"A mere seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivator like you managed to forge a magic artifact so smoothly. You must have your own methods. I'm very interested in your forging arts."

  Leo sheathed his sword. Magic artifacts were powerful, but they consumed considerable spiritual power. Hann, now, was a tiger without teeth. He didn't believe this bald old man could pull any more tricks under his watch.

  "Dream on! I know you have the Foundation Establishment Pill. Dead is dead. You'll never get my forging secrets!" Hann shrieked.

  Leo fell silent. The old man was cunning and vicious, and he spoke truly. Leo now possessed two magic artifacts and a treasure like the Foundation Establishment Pill.

  Even the Palace's hundreds of Foundation Establishment masters couldn't obtain pills for their children. They had to enhance their children's strength to earn them. If outsiders learned Leo had one, he'd never make it back to the Palace alive. Even if he did, many would force him to hand it over. He couldn't let Hann leave alive.

  But Leo smiled coldly. "You deserve death. But the one secretly communicating with you from outside, who massacred Locust Tree Village and helped guide me to Ox Head Mountain—I've never seen him, but he must be your child, or someone close. You dragged your 'nephews' into the Black Water Stockade Mine, but this person's relationship with you is clearly different."

  "How... how do you know?" Hann looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Even Mist hadn't known this, yet Leo had seized his fatal weakness.

  "Did you think your schemes were flawless?" Leo sneered. "Back in the Black Water Stockade Mine, I knew you weren't simple. You said you sent your son out to check on things and he was killed. You never went up again. So how did you know Mist had struck you from the Palace's disciple rolls? Unless someone told you—someone who could freely enter and leave the mine. You're too shrewd to trust just anyone. That person must be your most trusted."

  Hann stared, stunned. His slip had been in that one insignificant sentence, and Leo had caught it. "Then why did you protect me in the mine? If you knew I had outside help, why use me to get out?"

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  "I don't care about your feud with Mist, but I'm interested in anything concerning him. Back then, we had no conflict. We each got what we wanted. I could tolerate you." Leo said. "As for why you used me to escape—probably because you feared your outside help expose themselves and catch Mist's attention, getting them killed."

  "And you never left the mine before, partly for your own reasons, but also because of those Ox Head Mountain cultivators. Your Foundation Establishment Pill had accidentally ended up there, with that black-armored man, a Great Perfection cultivator you couldn't beat. And you couldn't trust anyone else with such a treasure. So you stayed in the mine, safe, at least surviving."

  Leo snorted and continued. "Until you met me in the mine. Seeing my strength grow, and my ice silk, you hatched this poisonous plan. Use the promise of forging the Demon Binding Rope to lure me into helping you escape. All while scheming how to ambush me."

  "First, your trusted accomplice massacred Locust Tree Village, blaming the Ox Head Mountain bandits. You pretended to seek your daughter, actually guiding me to Ox Head Mountain to kill those bandit leaders you couldn't handle. Then, under the pretext of recovering your daughter's keepsake, you retrieved the inkstone containing the Foundation Establishment Pill that had ended up there. Achieving your main goal. And incidentally testing my strength for your next move."

  "Second, you led me to the underground palace. Forging the Demon Binding Rope was real, but using my materials to forge it for yourself. You timed it perfectly. At the final moment, your waiting accomplice sent those fools, the Black Wind Gulch Eight, into the palace with tales of treasure. Your goal was to use them to delay me while you refined the newly forged rope. Whether they killed me or I defeated them, you'd have the artifact and hold all the cards. The only small miscalculation was how easily I killed most of them, ruining your chance to refine it. And you never expected me to have a flying sword artifact. In fact, when I saw those eight outside, I guessed your plan."

  Leo looked at Hann like a cat toying with a mouse. This bald old man was cunning, as sly as the black-robed old man. But Leo's years of hardship had sharpened his mind.

  "Impossible!" Hann couldn't believe it. "Survivors from Locust Tree Village said bandits attacked. How did you see through it? And if you knew, why go to Ox Head Mountain? Why reveal this only now?"

  "You think your accomplice's work was clean? Before you reached Ox Head Mountain, I visited Locust Tree Village. The victims' expressions were strange—shocked, incredulous, no sign of struggle. Does that seem normal? It suggests the killer was someone they knew. Someone they never expected to murder them. So no fear, not at first. Later, a few fled. In their panic, what could they know? You have a cruel heart, sacrificing so many for your goals!"

  Leo stared at Hann like a corpse. One way or another, this venomous old man had to die today.

  "Then I knew the massacre wasn't simply bandits. It was deliberate, a frame-up. Later, at Ox Head Mountain, I guessed you were guiding me there. I wondered why. First, perhaps to meet your accomplice, to decide on the timing of the Black Wind Gulch Eight's arrival at the underground palace. Too early, they wouldn't delay me effectively; if they killed me, your plan failed. Too late, and I'd be constantly by your side in the chamber, giving you no chance to take the rope. But that seemed unlikely—you could meet your accomplice other ways, like visiting your 'daughter's' grave. Why such an elaborate scheme?"