"What happened? Xiao Ning was beaten?"
The First Elder asked his attendant behind him as he hurried toward the Dou Technique Pavilion.
"Yes. Young Master Xiao Ze went to pick a fight with Young Master Xiao Ning. Young Master Xiao Ze is powerful—he pinned Young Master Xiao Ning to the ground and beat him."
The attendant hurriedly explained. The First Elder's brows drew together.
Xiao Ze had always kept a low profile, never showing off. He hadn't even attended the testing tournament. Who would have thought he'd been hiding his strength all along?
Originally, he had looked down on Xiao Ze for skipping the testing tournament. He'd shared the prevailing opinion of the outside world.
He'd thought Xiao Ze was afraid of being compared to Xiao Yan and laughed at for being inferior to him.
So he hadn't paid much attention to Xiao Ze's absence from the testing tournament.
He could avoid it for a while, but not forever.
Every Xiao Clan disciple had to attend the coming adulthood ceremony. They would have to take the test then.
If their Dou Qi hadn't reached the seventh stage, it meant they had no potential for cultivation. They would lose the right to enter the Dou Qi Pavilion and choose a Dou Qi cultivation method.
They would also be assigned to the Xiao Clan's ordinary businesses, where they'd be responsible for managing them.
That was the Xiao Clan's rule. Even the clan leader couldn't defy it!
But now the attendant was telling him that Xiao Ze wasn't lacking in cultivation talent.
On the contrary, he was immensely powerful. He could pin Xiao Ning to the ground and beat him, which meant he had to be at least at the high stages of Dou Qi!
The First Elder's thoughts raced, but his feet didn't slow. He hurried on.
The moment he reached the Dou Technique Pavilion, he saw Xiao Ze beating someone.
Xiao Ze straddled the person and kept raining punches down on his head.
The victim looked utterly wretched. He screamed wildly, his face swollen like a pig's head.
If the attendant hadn't told him Xiao Ze was beating Xiao Ning, the First Elder might not have recognized him!
The First Elder froze for a moment. Then heartache welled up inside him, followed close behind by fury!
Blinded by anger, he disregarded the clan rule:
No striking the younger generation without cause!
Dou Qi surged around him as he charged into the center of the crowd.
The intense pressure made the people around him go pale.
The First Elder quickly reached Xiao Ze. Dou Qi gathered in his palm as he struck at him in a fit of rage.
Xiao Ze had noticed the First Elder approaching long ago. His soul perception was far from weak!
The Dou Qi vortex within him spun wildly, squeezing out a huge amount of Dou Qi and channeling it along a specific route into both his palms.
High-level Xuan-tier Dou Technique, Swallow Return Strike!
Pale blue light blazed around Xiao Ze as he met the First Elder's palm with a strike of his own!
Xiao Ze didn't meet the First Elder's force head-on. Instead, he used the impact to flip through the air several times, landing lightly at the edge of the training ground like a dragonfly skimming the water.
The onlookers stared at Xiao Ze with pale faces and wide eyes, unable to believe what they'd seen.
If the attribute-infused Dou Qi in Xiao Ze's hands had shocked them before, now they were downright incredulous!
Xiao Ze had actually blocked the First Elder's strike with the strength of a Dou Zhe!
The First Elder also froze for a moment, seeing how easily Xiao Ze had neutralized his attack.
A faint sense of absurdity rose in his mind.
Though anger had clouded his judgment, he still had some reason left and hadn't used a Dou Technique.
But he had used some of his Dou Qi, intending to teach Xiao Ze a lesson.
For Xiao Ze to have safely deflected the attack with the strength of a Da Dou Shi—it was truly astonishing.
Before the onlookers could react, a furious shout rang out from outside the Dou Technique Pavilion, like a lion's roar.
"You old bastard, how dare you!"
As pale green Dou Qi surged, a figure hurtled over like a gale.
It was as if an eighth-grade gale had swept through the entire Dou Technique Pavilion. The onlookers staggered, their faces deathly pale.
The pressure of a Da Dou Shi's Dou Qi left their chests feeling tight.
Powerful Dou Qi surged over Xiao Zhan's entire body, then gathered on his face, forming the illusory head of a lion.
The lion's face was filled with fury, as if it were about to devour someone. Its gaze was terrifying!
It was none other than the Xiao Clan's top cultivation method, the mid-level Xuan-tier Mad Lion Rage Aura—known only to the clan leader!
The First Elder's face changed dramatically. He felt the pressure of Dou Qi bearing down on him, along with a faint sense of mortal danger.
His mouth opened as if to explain, but the enraged lion wouldn't listen. It had already turned into a gale and pounced at him.
Caught off guard, the First Elder could only gather his Dou Qi.
Boom!!!
The two powerful surges of Dou Qi collided. There was no stalemate: the pale green Dou Qi crushed the other side and sent it flying!
The crowd had retreated to the edge of the training ground, but their chests still felt unbearably tight, as though a boulder were pressing down on them.
Everyone stared intently at the center of the field.
This was what it meant to be strong. This was the rule of the Dou Qi Continent!
The strong could do whatever they pleased, while the weak could get hurt just by watching from the sidelines!
Some people turned their attention to Xiao Ze, who was standing still.
A pale blue glow enveloped Xiao Ze, holding back the shockwaves of Dou Qi.
Their eyes filled with envy. This was what it meant to be a Dou Zhe!
Someone they could only look up to.
The First Elder stumbled back dozens of steps, each one leaving a deep imprint in the training ground's floor.
The impact sent his blood surging. His face flushed, then drained of color, turning deathly pale.
The First Elder forcibly swallowed the blood he was about to spit up, making his face look even worse.
Xiao Zhan was trying to kill him!
"Old bastard, you really think I wouldn't dare kill you?"
Xiao Zhan's hair and beard bristled as he glared furiously. Pale green Dou Qi roiled around him, making him look like a lion in a fit of rage.
His third son had just been beaten that very day, and Xiao Zhan was already filled to the brim with anger.
Then, not long after, he'd witnessed the First Elder—the old bastard—bullying his youngest son with his superior strength!
That was the last straw for Xiao Zhan!
A five-star Da Dou Shi wielding a mid-level Xuan-tier cultivation method could make the First Elder pay dearly with that single strike!
Xiao Zhan looked ready to keep going.
The First Elder's blood was in turmoil, and his face shifted from green to purple.
But to save face, he held back the blood he was about to spit out and couldn't get a word in.
At that crucial moment, Xiao Ze spoke.
"Father, I'm fine."
Standing beneath the pressure of a Da Dou Shi's Dou Qi, Xiao Ze walked forward and smiled reassuringly at Xiao Zhan.
Then he turned to the First Elder and said, "First Elder, that was pretty dishonorable of you."
"This morning, you just said you couldn't interfere in sparring between the younger generation."
"And now you're bullying someone younger than you and attacking me. What's the matter, First Elder? Were your words nothing but hot air?"
"Or is it only sparring between peers when your Xiao Ning beats someone up?"
"But when someone beats up your Xiao Ning, it suddenly doesn't count as sparring between peers, and you have to step in and pass judgment?"
Xiao Ze's string of remarks struck right at the First Elder's heart!
After all, that very morning, the First Elder had said that the fight between Xiao Yan and Xiao Ning was just sparring between the younger generation. He'd told Xiao Zhan not to be petty and hold a grudge.
But that afternoon, when Xiao Ning got beaten, the First Elder had flown into a rage, bullied someone younger than him, and attacked a junior from the clan.
The people in the training ground heard Xiao Ze's words and started arguing among themselves, pointing at the First Elder and criticizing him from all sides.
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