Yu Tianheng Refused to Honor the Agreement

They called the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul a mongrel dog?

They called the pride of my clan a mongrel dog?

They called the thing our family had taken pride in for generations a mongrel dog?

Yu Tianheng opened his mouth, but it felt as though a lump of red-hot iron was lodged in his throat, impossible to swallow or spit out.

He cursed Fang Fan ten million times in his heart, every word like a poisoned needle stabbing wildly through his organs.

Yet his mouth seemed sewn shut with needle and thread, unable to utter a single word.

He couldn't say it—

That was the clan's dignity, pride etched into his bones,

the belief that had been instilled in him since childhood.

But if he didn't say it—

then he would be breaking his word before the entire team, before Dugu Yan, before Teacher Qin Ming, and before every teammate who had once cheered him on.

His pride, his dignity, all his grand boasts,

had shattered into scraps along with that broken Nine Dragon Crown.

Dugu Yan stood beside a corridor pillar, her dark green ponytail swaying slightly in the crosswind.

Her arms remained folded across her chest, but her fingers had unconsciously clenched the fabric of her sleeves.

She looked at Yu Tianheng—

He lay on the ground, blue smoke rising from his body,

golden fragments of the Nine Dragon Crown scattered around him, his lips pressed tightly into a line as if sewn shut.

He didn't dare say it.

He dared to fight, dared to gamble, dared to shout before everyone, "If I lose, I'll get out of Heaven Dou Royal Academy,"

but when it came time to honor the agreement, his mouth was sealed tighter than the gates of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's ancestral hall.

He dared to act but not take responsibility.

He dared to gamble but not admit defeat.

Yu Tianheng's pale yet stubborn face was reflected in Dugu Yan's emerald snake eyes,

while disappointment piled up layer by layer in her gaze, growing thicker and colder.

She recalled how he had stood at the center of the training ground the day before yesterday,

declaring with soaring confidence, "I'll give it everything I've got,"

and how he had looked so certain of victory when he led the team to block the road that afternoon. She remembered his deafening roar when he put on the Nine Dragon Crown just now—

Come on!

Let me show you the power of our Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's treasured heirloom.

And then?

Then he lay on the ground,

like a turtle flipped onto its shell, without even the strength to turn over.

The more solemn the promise, the more embarrassing it was after defeat.

What she despised most was not failure, but being unable to accept defeat.

The team members stood silently at the edge of the field, their faces filled with complicated emotions.

The cheers that had supported Yu Tianheng just moments ago

had all vanished, as though cut off in unison by invisible scissors.

No one stepped forward to speak for Yu Tianheng anymore.

Because he had lost, plainly and indisputably.

As official and reserve members of the Imperial Fighting Team,

every one of them had suffered countless defeats—

crushed by upperclassmen, beaten down by teachers,

falling again and again in mock battles, then climbing back to their feet again and again.

Losing was not frightening. Refusing to admit it was.

Yu Tianheng's current appearance suddenly made them feel as though they no longer recognized him.

This person lying on the ground with his mouth shut, unable to say even a single word to honor the agreement—

was he really the captain they had followed for so long?

Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, forbidden grounds stone gate.

Yu Yuanzhen slowly emerged from the dark passageway, his grizzled brows furrowed tightly,

holding a golden fragment he had picked up from the stone platform—

a piece that had peeled off the base of the Imitation Nine Dragon Crown.

He had stood deep within the forbidden grounds for a long time. The stone platform was completely empty,

and the Imitation Nine Dragon Crown was indeed gone.

He straightened up and swept his gaze over the two guards standing with their hands lowered before the ancestral hall. His voice was deep and imposing:

"Who entered the ancestral hall last night?"

The guard on the left immediately dropped to one knee, his armor clattering crisply:

"Reporting to the Clan Chief, Young Master Yu Tianheng! He said he was going in to pay respects to the ancestors."

Yu Yuanzhen was silent for a moment before closing his hand around the golden fragment.

That brat, paying respects to the ancestors?

He had clearly slipped into the forbidden grounds under the pretense of ancestral worship and stolen the imitation True Dragon Nine Crowns.

He shook his head slightly, a wry smile of helplessness and disappointment appearing at the corner of his mouth.

There really was an imitation Nine Dragon Crown—

the genuine article was sealed away in a place known only to the clan chiefs of each generation,

while the imitation, though exquisitely crafted and containing a trace of a true dragon's might,

was ultimately fake, a substitute used by successive clan chiefs for practice.

And it had side effects too. It would be bad to use it for too long!

As for what Yu Tianheng wanted to do with it, he, as his grandfather, did not need to guess—

Fang Fan had defeated him with a single sword strike at the training ground the day before yesterday,

and the refusal to accept defeat burning in his heart had driven him to lose his reason.

Tianheng had not been like this before.

The boy had been proud, but his pride had known moderation. When he lost, he would return and train twice as hard.

But this time was different.

He had lost too quickly and too miserably, unable to withstand even one attack,

and Dugu Yan had been watching from the sidelines.

That was the key—

Dugu Bo's granddaughter.

Yu Yuanzhen had seen the evasive yet stubborn look in Tianheng's eyes whenever he mentioned Dugu Yan before him,

as well as the resentment in him whenever he repeatedly said, "Dugu Yan likes the strongest man."

This brat had not challenged Fang Fan for the clan's honor.

He had done it to prove himself before a girl.

And once a man was only trying to play the hero before a woman, he would do many irrational things—

such as stealing an imitation of the clan's treasured heirloom to challenge an opponent he could not possibly defeat.

Yu Yuanzhen rubbed his brow, then recalled another matter his second brother had reported yesterday—

Fang Fan had defeated Liu Erlong head-on with a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Liu Erlong was a Level 78 Soul Sage and the owner of the Fire Dragon Martial Soul,

a notable figure among Heaven Dou City's Soul Masters, yet Fang Fan and Zhu Zhuqing's Martial Soul Fusion Skill had blasted her Third Soul Skill apart with a single sword strike.

He had never seen the fusion of a beast martial soul and a tool martial soul in his entire life.

And Yu Tianheng had worn an Imitation Nine Dragon Crown to challenge someone like that? This wasn't a battle. He was asking to be beaten up.

He immediately summoned Elder Yu Shan from the clan.

Elder Yu Shan was a Level 81 Soul Douluo. His strength was not among the very best in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, but he was unfailingly loyal and decisive in his actions.

Yu Yuanzhen ordered him to head immediately to Heaven Dou Royal Academy and retrieve the imitation.

When he said this, he did not mention the Level 96 Peak Douluo guardian beside Fang Fan,

nor did he instruct him not to provoke Fang Fan.

By the time Elder Yu Shan reached Heaven Dou Royal Academy's training ground, he was already too late.

The moment he stepped onto the stone stairs at the edge of the training ground, he saw Yu Tianheng lying on the ground, blue smoke rising from his body,

golden fragments scattered all around him, like a dead fish stripped bare of its scales.

And that Imitation Nine Dragon Crown—

the imitation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's treasured heirloom, passed down for a thousand years—

had shattered so completely that it could not even be pieced back together.

Yu Tianheng kept his mouth shut, his face deathly pale,

so crushed by the silence of the entire field and the disappointment in Dugu Yan's eyes that he could not even raise his head.

What enraged Elder Yu Shan even more was the condition spoken by that white-clothed youth—

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul was a mongrel dog.