“Miss Tang, please. I wouldn’t dare lie to you. Calm down and let me speak first, all right?”
The man sighed helplessly and added, “My name is Xiao Feng. I am a member of the Xiao family. You should have heard of me, right?”
In their generation, only Xiao FengandTang Yuhad deep attainments in the art of formations.
This is also why, when he found that she had escaped his array, he had initially guessed that she was the eldest daughter of the Tang family.
If she had been an ordinary person, she wouldn’t even understand any talk of formations and the such.
“I believe I’ve underestimated you, Miss Tang,” Xiao Fengsaid with some reluctance.
“I honestly thought that no one else knew formations better than I do. I suppose I’ve been too arrogant with my skills.”
Learning formations was a requirement among their families. And while they were rather similar in age, Xiao Fengwas convinced that he was more hardworking than most.
How could someone else best him in this?
But Yao Tangdidn’t care about his thoughts and insecurities. “Hand over the starry sky fragment,” she said bluntly.
Xiao Feng widened his eyes and adopted a clueless expression. “What fragment?”
“Enough with this nonsense.”
“No, I really don’t understand what you mean. I only came to the mountain today to practice formations at a secluded place. I have nothing to do with fragments or whatever. You must have found the wrong person.”
He continued to deny it on the surface, but he made sure not to let his guard down.
He already knew that this girl had a sharp eye. It wouldn’t be easy to deceive her.
The starry sky fragment was indeed with him. Xiao Fenghad trekked into the mountain specifically to retrieve it, so there was no way he was going to hand it over to others.
Yao Tang flicked her hand every so slightly.
In the next second, Xiao Fengfelt a stinging pain in his neck. He reached up to touch the skin just under the blade and found blood dripping down his throat.
It flowed steadily, staining the collar of his shirt.
“Are you serious, Miss Tang? As fellow descendants of the aristocratic family, shouldn’t we be working together?” His voice instinctively grew quieter as a sense of crisis took over him.
If he didn’t get out of here soon, he might well and truly die at her hands!
“Ah, didn’t I tell you?” Yao Tangsaid coldly. “I am notTang Yu. Now, give me the fragment.”
Xiao Feng glanced at her sideways, his eyes wide with fright. He slowly inched his neck away from the knife as he racked his brains for a way to escape.
At last, he reached into his pocket.
When he took out his hand, it was holding a familiar gray stone.
“Here, okay? I’ll give this to you, but you must promise to let me go.”
When Yao Tangsaid nothing, he continued, “Since you’re not saying anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”
With that, he gingerly handed her the stone, making no attempt to hide his unwillingness.
“I can leave now, right? Surely the Tang family wouldn’t bully me any more than this? I was the one who got it first, but you forced it out of my hands. You’re really too much.”
He stared bitterly at the stone in Yao Tang’s palm, sounding utterly aggrieved.
To his surprise, she said, “Hand over the real thing.”
Xiao Feng felt his heart jump to his throat.
Was she really that powerful that she could tell it was a fake at a single glance?
How was this possible?
He had experimented on replicas back home all the time. Every time he tested them with the elders, they always confused the fakes for the real ones. No one had ever realized the truth.
But this girl had actually seen through his trick?
Or maybe…
Maybe she was only bluffing.
Xiao Feng felt conflicted. He couldn’t predict the way this girl’s mind worked. “Miss Tang, you really must be joking this time, right?”
If she could truly tell that he had given her a fake, then that would make her more powerful than the elders in his family.
“I said, take it out of your pocket.”
As she finished speaking, Xiao Fengfelt the cold kiss of her dagger against his neck once more.
