Some time ago.
The Yang and Ma family forces had surrounded the camp. Xiao Yan quietly came out of his tent and looked at the approaching forces. He had already taken a Healing pill and a Spirit Recovery pill, so he had slightly recovered his cultivation. Even though he was still weak, fighting a low-level Earth Spirit realm King was not a problem.
'Oh, there is a slightly bigger ant hidden. Even though he's just an ant, these Lin family people can't beat him,' he thought looking towards the place where the Grand Elder had hidden.
'Also, that mercenary wasn't the only traitor. There is another hidden snake, the one who tried to poison me with that shitty powder.'
'Anyway, they don't seem to want to hurt cousin Xue'er, so let me deal with the bigger ant, these people can handle the rest.'
With that thought, he stealthily left the camp.
Some distance away, the Grand Elder was sitting on a tree branch overlooking the entire battlefield, ready to intervene if necessary. When he saw Yang Ping's plan he started cursing.
"What the …"
"Is this how someone plans? How can he be so stupid? The Patriarch said not to interfere and let him do whatever he wants and learn from his mistakes, but this is plain stupid."
"He had spies in their group. Instead of just sneaking in to kill everyone and capture her, he is fu**ing doing a war. Why is he throwing away resources when there was no need? That brat Chang Wu was there, how could he let him do that?"
"Is this a vain attempt to show off how many he is in front of Lin Xue'er?"
"I should have asked him what his plan was, I feel soo …"
Just when he was about to continue, he saw a teenager crossing his hands leaning against the tree next to the one he was on.
He was sure there was no one a moment ago, how did this kid sneak upon him? If his intention was to kill him, he would already be dead. Thinking up to here, he shuddered.
"Well even though you were right about how stupid he is, if he did do according to your plan, none of them would have survived. So, there IS some value to stupidity I guess, ha-ha-ha," laughed Xiao Yan.
"Brat, who are you?" asked Yang Lei, the Grand Elder of the Yang family and brother of the current Yang family Patriarch.
"Obviously I am not going to tell you. Okay, here's the thing, I will ask you a question …" just as he was going to ask about the other spy hidden inside the camp, he saw Yun hurting Xue'er with his spiritual sense. He could also sense the poison invading her heart.
Uncontrollable rage erupted inside Xiao Yan like an exploding volcano. His aura spiked. 'I should have been more careful. I thought they would not hurt Xue'er,' when the thought of losing Xue'er occurred to him, his mind went completely blank only rage remained.
'None should live, all of them should just burn in hell!' that was the only thought left in his mind. He killed an uncountable number of beasts and humans inside the trial space in the past eight months. He had accumulated a lot of killing aura which along with his rage started to cloud his judgment turning him into a killing machine.
Just when his mind was about to be completely taken over by killing intent, a warm golden glow erupted from his glabella which soothed his raging intent allowing him to think clearly. This was the treasure he acquired after perfectly clearing the Sixth trial. It had only one use that was to calm his nerves and allow him to enter Samadhi state whenever he meditated. Even Sovereigns couldn't enter Samadhi or deep meditation state whenever they meditated, this had wondrous effect on their speed of understanding the Heavenly Dao.
Once he calmed down, he rechecked Xue'er's wound and found that it wasn't life-threatening, as for the poison, he had medicine to remove it. But still, the rage didn't decrease one bit.
"Kneel" he shouted. Tremendous pressure enveloped Yang Lei, it was as if he was carrying a mountain on his shoulder which was pushing him down. His legs caved in and *bam* he kneeled.
'This pressure, not even Golden Core experts could do it. He must at least be Earthly Spirit …' he couldn't even finish his thoughts as beads of sweat formed on his forehead 'I am so dead' he thought.
Xiao Yan took out a small dagger from his ring and started venting his anger on the poor Grand Elder. He was cut up in numerous places, he even used Extreme Yang flames to burn him. When he was done, not a single patch of unwounded skin remained on the Grand Elder. That was just on the outside, Xiao Yan's yang flames could even burn the spirit. The pain it caused made Yang Lei beg for death, which he finally received when he was nailed to a tree in front of everyone.
…
Present.
Xiao Yan carried Yun and moved a couple of li away from the camp. When he found a good enough quite and concealed place, he threw her down and stared at her. Coincidentally, Yun remembered the place, it was the same place she had conspired with Yang Ping and Zeng Cai yesterday. It's like Karma had come to bite her back.
"Do you know what I hate the most?" asked Xiao Yan with extreme coldness in his voice. Which caused Yun to shiver all over again. She shook her head in response.
"There are a lot of things I don't like, but the one thing I hate the most is Betrayal. Now, since you have done it, you are going to pay the price for it," said Xiao Yan without a shred of emotion in his voice, which was completely different than his usually cheerful voice. That was the reason, although she found the voice familiar even Yun couldn't be sure who he was. "If you were a spy, then it would not be a betrayal as you were never on their side. But you were clearly not. You just betrayed their trust and love for some measly benefits, didn't you?"
"W-Who are you?" she shouted.
Xiao Yan slowly pulled his mask away to show his godly face that could cause any female to instantly fall in love with him. But currently, no cheerfulness remained, only coldness. The coldness that made people avoid him as if he was plague.
"Y-You, it's not possible. I fed you Qi dispersing powder. How are you still fine?" she shouted pointing her finger at Xiao Yan clearly unwilling to believe what she was seeing.
"How can such pathetic tricks work on me?"
"No, you can't do this," Yun was hysterical now, she had thought with her new identity no one in Pure Mist Country would dare to hurt her, "Do you know who my Master is? if you hurt me you no one can save you!" threated Yun.
"Oh, let's hear it then. Who is your master?" asked Xiao Yan in a mocking tone.
"He is the Ancestor of Thousand Poisons Sect. Do you know his cultivation is? He's an Earth Spirit realm King. A KING do you know how powerful he is? If you let me go, I can still beg his forgiveness for you. If you dare hurt me, my master will destroy nine generations of your family," Yun threatened with a smug face. She thought a King should be enough to put Xiao Yan in his place, enough to cause him to grovel under her skirt. But she had overestimated herself or perhaps underestimated Xiao Yan's rage.
*swoosh*
Blood flowed as one of Yun's fingers was hacked off.
"AHHH-HHHHHAAAA"
"Shut up!" shouted Xiao Yan causing Yun to press her bleeding hand onto her stomach and bite on her other hand to suppress her cry. Tears started flowing because of intolerable pain. Xiao Yan was never this cruel, not even to his enemies. But Yun hurt his cousin Xue'er. Even he didn't know why he reacted so violently or why he suddenly started caring so much about her.
"Girl let me give you a piece of simple advice. When you are taken captive, it's never a good idea to threaten your enemy. It would always end badly for you," Xiao Yan continued, "Now, did your master ask you to harm Xue'er?"
Yun nodded with her hand still in her mouth. The pain did not lessen one bit, in fact, it had increased instead.
'Oh, what grudge does he have with Xue'er, perhaps with the Lin family. It might not be personal as well, maybe this Thousand Poison Sect has something against the Lin family,' Xiao Yan thought of multiple possibilities.
"Tell me in detail," said Xiao Yan.