"Kneel, or die!"

Jiang Chen’s face was cold as he spoke.

His voice was icy and sharp, each word like a razor-sharp blade rushing toward Yun Haoran.

The aura of death enveloped Yun Haoran. The metallic chill from the Cyan Blade Sword made him feel as if he were a hair’s breadth from death, and his body couldn’t help but tremble.

Below the altar, an uproar erupted.

Everyone was dumbfounded, staring at the two on the altar in utter disbelief. They could hardly believe what was happening before their very eyes!

The grand envoy of the Saint Martial Sword Sect, an supreme expert of the True Martial Realm, Yun Haoran, was actually defeated by Jiang Chen?

"I’ve seen some geniuses in Yulan Mansion who could fight above their level. But... I have never heard of a Martial Artist in the Martial Arts Realm defeating someone in the True Martial Realm. This is simply a miracle!"

"I never thought Yandu City could produce such a genius. The heavens are truly blessing our city!"

"To think the Jiang Family would abandon such a talent for a mere Jiang Ziyou. They’re a bunch of utterly ignorant fools..." Sima Tao sighed, and his sentiment resonated with the crowd.

Everyone turned to look at Jiang Tai and Jiang Ziyou, shaking their heads in pity or casting glances of contempt...

The crowd’s chatter echoed in their ears, making the expressions of the Jiang father and daughter turn incredibly ugly.

Jiang Tai’s fists were clenched so tightly his shoulders trembled slightly. A look of intense shock flickered in his eyes as he muttered to himself in disbelief, ’How could this be? He was clearly a waste. How did he become so strong? It’s impossible. This must be an illusion, it has to be...’

But the scene before him was all too real, like a series of hands slapping him viciously across the face, reminding him that this was all true. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Jiang Ziyou looked up at the young man’s silhouette on the altar. Her eyes gradually lost focus, filled with a thick haze of confusion.

She simply couldn’t believe that the waste she had never given a second thought to could have become so powerful. In fact, the current Jiang Chen was so strong that she could only look up to him.

She could feel the disdain and mockery in the gazes of the surrounding crowd.

It was as if invisible hands were slapping her across the face.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot.

It hurt immensely!

Jiang Ziyou struggled to raise her head and look at Jiang Chen. Her vision blurred, and it felt as though the waste she had always dismissed had transformed into a towering, insurmountable mountain.

A heavy, suffocating pressure settled in her chest, making it hard to breathe.

She bit her lip hard, completely unaware that she had broken the skin and was drawing blood.

Nearby, Bai Ling snapped out of her shock. Hearing the crowd, she couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Ziyou, a corner of her mouth lifting in a cold, disdainful sneer. "Although being chosen by Senior Brother Lan Haichen means you must have your own unique qualities, judging by how you used Jiang Chen and then abandoned him, your eye for talent and your character are both seriously lacking!"

"You..."

Jiang Ziyou’s face was ghastly as she glared at Bai Ling.

Bai Ling just snorted in contempt, crossing her arms before her ample chest as she squinted toward the altar.

...

’I lost? I actually lost?’

’How is this possible? I’m a genius of the True Martial Realm, how could I lose to this waste? This must be a hallucination... But why does this hallucination feel so real? They’re all saying I lost... Could it be... I really lost?’

’I... I actually lost? To this piece of trash?’

After a moment of daze, Yun Haoran finally came to his senses. He struggled to lift his head to look at Jiang Chen, his voice trembling. "I... I never thought I’d lose to a waste like you..."

"I’m a waste? Then what does that make you, the one who lost to me?" Jiang Chen shot him a contemptuous look and said flatly, "Cut the crap. Are you going to kneel, kowtow, and beg for my forgiveness? Or should I end your pathetic life with my sword? Make your decision!"

"Insolent Jiang Chen! I am a disciple of the Saint Martial Sword Sect, a superior man, high and mighty! How dare you..."

Yun Haoran struggled to get up, but the moment he moved, a hand landed on his face.

SLAP—

A fiery, stinging pain spread from his face throughout his body. Yun Haoran shuddered violently, his eyes widening as he stared at Jiang Chen, a look of profound disbelief flashing in them. "You... you dare to slap my face?"

"And why wouldn’t I dare?"

Jiang Chen sneered.

Yun Haoran was overcome with rage, roaring hysterically, "Bastard! You dare slap my face?! I’ll rip you to a thousand pie—"

He didn’t even get to finish the last word before he was cut off by a series of crisp SMACKS.

Jiang Chen planted a foot on Yun Haoran’s chest, pinning him to the ground. His hand became a blur of afterimages, relentlessly striking his face.

A slap from the left!

A slap from the right!

A flurry of slaps from both sides...

Jiang Chen only stopped when his own hand went numb.

By now, Yun Haoran’s entire face was swollen like a pig’s head. All the teeth in his mouth had been shattered, and blood flowed ceaselessly from his mouth and nose.

It was a truly miserable sight.

"Still got something to say?" Jiang Chen asked.

"You... you’re dead meat..." Yun Haoran slurred.

The moment the words left his mouth, another round of SMACK SMACK SMACK followed...

After a full three hundred-plus slaps, Jiang Chen finally stopped. He shook his hand out and looked down at the utterly defeated Yun Haoran before spitting. "Fucking hell, I hate cheap bastards like you who don’t learn unless they’re beaten. You just had to force me to get rough, had to be beaten to a pulp before you’d talk like a human being, huh?"

Jiang Chen suddenly lifted his foot and brought it down, kicking Yun Haoran over. He then stomped viciously on the wound of his severed shoulder, causing blood to splatter.

Yun Haoran had managed to stop the bleeding from his severed arm, but now the wound tore open again. Blood gushed out, and the pain made him seize up, screaming repeatedly, "Stop, stop... I won’t do it again! Let me go, I’m begging you, let me go..."

Jiang Chen showed no pity, his face a mask of indifference. "So you can feel pain after all. You can beg for mercy, too! Looks like you, a high and mighty ’superior man’, are no different from the ’waste’ you look down on!"

"Jiang... Jiang Chen, let me go! If you let me go, all enmity between us will be wiped clean. An-and I promise to give you back Jiang Ziyou’s Saint Martial Order and make you a disciple of the Sword Sect. How about it?" Yun Haoran lifted his pig-like head, forcing a pained, ugly smile onto his pale face as he tried to compromise.

Jiang Chen’s overwhelming power, and the several hundred swift slaps, had filled him with despair and the threat of death.

Dignity or life!

Yun Haoran wisely chose the latter!

Jiang Chen leaned down slightly, squinting as he studied Yun Haoran. He spoke lightly, "Wipe it all clean? And make me a disciple of the Saint Martial Sword Sect? What a tempting offer!"

"Exactly! Countless people dream of joining the Saint Martial Sword Sect. As long as you let me go, I guarantee you can enter the Sword Sect! And..." Yun Haoran’s face lit up with joy, and he added quickly, "The Sword Sect is full of factions. Newcomers without a backer will be exploited and bullied. If you let me go, This Seat will naturally protect you when you get to the Sword Sect. I can guarantee your safety!"

Hearing that Yun Haoran, in a desperate bid to save his own life, was going to return the Saint Martial Order to Jiang Chen and take him to the Saint Martial Sword Sect, the crowd below the altar was collectively stunned.

Jiang Ziyou’s whole body trembled, her face filled with disbelief. Her complexion instantly turned pale, and her features twisted with intense resentment and fury. "The Saint Martial Order is mine!" she shrieked hysterically. "No one can take it from me!"

"You, shut your mouth!"

Yun Haoran shot Jiang Ziyou a vicious glare and said in a low voice, "With Senior Brother Lan around, you can become a disciple of the Sword Sect even without the Saint Martial Order. What are you panicking for?"

Hearing this, Jiang Ziyou fell silent, but her eyes were still filled with deep humiliation and unwillingness.

Her gaze toward Jiang Chen grew increasingly venomous, laced with a chilling killing intent, as if she wished she could tear him to shreds.

"Now that you put it that way, I’m actually a little tempted!"

Jiang Chen glanced at Jiang Ziyou with interest, a smile playing on his lips. "I can let you go. However, I have one more condition."

"What condition? Just say the word! As long as you’re willing to spare me, I’ll definitely satisfy you!" Yun Haoran said quickly.

Jiang Chen pointed at Jiang Ziyou. "As long as you cripple this vicious woman’s cultivation and revoke her qualification to go to the Saint Martial Sword Sect, I’ll let you go. Otherwise, the sword in my hand might just pierce your heart!" As he spoke, the tip of Jiang Chen’s sword was already pressed against Yun Haoran’s chest.

"This... this..."

Yun Haoran immediately looked troubled and said nervously, "Jiang Ziyou is the person Senior Brother Lan specifically asked to bring back. If... If I can’t bring her back, Senior Brother Lan will have my head..."

"So, you’re afraid of that Senior Brother Lan, but you’re not afraid of me?" Jiang Chen sneered.

"No... it’s not like that..." Yun Haoran gritted his teeth, hesitating.

’Damn it!’

’Senior Brother Lan might be strong, but he can’t save me now! Better you die than I. My own life comes first!’

With this thought, a ruthless expression appeared on Yun Haoran’s face. He shot a palm strike toward Jiang Ziyou. "Jiang Ziyou, to save my own life, I have no choice but to wrong you!"

He was preparing to cripple Jiang Ziyou’s cultivation!

However...

Just as his sharp palm strike was about to cripple Jiang Ziyou, a faint blue light suddenly erupted from her body. It transformed into a towering pillar of light that connected heaven and earth. A sacred aura seemed to emanate from it as a blue figure slowly condensed in the sky above.

Following it was a voice, as indifferent as a divine decree, that exploded in everyone’s ears...

"Jiang Ziyou is under This Seat’s protection. You dare to attempt to harm her. This Seat sentences you—to death!"