Mo Fan stopped where he stood, calmly regarding the figure a few paces ahead.
Xiao Hai.
This was genuinely an unexpected reunion.
Where was even a shred of the swaggering, insufferable arrogance Xiao Hai had worn back when Mo Fan first arrived at Hundred Forging Peak?
His clothes had lost all trace of their original color, torn open in places and caked with thick mine dust and dried mud.
His hair was a messy bird's nest, his sunken eye sockets threaded with crimson veins, his whole bearing radiating exhaustion and agitation.
Not that this was surprising.
Ever since discovering the Nether River Bone Lotus had vanished into thin air, Xiao Hai had been living like a rat that never saw daylight.
Day and night he'd lurked in the abandoned mine pit, searching inch by inch for even the faintest trace of a clue.
He'd even secretly investigated and probed every single brother who'd been active beneath Hundred Forging Peak during that period, and come up with nothing.
That treasure of heaven and earth had simply evaporated.
Under the crushing pressure of imminent death, Xiao Hai's mind was teetering on the brink of collapse.
The two of them stood a few paces apart on the mountain path, gazes locking.
Mo Fan naturally had no idea what Xiao Hai had been through underground all this time, but as far as he was concerned, this punk had once tried to shake him down hard.
Enemies meeting, eyes burning red.
"Oho."
Mo Fan folded his arms, looked Xiao Hai up and down, and a mocking curl touched the corner of his mouth.
"Isn't this Brother Xiao?"
"Few days without seeing you and you've fallen apart like this? Thinking of switching careers, following our Senior Brother Ziwei's example?"
At that barbed jab, the bloodshot corner of Xiao Hai's eye twitched violently twice.
Any other time, being mocked to his face like that, he'd have drawn his sword already.
But right now, with the shadow of the lost Nether River Bone Lotus pressing down on his skull and Lord Li's killing intent hanging over the back of his neck, where would he find the patience to bicker with some piece of trash?
Xiao Hai ground his teeth, let out a cold snort, and had no intention of humoring Mo Fan.
He lowered his head, broke eye contact, and quickened his step to pass Mo Fan by and get out of this suffocating mining district.
However.
In the instant the two of them were about to brush past each other, Xiao Hai's feet nailed themselves to the ground. A thought had appeared in his mind without the slightest warning.
Wait…
Back turned to Mo Fan, Xiao Hai's bloodshot eyes went wide.
All this time, he'd screened nearly every disciple active underground and found nothing out of place.
But… what about Lu Xiaoqi?
A body cultivator with no spiritual energy whatsoever. There was nothing down in this abandoned pit that could possibly serve to temper his physique.
What was he doing in this abandoned mine?!
And judging by the direction the punk was heading, he was going down into the mine again!
Where there's abnormality, there's a demon!
At that thought, Xiao Hai whipped around.
Those eyes, dead and exhausted a moment ago, now fixed on Mo Fan and refused to let go.
"Junior Brother Lu."
Xiao Hai's voice came out exceedingly hoarse, carrying a forcibly suppressed viciousness.
"Been a long while. What's made you suddenly want to go down into the mine pit?"
He pressed half a step closer, gaze like a blade.
"As far as I know, you're a body cultivator. What exactly is down in that dark, damp underground worth you making the whole trip?"
Mo Fan watched Xiao Hai's expression change and raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly.
He naturally had no idea he'd been marked by Xiao Hai again, he just assumed the punk's young master temper was flaring up and he wanted to put on airs and pick a fight.
"What?"
Mo Fan met Xiao Hai's gaze without flinching, a cold smile surfacing at his lips.
"Haven't seen you in ages and now the underground mine pit is your private territory?"
Mo Fan paused deliberately, the sarcasm in his tone cranked to maximum.
"So tell me, with Senior Brother Xiao toiling so hard down there all this time, have you been collecting protection fees from every rat and venomous bug in the pit too?"
That sentence landed with surgical precision on Xiao Hai's sorest spot.
The humiliation of trying to extort Mo Fan back then only to be blocked by Senior Brother Wu Mang, combined with a mental state already on the verge of collapse these past days, in that instant, it all ignited!
"You're asking to die!"
Xiao Hai laughed in sheer fury, the killing intent in his eyes impossible to hide any longer.
"Oh? So Junior Brother thinks his wings have hardened?"
Xiao Hai ground his teeth, his face twisted into something ghoulish.
"A few days ago you were cowering behind Senior Brother to scrape by. Now that he's not around, suddenly you've grown a spine?"
Of course, Mo Fan's real combat strength had long since exceeded anything Xiao Hai could imagine. Never mind Foundation Establishment, he'd be willing to tangle with a Golden Core powerhouse.
Looking at this apoplectic Xiao Hai, it was like watching a clown who didn't know death when it was staring him in the face.
Mo Fan couldn't even be bothered to stop walking. He turned and continued toward the mine entrance, waving a hand backward with utter casualness.
"Haha, Senior Brother Xiao, I never said that."
"It's just, people who deserve respect, I naturally respect."
"But a stray dog on the roadside? I naturally treat it as though it isn't there."
"You, !"
That was the final straw that broke Xiao Hai's reason.
The extreme humiliation and all the bottled-up frustration of these past days erupted completely. He no longer gave a damn about the sect rule forbidding private duels.
BOOM!
He didn't even bother forming a hand seal. He simply blurred into an afterimage, fingers hooked into claws, wrapped in a vicious howl of wind, striking at Mo Fan's back with utterly poisonous intent!
"DIE, you little beast!"
But Mo Fan, walking ahead, had clearly sensed that frigid killing intent the very instant Xiao Hai decided to move.
A frost-cold glint flashed through Mo Fan's eyes.
Asking to die.
His first instinct was to turn around and simply blow this clueless bastard into a cloud of blood mist with one punch.
But at the critical moment, reason reined the killing intent back in.
No. Can't expose myself yet. Mo Fan's mind raced.
Right now I'm still just an ordinary body cultivator. If I kill him here, there'll absolutely be a full investigation!
Why waste a butcher's knife on a chicken, and more importantly, don't blow every trump card you have just to kill a chicken.
In a flash of lightning, Mo Fan improvised a beautifully calibrated response.
He deliberately didn't dodge fully, merely twisting his body aside in a hair's-breadth near-miss.
BANG, !
Xiao Hai's palm slammed squarely into Mo Fan's right shoulder!
Mo Fan let out an exceedingly theatrical "Aiyo," his whole body seeming to take the brunt of enormous force, feet skidding backward along the ground for several meters and plowing two deep furrows through the gravel.
In reality, though, he'd not only perfectly dispersed the force of Xiao Hai's palm, he'd also sent an extremely subtle recoil surging right back up Xiao Hai's arm!
"Hsss, !"
Xiao Hai had landed the hit, but before he could enjoy it, his face changed completely.
That palm strike hadn't felt like striking human flesh at all. It had felt like slamming into a slab of thousand-year black iron!
A horrifying recoil came rolling back, rattling every bone in his right arm into an aching wail, leaving half his body briefly numb!
This punk's body… how is it this hard?! Xiao Hai was inwardly shaken to the core.
Meanwhile, the "beaten back" Mo Fan was rubbing his shoulder and steadying himself.
He put on an expression of utter innocence and demanded loudly:
"Senior Brother! What is the meaning of this?! We're of the same sect, and you ambush me from behind? Are you not afraid of the Peak Master's punishment?!"
Xiao Hai forced down the ache in his right arm and clasped his trembling hand behind his back.
To mask his shock, he snorted coldly and bluffed:
"Hmph! Don't try using the Peak Master to pressure me! I used no lethal force just now. I merely saw you getting a bit full of yourself, and as your senior brother, I'm sparring with you, offering a little guidance on your cultivation!"
At the word "sparring," Mo Fan actually broke into a brilliant smile, baring a row of stark white teeth.
"Wonderful."
Mo Fan rolled his neck, and the bones throughout his body cracked like a string of popping beans.
"Since Senior Brother is in such fine spirits as to propose a spar, then naturally, this junior brother will have to properly trade a few moves with you!"
Before the words had even finished,
BOOM!
The rock beneath Mo Fan's feet shattered instantly.
He launched himself forward like a tiger off its leash, giving Xiao Hai no room to breathe, surging into a ferocious counterattack!
Pure physical combat! The intent of Xingyi Quan!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
On the desolate mountain path, the muffled sounds of bodies colliding cracked out like a dense drumroll.
Mo Fan had already dialed his strength down with precision to the level a Foundation Establishment body cultivator ought to have.
But even so, his current combat ability was nothing an impatient, scattered ordinary spell cultivator like Xiao Hai could stand against!
The longer they fought, the more horrified Xiao Hai became, and the more despairing!
He found that under Mo Fan's storm of iron fists, even resisting was a luxury!
Impossible! How is this possible?!
Xiao Hai roared internally. After a handful of exchanges, he was being driven back step by step by a body cultivator, without the slightest capacity to strike back!
THUD!
Another exceedingly heavy, muffled punch smashed into Xiao Hai's crossed arms.
A sweetness surged up Xiao Hai's throat. His whole body flew backward like a kite with a cut string, collapsing in an undignified heap onto the cold mud.
And Mo Fan followed like a shadow.
When Xiao Hai looked up in terror, Mo Fan's iron palm had already come to a stop, steady, less than an inch from his face.
The wind off that palm was cutting, stirring the tangled hair at Xiao Hai's forehead and stinging the skin of his face raw.
If Mo Fan pushed forward even half an inch more, Xiao Hai's fine skull would absolutely burst open like a watermelon.
The air seemed to freeze in that moment.
Xiao Hai's face was ashen, his breath coming in great ragged gulps, his eyes full of disbelieving terror.
But Mo Fan didn't strike. He only looked down flatly at the sprawled Xiao Hai and withdrew his palm with casual grace.
"Senior Brother went easy on me."
Mo Fan looked down at him from above, his tone carrying undisguised contempt.
"As the saying goes, indigo blue comes from the indigo plant, yet surpasses it. This junior brother has indeed improved a little lately."
"From now on, these protection fees… Senior Brother really shouldn't go collecting them so freely. Careful you don't kick an iron plate one of these days and never even learn how you died."
Having dropped that line, Mo Fan didn't spare Xiao Hai another glance. He turned, clasped his hands behind his head, and strolled leisurely into the mine pit.
Meanwhile.
On the desolate mountain path, only Xiao Hai remained, slumped alone on the ground.
He didn't get up. He didn't roar.
He only slowly lifted his head, those bloodshot eyes like two venom-soaked serpents, fixed, fixed utterly, on the back of Mo Fan disappearing into the depths of the mine pit.
Humiliation, rage, and madness. They churned and twisted violently in the depths of Xiao Hai's eyes.
A body cultivator… cultivation advancing by leaps and bounds… going down into the mine for no reason…
Xiao Hai ground his teeth to splinters, yet the corner of his mouth slowly curled into an exceedingly venomous cold smile.
"Lu Xiaoqi…"
Xiao Hai struggled up from the ground, his eyes carrying the madness of a man backed into a dead end.