Deep within the cave, Lin Feng's words—"Who told you to lay a hand on my woman?"—carried a hint of amusement, yet seemed to contain an unquestionable magic as they echoed through the cramped space.
The voice was not loud, but it instantly froze the noisy atmosphere inside the cave.
The sharp-faced Daoist who had been about to lay his claws on Qiong Xiao stiffened, then abruptly turned toward the deeper darkness of the cave, his face full of shock and confusion.
"Who?"
"Who's playing tricks!"
The other rogue cultivators also turned toward the sound, their faces wary.
They had just swept the cave with their divine senses. Other than the heavily injured Qiong Xiao, there clearly had not been another living being inside.
Where had that voice come from?
Qiong Xiao's beautiful eyes, which she had closed in despair, suddenly flew open as well. Crystal tears still clung to her long lashes.
She looked behind her in disbelief. In the darkness, a tall figure slowly rose.
Was it him?
The only "mortal" in the cave?
Qiong Xiao's heart instantly sank to the bottom.
She had thought the voice belonged to some passing Great Being who could save her from this dire situation. She had never expected it to be this powerless mortal.
Why had he come out?
To die?
A mortal facing several vicious Golden Immortals had only one possible fate: being crushed into dust.
Under everyone's uncertain and suspicious gazes, Lin Feng strolled out of the darkness at an unhurried pace.
He wore plain hemp clothes, his black hair hanging loosely over his shoulders. His features were handsome, but not the slightest Mana Fluctuation could be sensed from him. He looked like an ordinary man who had stumbled into this place by mistake.
The leader of the rogue cultivators, the burly man known as Daoist Black Tiger, sized Lin Feng up a few times. The tension in his body immediately eased, and a cruel sneer appeared on his face.
"I wondered who it was. Turns out it's just some reckless mortal brat."
"Kid, if you want to play the hero and save a beauty, you'd better first see whether you have what it takes. This isn't a place you should be. Get lost while you still can, or I'll slaughter you along with her!"
Daoist Black Tiger's voice boomed with the pressure unique to a Golden Immortal cultivator, making the entire cave hum.
In his eyes, a mortal like Lin Feng should have been scared shitless by that roar alone.
Yet Lin Feng's expression did not change in the slightest. He did not even raise his eyelids.
His gaze passed directly over the rogue cultivators, who were no different from ants in his eyes, and landed on the disheveled yet peerlessly elegant figure behind them.
Fairy Qiongxiao was leaning against the cold stone wall. Her exquisite immortal dress was badly torn, exposing large swaths of snow-white, delicate skin stained with dust and blood. Rather than diminishing her beauty, it added a shattered, tragic allure to her.
Her lovely face, usually cold and proud, was now filled with pallor and despair. Her chest rose and fell faintly with anger and weakness, tracing a breathtaking curve.
What a stunning beauty.
Lin Feng nodded to himself. Her looks, figure, and bearing were barely enough to qualify her as his first head maid.
How could he allow a beauty like this to be sullied by these ugly "pigs and dogs"?
Lin Feng had already made his decision.
He was taking this maid for sure!
His undisguised gaze, filled with scrutiny and possessiveness, made Qiong Xiao's whole body stiffen. An inexplicable sense of humiliation and shame surged within her.
Where was this guy looking?!
His gaze was even more brazen and aggressive than those rogue cultivators outside the cave!
Seeing himself so thoroughly ignored by a mere mortal, Daoist Black Tiger immediately flew into a rage.
"Courting death!"
He shot a look at one of his subordinates. "Third Brother, go cripple that ignorant brat. Don't let him dirty my eyes!"
"Got it, Senior Brother!"
The sharp-faced Daoist gave a vicious grin. Lin Feng had interrupted his fun earlier, and he had been holding in a bellyful of rage.
His body flashed, stirring up a foul wind. His five fingers curled into claws as he grabbed directly at Lin Feng's crown.
He used thirty percent of his strength in that strike, enough to crush refined iron into powder.
To him, using that much strength against a mortal was already like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken.
He could practically see Lin Feng's head bursting like a watermelon in a bloody explosion.
Qiong Xiao closed her eyes in distress.
Although she was angry at Lin Feng's gaze, he had stepped forward because of her after all. She could not bear to watch an innocent mortal die because of her.
However, the expected sound of shattering bones never came.
Instead, a crisp crack rang out, like metal striking metal!
Qiong Xiao suddenly opened her eyes, and what she saw next became a scene she would never forget.
The sharp-faced Daoist's vicious grin was still frozen on his face, but the hand he had stretched toward Lin Feng's head had twisted at a bizarre angle. All five fingers had snapped, and stark white bone protruded through the skin in a horrifying sight.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng remained where he was, without moving even once. Not even a single strand of his hair was out of place.
He merely looked at the man with the gaze one would use on an idiot.
"That's it?"
Lin Feng curled his lip, his tone full of disdain.
He could not even be bothered to raise a hand.
How could the physical body of a Chaos Demon God possibly be shaken by a mere Golden Immortal?
Let alone thirty percent of his strength—even if this bastard used every ounce of strength he had, he would never harm a single hair on Lin Feng's body.
"Ah—!"
The sharp-faced Daoist let out a miserable scream, clutching his ruined hand as he stumbled back repeatedly. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, and his eyes were filled with terror and disbelief as he looked at Lin Feng.
How was that possible?!
How had his hand broken?
This mortal had clearly done nothing!
The cave instantly fell into an eerie silence.
The vicious grins on Daoist Black Tiger's face and those of the other rogue cultivators froze as well. Their eyes bulged wide, as though they had seen a ghost.
A mortal had stood still and shattered a Golden Immortal's hand bones?
What the hell was going on?
An illusion!
It had to be an illusion!
"Third Brother, what the hell are you doing?! You can't even handle a mortal!"
Daoist Black Tiger shouted angrily, both shocked and furious.
"Senior Brother, this brat... this brat is strange!"
The sharp-faced Daoist bared his teeth in pain, his voice trembling.
His hand had not been shattered by a shockwave. Rather, the other man's body was as hard as an Innate Spirit Treasure! His claw had struck it like an egg hitting a rock!
Daoist Black Tiger's expression darkened until it seemed ready to drip water.
He finally realized that this young man, who appeared to be a mortal, was absolutely no ordinary person!
Could he be... some senior Great Power roaming the world, having Returned to Simplicity?
The moment that thought surfaced, Daoist Black Tiger shuddered. A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
In the Primordial World, the people one must never offend were precisely these ancient monsters who looked ordinary but were actually unfathomable!
Beside them, Qiong Xiao was even more stunned. Her little mouth hung slightly open, and her beautiful eyes were filled with shock.
She had seen it clearly.
At that instant, there truly had not been the slightest Mana Fluctuation from Lin Feng.
He had shattered a Golden Immortal's hand bones through physical strength alone!
What a terrifying body!
Could he be... from the Witch Race?
No. Members of the Witch Race radiated baleful energy. There was no way they could conceal their aura so completely and appear as ordinary as he did.
Who exactly was this man?
Just as everyone's thoughts differed and they remained full of doubt, Lin Feng finally moved.
He no longer looked at the rogue cultivators, who had already been scared out of their wits. Instead, he walked straight toward Qiong Xiao and looked down at her.
"From today onward, you are mine."
Lin Feng's voice was calm, but it carried an unquestionable dominance.
He was not negotiating. He was declaring an established fact.
"Be my maid. Though the Primordial World is vast, no one will dare touch you again."
Qiong Xiao was completely stunned.
She looked up at the mysterious, powerful man before her, and for a moment, she forgot how she was supposed to react.
Humiliation? Anger?
There seemed to be both, but more than that, there was an unprecedented sense of security and... a strange flutter in her heart.
"Ding! Target character Qiong Xiao's state of mind has wavered. Cracks have appeared in her Dao Heart. Maid compatibility has risen to 30%! Please keep up the effort, Host, and conquer her completely!"
The system prompt rang out in his mind, and a satisfied curve appeared on Lin Feng's lips.
He slowly turned around and looked once more at the rogue cultivators at the cave entrance, whose faces had gone pale as they found themselves unable to advance or retreat.
"Now, it's your turn."
Lin Feng's gaze was calm and still, as though he were looking at several corpses.
"Will you end yourselves, or shall I send you on your way?"
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