“Fang Chen?! What are you doing here!”
Upon hearing this, the anger in Xiao Qing’s eyes almost instantly reached its peak as he snapped sharply.
“I came to see you.”
Fang Chen said indifferently.
“Get lost, you’re not welcome here!”
Xiao Qing shouted.
“You may not welcome me, but you still have to let me in.”
Fang Chen said calmly. Before Xiao Qing could react, the wooden door of the small hut was pushed open.
Sunlight was blocked by his figure, casting a broad shadow.
Looking at Fang Chen, Xiao Qing’s face turned livid as he sneered, “What do you want?”
He was now at the fourth grade of Qi Condensation; he was no longer afraid of Fang Chen!
“What do I want… naturally, to see how your cultivation is progressing.”
Fang Chen’s expression remained calm, but inwardly he was frantically pumping himself up:
Don’t panic, don’t panic!
This Child of Destiny still can’t beat you yet…
“Ha, are you afraid I’m cultivating too fast and will kill you sooner rather than later?”
Xiao Qing mocked.
Normally, because cultivation speed was the eternal pain in the original Fang Chen’s heart, whenever Xiao Qing mocked him about it, he would fly into a rage.
To Xiao Qing’s utter astonishment, however, Fang Chen remained as still as an ancient lake, showing not a trace of anger, merely gazing at him quietly.
Even more startling was that he seemed… to catch a hint of sorrow and disappointment in Fang Chen’s eyes…
Then, Fang Chen spoke, “I actually wish you could kill me sooner rather than later.”
“What?”
Xiao Qing was taken aback. Had this profligate lost his mind?
And right after that.
Something even more unexpected happened.
Fang Chen glanced at him and nodded slightly. “Fourth grade of Qi Condensation. Not bad.”
“You’ve finally started showing the aptitude and strength you ought to have!”
At these words, Xiao Qing turned pale with shock, blurting out, “You-how did you see through my cultivation?”
He was genuinely bewildered.
To prevent Fang Chen from discovering that his cultivation had improved and getting scared into backing out of their life-and-death duel, he had specifically obtained a concealment technique from Venerable Xiaoyao.
That technique was meant to hide his realm so thoroughly that even someone three minor realms higher shouldn’t be able to pierce it.
So how had Fang Chen seen right through it at a glance?!
Wasn’t he only at the third grade of Qi Condensation?
“What is there to be surprised about?”
Outwardly unperturbed while secretly rejoicing that Xiao Qing was already falling for it, Fang Chen said, “I can see through you because my true cultivation far surpasses anything you can imagine. Do you really take me for a piece of trash like yourself?”
“What?”
Xiao Qing froze, completely thrown off. Even when his cultivation used to lag behind Fang Chen’s, they had often traded blows back and forth on equal footing. If someone like that wasn’t trash, what was?
Seeing Xiao Qing’s disbelief, Fang Chen said offhandedly, “Then take a look for yourself!”
As the words fell, an overwhelming, formidable pressure abruptly surged from within his body.
Boom!
Ninth grade of Qi Condensation!
Impetus soared into the rafters, fierce gales swept through the room, and the entire small hut shuddered violently!
Xiao Qing’s face drained of all color, frozen in bone-deep terror, utterly unable to believe his eyes.
How could this be possible?!
Yet the omnipresent, savage pressure-ferocious and unyielding like a primordial beast-combined with Fang Chen’s tranquil, domineering demeanor left no room for doubt…
He truly was at the ninth grade of Qi Condensation!
Outwardly serene, Fang Chen silently nodded to himself and promptly reined in his aura, terrified of actually injuring the Child of Destiny.
As the pressure dissipated completely, Xiao Qing’s lips turned white as he stammered, “Your… your cultivation, how can it possibly be this powerful?”
The confidence that had just begun to sprout in Xiao Qing’s chest was smashed to dust.
He had never imagined the gap between them was so vast!
At that moment, his heart felt like dead ashes.
How was he supposed to fight this life-and-death duel?
Xiao Qing let out a hollow laugh. “Did you come here to kill me ahead of time?”
To his surprise, Fang Chen looked as though he had been angered into laughter. “Kill you? If I wanted you dead, you would have died ten thousand times over by now.”
Xiao Qing blinked in a daze.
Fang Chen had a point!
If he really was at the ninth grade of Qi Condensation, a single slap would have finished him off long ago.
“Then why did you come here?”
Xiao Qing demanded, uncomprehending.
At that, Fang Chen suddenly lashed out with a stern rebuke, “Because you have disappointed me beyond all measure, Xiao Qing!”
“You have utterly squandered every ounce of my effort.”
Xiao Qing stared up at him in blank bewilderment.
Squandered his effort?
What on earth did that mean?
“Let me tell you: from the very beginning, I deliberately concealed my cultivation, approached you, and humiliated you!”
“Because I wanted to forge a sense of shame within you and force you to pull yourself together!”
Fang Chen shouted severely, “And what about you?”
“Even when I repeatedly bullied and degraded you, you simply remained indifferent?”
Xiao Qing was struck dumb.
With heavy, grief-stricken indignation, Fang Chen continued passionately, “What? Has a mere cultivation Bottleneck managed to stop you in your tracks?”
“Your parents are dead, yet instead of driving yourself through hardship, studying by reflected snow to seek vengeance, you chose to degenerate and abandon all hope?”
“You have broken my heart!”
“Did you really want me to watch you wither away in utter disappointment?”
Every single word struck home with agonizing sincerity!
Deep within Fang Chen’s dark pupils burned an intense, sorrowful refusal to give up on him-a heavy grief that seemed impossible to dissolve…
Struck as if by a thunderbolt, Xiao Qing stood rigid, his gaze locked and his entire world crumbling around him.
The mortal enemy who had subjected him to the worst humiliation imaginable… had actually been trying to spur him on?
If the old Fang Chen had spoken such words, he would never have believed them for a second.
He would have assumed Fang Chen was merely terrified of his breakthrough to the fourth grade of Qi Condensation and was spinning a desperate lie.
But now…
If a ninth-grade Qi Condensation expert truly wanted to humiliate or harm him, wouldn’t a single palm strike have sufficed?
Why bother saying all this?
Why fabricate an elaborate tale?
Yet a fleeting doubt nagged at the back of Xiao Qing’s mind… Had he really been abandoning himself?
He felt like he had been cultivating every single day, just without any visible progress…
Then it dawned on him: Ah, of course!
In Fang Chen’s eyes, a complete lack of progress probably looked identical to slacking off!
Trembling, Xiao Qing asked in a rasped whisper, “Then why are you telling me this now?”
“When I saw you stepping up to issue a life-and-death duel and sensed your cultivation had grown, I was overjoyed, believing you had finally regained your fighting spirit and backbone, and came straight to check on you!”
Fang Chen said with heartbreaking earnestness, “Only to find that the moment I revealed a shred of my true cultivation, you shrank back in cowardice?”
“What? Does mere ninth-grade Qi Condensation frighten you that much?”
“How can you ever face my expectations now?”
“How can you ever face your deceased parents and clan!”
Xiao Qing felt as though he had been struck by lightning, rooted to the spot in a stupor.
So he had been this furious purely because of my cowardice?
“No-Fang… Senior Brother Fang, I wasn’t afraid.”
Xiao Qing parted his parched lips, offering a weak, guilt-ridden defense in a dry voice.
A profound wave of anguish crashed over him, burning his chest like fire as crushing shame gripped his soul…
How could I have let Senior Brother Fang down like this?!
How could I have felt even a shred of fear just now?
I truly deserve to die!