I Hate Debt Dodgers

The dozens of people in the hall widened their eyes, staring in disbelief at the lowest-grade green jade slab in Sikong Jing's hand.

"Impossible..."

Such a thought echoed in everyone's minds, yet the martial aura radiating from the green jade slab was undeniably real.

The breathing of the entire crowd grew rapid.

The high-and-mighty smile on Young Master Chu Bo's face had long since vanished, replaced by a look of utter stupefaction.

"Now, shouldn't you honor the wager?" Sikong Jing's voice broke the silence, directed straight at Chu Bo.

The crowd began to whisper, their gazes slowly shifting toward Chu Bo.

A sharp voice rang out from the beautiful shop assistant as she pointed angrily at Sikong Jing, acting spoiled and arrogant: "Are you kidding me? Do you even know who Young Master Chu is? How dare you ask him to honor a wager?"

Sikong Jing replied expressionlessly: "I don't know, and there is no need to know."

Of course, he did not know who Chu Bo was; to him, those who humiliate others deserve to be humiliated in return.

The beautiful shop assistant puffed out her chest and coldly introduced: "Then let me kindly inform you: Young Master Chu is the eldest son of the Chu Family, one of the four great families of Yunye City. It's not too late for you to suck up to him now."

Once these words were spoken, the way the crowd looked at Sikong Jing changed, now tinged with mockery.

Someone even stepped forward and said: "I have to say, you are truly lucky. You managed to stumble upon a once-in-a-century successful inscription, but I advise you not to bring up the wager again."

The crowd shrugged; this fool might have had good luck, but he had happened to cross Young Master Chu Bo. No one took the wager seriously anymore, and even fewer believed that Sikong Jing had succeeded through skill.

As the saying went, the success rate for inscribing on the lowest-grade green jade slab was near zero.

"Brother, quit while you're ahead."

"Some people are not someone you can afford to provoke. Keep your thoughts to yourself and watch your mouth."

"That's right, be careful of inviting a fatal disaster."

"Since you managed to inscribe a martial skill, you should be grateful that you don't have to kneel. Hurry up and thank Young Master Chu for his gift of the slab."

Many onlookers offered what seemed like well-intentioned advice to Sikong Jing.

Snap!

Chu Bo closed his folding fan with a flick, a sinister glint in his eyes as he said: "What a mood killer. There's no need for thanks."

He was in a foul mood; he had originally intended to amuse himself by teasing a fool, but he hadn't expected to be slapped in the face instead.

"I'll buy that green jade slab of yours for one silver crystal coin."

As he spoke, Chu Bo turned to his servant and said: "Give this fool a silver crystal coin, then smash his green jade slab to pieces and make him crawl out from between my legs."

He stepped one foot onto a stool and pointed at Sikong Jing with a sneer.

Chu Bo's servant immediately stepped forward, slammed a silver crystal coin at Sikong Jing's feet, and reached out, saying coldly: "Hand over the slab."

Sikong Jing's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly spoke: "I hate it when people welch on a bet!"

BOOM!

No sooner had the words left his lips than true energy erupted from Sikong Jing's body. With a backhand slap, he sent Chu Bo's servant flying. As the man screamed, Sikong Jing flashed in front of Chu Bo.

He delivered a fierce kick to Chu Bo's lower abdomen.

Chu Bo, who had been waiting to see Sikong Jing suffer the humiliation of crawling between his legs, was caught completely off guard. He let out a strange cry as he was sent flying from inside the Heaven Martial Pavilion out onto the street, but Sikong Jing pursued him in a stride...

Thump, thump! Two kicks landed squarely on Chu Bo's knees.

Thud...

Chu Bo fell straight to his knees in the middle of the street, howling in agony.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. By the time the people inside the Heaven Martial Pavilion reacted, Chu Bo was already kneeling with a twisted expression on his face.

Standing before him, Sikong Jing stood tall and imposing.

Ignoring the shock around him, Sikong Jing asked aggressively: "Young Master Chu, do you still remember the terms of our wager?"

After a long moment, Chu Bo regained his senses, his eyes bloodshot as he hissed: "You bastard, how dare you hit me?"

Chu Bo tried to scramble to his feet, but the moment he moved, a piercing, heart-wrenching pain shot through his legs.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, or your knees will be ruined."

When Sikong Jing had struck Chu Bo's knees, he had channeled a bit of true energy into the tendons and bones; that was the source of the excruciating pain.

Such a small trick was second nature to a former invincible god-general.

Chu Bo, refusing to believe it, tried to move again, but the pain intensified. His entire face turned beet red, and sweat poured down his forehead.

"Honor the wager, and I will relieve your pain," Sikong Jing reminded him.

However, the next instant, a low voice reached his ears: "Little brother, it is better to be forgiving when you can. Pushing things too far will do you no good. After all, this is Yunye City."

The voice came from the direction of the Heaven Martial Pavilion, and a middle-aged man walked out from the center of the doorway.

Surrounding the middle-aged man were, naturally, those same "well-intentioned" onlookers.

At the same time, the beautiful shop assistant stood by the middle-aged man's side, pointing at Sikong Jing: "Brat, didn't you hear Pavilion Master Lu? Help Young Master Chu up, or you're a dead man."

Sikong Jing turned his head and asked the middle-aged man: "Are you the branch pavilion master of the Yunye City Heaven Martial Pavilion?"

"Not bad, my name is Lu Zhao."

The middle-aged man introduced himself with a calm expression, then added, "Little brother, your accent suggests you're from out of town, right? Take a piece of advice from me: with your strength at the sixth level of the Bright Realm, it is not enough to run wild in Yunye City."

The aura Sikong Jing had just displayed was very clear; it was merely the sixth level of the Bright Realm.

Although Yunye City was not large, there were countless people who could kill him.

Today, he had simply happened to run into Chu Bo, a young master known for his debauchery and lack of ambition. If it had been any other young master from the Chu Family, he would never have had the chance to stand here and talk.

"Chu Bo is the eldest young master of the Chu Family, one of the four great clans. If you stop now and offer an apology, it might still be in time."

Seeing that Sikong Jing remained unmoved, Lu Zhao offered another warning.

Sikong Jing shrugged, yet he stepped forward to meet Lu Zhao and held out the engraved green jade tablet, saying, "Since you are the branch master of the Heaven Pavilion of Martial Arts, then set a price for this green jade tablet of mine."

"You..."

Lu Zhao had not expected Sikong Jing to be so stubborn; he still had the heart to haggle over the price of a green jade tablet at a time like this?

Exhaling sharply, Lu Zhao said coldly, "Fine. But before I appraise the value of this tablet, I will also appraise you: you won't live to see the sun rise tomorrow."

Since the young man before him refused to listen to reason, he could not be bothered to say anything more.

Lu Zhao immediately channeled his true energy into the green jade tablet, his expression remaining as calm as water. Martial arts techniques engraved by such lucky amateurs were at most low-grade yellow tier, and the price would not exceed ten silver crystal coins.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Lu Zhao's expression froze.

The true energy within his body began to surge uncontrollably.

His face grew redder and redder, bloodshot veins surfaced in his eyes one by one, and his entire body seemed as if it were being slowly boiled.

"Pavilion Master, why are you so angry?"

"Did this fool cheat and tamper with the green jade tablet?"

The beautiful shop assistant asked immediately upon seeing this. It was obvious that the Pavilion Master looked as if he were about to explode with rage, otherwise his face would not be so red, and she added fuel to the fire, "I said it before, there's no way this fool could have succeeded."