One Finger

At that moment, a hush fell over the entrance to the Luo Shen Residence; not even a crow or a sparrow made a sound.

Xue Li's hand hung three feet above Xiao Yan's head, utterly motionless no matter how he drove the Spiritual Energy within him. Under the pressure of that invisible force, the overwhelming crimson light dimmed and dissipated bit by bit, like smoke scattered by the wind.

Xue Li's face went from crimson to ashen.

He slowly raised his head and looked toward the depths of the Luo Shen Residence. For the first time, fear appeared in his crimson eyes.

"Luo... Luo Tianshen..."

A gray figure emerged slowly from the end of the corridor.

He still wore the same drab gray cloth robe, his graying hair loosely tied behind his head. His pace was unhurried, like an old man taking a stroll in his own courtyard after a meal. Yet with every step he took, the faces of the twenty-odd Blood God Clan experts outside the residence gates grew a shade paler.

By the time he reached the gates, several of the Blood God Clan members had gone weak in the knees and fallen to the ground.

Luo Feng and the other Luo God Clan elders were even more deathly pale. They hurriedly bowed, not daring to raise their heads. "Clan... clan leader!"

Luo Tianshen paid them no heed. He simply walked over to Xiao Yan and stopped beside him, then raised a finger and gently flicked Xue Li's hand, which was suspended in midair.

Bang.

A soft sound.

Xue Li was sent flying backward as though a mountain had slammed into him head-on. He knocked over several Blood God Clan disciples behind him and plowed a trench dozens of zhang long through the bluestone street in front of the gates. He finally came to a stop when he crashed heavily into a stone wall across the street, spraying out a mouthful of blood.

One finger.

Xue Li, a Seventh Grade Sovereign, had been flicked away with one finger.

On the street, the passersby watching from afar gaped, and the sound of people sucking in cold breaths rose and fell around them.

Xue Li struggled out of the rubble, blood hanging at the corner of his mouth. His crimson eyes stared fixedly at the gray figure before the gates. There was fear in them, and venom, and unwillingness to accept defeat, but more than anything, there was deep apprehension.

He knew Luo Tianshen was powerful.

But he had not expected him to be this powerful.

The Blood God Clan had repeatedly provoked the Luo God Clan over the past half year because they had heard that Luo Tianshen had gone into seclusion after an old injury flared up again. They had wanted to test the Luo God Clan's strength, but now it seemed...

"Luo Tianshen, you... you're going to tear all pretense of friendship with my Blood God Clan over an outsider?" Xue Li asked through clenched teeth, his voice hoarse.

Luo Tianshen looked at him calmly, as though he were looking at a child who knew no better.

"Your grandson took men to abduct two unarmed mountain villagers, broke three of an old man's ribs, and used a little girl's life to force someone to kneel," he said slowly. "Would you like to tell everyone in Luo Shen City about that again?"

Xue Li's face abruptly stiffened.

Whispers immediately broke out among the surrounding passersby, and their gazes toward the Blood God Clan members gradually filled with contempt.

"He crippled your grandson's dantian, and you think he went too far?" Luo Tianshen continued. "I think he was too lenient."

"If it had been me, that Blood Butcher would already be a corpse."

Xue Li opened his mouth. His withered face turned the color of pig liver, but he could not utter a single word.

Luo Tianshen looked away and waved a hand dismissively. "Take your grandson and get back where you came from."

"Tell your clan leader that it was your Blood God Clan that first broke the rules of the Western Heaven Continent. If he objects, he can come to Luo Shen City and discuss it with me himself."

Xue Li clenched his fists so tightly that his nails pierced his palms, blood dripping down one drop at a time. After a long while, he finally forced a single word through his teeth.

"Go!"

The twenty-odd Blood God Clan experts carried the stretcher and supported Xue Li as they turned and slunk away. They had come brimming with killing intent, but left like beaten dogs, trailing blood and disgrace along the long street.

Only when those dark red figures had vanished completely at the far end of the street did the watching crowd erupt into a thunderous clamor.

Before the gates of the Luo Shen Residence, Luo Feng and the other elders remained bent at the waist, not daring to raise their heads. Cold sweat dripped from their foreheads onto the bluestone ground.

The clan leader must have heard how they had nearly handed Xiao Yan over.

Luo Tianshen turned his head and glanced at them impassively.

There was no emotion in that glance, but the elders trembled all over and dropped to their knees one after another.

"Elder Feng, go to the ancestral shrine and kneel with Elder Cheng," Luo Tianshen said calmly. "The rest of you, go back and copy the clan rules a hundred times each."

"Y-yes!"

The elders scrambled and crawled away.

Only Luo Tianshen, Xiao Yan, and the dumbstruck Luo Lan remained before the gates.

Xiao Yan released his grip on the Heavy Xuan Ruler, turned around, and bowed deeply to Luo Tianshen.

"I owe you again, senior."

Luo Tianshen looked at him and suddenly asked, "You could have backed away from that claw just now. Why didn't you?"

"I couldn't," Xiao Yan said frankly. "In my current condition, I only had enough strength for one move."

"Then what were you planning to do with the thing you were holding in your Storage Ring?"

Xiao Yan paused, then smiled. "I was thinking that even if I died, I had to bite a chunk of flesh out of him."

Luo Tianshen was silent for a moment. An indefinable look flashed through his cloudy old eyes.

"That temperament of yours..." He shook his head without finishing, then turned and walked into the residence. "Come with me."

Xiao Yan was taken aback. "Where are we going?"

"Didn't you want to repay me?" Luo Tianshen said without looking back. "An elder of the clan was struck by the Blood Fiend Palm over three months ago. He's been kept alive with medicinal herbs ever since, and the clan's alchemists are at their wits' end. If you really have the ability, go and take a look at him."

Xiao Yan's eyes lit up slightly.

He knew that Luo Tianshen was giving him an opportunity, and also an answer for those in the Luo God Clan who still had doubts about him.

An opportunity to truly gain a firm foothold in the Luo God Clan.

"Yes."

He answered and followed him.

Behind them, Luo Lan finally came to his senses and trotted after them. He drew close to Xiao Yan and lowered his voice, so excited that his words tumbled over one another. "Did you see that? Did you see that? One finger! My granduncle flicked that old bastard away with one finger! I've never seen him fight in my entire life!"

Xiao Yan smiled and nodded.

He had seen it.

And he had seen it far more clearly than Luo Lan.

The power contained in that single finger was concentrated and weighty, released and withdrawn at will. Only after cultivating Spiritual Energy to its utmost could one wield something so heavy as though it were light.

This was a true expert of this world.

And he himself was still a long way off.

Deep within the Luo Shen Residence, in a quiet little courtyard, the medicinal fragrance was so thick it could scarcely disperse.

An old man with a bluish-black complexion lay on a bed. His eyes were shut tight, his breathing faint. Dark red lines covered his exposed arms, wriggling slowly beneath his skin like living things, a shocking sight.

He was Luo Yan, an elder of the Luo God Clan.

Three months ago, during a clash with the Blood God Clan, he had taken a Blood Fiend Palm from Xue Li head-on. The blood fiend Qi had entered his body and lodged deep within his meridians. The clan's alchemists had tried every method they had, but could barely suppress it. He had grown weaker by the day; if this dragged on, he might not survive the month.

Several Luo God Clan alchemists were gathered by the bed, conferring in low voices. When they saw Luo Tianshen enter with an unfamiliar young man, they were startled for a moment before hurriedly bowing. But the looks they gave Xiao Yan held both doubt and a measure of disdain.

Xiao Yan paid their looks no mind. He went straight to the bed and placed two fingers on Luo Yan's wrist. An extremely faint wisp of Soul Power probed into him from Xiao Yan's fingertips.

A moment later, his brows knitted slightly.

This blood fiend Qi had gone much deeper and was far more poisonous than what he had treated in the Luo Shen Guard member at the Luo Pill Pavilion. It had spread beyond the meridians, seeping into Luo Yan's marrow and flesh and entangling itself with his life force.

If it were forcibly expelled, the blood fiend Qi would indeed be driven out, but what little remained of Luo Yan's life force would likely be carried away with it.

"Well?" Luo Tianshen asked from behind him.

Xiao Yan withdrew his fingers and looked at the old man, who had been tormented by the blood fiend Qi until he was skin and bones. After a moment's silence, he slowly said, "He can be treated."

Surprise immediately appeared on the alchemists' faces, followed by disdain.

He could be treated?

The Luo God Clan's alchemists had spent three months tending to this elder and exhausted the medicinal herbs in the clan's stores, yet had been unable to purge the blood fiend Qi. This green youngster had merely taken his pulse, and he dared claim he could treat him?

Xiao Yan ignored their expressions. He turned to Luo Tianshen and said, "However, the medicinal power of the pills in my Storage Ring is no longer sufficient. I need to refine a new batch."

"I'll need a pill room, a Pill Cauldron, and..." He listed a long string of medicinal ingredients, most of which he had read about over the past two days in the Record of the Spirit Properties of a Hundred Herbs that Elder Qin had sent him. "There's one more thing I need."

"What is it?"

"The pill fire of this world," Xiao Yan said. "I can't use my own fire yet."

Luo Tianshen looked at him for a long while before nodding.

The alchemists exchanged glances, but none dared say another word.

"Give him what he needs."