You're Not Worth an Amnesty Jade Token!

"If you truly dared to use the entire Ren Family and your own life to kill me, then what did it matter if I died? But honestly, Ren Jie, I had underestimated you before. Whether you were truly a hedonistic young master or had gone mad after Gao Fei damaged your brain, what you did today had already enraged me. Don't think that no one dared touch you just because you were the Family Head of the Ren Family. You were dead for sure, do you understand? If I wanted to kill you, even with the entire Ren Family backing you, you were still dead for sure. Don't think only your Ren Family had ever been glorious. Your Ren Family had only flourished over the past twenty years; our Gao Family had once flourished continuously for more than two hundred years during the last two centuries. Even now, we were not much worse than the Ren Family. When it came to foundations, you were far beneath us." Gao Peng transmitted these words directly into Ren Jie's mind through divine sense.

"The one in trouble now isn't me, but you. Whether you were truly mad or merely pretending to be a hedonistic young master, you had dug your own grave. You were dead, dead for sure." Gao Peng was quite tolerant. He had too many secrets that no one knew, but he was also an extremely proud man. Yet today, under such circumstances, he had been so humiliated by a good-for-nothing like Ren Jie.

He was not afraid of death, so he was not afraid of provoking Ren Jie. If his death at this moment could truly bring about the destruction of the Ren Family and allow the Gao Family to regain sufficient power, then so be it. But if he did not die, he would absolutely never spare Ren Jie. He had to kill him.

At this moment, he suddenly recalled what he had said when reprimanding Gao Fei. If Ren Jie was pretending, then he had to be killed. If he had truly been beaten stupid, driven mad, and become this deranged, then it was even more unforgivable that Gao Peng had been humiliated by a lunatic.

"Ren Jie, you little brat! A life for a life! This is the Imperial Palace. Even if you are the Family Head of the Ren Family, you cannot stand above the dynasty's laws. If you dare touch Peng'er, no one can save you. My Gao Family will never spare you either. Release Peng'er immediately!" As Gao Peng threatened Ren Jie with divine sense, Gao Zhanyuan shouted from outside.

Ren Jie could sense the Killing Intent in Gao Peng's eyes, but he truly did not care. Especially after listening to the Sage Dao Discussion, Gao Peng's Killing Intent no longer felt like much at all.

"This Family Head naturally will not violate the laws of the state. As for a life for a life—bullshit. Take a look at this." As Ren Jie spoke, he raised his hand and took out a jade token.

It was a token forged from pure white jade, with the two large characters "Amnesty" written upon it and several lines of smaller characters underneath. In the Bright Jade Dynasty, silver and gold were plentiful and not particularly precious. Even the guard tokens of ordinary wealthy households were made of gold. The truly valuable ones were jade tokens that possessed spiritual artifacts, and the one Ren Jie held was even more precious.

"Look carefully. An Amnesty Jade Token. Forget killing one person—killing your entire family would merely count as a private grudge, so long as I didn't rebel."

"When the Old Ancestor of the Ren Family followed my Grand Founder to establish the Bright Jade Dynasty, he actually received an Amnesty Jade Token. And this Family Head also had an unbelievably awesome father. He actually obtained two Amnesty Jade Tokens within twenty years. Throughout the thousand-year history of the Bright Jade Dynasty, there had only been five Amnesty Jade Tokens in total, and my Ren Family had three. This thing only doesn't work for rebellion; everything else is fine. Having too many of these is meaningless anyway. It's like making money but never spending it—depressing. This Family Head had always wanted to find an opportunity to try using one, to see what it actually felt like."

Clang... As Ren Jie spoke, he directly tossed the Amnesty Jade Token onto the ground. This was no ordinary jade. Having been tempered, it would not easily shatter. It rang crisply as it hit the ground, yet that sound shook everyone to their core, including Gao Peng, who had still been laughing after being beaten and remained brimming with confidence even as the blade at his neck cut into his flesh.

Silence. The enormous plaza outside the Imperial Palace suddenly fell quiet.

No one had expected Ren Jie to have such a move up his sleeve. Even Ren Junyang and the others were stunned. They had never imagined that Ren Jie carried such a thing, much less that he intended to use it...

Many people found it difficult even to breathe. An Amnesty Jade Token—people had only heard of such a thing. How many had actually seen one? Yet Ren Jie had actually... taken one out to use.

Gao Zhanyuan, standing on the outskirts, had originally wanted to threaten Ren Jie again and force him to release Gao Peng. But now his words were jammed in his throat, and he could not shout them out. With the Amnesty Jade Token in hand, if Ren Jie truly set his heart on killing Gao Peng today, it would not cause any great trouble. How had this happened? What should he do? What should he do? This thing could even be used in advance? It was simply too... too...

Too thrilling! Gao Ren stood nearby, his breathing growing rapid. He had never expected Ren Jie to make such a huge mess of things. He had originally thought it would merely be a verbal argument, and he had been considering how to help Ren Jie humiliate Gao Peng, whose smile made people uncomfortable. Who could have expected things to turn into this? It was too thrilling.

Tie Ta clenched both fists at the side. This felt incredible. No wonder his father always talked about how things had been when he followed the Old Family Head...

Fang Yan, Wen Zihao, and even the Second Prince were all dumbfounded. Things had gone far beyond expectations. Ren Jie truly was not ordinarily crazy. Why did he carry an Amnesty Jade Token around? Had he really long wanted to find someone to test it on? Crazy—he was truly crazy. Ren Junyang, Ren Hanlin, and Ren Wenxu, who had gotten out of their carriage on the outskirts but were blocked outside by the Guard Squad, were also frozen in place.

Was this still the Ren Jie who had acted like he wanted to die whenever they cut his allowance, who had constantly fawned over them for the sake of an extra ten or twenty thousand taels of silver each month—just one or two thousand Jade Coins?

"I'll count to three. Kneel down and cry for this Family Head, or else I'll give this Amnesty Jade Token to you." While everyone around him was stunned, Ren Jie slowly raised the battle blade in his hand. "One."

"Ren Jie, you dare! Men, prepare to..." Gao Zhanyuan suddenly came to his senses outside and shouted for his subordinates to rush forward. But even though he was a Divine Power Realm expert, he knew that facing the Ren Family's Guard Squad, no matter how many men he had, they could not break through in a short time. Besides, Gao Peng was still being held by Tong Qiang.

This guy was too damn arrogant. Good and bad, happiness and misery—all required comparison. At this moment, the Second Prince suddenly felt that Ren Jie's earlier attitude toward him had actually been rather good, at least compared to this.

As a Prince, this was the first time he had felt that in Jade Capital City, someone could be even more arrogant than him.

"Ren Family Head, please spare him beneath your blade. Otherwise, don't blame me for taking action." Fang Yan knew that if he still showed no reaction now, it would not do. At the very least, he had to put the words out first. No matter what happened afterward, he would have room to retreat. If necessary, he could act later, even if it meant being severely injured.

The reactions outside were varied, but Gao Peng, the man being held by Tong Qiang beneath Ren Jie's blade, was the one who mattered most. The confidence in his heart, the feeling that everything was under control, finally began to waver.

He could not help recalling his earlier analysis. Ren Jie had previously only eaten, drank, and played with people inferior to himself, people far worse than him. In the eyes of true hedonistic young masters like them, Ren Jie did not even count as one. But now, he had shocked everyone. He was not merely a hedonistic young master—he was somewhat insane.

"Two..." At that moment, Ren Jie's blade had already been raised to its highest point.

What should I do? What should I do? At this moment, Gao Peng's heart finally wavered. This guy was simply mad, just like Gao Fei had been back then. Gao Fei really might have been smashed to death at the time. Could it be that after being beaten by Gao Fei, this guy's brain had stopped working properly? Was he truly somewhat crazy?

If that was the case, then if he wrestled with a lunatic and truly died, he might die for nothing. Die for nothing—why had things become like this? He had actually been forced into such a state by this guy. He still had grand dreams. The things he wanted to accomplish were enough to shock the world. How could he be killed so casually by this lunatic?

No, he could not die beneath an Amnesty Jade Token.

Thud! Gao Peng finally knelt. As he did, tears streamed from his eyes. They were tears of humiliation, tears of unwillingness. The fury in his heart was nearly burning him alive.

"He knelt. Let me see whether he cried." Ren Jie lowered his head for a glance, then said with satisfaction, "Not bad. He knelt and cried."

"Look how badly you got scared. Why are you crying? I was only fooling around with you. This Family Head is the head of a family—how could I make things difficult for a child like you?" As he spoke, Ren Jie bent down and picked up the Amnesty Jade Token. Rising, he patted Gao Peng's face with his hand. "You may be willing to die, but I'm not willing to waste this Amnesty Jade Token. To be honest, you're not worth it. I was just scaring you earlier, because this Family Head finds that self-righteous smile of yours extremely annoying."

Only by living could one have everything. Under Ren Jie's mad coercion with the Amnesty Jade Token, Gao Peng had cast aside all his dignity and knelt. But the fury in his heart was already close to incinerating him. Even when someone as monstrously heaven-defying as Lan Tian had taken away his top scholar position, even with people like Fang Yan and Fang Qi around, he had never taken them to heart.

Because he was planning an enormous game, a game so vast it dwarfed everything else. He did not care about temporary gains and losses. Instead, he had secretly plotted because he could come into contact with these people early and learn about their circumstances.

Yet after completing all his studies at Jade Emperor Academy, with only one month left before he officially left the academy to enter government service, he had considered every possible change. He had even planned out the next five years of development. But he had never imagined that today's scene would occur.

A spur-of-the-moment test had instead brought him to this point at the hands of a hedonistic young master, a lunatic-like puppet Family Head.

He was unwilling—truly unwilling. Gao Peng wished he could tear Ren Jie apart alive and swallow him whole to vent his hatred.

Endure. He had to endure. He had always believed that, like the famous generals of ancient times and those emperors who had endured humiliation, he could temporarily bear any disgrace and ultimately seize the final victory. But when such humiliation and blows truly came, he discovered just how difficult and painful it was.

If he had previously regarded Ren Jie's hedonism and madness with indifference and merely developed the intention to kill him, then now he wanted to slaughter everyone around him. The Ren Family, the Amnesty Jade Token, was it? He would make Ren Jie and the Ren Family perish completely, completely... perish!

Crack... Under his towering rage, Gao Peng's tears continued to flow while his heart burned in a blaze of fury. The proud Gao Peng was nearly collapsing, yet he held himself together. But when Ren Jie's Sword Qi jade token spoke of having merely fooled him, treating him with the tone one used for a child, and said that he was not worth it, his teeth began to crack and shatter under his fury. He had actually ground several teeth to pieces. One could well imagine his state of mind at that moment.