At the entrance to the Jiang Family villa.
Tang Fugui pleaded desperately with the security guard at the gate. "Please, I have something very important to discuss with the head of the Jiang Family."
The guard looked at Tang Fugui's camouflage clothes, washed so often they were almost bleached of color, with utter contempt.
"Shoo, shoo! Get lost. Our family head is a busy man. How would he have time for you?"
"Please, this concerns the family head's son!"
The guard knew who Tang Fugui was, and he also knew that the son Tang Fugui meant was Jiang Fan.
"You mean Jiang Fan? He's not our family head's son anymore. Our family head has only one son of his own blood, and that's Young Master Jiang Youtian."
"Just let me in. I need to tell the family head that Xiao Fan is already an early-stage martial apprentice!"
Tang Fugui's words immediately sent the guard rocking back and forth with laughter.
"Hahaha! Jiang Fan? You're saying he became an early-stage martial apprentice? Hahaha-that piece of trash? If he could become an early-stage martial apprentice, I'd jump off the top of Plow Mountain."
Just then, Jiang Qifeng came out of the villa flanked by two bodyguards and happened to witness the scene.
"What's going on?"
Hearing Jiang Qifeng's question, the guard forcibly suppressed his laughter and said, "This fellow insisted on seeing you no matter what. He even said Jiang Fan-he became an early-stage martial apprentice."
The guard felt as though holding back his laughter was going to kill him.
Jiang Qifeng chuckled and looked at Tang Fugui. "You're saying Jiang Fan became an early-stage martial apprentice?"
"Yes, yes!" Tang Fugui nodded repeatedly. "Everything I said is true. Xiao Fan really is an early-stage martial apprentice now. Yesterday, he lifted a graphite disc weighing two hundred jin outright. Family Head Jiang, Xiao Fan isn't trash. He's already set foot on the path of martial arts. Staying with us will hold back his future. So I hope you'll show him mercy and take him back."
"Heh heh heh!" Jiang Qifeng sneered, his face full of mockery.
"Tang Fugui, you really know how to spin a tale. Just to get Jiang Fan back into my Jiang Family, you actually claim he's become an early-stage martial apprentice. Don't you know he only has 19 N of qi and blood? Even if he absorbed qi and blood raw stones like mad, as though they cost nothing, he couldn't possibly rise from 19 N to 80 N in such a short time. Besides, does he even have any qi and blood raw stones?"
Qi and blood raw stones were expensive, and ordinary people couldn't necessarily buy them just because they had money. They needed connections and status, too.
"And I'm afraid you don't know this, either: even if Jiang Fan were supplied with an endless stream of qi and blood raw stones, he couldn't keep improving without stopping. Everyone's talent and capacity to withstand absorption are different. If people really could pile up their strength with qi and blood raw stones, those martial arts prospects wouldn't need to cultivate. They could just absorb raw stones."
In Jiang Qifeng's eyes, Tang Fugui was nothing but an ignorant country bumpkin.
"Tang Fugui, for Youtian's sake, I won't have you driven out today. You have three seconds. Leave immediately. If you don't, don't blame me for showing no mercy."
Hearing this, the two bodyguards astutely stepped forward and gave Tang Fugui threatening looks.
Tang Fugui's face paled. After glancing at the bodyguards, he swallowed his fear and continued, "Family Head Jiang, I know what I'm saying sounds unbelievable. Even I could hardly believe it when I saw Xiao Fan lift that graphite disc yesterday. But I swear, everything I've said is true. Xiao Fan really is an early-stage martial apprentice. Please take him back. I'm begging you!"
"Enough noise!" Jiang Qifeng said impatiently, then ordered the two bodyguards, "Throw him out."
"Yes."
Having received their orders, the two bodyguards clenched their fists, making their knuckles crack.
Jiang Fan had just arrived when he saw this scene.
But he was already too late. The two bodyguards hurled Tang Fugui out of the villa grounds.
"Dad!" Jiang Fan shouted, racing to Tang Fugui's side.
"How are you? Are you all right? Are you hurt?" As Jiang Fan asked, he swept his psychic power over Tang Fugui from head to toe. Fortunately, apart from a few superficial scrapes, his bones were unharmed.
Even so, Jiang Fan was enraged.
He slowly stood up, his gaze icy as he stared at the two bodyguards.
"Those hands of yours need to be crippled."
With that, he shot forward from where he stood. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the two bodyguards. Under their astonished gazes, he clamped down on their wrists and bent them hard.
**Crack-**the crisp sound of breaking bones rang out.
Then both men erupted into screams like pigs being slaughtered.
"Aaaah-!"
The two bodyguards stared at their own hands. Their palms hung limply, like willow branches swaying in the wind. They were completely broken.
Jiang Qifeng's eyes widened into circles. He could hardly believe what had just happened.
Jiang Fan's movements had flowed like drifting clouds and running water, completed in a single seamless motion. His strength was also far beyond that of Jiang Qifeng's two bodyguards.
Even so, Jiang Qifeng merely believed that Jiang Fan's qi and blood had increased somewhat, and that he had taken advantage of the two bodyguards' carelessness and underestimation of him to break their arms in a single move.
As for Jiang Fan having become an early-stage martial apprentice, as Tang Fugui had just claimed, he wouldn't believe that even if he were beaten to death.
"Jiang Fan, what nerve! You dare strike members of my Jiang Family right in front of me!"
Jiang Fan cast an indifferent glance at the two bodyguards, who were still howling. A measure of unruly defiance lay in his slightly raised brows and eyes.
"Members of your Jiang Family? More like the Jiang Family's dogs, aren't they?"
"You! You're asking for a beating!" Jiang Qifeng raised his palm and swung it toward Jiang Fan's face.
The scene was especially familiar to Jiang Fan. Hadn't it been exactly like this three days ago? Jiang Qifeng had swung a slap at him. If he hadn't mustered every ounce of his strength, endured the impact, and barely blocked that slap, his face would probably have been slapped swollen.
With a smack, Jiang Fan forcefully knocked aside Jiang Qifeng's swinging hand.
Jiang Qifeng looked at his reddened hand, then faced Jiang Fan, his shock giving way to uncontrollable rage.
"You unfilial, defiant wretch!"
Jiang Fan's face held a sneer. "Family Head Jiang, please get this straight. I'm the Tang Family's son. I have nothing whatsoever to do with you, Family Head Jiang. Calling me an unfilial son isn't appropriate."
Jiang Qifeng pressed his lips tightly together until they turned white.
Just then, Jiang Hongyuan, Jiang Chengyuan, Jiang Huangyuan, and Jiang Lüyuan rushed over and unleashed a landslide and tsunami of abuse at Jiang Fan.
"Jiang Fan, how dare you treat Dad like that! You really have a death wish!"
"Big Sister, why waste your breath on him? A little beast like him-scratch him!"
"Second Sister is right. Jiang Fan is just begging to be taught a lesson. Let's teach her a proper lesson, like we used to!"
With that, the four sisters charged over in perfect unison.
One dug sharp nails into Jiang Fan's hand, another tugged at his arm, and another bit him.
Yet Jiang Fan remained motionless from beginning to end. Only his eyes, already black as ink, grew ever more unfathomably deep.
Seeing this, Tang Fugui was both heartbroken and anxious.
"Stop! Please, stop! You can't treat Xiao Fan like this!"
Tang Fugui was just about to go over when Jiang Youtian, who had appeared at some point, blocked his path.