After a few words of persuasion, Fang Mingxuan remained adamant about going down with them.
His mind was made up, so Fang Shuwen had nothing more to say.
'I can't let this old man take any risks once we get down there,' he resolved.
Then, a few more people stepped forward, wanting to join them.
Fang Shuwen felt that the situation below was unknown, so it was best not to take too many people. If they couldn't maneuver freely, a larger group would just be a liability.
So he simply had them wait on the surface.
After making arrangements for those on the surface, Fang Shuwen's group of four reached the entrance and started down the steps.
Before long, faint crying reached Fang Shuwen's ears.
It was the sound of women crying.
Fang Shuwen's eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't say a word. The staircase was long. After they had descended a bit further, Zhou Qingmei and the others could also hear the sounds.
The expressions on their faces shifted.
Fang Shuwen quickened his pace, finally arriving in the subterranean world beneath Cyan Yang Manor.
His eyes immediately met those of two men in black robes.
The next moment, the two men snapped to their senses. Their eyes went wide, and they were just about to shout in alarm.
But Fang Shuwen had already launched himself into the air. He executed Vajra Tower Throwing, and while still airborne, a blast of Palm Wind roared downward. The Palm Technique instantly enveloped both men.
Two muffled THUDS echoed.
The Palm Power struck the crown of their heads, driving them halfway into the ground as if they were rice seedlings being planted in a field.
Blood streamed from all seven of their orifices as they died on the spot.
"Such a fierce and powerful Palm Technique!"
A strange light glinted in Fang Mingxuan's eyes.
"Brother Fang, to possess such Martial Arts at your young age is truly admirable."
"You're too kind."
Fang Shuwen waved his hand dismissively. To be honest, he really disliked speaking with Fang Mingxuan.
'This old man keeps calling me "Brother Fang." It'll be fine if our relationship stays hidden forever... but if it comes out one day, won't that be incredibly awkward?'
However, this was no time for a lengthy conversation with Fang Mingxuan.
Cries for help echoed from all sides.
As far as the eye could see, there were cages all around them. Inside each were young women with deathly pale faces.
Fang Shuwen's face darkened.
In fact, a question had formed in his mind ever since he'd arrived in Guangning City and heard about the six bloody cases that had occurred in the last six months.
'The method for cultivating the Black Death Demon Technique is to open a hole in the Baihui Acupoint at the crown of a young woman's head. Then, you align the Laogong Acupoint in your palm with the hole and use a Secret Technique within the Demon Technique to draw out blood, absorbing the Innate Primordial Yin from it into your body and storing it in your Qi Sea. Afterward, you circulate your power to transform the Innate Primordial Yin in your Qi Sea into Black Death True Qi.'
'The process never said anything about having to kill the woman.'
'You could just open a hole in the girl's head, and after you're done cultivating, bandage the wound or apply some Golden Wound Medicine. The next time you need to cultivate, you could just tear the wound open again. That way, you could use them repeatedly. After all, even though the Baihui Acupoint is one of the body's fatal acupoints, it isn't necessarily lethal if the right amount of force is used. The pain and torment these women would have to endure would be far greater, but at least their lives would be spared.'
'So why have so many people died in Guangning City?'
'Now it seems it wasn't that the members of the Black Death Sect were too stupid to think of this. It's just that everyone has their own way of doing things. The perpetrator of those six bloody cases probably just didn't care. That's why he was so unscrupulous, taking lives as he pleased.'
But these women here had been kept by the Black Death Sect as readily available cultivation materials.
Fang Shuwen didn't immediately start rescuing them. Instead, he asked them to be quiet for a moment.
He had a few questions to ask.
The young women were very obedient, all of them staring at him with desperate hope.
They answered what they knew and admitted what they didn't.
Fang Shuwen quickly found the answers he was looking for.
The Black Death Cult Members were here, underground, but they were in the training chamber at the very back.
That was where they cultivated the Black Death Demon Technique, converting Innate Primordial Yin into Black Death True Qi.
Earlier this evening, during the first half of the night, they had just drawn blood from these women. Based on past experience, they would spend the second half of the night in the training chamber and wouldn't emerge until the next morning.
Fang Shuwen felt a sense of relief. They had arrived in the second half of the night.
He had originally intended to use this time to catch those fiends off guard.
He never expected that, by a twist of fate, this would give them the perfect opportunity to rescue the prisoners.
After getting the answers he needed, Fang Shuwen's group conferred for a moment before starting the rescue.
There were no keys for the iron cells. Relying on his unreasonably immense Inner Strength, Fang Shuwen simply crushed the locks with his bare hands. He tore the shackles from the women's wrists and ankles just as easily.
It looked as easy as tearing paper, not solid iron.
Zhang Fang's eyelids twitched uncontrollably as he watched. He leaned over and whispered to Zhou Qingmei:
"This guard of yours... where on earth did you find him? How much silver did it cost?"
How would Zhou Qingmei know the answer to that? She could only say:
"My father found him for me."
"Did the Zhou Family offer him half your fortune? How else could you get an expert of his caliber to be your personal guard?"
"...I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask my father."
"And where is your father?"
"I don't know."
Zhou Qingmei replied softly, a hint of melancholy in her voice.
"Alright, never mind I asked."
They sent the rescued women back to the surface and called down a large group of the men waiting above. Once they had enough people, the party forged straight ahead.
Following the women's directions, they finally found the training chamber located in the deepest part of the complex.
A massive iron door separated the inside from the outside.
Fang Shuwen struck it with a single palm. The massive iron door flew open, its two halves slamming into the adjacent walls with a thunderous RUMBLE.
Revealed before them was a huge stone chamber.
Row upon row of Black Death Cult Members sat cross-legged, focused on converting the Innate Primordial Yin within their bodies.
At the head of the room sat a fat man.
He had a ruddy complexion and a potbelly. Startled by the sound of the door crashing open, his True Qi was thrown into disarray, and blood suddenly trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He snapped open his eyes, which were now bloodshot.
"Who is it!?"
In fact, it wasn't just the fat man.
Fang Shuwen had done it on purpose. Knowing they were all cultivating, he had intentionally made a huge ruckus to disrupt them.
Because of the noise, nearly every single Black Death Cult Member in the middle of cultivating now had blood trickling from their lips.
As they turned to look toward the entrance, their eyes burned with murderous intent.
Fang Shuwen strode into the vast stone chamber. His gaze swept across the room as he said with a chuckle:
"Gentlemen, please don't be offended. We didn't mean to interrupt.
"We just came to slaughter every last one of you."
'If I don't slaughter them all, this mission of mine probably won't ever end.'
Zhang Fang blinked. 'Did he really just say that?'