Fan Daoyi, inside the ancestral hall, also heard that explosive cry of "bitch." He grew a little curious about what was happening above.
He looked down again at Wang Haotian, who was clinging to his last breath on the floor, but still saw no sign of him breaking down. How dull.
"Are you all right? Does it hurt?" Despite his words, the bamboo cane remained inside Wang Haotian's wound, twisting.
Listen to yourself! Was that any way for a human being to speak!?
Wang Haotian was furious but dared not speak. He had no strength left and was completely suppressed.
"I've told you everything I know," Wang Haotian said weakly, enduring the pain.
"Oh." Fan Daoyi pretended to ponder for a moment, then the smile on his lips turned even more dangerous. "Does that mean you're useless now?"
"No, no, no, I'm still useful, my lord!" Wang Haotian panicked as soon as he heard that and hurriedly cried out.
After the torture, his pride was utterly crushed in the face of life and death. "Don't kill me, don't kill me."
Fan Daoyi crouched down and pulled the bamboo cane out of the wound. Smiling, he offered Wang Haotian a glimmer of hope, his voice calm. "The price we discussed before still stands, you know, as long as you go out and kill them."
Wang Haotian doubted Fan Daoyi's true intentions. Caught in extreme anguish and indecision, he found it hard to make a choice.
Fan Daoyi clearly had no intention of giving him much time to think and decided to press him again. The bamboo cane struck another patch of uninjured skin, and blood splattered everywhere.
"Ah—" Wang Haotian curled up in pain and used the last of his reason to ask, "Why? Why must I attack them?"
"I can't find a good reason. Why don't you just take it as me being bored out of my mind?"
That nasty, terrible personality brought Wang Haotian's reason to a dead stillness.
After a moment of silence, he answered in a low voice, "I understand. Please spare me."
Little did he know that the price of those words would be his heart being brutally pierced.
Wang Haotian's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief. Blood welled up from his throat, and his trembling fingers touched the bloody hole as he felt his life rapidly slipping away.
Countless questions filled his mind. He had clearly agreed, so why had things turned out this way?
As his consciousness gradually faded, Wang Haotian heard Fan Daoyi's airy voice. "You were already planning to attack the authorities. As someone who just joined [Eight Trigrams], that's reason enough for me to kill you."
Fuck, you play dirty... That was Wang Haotian's final silent curse.
Rumble. The fighting above had already begun to affect the ancestral hall. It was time to find another place to watch the show.
"Act two: the perfect alibi."
He snapped his fingers in the empty ancestral hall and teleported out, arriving behind the Azure Dragon Guards.
Seeing Xia Baoguo working himself into a frenzy up ahead, Fan Daoyi followed his example and cobbled together a shabby-looking barrier around the area.
"I did my best. I haven't made one of these in almost a few decades. It's already pretty good that I managed it at all." He comforted himself, then turned and glared at the Azure Dragon Guards. "When we get back, all of you are going to learn how to draw one. Just because it isn't a required course doesn't mean you can ignore it completely."
He dusted off his hands and went to the rear. Facing Fan Daoyi with a warm, kindly smile, he asked with concern, "Sorry for all the trouble, Dao Yi. If not for your teleportation, we couldn't have gotten the supplies we needed so quickly. How are you feeling? Have you had a good rest?"
Xia Baoguo's concern showed in his words. Then his gaze fell on the verdant bamboo cane, and he gave a soft exclamation. "Were you holding a bamboo cane just now?"
Fan Daoyi smiled. "Maybe you were too much in a hurry to notice. I've been holding it the whole time."
"Really?"
Fan Daoyi turned his gaze to the villa inside the barrier and changed the subject. "Can He Piaojian handle the monster in there by himself?"
"Don't be fooled by how that kid never acts serious. His strength is the real deal. Challenging opponents above his level is as easy as eating and drinking." Xia Baoguo had complete confidence in He Piaojian.
He had just finished speaking when He Piaojian's voice rang out from afar. "Old geezer, don't just stand there watching once you're done! Get me a sword—"
"Well, I'll stop chatting for now. I'm going to get him a sword."
Fan Daoyi drew the long sword from inside the bamboo cane and held it out to Xia Baoguo. "Here."
Xia Baoguo accepted the sword without ceremony, gave a hurried word of thanks, and ran toward the villa.
Fan Daoyi walked a few steps back. No one was there, and it was also a good spot from which to watch the villa.
"I've left an impression on He Piaojian too, but that's still not foolproof..."
He pondered aloud, "How about you put on another act?"
"Huh?" A voice sounded in Fan Daoyi's head. "Hey, hey, aren't you going too far?"
An identical Fan Daoyi took shape before him and pointed at him reproachfully. "The first time, when we entered the dream, you said I could do as I pleased, but then you took over. The second time, you told me to put on a good performance, and it turned out I was playing a dead man. This third time, you said it was extremely important, and I ended up doing hard labor for ages."
The more he spoke, the more worked up he became. "You can't run your opposite side ragged like this!"
As he had said, this was Fan Daoyi's opposite side, or more precisely, a different personality. One gave birth to two, two gave birth to three, and quite a few personalities had been born in his dull life.
To avoid a split personality, they had formed individual selves.
To tell them apart, they were named in order: Dao Er, Dao San... Oh, they didn't like those names.
"This time, you get to show off in front of everyone."
"Really?" Dao Er believed him without a doubt.
"Mm. Wang Haotian said no one has ever seen the true faces of the Four Fiends Cult's upper ranks. In a moment, you do this..."
They plotted together and settled on a plan.
Inside the villa, the monster's hungry consciousness had been overtaken by rage. It stopped trying to leave the villa and focused all its attention on He Piaojian, its massive body turning in circles inside the villa as it followed his attempts to flee.
The intestines in the monster's mouth, nose, and eyes also seemed to gain a life of their own. They came spilling out in a rush, forming an encirclement as they tried to restrict He Piaojian's movements.
He Piaojian dodged nimbly and swung the branch in his hand. A fierce streak of sword qi slashed out, instantly severing the intestines. Several cracks also appeared in the branch as a result.
Even in such a dangerous situation, he didn't forget to sing a taunt. "Can't catch me, can you? La la la la la~"
Several arms haphazardly pieced together reached for different spots, blocking He Piaojian's paths. He swung another casual slash, cutting open a path, but the branch in his hand shattered completely.
"He Piaojian!" Xia Baoguo shouted.
Hearing the shout, He Piaojian stretched his arm outward without lowering his head, opening his hand wide.
He held the pose for ages, but there was no response, and the monster's attacks continued. As he dodged, he lowered his head and shouted to Xia Baoguo, "Where did you find that fake?"
Watching from afar, Fan Daoyi noticed the awkward scene and realized that, strictly speaking, the bamboo cane couldn't be considered a sword. It was only a transformed weapon, so He Piaojian's One Heart of the Sword couldn't affect it.
"Cooperate with him," Fan Daoyi said softly.
Over there, Xia Baoguo flung the sword from his hand. "Maybe it was too far away. Try again!"
He Piaojian shifted sideways with several flash steps, then jumped down and slid forward. When he reached out again, the sword hummed and flew into his hand.
With the long sword in hand, his innate One Heart of the Sword ability was fully activated. His aura surged as he twisted sideways and slashed.
The monster was severed at the waist, and the barrier was broken with that single slash, along with several mountaintops behind it.
"Oops, I didn't hold back enough."
The surrounding area had long since been cleared, and by rights no one should have been near it, but Xia Baoguo still hurriedly called for several people to go over and check for casualties.
The food the monster had devoured poured out of the severed cross-section, and its body gradually returned to a normal size.
"Hungry, hungry..." The monster's consciousness returned.
Just then, a voice came softly from behind the monster. "See? I told you not to eat food from outside because you can't beat them.
The person walked slowly out from behind the monster, carrying a tablet in one hand, a black-and-white smiling mask on his face.
With his free hand, he removed his top hat, held it to his chest, and bowed like a gentleman. "A pleasure to meet you all. My name is Taotie."