In front of the Ye Mansion.

Patriarch Luo Xun of the Luo Family led a group of his men to surround the Ye Mansion. Their aggressive posturing made it clear they hadn’t come in peace.

"Ye Xuan, get out here!" Luo Xun roared. His voice was like a clap of thunder, booming so powerfully that it felt deafening even through the mansion’s gates and walls.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

The next moment, a group of people rushed out from the gates, quickly forming ranks to confront the members of the Luo Family.

Ye Cheng, Ye Wei, and Ye Feng were among them. Standing before them were two middle-aged men with stern expressions. They possessed a natural air of authority, and their auras were exceptionally powerful.

One of the two was Ye Xiao, Ye Wushuang’s second uncle.

The other was Ye Xiong, Ye Wushuang’s third uncle.

The two men frowned as they scanned the crowd, surprised to find that the Luo Family had brought quite a few Qi Vortex Experts. Ye Xiong’s expression darkened as he shouted, "Luo Xun, what do you think you’re doing?"

"What am I doing?"

Luo Xun fumed, "Have Ye Xuan come out!"

"If you have something to say, you can say it to me!" Ye Xiong replied, his expression grim.

"Say it to you?" Luo Xun’s anger hadn’t cooled. "Are you in charge of the Ye Family, or is Ye Xuan? Hurry up and get him out here."

Though Luo Xun appeared furious, his sharp eyes held no trace of anger. Instead, they were filled with a strange, cunning light.

Luo Xun knew perfectly well that the two men before him, Ye Xiao and Ye Xiong, had long coveted the position of Ye Family Patriarch, causing unending internal conflict. That was why he was deliberately sowing discord, hoping to intensify their strife.

"Hmph!"

Sure enough, Ye Xiong’s expression turned foul, and his eyes grew cold.

"I was unaware Patriarch Luo would be gracing us with his presence. Please forgive my failure to provide a proper welcome!" Just as Luo Xun finished speaking, Ye Xuan walked out with Ye Wushuang and Ye Rou.

Upon suddenly seeing Ye Wushuang, the eyes of Ye Wei and Ye Feng, who stood to the side, flashed with venomous resentment. This was especially true for Ye Feng, whose gaze was thick with killing intent. Ye Wushuang had severed one of his arms, nearly crippling him for life.

’I’ve carved this hatred into my very soul,’ he thought. ’At the clan assembly, I’ll cut off both of his arms to repay him!’

Seeing Ye Xuan, Luo Xun immediately got to the point. "I’ve come today to demand justice for my son. If you, Ye Xuan, don’t give me a satisfactory answer, the Luo Family will not let this matter rest."

"What justice?" Ye Xuan frowned.

"What justice?"

Luo Xun sneered and shouted to the men behind him, "Bring him up!"

As he spoke, Luo Wu was helped forward by two Luo Family disciples. One of his arms was heavily bandaged, as if he had suffered a grievous wound.

At this sight, Ye Wushuang’s eyes narrowed. He seemed to understand the purpose of Luo Xun’s visit, but he remained silent, listening intently.

"Look what your son has done! He crippled my son’s arm!" Luo Xun said furiously. Then, his gaze shifted to Ye Wushuang, his eyes sharp, intimidating, and filled with a murderous glint.

Ye Wushuang’s heart sank. ’Luo Xun wants me dead!’

"Ye Wushuang crippled Luo Wu?"

Hearing this, the members of the Ye Family were momentarily stunned.

Ye Xiao said incredulously, "Luo Xun, are you certain you’re not mistaken?"

"Exactly. How could Ye Wushuang possibly cripple Luo Wu? Everyone in Blood Jade City knows his situation. You can’t just make baseless accusations," Ye Xiong added, also in disbelief.

Of course, he wasn’t trying to defend Ye Wushuang. He was simply worried that the Ye Family would be forced to take the fall for something.

The other Ye Family disciples didn’t believe it either. They knew better than anyone what a good-for-nothing Ye Wushuang was. How could he possibly cripple Luo Wu, a Body Tempering Tenth Layer expert?

The exceptions, of course, were Ye Cheng, Ye Feng, and Ye Wei. They hadn’t yet had a chance to report what happened with Ye Wushuang to the family, but they knew the truth with perfect clarity.

Ye Feng, in particular, thought, ’Forget Body Tempering Tenth Layer, he even cut off my arm, and I’m at the Qi Vortex Third Layer!’

"Mistaken? My son’s arm is crippled! Are you still going to cover for him?" Luo Xun exploded with rage. As he roared, the Luo Family disciples all took a menacing step forward in unison.

"Ye Waste! You had the guts to cripple my arm, but you don’t have the guts to admit it?" Luo Wu seized the opportunity to shout, his face a mask of venomous hatred. The swelling on his face still hadn’t gone down, making him look puffy.

"If I’d known this would happen, I would have just killed you then," Ye Wushuang said, his voice cold as ice. The fact that they dared to come to his home and threaten his father had ignited a true, cold fury within him.

"You..." Hearing this, Luo Wu flinched.

"You vicious little whelp!"

Luo Xun shot Ye Wushuang a look burning with killing intent, then turned to the others. "You all heard him! The little beast has admitted it himself. What more is there to say?"

The faces of the Ye Family members turned grim. They stared at Ye Wushuang with cold indifference. "Ye Wushuang, what are you trying to prove?" one of them said coldly. "Do you think you can bring down the entire Ye Family with this stunt?"

’Bring down the Ye Family?’

The cold, indifferent words chilled Ye Wushuang to the bone. ’These people actually think I want to destroy the Ye Family!’

"Then what do you propose?" Ye Xuan asked, his voice low. Behind his back, his hand clenched into a fist so tight that his nails dug into his palm, drawing blood. He was filled with a helpless rage; they were slandering his son, and yet he, the Patriarch, was powerless to stop it.

"You have two options," Luo Xun said coldly. "Either cut off one of Ye Wushuang’s arms—an arm for an arm—or the Ye Family hands over ten Ninth-Grade Spirit Medicines as compensation."

"Luo Xun, don’t you go too far!" Ye Xuan said, his voice laced with anger.

"Too far?"

Luo Xun sneered, his tone utterly imperious. "If you, Ye Xuan, don’t give me a satisfactory answer today, then the Luo Family will declare war on the Ye Family!"

War!

At that single word, the expressions of the Ye Family members changed. A war before the competition for the City Lord’s position would be a devastating loss for the Ye Family. At that point, any hope of securing the position would be gone.

Ye Xiong and Ye Xiao exchanged a look, seemingly having reached a decision. "Then we’ll cut off one of Ye Wushuang’s arms," one of them declared. "That should be a satisfactory answer for you."

"Right! We have no Spirit Medicine to give, so just cut off Ye Wushuang’s arm!" a group of Ye Family disciples chimed in indifferently. To them, it seemed, one of Ye Wushuang’s arms was worth less than ten Spirit Medicines.

"Who dares!"

Just as they finished speaking, a young woman emerged from the main gate and shouted, her voice filled with anger.

It was Ye Xue.

"Xue’er, what are you doing out here causing trouble?" Seeing his daughter emerge, Ye Xiao’s face darkened, and he immediately berated her. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Father, I want to ask you something. If someone were bullying me, what would you do? And all of you," Ye Xue ignored her father’s words, instead turning her question on him and all the Ye Family disciples present, "if I were being bullied, what would you do?"

Though confused, Ye Xiao immediately replied, "If anyone dared to bully my daughter, I’d kill them."

"Who dares bully Xue’er? I’d kill them!"

"That’s right, kill them!"

The crowd of Ye Family disciples shouted, their voices full of righteous fury.

"Kill them? What a lovely thought!"

"When that bastard Luo Wu was bullying me earlier, some of you just stood there and watched like cowards! If Brother Wushuang hadn’t stepped in to save me, I would have been at that bastard’s mercy."

Burning with anger, Ye Xue turned to face the crowd of Ye Family disciples. "And now, without even asking why, without bothering to distinguish right from wrong, you’re choosing to cripple one of his arms. Can you even call yourselves members of the Ye Family?"

Ye Xue was simply venting her feelings. Her words were a raw outburst, with no other calculation behind them. But she didn’t realize that in this situation, her words were incredibly ironic, each one landing like a sharp slap across everyone’s face.

Even her own father, Ye Xiao, felt his old face flush with shame. Her words were irrefutable, and he could only stand there and willingly accept the invisible slap.

’Because his daughter had been bullied, and he hadn’t even known. She was saved by Ye Wushuang... and yet they had listened to an outsider’s one-sided story and turned on their own family’s "savior." They truly deserved to be slapped!’