Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

By the time Yan Yu and Ye Jun arrived, Liu Longtao and Fan Wentang had already started fighting.

Fan Wentang was a lanky young man with a small mustache, prominent veins on his neck, tattoos all over his arms, curly and messy hair, and bloodshot eyes—a born desperado—no wonder he was recruited by nightclubs to keep watch.

The two were engaged purely in a swordsmanship duel, or to put it another way, it was Liu Longtao overwhelming and tormenting Fan Wentang the entire time.

After all, Fan Wentang was an Envoy cultivator, who had only received his Flying Sword last month and had learned the Sword Control Technique for less than a week, so naturally, he was no match for Liu Longtao.

He dared not hastily use his killer move—after all, as soon as he released his Yin Ghost, it would mean a fight to the death, and Lord Master would have grounds to execute him with Taoism Method, so he just kept taking a beating while cursing nonstop.

The Dingbei Army cultivators spectating were all verbally trying to break up the fight, but not a single one stepped forward to intervene.

Given that Fan Wentang was injured but not dead, it was clear that Lord Master had no intention to kill but rather aimed to humiliate, so there was even less need to intervene and risk getting caught by Lord Master and becoming an outlet for his frustration.

Probably guessing that Lord Master wouldn't kill him, Fan Wentang's curses were particularly vile, insulting Lord Master's female relatives with every term under the sun, as if he was determined to get back through his words for every drop of blood he shed, in true hooligan fashion.

Ye Jun frowned upon hearing this: His manners were terrible.

Yan Yu wasn't in a rush to intervene and instead found a Dingbei Army cultivator among the spectators to inquire about Fan Wentang's background.

Fan Wentang was a nightclub bouncer who considered himself the lowest of the low in the back alleys, very familiar with the "princesses" of the private rooms.
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It was rumored that many ladies even recognized him as an elder brother—not in any other sense, but meaning they were close; they would call him "Brother Fan" all day long and occasionally share a cigarette or lend each other money, which was a common affair.

A variety of customers came and went at the nightclub, some lonelier than others, eager to share warmth and concern. The princesses in the private rooms had a set script for dealing with such customers: tales of fathers deceased, mothers ill, and brothers in school, with earnings sent back home.

But some princesses were too naive, wooed by handsome, smooth-talking male patrons—they would end up being utterly taken advantage of.

One of the girls experienced just that, deceived in body, heart, and wealth, only to be dumped after the money was gone. She later committed suicide by charcoal burning in her rented apartment. Fan Wentang was close to her, so he gathered some money with the help of other sisters to take care of her affairs.

When he went back to confront the patron who had deceived her, he ended up having alcohol splashed in his face and was called upon by the supervisor to "fire this security guard."

After getting an earful from the supervisor behind the scenes, Fan Wentang, filled with pent-up anger, left the club and cast a spell to summon a Yin Ghost to track down the already departed patron and murder the man's entire family.

The Dingbei Army, upon hearing his confession and following up with a field investigation, confirmed the veracity of his story. The victim was divorced with a child, too old to find work, conning women under the guise of a romantic relationship purely to support his child—just the usual sordid mess of the lower strata, all bad seeds with their own hardships, nothing unusual.

As for why he could cast such spells in the first place, it goes back to his deceased grandfather, who was said to have performed rituals for others in the village... But that, too, is a long story for another time.

After hearing the Dingbei Army cultivator's account, Ye Jun was slightly moved. Yan Yu, however, was unaffected; after all, he had seen all manner of human behavior and was simply satisfying his curiosity and making up for the lack of information from his previous life.

Fan Wentang committed his crime in the name of revenge, not some other evil. This particular brand of underworld loyalty common among the lower class might have been what saved him in the end—the Dingbei Army probably thought, since he had loyalty, he could be of use to them.

However, Yan Yu wasn't fond of this man in his past life; for one, the guy had low quality, was foul-mouthed, dim-witted, defiant of authority, and resented the wealthy, having deliberately provoked and been reprimanded by Chen Lingyun once, which led to animosity.

This also affected his relationship with Yan Yu, who he insulted with all sorts of offensive names, like "steel wool head", "plaything for the misses", "humanoid double-headed dragon", "big horn Sir", and more.

On the other hand, having been trained by the Dingbei Army for many years with not too bad conditions, Fan Wentang still chose to follow other cultivators in rebellion during the collapse of the kingdom, only to be personally executed by Yan Yu—a true case of the unteachable nature, a social scum.

Now in his second life, Yan Yu wasn't going to go out of his way to make life difficult for him over a grudge from a past life, after all, he never believed in carrying over hatred from one life to the next; it was always about settling matters in the current life.

But since Lord Master intended to teach him a lesson, Yan Yu was content to watch the spectacle.

It wasn't until Liu Longtao had beaten Fan Wentang to the point of losing teeth—literally knocking several out—that the leader in charge of the camp hurried over, pulling Liu Longtao aside and pleading with him to "save some face for me".

Liu Longtao didn't embarrass the leader, merely saying, "You've misunderstood. I was merely exchanging experiences and having a friendly spar with Daoist Fan, and there was no life-and-death struggle."

The leader, unwilling to buy his excuse, grimaced and argued, "We also support seeking justice for the victims," "But the dead cannot be brought back to life," "Given the shortage of cultivators in the current environment, we should give him a chance to redeem himself and save more civilians in the future," "The bigger picture is important, restraint is patriotic," and so on.

Although the words were annoying, they were indeed true. Even Yan Yu would admit that in his previous life, Fan Wentang had in fact killed many foreign Transcendents; although he made a fatal mistake at the critical juncture, his overall contributions were greater than his faults.

Liu Longtao's face turned an iron blue, his heart saying if he didn't consider the greater situation as the most important, he would have already chopped this beast into mincemeat!

Fan Wentang struggled to his feet from the ground, spat out the blood in his mouth, and without speaking, just stared at Lord Master with a cold sneer, his face screaming with the arrogant "come on, kill me if you dare" attitude.

His leader's eyes signaled him to quickly say something nice, soften up, and send this Lord Master on his way, but Fan Wentang completely ignored him, just staring darkly at Lord Master, the corners of his mouth silently curling up, his face full of viciousness.

"I see little Fan hasn't really had enough of a beating," Liu Longtao sneered, "Why must you insist on dampening our spirits, commander?"

Seeing Fan Wentang still provoking, the leader was close to losing his mind, and upon noticing Yan Yu and Ye Jun watching the spectacle from the side, he quickly gestured with his eyes for them to come over and help break it up.

"Let it go, captain, cool off," Ye Jun had no choice but to come over and say, "There's always tomorrow, there'll be more chances for exchange of moves."

"Indeed," Yan Yu also said with a smile, "Old Liu, why stoop to the level of a street dog? It's beneath you."

Ye Jun was patiently persuading on the one side, and Liu Longtao didn't feel much; but Yan Yu was a top-level cultivator of the same rank, recognized by Lord Master in his heart as "the only heroes in this world are you and me," and Yan Yu's face had to be given.

So Liu Longtao let out a breath of turbid air, grudgingly saying:

"Then we'll fight another time."

"Old Liu is generous," Yan Yu laughed.

Ye Jun also breathed a sigh of relief, and the three of them turned to leave, only to hear Fan Wentang suddenly speak up:

"What? Found you can't kill me, so you're tucking tail to scurry away, huh?"

The camp leader beside them, who had just heaved a sigh of relief, nearly coughed up blood upon hearing this, even having thoughts of executing Fan Wentang on the spot.

Liu Longtao's eyes shot fire, just about to speak, when he heard Yan Yu say:

"How about I have a go at you, pineapple head?"

Pineapple head?

Ye Jun looked at Fan Wentang's messy, curly hair and wanted to laugh, but felt it inappropriate for the moment, struggling to hold it in forcefully.

The leader beside them was on the verge of fainting. He had just managed to send Liu Longtao away, and now Yan Yu was here too—what's going on? Are you all lining up to torment me?

"Who are you?" Fan Wentang asked contemptuously, tilting his chin up.

"A nobody," Yan Yu said with a smile, "No restrictions on methods, just don't kill anyone. How about it, you in?"

"I'm in," Fan Wentang said subconsciously, "What's the bet?"

"What do you want to bet?"

Fan Wentang really wanted to say, "Loser kneels down, crawls from under the crotch, and then barks like a dog," but seeing the leader's fierce, man-eating expression beside him, he couldn't put forward such an absurd request, and just said coldly:

"Loser shaves his head clean, puts on women's clothes, holds up an orchid finger, pitches his voice, and says 'I'm a woman' three times for the other to record. How's that?"

"Sure," Yan Yu smiled.