Yang Qing and the others were genuinely startled when they saw Old Xia.
The man before them was covered in a layer of pale golden fuzz. With his tiger's back and bear's waist, he looked from a distance like an enormous gorilla walking upright.
Stranger still, as he came step by step along the mountain path, his utterly lifeless eyes showed no hesitation when he spotted the four people sitting in the Pavilion, and he walked straight toward them.
Or rather, straight toward Yang Qing.
Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and the others all stared at this uninvited visitor.
Old Xia seemed to notice none of it. He held out an open hand to Yang Qing. "Hand it over."
Without preamble or explanation, those three simple words carried a stubborn insistence.
Yang Qing looked at the burly man standing before him like a gigantic beast and paused briefly. "Hand what over?"
Old Xia seemed not to have heard him. He simply kept his hand stubbornly extended before Yang Qing. "Hand it over."
This man had appeared without explanation and, just as inexplicably, blocked their way out.
Although Yang Qing and the others were sitting in a Pavilion, rocks enclosed it on three sides. There was only one exit, leading onto the mountain path outside.
With the great Buddha that was Old Xia planted in that exit, their way out was effectively blocked.
There was no way around him. If Yang Qing and the others wanted to leave, they would either have to defeat this burly man or have him step aside of his own accord.
Judging by the situation before them, however, the chances of him willingly stepping aside were virtually nonexistent.
Unless he got whatever it was he wanted.
"May I ask what you want?" There was not a trace