Seeing that all of Liu An's lacklings had been knocked down while the man himself still wore a confident expression, Chen Qingshan felt a hint of surprise.
It seemed this fellow was extremely confident in his own strength.
What a coincidence—Chen Qingshan was quite confident as well.
Chen Qingshan reached out, beckoning to Liu An with an expression of utter disdain.
Furious, Liu An lashed out with a fierce kick aimed straight at Chen Qingshan's shoulder.
Chen Qingshan hastily raised his arm to parry, successfully blocking Liu An's ferocious strike.
Liu An stared at Chen Qingshan in shock.
He truly had not expected a newly arrived servant disciple to block his attack.
He himself was already very close to reaching the Fifth Layer of Body Tempering; an average practitioner at the Fourth Layer could not possibly have withstood that strike of his.
Yet the kid in front of him had blocked it with apparent ease, leaving Liu An immensely astonished.
Chen Qingshan was likewise somewhat surprised.
Ye Qingxuan had told him that his Innately Divine Strength was comparable to the Fifth Layer of Body Tempering, but it was only now that Chen Qingshan truly understood.
What Ye Qingxuan had been referring to was purely raw physical strength.
The Fifth Layer of Body Tempering encompassed not only strength, but speed as well.
Had he been a fraction slower, Chen Qingshan might not have been able to react to Liu An's previous strike in time.
If a real fight were to break out, Chen Qingshan figured he was probably still no match for Liu An.
He truly lived up to someone on the verge of becoming an official disciple of the Xuanyang Sect—he was extraordinary indeed.
Even with the talent that had allowed him to sweep through hordes of bandits, he still couldn't even cross the threshold of immortal cultivation.
This only made Chen Qingshan look forward to immortal cultivation all the more.
Although Liu An was somewhat surprised that his initial attack had failed, he had now gauged Chen Qingshan's strength and regained his composure.
"Kid, if that's the extent of your skills, then you might as well stay down!"
Crying out, Liu An pressed the attack and charged at Chen Qingshan once again.
So fast!
Chen Qingshan's heart sank; he was struggling to keep up with Liu An's speed.
Although Chen Qingshan possessed greater strength than Liu An, under the latter's relentless barrage, he could do little more than parry, with zero room to counterattack.
Chen Qingshan knew this could not go on; if the fight continued, he would undoubtedly be the one to fall.
"Wang Dahai!"
Chen Qingshan suddenly let out a furious roar, giving Liu An a start.
Then, Liu An couldn't help but laugh.
Wang Dahai had already tucked tail and run away just moments ago; what good would shouting like that do now?
However, the laughter had barely left Liu An's lips when he heard a rush of wind from behind.
Liu An hastily spun around to see that Wang Dahai had somehow snuck up behind him, brandishing a wooden club in his hand.
At that very moment, the club was smashing fiercely toward the back of Liu An's head.
Fast as Liu An was, it was already too late to dodge; he had no choice but to take Wang Dahai's strike head-on.
True to his reputation as an expert at the Fifth Layer of Body Tempering, even after taking a heavy blow to the head that shattered the club into pieces, Liu An's skull still seemed completely unharmed.
Of course, it wasn't truly unharmed.
At the very least, Liu An felt his head spinning heavily.
Chen Qingshan did not let the opportunity slip by. Lunging forward, he drove a vicious punch straight into Liu An's back.
Liu An instantly felt the wind knocked out of him, completely draining him of his fighting capacity.
In no time at all, Liu An was beaten to the ground by Chen Qingshan, utterly stripped of any ability to resist.
Chen Qingshan glanced at Wang Dahai and said with a smile, "Dahai, nicely done!"
Wang Dahai chuckled, looking rather pleased with himself as he replied, "These guys really thought I was scared of them!"
Looking down at Liu An sprawled on the ground, Chen Qingshan smiled faintly and stepped closer.
"Brother Liu, was it? Look, we've only just arrived here as servant disciples, and each of us is supposed to get a Blood Qi Pill. As a senior brother, shouldn't you cough up a little something for us?"
Liu An had just managed to catch his breath when hearing Chen Qingshan's words knocked the wind right out of him again, nearly making him faint.
They had come here intending to shake down Chen Qingshan.
Now the tables had turned, and Chen Qingshan was shaking them down instead.
"Hand them over, Brother Liu. I even called you brother, so you wouldn't want to make things difficult for me, right?" Chen Qingshan said with a smile.
Lying on the ground, Liu An glared viciously and snapped, "Kid, you've just arrived at the Servant Quarters, and making an enemy of me will do you no good! Now, let us leave, and I'll pretend today's business never happened!"
Chen Qingshan replied dismissively, "You might be able to pretend it never happened, but I can't. I've only got one Blood Qi Pill right now—it's way too few!"
"How about this: you give me ten Blood Qi Pills, and I'll pretend today's business never happened!"
Hearing the demand for ten Blood Qi Pills, Liu An snapped angrily, "I don't have any!"
He genuinely didn't have that many.
Blood Qi Pills were precious treasures, especially in the Servant Quarters where they were in short supply.
The moment most people got their hands on one, they used it immediately.
Many people didn't even have a single pill on them, let alone ten.
Seeing Liu An refuse so flatly, Chen Qingshan didn't hesitate for a second. He stepped right up and planted his foot squarely on Liu An's shoulder.
Liu An let out a muffled groan as he felt his shoulder fracture.
"Do you have them now?" Chen Qingshan asked calmly.
"No!" Liu An gritted his teeth and replied.
Bypassing any further nonsense with him, Chen Qingshan called out, "Wang Dahai, do it!"
Wang Dahai immediately broke into a grin and said, "You got it!"
Liu An had assumed Wang Dahai was simply going to search their bodies, but he never dreamed that Wang Dahai would march right over and start stripping off their clothes.
Liu An and the lacklings lying on the ground were all utterly horrified.
"What are you doing?!" Liu An shouted anxiously.
Working as he spoke, Wang Dahai chuckled, "I'm just worried you're hiding them and won't cough them up voluntarily. We can only feel at ease once you're stripped down to nothing!"
Liu An was dumbfounded.
He had run rampant in the Servant Quarters for several years, always thinking his own methods were ruthless enough, but he never expected these two newcomers to be even more ruthless than he was.
"Stop right there! This is banditry! We are disciples of the Xuanyang Sect—aren't you afraid the sect will punish you for this?"
"Heh, didn't you just say it yourself? We aren't official disciples of the Xuanyang Sect yet, so they won't care about us!"
Liu An wanted nothing more than to slap himself across the face. He had only himself to blame for being so arrogant and shooting his mouth off earlier; he never expected his own words to be thrown right back in his face so soon.
His outer robe had already been stripped off by Wang Dahai, and now his trousers were next.
Panicking, Liu An hurriedly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Ten Blood Qi Pills! I'll give them to you!"
Hearing this, Wang Dahai finally halted his actions and looked over at Chen Qingshan.
Chen Qingshan gave a light chuckle. "Come on then, ten Blood Qi Pills. Not a single one less!"
Liu An scrambled up from the ground and kicked his lacklings awake one by one.
"All of you, hand over your Blood Qi Pills!"
Including Liu An, there were five of them in total, but even after pooling their resources, they still couldn't scrape together ten Blood Qi Pills.
"Chen Qingshan, look, we really only have eight Blood Qi Pills!"
Chen Qingshan could see they were telling the truth; even if he stripped them completely bare, they wouldn't be able to produce any more.
Collecting the eight Blood Qi Pills, Chen Qingshan let out a sigh. "Eight will have to do, then. Remember, you still owe me two!"
Only then did Chen Qingshan lead Wang Dahai away to find their dormitory!