Martial Force Was Born Within His Body! (Ten-thousand-word chapter, please keep reading)

"Y-Ye Qingyao."

Fang Jingnian instinctively took half a step back. Gravel cracked beneath his feet, the sound especially piercing in the silence.

"You have to believe me. I really meant no harm." His voice was dry, carrying a barely perceptible tremor. "I really was only offering a warning out of goodwill."

"I'm not interested in any of that."

Ye Qingyao kept walking, each step seeming to land on the very beat of Fang Jingnian's heart.

"I only care about results." She raised an eyebrow, a cold glint now stirring deep within her normally cool eyes.

In an instant, Fang Jingnian froze where he stood.

"No, let me explain." Fang Jingnian's pupils shrank violently to pinpoints.

His first thought was to find a way to explain himself, not to resist.

He knew all too well just how terrifying the monster before him was.

Guo Kai, standing nearby, knew just as well. Watching Fang Jingnian's bedraggled state, he felt no amusement, only sympathy.

What sort of place was the Tianjin Martial Association? It was the center of northern martial arts, with strict rules and a forest of competing schools.

Yet why, specifically over the matter of the Shocking Heron Martial Hall, had the Tianjin Martial Association established an old rule that bordered on humiliation? Outsiders wishing to establish a school in Tianjin had to bring a disciple to fight, and that disciple had to be a native of Tianjin.

This was not merely exclusion, but a blockade in another guise.

And Ye Qingyao was the source of it all.

About half a year earlier, Hong Tianbao had first arrived in Tianjin, bringing his wife, Ye Wanqing, and daughter, Ye Qingyao, to pay their respects to the local schools.

Back then, Ye Qingyao had been even colder and more unreasonable than she was