Chapter 207: 207- Fang Clan [2]

Fang Yuan rubbed his face, groaning.

"Of course... you stole my clan and then you steal my faith too. Next she’ll be stealing my system."

Yet, despite his complaints, the numbers didn’t lie.

She was raking in ten thousand Faith points a day for him, it was more than the entire clan combined.

He didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or react in other ways.

Before he could decide, the underbrush stirred.

The remaining Saberfangs padded back into the clearing.

The two wounded ones slumped onto the ground, licking each other’s bloodied hides with low growls.

The third one, uninjured, strode forward, jaws clamped around the neck of a wild boar.

With a casual flick of its head, it dropped the carcass at Fang Yuan’s feet.

The beast’s golden eyes gleamed in the firelight, as if offering tribute.

Fang Yuan blinked. "...You’ve got to be kidding me."

Fang Yuan stared at the carcass in front of him.

He didn’t know the first thing about cooking a wild boar.

But after a moment’s thought, he came to a simple conclusion, meat was meat. If you cooked it long enough, it couldn’t kill you. Probably.

With that decided, he drew his sword, the blade gleaming cold in the firelight.

In a few efficient strokes, he carved the boar into rough chunks, not bothering with finesse.

One by one, he skewered the pieces along the flat of his sword, then rested the weapon across the flames.

The fire crackled, fat beginning to drip and hiss.

Fang Yuan sat in silence, eyes fixed on the makeshift spit as the fire worked its way through the meat. Fat popped and hissed, smoke curling upward with the faint aroma of charred flesh.

When the surface browned to his liking, he leaned forward and, on a whim, sent a thread of divine sense coursing through the sizzling meat.

He had no idea what exactly he was checking for, but the gesture made him appeared like a professional and he liked it.

Satisfied, he plucked a piece from the skewer, blew lightly on it, and sank his teeth in.

His brows lifted. A spark of surprise lit his face.

"Oh, damn," he muttered under his breath. "This isn’t bad at all."

It was only then that he noticed them, the Saberfangs.

Four pairs of predatory eyes locked on the sword, jaws parted, thick strings of drool dripping onto the dirt.

Yet not one of them dared to move closer.

They only sat there, muscles taut, as if the meat was the most tempting thing in the world but far more terrifying was the man who held it.

Fang Yuan’s gaze shifted, meeting the beasts’ hungry eyes one by one. His hand moved with deliberate ease as he tore off two sizzling piece of meat from the skewer.

"Here," he said flatly, flicking it toward the two wounded Saberfangs. The morsels landed before them, and the beasts pounced, snapping it up with grateful, almost pitiful eagerness.

Another piece was stripped away and tossed to the one who had dragged the boar back in the first place. "For your trouble."

At last, his eyes settled on the largest of them all, the peak-stage Saberfang.

The firelight glinted off its fangs, its body coiled in restrained tension.

Fang Yuan pointed his sword, still heavy with the weight of meat, as though delivering judgment.

"You," he said, voice steady, carrying the weight of command. "Go out there. Bring back food for your family."

He flung another strip of meat its way, then, without sparing a glance at its reaction, lifted the rest of the boar and laid the whole carcass atop the fire.

The flames leapt higher, crackling, smoke billowing into the night.

Fang Yuan sat there, calm and unhurried, as though feeding Saberfangs and commanding them was no stranger than tending to his clan.

Surprisingly, the Saberfang seemed to understand. It devoured the meat in a single gulp, then turned and padded off into the shadows without resistance.

Fang Yuan’s eyes lingered on its retreating form. A quiet thought stirred at the back of his mind, slipping out in a low murmur.

"I think... I’m starting to understand how Lin Zhaoyue managed to tame them."

Meanwhile, back at the Fang Family estate—

The protective barrier still shuddered beneath the relentless assault of rogue cultivators.

What made it unsettling was not the attack itself, but the unnatural order in their movements.

Rogue cultivators were never supposed to be this unified.

And yet, here they were, coming together and striking as one.

From within the barrier, Fang Lian stood rigid, her gaze fixed on the attackers above.

At her side, Lin Zhaoyue slipped an arm over her shoulder, voice low and edged with mischief.

"My dear," she whispered, "Do you want to see how many of them you can bring down before they finally manage to overwhelm you? I’ll swoop in to rescue so you can go all out, you know."

Fang Jingyi, standing protectively at Fang Lian’s side, reacted the instant she heard Lin Zhaoyue’s words. She slapped Zhaoyue’s hand away and pulled Lian into a tight embrace.

"Ow," Lin Zhaoyue drawled, arching a brow as if in pain. "And what exactly was that for?"

Silence pressed down for a breath before Jingyi managed to stammer out, her voice trembling,

"Wh–what do you think you’re trying to do? She’s a child, she’s Fang Yuan’s disciple."

Lin Zhaoyue only smiled, her tone smooth and unbothered.

"I’m trying to train her, of course. She’s my husband’s disciple and whatever belongs to him belongs to me. So, legally on that topic, that makes her my disciple as well."

With a flicker of qi, Zhaoyue tugged Fang Lian forward. Neither Jingyi’s grasp nor Lian’s own resistance could stop it.

In the next heartbeat, the girl stumbled forward, collapsing face-first against Zhaoyue’s chest.

Lin Zhaoyue glanced at Jingyi and said evenly, "I want to see her capabilities before I begin training her."

Inwardly, she added to herself, And let her vent some of that bottled-up stress while she’s at it.