A Thunderous Strike! Han Yue: I Wouldn't Last Three Exchanges

"You..."

Qiu Yue was about to speak when he met Ye Qingzhou's eyes. A crushing pressure immediately bore down on him, and he instinctively staggered back a few steps, nearly falling flat on his backside.

At the critical moment, a hand reached out to steady him, saving him from making a spectacle of himself in public.

"I take it you're the Ye Clan's newly promoted seed, Ye Qingzhou."

A young man who bore some resemblance to Qiu Yue, but looked considerably more heroic, stepped in front of him.

"That's Qiu Yue's older brother, Qiu Shuang," Ye Xinlan said, introducing him to Ye Qingzhou. "He cultivates the lightning attribute and can't become an alchemist, so he's devoted himself to cultivation. He's nineteen this year, and I hear he broke through to Dou Ling not long ago."

"I heard he's already passed the Sacred Pill City Tower Guard's assessment. He probably isn't here for Jia Nan Academy's entrance assessment."

"Brother, beat him up for me!" Qiu Yue had nearly disgraced himself, and in front of Ye Xinlan, no less. His entire face flushed red as he pointed at Ye Qingzhou. "I want him on his knees begging me."

Ye Qingzhou couldn't help frowning. "Coming to my Ye City to spout nonsense? It seems the Qiu Family has no regard for the Ye Clan at all."

"Your Ye Clan is a grasshopper after autumn. Why should we take you seriously?" Qiu Yue's eyes were full of disdain. "Fail the assessment two more times, and you'll be kicked out of the Five Great Clans. When that happens, you'll have to live at the mercy of my Qiu Family."

The corner of Ye Qingzhou's eye twitched. He looked at Qiu Shuang. "Did your brother leave his brain in your mother's womb when he was born?"

Pfft.

Laughter immediately broke out all around them.

Ye Qingzhou's taunt sounded novel.

"You're courting death!" Qiu Yue's face turned the color of pig liver.

No one had ever said such a thing about him in his life.

But the next moment, his pupils contracted.

Ye Qingzhou, who had been speaking to him just a moment ago, had crossed several yards in the blink of an eye and appeared before him.

Smack!

Ye Qingzhou swung his hand, but just as it was about to land on Qiu Shuang's face, another hand caught it.

"Blazing Sun Palm."

Ye Qingzhou infused his hand with the Dou Qi he had already gathered.

Boom!

The hand gripping his wrist was blasted away, and his flame-wreathed palm landed on Qiu Yue's chest with tremendous force.

"Pfft!" Qiu Yue flew backward and crashed into a pillar, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

The flames burned away his clothes, revealing a shattered piece of inner armor caved in at the chest.

Without that armor, he would probably have suffered far worse than simply coughing up blood.

A flicker of pinkish-white flashed through Ye Qingzhou's eyes. The power of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame had already slipped into Qiu Yue's body unnoticed.

He intended to kill, but he wouldn't mindlessly do it in front of a crowd.

"Qiu Shuang, you useless piece of trash!" The first person Qiu Yue cursed was none other than his own brother, Qiu Shuang.

As he spoke, he immediately took a tier-three pill from his Storage Ring and swallowed it to heal his injuries.

Qiu Shuang ignored Qiu Yue. Electricity surged around him, and he flashed forward like an arc of lightning, appearing before Ye Qingzhou in the blink of an eye and throwing a punch.

High-grade Profound Tier Dou Technique, Flash Thunder Fist

Bang!

Ye Qingzhou neither dodged nor evaded, taking the punch head-on.

A vicious smile spread across Qiu Yue's face, but Qiu Shuang's expression changed. The impact hadn't felt right.

The next moment, Ye Qingzhou's body suddenly exploded into a shower of sparks.

"A clone! When?!" Qiu Shuang's hair stood on end, and he instinctively tried to retreat.

But Ye Qingzhou's true body had already appeared behind him, striking with a palm full of gathered Dou Qi.

"Junior, stop!"

A middle-aged man's voice came from the distance, carrying a powerful presence and oppressive force. A Dou Huang expert had locked onto him.

Ye Qingzhou's expression remained unchanged. Ignoring the warning, he struck out with his palm.

Boom!

The blow sent Qiu Shuang flying into a building ahead, raising a cloud of dust.

"Hiss!"

Only then did most of the people around them realize what had happened, and they couldn't help drawing sharp breaths.

The boys and girls who had come to take Jia Nan Academy's Outer Academy and Inner Academy assessments were especially awed.

Ye Qingzhou had struck too quickly, and the strength of his techniques was beyond their understanding.

"Han Yue, how strong do you think he is?"

Someone asked the question from atop a nearby building.

They were students from other cities who had been specially admitted to Jia Nan Academy's Inner Academy.

"Not a trace of his presence leaked out. He has perfect control over his own strength, so it's hard for me to judge." The girl shook her head gently. Her silver hair fell to her waist like moonlight, and she wore a knight's outfit over her long, straight legs.

One thing she could say for certain was that she wouldn't last three exchanges against Ye Qingzhou.

At the same time, a terrifying pressure spread out. A middle-aged man flew out from a tall building on wings formed from Dou Qi, his gaze icy as he looked at Ye Qingzhou. "Junior, I told you to stop. Didn't you hear me?"

Ye Qingzhou slowly withdrew his hand and raised his eyes to the man. "I heard you. But what the hell are you, that I should listen to you?"

Hiss.

Many people were secretly shocked.

This was a Dou Huang expert.

"Good. Very good." The middle-aged man was so furious that he laughed. "Junior, it seems your elders never properly taught you the rules. I'll do it for them today."

With that, the man turned into a streak of light and charged at Ye Qingzhou, intending to disregard his status and bully a junior.

But the next moment, another streak of light shot out from the side and intercepted the middle-aged man halfway. A mocking voice rang out. "Qiu Tian, the older you get, the more you regress. Interfering in a fight between juniors-aren't you ashamed?"

The two points of light collided violently in midair, sending out a shockwave. They resolved into two figures hovering in the sky.

"Ye Zhengming!" Qiu Tian swept his sleeve and spoke coldly. "Look at your junior. It was nothing more than an exchange of words, yet he attacked and injured someone."

"If you don't give me a satisfactory explanation today, my Qiu Family won't let this rest."

"Ridiculous." Ye Zhengming showed no fear, his presence rising. "How do you intend to pursue this? Are you going to wage war on my Ye Clan? Have you forgotten the Pill Tower's rules?"

"If you really want a war, that's fine too. My Ye Clan would be happy to oblige. When the time comes, if my Ye Clan loses its place among the Five Great Clans, your Qiu Family will go down with us."

Qiu Tian's expression froze, and he cursed inwardly, Mad dog.

Of the Pill Tower's Five Great Families, the Dan Family had the longest heritage, stretching back over a thousand years. It had produced genius after genius, and its position was unshakable.

At their peaks, the other four families had been similar in strength. Now, the Cao Family was second only to the Dan Family, far surpassing the Ye Clan, the Qiu Family, and the Bai Family.

The Cao Family had also produced a monstrous junior, Cao Ying. Xuan Kongzi, one of the Pill Tower's Three Giants, had taken her as his disciple, and she had become a core disciple of the Pill Tower at fifteen. Her future was full of promise.

The Ye Clan, the Qiu Family, and the Bai Family had always been fairly evenly matched, but a decision the Ye Clan had made several decades ago had cost it many of its elites and left a gap between its generations.

If not for the protection of the Pill Tower's rules, it would have long since been carved up and devoured by the various factions.

Even so, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. If the Ye Clan was willing to drag another family down with it, even the Dan and Cao Families would have to think twice.

The Qiu and Bai Families had no desire to become a second Ye Clan.

"Ye Zhengming, don't think you can scare me with words like that," Qiu Shuang said coldly. "You must give the Qiu Family an explanation for what happened today."

"An explanation? What explanation?" Ye Zhengming dug in his ear and blew lightly on his finger. "Your Qiu City may be so foul and murky that a single walk through it makes a person sick, but Jia Nan Academy's recruitment team doesn't mind. They'll still pay it a visit."

"Instead of waiting in Qiu City as you should, your Qiu Family people insisted on coming to my Ye City for the assessment. Do you take me for a fool who doesn't know what you're after?"

"Just now, your Qiu Family's juniors deliberately picked a fight with my Ye Clan's juniors. When my Ye Clan's juniors were outmatched, my Ye Clan didn't say a word."

"Now that your Qiu Family has lost, you can't accept it?"

"Pah!"