cultivation, there would come a day where she"d be able to kill that little devil, yet there was terror deep in the depths of Ying Qiaoqiao"s heart. Those words she"d unintentionally blurted out had been the first time she"d spoken of her hatred towards Fang Xing, but there was also that "but" at the end. She"d been about to say that she hated him so much, yet was so terrified she didn"t even dare to have thoughts of avenging her beloved big brother Zhaoyang. That was what truly saddened her.

Fang Xing mentioned how strong he was purely for the sake of persuading her against revenge, but he"d coincidentally echoed her innermost thoughts as well. The girl was still prideful, however, and so after the initial shock wore off, she angrily asked, "Why are you speaking on his behalf?"

"Let the heavens and earth be my witness, I am saying all of this for your own sake!" he declared, while "If it wasn"t for your sake, I would"ve thrown you overboard ages ago," resounded in his mind.

"For my sake?" This startled Ying Qiaoqiao. This person had declared it with a great sincerity, making her heart feel a fuzzy warmth. She slightly tilted her face to the side before grabbing at the wine gourd Fang Xing had been drinking from. "Let me drink your wine!" she commanded.

This was the special spirit wine he"d infused and didn"t want to part with it, so Fang Xing batted her hand away. "Drink your *ss, you"re just a little girl!"

Ying Qiaoqiao"s eyes opened wide. "I am your master! You dare call me little girl and refuse to give me a drink?"

Fang Xing sighed and held his head. "Now you"re even using your status to lord over me. My life is so f*cking sad…." Now he began to truly consider the merits of throwing this stupid girl overboard.

Ying Qiaoqiao did feel a bit guilty when she heard this. Although this servant was extremely rude, she still believed he was doing it all for her own good—his refusal to let her drink was because she was still too young and alcohol was bad for her body. The emotion this brought up actually resembled the one she"d held towards her somewhat stupid, rather fierce, but extremely loyal Xiongnu. It was no wonder her father would personally appoint him to come along with her to the Melodic Ice Palace.

"Fine, I won"t bother with what you call me, but I still want a drink!" Ying Qiaoqiao pouted her tiny lips, showing the same unruly temperament she had before.

""Drink", "drink", "drink"; I"ll let you drink, drink yourself to death!" Fang Xing folded his arms, walked into the cabin, and then emerged with two pots of the wine Elder Moye had stowed on the s.h.i.+p. Known as "Spring of the Six Suns", this wine was made from six different beast pellets, crafted using a rather ingenious infusion process. This wine was potent without being dangerous, unlike Fang Xing"s own wine which was at a level only he and the golden crow could drink it.

"You…." When Ying Qiaoqiao saw Fang Xing carrying over two pots of wine, her eyes began to redden.

Fang Xing grew annoyed at this and pushed one of the wine pots in front of her. "Dammit, I carried all this wine over, so what the h.e.l.l are you crying about now?"

Rather than answer his question, she instead demanded, "I want to drink your bad wine!"

"Bullsh*t, this is bad wine, my wine is good. I"m not letting you drink mine!"

Ying Qiaoqiao stood there stubbornly before quietly extending her hand to accept one of the pots of wine.

Fang Xing wasn"t aware of just how fragile Ying Qiaoqiao was right now, nor that her ability to make a.s.sociations was very strong. What Fang Xing had done just now reminded Ying Qiaoqiao of long ago, when she"d seen Xiongnu squatting inside a horse stable drinking wine. She"d thought it was fun and joined in, saying she wanted to drink some as well. Xiongnu hadn"t given it to her, but snuck into the kitchen to steal a pot of fine wine for her instead. Xiongnu had received two heavy lashes after it was found out he"d stolen the wine, but it had also imprinted that event forever in Ying Qiaoqiao"s memory. She"d later tasted the same wine Xiongnu had been drinking and found it sour and rough—not tasty at all.

Fang Xing"s actions right now caused her to remember that same feeling once more—this rude servant was indeed very similar to her Xiongnu. He must have thought the wine of a servant wasn"t appropriate for someone of her status, so he"d stolen the better wines despite the risk of being punished by Elder Moye…. Except, Xiongnu had only stolen one pot back then, while this servant had directly taken two—he was bolder and had more courage.

Fang Xing sat down next to the s.h.i.+p"s railing before uncorking the pot for a taste. He smacked his lips a bit and decided the flavor simply wasn"t enough, but Ying Qiaoqiao thought it was because he"d never tasted such good wine. She found the greedy look on his face to be a bit cute, and she herself showed a smile before seating herself beside him.

Soft winds blew across their faces and a few visible stars glimmered in the dusk sky above. Ying Qiaoqiao sat quietly for a moment before softly asking, "You said your life is sad. What happened? Is it because you don"t have enough cultivation resources?" All of the servants who followed her were also cultivators, or else they wouldn"t have the ability to help her with certain tasks or protect her. These people usually had a lower status as a Myriad Beasts Sect outer court disciple, however, and a lack of cultivation resources was often a concern.

Fang Xing decided to take this opportunity to educate her. "Yea, not everyone is a little miss like you…."

Ying Qiaoqiao chuckled. "I normally use mid-grade Spirit Stones for practice. Do you want some?" As she spoke, she took out three Spirit Stones and held them out in front of Fang Xing.

Fang Xing nearly choked when he saw this. By now, he was at the point where he could hand out high-grade Spirit Stones….

Ying Qiaoqiao placed the stones into his hand and said, "Don"t worry. If Elder Moye asks, just say I gave them to you as a reward. If you lack any cultivation resources in the future, just ask me anytime!" She then turned her head towards the sky filling with stars. After a moment of silence, she asked, "Have you ever had someone you hate so much, yet were extremely terrified of at the same time?"

Fang Xing gave it some thought before replying, "When I was really young, I had nine uncles. They were all really good to me; we would gather in the valley, drink wines, get into fights, and boast about everything. Those days were easy. But then, a really powerful guy came along and killed them all. I was so scared, and I only managed to escape by crawling out of a secret pa.s.sageway. I hated him so much at the time, but was also terrified he would come after me…."

Ying Qiaoqiao was surprised by this and hurried him on, "Then what happened?"

Fang Xing wanted to say "then I chopped him up", but he soon realized he"d expose himself if he said something like that. Instead, he let out a chuckle and responded, "Then, well here I am, at your Myriad Beasts Sect…."

"What happened to the bad guy?" Ying Qiaoqiao turned and asked, extremely curious. She hadn"t realized she"d gotten so close to Fang Xing that her lashes were nearly touching his nose.

"Then he died," Fang Xing lightly said.

Ying Qiaoqiao released a breath. "How lucky. Someone was able to get revenge on your behalf!" After a short moment of silence, she softly continued, "You must be rather sad, right? I know you want to tell me that the bad guys always meet with karma, so there is no need for me to take revenge. The truth is, I don"t dare. Every time I think of him, I feel scared, and sometimes the nightmares I have at night are so terrifying I don"t dare to go back to sleep again…."

As Ying Qiaoqiao spoke, her voice became lower and lower and she began to lightly lean up against Fang Xing"s shoulder.

"If you want to sleep, go back to your own room…."

"No, let me rest for a while…."

"My shoulder is sore…." Fang Xing turned to scold her, but he suddenly saw Ying Qiaoqiao"s closed eyes and the two lines of glistening tear tracks adorning her cheeks.

Meanwhile, the two old women in the front cabin realized their master hadn"t returned yet. Just as they were about to go searching for her, they suddenly felt a strong movement of Qi from afar, in front of the large moon hanging in the night sky. A large silver chariot suddenly pierced through a dark cloud, disturbing the peace of the night and nearly colliding with the side of their spirit vessel.

"No, there"s a spirit vessel ahead…" someone coldly commanded from within the chariot, immediately changing its path so it narrowly missed the spirit vessel.

The chariot was simply too large, however—at least three times more so than their spirit s.h.i.+p—and its sudden appearance still caused a strong gust of wind so strong it nearly capsized the spirit s.h.i.+p. Ying Qiaoqiao who was leaning against Fang Xing"s shoulder suddenly let out a shriek as she was flung from the s.h.i.+p, but Fang Xing narrowed his eyes, dragged her back in against his chest, and held her against him with one hand while he looked on towards the chariot.

In that instant, Elder Moye—who"d been meditating earlier—flew out from the spirit vessel into the air and loudly yelled out, "Who might the fellow Daoist be who startled our Myriad Beasts" spirit vessel?"

"Heh. Myriad Beasts Sect? That small sect in the Bohai Kingdom? Don"t block our path; we are in a rus.h.!.+" a somewhat happy voice responded from the chariot, as though relieved to find out the spirit vessel belonged to the Myriad Beasts Sect instead of someone else.