Dashing Young Master!

Yan Xiangma's expression was one of astonishment. He stood there dumbfounded, as ten thousand grass-mud horses galloped through his heart.

The script was wrong. The story should not have developed this way. As the wealthy young master of a prestigious family, after making his intentions clear and displaying both kindness and authority, shouldn't this dark-skinned little fellow have apologized obsequiously and agreed never to have any contact with a woman from the Cui family again? He would then have benevolently patted the boy on the shoulder in consolation, preserving the grand bearing of a young master from an eminent clan. From then on, they would have no further dealings, and this person's appearance and name would never again appear in his life—

What did he mean by snapping the stone apart with his fingers?

Was he refusing to yield? Was he striking back at his show of defiance?

"I'm not some ordinary person who can be kneaded and pinched at will. If anyone wants to force me to do something I don't like, then they'll inevitably have to pay the price for their actions."

Yan Xiangma naturally filled in this line of dialogue for Li Mu Yang in his heart.

Yan Xiangma lightly tapped the stone with the ribs of his fan, testing the table's hardness. Looking at the large corner he had gouged from the Lapis Lazuli tabletop, he said, "I thought I'd already had people investigate you thoroughly. It seems we still don't understand you well enough."

"You already understand me very clearly," Li Mu Yang said. "It's just that we change every day. Right?"

"How did you do it?" Yan Xiangma asked as he looked at Li Mu Yang.

"I wanted to do it, so I did."

"That answer doesn't convince me."

Li Mu Yang narrowed his eyes and smiled. "I never intended to convince you. I'm merely stating a fact. To be honest, I haven't figured out the answer myself."

With a snap, Yan Xiangma opened his folding fan. "This fan of mine is called Dragon Spine Fan. It was forged from a piece of divine iron from beyond the heavens by Mo Lang, the weapons grandmaster of Mogan Mountain. I began practicing martial arts when I was young and studied under a renowned master. I've already entered the High Mountain Mid-grade Realm—which is why I can easily slice through this Lapis Lazuli tabletop with Dragon Spine Fan. But you? You're merely a sickly student without the strength to truss a chicken. How did you do it?"

"What meaning is there in pursuing how I did it? The fact that I could accomplish something like this is what you should be concerned about, isn't it?"

Yan Xiangma stared at Li Mu Yang for a long while before asking, "Is there any watermelon left?"

"Yes." Li Mu Yang nodded.

"Bring me two more pieces," Yan Xiangma said. "It's too hot, and I'm thirsty again."

"Sure." Li Mu Yang smiled.

After finishing two more pieces of iced watermelon, Yan Xiangma rose in satisfaction. Looking at Li Mu Yang, he said, "I sincerely advise you to give my advice sincere consideration as well. Don't do anything foolish, all right?"

"Thank you for your sincerity, Cousin," Li Mu Yang said with a smile, "but I've already made up my mind."

Yan Xiangma shook his head and sighed. "Don't think that knowing a little superficial kung fu means you can protect yourself. There are some people you can't afford to provoke."

"I never thought of provoking anyone." Li Mu Yang smiled bashfully. "I only pray that no one provokes me."

"Ungrateful wretch." Yan Xiangma shook his head and strode outside, waving his folding fan. "I'm telling you, as the most notorious dandy in Jiangnan City, there's nothing I can't bring myself to do."

Li Mu Yang saw him out, then returned to the courtyard and stared blankly at the shattered Lapis Lazuli stone table.

He picked up a section of tabletop cut off by Yan Xiangma with Dragon Spine Fan and gently rubbed it with his fingers for a while.

Then he picked up the piece of stone he had snapped apart with his own strength and lightly stroked it with his fingers—

"Ow—" Li Mu Yang cried out softly. A cut appeared on his finger, and a thread of blood seeped from the wound. But just as a red bead had begun to emerge, the wound had already healed.

"The fan cut it much more neatly." Li Mu Yang said this with immense envy.

Yan Xiangma sat in the rear courtyard of the garden. An octagonal pavilion there also held a Lapis Lazuli stone table.

Yan Xiangma set Dragon Spine Fan aside, then reached out and gripped a corner of the tabletop.

"Mm—" Yan Xiangma grunted. He suddenly exerted his strength, but the Lapis Lazuli was incomparably hard, and nothing unusual happened at all.

Yan Xiangma sank his energy into his Dantian, and a majestic force surged through his entire body.

The hand gripping the stone table flickered with red light, like a mass of flames blazing fiercely.

Blazing Fist!

It was the Cui family's ancestral secret art, as well as the lifeline that had enabled the Cui family to stand firm in the Xifeng Empire for centuries without falling.

Yan Xiangma's shoulder trembled lightly, and then he tore away more than half of the Lapis Lazuli tabletop.

The Lapis Lazuli stones were ignited by the fire of his fist, as though even stone could burn.

The blue stone, patterned with dark golden veins, rapidly changed. The piece closest to his palm was burned to ash. A gust of wind came, scattering and carrying it away.

Crack—

The remaining half of the stone tabletop fell onto the floor and shattered into countless pieces.

"Xiangma's progress is astonishing. Your Blazing Fist has already entered the High Mountain Realm Mid-grade. With another six months, you'll probably be able to enter the upper grade, right? By then, you'll be the number one martial artist among Jiangnan City's younger generation." A man in a green robe stood at the garden entrance, looking at Yan Xiangma with a smile.

"Master Ning." Yan Xiangma respectfully saluted Ning Xin Hai, utterly lacking the arrogance attributed to him as a dandy outside. "Master, didn't you accompany Mother and Cousin Xiao Xin to Yongqing Temple to worship Buddha?"

"Uncle Yan went along with them. What is there to worry about?" Ning Xin Hai said with a smile, showing immense respect toward the Uncle Yan he mentioned. "Miss Xiao Xin felt I'd worked hard protecting her for so many days, so she let me rest at home today."

"That's true." Yan Xiangma smiled. "Because of the crow's attack, Master Ning has indeed been exhausted these past few days. You've guarded Cousin Xiao Xin's side every moment without daring to slack off in the slightest. Cousin is considerate enough to remember to let you rest for a day."

"Miss Xiao Xin is intelligent and kind, with a delicate mind. For those of us who follow her side, that is a blessing." Ning Xin Hai looked at the stone burned black on the ground and asked, "Why did you come to the rear courtyard and start snapping stones for no reason?"

"Because he did it." Yan Xiangma's expression turned solemn.

"What? Who did what?"

"Li Mu Yang. That good-for-nothing you all talk about—" Yan Xiangma looked at Ning Xin Hai. "Master, you've interacted with him several times. You should know what kind of person he is, right?"

"I can't see through him." Ning Xin Hai shook his head. "During the last ambush by the Crow, I was on the outskirts of the Beast-Faced Pavilion and couldn't reach her in time. That ordinary-looking Li Mu Yang was the one who threw himself forward and blocked the Crow with his own flesh and blood."

"But he's still alive." Yan Xiangma's eyes flickered as he spoke thoughtfully. "The Crow is one of the top twenty experts on the Empire's assassin rankings. He blocked the Crow with his flesh and blood—and yet he's still alive. Master, don't you find that strange?"

"I find it strange as well." Ning Xin Hai looked pensive. "The situation was critical beyond measure. He blocked the Crow's attacks again and again. I heard Miss Xiao Xin mention that he used his palms to block the Crow's blade twice. Every time the Crow tried to stab Miss Xiao Xin, the blade ended up piercing the center of his palm instead."

"The Crow treated killing as an art. For close-range attacks, his favorite killing move was Cherry Blossom Fall. Master, I have a question. If it were you, could you block the Crow's Cherry Blossom Fall?"

Ning Xin Hai thought for a moment. "I could block it. But I can't be certain I could block it every time. Cherry blossoms falling like rain, a swift blade cleaving wind and snow. It was called Cherry Blossom Fall because that strike was dazzlingly beautiful, as fast as lightning, and ever-changing. Even I couldn't predict every one of his changes."

"But he blocked it." Yan Xiangma's voice turned cold. He pointed at the Lapis Lazuli tabletop on the ground. "Just as he could snap this stone apart with a single palm."

"Can't Xiangma do the same?"

"That's different." Yan Xiangma shook his head. "I used the Cui family's ancestral Blazing Fist technique, 'Blazing Fire Scorching the Plains.' I used energy—but he didn't. He simply sat there, then gently snapped it—and I was sitting right across from him. The expression on his face barely changed, yet he broke the Lapis Lazuli tabletop. Master, don't you find that terrifying?"

"It is terrifying." Ning Xin Hai frowned. "It seems Li Mu Yang is more complicated than we imagined. I already warned Miss Xiao Xin before, telling her that this classmate was dangerous. But you know her temperament. Once she sets her mind on something, no one can force her otherwise. Besides, I secretly tested him as well, and I couldn't sense the slightest movement of energy from Li Mu Yang. He doesn't look like a cultivator."

"Exactly. We originally thought he was merely an ordinary person with delusions of a toad lusting after a swan's flesh, so we didn't pay much attention to him. We had even planned to resolve this matter in a relatively gentle way. But now it seems things have already exceeded our understanding. If we let someone who is deliberately concealing his strength and harboring ulterior motives cling to Xiao Xin's side like a fly, it will be a tremendous challenge for us. Xiao Xin will return to Tiandu in two months. The situation in the imperial capital is complicated right now. If something happens to her at this time, the imperial capital will probably fall into another round of conflict and collision—"

"What does Xiangma mean?" Ning Xin Hai looked deeply at the handsome young man before him and asked.

"I warned him that, as the most notorious dandy in Jiangnan City, there was nothing I couldn't bring myself to do." Yan Xiangma smiled. "Do you think he understood?"