These Are My Rules

Early the next morning.

In the main courtyard of Wanbao Merchant House, more than a dozen escort wagons drawn by heavily armored draft horses returned from outside.

Over thirty fully armed guards were moving supplies. The clatter of blades and the snorting of horses intertwined, lending the atmosphere a grim chill.

Sun Yu strode into the courtyard with the shoddy wooden bow on his back and the newly sharpened Refined Iron Hunting Knife at his waist.

"Well, well, look who's here. Our merchant house's newly promoted esteemed retainer!"

An exceedingly grating voice rang out mockingly from the center of the courtyard.

A burly man with a face full of flesh and a long scar across his right cheek sat astride a wooden crate filled with goods.

He wore soft armor tanned from tiger hide and carried an immensely heavy Nine-Ring Broadsword at his waist.

This man was Zhao Xiong, the merchant house's chief Guard Captain.

A ruthless figure who had been stalled at the early Skin Tempering Realm for many years, and was even rumored to have a chance of breaking through to the middle Skin Tempering Realm before long.

When the surrounding guards and several hired retainers saw Zhao Xiong speak, they all stopped working, a trace of amusement flickering in their eyes.

They all knew that Zhao Xiong had coveted the single courtyard with heated floors in the rear compound for a long time. The Head Shopkeeper had originally promised to reward it to him after this escort run, but Sun Yu had appeared out of nowhere and taken the courtyard outright.

Zhao Xiong was seething with pent-up anger.

As though he had not heard him, Sun Yu walked straight to the carriage belonging to the retainers, ready to place his luggage aboard.

Bang!

Zhao Xiong suddenly kicked over a brazier at his feet.

The brazier traced an arc through the air, its scorching Silver Silk Charcoal flying with it as it hurtled precisely at Sun Yu's face.

Sun Yu's gaze sharpened.

He did not even draw his blade.

His left hand merely shot out like an iron vise, forcibly catching the blazing-hot iron brazier in midair!

As his skin membrane came into contact with the red-hot iron, an extremely faint sizzle sounded.

Yet Sun Yu's expression did not change in the slightest.

His deep eyes pierced through the smoke of the coals and fixed coldly on Zhao Xiong.

"You've got some skill. No wonder you dared to take my courtyard."

Zhao Xiong rose to his feet, dusted off his Tiger Skin Leather Armor, and strode up to Sun Yu.

He stood a full head taller than Sun Yu, looking down at the youth with overwhelming pressure.

"I heard you asked for a copy of the Iron Skin Bear King Skill a few days ago? You're fit to cultivate that kind of trashy poison technique? Hand over the cultivation chant you copied so the brothers can use it as ass-wiping paper, then go serve as a pathfinding vanguard for the foremost wagon."

Zhao Xiong extended a thick finger and jabbed it rudely at Sun Yu's chest. "A bastard born of a household slave thinks he deserves to stand on equal footing with me? Going ahead to scout the path is the rule I've set for you!"

A pathfinding vanguard.

To put it bluntly, once they entered Black Wind Pass, he would be cannon fodder meant to draw the fire of demonic beasts and bandits!

The entire courtyard fell deathly silent.

Everyone watched for Sun Yu's reaction.

By the second-floor railing.

The Head Shopkeeper held a purple clay teapot as he looked down at the scene, showing no intention whatsoever of stepping in.

He, too, wanted to see whether this youth who had killed a Red Scale Wild Boar was truly a dragon or merely a worm when faced with one of the merchant house's genuine veteran experts.

If Sun Yu could not even get past Zhao Xiong, then he was unqualified to enjoy the merchant house's resources. If he died, then so be it.

"You want me to scout the path?"

Sun Yu casually tossed the scorching brazier into the snow.

Not only did he not retreat, he instead pressed forward a step.

The two stood close enough to touch.

"What? You fucking got a problem with that?!" Zhao Xiong's eyes turned icy as his right hand instantly gripped the Nine-Ring Broadsword at his waist.

A wave of Sha Qi tinged with the stench of blood erupted from him.

"No problem."

Sun Yu suddenly smiled.

He brushed the ashes that had landed on his sleeve when he caught the brazier, then raised his head. There was not the slightest fear in his eyes—only a calm so profound it made one's scalp crawl.

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It was the gaze one cast upon the dead.

"Since we've entered the Great Wilderness, naturally we must abide by the rules of the wilds."

Sun Yu's voice was not loud, yet it rang clearly in the ears of everyone in the courtyard.

"Rules are... whoever survives gets the final say."

"Clang!"

The instant the words left his mouth.

Sun Yu had already drawn the woodcutter's knife from his waist.

There was no pointless chatter, much less any so-called etiquette between martial arts experts.

Perfection Realm Pigua Saber Technique—Mountain Splitting!

The blade flashed like a bolt of icy lightning, carrying the terrifying brute force Sun Yu had forged through both the Vajra Skill and the Bear King Skill, as it savagely cleaved straight down at Zhao Xiong's face!

Too fast!

So fast that no one had time to react.

Zhao Xiong's pupils shrank sharply.

He had never imagined that this seemingly slight youth would dare draw his blade against him—the chief Guard Captain—in front of so many people!

And the force behind that strike actually made even him sense a trace of mortal danger!

"You're courting death!"

Zhao Xiong was indeed a veteran martial artist who had spent years licking blood off his blade.

In that flash of lightning.

He roared. Without even time to fully draw his Nine-Ring Broadsword, he could only grip the sheathed blade tightly in both hands and raise it above his Top of Head, attempting to take the blow head-on.

"Clang!!!"

An ear-piercing metallic explosion burst through the courtyard.

The enormous recoil sent a visible ring of white air sweeping outward, instantly scattering the snow on the ground.

"Kacha!"

The exceptionally sturdy cowhide scabbard in Zhao Xiong's hands was split apart by Sun Yu's overwhelmingly savage strike!

The heavy woodcutter's knife came down without obstruction, pressing against the back of the Nine-Ring Broadsword.

"Boom!"

Zhao Xiong felt as though a rampaging Demon Bear had slammed into both his arms head-on. An unstoppable torrent of immense force surged wildly down through the blade.

The Green Stone slabs beneath his feet cracked under the unbearable strain. His legs buckled sharply, and he was forced by that single blow to drop to one knee!

On the second floor, the Head Shopkeeper's hand trembled, and the Purple Clay Teapot nearly slipped to the floor.

That was Zhao Xiong! The trading house's fiercest man!

And yet this teenage boy had forced him to his knees with a single slash?!

"You..." Zhao Xiong's face flushed crimson, veins bulging across his forehead as he desperately tried to stir the faint thread of inner qi within him to resist.

But Sun Yu gave him no chance.

"You've finished explaining your rules. Now, these are mine."

Looking down at the kneeling Zhao Xiong, Sun Yu suddenly drove his right knee up like a battering ram, smashing it brutally into Zhao Xiong's chest!

"Bang!"

The sound of bones cracking was crystal clear.

Zhao Xiong's massive body flew backward like a rag doll for more than ten meters before crashing heavily into an escort carriage, smashing its thick wooden planks to pieces.

He spat out a mouthful of blood and passed out on the spot.

One move.

Instant kill.

Expressionless, Sun Yu sheathed his knife.

He turned and swept his gaze across the dumbfounded guards and retainers in the courtyard before finally looking up at the Head Shopkeeper on the second floor.

"Head Shopkeeper." Sun Yu's voice remained calm, without the slightest ripple.

"Do I still need to scout the way from the foremost carriage now?"