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"Someone like you? You think you're worthy of speaking to my father?"

"Heh." Zhan Yunfan let out a cold laugh and struck at Hua Xiaomei with one palm.

"Don't you dare hurt my Hua-gege!" A sweet voice descended from the sky. Accompanied by a fragrant breeze, several figures rushed toward Zhan Yunfan.

"Neither man nor woman!" Zhan Yunfan sneered and slapped at the figures several times. They vanished like phantoms.

The Celestial Transformation Secret Record was unpredictable, making it difficult to tell truth from falsehood. Its greatest strength lay in making the false seem real, wearing opponents down in drawn-out fights.

"Hua-gege, you're so badly hurt!" Huang Wufeng scooped Hua Xiaomei into her arms and ran. Looking at him with tender concern, she said, "After we cultivate together later, I'll transfer my true qi to heal you!"

Hua Xiaomei's face darkened. "No need! And put me down!"

"No~ No~ If I let go, Hua-gege will run away." Instead, Huang Wufeng tightened her hold on Hua Xiaomei, pressing her ample breasts against his face.

"If my father finds out I let a man hold me like this, he'll beat me to death when I get home!" Hua Xiaomei felt as if he couldn't breathe.

"How could he? Who doesn't know that your uncle is the most capricious person in the entire Demon Sect? Why would he care?" Huang Wufeng said.

"My father has seven children. He beat four of them to death." Hua Xiaomei suddenly said, "Once he finds out you're holding me like this, he might beat both you and me to death!"

"Really?" Hearing Hua Xiaomei's words, Huang Wufeng couldn't help loosening her arms.

Hua Xiaomei twisted free of Huang Wufeng's Devil Claws. But the movement made him spit out another mouthful of blood.

"You know my father's lawless nature. Don't you?"

Huang Wufeng thought of Hua Chonglang, the Demon Sect's number-one expert, and his past deeds. She couldn't help shivering. When Hua Chonglang was young, he had unleashed an endless calamity across the martial world—and the Demon Sect had suffered just the same!

The four great families had originally been ranked Huang, Jiang, Xiong, Hua, with Hua at the very bottom!

But after the Hua Family produced the monstrous genius Hua Chonglang, the order became Hua, Huang, Jiang, Xiong! Forty years ago, the mere mention of "Hua" had turned the martial world pale. Multiple sects joined forces to hunt Hua Chonglang, while people within the Demon Sect secretly sold out his whereabouts.

In the end, all they did was cement Hua Chonglang's fearsome reputation: the Demon Sect's number-one expert, and the world's second!

The other members of the Demon Sect had to conceal their names, terrified that even the slightest connection to Hua Chonglang would get them hunted down by the entire martial world.

Those sects couldn't beat Hua Chonglang—but surely they could beat the rest of the Demon Sect?

For young Huang Wufeng, growing up, she'd often been scared with tales like, "Don't cry. If you cry again, your Uncle Hua will come eat you!"

"Heaven and Earth Yin Yang Intertwining Hand only reaches ten zhang for anyone below the True Person Realm! We need to keep moving carefully!" Hua Xiaomei finally recalled the technique's description. He watched Zhan Yunfan slowly approach from afar, his presence pressing down on them, and spoke to Huang Wufeng.

"But beyond ten zhang, I can't do anything to him either!" Huang Wufeng said helplessly.

Beyond ten zhang, she could only send out her true qi. Against Zhan Yunfan's attacks from any direction within ten zhang, her ability to inflict damage was woefully inadequate.

"We just need to hold him off until Jiang Ning and Mei Ren decide the outcome!" Hua Xiaomei snapped open his fan and looked up at the battlefield in the sky.

The two people fighting above, Jiang Ning and Mei Ren, had become the key to this battle.

Wind was the flow between heaven and earth, one of the elements that made up all things. In Mei Ren's hands, it took shape as black wind gang qi. Though it looked like a mere mass, it was harder than steel, like a divine weapon. With the gale bolstering it, it grew faster and faster as the fight went on!

The gale drove the black wind gang qi, and the black wind drove the gale! The two reinforced each other, making Mei Ren grow more valiant with every clash until he began to gain the upper hand!

Jiang Ning frowned, her entire body bathed in lightning. Every punch and kick carried the might of thunder and lightning.

This thunder and lightning came from the thunder in Jiang Ning's heart!

The Heart Questioning Hammer struck the self before striking others; before hammering others, it hammered the heart!

She had grown up amid a decaying family. The family elders had sacrificed the interests and lives of countless younger generations for the sake of the Lineage. Born to a concubine's maid, she had been looked down on from childhood.

By all accounts, her future might have been to serve as a pawn in a marriage alliance with another family.

Fortunately, she had learned martial arts!

She clenched her fist as if grasping her fate! She had beaten the young people of her generation in the family until they fled with their heads in their hands. When choosing a technique, she had resolutely chosen the Heart Questioning Hammer, which no one else cultivated!

There was no other reason: the Heart Questioning Hammer was the Jiang Family's supreme martial art!

The Jiang Family hadn't had anyone cultivate the Heart Questioning Hammer for several generations. They had grown complacent, grown corrupt.

Only she would use this hammer to smash open her own fate! The lightning was the manifestation of her character. Every hammer first struck her will; then lightning burst from that will, making every punch and kick blaze with thunder.

But there was still a gap between her martial skill and Mei Ren's. The Windswept World Art was also a top-tier martial art, no weaker than the Heart Questioning Hammer! Mei Ren's will was unshakable too; he wasn't a weakling like Hua Xiaomei or Huang Wufeng!

She gradually fell behind!

"Pay more! Forty percent!" Hua Xiaomei shouted as he and Huang Wufeng desperately dodged Zhan Yunfan's pursuit.

The Heaven and Earth Yin Yang Intertwining Hand was just too damn unfair! As long as they were within ten zhang of Zhan Yunfan, he could attack them from any angle!

From above, from behind, even between the legs! And he could do it completely silently, leaving Hua Xiaomei and Huang Wufeng unable to defend themselves!

Hua Xiaomei rolled and scrambled out of Zhan Yunfan's ten-zhang range. His blue brocade robe was now covered in blood and dust. He had no time to worry about his appearance. He glanced up at Jiang Ning, who was losing ground, and hurriedly shouted about raising their share.

If Jiang Ning lost, Three Talents Manor might be finished!

Did money matter to people in the martial world?

Of course it did!

After all, every inch of land and every money-making trade in the martial world had been controlled by someone for centuries. Most of the money they earned had to be handed over to the powers behind them: small merchants paid tribute to small powers, small powers to great powers, and great powers to the top powers of the martial world!

If you took someone else's business, it was no different from smashing their treasure bowl. How could they allow that?

Then you had to fight. If you won, you got to make the money! If you lost, your head became a tool for them to make their name!

Jiang Ning wanted to surpass the Jiang Family and establish her own power, changing her fate. Of course she needed money.

Money and martial arts were both tools she could use to change her fate!

So when she heard "pay more," her fighting spirit naturally flared!

Fighting spirit was certainly important in martial combat, but it wasn't all-powerful. You couldn't just let your fighting spirit blaze, shout once, and watch your strength soar.

That would be far too unmartial!

"Fifty percent! Raise it to fifty percent!" Hua Xiaomei saw that Jiang Ning was fired up but still couldn't beat Mei Ren, and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.

That was the magic of money: it could raise your fighting strength!

Pay more! This chapter got swallowed, so I made some changes!