After passing through the cannon fodder in the book, my brother turned out to be the male protagonis

"Do you think you can protect her by ganging up on her?" The Nascent Soul cultivator scoffed at their actions, raising his hand to gather spiritual energy to strike them. Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through, knocking the cultivator off his feet.

He scrambled to his feet in the strong wind, yelling, "Who is it! What makes you think you're hiding in the shadows! If you've got the guts, come out and fight me one-on-one!"

The gale stopped instantly, and he saw two figures gradually emerge from the swirling sand. The one in front was a cultivator in a white and gold robe, clearly an inner disciple of the Tianyun Sect, someone he couldn't afford to offend. On the other hand, the man behind him, who wasn't wearing any sect attire, looked like someone easy to bully.

"You little brat, you actually dared to hit your grandfather! Don't you know who I am?" The Nascent Soul cultivator pointed at Fang Yiqin and cursed.

It took Fang Yiqin a moment to realize that the man was talking about him. He couldn't help but curse the cultivator in his heart, and frowned as he said, "Are you blind?"

Baili Chunqiu glanced sideways, surprised that his junior brother Fang was like this, so different from what he remembered. He said, "I was the one who hit you."

The Nascent Soul cultivator was speechless at the two of them. Not wanting to cause trouble with the disciples of a major sect, he forced a smile and tried to comfort Baili Chunqiu, saying, "I have no grudge against you, fellow Daoist. I think what just happened was not intentional. In that case, please move aside a bit and don't block me from doing my business."

"It was intentional."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a strong gust of wind swept in again, which completely enraged the cultivator. He slammed his fist into the solid ground beneath him, and spikes began to emerge in concentric circles around him. Upon seeing this, Fang Yiqin drew his sword and slashed at the cultivator at the center of the spikes. The powerful sword energy broke through the spell and injured the cultivator.

Wu Fan slowly opened his eyes and saw that the spikes had stopped a foot away from them. He couldn't help but let out a long breath. He turned around to comfort the girl they were protecting, but saw that she was absent-minded and seemed to want to leave this place immediately.

Seeing that Fang Yiqin had stopped the spell, Baili Chunqiu turned to look in the direction of the girl and approached her.

Zuo Guang noticed that the girl became increasingly uneasy and wanted to leave as Baili Chunqiu approached. He asked, "Don't you want to see that Tianyun Sect disciple?"

Upon hearing this, the girl looked up at him with a hint of surprise in her eyes, her voice revealing no intention of lowering her voice: "I have a grudge against him, please let me leave, fellow Daoist."

Zuo Guang slightly stepped aside to make way for her, his eyes fixed on Baili Chunqiu as he approached.

“This place is dangerous. Where are you going? Let me accompany you,” Baili Chunqiu asked.

She was quite certain that Baili Chunqiu had heard what she had just said. Although she didn't know why Baili Chunqiu had been so insistent on being with her in recent years, she couldn't stand calmly with him when she thought about what they had gone through in the past.

"Xia Zhi!" Baili Chunqiu called out as he saw her leave, but a young man blocked his way as he tried to continue walking.

"Can't you tell she doesn't want to see you?"

Baili Chunqiu frowned slightly, wanting to bypass Zuo Guang and chase after Baili Xiazhi directly, but he saw that the boy in front of him had not retreated a step, and the man beside him was pulling Zuo Guang's shoulder, trying to pull him away, but he couldn't budge him at all.

Fang Yiqin bound and dragged the Nascent Soul cultivator over, and upon seeing this situation, he couldn't help but ask, "What's going on here, everyone?"

"He stopped me from looking for Xia Zhi."

For some reason, Fang Yiqin sensed a hint of grievance in her expression and explained to the others, "Fellow Daoists, perhaps you have misunderstood. That female cultivator was my senior brother's younger sister. Would you mind making way for her?"

Wu Fan said to Situ Zhao, who was pulling the other man, "Fourth brother, pull the fifth brother aside and make way for the two fellow Daoists."

Situ Zhao tried for a while, but couldn't move Zuo Guang an inch. The tall man standing to the side with his arms crossed couldn't stand it anymore, so he walked over and lifted Zuo Guang up, gesturing for them to come in.

Zuo Guang struggled in mid-air and said, "Third Brother, put me down. Didn't you hear that girl say that the two of them have a grudge?"

Fang Yiqin looked at Baili Chunqiu and saw the melancholy on his face. He asked, "Senior Brother Baili, do you really have a grudge against your sister?"

Baili Chunqiu looked at him and said with absolute certainty, "No."

Just then, Baili Chunqiu's disciple jade token lit up. Fang Yiqin guessed that the sect leader wanted Baili Chunqiu to return to the sect. He thought for a moment and said, "With his current status, Senior Brother Baili should no longer be able to stay outside the sect. Why don't I ask your sister for the reason when I meet her another day?"

Upon hearing this, Baili Chunqiu had no choice but to agree to Fang Yiqin's suggestion and left the place with many backward glances.

"Put this fellow Daoist down. I have a question, and I wonder if you could tell me about it?" Fang Yiqin asked.

Wu Fan stepped forward, and Fang Yiqin recognized him as the second-in-command of the team he had rescued in the secret realm. He said, "Whatever Senior wants to know, this junior will answer without reservation."

Situ Zhao, standing to the side, looked puzzled but remained silent, listening quietly as Fang Yiqin asked, "Why did you all have a conflict with fellow Daoists from the same sect?"

Zuo Guang's expression turned somewhat unpleasant, and he retorted, "Since you know he's from the Tongdao Sect, don't you know what kind of people the Tongdao Sect is?"

Seeing that Fang Yiqin was completely unaware, Wu Fan sighed and explained, "Senior, you come from a major sect, so you should be very clear about the target of the great war a hundred years ago—the Hehuan Sect, right? The actions of this Tongdao Sect are no different from those of the Hehuan Sect. They often prey on lone female cultivators, but mostly on small sects or rogue cultivators. Many female cultivators have already fallen victim to their cruelty. To be honest, a few years ago, the female cultivator in our team was over-extracted by the Tongdao Sect and died tragically in the mountains."

Upon hearing this, Fang Yiqin's face darkened. He kicked the cultivator who was pretending to be unconscious awake and asked, "Are they telling the truth?"

The cultivator stubbornly retorted, "They're slandering us! My sect practices the Great Harmony Technique, which has been passed down since the beginning of time. The female cultivators who died clearly weren't strong enough; they have no one to blame but themselves!"

Before Fang Yiqin could even get angry, the third brother in the team grabbed the cultivator by the collar and punched him in the face, angrily saying, "Since that's how it is, then I'll beat you to death today, and you can't blame me!"

"Fan Qinggang! You mustn't be rude to your seniors!" Wu Fan reprimanded.

Fan Qinggang reluctantly withdrew his hand, suppressing his anger and glaring fiercely at the cultivator.

Fang Yiqin drew his sword and held it to his neck, his tone threatening: "If you continue to spout nonsense, don't blame the sword for being merciless."

Upon seeing Fang Yiqin's sword up close, Wu Fan was amazed by its beauty. After negotiating with Fang Yiqin, he took a deep breath and asked, "I see that the sword techniques you used have the charm of the Azure Frost Sword God. May I ask if I may exchange a few moves with you?"