The cultivators, seeing themselves surrounded by the Bureau of Jianghu Affairs and soldiers, were terrified.
They were in a small mountain hollow, a very secluded spot on this island, and couldn't fathom how these people had found them.
Not just the cultivators, but even Lu Shengming, the people from the Bureau of Jianghu Affairs with him, and the soldiers were utterly shocked.
Entering this dense forest, they discovered it was surrounded by mountains, small in area, with damp ground. Even in broad daylight, it was dark, and it was difficult for ordinary people to venture here.
Yet, Cheng Xiaofan had discovered these cultivators moving the bodies of the gene-modified humans to this place from over ten miles away.
Even Sun Wukong's Fiery Golden Eyes might not possess such an ability!
"You people have quite the nerve, daring to bring the bodies of gene-modified humans here!"
At this moment, Cheng Xiaofan, hands behind his back, approached the group of cultivators. His expression turned cold, and he loudly berated them, "Speak, did you intend to make char siu bao from the bodies of gene-modified humans?"
Cheng Xiaofan's voice was immense; each word boomed like thunder, making everyone's ears ring.
"Reporting to Master Cheng, it was all his idea!"
One of the cultivators, seeing that even soldiers had arrived and one person had already been shot dead, knew this matter was no trivial affair. He pointed at the burly cultivator and said, "He said that this mutant was so powerful, it must have eaten a lot of dragon bones on the island."
"He instructed us to sneak the mutant's body here, roast it, and eat it. He believed we would surely gain dragon power from it and achieve a powerful breakthrough in our cultivation realms!"
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan nodded.
He walked up to the burly man, patted his face, and sneered, "Before I left, I explicitly told you not to touch the bodies of the mutants. I mentioned that the Bureau of Jianghu Affairs would be coming soon, but you wouldn't listen."
"Tell me, what do you take me for?"
"..." Under Cheng Xiaofan's gaze, the burly man shivered uncontrollably, too frightened to utter a word.
Cheng Xiaofan angrily demanded, "Are your ears deaf? Why aren't you answering my questions?"
*Thump!*
The burly man's knees buckled under Cheng Xiaofan's roar, and he directly knelt before him, saying, "I... I will speak. It was my fault. I shouldn't have disregarded your words!"
Cheng Xiaofan asked, "Since you admit you were wrong, should you not be punished?"
The burly man nodded repeatedly, "Punishment, I should be punished!"
Cheng Xiaofan laughed heartily and patted his shoulder a few times, "That's more like it. How about this? I can sense your qi, and you are the wealthiest among these cultivators. I fine you ten billion!"
"I trust you still remember my bank account number, right?"
"Hurry and transfer the money. Be quick about it. Don't say anything that displeases me, or I'll cripple you completely!"
"One, two..."
"I'll transfer it, I'll transfer it!" The burly man was so terrified he peed himself.
He truly feared Cheng Xiaofan counting to "three" and directly crippling him.
Back at South Lake, the burly man had personally witnessed how ruthless Cheng Xiaofan could be when dealing with others. If angered, what couldn't he do?
The title "Ruthless Cheng Xiaofan," known in the jianghu, was well-deserved!
Immediately, the burly man, with remarkable speed, transferred ten billion to Cheng Xiaofan.
This also accounted for all the funds in his family.
After receiving the money, Cheng Xiaofan turned to the other cultivators and said, "You good-for-nothings, you didn't listen to me and instead listened to that scoundrel. Clearly, you don't take me seriously."
"Tell me, do you prefer a beating or a fine?"
Although Cheng Xiaofan hadn't explicitly threatened to cripple them, those cultivators understood very well that this guy's ultimate goal was money.
Without paying, they would surely receive a thorough beating!
There was no other option. They couldn't defeat him, so they had to accept the fine.
"We'd rather accept the fine!"
As soon as the words left their mouths, they all knelt down with a clatter, their faces contorted in misery, saying, "But even if you broke our bones and took our wives and children, we couldn't possibly come up with ten billion!"
Cheng Xiaofan retorted, "Did I say I was fining you ten billion? Look at how pathetic you all are. How can you lot, such weaklings, be considered ancient martial cultivators?"
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to mess with you. Transfer two million to me each. And by the way, don't say anything that displeases me!"
Generally, ancient martial cultivators were wealthy, so two million didn't pose a problem for them. They all took out their phones and transferred the money to Cheng Xiaofan.
Lu Shengming and the others were dumbfounded by Cheng Xiaofan's maneuver.
Turns out, this guy truly had a way to make money.
He could even pull off something like this?
After collecting the money, Cheng Xiaofan walked up to Lu Shengming with a smile, "Old Lu, for the sake of my disciple Li Mingxi, I'll waive your fine!"
"I... what reason would I have to be fined?" Lu Shengming asked inexplicably.
"Are you pretending to be ignorant when you know the truth?"
Cheng Xiaofan glared at him fiercely, "Do you know that disturbing someone's beautiful dream is an unforgivable sin!"
"..." Lu Shengming was rendered speechless by his words.
He truly couldn't understand what beautiful dream of Cheng Xiaofan's he had disturbed, why Cheng Xiaofan seemed to hold a grudge against him.
"I'll leave the rest to you to handle. I'm off!"
With that, Cheng Xiaofan leaped up and vanished like a shooting star.
Lu Shengming withdrew his gaze from the direction Cheng Xiaofan had disappeared and turned to Li Mingxi, asking, "Mingxi, what beautiful dream do you think Cheng Xiaofan was having?"
"How would I know!" Li Mingxi shook her head.
However, in her heart, she thought it must have been about a member of the opposite sex.
Recently, she too had been having similar dreams, and the scenes in them were indeed beautiful.
And the male protagonist in her dreams was precisely Cheng Xiaofan!
...
When Cheng Xiaofan returned to the cave, the sun was already high in the sky.
The autumn sunlight cast upon the undulating mountain ranges of the island, with layers of white mist floating between the peaks like silk.
From afar, it looked as beautiful as a fairyland.
"Jee!"
"Woof woof!"
Potianying and Taoqibao, who were resting in the cave, spotted their master's return and greeted him, as if to say, "Master, we're back. We've collected a lot of dragon bones."
Cheng Xiaofan's gaze immediately fell upon a large bag on the ground.
When he opened the bag, he found it indeed contained more than half a bag of dragon bones.
The snow-white dragon bones seemed to possess the consciousness of the dragons they once were. Upon seeing Cheng Xiaofan, they began to squirm, attempting to climb out of the bag and merge into his body.
"What beautiful dragon bones!" Cheng Xiaofan picked up a piece of dragon bone and held it up to the sunlight. He noticed that the flowing, watery patterns were truly moving on its surface.