Chapter 1251: Relentless When in the Right

Chapter 1251: Chapter 1251: Relentless When in the Right

When Qian Younuo, goaded on by Pei Yan, clenched the hilt of his blade and ground his teeth to spit out those words, the faces of the four Elders all changed drastically at once! Pei Yan blocking them personally could still be dismissed as him seizing the chance to vent his private grudge, but a Divine Martial Guard adjutant would never joke around when it came to an order from the Spirit Lord. How come when they set out, they hadn’t heard a word about the Spirit Lord forbidding anyone from carrying a Token to the Forbidden Guard Office to pass on decrees! Was this an edict that had just been issued? No wonder! No wonder that old geezer Feng Tianhe of the Mo Sect refused to join them in coming to question the situation—turns out he already knew about this. Damn it! They were a step late! Hopefully nothing goes wrong over at the Forbidden Guard Office!

Pei Yan had no interest in guessing what these four scheming Elders were thinking. His gaze swept over them one by one, and in the end he set a hand on Qian Younuo’s shoulder, sneering as he said, "The Spirit Lord delivered the order; I gave him the command to carry it out. You slap his face, you’re slapping mine, Pei Yan’s face. You slap my face, you’re slapping the Spirit Lord’s face. Chao Zimin, what a mighty show of authority you’ve got there! Does your Infinite Thunder Sect not even put the Spirit Lord in your eyes anymore?"

"Ah!" Pei Yan’s words were like a shout that woke a dreamer. Snapping back to himself, Chao Zimin turned deathly pale—this was a crime he absolutely could not admit to. He hastily defended himself, "Pei Yan! Don’t use that big hat to press people down! Just now I didn’t know this was an order from the Spirit Lord. If I had known, I absolutely would not have dared defy it. Besides, you’ve got nothing to prove it—without the Spirit Lord’s token or written command, how are we supposed to know if this order is real or fake?"

"In a bit, your Spirit Lord’s written order will arrive. I’m just afraid that by the time you know whether it’s real or not, it’ll be too late. Qian Younuo, someone slapped your face—slap them right back! Listen up, you’ve only got this one chance. If you don’t have the guts to stand up, then cover that face of yours that’s swollen like a pig’s head and roll out of here. Don’t stay here and annoy me." After speaking, Pei Yan gave Qian Younuo a shove from behind to egg him on.

Dragged into this mess, Qian Younuo understood he’d already become Pei Yan’s chess piece. But as a pawn that had crossed the river, he could only move forward; there was no option of retreat. Going forward might win him someone’s appreciation and let him soar from here on out. If he backed off, this Elder Chao would hold a grudge over the whole affair and would definitely make trouble for him later. Since he’d already offended him, he might as well offend him all the way!

With that thought, Qian Younuo slid his long blade back into its sheath, eyes going round as he glared at Chao Zimin, his body swaying slightly as he walked up step by step.

"What do you think you’re doing? You’re just a little adjutant—do you plan to turn heaven upside down?" Seeing Qian Younuo closing in on him step by step, Chao Zimin still couldn’t quite believe this man really dared lay a hand on him, yet a sliver of guilty panic crawled up anyway, and he barked out to stop him. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Elder Chao! Forgive the offense!" Qian Younuo walked up to Chao Zimin, cupped his hands to him, then raised his own palm high.

"You dare!" Chao Zimin, fierce on the outside but weak within, really was enraged by Qian Younuo’s move. His aura exploded from his body as he roared.

Overwhelmed by that burst of pressure, Qian Younuo’s raised hand froze midair, not daring to fall. Just then, a leisurely sigh drifted from behind him: "Opportunity sometimes exists only in a single instant. If you seize it, you’ve seized it. If you don’t... heh heh heh!"

Under that cold laugh tinged with mockery, Qian Younuo clenched his teeth and brought his raised palm crashing down!

Smack! The sound that rang out wasn’t the crisp smack of a palm on flesh, but a muffled thud like hitting a lump of cotton. Though Qian Younuo had slapped Chao Zimin’s face with full force, it was blocked by his protective source-qi, not inflicting the slightest damage. But to Qian Younuo and the three surrounding Elders, this was already enough—faced with Pei Yan’s step-by-step aggression, Chao Zimin had ultimately backed down, choosing to swallow his anger and eat that slap.

That was what they thought, but obviously someone else didn’t see it that way. Pei Yan beckoned, snatched up a peach from the table in the hall, bit into it, and snorted through his nose as he mumbled, "Hit him! Why’d you stop? That was about as painful as a mosquito bite; smacking a bug would make more noise than that. Qian Younuo, did you come over here just to scratch him an itch?"

"Pei Yan! Don’t go too far!" Hearing this, Chao Zimin flew into a rage. He had already made concessions, yet Pei Yan still refused to let up.

"Too far? Is today the first day you’ve met me? I know that openly you call me Peisan Monarch, giving me the nickname ’Embroidered Robes Arrogant in the Dust.’ But behind my back you all call me lunatic, mad dog! Every one of you is just waiting for me to die so you can enjoy the spectacle! Whatever—whether I’m a tiger or a mad dog, as long as I can make you people feel fear, that’s enough! Qian Younuo, why are you still standing there? You think after you do this today there’ll still be room to turn things around?"

This time, Qian Younuo’s earlier hesitation was gone. He’d already given one slap; there wasn’t much difference between one and many. Without that psychological burden, he raised his hand again and sent another slap flying.

Smack! This time a crisp crack rang out. That slap landed solidly on Chao Zimin’s face after he dropped his defenses. Even with Chao Zimin’s body being remarkably tough, under the full-force slap of a Tier Seven Cultivator, his cheek still flushed red, a faint red palm print blooming on the skin.

"Ptui! Keep going! I didn’t say stop, so don’t stop!" Pei Yan spat out the peach pit from his mouth, not even sparing a glance at the scene as he casually gave his instructions.

"Pei Yan! I’ll fight you to the death!" For the sake of his own life and for the sake of his sect, after enduring twice in a row, the price Chao Zimin paid was Pei Yan’s repeated humiliation. Now Chao Zimin was truly furious, raging like thunder. He suddenly struck, slamming a palm toward the Qian Younuo before him. He’d already made up his mind: even if he couldn’t kill Pei Yan today and ended up dying here himself, he would first kill this adjutant who had humiliated him to vent his fury.

"Spineless thing! Even when taking revenge you don’t dare go after the real culprit!"

"Urgh~! Ah~!"

Pei Yan’s cold words had barely fallen when Chao Zimin suddenly felt a burst of agony flare through his four limbs. He didn’t know when, but his protective source-qi had been sliced open in countless places by invisible threads of source-qi. Those threads coiled around his arms and legs, dragging him down toward the ground.

How could Chao Zimin simply submit and be captured? He immediately tried to unleash his own lightning arts to break free of the bindings—but who would’ve thought that a tremendous pressure descended from the heavens, slamming down and forcing his body to sink in an instant.

It was as if he bore two great mountains on his back; moving even a single finger demanded immense effort. Chao Zimin, truly worthy of being an Elder of the Infinite Thunder Sect, had suffered two consecutive ambushes, and though his back bent under the weight, he still refused to yield. He roared, forcing his body upright to push against that external power—but that roar quickly turned to a scream of pain.

"Ah!"

After the scream, two wolf-fangs that had attacked from behind pierced through his protective source-qi, driving into the joints of his knees. With a burst of agony in his legs, Chao Zimin could no longer hold on. His body lost its support and crashed to the floor with a thud, kneeling.

By the time he thought of getting back up, his chance was completely gone. One strand, two strands, three strands—there were actually several dozen strands of Heavenly Dao–level experts’ source-qi stacking onto his body at once. Before Chao Zimin could even figure out where so many experts came from, he was pressed so hard that a mouthful of old blood spurted out, his whole body pinned firmly to the ground, utterly unable to move.