Before the fat fellow could react, Chun Xiaobai seized the initiative, swinging the Purple-Gold Token in his hand straight down at his forehead!
"Wait...!" The chubby fellow's pupils contracted sharply. With no time to dodge, he immediately released his spiritual power, forming a shield around himself. But the instant the Purple-Gold Token brushed it-
The shield shattered on contact.
The chubby fellow felt his head sink, and then his eyes rolled back.
Before he could hit the ground, Chun Xiaobai swept his legs out from under him, then followed up with a Mount Tai Press, planting his backside on the fellow's waist.
He proceeded to rain down punches until the fellow foamed at the mouth, his limbs twitching, and passed out completely.
"That was way too fucking easy, wasn't it?"
Chun Xiaobai stood up and clapped his hands in satisfaction. Suddenly, he noticed a slender, delicate-featured male disciple standing at the entrance to the cave residence, staring at him with wide eyes.
He glanced back at the fat fellow twitching on the ground and muttered inwardly.
Fuck me, did this Great King beat up the wrong guy?
The delicate-featured disciple, Li Xuanfeng, looked down again at the motionless fat fellow on the ground.
He knocked Junior Brother Fang, who was at the seventh level of Qi Refinement, down with a single blow?
He immediately raised his guard and demanded of Chun Xiaobai,
"Are you... here to challenge me?"
"Uh!!"
Hearing that, Chun Xiaobai immediately confirmed that he really had beaten up the wrong person.
He took another measure of Li Xuanfeng.
He sensed a threat from this fellow. It was an instinct for danger honed through more than a decade of bloody fighting at Black Wind Stronghold.
There was no mistaking it.
Especially that faintly discernible, razor-sharp aura around him-it was far beyond anything Wu Liang or the fat fellow on the ground possessed.
However, he also knew he couldn't let his bravado falter now. If he showed fear, not only would he gain nothing today, he might well end up half-crippled and tossed down the mountain.
"That's right!"
Chun Xiaobai puffed out his chest, his bandit swagger bursting forth.
"I came to challenge you, but this Great King got the wrong guy. Let's call that fatty a warm-up. Now come take a swing!"
Li Xuanfeng looked at the unconscious fat fellow on the ground, then at the brazenly arrogant Chun Xiaobai, and discovered that he couldn't discern his cultivation level.
If he couldn't discern someone's cultivation level, that person was either a mere mortal or a senior brother whose cultivation surpassed his own.
A trace of fear immediately appeared in Li Xuanfeng's eyes.
There was no way he was a mortal.
He had just witnessed it himself: without even a ripple of spiritual power, Chun Xiaobai had relied solely on physical strength to knock Senior Brother Fang, a seventh-level Qi Refinement cultivator, unconscious with one blow.
Cultivators used Qi Refinement to cleanse and transform themselves, transcending the mundane, while their raw physical strength increased relatively slowly.
A Qi Refining Stage cultivator generally possessed only between a hundred and three thousand jin of raw strength.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator whose raw physical strength reached ten thousand jin was already a peerless genius endowed with the power of a bloodline.
That was why, once cultivators exhausted their spiritual power, they could no longer fight.
Ninety percent of a cultivator's strength came from their own magical power.
To shatter the protective Gang Qi of a seventh-level Qi Refinement cultivator in one blow, this fellow clearly possessed around three thousand jin of raw physical strength.
That meant he was very likely a senior brother at the peak of Qi Refinement.
If he used his spiritual power, it probably wouldn't be as simple as merely shattering someone's protective Gang Qi.
Li Xuanfeng immediately employed his specialty, the cautious weighing of risks, and rapidly ran through the situation in his mind.
Finally, he steeled his heart, loosened his pride, and immediately plastered on a smile, cupping his hands.
"Since you've taken a liking to this place, Senior Brother, I'll give it to you. Please look after me in the future!"
With his eighth-level Qi Refinement cultivation, seizing a comparable cave residence next door wouldn't be difficult anyway. There was no need to fight to the death against someone whose cultivation he couldn't fathom.
If he ended up crippled, he would not only lose his cave residence but also have to pay for treatment. That was completely at odds with his principles of cautious Immortal Cultivation.
"Uh!!!"
This principle of caution left Chun Xiaobai at a complete loss.
Fuck me, this Great King was already prepared to get beaten until I was hunting for my teeth all over the ground and driven down the mountain in disgrace, and you're just-giving in this easily?
Seeing the vicious gleam in Chun Xiaobai's eyes, as though he was still hungry for more and hadn't had his fill of fighting, Li Xuanfeng's heart lurched. He knew things were looking bad.
He hurriedly pulled a jade Formation Talisman from inside his robe, widened his smile another notch, and offered it to him.
"Senior Brother, my name is Li Xuanfeng. This is the control hub for this cave residence's formation. Please take it. There's no need for a challenge."
Afraid Chun Xiaobai might misunderstand, he added,
"I wasn't comfortable living here anyway, so you can have it. Besides, everything inside has been cleaned. You can move straight in and save yourself the trouble."
Chun Xiaobai scratched his head as he stared at him, feeling that unless he gave this fellow a beating, he would be left with a lingering regret and an itch all over.
Li Xuanfeng had initially been somewhat unsure of his strength. Now, seeing that look of hunger for more, the last shred of doubt in his heart vanished completely.
The cautious principles I follow really are the right way to practice Immortal Cultivation.
Li Xuanfeng knew he couldn't delay any longer; complications could arise if he lingered. He hurriedly shoved the Formation Talisman into Chun Xiaobai's hand.
"Farewell!"
Li Xuanfeng cupped his hands, turned, and vanished, fleeing faster than a rabbit.
Watching his retreating figure, Chun Xiaobai could only put away the Purple-Gold Token.
"Forget it, forget it. If my sneak attack failed and he killed me instead, that would be embarrassing!"
Chun Xiaobai curled his lip.
Then he picked up the Formation Talisman and examined it. Its surface was densely engraved with mysterious symbols.
"Ah, I forgot to ask him how to use this thing!"
Looking baffled, Chun Xiaobai turned the Formation Talisman over and over. Both sides were the same, covered in tadpole-like script, and he couldn't understand a single symbol.
He tried picking at and pressing the symbols, but nothing happened.
Then he concentrated his mental energy and tried connecting with it, but discovered none of the effects he had experienced with the Storage Bag.
"This seems to be the key to opening the cave residence, but I don't know how to use it. What do I do?"
By chance, he happened to see the fat fellow on the ground sit up, groaning and clutching his battered, swollen face.
He hurried over and helped him up, putting on an apologetic smile.
"Well... my friend! Sorry about that. It was all a misunderstanding. I hit the wrong person!"
The chubby fellow, Fang Yuan, nearly cried with anger at those breezy words: "I hit the wrong person."
You beat me until I couldn't fucking recognize myself, and one little 'wrong person' makes it all right?
"I've got a brother backing me up!"
He was about to raise his voice and curse Chun Xiaobai out, alerting the big brother he had just pledged himself to in the neighboring courtyard.
But the moment he moved his mouth, it tugged at the lump on his forehead, which had swollen to the size of a bull's horn. The pain made him suck in a sharp breath.
"You... just you wait! I'm going to report you to the Disciplinary Hall!"
"Report me?!"
At those words, the smile instantly vanished from Chun Xiaobai's face, and his savage ferocity erupted.
"You fucking bastard! I gave you face, and you throw it back at me?"
"Then I'll cripple your ass before you can report me. I'm getting punished either way, whether I go easy or hard."
Fang Yuan jumped in fright at his fiendish appearance and instinctively looked toward the neighboring cave residence, ready to knock on the door and ask his boss, Li Xuanfeng, for help.
"Don't bother looking."
Chun Xiaobai waved the Formation Talisman in his hand and sneered.
"That fellow called Li Xuanfeng was already beaten off by this Great King."
Before you continue