Fang Shuwen had not said that out of arrogance.
In fact, he was an exceptionally cautious man.
He had said it mainly because he worried that killing four people in succession might scare Feng Mantian and his companions away.
Rather than leave a threat behind, he might as well take a gamble.
He would thoroughly enrage the three who remained and beat them all to death here in the Pearl Pavilion.
That would also put a complete end to the danger hanging over Zhou Qingmei.
Whether Fang Shuwen's words had worked or the three who remained truly had a card up their sleeves, no one knew.
Feng Mantian bellowed:
"Good, good, good! Today, either you die or I do!!"
He abruptly circulated the [Black Sha Demonic Art], black Qi billowing around his entire body. Pushing off with one foot, he swooped straight at Fang Shuwen like a dark cloud.
Guan Tianyue came with him.
The two charged in one after the other, but just as their fist and palm were about to land on Fang Shuwen, they suddenly pivoted, one going left and the other right, and began circling him.
Fang Shuwen raised an eyebrow and stood his ground.
He watched the two figures wreathed in black Qi circle without stopping, their moves forever on the verge of striking. Every now and then they feinted, as if taunting him.
To be honest, the sight was somewhat ridiculous.
Zuo Qingshuang burst into curses:
"Feng Mantian, have you no shame?
"You're supposed to be a renowned expert of the jianghu, yet when facing a young junior, you not only gang up on him, you even use such a shameless trick because you don't dare fight him head-on.
"If that's all the courage you have, go home and have babies!!"
Xu Chongshan coughed.
"Junior sister... you're a young lady, after all. You should watch what you say."
"Watch my grandmother's grandson! Who bullies people like this?"
Zuo Qingshuang was beside herself with rage. Her senior brother, with whom she had been ready to live or die only moments ago, now looked hateful to her as well.
Xu Chongshan was left speechless...
In all conscience, he felt that the Black Sha Cult was a demonic cult.
But calling this bullying... was something of a stretch.
Qingyangzi, Ghost Scholar, Li Nanchen, and Blissful Monk had died one after another at Fang Shuwen's hands.
The veteran devils of the Black Sha Cult had been driven to cast aside even their old faces and resort to this method of making the false seem real and the real seem false, hoping to disrupt Fang Shuwen's sight and attention.
If they hadn't been driven to the very limit, why would they have gone this far?
The Black Sha Cult had been known throughout the jianghu for its cruelty, but once word of today's events got out, it could make its name in the jianghu for shamelessness instead.
Of course, that was a judgment based on their relative strength, not a sign that Xu Chongshan bore Fang Shuwen any ill will.
In fact, at this very moment, he was immensely grateful that, at the Pearl Pavilion's hour of crisis, such a young man had appeared out of nowhere to hold up a building on the verge of collapse.
He could not help worrying, though, that Fang Shuwen was young and inexperienced in combat, and might suffer for it against the Black Sha Cult's shameless tactics.
He simply knew that, in the present situation, shouting curses like his junior sister would do no good.
It was better to keep his mouth shut, lest he distract Fang Shuwen.
But just then, he caught a shadow out of the corner of his eye, and his heart gave a violent jolt.
"Oh no!!
"Young hero, watch out!!!"
Four of the people who had come to the Pearl Pavilion today were already dead.
That left Feng Mantian, Guan Tianyue, and the man in black who had never shown his true face.
Everyone had taken Feng Mantian for the backbone of the group.
After all, he was the leader of the Black Sha Cult.
So when he and Guan Tianyue used a tactic that could only be called shameless against a young junior, no one would have imagined that they were merely a distraction.
The shadow Xu Chongshan had glimpsed was none other than the man in black who had remained out of sight.
The man's movement technique was far faster than Feng Mantian's.
Taking advantage of Fang Shuwen's attention being fixed on Feng Mantian and Guan Tianyue, he finally made his move.
Almost in the space of a thought, he slipped through the gap between Feng Mantian and Guan Tianyue and reached Fang Shuwen's side.
By the time Xu Chongshan shouted his warning, it was already too late.
The man moved too quickly, and his martial arts were exceptionally vicious.
Without stirring the slightest gust of force, a single finger was already aimed at Fang Shuwen's vital Qihai acupoint.
If that finger pierced his Qihai, even with Fang Shuwen's peerless divine skill, he would likely suffer a devastating blow.
The situation would then be reversed once more... The Pearl Pavilion, which Fang Shuwen had just pulled back from the edge of the cliff, would once again fall into a hopeless abyss.
But the strike had come too quickly, too stealthily. Even if Fang Shuwen heard Xu Chongshan's warning and reacted at once, he would probably be too late!
Despair gripped Xu Chongshan, and at the same time he prepared to stake his life.
He could not let a young man like Fang Shuwen die a miserable death at the Pearl Pavilion.
Though [Qi-Severing Powder] made him wish for death whenever he circulated his Qi... it did not make it completely impossible for him to use his power.
Just as before, he would give it his all, and even if it cost him his life, he had to fight for a sliver of hope for Fang Shuwen, Zhou Qingmei, Lu Xiaoqing, and the others.
All these thoughts settled in an instant.
Yet the next moment... Xu Chongshan's eyes suddenly widened.
Without the slightest warning, a hand had made its preparations—or rather, it had done so before anyone noticed.
Just as the finger was about to strike Fang Shuwen's Qihai acupoint, the hand suddenly seized it.
"Caught you."
A smile curved Fang Shuwen's lips, and the delight in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.
Xu Chongshan was injured, after all. His body was not in its peak condition, and his powers of observation were far below what they had been...
In fact, Fang Shuwen had known much earlier, when his [Vajra Tower-Throwing] had struck empty air and Feng Mantian had been saved by the man in black robes, that the man's lightness skill was extraordinary.
His speed was far beyond anything Fang Shuwen could match.
Thus, when Feng Mantian and Guan Tianyue suddenly began playing this trick of surrounding him without attacking, Fang Shuwen appeared to have all his attention on the two of them.
In truth, most of his attention was on that man.
The [Muscle Tendon Change] at great completion had vastly improved Fang Shuwen's martial foundation, as well as his discernment and methods.
Though the man was very fast, he could not escape Fang Shuwen's eyes.
If they competed in lightness skill alone, Fang Shuwen could not catch him... but that did not mean he could not beat him!
With calculation against the unsuspecting, his grab was sure to hit its mark!
The black-robed man's heart gave a sudden thud. He was ruthless himself, and every time Fang Shuwen had struck, it had been a thunderbolt blow that killed.
So he entertained no hope of a lucky escape and moved to snap off his own finger to force his way free.
But how could Fang Shuwen give him the chance?
Would he let the duck already at his lips fly away?
A surge of True Qi rushed without warning up the meridians in the man's finger...
Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang! The sounds of acupoints and meridians being shattered by True Qi rose and fell in succession.
The black-robed man's whole body jolted. Then his head was seized, and Fang Shuwen had him in his grasp. Fang Shuwen lifted him and swung him in a wide arc, calling out softly:
"Have you two finished circling yet?"