章 23: Futile Rebellion

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

Qing Fang gazed upon the little girl before him with a gentle smile.

From his perspective, things had all gone according to plan. He had established himself with great terror and then used affection as a tool. From his experience, this technique had been used by himself and many others and had been very effective.

It was based on the victim coming to convince themselves that they were going to be killed. The loss of hope was the first step. Then, once you have established sufficient terror, you start giving some privileges to your victim. This would incite a great sense of gratitude or even feelings of love.

There was another name for this: stockholm syndrome.

Qing Fang felt that he had already struck terror in the little girl and his sudden display of gentle affection in the form of wiping her tears away would cause her to feel gratuitous. However, she might infer this feeling of gratitude in a different manner and maybe subserve herself to him willingly.

However, this was the best-case scenario. Expecting or even hoping for this to happen is a luxury that Qing Fang did not have.

Thus, he decided to reveal the revelation to the little girl that they were family.

Of course, he himself had not confirmed it. He had only come to this conjecture based on his current circumstances and the clan symbol on the girl's robes. She could easily turn out to be a servant of the Qing Clan within the city.

However, it still stands that the Qing Clan had a presence within this city. It would be just too much of a coincidence for the exact symbol, down to the finest detail, of the Clan to be here. Even the extremely cautious Qing Fang simply discarded coincidence as an option.

And even though Qing Fang was dangerously wanted by the Clan outside this cage of beasts, he could easily slip into the presence they had into the city. After all, even if the two had communication through amulets, he could pretend to be another.

At this point in time, Qing Fang still had no clue the Clan had already deemed him to be dead. If he did, he would have a smug smile on his face.

And since the Clan was here, his life could be very easy. His new embarkment on Blood path would go swimmingly if he had the support of others. The whole point of him turning this girl before him into his servant is that he needs human resources to thrive in this unknown environment.

Of course, Qing Fang knew that his body was crippled from destroying his previous cultivation. He knew the prospects of him surpassing his former cultivation of peak Stage 3 were extremely slim. However, he wanted to try.

The Universe was a mystical place and many unexplainable events occur every single day. If Qing Fang perhaps found a way to injure his cultivation potential, he knew that cultivating past his former power would be a breeze with his astounding newfound affinity to Blood path.

Not only this, possessing an unlocked soul allowed him unimaginable comprehension that would allow him to study and manipulate Law fragments to a much higher level than he could now. Qing Fang, who was already very talented in this field, was sure he could fight across stages in the future.

Looking at the delicate face of the little girl and her moist eyes that were flickering with many emotions every second, Qing Fang inwardly smiled cruelly.

Never had he taken pity on a person in his life. Never had he weighed any person's life any more than their weight in grass. Thinking of the sheer impartiality he had to the emotive girl before him, Qing Fang wanted to burst into laughter.

However, using his restraint, he delegated it to an inward smile.

The strong winds blew on the two's clothes as they were still stood on the mountainside path.

Qing Fang no longer had that dirty feeling of sweat and dirt on his body as he had cleaned them off thoroughly before this girl's arrival. However, his short black hair was still plastered onto his head and he had dark circles under his eyes.

He desperately longed to fall into a bed after he had entered the city. Even though he had been awake for a mere couple of hours after awakening in the sacred garden, he felt exhausted. After all, he had recently destroyed his cultivation. Although he had passed out for many hours following the act and had that rejuvenating feeling after he had woken, this amount of rest was not nearly enough.

Qing Fang surfaced from his thoughts of comfortable white sheets and back onto the girl's face after he had seen her flickering emotions in the corner of his eye.

He sensed...unwillingness and...outrage.

'Hahaha. This girl is indeed proud. It seems she is not a mere servant to the Clan's presence in this city. She seems to truly be a member of the Qing Clan.' Qing Fang's thoughts were always centred around the girl's bearing and character.

If he wanted to mould her into a servant, he needed to truly understand her. Through this, he had determined her to be a member of the Clan and not a lowly servant. At this, he was content. His servant had to be useful otherwise he would get pitiful benefits after all this manipulation.

Everything seemed to be going how Qing Fang intended it to.

However, as Qing Fang was staring into those sleek and delicate eyes that were worthy of a duchess, he sensed anger.

It was an irrational and burning anger that reeked of revenge and defensiveness.

Startled by the sudden burst of emotion from the girl as well as how he could've failed so miserably in his efforts, Qing Fang just stared speechlessly at the little girl who seemed to have resolved herself to attack him.

Where did he go wrong? What mistake did he make? Qing Fang couldn't find his fault. He felt that she should've already fallen deeply into his demonic grasp. However, the little girl before him had ultimately rebelled against his control.

'Maybe I had come on too strong? No, the initial terror was sufficient to keep her restrained. It seems that I was missing some information. Nevermind, I guess I'll use force...' Qing Fang thought rapidly while watching the girl steel herself to attack.

This was all a learning process for him. A way he could better himself is in the art of manipulation as well as evaluation of other humans.

Qing Fang could only stay so casual after his failure because this little girl simply posed zero threat to himself. Not only was she clearly inexperienced, led by her emotions, weak in cultivation and mentally frail; she had also fallen into the fallacy of righteousness.

Such an unskilled and ideologically inadequate child could be killed with one finger from himself, even in his current circumstances. Of course, if he didn't possess an unlocked soul, he could only fall in the face of this child.

Unknowingly, Qing Fang had already determined that the girl was going to attack before she had even fully steeled herself. However, how could she know that she was currently facing a master of deception and evaluation?

No emotions could be hidden before the discerning eye of Qing Fang.

...

Qing Chu Hua was in inner turmoil.

The cruel guard who was most likely after her body had the gall to mention that he was a part of her family.

She wanted to scream at him, to vent her frustrations on him and to just outright kill him. However, she couldn't move her body.

It was not because of anything the guard did, she was stopping herself. The pure terror she had felt just a few moments ago had a lasting impact on her mental state. Not only that, the sudden affection had greatly confused her on a deep level.

Thus, when she wanted to kill the guard, she found herself shivering in terror and anxiety. She begged herself to just remain passive and not do anything stupid. The smartest part of her knew that doing anything against this guard will only create terrible circumstances for herself.

However, when she thought of her father and her uncle Han Po, she became sentimental. Her mind flashed to the scene of everyone she'd thought of as family chained up like dogs, waiting to be slaughtered.

An unbridled anger suppressed reason and made her do something stupid.

Led completely by her emotions and her great love for her fallen family, she finally gathered the courage to attack.

...

Qing Fang watched silently as the little girl tried to build courage.

He didn't want to make the first move. After all, there was still a chance that she would back down and that his technique had worked. His eyes seemed to be gently gazing into hers but were analysing her every move and thought.

His sleek and calloused finger was still gently caressing the tears streaming down her porcelain cheeks. Her skin was a beautiful shade of pink that would make her blush easy to see.

Qing Fang had initially thought that the entire city would be brown-skinned as they had had no contact with the Qing Clan who annexed this whole planet under their rule. However, he had clearly not taken into consideration the prospect of other white-skinned humans like him existing within the city as well.

Naturally, the little girl's heritage was not from this planet and neither was his. Originally, the founders of the Qing Clan belonged to a planet with temperatures much lower compared to others that housed primal human life.

Whereas the temperature on Qingpu planet, the planet they were currently on, had warm temperatures all year round, the planet of the founders had winter temperatures all year round. Naturally, the inhabitants of that planet had very white skin, much whiter than the current Qing Clan.

After all, thousands of years on a warm planet had transformed the skin of the clansmen from a deathly pale to a supple pink, still whiter than most.

Qing Fang was not sure whether skin colour was a construct of society within this city but it certainly was outside of it. Naturally, he didn't care to stop it either. If he had only benefits, why would he be as stupid to compromise that?

If there was indeed prejudice against different colours of skin within this city, Qing Fang knew that brown-skinned would be at the top of the hierarchy here. And due to this, he would likely be discriminated against.

However, this didn't bother him. Blood path cultivation needed bodies, not resources. Thus, he didn't need to form connections with anybody and just had to focus on killing the largest number of people possible while attracting the smallest amount of attention.

No one even had to know he existed.

Qing Fang shook his head to get these thoughts out of his head.

'I shouldn't be daydreaming. I'm expecting an attack from this girl, aren't I? Haha.' Truth be told, Qing Fang was not on guard at all. From what he had seen thus far, the threat she posed was minimal.

Qing Fang stopped joking with himself as he felt a clear battle intent radiated from the girl.

'Hmm. It seems she has composed herself. It took her a while. I guess the initial terror I inflicted upon her mind was not inconsequential after all.' Although not fazed, Qing Fang was still stumped on how he had aggravated the girl so massively that she could be able to surpass such terror.

Under the layer of warmth, the cold eyes of Qing Fang watched as the girl finally moved.

As they were less than an arms-length away, the girl had no need to form a proper stance should she want to attack with her fists. With her speed and the short distance, her attack would fall on Qing Fang's body in less than a fraction of a second.

However, Qing Fang doubted that she would use her fists. There was still a gap between the physical strength of males and females and there would be until Stage 4. Thus, girls were taught to use Law fragments in combat primarily, whereas boys were instructed to use their bodies primarily in the early stages of cultivator combat.

Other than this, it was also a surprise attack as the girl did not need to move her body to attack, only conjure water and attack with it.

If this were to be the case and Qing Fang was still a cultivator, he could just directly seize the water from, her control. However, he was but a mortal now and had to adapt to the fighting style of one. Martial artists did not need to know anything about Law fragments.

As Qing Fang had expected, the girl did not move a single inch and let him continue to stroke her cheek when she attacked.

Suddenly, large ropes of water that were thicker than Qing Fang's torso surrounded both him and the girl. They were controlled clumsily, as expected of a mere Stage 2 cultivator.

However, the danger was still there.

Two ropes of water surrounded the two, one at the height of Qing Fang's knees and the other at his chest. Both ropes were each over thirty metres long and very thick, about the limit of what a Stage 2 could conjure.

If Qing Fang still had his peak Stage 3 Water path cultivation, he could conjure thousands of meters of 'rope' with the same thickness.

Under the watch of Qing Fang, the ropes of water suddenly contracted and rushed toward the two, flooding the entire space with water. Overall, it took less than a second for the two rings of water to appear before they imploded and rushed toward their target.

The girl didn't have to worry about the water harming herself as she could just control it to pass through her, which she intended. According to her plan, the water would crash on them both with many tons of force. And while she would be unharmed, many of Qing Fang's bones and maybe even his spine would be crushed due to the pressure.

The thunderous roars of the crashing water came to pass as the two were engulfed in a mass of water that dwarfed them.

...

The point on the cliffside trial where the two were stood close to each other was completely drowned in a swirling whirlpool of violent and powerful currents.

For a time, the only noise that could be heard was the moving and displacement of water along the rocks. As an excessive amount of water was abruptly summoned on the cliffside path, it quickly spread further down the path and spilt off of the edge of the path.

The large body of water soon slimmed down to nothing as a thick waterfall fell from the path and down onto the Temple's territory. The water caved in the ground to a shocking degree as it fell from a height of over one thousand meters and smacked the ground with immense force.

Most of the water turned to vapour after it had hit the ground, but the rest formed a brand-new pool of muddy water several meters wide and tens of meters deep.

The rest of the water spread down the path and thinned out until only a thin layer of damp was spread along most of the path, making it reflect the sunlight and shine.

After the water had cleared the scene, two figures could be clearly seen.

However, both were standing as if hundreds of tons of force hadn't crashed upon them.

The taller of the two figures, who was wearing a set of cyan robes, was completely drenched in water. His short black hair was flattened by the water and onto his head.

Quickly shifting his fringe that was nearly reaching his eyes off of his forehead and to the side, the figure turned away and walked up the mountainside with light steps.

The other figure quickly moved as soon as he did and walked behind him. It was a short girl wearing black robes, standing 5'6" and around nineteen, with long brown hair and a tight waist. Unlike the man, she was completely dry.

Walking behind the cyan-robed man, the black-robed girl always stayed within one meter of him.

...

Walking up the path and away from the city, Qing Fang scowled as the harsh winds hit his body.

Now that he was wet, it felt much colder and if he stayed here for long, his mortal body could possibly succumb to hypothermia. Crossing his arms across his chest, he protected his torso from the winds and made sure no to catch some petty illness.

He took quick and light steps as if he couldn't wait to enter the city.

In truth, Qing Fang just wanted to get warm. The harsh winds coupled with the freezing water he was recently submerged in could be easily underestimated by an inexperienced fellow. Any seasoned hunter would know that staying dry is equivalent to keeping your life when there are strong and unceasing winds.

If he looked at the light side, however, he was no longer as exhausted as before since he had a lake load of water dropped on his head.

Looking back at the little girl closely following him like a lost puppy, Qing Fang stared at her dry clothes. If the winds only got harsher and the path was longer than he thought, he could wear her robes. Although they would be very, very tight; they were the best-fitting substitute robes in the vicinity.

His own robes were in shreds, he was wearing Han Xiao's robes, Meng Chuan was just too short and he still had yet to recover Meng Ai's body.

Speaking of which, the plateau was where he and the girl were headed right now. Qing Fang planned to recover her blood-filled body before descending into the city and hiding within its slums.

Ascending onto the recently blood-splattered and cratered plateau, the little body of Meng Ai was clearly visible in the centre of the clearing.

Two pairs of footsteps sounding on the red grass, Qing Fang soon neared the little corpse with the girl closely behind him. She was never over a meter further away from him.

Obviously, this was because the range of his divine sense was only one meter as a mortal.

Indeed, previously when the water was about to crush his body and turn his two hundred bones into four hundred, Qing Fang casually used his overwhelmingly powerful soul to directly seize control of the girl's body. Since he had closed the distance and was standing right before her, he could make contact with her soul through his divine sense which had a radius of one meter.

Then, as if possessing two bodies at once, Qing Fang completely took over the girl's body and used her cultivation to make the waves harmless just before they hit by nullifying the force.

It was much too late, even for a master of Law fragment manipulation like Qing Fang, to dispel the water. Thus, he could only let himself get wet.

At this moment, he sustained his control over the girl and kept her within one meter of himself so he wouldn't let her regain control.

Unlike the time back in Tai village where he could control that strange breed of human's body but nothing else, with his unlocked soul, he could directly control the mind and even implant subconscious suggestions.

However, when he relinquished control, they would vanish. Obviously, altering the girl's mind was a waste of time if this was the case. If his divine sense had a radius of the city, he could keep control but give her back control of her body and mind. Then, he would have a ready-made servant.

Unfortunately, when Qing Fang's divine sense had the radius of the city, he would be able to leave it easily. Naturally, this plan couldn't come to fruition.

However, this just showed how terrifying Stage 7 cultivators were. The Patriarch could directly alter the mind of anyone in the Clan to suit his needs. He could make women lust for him, men worship him and effectively make himself a god in their minds.

Unlucky for him, the Patriarch was 'righteous', and would never do such a thing. Morality only hindered the bearer.

Once again gazing down at the small carcass of Meng Ai, Qing Fang no longer hesitated like before and directly stored the body into his storage bag which already housed two blood-filled bodies.

Keeping the little girl close to him, Qing Fang turned and finally planned to descend into the city.

In the meantime, he would scour this girl's memories by passage of her soul and learn all that he could about the city.

*3,530/3,000 words*