A sudden downpour washed over the nine-story tower and the dozen or so stone houses.
Bamboo rafts bobbed on the water. The so-called wagered battle had already been underway on the floating bridge for a while.
For the first match, the other side sent out a Demon-Plague Warrior who called Ma Changfeng his uncle.
Ning Xuan fought him for a full hundred rounds before finally forcing him back, then said, "You fought well."
Ma Changfeng's expression was solemn. He cupped his fists and said, "Thank you, General, for holding back."
Then he added, "Your skills are extraordinary. I, Ma, am impressed. It seems the Divine Eagle Overturning Heaven Skill is already in your grasp, General. But there are still a second and third match. I must make sure everyone in Divine Eagle Tower is thoroughly convinced."
With that, he seemed to offer an explanation, smiling ingratiatingly. "Flying Eagle Tower isn't mine alone. Unless someone makes a tremendous contribution, they can't obtain this cultivation technique. I hope you'll understand, General."
His voice had already taken on a respectful, cautious tone.
But that was all it was: a tone.
Putting together what Ma Yingxiao had said earlier with what he had just witnessed, Ma Changfeng quickly judged the young general's temperament and purpose.
The Young General was probably a benevolent man. He genuinely wanted to bring Divine Eagle Tower under his control.
The Young General wanted to obtain the Divine Eagle Overturning Heaven Skill peacefully.
Of course, the general might also be wary of provoking a rat in its hole. The Ma family wasn't powerful, but it did have some foundations. The Young General was cautious by nature and didn't want to test those foundations.
Besides, the Young General had mentioned that "when immortals fight, mortals suffer." He had clearly guessed that someone might stand behind the Ma family's forces, which was why he didn't want to burn all bridges.
Ning Xuan made an inviting gesture and said politely, "Tower Lord Ma, the second match."
Ma Changfeng seemed to have someone in mind. He hurriedly sent someone to fetch him.
Meanwhile, he glared at Ma Yingxiao on Ning Xuan's side and berated him, "You unfilial son! The General is benevolent. Who told you to act rashly and bring men to the General's residence to do such filthy things? You deserve to die! Once this is over, I'll have you suffer the punishment of nine blades and eighteen holes, to give the General an answer!"
Ning Xuan stood at one side of the bamboo raft.
Ma Changfeng's words drifted past his ears.
Soon, Ma Yingxiao began firing back, angrily scolding him with words like, "You knew about all this!"
Ma Changfeng denied it.
The father and son turned on each other in the blink of an eye. Considering Ma Yingxiao's earlier words—"If I were the only son, I wouldn't have volunteered to take the risk and bring an Attendant to your residence to snatch food from a tiger's mouth just to earn merit"—it was easy to infer that Ma Yingxiao was the sort of son who had no favor in the Ma family.
But Ma Yingxiao's words had drifted past Ning Xuan's ears, too.
He stood in the downpour. Master Baiyue's Heavenly Demon Scroll had long since been brought out, and combined with his own, his physique had reached a terrifying 15. His senses were now extraordinarily keen. He could hear not only faint conversations carried from the other side through the wind and rain, but even the breathing of people in the nearby towers and rooms.
Just then, another Demon-Plague Warrior strode over from a distance.
Ma Changfeng pointed furiously at Ma Yingxiao and shouted, "From today onward, you and I are no longer father and son! Once the three matches are over, I'll kill you and give General Ning an answer!"
Then he quickly changed his expression and smiled. "General Ning is a young hero. This old man truly admires you. Your opponent for the second match is here. He is the chief Attendant of Flying Eagle Tower. If you can quickly subdue him, there's really no need to bother with a third match."
His hint was obvious.
In the first match, Ning Xuan had shown them courtesy.
Now, in the second match, he should establish his might and finish things quickly.
Ma Changfeng thought the young General Ning would return the courtesy, then follow his suggestion and unleash his strength to subdue the Attendant.
But he got no reply.
The young general stood at the end of the floating bridge, in the pouring rain, and said nothing.
"General Ning, is something the matter?" Ma Changfeng asked respectfully.
Then he saw the young general's lips slowly curl into a grin. It widened further and further, while the humility and courtesy in his eyes gave way to wild arrogance and savage cruelty, as if a terrifying monster were shedding its harmless human skin.
Ning Xuan's gaze suddenly swept toward the top of the nine-story tower. He spoke a sentence that made Ma Changfeng's blood run cold.
"Found you."
Then Ning Xuan paid Ma Changfeng no further attention.
His Golden Body surged in size. Within a strange, hazy incense aura, the Golden Body Bodhisattva rose more than a dozen zhang into the air. Then he kicked off from the lakeshore, crossed the lake in a single bound, and appeared above the nine-story tower and stone houses.
The lake water surged, raising waves several zhang high. Many people on the shore staggered from side to side.
The tower on the other side stood less than ten zhang tall, barely reaching his waist.
He appeared before Flying Eagle Tower's nine-story building, hunched his neck slightly, and peered inside through its tiny, ant-hole windows with his enormous pupils.
Whoosh!
Something shot out of the small window, silent and almost impossible to see.
In the blink of an eye, a fist-sized hole appeared where the Golden Body Bodhisattva's left eye had been.
The thing that shot out had actually pierced his Golden Body and left such a massive wound.
But that was all.
To destroy a Golden Body, one either had to wear it down inch by inch, or pierce through it with unstoppable force and kill the person inside in a single blow.
Otherwise, it was impossible.
The sneak attack had only broken through Ning Xuan's Golden Body. It hadn't drained him at all.
The hole in his left eye appeared and healed almost instantly. It wasn't that the attack had done no damage at all—it was just that he was as good as unharmed. When he had fought the Stealing Incense Rat's Golden Body, he had run into its throat and hacked at it again and again, yet hadn't inflicted the slightest damage.
Ning Xuan reached out and seized the nine-story tower, yanked it up, and held it horizontally before him. Then he gave it a shake.
The shake sent out plenty of everyday furnishings—wooden cabinets, tables, display shelves, and screens—as well as the clanging, clattering weapons and metal objects inside, and a figure.
The moment the figure appeared, a cold, sinister wind swept out.
Amid the billowing wind, the figure suddenly darted forward, covering dozens of zhang in a single leap. He was about to escape the bounds of Flying Eagle Tower.
The Golden Body Bodhisattva reached out to grab him, but not at the spot dozens of zhang away. It grabbed the space right in front of him.
The other man could use Illusionary Escape—a demon's innate spell!
His five fingers closed, pulling a human figure out of thin air.
The figure looked up at him, eyes bulging with fury, and struggled with all his might. Yet he couldn't escape the Five-Finger Mountain clamped around him.
Just then, Ning Xuan heard a clatter of metallic impacts from below.
He looked down and saw Ma Changfeng had somehow brought a large number of death-seekers with him. They were firing all kinds of hidden weapons at Ning Xuan.
Ning Xuan looked at the figure in his hand. He didn't ask anything, much less try to communicate. Instead, he suddenly exerted his strength and clenched his fist.
The figure struggled frantically, but soon stopped breathing. All the resistance drained from his body, leaving behind a mass of flesh that had grown rather hard.
Bang!
He was crushed to pieces.
Hot blood streamed between the five fingers of the Bodhisattva Golden Body.
Ning Xuan casually tossed the remains aside and looked down at Ma Changfeng and the others, who had given up attacking in despair.
Ma Changfeng shouted, "Great General Qin is the true general!"
Ning Xuan wasn't surprised.
Nor did he intend to waste more words on Ma Changfeng.
Before the three wagered matches, he had already said, "When immortals fight, mortals suffer." Ma Changfeng hadn't left himself the slightest room to maneuver then, which meant that he had been completely seized by Huang Cihe's or Qin Yi'er's people.
Huang Cihe was Scholar Huang.
Ma Changfeng had no way out, so naturally he couldn't give Ning Xuan any leeway.
From that one sentence, he understood that a master sent by Huang Cihe or Qin Yi'er was very likely lying in ambush inside the tower.
Huang Cihe was meticulous and had surely considered every angle, preparing a foolproof plan.
So Ning Xuan had used the wagered battle to stall for time and observe. At last, just as the second match began, he found the hidden enemy.
The enemy seemed to have been activating some kind of treasure. But he had only made it halfway when Ning Xuan spotted him. Even so, that attack had pierced through his Golden Body.
It wasn't much of a threat, but one could imagine that if the enemy had fully activated the treasure, the consequences might have been dangerous. At the very least, the first-rank Ning Xuan might not have been able to withstand it.
Ma Changfeng, too, had been stalling.
He had tried to use his reputation for benevolence, along with his own respectful manner, to box Ning Xuan in and give the hidden master more time to observe.
Then, in the second match, Ma Changfeng had provoked him into using his full strength. That would mean Ning Xuan exposed openings while going all out against Flying Eagle Tower's chief Attendant, giving the hidden enemy a better chance to shoot him down.
Unfortunately for them, they had failed.
No.
Even if they had succeeded, they would still have failed.
Their goal was to have "at least a fifty percent chance of keeping Ning Xuan here today, even if he is a first-rank martial artist." But Ning Xuan was second-rank, and his physique was 15.
They had been doomed to fail from the very beginning.
"Great General Qin is the true general!" Ma Changfeng roared, his eyes locked on the Bodhisattva Golden Body overhead. He was filled with terror, yet forced himself to keep his head raised.
Ning Xuan said calmly, "Tower Lord Ma, every force is complicated. You and your son don't necessarily see eye to eye, either. The person who has you in his grip can't speak for Great General Qin."
Ma Changfeng understood that, of course.
He panted heavily.
Ning Xuan said, "All right, Tower Lord Ma. You've already lost, so at least lose with dignity."
Ma Changfeng suddenly reached into his robe and pulled out a box. "Let my brothers go, and I'll give you the Divine Eagle Overturning Heaven Skill."
Ning Xuan's aura abruptly surged and locked onto Ma Changfeng.
Ma Changfeng felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He was so terrified that he froze.
Ning Xuan dismissed his Golden Body, snatched the box, and opened it. Then he patiently looked through its contents.
He had thought the box held a fake cultivation technique, but as he examined it, he found it quite profound.
He flipped through the pages quickly and found no blank or torn ones.
It was real!
It seemed Ma Changfeng knew only the real thing could save him in the end.
Only after confirming it was genuine did Ning Xuan squat down and press a hand against the back of Ma Changfeng's head.
Ma Changfeng was about to say something.
Ning Xuan said, "Don't worry. Not one of them will get away."
If they escaped, that would mean making an enemy of the Qin residence's forces and putting their families and friends in danger.
If they all died, then it would be stifled in the pot, rotting in the pot. Who would ever know what had happened?
Bang!
Ma Changfeng's head burst apart, blood spraying everywhere.
Ning Xuan tucked the Divine Eagle Overturning Heaven Skill safely into his robe, then moved in a flash and destroyed the floating bridge.
There was nothing more to say. Pull out the weeds by their roots, and leave no one alive.
P.S. The next update will probably be before 5 p.m. Peach Pastry really has become a "hotel squatter" during this trip. Everyone in the family goes out to have fun, while Peach Pastry just sits in the hotel.
It's the beginning of the month. Please send me some monthly votes. Thank you, everyone!
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