Wang Fan leaned against a wall with his eyes closed.
Within his hand was a slip of paper that was slowly crumbling in his grasp.
Letting his eyes flicker slightly toward where Tian Kai was, a deep feeling of resentment and indignation began to accumulate within him.
As he patiently lied there with the thin slip of paper, Wang Fan thought back to everything he experienced.
He just didn't understand where everything went wrong.
How did all of his plans fail?
When he tried to capture Tian Kai, when he tried to kill Sun Jianhong, when his family as embarrassed thanks to both his and Wang Dong's mistake. And the other countless plots that went to waste.
All of these issues, which seemingly held no connection, all had one point of similarity.
They were all ruined by the inhabitants of the white villa just a short distance away and that damned hunter!
"If they didn't exist, then..." picturing in his minds the possibilities that didn't happen, Wang Fan could feel his nails dig into his skin due to his intense anger.
"...this city would already be mine."
But this just made him determined to do one thing. At first he just wanted to teach those brats a lesson, but now he wanted them gone.
He didn't care anymore how much the other members of the Wang Family would judge him for his current actions. No one would question him once he took over the family anyway.
Although Wang Dong was viewed as the one to inherit the position of family head position, Wang Fan had plenty of people who would rather him take that role after displaying his great talents for cultivating.
He even knew his father Wang Mu thought highly of him thanks to how disgraceful Wang Dong acted all the time.
So while most people would feel disgust toward their siblings if they acted the way Wang Dong acted, Wang Fan actually found his antics pleasant.
While he was thinking of all of these things, a strange man wrapped in a black cloak stepped out of the shadows.
Wang Fan couldn't even sense his presence one bit, but he showed no fear. Because he knew very well who this person was.
Clasping his hands together, Wang Fan bowed down in respect to this person.
"This junior, Wang Fan, greets the grand elder."
Within the Wang Family, next to the family head there were two grand elders.
They're job was to watch over the family head and if he was deemed no longer capable of leading the family they would work together to get rid of him and take his place.
Of course the current generation couldn't do this even if they wanted to. Wang Mu was nearly at the absolute limits of the seventh level of Qi refinement. While only one of the grand elders had just made a breakthrough into the sixth level. The other one was still at the peak of the fifth.
But it didn't matter that much as Wang Mu proved to be a great leader anyway.
The thing that was most important was that one of the grand elders favored Wang Fan a lot for the next family head position.
Because of this favor Wang Fan was given a single talisman by the elder that allowed him to notify the man whenever he needed help.
The same talisman that had just crumpled and scattered in his hand moments prior.
"Wang Fan, what's wrong? Why have you broken the talisman?"
"I need your help."
________
The grand elder lifted up his sword and gently rubbed his fingers across the surface of its blade.
"Sounds like these kids have been causing our family some trouble. It's a little disappointing that you failed to deal with it before this point, but now that I'm here it won't matter anymore."
The grand elder hadn't been out and about for a long time, so it was exciting for him that he was able to finally have some fun again.
Although his definition of fun was quite different from others.
"So where are these rascals? Lead me to them!"
Wang Fan smiled faintly as he turned his head toward a certain direction, "With pleasure."
"Looks like quite the welcome party was prepared for me!"
A squeaky voice surprised both the grand elder and Wang Fan greatly as a tall lanky man with a strange mask landed in front of them.
His small robes, perfectly still and unmoving as if they weighed several kilos, opened up to reveal a single wrapped package.
Taking out the package, the man began unwrapping it and a beautiful saber was revealed to Wang Fan and the grand elder's eyes.
It's blazing red body glittered in the sunlight, and the ominous green-black edge seemed to crave for blood.
Flicking his finger lightly on the blade, Xue Chang listened to the ringing sound produced by the saber by himself.
"Yong Heng!?"
"What a beautiful saber!"
Wang Fan and the grand elder both had varying reactions. Although the grand elder was distracted mostly by the saber, he couldn't hide the unmistakable look of surprise on his face.
Yet while Wang Fan was the one who exclaimed the most, his appearance was that of someone who was annoyed rather than surprised.
"Oho? You don't seem that shocked that I arrived here Wang Fan?"
"Of course I wouldn't be. Everyone knows that you worked together with Tian Kai and Tian Hai before in adventures. Not only that but the guild master favors you so of course he would tell you all about my deeds these past few days. My biggest clue of your arrival was those adventurers themselves. Tian Kai and Tian Hai were obviously both elemental cultivators, that much I could tell. Yet they definitely didn't have the money needed to support their practice, I mean look at the shabby house they lived in."
He mocked Tian Kai and Tian Hai lightly as he continued his explanation, Wang Fan crossed his arms together.
"So it's obvious that in order for them to have cultivated to that extent they would need a stable supply of earth fire. And who in this damn city would have that much earth fire to support those people if not the guild master and one other person. And the guild master certainly isn't a charitable one. So that leaves one person left, you! You who had access to the earth fire for long periods of time and through the favors you've given to the guild have been undoubtedly gifted more! So of course I figured you'd have eyes watching over Tian Kai and waited for you to arrive. Who was it? Was it that kid? I noticed he disappeared during the battle."
Xue Chang had to admit, he was spot on. Although there were a few things he could've corrected there, he decided to stick with the setting someone had conveniently made for him.
"Well it doesn't really matter does it Wang Fan? What matters is that you've crossed the line."
Pointing his saber forward, Xue Chang stared at the two people menacingly through his mask.
Although Wang Fan was quite wary of Yong Heng, the grand elder was different. He was at the peak of the fifth level and could breakthrough at any time.
From the information they obtained, Yong Heng can't be any stronger than the guild hall master. If hat was so then it would be easy for the two of them to take him down.
"Wang Fan, don't hesitate. This kid is a level five Qi refiner at most, let's quickly settle this and deal with the other people right after!"
Wang Fan was surprised by the grand elder's aggressive words, but the greed visible in the old man's eyes cleared up any confusion he had.
"I don't think we should engage grand elder, Yong Heng is unbelievably more dangerous than you think."
"Tch, I never took you to be such a coward Wang Fan. How do you plan to lead the family in the future if all you know how to do is scamper around with your tail between your legs?"
Saying this, he held up his sword and lightly pointed it toward Xue Chang, "If you won't act then I'll handle this guy by myself!"
"Wai-!" But before Wang Fan could reject the grand elder's drastic actions, he already took off.
Jumping up into the air, he shockingly landed on the vertical walls and ran across them as if the soles of his feet were glued onto the wall's surface.
Xue Chang eyes brightened up at the sight.
He easily identified that it was some sort of unique movement martial art that allowed the grand elder to do this. But other than this unique aspect to it, it didn't really impress him at all.
"Is that all you have?" Lightly muttering under his breath, Xue Chang brought up his saber as the elder launched himself from the wall and came flying toward Xue Chang.
Immediately unleashing a flurry of cuts and jabs, the elder went all out on offense as Xue Chang was forced to defend.
Yet while to an bystander it would appear as if Xue Chang was in a pickle, only forced to defend, a trained fighter would notice something terrifying.
Xue Chang had yet to even move from his position once.
It was clear that he didn't find the assault very worrisome at all. In fact it was as if a grown man was dealing with a child's tantrum.
And the grand elder began to notice this situation as well.
"Huh? Why do every one of my strikes feel like they are striking at a mountain. No matter how many times I slash at him, none of my attacks are getting through!"
This inconceivable situation brought a wave of doubt into the grand elder for the first time since Xue Chang appeared.
"Is he… stronger than me?"
As if answering his question, Xue Chang's eyes followed along the body of the elder's blade as it traveled toward his neck.
Yet this time he didn't use his saber to defend.
Seeing the opportunity, the elder put even more strength into the attack, preparing to deal a fatal blow.
But things didn't go so well for him.
Xue Chang leisurely, oh so leisurely, brought up his fist at a snail's pace.
Yet somehow that slow motion was quicker than the elder's sword.
And as if he was catching a fly with chopsticks, he brought his middle and index fingers out and used them to clamp onto the blade of the sword!
Wang Fan and the grand elder let out a stunned gasp as the blade immediately shattered within Xue Chang's grasp!
"Oops! Don't worry, I'll pay for the damages."
The grand elder, feeling an intense wave of fear well up within him, immediately jumped back and regrouped with Wang Fan.
"Little Fan, who is this monster?"
"I'm sorry grand elder, even I don't know what is happening anymore…"
Seeing that things weren't going well for them, Wang Fan considered getting the elder to go ahead and retreat with him.
Sliding his foot back a little, he prepared to run for it.
Yet before a word could escape his mouth, Xue Chang spoke up.
"Hmmm? Are you finished already? Guess that means I can act now right? Alrighty then, the two of you better grit your teeth, this is going to hurt."
Cheerily saying that in his disgusting childlike voice, Xue Chang lifted the saber up over his head and pointed it toward the sky.
As he focused on the two people in front of him, a green hue began to emanate from his blade.
"Put all you got into defending, if not then you might actually die!"
Seeing the green hue covering the saber's blade, the grand elder's face paled as he whispered "Saber intent!"
With those words as a cue, Xue Chang brought the saber down, drenching the entire area in a brilliant emerald light.