"Five hundred thousand taels?" Qin He stared at Xie Zhang, his voice thick with resentment.

All at once Qin He's body went rigid. An aura that set his heart hammering had fixed itself upon him, as though the slightest resistance would mean death where he sat.

"Five hundred thousand will do. Consider it our apology for offending your esteemed house!" An Elder of the Qin Family read the danger and stepped forward at once to accept the terms.

Qin He felt the pressure lift from his body and slumped back into his chair, the back of his robe already soaked through.

Every gaze in the hall turned to Tang Yan. Qin He's matter was settled, and now it seemed this Young Master Tang had only a few thousand taels left to his name.

Qin He, who had meant to walk straight out, decided to linger and watch Tang Yan make a fool of himself. After all, he refused to be the only one losing face tonight.

"Young Master Tang..." Xie Zhang looked at him with a complicated expression. In truth, he found the youth before him deeply curious. The fellow had been reckless in that first bid, yet his conduct just now had been nothing like the foolishness the rumors described.

And thanks to him, the Heavenly Treasure had earned over a million taels more than expected.

"The Tang Family has always held your house in high regard. How could we ignore your rules? If no one else cares to bid..." Tang Yan smiled and drew a thick stack of banknotes from his robe, holding them out to Zi Yun beside him. "Count them."

The sight of his smug face sent fury flaring in Zi Yun's chest. She nearly slapped the fool flat to the floor. This brat had gotten so puffed up he could no longer tell up from down!

Forcing the anger down, she took the notes and began counting them with quick, precise fingers.

Obedient on the surface, perhaps, but Zi Yun had already made up her mind. Tonight, this brat would not get off easy.

Seeing that she was truly counting the money for him, the great stone in Tang Yan's chest finally settled.

Cold as this girl was on the outside, on the whole she was still reasonable enough.

"Good girl," Tang Yan praised, grinning.

"To serve the Young Master is this little one's blessing." Zi Yun lifted her exquisite face and answered with a smile that did not reach her eyes.

Tang Yan's heart lurched, and a shiver ran through him before he could stop it.

It seemed he had laid the act on a little too thick.

......

The notes paid, the Thousand Mountains Fist scroll in hand, Tang Yan cupped his fists in thanks.

For a moment the whole hall felt as though caught in a dream.

The biggest winner tonight was Tang Yan, the very wastrel they had all written off at the start?

When Tang Yan actually produced that much silver, Qin He felt a boulder crash down across his chest. He, the dignified eldest young master of the Qin Family, ranked among the top three of Yun City's younger generation, had been spun in circles by Tang Yan, a known good-for-nothing.

Where was he to put his face now?

Tang Yan spared no thought for Qin He's feelings. All he wanted at this moment was to flee back to the Tang Family and find a corner to hide in. The matter of making Zi Yun count his money tonight would not be smoothed over easily.

Once out of the auction house, Tang Yan dropped his head and made straight for the Tang Family. Watching his cowardly retreat, Zi Yun gave a soft snort and quickened her pace to follow.

The night was deep and still, and the streets had long emptied of people.

Suddenly an aura locked onto him. Tang Yan's keen instincts seized it in an instant, and his heart jumped. Phantom Step unfurled without hesitation, and a toe whistled past, grazing the seat of his trousers.

This crazy woman truly held a grudge.

"Miss Zi, this humble one will go ahead and make your bed!"

Without the slightest pause, he poured everything into Phantom Step and bolted for the Tang Family.

"Coward! Where do you think you're running!" Seeing him flee outright, Zi Yun cursed and loosed her own footwork, giving chase.

Phantom Step was, after all, a peerless movement technique Tang Yan had carried over from Huaxia. He ran without break, weaving down the road like a ghost flitting through the dark. Even with eight parts of her strength, Zi Yun found it hard to close the gap.

"Fast little thing, aren't you!" Tang Yan's dodging only fed the flames in Zi Yun's chest. She held back her high-grade Black Rank strength no longer, her figure streaking forward like a falling star.

"Thud!"

"Owwww-"

"Thud! Thud!"

"Ow, owwww-"

Through the quiet night came the steady sound of blows landing and the cries that followed.

When the two reached the Tang Family, Zi Yun smoothed her robes with satisfaction and returned gracefully to the small courtyard. At the doorway she turned to glance at Tang Yan's bruised and swollen face, the corner of her mouth curving up, and walked in with her chin high.

Tang Yan trudged into his own room with a long face, cursing himself for the moment of heated stupidity that had made him hand the money to that female fiend.

The truth was, ever since Zi Yun's strength reached Black Rank, First Grade, Tang Yan had taken no small number of beatings from her. He had come prepared, refining three full bottles of healing pills.

Back in his room, he swallowed a few, and his aching body finally eased.

Luckily, Zi Yun still knew restraint. She picked only the fleshy spots, leaving him in unbearable pain but with no real injury.

Once his body felt better, Tang Yan eagerly drew the Thousand Mountains Fist scroll from his robe.

He ran through it once, quickly, and his heart leapt with joy. The power of this fist technique fell far short of the Flame Burst Palm his mother had left him, but its demands on the cultivator were far lower, making it perfectly suited to his current stage.

Yet after reading it through three times with care, Tang Yan did not wear the look of sudden enlightenment he had expected. Instead his brows knotted tight, and his face filled with confusion.

At first he had thought, like the people of the Heavenly Treasure Auction House, that this technique was a broken fragment. But drawing on his long experience, he sensed it was not as simple as it seemed.

The scroll recorded only two forms. The single punch of the latter was far more powerful than the former. Yet after that second punch, the move that appeared to be a closing strike looked, to Tang Yan's eye, strangely like the opening stance of the second punch itself.

"If it's named Thousand Mountains Fist, then a complete set can't end at two forms. There'd have to be many more punches to live up to that name." Tang Yan muttered to himself, and then his eyes sharpened.

The second form was built on the foundation of the first, using it as a template. It only extended a few variations in how force was applied, so that the second punch could draw on the momentum and leftover force of the first to strike with even greater power.

The moment he understood this, his mind came alive.

If he could link the second form to the first, then he could throw a third punch, a fourth punch...

If it truly worked, then whoever designed this technique was a rare genius of the martial path.

With that clear in his mind, all drowsiness left him. He pushed open the door and walked out to stand in the middle of the small courtyard.

Replaying the forms of Thousand Mountains Fist once more in his head, Tang Yan gathered a breath of True Qi, stepped his left foot forward, gave a low shout, and drove his right fist ahead with a howling wind.

"Thud!" A muffled burst rang out.

The instant the first punch landed, Tang Yan did not pause. With a sweep of his arm, he loosed the second.

"Thud!" Another muffled report, but louder this time, the air around him shuddering far more fiercely than before.

And still Tang Yan did not stop.

Following the line of thought he had worked out, the third punch blasted forward.

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