However, Hu Seventeen cut him off without ceremony, his face full of disdain and even a little impatience. "Shut your mouth. Just look at your pathetic self!
"What business is it of yours if I don't want to show my true face?
"I earned the chance to cultivate the Heavenly Fox Secret Art at the Clan Sacred Ground by painstakingly accumulating incense offerings and merit myself, enduring countless hardships along the way!
"As for them calling me the most outstanding of the younger generation of the Five Immortals..."
He scoffed, as though he had heard some enormous joke. "Isn't that obvious? Every day, I'm either cultivating or accumulating merit.
"I work far harder than the likes of you, who do nothing but swindle people everywhere, even terrorizing whole areas and ruining the reputation of the Five Immortals!
"With all that effort, shouldn't I be outstanding?"
"What I can't understand is why you resent me so much.
"You make it sound as though you were the one who should have cultivated the Heavenly Fox Secret Art.
"What? Can a snake like you grow nine tails and cultivate the great Heavenly Fox Dao?"
"And actually, I don't even like the label 'the younger generation of the Five Immortals.' Who belongs to the same 'generation' as you?
"We just happen to have cultivated for about the same number of years.
"I barely even know you lot. How does that make us 'the same generation'?"
As he spoke, he bent down, picked up one end of the Immortal-Binding Rope, and slowly untied it.
Hu Seventeen said unhurriedly, "Don't struggle. I'm leaving you unbound to give you some dignity.
"Come back to the Clan Sacred Ground with me to stand trial.
"Those old fellows probably won't cripple your cultivation. Most likely, they'll lock you up