"A clan with dignity and not without mercy? I wasn't fully your enemy until this evening? Our disagreement can be settled with a discussion? Old man, you do realize that each of those sentences reveals your true feelings, right?"

It was well hidden between the words, but in the cultivator world, "not without mercy" meant, I won't kill you, but you'll have to grovel and lick my shoes. "Not fully your enemy" meant he was already an enemy, and "our disagreement can be settled with a discussion" meant they wanted information from him—and given the other two statements, they would extract it by force. It was an elegant string of words designed only to make the Qing clan feel righteous in their arrogance.

As he observed the furious old man, Liu Xing thought about the dim, dirty library. That old man had been so polite to him, so full of regret. He had said his life would be short and that he wanted to apologize to his family. But the visage of that man had vanished completely, as if he were a different person entirely. Was this his real personality? Was the polite, soft-spoken old man merely a mask? Or had the power he had attained suddenly changed him? Then again, maybe he hadn't changed at all. After all, the circumstances were wildly different.

"What are you going to do, old man?" Liu Xing asked as he ordered his floating sword to descend from the sky and tightened the grip of his gun in his left hand.

The old man, perhaps blinded by fury, still didn't realize that while many people were injured, no one had actually died. The patriarch had grievous internal injuries, but he was still alive and could recover. The Second Master was in a similar state, perhaps even better condition than the patriarch, and would surely recover in time. The people hit by lightning were also mostly still alive, albeit some with more serious injuries than others. Liu Xing had controlled the intensity of his attacks, but he wasn't quite precise enough. If they were treated too late, some might die. He crushed a pang of guilt that rose in his heart and intended to follow through with his decision. He needed to make this clan an example, and this was the gentlest he could afford to be, otherwise the display wouldn't be flashy enough, and all this violence would have been for nothing.

"You have no hope of winning against me," Liu Xing continued. He looked past the old man at the patriarch of the Qing clan lying on the pavement and then glanced arrogantly behind him at the Second Master. "Those two are likely your strongest, but both of them are in no condition to fight. The only one who can offer any resistance is you, and you're hardly a match for me. For all intents and purposes, you're already dead." Liu Xing grabbed the handle of the stone blade and brandished it at the old man.

The old man cycled his qi and clenched both of his fists, as if trying to activate a technique. Yet, Liu Xing knew he would not unleash an attack. The old man knew he was outmatched and was wise enough to realize that the moment he moved, his head would be severed from his neck.

"However, old man," Liu Xing continued, "you were so polite to me when we first met, and I'm not in the mood to massacre a clan either. Hence, I can let you and the Qing clan go as long as you fulfill my conditions. First, I want you and your clan not to meddle with me and my business. This includes Qing Lian, Qing Yuan, and anyone else connected to me. And the second condition, to appease my anger, I want you, Old Jianqing, to cripple yourself and disperse your cultivation."

At his words, the Qing clan members behind the old man gasped, their voices echoing in the tense silence of the clan grounds.

The first condition was likely not hard to follow. The second, however, was harsh. Crippling oneself by dispersing one's cultivation was against a cultivator's nature, which was to always advance to a higher realm. Even Liu Xing realized that if the positions were reversed, he would vehemently oppose it. However, it was the only thing Liu Xing could demand. His display of power was enough to scare everyone on this island. He was sure not a single cultivator here would dare to offend him anymore. But it wasn't enough. He needed to create a tangible and real reminder of the consequences of offending him, and making this old man a cripple was the worst thing he could do short of massacring the whole clan.

The old man's fury intensified. He gazed at him with eyes that looked ready to leap from their sockets. His lips turned into a snarl, and a growl sounded from his throat, making him sound like a wild beast.

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Liu Xing held his position, his stone blade still pointed at the old man. The decision now hinged on him. It was true that he didn't want to massacre the entire clan, but he could sentence them to a slow death by killing their strongest members. He glanced past the old man's shoulder, a small gesture the old man surely noticed. He was sure the old man perfectly understood their current situation.

"Choose wisely, old man," Liu Xing said. "The fate of your clan is in your hands right now."

The old man growled deeper, and he clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. The qi around him felt chaotic, the temperature dropped, and the sound of howling wind began to swirl around him. He was ready to attack, yet he didn't. His face was beyond furious, yet Liu Xing knew that behind that fury, his mind was contemplating what he needed to do. The old man must have realized that the Qing clan had no path to victory. If he didn't agree to Liu Xing's conditions, the clan would be decimated right here and now. However, if he agreed, it would weaken the status of the Qing clan within this city. From tomorrow onward, the Jin clan and the other powerhouses of this city would likely seize this opportunity to finally claim the Qing clan's wealth, resources, and territory.

The old man looked behind Liu Xing, toward his second son, then glanced over his shoulder, toward his first. He gritted his teeth so hard that several of them shattered from the force, and blood gushed from his mouth. However, even though his visage looked furious and terrifying, in the end, he finally nodded.

"I agree to those two conditions," the old man said. "I, as the representative of the Qing clan, vow that we will never show our faces before you or your acquaintances again, nor will we ever meddle in your business. And the second condition... I agree to disperse my cultivation, but only on the condition that you vow not to harm a single person from my clan from now on."

Inwardly, Liu Xing felt a wave of relief. However, he needed to maintain his facade. So, he smiled and said, "Hmm? What about what you said earlier? Did you forget you said I would pay for what I did to your clan?"

"Forget about it," he said through gritted teeth, as if reluctant to speak the words. "Those were merely the words of a furious father. Now, I speak as the representative of the Qing clan. We will hold our bargain, as long as you do not harm us."

"Hmm, alright," Liu Xing nodded. "As long as you hold up your end of the bargain, I vow that I will not harm you or your clan."

"Then it's a deal," the old man nodded, then began to kneel.

As his knees touched the ground, the Qing clansmen behind him gasped. Some of their eyes widened, and they whispered the words "Grand Elder" softly, as if they didn't want the old man to do what he intended, yet they also didn't know how to stop it. They were weak, after all, and they had no chance of contending with Liu Xing.

"Senior, this old man will now disperse his cultivation. But I don't want to be a burden to my family anymore, so I wanted to ask you for a favor."

"What favor?" Liu Xing asked.

"Your control over qi is superb. Comparing it to mine is like comparing the sun to an ember. Dispersing one's cultivation is harmful, but the degree of harm can be reduced. So, I ask you a favor. I want you to disperse my cultivation, and to do it as gently as possible. This way, while I will be reduced to a mortal, I will at least not be bedridden and become a burden to my clan once again."

Liu Xing contemplated for a moment. As far as he knew, there were several ways to cripple a cultivator. The most common was to destroy the qi paths in one's body. However, a more thorough method was to dive into one's consciousness and disperse the cultivation from within. This could only be achieved willingly, which was why crippling a cultivator in the middle of a fight was extremely rare. It was far easier to kill a cultivator than to cripple one.

"Alright, consider it a mercy," Liu Xing finally nodded, and he began to walk toward the old man.

When he was right in front of him, he stabbed his stone blade into the ground and absorbed some potent qi from his Ethereal Pearl, letting it cycle through his body. He suspected that using potent qi would make this whole ordeal easier.

"Thank you, Senior," the old man clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and then began to dive into his consciousness. There was a way to open one's consciousness to an outsider, though it was rarely done, as there was only harm in doing so. He wondered how this would work. Would the old man create some kind of opening for him?

Liu Xing sent all of the potent qi into his right index finger, and then he pressed it against the old man's forehead. Instantly, he felt a connection between them and instinctively realized that if he willed it, the qi in his finger would rush into the elder's consciousness as a foreign energy and attack his core.

Liu Xing inhaled deeply, intending to do just that, when the old man's eyes suddenly snapped open. Qi began to swirl around his right hand, and with a fist that was swift and an expression of pure fury, he unleashed a punch aimed right at his heart.

"Die, you scoundrel!"

Liu Xing grimaced.

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