Fang Shuwen's movements were as swift as a hare darting off and a falcon swooping down, unbelievably fast.
That was chiefly thanks to the footwork of the [Great Black Heaven Divine Palm]. He struck with [Vajra Tower-Throwing], moving like rushing thunder, his momentum like a blade splitting bamboo.
He moved so quickly that even if the other man had wanted to help, there would have been no time.
By the time he came to his senses, his companion had already been captured by Fang Shuwen.
At that instant, the question he had intended to ask no longer needed asking.
Black Granny had died at this young man's hands.
They had found it hard to believe because Fang Shuwen was too young. Black Granny had cultivated the [Black Sha Demonic Art] to an exceedingly profound realm, so how could she have died at the hands of a young man like Fang Shuwen?
Now that they had seen Fang Shuwen in action, there was no longer any doubt.
The man holding the boy sneered.
"You'd better let him go, or I'll kill this little brat."
"Go on, kill him."
Fang Shuwen spoke with open impatience.
"You've said that several times already, but you still haven't killed him.
"I'm telling you, if you don't kill him soon, I'll do the killing."
"I don't believe—"
Before the man could finish, there was a crack.
Without waiting for him to finish, Fang Shuwen twisted the head of the man in his grip a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
The sound of breaking bones was as piercing as metal grinding against metal!
Zhou Qingmei recalled the noise this man had made when he exchanged a palm strike with Fang Shuwen earlier and guessed that the two men must have practiced some kind of body-tempering martial art.
Otherwise, it would not have made such a sound.
The man opposite them was dumbfounded.
"...You... you really killed him?"
Fang Shuwen spoke with righteous indignation.
"As the saying goes, once a gentleman gives his word, even a team of four horses cannot overtake it. My word has always carried the weight of nine tripods. I never lie.
"Unlike you... an evil heretic who breaks his word. You say you'll kill him, but you don't. You dither and dawdle. It makes no sense."
For an instant, the eyes of the man opposite went blank.
He felt his mind struggling to keep up.
The plan they had made before coming had been quite good.
Zhou Qingmei was staying at a woodcutter's home, so the two of them only had to barge in, seize the family and force Zhou Qingmei to submit.
People of the righteous path were all upstanding gentlemen, after all.
Even those who were despicable and shameless, sinister and vicious behind closed doors, put on a respectable front.
Threatening such people with the lives of ordinary folk often worked wonders.
But why wasn't it working now?
Judging by Fang Shuwen's behavior, it almost seemed he was even more eager than the man himself for the boy to die quickly.
When the man was slow to act, Fang Shuwen was displeased and even gave him a vicious scolding!?
How had things come to this?
Why was he suddenly at a loss?
Fang Shuwen's behavior left this Black Sha Cult member, who had grown up in the cult and long since become cold-blooded and indifferent, treating human life like grass, wondering which of them was actually from the demonic cult.
If Fang Shuwen was bluffing... it certainly didn't look like it.
The Black Sha Cult member found himself riding a tiger and unable to dismount.
Judging from the martial arts Fang Shuwen had just displayed, he was absolutely no match for him.
If the bargaining chip in his hand was also useless, wouldn't this so-called pursuit be a sheep walking into a tiger's maw?
At that thought, he suddenly thrust out his left palm, striking the boy squarely in the back.
He applied his strength skillfully, aiming to push rather than kill.
As he released his left hand, he flicked his other hand, sending a grappling hook onto a large tree beyond the courtyard wall. He pulled hard, and his whole body leaped into the air.
He wanted to retreat and hoped to use the boy as a distraction to take a gamble.
If Fang Shuwen truly didn't care about the boy's life, he most likely had little hope.
If the opposite was true, he would have a chance to escape.
But just as he reached midair, he unexpectedly heard an ominous rush of wind.
He spun his head around and saw that the boy he had just thrown had come right back the way he had gone!
What was more, the force propelling him now far exceeded the force with which he had been thrown.
Unfortunately, the man was in midair and could do nothing to dodge.
He instinctively let go, intending to use a thousand-pound drop, but it was already too late.
There was a bang.
The boy's head slammed straight into his chest.
The martial art he practiced was different from those of the other Black Sha Cult members. Like his companion, he had copper skin and iron bones.
That copper skin and iron bones had been gradually forged through cultivation from childhood and immense suffering. It worked without his having to circulate his power.
The head striking his chest was no different from striking a wall of copper and iron.
The boy was killed on the spot. Driven by the tremendous force, he also smashed a large crater into the wall of piled boulders behind the man.
The two figures tumbled head over heels across the ground, rolling seven or eight zhang before finally coming to a stop.
The Black Sha Cult member rolled over and sat up, feeling that all five of his organs had been damaged.
The horror in his heart was beyond measure.
He tried to rise and flee, but a figure had already flashed into view before him.
"I could tell long ago that your body-tempering skills were formidable. I didn't expect you could still get up after a collision like that."
Fang Shuwen's voice reached his ears like the sound of a demon.
Terror spread across the Black Sha Cult member's face. With an angry shout, he raised his hand and struck.
Fang Shuwen swept out his five fingers, using [Plum Blossom Loose Hands] to turn the momentum to his advantage. He not only deflected the force of the palm strike but also twisted the man's arm backhanded, and a succession of cracks rang out.
The sound was piercing, as though what had been twisted apart was not an arm, but a bar of stubborn iron.
From this, it was clear that the man's body-tempering skills were indeed extraordinary. Unfortunately for him, he had run into Fang Shuwen, who had mastered his divine art.
The next moment, Fang Shuwen punched repeatedly.
He first struck the man in the mouth, knocking out every one of his teeth.
Then he landed a punch each on the Tanzhong acupoint and the Qi Sea in his dantian, dispersing his internal force.
Finally, he turned the man around and hooked his five fingers into the pipa bones on either side of his back. Excruciating pain reached the man's heart as Fang Shuwen's strength pierced straight through his copper skin and iron bones, crushing both pipa bones to pieces.
Only after doing all this did Fang Shuwen drag the Black Sha Cult member, limp as a dead dog, back into the little courtyard.
He tossed him to Zhou Qingmei.
Zhou Qingmei had long since grown accustomed to Fang Shuwen's prowess. She merely let out a soft breath and was about to ask a question.
Then she heard footsteps coming out of the house.
It was the old matriarch of the Sun family.
Her expression was vacant as she looked at her husband's corpse, then at her son's.
Finally, she walked beyond the courtyard wall and picked up her grandson's corpse, trying to wipe the blood from his face.
But no matter how much she wiped, she could not wipe it all away.
"Retribution! This is retribution!!"
The Sun family's daughter-in-law had come out too. There was not a trace of sorrow on her already grotesque face; it only grew more grotesque.
"Your Sun family deserved this... may your line die out!!"
Old Madam Sun said nothing. She slowly laid her grandson's body down, then suddenly charged fiercely at the stone wall.
She struck her head against it and died.