Chapter Ninety-Nine: Humiliation
Suo Wu and his elder brother, Suo La, were both experts at the Spirit Emperor level and counted among the absolute strongest in the Bilistel Empire.
The number of places the Bilistel Empire had secured for the ancient ruins was only two. Without question, those two spots had gone to the strongest of the younger generation.
When they heard that the expedition into the Realm of Chaos had been wiped out, the brothers were enraged and, together with the envoys, went at once to the imperial palace, intent on meeting this younger member of the Ye clan for themselves.
Before departing from the Bilistel Empire, His Majesty had told them that the Ye clan possessed formidable strength and was not to be provoked.
He had also said that a remarkable genius had emerged among the younger generation. But after seeing Ye Feng in person, Suo Wu found reason to doubt the emperor’s words.
A man who loses his temper so easily, no matter how strong his cultivation may be, will never amount to much. What was more, the aura Ye Feng gave off was only at the mid-stage Spirit King level.
“How about we make a wager? If you lose, this young lady is mine...”
“Get lost...”
Before Suo Wu could finish, Huan Qingwu had already cut him off with brutal bluntness. If Ye Feng had not been holding her back, her ruthless kick would likely already have been planted squarely in Suo Wu’s groin.
Suo Wu was deeply offended. His face darkened to a livid blue, and he could not understand how a woman could possibly speak for herself. She had even wanted to strike him. Truly outrageous. In his country, such a thing had never happened.
Suo Wu left in a huff, but the rest of the crowd was left deep in thought.
Ye Feng’s dagger could not be avoided even by Jin Ming, who ranked third among the younger generation, yet Suo Wu had casually evaded it.
“How much chance do you have against him?” Ye Feng asked, turning his head and forcing down the anger in his heart. Still holding Huan Qingwu’s delicate hand, he asked Xiao Ye and the others.
At the question, everyone fell silent.
“About fifty percent,” Ga Luo said after a long pause, looking in the direction Suo Wu had gone. “Even if one fully advances to Spirit Emperor, it would still only be fifty percent!”
In this place, if one spoke only of cultivation, none of them could surpass Xiao Ye, who was at the Spirit Emperor level. Yet when everyone looked at him, Xiao Ye merely shook his head slowly and raised five fingers.
...
When Ye Feng returned to the Ye residence, and the servants informed him of everything that had happened during this period, he finally sensed something unusual.
During the few days Ye Feng had been inside the Realm of Chaos, some of the young experts of the Bilistel Empire had been rampaging everywhere, suppressing the younger generation of the capital until they could not lift their heads.
Even Hu Fu, who ranked ninth among the younger generation, had been defeated by one of the Bilistel Empire’s youths.
Upon hearing these reports, Ye Feng did not grow angry, because he knew the true experts had yet to appear. Those who could not hold back now were merely minor figures.
As far as Ye Feng was concerned, this was actually quite welcome. The more wildly they stirred up trouble, the more resentment the young cultivators of the capital would feel toward them. That was exactly what Ye Feng wanted to see.
What truly struck Ye Feng as abnormal was that Count Bilis had quietly left the imperial capital, and all those mysterious experts who had taken service under him had disappeared without a trace.
After frowning and thinking for a long while, Ye Feng still could not figure out what game the count was playing.
He ordered his agents to continue watching the count’s residence, then changed into plain coarse cloth and slipped out of the city.
Walking quietly along the eastern streets of the capital, he watched the bustling crowds flow like a tide and listened to the chatter of household affairs.
“How tragic. Who would have thought that the Heavenly Martial Capital, the grand capital of the Eastern Sacred City, would have such a disgraceful younger generation? Not a single one of them can be shown in public. Truly disappointing...”
“I think they’ve been blinded by the luxuries here and have no mind left for martial cultivation. What is there to pity?”
From atop a tavern, several young people from the Bilistel Empire were speaking without mercy, not putting the capital’s younger generation in the slightest.
“With your mid-stage Spirit King cultivation, Feng Tian, back in our great capital you’d be nothing more than a bottom-ranker. Who would have thought that here you’d actually count as an expert? Hahaha...”
“Yes! I never imagined the cultivators of Heavenly Martial Capital would be such blockheads. It’s far too disappointing!”
On the upper floor of the tavern, the two of them mocked loudly and without restraint. The passersby below glared at them in anger after hearing this... yet there was nothing they could do.
In the imperial capital, almost everyone valued martial power. One could say cultivators were everywhere, but the high-level ones were concentrated almost entirely among the sons and daughters of princes and nobles.
Those people usually relied on their status and did not bother to argue with such nobodies. But since they would not take offense, naturally the hot-blooded youths would not remain silent. Thus things had become as they were now.
No high-level cultivator would step forward, while the low-level ones kept losing. That was why the younger generation of the Bilistel Empire had grown so arrogant.
“I heard the Ye clan in Heavenly Martial Capital is a holy ground of martial study! Why don’t we go challenge them?” one of them said.
“Forget it. If there really were experts, would they still be waiting for us to challenge them?”
“Damn it, a bunch of country bumpkins who have never seen the world!” Xiao Ying’s beautiful face turned red with anger, her silver teeth clenched tight. Her snow-white skin took on a flush of red from emotion, and her slender hand gripped her longsword tightly.
Today Xiao Chong had stubbornly insisted that she go into the palace to invite Princess An Ran out for dinner, and then, just like bad luck itself, had followed after them every step of the way.
Xiao Ying knew perfectly well what Xiao Chong was thinking. This was not the first time he had done something like this. And every time, the result was that a swarm of flies came buzzing over at the sound.
When Xiao Chong heard the loud abuse from the two people at the nearby table, his face could not help but darken as he struggled to remain calm.
But in the end, he still had to suppress his anger and said, “Forget it. We’re outnumbered. If we clash with them now, we’ll surely suffer.”
“Hmph! If Big Brother were here, they probably wouldn’t dare spout such nonsense,” Xiao Ying said furiously. In truth, she had intended to say another name, but when the words reached her lips, she changed it to Big Brother.
“Perhaps...” Xiao Chong gave no firm answer one way or the other. Clearly, he too had thought of Ye Feng. It was just that Ye Feng was to face the Bilistel Empire’s experts tomorrow, so he obviously could not step forward now.
Although they could endure it, that did not mean everyone else could. Since Princess An Ran had appeared here, many of the younger generation had already gathered in secret.
Inside a private room, Lie Kuang frowned and said, “Such arrogant words. If I cannot kill someone today, I will never be able to wash away the hatred in my heart!”
Sitting opposite him was He Xu, the son of the Marquis of Joy and known as Flying Dagger He Xu. He Xu had originally wanted to stop Lie Kuang, but then the insulting words came again from over there, and even he grew angry.
Who the hell did they think they were, acting so superior?
Bang!
Lie Kuang strode out of the private room, kicked over the table of those two men, and pointed at them coldly. “I’ll give you three seconds. Get lost...”
“Heh.”
One of the men sneered without even turning his head. With a casual sweep of his sleeve behind him, a streak of dark light instantly enveloped the wooden table that had been kicked toward them.