"Bang..."
Amid the dull thud, in the desert ravaged by flying sand, the Jester, with only his upper body remaining, crashed heavily onto the ground.
His lower body had already turned into dark brown flames and vanished before it hit the ground.
"Urgh... urgh..."
The Jester let out a mournful cry that barely sounded like a scream. One hand clenched his lantern as he struggled to rise.
However, a sharp dagger turned into a frigid flash and descended from above, stabbing viciously toward the hand holding the lantern.
"Pshk—!"
Moon Blade pierced through the Jester's palm, pinning that hand firmly to the sand.
"Urgh... Aaaaaah...!"
The Jester finally screamed.
Dark brown tongues of flame spattered continuously from his pierced palm like blood.
And a foot was already pressing down hard on the dagger, slowly driving it through his palm and making the Jester scream without end.
"What an unpleasant sound."
Fang Li looked down at the Jester sprawled before him, the faintly smiling expression on his face still not fading.
"Since you'd heard about me, what exactly gave you the confidence to think I'd obediently let myself be captured?"
As Fang Li spoke, he kept applying more force with the foot pressing down on Moon Blade.
"Even Starry Sky Palace couldn't contain me, and even the Three Pillars couldn't capture me. Yet you thought you could take me away?"
"You're vastly overestimating yourself."
The mocking words stabbed at the Jester's pride.
"You damn... human...!"
The Jester let out an incomparably furious cry.
Fang Li answered with the same mockery.
"That's right, I'm human—a human you Crimson Realm Denizens regard as food. That's why you thought I was livestock you could easily seize and take away, wasn't it?"
This was probably the ingrained mindset Crimson Realm Denizens had held since ancient