"I truly meant nothing else. I only wanted to spar with you!"
Immediately afterward, a figure swaggered out of the restaurant that had had a huge hole smashed through it.
It was a youth, Xiao Lin's younger brother.
Seventeen or eighteen years old, he was quite tall, standing half a head above his peers.
His black hair was tied casually behind his head, with a few stray locks hanging over his forehead, giving him a somewhat unruly air.
He had well-proportioned features, swordlike brows, star-bright eyes, and a straight nose. Judging by his looks alone, he was a handsome youth.
But the trouble lay in those eyes. Their corners tilted slightly upward, and his dark pupils held a defiance that did not match his age.
Coupled with that crooked smile at the corner of his mouth.
His entire bearing could be summed up in four words: not to be crossed.
The youth carried a half-full flask of wine in his right hand, his left tucked casually into his trouser pocket, as he stepped over broken stones and roof tiles and left the restaurant, his footsteps as light as if he were out for a stroll.
Some dust had settled on his dark red robes, but he could not be bothered to brush it off.
"Spar?"
The youth tilted his head, looking down at the middle-aged man slumped at the foot of the wall.
"Come on, man. You're an Earthly Sovereign, and you insisted on sparring with me. I only accepted to do you a favor."
"And this is all you've got? You couldn't even take one punch?"
The youth shook the wine flask in his hand, his tone full of disdain.
"I hadn't even put my wine down before you went flying. What a letdown."
At this point, the youth