Chapter 622 428: Before the Battle Line

While Chunyu Hua watched in surprise, Fang Qingyuan led Tu Dai'Er across the short distance and came to a stop right in front of him.

This was the front left flank of the Beast Taming Sect's battle formation. Standing with Chunyu Hua was an old acquaintance, Di Suhua of the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect.

The Beast Taming Sect's battle formation was divided into three parts. One part was the current group with Chunyu Hua and Di Suhua. On the right was the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect, represented by Lechuan. In the center was the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect, led by Di Qing.

Seven or eight Golden Core Cultivators, three at the Nascent Soul Realm, over a hundred at Foundation Establishment, two thousand at Qi Cultivation, and nearly ten thousand Companion Beasts—this was the force the Beast Taming Sect had assembled.

In comparison, the hundred or so people from the Qingyuan Sect looked rather pathetic. But no one who knew the inside story would dare to look down on Fang Qingyuan.

He had managed to snatch away the rights to Bear Wind from so many Beast Taming Sect factions. Not a single one of the Cultivators present had been able to save face from that.

Tu Dai'Er followed behind Fang Qingyuan, confused. 'Why isn't he waiting quietly? Why run up to their faces at a time like this? Is he trying to provoke them?'

Just then, she received a transmission from Fang Qingyuan's Divine Sense:

"Help me put on a show in a moment. When it's done, you will be handsomely rewarded."

A glint flashed in Tu Dai'Er's eyes. 'A show? I'm good at that.'

Besides, Tu Dai'Er could subconsciously sense that Fang Qingyuan was about to stir up trouble, and she was more than happy to see it happen.

The two of them came to a halt before Chunyu Hua. Then, with an expression of pure fury, Fang Qingyuan said to him:

"What were you looking at just now?"

Caught off guard by Fang Qingyuan's opening gambit, Chunyu Hua was visibly stunned. His expression quickly darkened.

"What I look at is my business. Does Sect Leader Fang need to manage that too?"

Fang Qingyuan moved Tu Dai'Er behind him, striking a pose as if he were a hero defending a damsel in distress. At just over 140 years old, Fang Qingyuan was still a young man compared to the nearly 500-year lifespan of a Golden Core Cultivator.

"I don't care who else you look at, but how were you just treating my guest, this Golden Core Daoist from Black Wind Valley, Fairy Tu Dai'Er?"

Upon hearing Fang Qingyuan's words, Tu Dai'Er played her part, frowning with a look of discomfort. This threw Chunyu Hua into a bit of a fluster.

"I was just looking. I meant no offense. Sect Leader Fang, so many of our sect brothers and seniors are watching. Don't take this too far."

'That's precisely why I have to pick a fight with you. If I didn't have so many people staring at you, how could I possibly slap you in the face?'

Fang Qingyuan took two aggressive steps forward, getting right in Chunyu Hua's face, and roared:

"Just because you say so? I clearly saw you looking at my honored guest with ill intent, in a completely insulting manner! Apologize to her right now!"

Hearing the commotion, the surrounding Cultivators all pricked up their ears. A series of inscrutable gazes, like sharp swords, stabbed at Chunyu Hua's face.

At this, Chunyu Hua finally snapped.

"You're just being unreasonable! Fang Qingyuan, cut the act! Isn't this just about that Golden Core Bear Beast we killed? Let me tell you, even if we had known about its relationship with you back then, we would have killed it all the same! What gives a mere unofficial disciple from some backwater corner the right to spout such nonsense in front of me?"

Chunyu Hua wasn't an idiot. He could see that Fang Qingyuan was deliberately picking a fight with him. And to choose this occasion, while Elder Ya wasn't around... he really knew how to exploit an opening. The key was that he was also audacious enough to do it.

Chunyu Hua had never imagined he would encounter such a situation in front of three Nascent Soul Cultivators from his own sect. Currently, he had neither Elder Ya nor Hao Shi by his side, only a few of the Foundation Establishment Cultivators who followed him.

In the distance, the three Nascent Soul Cultivators had clearly sensed the disturbance.

With the powerful Divine Sense of the Nascent Soul Realm, practically nothing within a hundred-li radius could escape their perception. However, after seeing that the conflict was between Fang Qingyuan and Chunyu Hua, the leader, Di Yuanpu, simply withdrew his attention.

"Youde, what's that drama unfolding over there?"

The only Female Cultivator among the three frowned. Seeing that Di Yuanpu wasn't getting involved, she turned to ask Xiong Youde, who was beside her.

"Senior Sister Kael, it's just a small squabble between juniors. We don't need to concern ourselves."

Xiong Youde also knew the inside story. Fang Qingyuan was clearly looking to cause trouble for Chunyu Hua. Normally, Xiong Youde should have intervened, but Fang Qingyuan's earlier persistence had left a good impression on him. Coupled with his own poor opinion of Chunyu Hua, he decided to pretend he didn't see anything.

This Senior Sister Kael was support sent from the Beast Taming Sect's Main Mountain, from Kaelv Ming's faction.

Some might find it strange. It was clearly Kaelv Ming who had forced Yue'e to leave, so why would he provide support now?

In truth, the Beast Taming Sect was massive. It couldn't be viewed as a simple sect. Across the entire Cultivation Realm, the Beast Taming Sect possessed the largest territory.

Breeding and selecting Spirit Beasts requires vast lands and diverse natural environments. The area occupied by the Beast Taming Sect's various exclaves alone added up to several hundred million square kilometers of land.

There were even rumors among Cultivators that the Beast Taming Sect controlled several minor worlds. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain how, every so often, the sect would reveal Spirit Beast species never before seen in this world.

Although the Beast Taming Sect had the word "Sect" in its name, it was a complex and enormous conglomerate of interests. Each Divinity Transformation faction within it could be seen as an allied nation. After all, the power of such a Divinity Transformation force surpassed even that of a major country.

Therefore, conflicts between factions were driven by self-interest, and the Kaelv faction's decision to send support now was also for the sake of mutual benefit.

After hearing Xiong Youde's dismissive words, Senior Sister Kael lost interest in inquiring further. She didn't have much authority here anyway.

Seeing that the three Nascent Soul Cultivators weren't intervening, Fang Qingyuan knew where he stood. He had been prepared for Di Yuanpu to step in, but it now seemed Chunyu Hua's personal relationships were even worse than he had imagined.

That made things much simpler. After Chunyu Hua was the first to drop all pretenses, Fang Qingyuan said coldly:

"First you offend my honored guest, then you insult me. Chunyu Hua, I challenge you to a duel of honor!"

"Young Master, don't pay him any mind! Focus on the greater mission. A moment of impatience can ruin a great plan!"

The Foundation Establishment Cultivators beside Chunyu Hua hastily tried to persuade him, afraid that this young master, who had little experience in real battle arrays, would be provoked by Fang Qingyuan into impulsively accepting.

This kind of duel was nothing more than a contest of pride. Winning would bring Chunyu Hua no benefit, while losing would be a disastrous and unjustifiable loss.

In the eyes of these Foundation Establishment Cultivators, Fang Qingyuan was clearly taking the opportunity to stir up trouble and diminish the Chunyu Clan's prestige here. They even suspected that the spectating Beast Taming Sect members were secretly pulling strings in the background. After all, Chunyu Hua's faction was subtly out of place here.

The home ground here belonged to Yue'e's faction; Chunyu Hua's faction had been forcibly inserted by the Chunyu Ancestor. There were only a few high-level Spiritual Lands in Bear Wind's territory to begin with. If Chunyu Hua took the best one aside from the fourth-rank Spiritual Land, wouldn't the many Golden Core Cultivators of Yue'e's faction be short on cultivation resources?

Therefore, at such a critical moment, it was natural for them to overthink things. But they were truly reading too much into it. Fang Qingyuan was purely looking for trouble to humiliate Chunyu Hua; no other Beast Taming Sect Members had colluded with him in secret.

"What? You don't dare? The dignified descendant of a Divinity Transformation cultivator and son of a Nascent Soul, afraid of a mere unofficial disciple from some backwater corner like me?"

Seeing Chunyu Hua hesitate, Fang Qingyuan went into full taunt mode. He spoke loudly enough for the several hundred Cultivators in Chunyu Hua's battle formation to hear him clearly.

Instantly, a barrage of meaningful glares fixed on Chunyu Hua's face, making it difficult for him, even with his Golden Core Cultivation, to control the blood rushing to his cheeks.

'When had he ever been so humiliated? As the scion of a Divinity Transformation Gate, born with golden armor, how dare someone like Fang Qingyuan...'

But even with fury burning in his heart, Chunyu Hua didn't agree immediately. He growled in a low voice:

"Why are you doing this? What do you hope to gain from me?"

Fang Qingyuan glanced at Chunyu Hua, who was adorned in magnificent, exquisite robes and various High-level Magical Artifacts, a flicker of mockery in his eyes.

"I just don't like you. The first thing a high-and-mighty young master like you does upon arriving in a remote place like the Barbaric Wilderness is find some fun for yourself. For that, you mockingly killed a so-called demonic beast that would rather die than stop protecting its weaker friend.

I know that it's perfectly normal for the Beast Taming Sect to kill demonic beasts, but why do it so cruelly?

Chunyu Hua, you tell me, what do you think life is?"

Back then, when Hao Shi was killing the Great White Bear, before Bear Wind arrived, Chunyu Hua and his group had been toying with the Great White Bear for sport. Otherwise, against Hao Shi and a Nascent Soul Cultivator like Elder Ya, the Great White Bear would never have been able to hold out until Bear Wind's arrival.

Chunyu Hua was enjoying the thrill of the hunt, using torture and mockery to add some meaningless amusement to his boring life.

Chunyu Hua could sense the fury in Fang Qingyuan's words. He couldn't understand why Fang Qingyuan was so fixated on this point.

This was the unbridgeable gap in their ways of thinking. From this point on, any further conversation would be like a chicken talking to a duck.

Duels of honor in the Beast Taming Sect had always been taken very seriously by its disciples. Because no one was much for reasoning things out, when disagreements arose, they used duels to decide who was right and who was wrong.

Life and death were matters of fate. If you weren't convinced, you fought. Beast Taming Sect Cultivators were not skilled in verbal sparring; if they couldn't win an argument, they would fight.

Now, Chunyu Hua had been backed into a corner by Fang Qingyuan. In front of the battle formation, before over a thousand of his sect brothers, if he didn't accept, his reputation would be completely ruined.

"If you want to fight, then we'll fight. I accept your challenge. In three months, I'll be waiting for you at the Black River Daoist Palace."

Just as Chunyu Hua gritted his teeth and spoke these words, the desolate sound of a horn echoed. In the distant Barbaric Wilderness, an army of Bear Beasts was slowly advancing.

At that moment, Fang Qingyuan began to back away, calling out as he left:

"Then I shall look forward to that day, Young Master Hua! Remember to get your affairs in order beforehand, lest it be too late for regrets! HAHAHA!"