"What the hell?" Startled by the sudden changes in the old man, Yang Ze couldn't help but take a few steps back as he readied himself for a fight. He couldn't help but draw in a deep breath while facing the changed old man.

It was as if the person he had been talking to before was just an illusion.

Yang Ze's actions merely brought a smile to the old man's face as he slightly lifted his walking cane before thudding it on the ground.

In that instant, a thick layer of dark fog appeared out of nowhere, completely enveloping both him and Yang Ze's figure inside. From the outside, one would only be able to see a giant sphere of dark fog.

These sudden turns of events made Yang Ze's face fall. He didn't expect the honest and cooperative old man to go through such changes. Just a while ago, he was still trying to think of ways to make him talk, but in the blink of an eye, the situation had completely reversed.

"Now then…" Ignoring Yang Ze's futile actions of looking around, trying to find a way out of this situation, the old man spoke slowly.

"How about I ask you the questions and you answer me?" His leisurely voice contained a hint of playfulness as if he were mocking Yang Ze.

"Don't worry…" He let out a string of laughter before adding further. "I will not smash your hand with a stick."

"..."

"..."

Yang Ze clenched his fists for a moment. At the moment, he was surrounded by the black fog, but thankfully, it wasn't touching him. The black fog was still almost at a distance of three arms from him.

Yang Ze gazed deeply at the old man in front of him. He wasn't sure what else this black fog could do, so instead of taking any rash actions, he merely nodded in response. Unless it was the last resort, he didn't want to face the black fog that dragged his clone to that damned place.

"Well… you are a lot more cooperative than I thought." A smile ran across the old man's wrinkled face as he asked his very first question.

"Who are you and where did you come from?"

Unlike the old man, Yang Ze had no reason to lie. So he simply stated the truth.

"Yang Ze, from Yuyang City."

"Oh!?" The old man's eyes narrowed as he clicked his tongue in wonder. "Not from one of the major sects?"

"No." Although Yang Ze replied in a flat tone, his heart was filled with surprise. It looks like the old man was well aware of the situation outside this so-called 'death zone'. For him to even know about the major sects… he was definitely not a mortal priest of the village. For a moment, Yang Ze couldn't help but think if this old man was the one responsible for the disappearance of the villagers here.

"Interesting… so very interesting…" The old man kept on nodding to himself while constantly looking at Yang Ze from top to bottom.

"So, which major family do you belong to?"

"None." While Yang Ze was giving him the information, he also managed to infer a few more things from the old man's words. Looks like he knew about the major sects, but doesn't know about the cities and the major families in them, otherwise he wouldn't have asked that question.

"What about the master? Any master?" The old man asked again, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

This time, Yang Ze thought for a long time. From the day he came here, he practised and figured out things by himself. There wasn't anyone to guide or show him the path of cultivation. If not for his cheat, he would still have been living in Yuyang City, trying to run away from the loan sharks.

"Hmmm?" Yang Ze's silence made the old man raise an eyebrow, and just when he was wondering if he should repeat the question, Yang Ze finally let out a soft breath and answered.

"Yes."

"Her name is Lin Meilin."

Even though she had been his master for just over a month, she was, after all, his master. Though Yang Ze could simply choose not to mention her, with his current situation… he decided to use her name to his advantage. As for whether the old man knew about her or not… he was betting on it. It would at least give him some advantage against the old thing.

"Lin Meilin…" The old man muttered those two words with some disappointment. From the looks of it, he didn't seem to know her.

"And why did you come here?" Yang Ze could feel the disappointment in the old man's voice as he asked his next question. "Didn't your master tell you about what this place was?"

"She was the one who sent me in."

Yang Ze's blunt answer stunned the old man, who kept on looking at the young boy in front of him. It wasn't until a few minutes passed that he came back to his senses.

"I see." This time, his voice was completely different from before. It was filled with an eerie chill, and his gaze felt like the gaze of a snake looking at its prey.

"I was thinking about keeping you here… I even thought of taking you as my disciple, but now." With every word he spoke, his voice turned cold as he took a step forward.

"I have changed my mind."

The old man raised the walking cane in his hand as a small ball of dark fog, which was the size of a basketball, appeared out of thin air.

"Now you will make a fine sacrifice."

"And your so-called master…"

"I will strip that bitch naked and hang her skinless corpse at the very front of this village. So that everyone would think twice before setting foot here."

With this last sentence, he simply thrust his cane forward, turning the ball of black fog upon it into a beam canon blasting towards Yang Ze.

"..." Yang Ze didn't waste a word. From the very moment the old man's personality changed, and he broke the ropes binding him, he had been on alert.

Now seeing the old man attack him, he finally made his move.

Without any hesitation, Yang Ze took a step forward as his figure disappeared, leaving behind an afterimage as he appeared directly beside the old man.

As if expecting this, the old man twisted his left foot as a burst of black fog appeared beside him out of thin air, directly blocking Yang Ze, who stopped mid-way and retreated.

"That black fog…" Every time Yang Ze went near it, he had a feeling of impending doom. It was as if the moment the black fog touched him, his fate would be miserable beyond words.

He raised his hand, manifesting a thick, long stick that he threw towards the old man.

And just when the stick was halfway, it exploded into many pieces, each one speeding up even more dramatically than before, directly rushing towards the old man, intending to turn him into a sieve.

The old man didn't even look at it. He simply raised his hand, and with it, a thick layer of fog appeared in front of him, blocking the shards of the sticks, which turned into nothingness upon contact.

"Tch! As expected." Yang Ze wasn't surprised by the outcome. He knew the black fog would simply disintegrate his summoned objects, but he still wanted to give it a try. And sure enough… nothing seemed to change.

"Should I simply chop off his legs and hands?" The moment this thought came to his mind, he shook his head. He could use his wind-blade to easily turn the old man into mincemeat, but he still wanted to know a few things from him.

Now that he finally found someone who could answer his questions, how could he let him go?

He even thought about chopping off his hands and legs, but thinking about how he didn't have any healing skills and doing so would probably result in the old man's death, he held back that impulsive thought.

Taking a deep breath, Yang Ze dodged another beam of black fog towards him as he began to test the limits of the old man's control over the black fog. He still had the Inverted Wail that he could use at any moment.

With this in mind, Yang Ze threw another thick black stick towards the old man's head that exploded midway, sending sharpnels towards him and at the same time, Yang Ze's figure disappeared as he directly appeared behind the old man.

Facing the attacks from both sides, the old man's expression finally changed as he hurriedly raised his walking cane to first block the sharpnels before turning around to face Yang Ze and using his gown as a turtle's shell to brace the impact.

This time, Yang Ze didn't stop his fist. Instead, he increased his strength.

The old man's gown was lustrous black with a thin layer of black fog. When he raised it, he was expecting Yang Ze to back down, but to his dismay, it didn't happen.

He didn't know why this brat would suddenly turn courageous. He could only brace himself for the impact and sure enough…

The moment Yang Ze's fist made contact with the old man's gown, an intense resistance appeared upon it, almost blocking Yang Ze's full-powered attack.

In response, Yang Ze merely let out a cold snort before pulling his fist back, which was now stained with a thin layer of fog, before using the first grade of his black tiger fist to punch again.

The old man, whose body was already shaken by the first punch, felt his scalp tingle as he saw the fist striking towards him once again, this time its power a grade above the previous punch.

"Fuck." This was the only thing he could utter as the fist finally made contact with the gown, easily pushing it back as the punch finally landed on the old man's stomach and with it, his figure flew away like a ragged doll, rolling on the ground constantly for a good while before coming to a stop.

"Ugghh…"

In the eerie silence of the forest, the painful groan of the old man was especially conspicuous as he spat a mouthful of blood while looking at the young boy in front of him with eyes filled with disbelief.

But how could Yang Ze give him time to recuperate? Ignoring the black fog that was stuck on his right hand like a leech, he took another step forward as he appeared directly in front of the old man, who wanted to raise his walking cane to use the black fog, but before he could even do that, he felt the presence of another person beside him.

The old man didn't even have time to react as a tick black stick hit him on the back of his head, and he lost consciousness.

The last thing he saw before everything went dark was the figure of the boy who had appeared out of nowhere, holding a thick black stick in his hand.

The moment the old man lost consciousness, the surrounding black fog that was sealing him and Yang Ze inside shattered like the outer shell of an egg. In less than a few breaths, the entire sphere of black fog dissipated into nothingness.

Yang Ze finally let out a sigh of breath as he merely flicked his fingers, and with it, the clone beside the old man lifted him like a dead dog as it placed him beside another tree before dissipating along with the stick.

Walking beside the old man, Yang Ze chopped off some thick black vines from the nearby land and tied up the old man. After making sure that he wouldn't be able to break free forcefully, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and focused on his right hand that was still enveloped in a thin layer of black fog. He could feel it slowly spreading into his right hand. He tried to use his internal energy to destroy it, but other than slowing it down, it didn't do much.

"Good enough for now." Yang Ze simply nodded in response before manifesting a small table in front of the old man and sitting on it.

"Now then…" Taking a sharp breath, Yang Ze raised his hand, and with it, a sharp knife appeared in his hand as he looked at the old man with a blank expression on his face.

"Shall we get started?"

—---

The old man didn't know how long he had been unconscious for. By the time he woke up, the sky above him was already dark, and stars were clearly visible.

It took a moment for him to realise that he had been unconscious for an entire day as panic crept in. He wanted to struggle… to rush back to the cave, but to his dismay, his entire body was tightly bound with vines, making it impossible for him to move.

The only thing that greeted him was the familiar figure of the young boy holding a knife with an expressionless face as if he had been waiting for just him to wake up…

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