Shi Feizhe was still wondering why the Blue-Clothed Woman called the Lustful Girl "Little Fatty" when he saw the two leap out of the thatched shed and fly toward the battlefield in the sky.
The Lustful Girl's ribbons fluttered around her, making her look like a celestial maiden in a painting. As she flew, her figure shifted and multiplied, as though several people were moving at once.
The Blue-Clothed Woman was much more direct. Lightning crackled around her as she shot into the fray like an arrow, then raised her hand and punched Mei Ren.
The technique she cultivated was the Heart Questioning Hammer: first question your own heart, then question another's. It was one of the few techniques that could be cultivated beyond the True Person realm!
Yet very few people in the Jiang Family practiced this hammer art.
That was because this style of hammer art was agonizing to train in—and even more agonizing to use in battle!
Every blow first struck your own heart, then your own will, before you struck someone else!
For someone whose heart was unsteady and whose will was weak, the Heart Questioning Hammer was nothing more than flashy moves with no substance. But for someone steadfast and unyielding, it was terrifying!
Just look at the fight unfolding now. Zhan Yunfan wielded an ice dragon in his left hand and a fire dragon in his right, blending water and fire. They seemed immensely powerful, yet Mei Ren shattered them to pieces with fists and kicks wreathed in Black Wind Gang Qi!
Those ice and fire dragons looked like toys!
Hua Xiaomei was lucky to be there, swinging his mace and blocking most of Mei Ren's attacks. Otherwise, Zhan Yunfan might already have been beaten to death.
Still, it wasn't Zhan Yunfan's fault. His martial art, Ice and Fire Dual Reflection, was a lower-grade technique from the Hua Family. He'd only been granted it because he'd distinguished himself while young.
How could a servant, a mere steward, be given a superior technique?
Ice and Fire Dual Reflection was all flash and show. It might scare ordinary martial artists, but against someone like Mei Ren, a direct heir to the Northern Sea Demon Sect's legacy, it was hard to accomplish anything.
Hua Xiaomei and Mei Ren were both in the Circulatory Heaven Realm, but realm alone didn't determine fighting strength.
Techniques and experience mattered, too. Even at the same realm, smashing someone's head a split second before they smashed yours could decide life and death in a single move!
And what of their different techniques, different experience, and different fighting spirit?
The Northern Sea was a harsh place, where the environment forged a person's will. Mei Ren's temperament was bound to be different from that of a wealthy young master like Hua Xiaomei.
Mei Ren grew more ferocious as the fight went on, keeping the two of them pinned down until Jiang Ning's punch shattered the Black Wind Gang Qi around his fist!
"Fine punch! What a fine punch!" Mei Ren laughed. "Now this is interesting! Finally, someone who isn't completely useless!"
"And me!" Huang Wufeng drifted behind Mei Ren. Her figure shifted, as if there were three of her, and she struck at him with a palm!
"Wind!" A storm curled around Mei Ren. In an instant, he threw four punches, one at each of the four people surrounding him.
He actually intended to fight all four at once!
Hua Xiaomei raised his long mace and blocked one of the punches. He felt a pang of regret over Three Talents Manor's thirty-percent share of the profits, but if he couldn't stop Mei Ren's attack now, Three Talents Manor might not be around much longer.
"You deserve to die!" Hua Xiaomei swung his mace back at Mei Ren's head.
By then, Jiang Ning had become Mei Ren's main opponent. She had no choice—Jiang Ning's punches were too heavy, too fierce, too ruthless! Meanwhile, Huang Wufeng shifted her figure, fighting Mei Ren as if she were several people at once. Hua Xiaomei had chosen this moment to strike with his mace.
Just as Hua Xiaomei's mace was about to hit Mei Ren's head, Zhan Yunfan made his move.
He channeled his power through his palm. Ice and fire intertwined across it, transforming into black-and-white yin-yang energy. Then it spun and slammed into Hua Xiaomei's back!
"Pfft!" Hua Xiaomei felt a tremendous force hit him from behind. Then two opposing streams of true qi rampaged through his body, throwing his energy into disarray. He spat out a mouthful of blood.
"You!" He turned around and saw Zhan Yunfan preparing to strike again and finish him off.
He hurriedly forced down the turbulent true qi within him and swung his mace at Zhan Yunfan. In his rushed state, how could he possibly block him? Zhan Yunfan caught the mace with one palm, then struck Hua Xiaomei in the chest, leaving him wide open.
"Why...? The Hua Family treated you well!" Hua Xiaomei took another hit. The true qi within him was in chaos, and he could no longer remain airborne. Forced to fall to the ground, he landed unsteadily and spoke.
"What do you mean, treated me well? I risked my neck and spilled my blood for the Hua Family my whole life, working myself to the bone to guard their gate! And in the end, I was still just a servant, still stuck with nothing but Ice and Fire Dual Reflection!" Zhan Yunfan descended from the sky and slowly came to stand before Hua Xiaomei.
"A real man is born between heaven and earth. How can he spend his life meekly beneath another's heel?"
"I never thought the Hua Family could be so blind. Who would have guessed you were such a treacherous, wolf-hearted man!" Hua Xiaomei said with a bitter smile.
"Heh... You were born the young master of the Hua Family. How could you understand what it feels like to be born a servant?" Zhan Yunfan said, remembering the past. "The things you could have just by reaching out were things I spent my whole life striving for, only to be denied!"
"You could choose from countless techniques in the Hua Family! You could use any of their countless precious medicines!"
"But I had to risk my life for everything I got!"
"And even then, I had to wait for you to be in a good mood before I could get what I wanted. Then I had to thank you over and over!"
"Why? Why should it be like this?" Zhan Yunfan cried out. It was the question he'd wanted to ask for decades.
"Because you're a servant of the Hua Family!" Hua Xiaomei regulated his breathing until it steadied.
A mere servant dared to rebel!
Hua Xiaomei wasn't just a pretty face!
"But didn't Ye Juwang say we should love all people equally? That everyone was a brother?" Zhan Yunfan looked at Hua Xiaomei, then suddenly changed his tone.
"He's been dead for hundreds of years. Who still cares about what he said?" Hua Xiaomei snapped open his fan with a flourish. Its edges were sharp as blades, and he drifted toward Zhan Yunfan to attack.
He was injured now, so he had to catch Zhan Yunfan off guard.
Zhan Yunfan had probably seen the mace technique he'd used before. This Carefree Flower Fan would have to give him a surprise.
"I knew it!" Zhan Yunfan lowered his head and sighed. "I knew there was no one like Ye Juwang left in this world!"
He channeled power through both palms. Black-and-white yin-yang energies intertwined, and one palm carried a chaotic, indistinguishable aura as it struck toward Hua Xiaomei.
"Pfft..." Hua Xiaomei spat blood, his face full of disbelief. The palm had struck him from a full zhang away.
"What kind of palm technique is this?" he asked, coughing blood.
"Your Hua Family is so stingy, yet the Mei Family handed me the Heaven and Earth Yin Yang Intertwining Hand the moment I joined them," Zhan Yunfan said quietly.
He felt no joy, only sorrow.
Heaven and earth intertwined, yin and yang intertwined. Anywhere within ten zhang of Zhan Yunfan was a place where yin and yang intertwined—and anywhere within that space could be the point of his palm strike!
This had once been one of the Demon Sect's supreme techniques, but no one had succeeded in cultivating it for hundreds of years.
"Now that you know, you can die! One day, I'll question Hua Chonglang myself!"
Zhan Yunfan: "Are kings and nobles born to the blood? Are all men not the same?"
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