Naked Sword Art

Back on the men's side of the forest.

Xiao Fang was in the middle of cultivating his [ Illusory Body ] method when his concentration was suddenly broken. Although there was no one around, he could still feel a strong sense of bloodlust in the area.

In the next moment, several spirit attacks began shooting his way.

BOOM~!!!

The power of several spirit attacks raining down on Xiao Fang destroyed everything within a 30 meter radius.

The spirit attacks kept coming. The ground shook, and the sound of the attacks echoed throughout the forest.

There were at least 20 men there, but Xiao Fang didn't know who any of them were nor why they were after him.

When the attacks finally stopped, they could see that a large crater had formed. At the bottom of the crater was Xiao Fang lying lifeless on the ground.

The man that organized the attack jumped into the crater to approach Xiao Fang. When he saw that Xiao Fang wasn't moving he laughed, then eventually spoke.

"There aren't many guys in the sect, and we all live in district 33, but none of us recognized you. How can that be? Unless you are Da Long."

The man approached Xiao Fang to loot his shining red pendant, but the moment he touched his body it suddenly turned into a mist of spirit qi

The man's eyes widened in shock because he recognized what it was.

'An [ Illusory Body ] technique!' He thought.

He immediately turned around to warn the others, but before he could warn them, he suddenly heard their screams.

"Aghh!!"

"No, no don't-"

"Aghhhh!!"

One after the other, the men died while yelling blood curdling screams, but the man standing in the center of the crater could only look up in horror.

He couldn't see what was happening because the crater was too deep, but just from the sounds of bones being crushed and flesh being torn he was able to picture exactly what was going on.

Suddenly one of his men jumped into the crater in the attempt to flee, but he suddenly fell then started being dragged back out by an invisible force. The man desperately tried to hold onto something as he screamed for his life. It had to be the most horrific scream the man in the crater had ever heard.

Even when all of this was happening the man in the center of the crater stood motionless.

Eventually, the screams stopped. What followed next was the sound of a lifeless body hitting the ground.

Although he wouldn't have considered himself to be a cowardly man, at this moment he had never been so scared in his life.

There were a few moments of silence, but then he heard footsteps approaching the ring of the crater.

The walking eventually stopped, but all the man could do was stare down at his shoes. Even when he knew that Da Long was looking down at him, he couldn't even look up at him at all.

[ Fear ]

Xiao Fang's eyes glowed a haunting purple as he stared down at the man.

Xiao Fang was curious to see how strong the technique was, so this seemed like the perfect time to use it. The result surprised him.

During the slaughter of his own comrades, the man in the crater even waited in place obediently. He didn't even lift a finger as his ally was being dragged out of the crater right in front of him.

'Is he a coward or is [ Fear ] really that strong of a technique?' Xiao Fang thought.

He couldn't tell for sure. For all he knew, the man was already scared because Xiao Fang survived their first combined attack. There was no way of knowing for sure.

Xiao Fang stopped using [ Fear ], but the man was still frozen in place.

"Why did you ambush me?" Xiao Fang asked.

"G-go to hell."

With a swipe of a sleeve, Xiao Fang had effortlessly used a [ No Sword ] technique to cut the man's arm off.

The man screamed, but Xiao Fang seemed nonchalant.

"Wrong answer."

Since the man was a spirit cultivator, his tolerance to pain was practically nonexistent, so Xiao Fang gave him some time before asking him again, then the man finally answered.

"I used to think that I was lucky to be in this sect, but ever since you came, I realized the opposite to be true. you slept with every girl I liked, even the girl I was crushing on the most. You were all she could talk about, but you probably don't even remember her name. I blamed her for so long, but then I realized it was your fault, you must be using some kind of despicable method to get all these girls into your bed. I don't know what it is, and I don't care. I just wanted to make you pay. WE wanted to make you pay!!"

The man finally built up the courage to look Xiao Fang in the eyes, but his head was still tilted downwards in hesitation.

What he saw was no different than what he imagined. Xiao Fang's long hair was blacker than ink, his lips were neither a frown or smile, his jaw and brows were sharp, and his eyes were piercing into his soul. Xiao Fang looked like a king staring down an ant.

Xiao Fang was human, but the man felt like he was staring into the eyes of a demon.

"We all suffered because of you. You go around sleeping with whoever you want, but what about the rest of us. Did you expect us to do nothing?!" He then spat at Xiao Fang, but it didn't reach him.

The man pretty much summed up why so many people hated the Dual Cultivation sect. In this world, if a girl wasn't a virgin then she was tainted or dirtied.

For that reason alone, many of the guys that worshiped the girls in the outer court started to see them in a different way. Even if they denied sleeping with Da Long, it was extremely difficult to prove it, especially if they ever practiced any form of body cultivation before.

Xiao Fang felt like he could understand why the man was hurting. This was the same reason the Dual Cultivation sect was hated by so many people and why it got wiped out by Xiao Fang's grandfather.

If Xiao Fang was to continue down this path he would eventually make too many enemies to count, and it would be his fault that his family and friends could never live in peace.

The man in front of Xiao Fang would never forgive him for what he did. Whether Xiao Fang was in the right or wrong didn't matter, Xiao Fang wasn't foolish enough to spare a vengeful man.

"Are those your last words?" Xiao Fang asked.

Xiao Fang seemed incredibly cold and unsympathetic, but he was asking a genuine question. Either way the man was going to die, so if he needed to get something off his chest, now was the time.

The man looked at Xiao Fang as if he was the most evil man that had ever lived. He was no longer sad nor regretful, he was brimming with rage.

He took out his long dagger and shouted his final battle cry. Xiao Fang took out his sword as well. Not even an inner court disciple in the Divine Sword sect could get him to take out his sword, Xiao Fang was only doing it now out of respect. But the man didn't see it that way, he didn't think anything Xiao Fang could do was out of respect. He just assumed Xiao Fang was going to humiliate him with it.

The moment Xiao Fang took a step in the man's direction, the man suddenly lunged his dagger into his own chest.

The man didn't want to give Xiao Fang the satisfaction of killing him, but the truth was that Xiao Fang got no pleasure from his death anyways.

Blood leaked from the man's lips as he fell to his knees, but the fury in his eyes didn't die out one bit. Only a few seconds later did his vision blur, his frown relax, and his body hit the ground.

Even in death, his eyes were still full of hate. The amount of hate the man had for Xiao Fang was too great, if left alive he certainly would've become a troublesome person in the future. Maybe not to him, but to his family and future generations.

Despite the way the man felt about Xiao Fang, Xiao Fang felt respect towards him. To Swordsmen, the act of killing yourself in the face of defeat was the greatest form of bravery anyone could have.

Anyone can become fearless of something, but only the most fearless of men will die to their own sword, that's a testament to conquering the greatest fear of all, the fear of death.

.

.

.

Xiao Fang gave the man a proper burial then lit up some incense sticks before putting it into the ground. The man reminded Xiao Fang of the dangers of reckless dual cultivation, so this was the least he could do for him.

Before getting up off his knees, Xiao Fang put his blindfold back on. The women in the sect were being seduced too easily because of it.

He needed to change the way he did things, and that started with his eyes. From now on, he will try to refrain from using his eyes unless there was a situation where he really needed to use it.

After he was done, he collected all of the pendants from the corpses then resumed cultivating his [ Illusory Body ] method as if nothing had happened.