The moment Tang Yu's gaze locked onto Yu Yuanzhen, every hair on Yu Yuanzhen's body stood on end.
In that instant, he felt the breath of death.
It was like being watched by a primordial beast, unable to move even a finger without exhausting every ounce of strength.
Yu Yuanzhen had no time to worry about a sect master's dignity.
He shot up from his chair like a spring, knocking the chair behind him over with the force of his movement.
Without so much as righting the chair, Yu Yuanzhen scrambled out through the crowd.
He ran all the way to a spot just over ten meters from the high platform, then his knees gave way and he dropped heavily to the ground.
His knees slammed against the stone slabs with a thud that made everyone wince.
Yu Yuanzhen braced both hands on the ground and pressed his forehead against the cold bluestone. His voice trembled with fear.
"Your Highness, please see the truth!"
"There is absolutely no such thing! The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan is utterly loyal to Your Highness. We have not the slightest disrespectful intention!"
Yu Yuanzhen panted frantically, desperately trying to distance himself from the matter.
He raised his head and pointed a trembling hand at Yu Xiaogang, who stood nearby.
"This man is named Yu Xiaogang. Though he is a member of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, he left the sect years ago because of his dull aptitude and has been wandering outside ever since."
"Every word he said just now was nothing but the deranged ravings of an individual!"
"It has absolutely nothing to do with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan!"
"Your Highness, please don't punish our sect's thousands of elderly, women, and children because of this beast!"
When he finished, Yu Yuanzhen bowed his head and knocked it against the ground several more times. A livid bruise quickly appeared on his forehead.
After bowing, Yu Yuanzhen whipped around.
He looked at Yu Xiaogang as though he were staring at the murderer of his father.
If looks could kill, Yu Xiaogang would have been hacked to pieces on the spot.
"Wretch!"
Yu Yuanzhen pointed a trembling finger at Yu Xiaogang's nose and cursed him furiously.
"Look at the calamity you've brought down on us!"
"If you want to die, find somewhere deserted and slit your own throat. Don't drag the clan down with you!"
Yu Yuanzhen shook with rage as he issued his ultimatum.
"Now, get on your knees!"
"Crawl over to His Highness and beg for forgiveness!"
"If His Highness is willing to leave you an intact corpse, that will be your good fortune. If he wants to flay you alive, then you'll have brought it on yourself!"
"Get down on your knees!"
Yu Yuanzhen's roar tore at his throat, making the ears of everyone nearby ring.
Yu Xiaogang stood where he was, looking at his own father, who knelt on the ground in utter disarray.
Not only did he have no intention of kneeling, he straightened his back.
At that moment, he even felt taller than his father, a Super Douluo.
Yu Xiaogang wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his face set with the grim resolve of a martyr.
"I've done nothing wrong."
Meeting Yu Yuanzhen's murderous glare, Yu Xiaogang answered, each word deliberate.
"Every word I spoke came from the heart. I did it all for the common people of the world."
"Tang Yu is the one who is cruel and unjust. He is the one who defies the natural order."
"He's the one in the wrong, not me!"
Yu Xiaogang held his head high and didn't even glance at Tang Yu on the high platform.
"I, Yu Xiaogang, stand tall beneath heaven and upon earth. I have pursued truth all my life, and I will never kneel in submission to a brute like him!"
"You fear death. I don't!"
Hearing Yu Xiaogang's stubborn refusal to repent, Yu Yuanzhen was overcome with despair.
He knew that if this matter wasn't settled today, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would be reduced to ruins by tomorrow.
The Black Horse Iron Cavalry would show them not the slightest mercy.
Yu Yuanzhen slowly rose to his feet.
The terror and fury on his face gradually faded, replaced by a coldness so absolute it seemed to freeze the air.
He looked at Yu Xiaogang as if he were a stranger—an inanimate object of no consequence.
Yu Yuanzhen took a deep breath and used Soul Power to carry his voice, making sure everyone present could hear him clearly.
"Good. Good. Good!"
Yu Yuanzhen repeated the word three times, his tone hard as iron.
"Since you're stubborn and bent on dying..."
"Then today, before all the heroes of the world, I, Yu Yuanzhen, will purge the clan!"
Yu Yuanzhen raised his right hand, fingers together like a sword, and pointed toward the sky.
"From this moment on, Yu Xiaogang is formally expelled from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan!"
"His surname is stripped away, and his name erased from the family records!"
"He is no longer my son, Yu Yuanzhen, and he is no longer a member of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan."
"His future life and death, and every disaster he brings upon himself, will have nothing whatsoever to do with our clan!"
After finishing, Yu Yuanzhen turned toward the high platform and bowed deeply.
"This treacherous, rebellious wretch may be killed or flayed as Your Highness sees fit. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan will not interfere in the slightest!"
Yu Yuanzhen's declaration exploded across the plaza like thunder from a clear sky.
The crowd erupted in an uproar.
Everyone was stunned.
The guests' eyes widened, and their whispers finally rose into an uncontrollable buzz.
That was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan master's own flesh and blood!
No matter how useless or laughable Yu Xiaogang was, the blood in his veins was still the purest lineage of one of the Upper Three Sects.
Even the fiercest tiger wouldn't eat its own cubs.
And yet, here today, in the plaza of the Blue Silver King Mansion...
All it had taken was one casual question from Prince Wuyang.
The sect master of one of the Upper Three Sects had been so terrified that he severed his father-son relationship in front of everyone.
He had personally cast out his own son and sent him off to die.
Such a thing was an unprecedented wonder, even in the entire history of the Douluo Continent.
Quite a few people sneaked a glance at Tang Yu, seated in the central chair.
Looking at the man who seemed far too young to wield such power, they felt their awe of him rise to an unreachable height.
With just a few words, he could force the world's greatest support sect to kneel and offer up treasures.
With another casual remark, he could make the proudest master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan abandon his own son.
What kind of power was that?
What kind of fearsome might?
The moment Yu Xiaogang heard that he had been expelled from the sect, he froze.
He stared blankly at Yu Yuanzhen, mouth slightly open, unable to make a sound.
He had always believed that no matter what trouble he got into, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would always be there to back him.
No matter how badly his father scolded him, he would never abandon him when his life was on the line.
But now...
The protective umbrella that had sheltered him since childhood had been torn to shreds by Yu Yuanzhen's own hands.
A bone-chilling cold shot from the soles of Yu Xiaogang's feet straight to his head, and his legs finally began to tremble uncontrollably.
He stood alone in the middle of the crowd, surrounded by contemptuous and pitying looks.
The shell of that so-called "Number One Theory Master of the Continent" finally began to crumble, piece by piece, under the weight of this cruel reality.
All across the Blue Silver King Mansion, only the flags high above continued to flap tirelessly in the wind, rustling loudly.
They drowned out the heavy breathing below, thick with fear.
Yu Xiaogang's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot.
He stared at Yu Yuanzhen, still kneeling in the distance.
"Good! What a righteous Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan master, sacrificing his own kin!"
Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth and spat the blood at the corner of his mouth onto the ground along with his saliva.
He turned sharply and straightened his back, trying to make himself look taller.
"Even without the sect's protection, I, Yu Xiaogang, will never bow my head to a brute like him!"