The city gate was frighteningly silent.
The onlooking commoners, merchants, and even the soldiers of the Heaven Dou Royal Knights held their breath.
Tang San struggled to raise his face, slick with mud and cold sweat.
His eyes were bloodshot from the excruciating pain. Deep within them, intense humiliation and resentment churned alongside a deeply buried, venomous killing intent.
He was waiting.
His teeth clenched, Tang San's left fingers had already discreetly hooked onto the mechanism at his waist, inside the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges.
Beneath his sleeve, the poison-coated Silent Sleeve Arrow was primed to fire.
Tang San was waiting for Xue Yao to dismount, waiting for the haughty young noble to come over and mock and humiliate him.
If Xue Yao dared to come within three steps of him, if his guards let their guard down even for an instant, Tang San was absolutely certain he could use Tang Sect Hidden Weapons to pierce the arrogant young master's throat in a flash!
So what if you won? If you dare come over and humiliate me, I'll show you how terrifying Tang Sect Hidden Weapons are! You're asking to die! Tang San roared in his heart like a venomous snake driven into a corner, ready to strike back at any moment.
However...
The taunts Tang San had expected never came. Neither did the demand that he kneel. Xue Yao didn't even gloat like a victor.
Tang San raised his head in astonishment, only to see a scene he would never forget—a scene that humiliated him to the very core.
Seated atop his tall, pure-white steed, Xue Yao casually straightened the cuffs of his moon-white brocade robe.
His gaze was clear and profound, radiating an untainted nobility.
But those eyes held no trace of Tang San.
There was no contempt, no mockery, no pity—not even the slightest sidelong glance fell upon him.
Xue Yao couldn't even be bothered to say a word to him, let alone make him apologize to Yu Xiaogang over that ridiculous wager.
Would a dragon care about an ant's provocation? Would it care how another ant felt after it had crushed one beneath its foot?
No.
"Move out. Don't let something so trivial delay our journey."
Xue Yao's cool, even voice rang through the air, like heavenly music, yet utterly cold and distant.
He gave the reins a light tug. His magnificent white horse snorted and set off with an elegant stride, heading straight out of the city.
"Yes, Viscount!"
The fifty Heaven Dou Royal Knights answered in unison, their voices thundering.
Hooves pounded over the uneven blue-gray flagstones before the city gate.
"Splatter! Splatter!"
A light rain had just fallen, leaving puddles of mud and water gathered before the city gate.
As the Royal Knights' warhorses galloped past Tang San, their heavy iron hooves stamped hard into the puddles.
A wide spray of cold, filthy, black-brown water burst up beneath their hooves.
"Whoosh—"
The foul-smelling muck splashed mercilessly across Tang San's face and head, soaking his already tattered clothes.
Cold drops struck his eyelids, making him shut his eyes instinctively.
With every hoofbeat, fresh mud and filth splattered over him.
Meanwhile, the agony in Tang San's abdomen still twisted like a knife, leaving him unable to get up and dodge.
He could only kneel like a statue of shame amid the revolting vomit and muddy water, bearing the "baptism" of all fifty warhorses.
By the time the entire Royal Knights had ridden away from the city gate, Tang San had become a "mud man" from head to toe.
Tang San knelt there in a daze, his hands digging into the flagstones. His nails split under the strain, and blood seeped into the cracks, mixing with the mud.
Did it hurt?
His abdomen hurt. His nails hurt.
But compared with the devastating blow to his spirit, those physical pains were insignificant!
It felt as if an invisible hand had clamped around Tang San's heart. He could barely breathe. A raging fire burned in his chest, only to be doused by a bucket of ice-cold water.
Ignored.
Completely and utterly ignored!
Having lived two lives, Tang San had always been fiercely proud, even somewhat conceited.
He considered himself a once-in-a-century genius of the Tang Sect. He possessed the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, Twin Martial Souls that others could only dream of, and Innate Full Soul Power.
In his eyes, he was the protagonist of this world. One day, he would stand at the peak of the Douluo Continent!
He could accept defeat. He could accept an enemy's mockery, even a fight to the death.
At least that meant the enemy regarded him as a rival, as someone worth taking seriously.
But today, Xue Yao's attitude had sliced Tang San's laughable self-esteem and that veneer of false pride off him, piece by piece, then tossed it on the ground to be trampled underfoot!
To that noble youth, who seemed almost divine, the Tang Sect Secret Arts he prided himself on, his Hundred-Year Soul Ring, Mysterious Jade Hand, and Purple Demon Eye... were all worthless garbage!
Xue Yao wasn't even interested in saying a single mocking word to him!
Why... why won't he even look at me? Why doesn't he even consider me worth killing?!
Tang San screamed in his heart as tears mixed with the mud and spilled from his eyes.
Being treated like air, like a turd on the roadside that someone simply stepped over, was a humiliation ten thousand times worse than being killed outright!
He would rather Xue Yao come over and slap him twice. He would rather Xue Yao force him to kneel and kowtow.
At least then he could find an excuse to pour all his hatred onto Xue Yao and repay him a hundredfold someday.
But now, Xue Yao had simply waved his hand and ridden off with his entourage, without sparing him so much as a glance.
Tang San's fury and murderous intent were like a punch thrown into cotton—powerless, feeble, and utterly ridiculous!
This was the ultimate humiliation! This was a knife to the heart!
"Xue Yao... I, Tang San, swear to heaven that I'll make you pay a hundredfold, a thousandfold for today's disgrace! I'll make you kneel at my feet and take back that arrogant look you gave me today!"
Tang San bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, making an utterly vicious oath in his heart.
Meanwhile, beside the road not far from Tang San...
Yu Xiaogang sat slumped weakly on the ground, staring fixedly at everything unfolding before him.
What had he just witnessed?
He had seen Tang San, the peerless genius he had placed all his hopes in—the one person he believed could wash away a lifetime of humiliation—the possessor of Innate Full Soul Power and Twin Martial Souls.
Before Xue Yao, the boy who had once publicly called him "useless," Tang San hadn't even managed to defeat a bird Xue Yao had summoned!
One strike!
His most prized disciple had been left kneeling in the mud, vomiting uncontrollably, powerless as a dead dog.
But what broke Yu Xiaogang most was the bone-deep indifference in Xue Yao's eyes.
Even though Yu Xiaogang had just shouted himself hoarse, desperately trying to draw Xue Yao's attention and use Tang San's strength to humiliate him, Xue Yao hadn't even bothered to respond.
In Xue Yao's eyes, this so-called "Grandmaster" and the "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul" he took such pride in were nothing more than the impotent rage of a buffoon, unworthy of any reply.
That indifference was far worse than being told at the palace gate to come back and speak once he had broken through level thirty.
"Pfft—"
He suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blackish-purple blood.
"My theories... my pride... Xiao San..."
Yu Xiaogang's eyes rolled back, and his body convulsed violently twice.
The Datura Snake poison that had already seeped deep into his body erupted completely under the strain of his fury.
He couldn't even manage to utter a complete sentence before he passed out from sheer rage.
Before you continue