The cold gleam on Cheng Xinzhan's sword rose and fell like breathing, stinging Yuchi Zhenyan's face and pricking his eyes like needles. At such close quarters, he could not be certain that his Earth-Gold Fire-Cloud Mantle could stop this strike.
He guided his Primordial Spirit back into his body and put away both his Crimson Thunder flying sword and his Heavenly Qian Fire Spirit Pearl.
"Kill me or carve me up. Do as you please."
Fire Child assumed an air of leaving himself entirely at their mercy.
When the other two from Emei saw that Yuchi Zhenyan had also been subdued, they abandoned all hope. Even while hanging suspended, they had held their heads high; now, at last, their heads drooped.
Cheng Xinzhan's sword hand was steady as he said,
"Three lives, three questions. Answer them, and I'll let you go."
The other two immediately looked at Yuchi Zhenyan.
Fire Child knitted his brows. "Let's hear them first."
"Whose orders brought you here to hunt flood dragons, why are you hunting them this time, and how many do you intend to kill? That counts as one question. Second, who has been ordered to hunt flood dragons this time, which one have you set your sights on, and where are the others? That also counts as one question. As for the third, it isn't a question. Teach me your Silk-String Puppet Technique."
"I'll answer the first question!"
The man suspended by Shen Zhaoming's horsetail whisk shouted.
"Me, me, shecond, shecond!"
The man whose neck Cheng Xinzhan had bound with the Yin-Yang Five-Phases Binding Hoop struggled to speak.
Yuchi Zhenyan glared at the pair. They had claimed all the easy answers, leaving him to divulge a secret technique of the sect!
"Then you two speak first."
As Cheng Xinzhan spoke, he loosened