Hearing this, Liu Shan understood that there was still room to negotiate. "Three-quarters."
"Not enough. Add five years of management rights over the Wormhole."
Liu Shan rejected it without a second thought. "Impossible. Who in all of Tianhuang City doesn't know what kind of worthless creature your son was? Three-quarters of the territory north of the city is already extremely generous. If that still isn't enough, then we fight. The Liu Family is no soft persimmon."
At his words, Liu Qing and the Liu Family elders readied themselves for battle, and the elders of the Cheng Family did the same.
Then Liu Shan's tone suddenly shifted. "Besides, you aren't old yet. Take a few more concubines, work hard, and it isn't impossible that you'll have a descendant with even better talent. Then you'll have someone to carry on your line."
The people who had been bracing seriously for battle nearly stumbled. Was it really appropriate to say such a thing at a moment like this?
Cheng Chuan's eyes flickered. He knew his own son, of course. The Cheng Family and the Liu Family had been fighting for so many years without a decisive result. He and Liu Shan were both Seven-Star Dou Zong, and it was truly hard to say who would win in a fight. Moreover, many other families below them were watching both clans like hungry tigers.
"Three-quarters of the territory north of the city, two years of the Liu Family's Wormhole, and you hand over that woman and Liu Fei to me."
Cheng Chuan took a deep breath and stated his terms to Liu Shan in a heavy voice.
"Impossible!" Liu Shan refused without even thinking.
Cheng Chuan's face turned uglier still.
Then a tender voice drifted from afar and drew closer. "Are you spouting nonsense? Go and piss, then look at your reflection and see what sort of toad you are!"
Four figures appeared not far from the crowd. The newcomers were Xiao Tian and his group, and the one who had spoken was the delicate little girl Xiao Meng.
They had been on their way to the street of cultivators' goods. But they had sensed many auras gathering above the Liu Family manor and had come back to see what was happening.
When Cheng Chuan saw the four of them, he remembered that these were the people his guards had described as having killed his son. His face twisted into a savage snarl, and a palpable killing intent filled the air.
"Little beasts, you still dare to show your faces! Pay with your lives for my son!"
He circulated the Dou Qi in his body, took a step forward, and made to attack Xiao Tian and the others.
But Liu Shan, who stood closest, burst out with Dou Qi at the same moment and blocked Cheng Chuan's path. The two traded a blow and each fell back several steps.
"Liu Shan, get out of my way, or the Liu Family and I will fight to the death!" Cheng Chuan glared at him and roared through gritted teeth.
"Our two families can never be reconciled anyway. What does the Liu Family have to fear from you? I tried to negotiate earlier only to avoid casualties, so that others would not profit from our feud. Do you truly think the Liu Family is afraid of you?"
Liu Shan stood firm, guarding against him.
"Good, good, good! Cheng Family, heed my command. Attack!"
Cheng Chuan lunged toward Xiao Tian again, but Liu Shan intercepted him once more. Seeing the Cheng Family move, the Liu Family fighters attacked as well. In an instant, everything dissolved into chaotic battle.
Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng watched the scene and grew eager to join in.
"Go," Xiao Tian said calmly.
At his approval, two thin golden-red swords appeared in the girls' hands, and they headed toward the fighting.
Xuan Yi glanced at Xiao Tian and understood his thinking at once. It was training. They were cultivators, after all, and battle was unavoidable. Theory was only theory, and only practice could make them improve. Still, she glared at him, as if to say that if the girls were hurt, he would not have an easy time either.
Xiao Tian shrugged helplessly. He was not worried about the little ones. Quite apart from the fact that he and Xuan Yi were there, the items the girls carried were enough to make anyone below a Five-Revolving Dou Zun kneel if they took them all out. They had all manner of treasures on them, along with many of his bottles of lightning and Xiao Yan's bottles of flame, which gave them overwhelming firepower and cured any fear of falling short.
Xuan Yi did not know any of this. Her soul power kept watch over the two girls, and her Dou Qi circulated constantly, ready to strike at any moment.
Two Two-Star Dou Kings of the Cheng Family saw two girls who looked about four years old run into the battlefield. They both let out strange laughs and reached out to grab them.
Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng each wiped a finger along their sword blades. Xiao Ling's blade was wrapped in red flame, and Xiao Meng's in red lightning. They swung, and two red sword qi slashed toward the two Dou Kings.
The two Dou Kings felt a powerful sense of impending death from the sword qi, and the hair on their bodies stood on end. Their pupils shrank, and they tried to dodge by instinct. But the two red sword qi seemed to have locked onto their very souls, and they moved terrifyingly fast.
Shhh...
The sword qi tore through the air with a sound of friction and, in an instant, reached them and slashed toward their chests.
There was no roar. There were no screams and no sounds of struggle.
The sword qi passed straight through the bodies of the two Dou Kings. They stood frozen where they were. Then, all at once, their bodies burst into a sky full of blood mist, leaving no trace of limbs behind. Finally, even the mist was burned away by the red lightning and flame.
The two sword qi continued unchecked, plowing two deep furrows in the ground before slowly fading. Lightning and flame still lingered inside the furrows.
The entire battlefield before the Liu Family gate fell silent.
Cheng Family and Liu Family alike stopped fighting, their eyes wide, as if they had seen something impossible. Many swallowed nervously. In their hearts they wondered whether this was still the world they knew. Had the world gone mad, or had they gone mad and begun to hallucinate?
Even Liu Shan and Cheng Chuan stopped at the same moment and stared at the two stern-faced little girls.
"This... how is this possible?! A four-year-old girl... killed a Dou King?!" a Cheng Family member cried, his face full of disbelief. Was this still the world he knew?
Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng stood with their swords sheathed. Their small faces showed no discomfort at their first kill. Instead, their eyes seemed even brighter, the sign of adrenaline surging through them.
They swept expressionless gazes across the clusters of fighters, and everyone they looked at felt as if the God of Death had marked them.
"Next, who wants to die?" Xiao Ling said softly. Her voice was tender, yet it carried a suffocating chill.
While everyone stood stunned, a figure moved at an extreme speed and launched a terrifying attack at them...