The Chu Family of Chenyang

The young man hadn't thought much of it. He figured that someone like Chu Yuan, who came from a backwater, couldn't be all that strong, even if he had some talent.

Only a low-ranking Li family scion like Li Hong would bother trying to befriend him...

But after that fleeting glimpse, he knew he'd been utterly wrong!

The amusement and composure on his face vanished, replaced by terror!

His aura surged as he desperately tried to move, hoping to dodge that soul-stealing streak of blue light.

Fortunately, he succeeded—but not entirely...

The blue light grazed past. He felt a chill in his left arm, then could no longer feel it at all!

"Stop..."

The young man had no time to feel relieved. He hurriedly shouted.

At the cost of an arm, he'd realized he had no chance against Chu Yuan!

But before he could finish, he heard what sounded like a gust of wind behind him...

Blue light crisscrossed, darting through his body several times in an instant!

His right arm and both legs fell away at once!

He crashed heavily to the ground...

In that split second, he seemed to understand: he hadn't just been lucky enough to dodge Chu Yuan's attack.

His opponent hadn't intended to kill him with a single strike in the first place...

But why?

Chu Yuan had already thrown his weapon like a hidden projectile. Why had the sword come at him from behind?

Pain surged over him like a tide, and terror and confusion filled his heart...

Chu Yuan had already walked over. Wind Cutter seemed to have a mind of its own, flying back into the scabbard at his waist.

The young man had guessed right: Chu Yuan hadn't meant to kill him with one strike.

He still had a few questions to ask.

"Did Li Ji tell you to ambush me here?"

The young man screamed, too overwhelmed by the pain of losing all four limbs to care about it. "You can't kill me! I'm from the Wang Family of the provincial capital!"

"I'm from the Chu Family of Chenyang. Don't make me ask twice." Chu Yuan was getting impatient. Why did everyone seem to belong to one family or another?

They were arrogant and thought themselves superior.

They thought they could kill others, but no one was allowed to fight back?

Still, he could understand it to some extent.

If one day he reached the Nascent Soul stage, or even the Deity Transformation stage, perhaps he, too, would become someone's excuse to throw their weight around...

When the young man first heard the words "Chu Family of Chenyang," he froze for a moment.

Chenyang City was just a small city with few resources for martial cultivation. There shouldn't have been any martial arts families there at all!

But he immediately understood that Chu Yuan was messing with him.

And he understood even more clearly that Chu Yuan didn't care about the Wang Family behind him...

The realization filled him with fury. Even lying in a pool of blood, he stubbornly glared at Chu Yuan.

"Yes! It was Brother Ji... Li Ji sent me!

Whatever you have against them has nothing to do with me!"

He spoke earnestly.

So what if people looked down on his family? As long as he survived, they could talk about anything...

"Nothing to do with you? Then why'd you come looking for trouble?" Chu Yuan's eyebrow twitched. The kid didn't seem to be telling the whole truth.

"The Li Family is stronger than mine! Li Ji himself has already reached the Internal Breath Realm. He told me to come after you, and I didn't dare disobey..."

"Which way did Li Ji go? And how did you know I'd be passing through here?" Chu Yuan continued.

"He went that way!" The young man raised his head and did his best to "point" in one direction before answering, "I didn't know you'd come this way.

"But this route has the richest resources and is also the most dangerous.

"Martial arts prodigies who are confident in themselves usually choose this route...

"Anyway, I... I mean, Li Ji only told me to wait here for a while. If you showed up, I'd wait for you. If not, then so be it."

Chu Yuan laughed. "A prodigy? How do you know I'm one?"

"Because Li Hong wanted to recruit you..."

Chu Yuan nodded. So it was because of the "family scion certification"...

"What's your name?"

"Wang Cheng! My name's Wang Cheng! My grandfather is a Sixth Realm Warrior!

"Don't kill me. I promise I won't take revenge..." Wang Cheng seemed to see a chance to live, and spoke urgently. "You've already offended the Li Family. If you kill me too, you'll have two martial arts families coming after you!

"Even if someone protects you, you'll be in a lot of trouble!"

He sounded as if he were looking out for Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan nodded inwardly.

Too bad he hadn't hidden the venom in his eyes a little better...

"I have one more question. Won't the terminal record you attacking me?"

Wang Cheng blurted out, "Of course not..."

But in the next instant, his face stiffened. He stared in terror into Chu Yuan's cold eyes.

A wisp of Spiritual Power spread out and pierced his heart in an instant...

In truth, Chu Yuan's last question had only been for reference.

Whether the terminal recorded it or not, Wang Cheng wasn't going to survive.

Wang Cheng had attacked first. Was Chu Yuan not allowed to kill him in self-defense?

As for his grandfather, a Sixth Realm Warrior... things were different now. The principal seemed to have deep connections, and the principal was Chu Yuan's backing.

Neither of them had said it outright, but they both tacitly understood it that way.

The Sixth Realm was impressive enough... but among the higher circles, it was nothing special.

Otherwise, Wang Cheng wouldn't have been hovering around Li Ji like a lackey...

Chu Yuan looked in the direction Wang Cheng had pointed and set off using Smoke-Drifting Steps.

Unbeknownst to him, several dozen seconds after he left, a group of people arrived together.

One of them, who had a sharp eye, spotted the severed limbs on the ground.

"What's that?"

"Looks like... a person?"

"Good heavens! Someone's already been attacked? Weren't there supposed to be no Blood Beasts nearby?"

"The cuts are clean... A Blood Beast didn't do this! Someone did!"

"Monstrous!"

"You can't say that for sure. What if..."

"I know him! That's Wang Cheng, from the Wang Family of the provincial capital!"

The group exchanged glances, gaining a fresh understanding of how dangerous this trial was...

In a creek valley, Li Ji wiped his long saber clean, then casually kicked the Blood Beast's corpse at his feet into the stream.

"Let's go."

"Li Ji, aren't we going to wait for Wang Cheng?" one of the girls accompanying him asked.

"No."

"Heh, you're pretty heartless. He was doing the Li Family's bidding, after all."

"I never told him to go." Li Ji's expression didn't change.

"If you hadn't made it so obvious that you disliked that guy, Wang Cheng wouldn't have gone out of his way.

"Do you think he's too weak, so you're deliberately ditching him?"

"...Boring."

"Showing off..."