Stick of Pain

Xiao Fan, of course, couldn't take back the words he had uttered before, and so agreed, "Fei Sun, can you house An'er for today?" Though before leaving, he had some small concerns.

"I would rather house her than you." Fei Sun saw nothing wrong in this. The request itself was something she would have proposed to Zhuan An herself if Xiao Fan didn't bring it up.

"No need to be too honest with me," Xiao Fan tried to laugh her off. 'Okay, she isn't too appreciative of me still.' Fei Sun might have thanked him once, but that appeared not to be enough to gain her favour.

"I would stay with you every single moment I was given." Thankfully his mood was lifted up by Zhuan An saying her goodbyes before leaving into the temple with Fei Sun.

After waving goodbyes, Xiao Fan turned to leave with Qian Ki. "Where have you been sleeping?" he asked while running behind her.

"You'll see."

For the next half an hour or so, Xiao Fan followed Qian Ki around Ulaanbaatar, ending up on the other side of the gargantuan walls of the temple city. The end to their travel came when they arrived back at the entrance into the underground complex.

"You came back here last night?" The two of them side by side passed the entrance, into the blood-red mist which hadn't evaporated.

"No, I just felt that it would be right to come back here with you for today. Also, here we can talk in peace," she voiced, looking at him as they walked deeper into the place.

"We have a lot to talk"—his hand went over to her slim waist that he hadn't been able to hold for so long—"but first, the future. Ki'er, you intend on staying at this place for long?"

From there on they went from a talking point to another, though before they settled down, they came into the room that had a thick fog. He couldn't see it, but he could reason and feel that this was the room with the thickest concentration.

The room they came into was a very Qian Ki fashioned one. "You started re-creating your collection without me?"

"Umm..." Qian Ki hadn't thought of this. "I wanted to—"

"It's okay"—he patted her with the hand on around her waist—"I was joking." He couldn't keep her guessing any longer than this; her confused face was too much.

Qian Ki, hearing that there was no problem turned back into the cheerful her. "Oh!"—she remembered something, and so started to look for an item from her pockets—"I found this!" She presented him a wooden stick.

"That's one weird stick." The stick presented to him was something akin to the walking stick the Hag used. From the carvings to multiple small holes running deeper into the wood, Xiao Fan knew that the stick wasn't anything picked from the side of the road.

"Weird stick? It's a mighty stick! It's a Stick of Pain!" Saying so, she poked Xiao Fan with the stick.

"ARGH!" Xiao Fan's legs were lifted off the floor due to the shock he was given.

Qian Ki giggled.

"What the hell"—he gave his first impression, pointing at the Stick of Pain—"that's too strong!" To him, something like that shouldn't be allowed in the Body Realm. To him, the Stick of Pain was too strong to be fair, and he thought that the help Cao Cao giving him was fair!

"It's not that good... The Stick of pain is crafted from normal wood. It will break if a cultivator touches it with a bad intention," she clarified. Sure, the Stick of Pain might hit like lighting, but it wasn't of any use in a real battle. Moreover, no one would bring it to a real battle because the Stick of Pain had been the whole ransom she was promised...

"Delicate?" Xiao Fan used one word to describe the item.

"Very delicate." And as it was so, Qian Ki put the Stick of Pain away, into a safe location.

When done so, Qian Ki jumped next to Xiao Fan, who in the meantime had gone elsewhere, more specifically the bed. Now that they were set for the rest of the night, the information valves concerning the time they had spent separated opened as both of them gave information.

"Lei Tao is dead. Du Lan had him killed after hearing that the fatty had gone and made a deal with a Barbarian Tribe in the Far-North. The risk was too high, or so she said to me." Qian Ki told him of the fate of Lei Tao, which was confirmed as dead. "Lei Jun is presently in charge of the Greenheart business, very grateful towards us."

"Du Lan? Yeah, she's here, but I haven't seen her after we came here with the others from the Liang Dynasty." Xiao Fan, of course, asked her about Du Lan, but when getting the answer, he heard something interesting.

"Liang Dynasty? They are here, not in force, but a few hundred people loyal to them have sneaked into here during the chaos..." To his followup question, Qian Ki explained this and more.

From her longer explanation, Xiao Fan got a few big news. Like how the Liang Dynasty knew of the Tomb of the Four Ancient Ones so soon. The fact that there were any of them was also a big surprise to him.

Every topic took a long time to go over, and as there were so many, the discussion went deep into the night.

Favourably neither of them was annoyed by this fact.

....

The next morning.

Xiao Fan and Qian Ki were still blabbering. The whole night had been spent on talking and then some more talking. There was no stopping them having a good time, and so the talk continued until Qian Ki was starting to sigh way too often.

"How long have been up for?" From her constantly sighing, Xiao Fan was starting to feel that they might have talked for too long.

"I don't"—another sigh interrupted her sentence—"know. Maybe I should sleep a bit" She then tried to get a spot on his chest to do just that.

Yet a hand owned Xiao Fan stopped her from gaining that. "I'll go look at the time outside," he spoke and got up.

"Don't take too long!" Qian Ki on the bed wanted him to hurry with it. The sleepiness in her tone was evident.

Xiao Fan spoke some comforting words before he disappeared behind the corner.

A moment later, at the entrance. Xiao Fan saw that the sun was up there already...

"Huh, the time sure flies when in good company," he couldn't but state this to himself. The evidence was clear, and it showed that they had spent some ten hours on nothing but chatting and playing around.

Though, now that this was known to him, he didn't go back and hurry Qian Ki to get ready. Instead of that, he took his time before getting back into the room where a sleeping woman was on the bed.

"As I guessed." Xiao Fan had foreseen this to be the predicament awaiting him, and so not too bothered by this, he made his way back to the bed.

A few hours later, the other one woke, her head on his chest.

"I doze off?"

Xiao Fan nodded. "We should head back," he added in. They could take some time off and have it to themselves, but he still had his promise with Fei Sun.

"Hmm," she purred on his chest for a while before getting up.

....

An hour later, by the door leading into the apartment of Fei Sun.

"Finally, back?" On the other side of the door, Fei Sun had an inquisitive question and a stare.

The question was coming for Xiao Fan, the stare studied Qian Ki, who seemed not to have gotten any sleep, making Fei Sun be suspicious.

"We had a lot of catching up to do," he spoke uncaring of what she would think of his words.

Fei Sun, watching Xiao Fan coming inside of her apartment was about to say something smart, but realising the error in that, she did not. "Zhuan An!" Instead of that, she called for the woman, who was crashing at her sofa.

"Huh?" Came a voice from the apartment.

"He's here!" Her second shout gained much more attention. Proved by the quick steps that could be heard coming closer. And soon, Zhuan An was at the lobby where everyone else had gathered.

"Anything new? Luan Lyn acting all nice?" When she came, Xiao Fan was talking to Fei Sun concerning other things.

"He's been a good boy—" Fei Sun got this far, yet she stopped when she saw Zhuan An jump onto Xiao Fan.

Zhuan An, hugging onto Xiao Fan vailed, "I had the worst nightmare!" She franticly explained between her sobs.

'Oh, she still got them?' Xiao Fan had thought that they had successfully blocked this very thing from happening. Yet, as thing were so, he patted the back of Zhuan An. "Now, now..." he attempted to soothe her down.

Behind them, by the door, Qian Ki had her own opinion on this, but still remembering the words of Xiao Fan, and adding in her fatigue, she didn't say anything. To this, she pulled out white strands of hair, nothing else.

Watching this develop, Xiao Fan had thought, 'This sure is work, but still a thousand times better than being air to them.' Every time he made assessments concerning his power grab, he felt more confident in his decision.

The number of small details and such to be taken note of was vast, yet manageable, and most importantly, it was profitable. And the more he did this the following week, the more he began to understand how the girls worked.

Before this, he had some small clues into their personalities, but after a week of watching their every move, he had gained a large collection of ideas. Of course, most of them were of Zhaun An, but whatever, it was a start, and he couldn't get back to the other girls after arriving back at the tower.

Rest of the trip had passed uneventfully, and even the prisoner exchange went smoothly. In it, only one minor problem had appeared, a problem which Xiao Fan had predicted when Duan Han had wanted to spar with Wang Geming.

The Elixir of Haste worked perfectly. Wang Geming had been a beast, who had contested Duan Han, a Body Reunion Realm Expert for three whole days without receiving major hits in the process. The whole duelling aspect of the prisoner exchanged had also brought about an unforeseen benefit for Xiao Fan's camp.

The relationship between Wang Geming and Duan Han had gone from an enemy to a friend? It was hard to say what it was, but they didn't seem to be hostile at the other. However, it was still due to these matches they had that the minor problem had arisen.

The problem was that Wang Geming had gained some smarts. The Second Prince, who was easy to manipulate, had definitely hardened from all that fighting for his life while under the Elixir of Haste. The uncertainty in him was almost replaced with the thought process of the natives, a thought process which wasn't too caring and unlogical.

'Hmm... maybe it is manageable, and if his personality changes too much... there is always potions that can fix an unruly personality,' Xiao Fan did his best to come up with ideas that could counter this.

"Hey!" His pondering was stopped by a sharp voice which was accompanied by a sharp bump onto his side.

"We already there?" Xiao Fan zapped back to reality.

Zhuan An looked out of the window of their carriage. "We can't be anywhere else"—his eyes came over to him—"now let me see that robe of yours."