Chapter 1183: This Time Really Was a Bit Ruthless!

Amid the tumbling rubble, Yuan Fang had no time to care about the pain. He had been beaten often enough to know from experience that once Yuan Gang started, he would never stop after a single blow. Unable even to tell east from west in the billowing dust, Yuan Fang flipped upright and shot away at full speed, fleeing for his life.

Yuan Gang had already turned three strides into two. He drove off the ground, launching himself three zhang into the air with astonishing power, reached out in midair, and seized Yuan Fang by the ankle just as the monk sprang upward.

The two almost looked as though they had rehearsed it together: one knew the beating would not stop, while the other knew his victim would immediately try to run.

The moment his ankle tightened, Yuan Fang looked down, saw Yuan Gang had caught him, and nearly had his soul scared out of his body.

Only someone who was regularly beaten by Yuan Gang truly understood how terrifying his brute strength was. Yuan Gang often dragged Yuan Fang in as a sparring partner while training, so Yuan Fang knew his offensive power better than anyone. The force behind those brute-strength blows was enough to rival the magical power of a Golden Core cultivator.

No one liked being beaten, especially when the person beating him seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, Yuan Fang simply could not win.

In the early years, when he first suffered at Yuan Gang's hands, he had consoled himself with the thought that Yuan Gang was only an ordinary mortal. Just you wait!

He had believed his own cultivation would keep rising. One day his strength would surely surpass Yuan Gang's, and when that day came, he would settle the score.

But gradually he discovered something was wrong.

His cultivation really did keep rising, yet Yuan Gang kept growing stronger as well. Long ago, Yuan Gang's strength had exceeded the limits an ordinary mortal's flesh and blood should have been able to endure. Yuan Fang had no idea where the man had obtained such a freakish body-tempering method.

Yuan Fang had been born impervious to blades and spears. At first that only applied to ordinary weapons. As his cultivation deepened, even attacks backed by a cultivator's magical power gradually became unable to injure him easily.

Yet that freak Monkey's flesh and blood seemed to be becoming impervious to blades and spears as well.

Not only that, Yuan Gang could take a beating even better than Yuan Fang. His explosive power grew stronger and faster by the year, and most hellish of all, he possessed an outrageously powerful ability to recover.

How was Yuan Fang supposed to fight that?

Fleeing the instant the two exchanged blows had long since become an instinct.

Against Yuan Gang, he had already lost all confidence in ever settling the score. After being beaten for so many years, he had practically been beaten out of any confidence in being a man.

Now pain suddenly exploded through his ankle. His balance vanished and his whole body plunged downward. Flailing in panic, he cried, "Master Yuan, we can talk this over..."

There was nothing to talk over.

Yuan Gang curled himself in midair, then suddenly snapped his body open and whipped one arm around.

Yuan Fang let out a strange shriek and shot toward the ground like a meteor. He frantically circulated magical power to defend himself, trying to lessen the impact.

Bang!

A crater appeared in the earth.

Without even thinking, Yuan Fang rolled straight out of the hole. Yuan Gang's descending punch barely missed him. Yuan Fang could have dodged it with his eyes closed; calling it anticipating the enemy's move would hardly be an exaggeration.

The punch struck empty. Yuan Gang changed fist to palm and slapped the lip of the crater, using the force to twist himself around and hammer down with a hooking kick.

Bang!

Yuan Fang had dodged the first strike almost with his eyes closed, but he failed to avoid the second. The kick landed solidly on his shoulder and smashed him flat to the ground.

Even then, escape mattered most. He scrambled and rolled desperately away.

Yuan Gang planted both palms against the ground and shoved, skimming forward along the earth. His legs snapped shut like scissors around one of Yuan Fang's legs, and he rolled.

"Ah!"

Yuan Fang screamed.

The trapped leg was brutally twisted backward toward his spine, the pain nearly forcing his eyeballs out of their sockets.

Duan Hu and Wu Sanliang, drawn by the commotion, were already standing atop the courtyard wall. Seeing these two going at it again, they watched the rapid exchange of pursuit and escape, movements so fast they nearly blurred before the eye.

Bang!

Yuan Fang suddenly kicked with everything he had.

His foot struck Yuan Gang squarely in the chest and sent him skidding backward across the ground.

The moment he was free, Yuan Fang sprang up and fled again without looking back.

"Stop him!" Yuan Gang barked.

In a direct fight, Yuan Fang was no match for him at all. But Yuan Gang had his own weakness. His jumping power might be astonishing, yet once he launched himself into the air he could not change direction and fly.

Yuan Fang's present strength was no longer what it had once been either. If he truly fled for his life, especially after so many years of practice escaping from Yuan Gang, Yuan Gang genuinely had difficulty catching him.

Duan Hu and Wu Sanliang had gained experience too.

Whenever Yuan Gang dragged Yuan Fang into a spar, Yuan Fang invariably tried to escape, so the two of them had long since become responsible for intercepting him and driving him back.

They flashed off the courtyard wall and blocked Yuan Fang's escape route, forcing him back to the ground.

Limping badly, Yuan Fang had just hopped around to choose another direction when his vision blurred.

"Ah!"

With another crash and scream, his entire body went flying again.

Yuan Gang had flashed in and swept him away with a spinning whip kick, sending him through a wall like a straw dummy. His body smashed a hole straight through the masonry.

Yuan Gang charged after him and disappeared through the opening.

An instant later, crashes and bangs erupted nonstop inside the room, mingled with the heavy thuds of fists and feet and Yuan Fang's repeated howls.

The racket made Duan Hu and Wu Sanliang exchange looks in the courtyard.

Wu Sanliang said, "Master Yuan's temper is fierce today. He doesn't even care about the building. From the sound of it, he's going to demolish the place."

Duan Hu said, "We're leaving anyway. It won't be ours to live in after this. Let him demolish it."

Wu Sanliang said, "I mean he's hitting a little hard today. Don't let this turn into a death."

Duan Hu had nothing to say to that.

Bang!

Another wall burst apart.

Yuan Fang came tumbling and scrambling out, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, his clothes torn to rags. He shouted in panic, "Help! Help me!"

Duan Hu and Wu Sanliang suddenly flashed forward together and both reached out to block Yuan Gang as he emerged.

Wu Sanliang smiled. "Master Yuan, that's about enough."

Duan Hu added, "Right. Keep going and you'll kill him."

Yuan Gang's fists remained tightly clenched. He said coldly, "This bastard went to Gong Lince and said Master Dao deserved to die!"

The two men froze.

Both turned to look at Yuan Fang.

Dragging one leg that barely functioned, Yuan Fang instinctively shouted, "No! Absolutely not!"

The moment the words left his mouth, however, he remembered that he did seem to have said something like that.

Alarm struck him.

How had this damned Monkey found out so quickly?

Seeing something wrong in the eyes of Wu Sanliang and Duan Hu, Yuan Fang's heart began hammering. Hopping backward on one leg, he repeatedly waved his hands. "No, no. I never said that."

Then he turned to flee.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Wu Sanliang and Duan Hu shot out together and knocked him to the ground on the spot.

There were many things they might not know, but they knew Yuan Gang.

The man never talked nonsense. His word carried weight. If Yuan Gang said it had happened, then it had happened. There was no need to doubt him.

In the blink of an eye, the beating became three against one.

Yuan Fang had nowhere to run, no road to Heaven and no door into the earth. No one was coming to save him.

Under the fists and feet of all three men, he could only resort to the old method: make use of how well he could take a beating, curl into a ball on the ground, cover his head, and howl.

Eventually, even Yuan Fang could no longer bear it. He suddenly screamed in desperation, "I'm one of Zijin Cave's people now! If you kill me, none of you will get away!"

The moment those words came out, he had openly changed allegiance.

The beating became even more vicious.

"You said Master Dao showed his ugly true face, didn't you?"

"I didn't!"

"You said Master Dao deserved to die, didn't you?"

"I never did!"

"You said you wished you could poison Master Dao's food and kill him, didn't you?"

"Spare me! I swear to Heaven, I really never said that! Someone is framing me!"

"Look at you. You've grown wings now!"

One question came between flurries of punches, another between kicks. Yuan Gang beat and interrogated him without listening to a word of explanation.

There were many faults he might tolerate, but one thing he would never tolerate was betrayal.

Back when he and Master Dao had traveled together, whenever there was a traitor to eliminate, Yuan Gang had never shown mercy.

Yuan Fang wailed aloud while wailing inwardly as well.

He could not understand it.

He had only just said those things to Gong Lince, yet this damned Monkey already knew?

Yuan Gang's courtyard was not actually far from Guan Fangyi's.

Inside her room, Niu Youdao had been drinking tea while listening to the sounds for some time. Discovering that the beating seemed to be going on unusually long, he tilted his head slightly and said to Guan Fangyi, "Go take a look. He's one of our own. That's about enough."

By the time Guan Fangyi appeared, the beating had already stopped.

She had not yet reached the courtyard entrance when she saw Yuan Gang dragging someone out.

Yuan Fang had been beaten half to death and was almost unrecognizable. A bruised and swollen face no longer came close to describing it. Blood covered nearly his entire body, his stained clothing was torn beyond recognition, and he seemed not to possess enough strength left even to move.

One ankle was locked in Yuan Gang's hand.

Yuan Gang dragged him upside down across the ground toward the courtyard occupied by the monks of Nanshan Temple.

Guan Fangyi stepped aside to let him pass, then deliberately coughed and reminded him, "That's about enough."

Yuan Gang understood the meaning behind the deliberate cough.

It was probably Master Dao's instruction.

He said nothing and kept walking, leaving a long smear of blood across the ground behind him.

People peeking out from around Maolu Annex stared blankly.

Everyone was accustomed to seeing this monk beaten by Yuan Gang.

But this was the first time anyone had seen him beaten this badly.

Yuan Gang dragged him to Nanshan Temple.

The monks inside trembled uneasily. If one asked whom they feared most in all Maolu Annex, then under Yuan Fang's influence, the answer was Yuan Gang.

Yuan Gang swung his arm and tossed the half-dead Yuan Fang away. The monk rolled to a stop at the feet of the others.

"Pack immediately. Prepare to withdraw from Zijin Cave. No mistakes!" Yuan Gang barked.

The monks remained outwardly calm. In perfect unison, they pressed their palms together and bowed, acknowledging the order.

Only after Yuan Gang had turned and left did the monks hurriedly carry the barely human-looking Yuan Fang inside for treatment.

They had long since become accustomed to Yuan Fang being beaten. It had been like this for years.

But this time really had been a bit ruthless.

After previous beatings, he could at least come back and curse for a while.

This time, he could barely even breathe properly.

Still, at least he quieted down.

Yuan Fang no longer had the energy to seek refuge with Zijin Cave and no longer had any chance to make trouble. All he could do was obediently follow the withdrawal in a passive daze.

Later, he did not even know how he had left Zijin Cave.

...

Inside the Council Hall, everyone was talking at once.

What had begun as a discussion had eventually turned into a furious argument, with each side attacking the others while insisting its own reasoning was justified.

Standing at the head of the hall, Gong Lince remained impartial and spoke for no one. After listening to them quarrel for a while, he suddenly shouted, "Enough!"

Only then did the red-faced Elders stop.

Gong Lince slowly paced down the hall and back. Returning to his position at the head, he faced everyone and said, "I know none of you wants to go to the Sacred Realm. But this is not something we have the right to decide. One Elder must lead the group there."

"Every one of you says you have difficulties on your hands. I don't care whether those difficulties are real or merely excuses. This cannot be dragged out forever."

"There must be a result today. We must settle on a candidate!"

[End of Chapter 1183]