Framing . . .
The mysterious figure stood amidst the woods, his hands empty, his black robe dancing in the night breeze, seamlessly melding with the obscurity of the evening. He had materialized abruptly, his presence altering the very fabric of the surrounding darkness into an ominous, otherworldly realm.
"Who goes there?" the men pondered, a sense of familiarity teasing the fringes of their memory.
The man in black chuckled coldly, the sound a chilling symphony in the night air. He sighed audibly before uttering his thoughts, "How wretched. Who might this be? Observe the severity of the beatings he's endured. Ponder his arms, fragmented like lotus roots. Are you folks from the Sunlight Sect planning to cultivate lotus roots?"
With a dismissive shake of his head, he continued, "We're all well-educated individuals. How about a game? I've thought of a riddle. If you provide a satisfactory answer, you shall reap the rewards."
The man pretended to deliberate, and then in an odd, teasing tone, he offered the first line of the riddle, "What brings a love..."
Before he could complete the couplet, his laughter erupted manically.
Clearly, he derived great satisfaction from the humiliation of these Sunlight Sect men.
"You lunatic!" the men seethed, their anger aflame.
"Where did this lunatic emerge from? His behavior is bizarre, his tongue sharp, and his sarcasm is relentless," they thought. "He's openly mocking us, abusing us in our pitiful state. What more must we endure?"
The memory of their humiliation at the hands of Wan of the Clouds still rankled in their hearts, and now another affront was thrust upon them.
"It's unbearable! Look at the horror of this place, and he has the audacity to play games with us? 'What brings a lover?' It's clearly sarcasm, a mockery of Mu Zizhu's maimed arms."
Ji Chengfeng's countenance grew stern as he addressed the enigmatic figure, "Sir, your talents are evident, and I presume you must be a well-known individual. Why then do you hide your face and engage in mockery on this moonless night? Might such behavior tarnish the reputation of a master cultivator?"
The man in black chuckled darkly, "Reputation? What's that to me? Have you finally recognized my stature as a master cultivator? A master cultivator operates by his own rules. I'm doing you a favor by engaging in this little game. Haven't you been listening? Your circumstances will improve if you provide the correct answer. You should seize this opportunity I've generously granted you. It's a shame to squander it. Don't you agree, old man?"
"Generous opportunity, my foot!" one of the men exclaimed in frustration.
Cha Eun Xiao's patience wore thin, his internal pressure reaching a breaking point. Unable to endure any longer, he launched himself into the air, sword gleaming as he resolved to eliminate the source of his torment. The simmering anger inside him demanded an outlet.
[Enough is enough! How much more humiliation will we bear?]
The man in black, however, shouted in rage, "You Sunlight Sect people! You have no gratitude! Such an opportunity! You're a blind, ungrateful lot. I offered you an opportunity with kindness, and this is how you repay me? You won't answer my riddle, and yet you resort to violence!"
"My first line is 'What brings a lover?' You imbeciles should've replied, 'It needs no plum when there is almond!' What ignorant fools you are! Put your sword down," he said in an aggrieved tone, pretending to be wronged. "Can't you at least be reasonable?"
The sword hovered dangerously close to him, and in an instant, he sidestepped nimbly, his figure aloft, the black robe billowing in the wind. With a wicked smile, he continued, "I suppose you've chosen the hard path. One of you is already maimed like a lotus root, and that's well-deserved. If it were me, I'd tear you to shreds. You deserve no mercy."
He spoke as he darted around, and suddenly, a bright flash and a metallic ting filled the night.
A man who had rushed at the man in black with his sword fell to the ground. When his body met the earth, he was already lifeless.
The observers were thunderstruck. They hadn't witnessed the man in black make any obvious movements, yet one of them was dead.
Drawing nearer to the body, they saw that there were no visible injuries except for a tiny red dot on his temple, a minuscule droplet of crimson.
A single, precise strike had felled the man, a swift and deadly motion.
Could this man in black truly be an extraordinarily powerful cultivator? The deceased man had been at the second level of the Sky Origin Stage!
Yet in the blink of an eye, the man was dead, vanquished without a sound or a sign of struggle.
Ji Chengfeng's gaze honed in on the tiny red dot, and with each passing moment, the fiery anger in his chest intensified. Abruptly, he glanced up at the figure on the rooftop, and his voice was laced with tension as he articulated each word with clenched teeth, "Boundless Saint?!"
They had previously discussed the mysterious figure who wielded needles as his weapon.
Their conclusion had pointed to the enigmatic figure known as the Boundless Saint.
Boundless Saint had made a memorable appearance when he proved that his needles bore no poison by ruthlessly ending the life of an innocent man. On that day, he had declared vehemently, "My needles are free of poison!"
His movements had been swift and ghostly, flitting here and there with uncanny agility. His voice had dripped with wickedness, and he had a knack for inciting anger.
The echo of his words from that day still reverberated in their ears.
Now, a man who bore a striking resemblance to that same Boundless Saint had reappeared. His peculiar methods and ruthless methods mirrored the earlier incident. Even his weapon, a needle, was identical. The crimson stain on the deceased man's temple indicated that this needle, like the previous ones, was poison-free.
[Suddenly, the truth dawned upon those who had witnessed the Boundless Saint in action.]
[That's who he is!]
It became clear to those who had observed the Boundless Saint during the previous encounter that the man in black before them was none other than the infamous Boundless Saint.
[You audacious troublemaker, coming to vex the Sunlight Sect when we're already facing dire straits!].