"What are you doing here, Peng Ho?"

Shen Yuan clicked his tongue while thinking that he should have been more vigilant. He should have turned around when he had sensed the oddity in the street.

He peeked outside the open door and realized that the auburn-haired servant had come alone.

"You are just as detestable as always, Shen Yuan. Do you think I won’t notice how you are getting stronger in secret? I told you, didn’t I? If you step out of line and do something I don’t like, I will not let you go." Peng Ho’s face twisted in anger seeing his nonchalant attitude.

"Do you think things are the same as before? Do you think I am the same helpless boy who could not fight back?!" Peng Ho slowly stood up. The more he spoke, the angrier he got.

"What did you think was going to happen? You will get stronger behind my back and take revenge on me once you surpass me?" He walked up to Shen Yuan and spread out his arms in a mocking gesture. "Did you think just because you were praised all your life for your talent, your luck will never run out?"

"Let me tell you something; this is no fairy tale. And I am not some dumb guy you can fool." He jabbed one finger in Shen Yuan’s chest and spat with venom, "You should have just stayed down, and I would have let you live for a few days."

Whoosh!

Peng Ho let a sliver of his dark, pulsing aura escape out.

He wanted to intimidate Shen Yuan.

He wanted to show him that no matter how much effort Shen Yuan put into training, he would never surpass him.

"Um..." Yet his efforts failed before he even started. Unaffected by the killing intent Peng Ho had been carefully cultivating for the whole year, Shen Yuan tilted his head with a clueless expression on his face. "Who are you?"

Boom!

Peng Ho was livid with anger.

When he saw Shen Yuan brushing off a part of his aura as easily as breathing, he was startled. But his words affected him the most. It was like a bomb had dropped on his head the moment he heard them.

Inhale...

Exhale!

.

.

.

Peng Ho’s face was red with anger. "How dare he make fun of me! Does this pest still not realize his place?’

"I mean, I know your name," unaware of how much his words were messing with Peng Ho’s mind. Shen Yuan continued to speak, "I know you have some sort of beef with me. But what I don’t know is why. I have never seen you in my life. We never met for me to have done something to you. So what is it?"

"Did I unknowingly woo your woman? If that’s the case, I have to apologize. I might have done that without realizing."

Shen Yuan sighed with genuine emotions of helplessness. "The truth is I don’t even know what emotions like love, lust, hate, sorrow, or even fear feel like."

"Or was it business? Nah, I rarely did any business?"

"What else is left?"

Peng Ho’s face was beyond ugly at this point. Each word from Shen Yuan was like a blow to his self-esteem, which was weaker than his self-control. "Are you mocking me?"

"You don’t know me? He... Ha. HAHAHAHAH!!!" Throwing his head back, he started laughing like someone who had finally lost it. "All this time... All of my life..."

His laughs grew loud.

And louder.

"...can’t feel emotions?" Until it turned into tears that uncontrollably spilled out through the hand he was using to cover his face.

Shen Yuan frowned, looking at Peng Ho vigilantly.

Normal people, he could deal with them. But there were some people who, if pushed over the edge, become unpredictable.

Psychopaths.

"...wooing a woman I liked on accident?"

He could feel Peng Ho had some sort of obsession with him. Now that he was up close to the boy, he could notice things about him that he did not before.

Peng Ho stood tall with confidence, but he was still caged. He wore tight robes that fitted his body very closely. So much so that his defined muscles were visible.

He had covered himself from the neck below even when it was in the middle of the summer.

Sure, cultivators did not feel heat the same way as mortals do, but they liked to wear loose clothing too.

BOOM!

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" Peng Ho finally lost all sense of control and let his aura explode outwards.

The walls in the room started to break from the impact of the furniture that was thrown against it.

Shen Yuan was standing in the same spot, but his eyes were narrowed and his posture was tense.

’Can I take on someone in Qi Condensation Realm when I myself am still two levels under him?’ Doubts appeared in Shen Yuan’s mind. Even with the cheat system, he could feel it.

The power difference between himself and Peng Ho.

"All of my life, I have suffered. Ever since I was born, till the day I left for this sect." Peng Ho’s eyes were now filled with blazing fury.

"Did you know that I was not kidnapped? When that elder came to recruit me upon realizing I had talent for cultivation, I told him I wanted to grow stronger even if he was from some shady sect."

Shen Yuan listened in silence, but his mind was thinking of all the possible ways to survive through this confrontation.

"Shen Family has such a genius boy; why couldn’t you be born with more talent?"

"Why are you so good for nothing when he has already started treating patients with his father?"

"Why can’t you even cook properly? You are nothing but a burden on me."

"You should have just died with your useless mother that day. At least I won’t have to waste my money on useless things." Peng Ho slowly reached out for his robes and let them loose, revealing scars underneath.

All over his body, there were faded marks.

Scars of being whipped.

Scars of being cut.

Scars from being stabbed.

And what covered the most of his jacked body were none of the above.

It was burn marks.

Like someone had taken a burning rod or stick and pressed it against his body.

The sight alone was sickening enough for anyone to imagine what Peng Ho had been through.

But Shen Yuan merely looked at it like he would look at a beautiful sunrise from the edge of a mountain.

Peng Ho saw the lack of reaction on his face, and the grin on his face widened. "I joined the sect with nothing but revenge on my mind. Against you and against that man who made my life a living hell."

"The same man who was so embarrassed that he refused to let me use his family name."

"And because of you, I had a life that makes living here akin to heaven."

"I did not care if I had to become a demon to defeat any of you. To will rip your faces out of my life."

"Shen Yuan, I wanted to make you suffer. I wanted to see you suffer the same fate as me so you would know, so you could understand what I have been through because of you."

Woosh!

Shen Yuan moved when Peng Ho appeared beside him within a blink of an eye.

Peng Ho did not chase after him; instead, he continued to grin madly. "But... you, who are unable to feel emotions—you will never understand my pain and my sufferings."

"So... there is no more reason to keep you alive." Shen Yuan’s instincts flared when he saw the auburn-haired young man raising his glowing hand.

"Mountain Shattering Fist."

Peng Ho caught him off guard. He did not attack Shen Yuan, but he struck the fist on the ground and then...

Rumble...

BOOM!!!

One second, Shen Yuan was standing on a hard floor, ready to face Peng Ho to death, and the next second he was falling from a cliff that had been open apart from the explosion.

The only thing he could see was the cold look on Peng Ho’s face as he looked down at his falling figure.