Jiang Feichi wore the triumphant expression of a man whose bitter revenge was finally at hand. Arrogantly, he sneered, "If you know what's good for you, get down on your knees right now, kowtow to me, and shout 'Grandfather' a hundred times. Maybe then I'll consider only crippling one of your legs!"
"You're nothing more than a fox exploiting another's might. Without those disciples behind you, you're absolute trash!"
Xia Lingwei laughed coldly. "Today, let's see how any of you plan to fight my husband..."
Watching the arrogant duo of Jiang Feichi and Xia Lingwei, Ye Chen's gaze turned icy. He asked calmly, "Did Old Master Xia tell you these things?"
"So what if he did?" Jiang Feichi shot back coldly.
In his mind, Ye Chen and Xia Qingyue were already fish in a barrel.
Tonight, as long as he beat Ye Chen into a cripple and threw him in the hospital for a few months... he could then take his time bedding Xia Qingyue. That was the only way to truly satisfy a young master of the Jiang Clan's craving for revenge.
As for Xia Lingwei, Jiang Feichi had never taken her seriously. Once he swindled that deed out of the Xia family, he would dump her immediately.
*Considering Xia Lingwei still has some looks, I'll put up with her a few more days... Good thing this woman is both stupid and obedient.*
Jiang Feichi cast a subtle, emotionless glance at Xia Lingwei, then fixed his greedy eyes back on Xia Qingyue. "Your husband still refuses to kneel. It seems he's quite eager for you to become a young widow!"
"Hahahaha!"
"A young widow right on her wedding day?"
"Well, such a pretty bride will make a stunning widow. Who knows how many men she'll drive crazy!"
"Damn, brother, you really know how to paint a picture..."
At Jiang Feichi's words, the wealthy young men behind him burst into loud laughter, their eyes stripping away all pretense as they stared hungrily at Xia Qingyue.
They hurled their brazen insults while the three bulldozers behind them kept up their intimidating, low rumble.
Xia Qingyue had turned pale with fright. Her hands clutched frantically at the hem of her dress, utterly at a loss for what to do... and Xia Qingcheng beside her was no better.
As for Xia Junjie and Zhang Lan, terrified that Xiao Ningning would be traumatized, they could only scoop the little girl up and hide inside the house.
"Daddy, I want Daddy... Mommy, Ningning wants Mommy, wah!"
Struggling in her grandmother's arms, Xiao Ningning watched through the window as a bunch of bad guys trapped her parents at the door. She cried out at the top of her lungs, "My daddy is an immortal, he beats up all the big badies! Daddy, hurry up and protect Ningning and Mommy..."
"I'll give you three more seconds! If you still don't kneel, I'll shatter your limbs and bulldoze Youlong Villa to the ground!"
Seeing that Ye Chen still showed no intention of kneeling, Jiang Feichi lost his patience and pointed straight at him, cursing.
"One..."
Jiang Feichi's mouth opened, barely squeezing out the single digit.
Swish!
Before his voice had even faded, Ye Chen had already charged forward.
Before anyone could react, he threw a punch packed with the weight of a thousand catties.
Boom!
This punch was like an iron hammer dropped from the heavens, sending Jiang Feichi flying instantly... Bang! But Jiang Feichi hadn't flown more than a few feet before he slammed heavily into the steel shovel of the bulldozer.
Rumble!
With a deafening crash, Jiang Feichi coughed up a mouthful of blood from the sheer force of the blow... He lay crumpled inside the shovel, utterly unable to stand.
"Pfft...! Pfft... Pfft!!"
Blood bubbled endlessly from Jiang Feichi's mouth, and soon his nose, eyes, and ears began to bleed as well. His entire body convulsed as if seized by a violent seizure, on the verge of death in a matter of seconds.
Silence.
In an instant, every sound died away!
Even the bulldozer stalled. Everyone stared at Ye Chen as if looking at a Rakshasa death god crawled straight out of hell...
"That was just the power of a single punch... How, how is this possible...!"
Seeing Jiang Feichi's miserable state, the crowd froze, too terrified to utter a single word.
Ye Chen, however, maintained an air of utter nonchalance. He calmly dusted the blood from his knuckles, then said coldly, "You—the rest of you, are you planning to get on your knees and beg for mercy, or would you prefer the exact same fate as Jiang Feichi?!"
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Before Ye Chen's voice even faded, the remaining thugs dropped to their knees in unison... With Jiang Feichi reduced to this, who among them dared to put up a fight?
Yet Ye Chen didn't even spare the young men a glance. Instead, his gaze slowly shifted to the trembling form of Xia Lingwei. With a voice as cold as millennial ice, he said, "It seems you're quite eager to descend to hell with Jiang Feichi and live out your lives as a pair of doomed lovers!"
Unable to bear the overwhelming pressure radiating from Ye Chen a moment longer, her legs turned to jelly, and she dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
"Kneel for three full hours, then get the hell out of here!"
"Miss a single second, and I'll twist your heads right off your shoulders!"
Ye Chen's anger was thoroughly roused, but little Ningning was watching from upstairs... Because of this, Ye Chen decided to spare them.
He refused to let his daughter see him take a life.
With that, Ye Chen turned, took Xia Qingyue's hand, and said softly, "Don't be afraid. I'm here."
"Mmm!"
The trembling in Xia Qingyue's body finally subsided the moment Ye Chen wrapped his hand around hers.
Back inside the house, Xiao Ningning came running over in tears. "Daddy, Mommy, Ningning was so scared... Ningning wants a hug."
"Good girl!"
With a face full of doting affection, Ye Chen picked Xiao Ningning up, using his fingers to gently wipe away the tear tracks on her cheeks. "Don't be afraid, Ningning. Daddy has already beaten the bad guys!"
"Okay."
The little girl nodded, rubbed her fair, tender face with the back of her chubby hand, and then wrapped her arms tightly around Ye Chen's neck, cooing spoiledly, "Ningning isn't scared anymore. Ningning is going to sleep with Daddy tonight!"
"Alright, Daddy will sleep with Ningning."
Ye Chen hugged his daughter tightly, then looked over at his wife. "It's getting late, let's all get some sleep... Dad, Mom, Qingcheng, you should stay here at the villa tonight too."
"Huh? Oh, right, right!"
Xia Junjie and Zhang Lan were still at a loss as to what to make of the situation.
Though Ye Chen's disciples had left, the display of power he had just shown hardly belonged to an ordinary mortal.
For now, staying put was the safest bet!
Back in the bedroom, Ye Chen first rocked Xiao Ningning to sleep. By the time he finished, Xia Qingyue had already washed up, now wearing a sky-blue silk nightgown. The loose-fitting sleepwear, smooth as water beneath the lamplight, failed to conceal her graceful curves in the slightest.
Furthermore, between the wedding dress and the heavy makeup, Xia Qingyue felt like her hair was still caked in hairspray... so she had washed it as well.
Now her hair hung damp and wet, her head tilted as she dried it with a towel. Every so often, a droplet of water from her locks would slip down and vanish inside the collar of her gown.
Seeing this sight, Ye Chen found it difficult to tear his eyes away.
"Go wash up already..."
Noticing Ye Chen's gaze, Xia Qingyue's pretty face flushed a delicate pink. The romantic atmosphere had been momentarily disrupted, but after all, tonight was their wedding night. Deep down, Xia Qingyue felt a flutter of eager anticipation.
"Ah, right!"
Ye Chen nodded, beaming with delight. Once Xia Qingyue finished drying her hair, he handed Xiao Ningning over to her.
Then he hurried off to wash up...
"Shh!"
With a flushed face, Xia Qingyue tried to gently lay Xiao Ningning down on the bed, only to find her arm gripped in a tight, vice-like hold by the sleeping child.
Xia Qingyue was already terribly shy, and this unexpected obstacle made her face burn even hotter. Her dewy, peach-blossom eyes didn't even dare meet Ye Chen's gaze.
"Let me handle it..."
With a helpless chuckle, Ye Chen took Xiao Ningning back. Halfway through, the little girl fluttered her eyes open, saw it was Ye Chen, and immediately wrapped her arms around his arm again, drifting right back to sleep.
One minute.
Two minutes...
Half an hour later, Ye Chen tried once more to set Xiao Ningning down... only to discover with a sigh of resignation that the little girl required someone's arm to hug in order to sleep soundly.
Otherwise, the little one would whimper uneasily, as if caught in a nightmare!
"She must have been terrified by Jiang Feichi and his thugs earlier..."
Ye Chen frowned slightly, a flash of cold intent sweeping through his eyes. Those people were still kneeling outside, after all.
"Let's just let it go. The Jiang family has deep roots; we shouldn't make trouble," Xia Qingyue said, reading his thoughts and looking rather worried.
"Alright... Let's just hold our daughter and sleep," Ye Chen murmured, embracing his wife and child. "Stop overthinking it."
...
The next morning.
When Ye Chen woke up, Xia Qingyue and Xiao Ningning were still fast asleep.
Having grown accustomed to morning training during his time atop Kunlun Mountain, he changed into fresh clothes and stepped outside.
Xia Lingwei and her crew had already vanished into the night, leaving the front courtyard deserted. Ye Chen didn't dwell on it—the matter was over, and he couldn't be bothered to settle accounts with Jiang Feichi a second time.
With that kick last night, Ye Chen had only crippled half of Jiang Feichi's life; it had been an act of mercy.
If the fool lacked self-awareness and dared to cause trouble again, the next outcome wouldn't be settled by a mere kick.
Leaving the villa, Ye Chen first jogged around the Green Water Lake for half an hour. Once his morning run concluded, he sat down beneath a large tree to begin his meditation.
Hardly had he settled when the iron gate of a nearby villa went *clack-clack-clack* as it slid open. An elderly man dressed in a white Tang suit emerged, accompanying a young woman clad in a white martial arts uniform.
At five-thirty in the morning, the entire villa complex was dead quiet. Neither the old man nor the girl noticed Ye Chen. Once outside, they began practicing their forms near the shore of Green Water Lake.
The old man was practicing a routine of Tai Chi. Though his movements were slow, the swish of his palms carried a whistling wind, his sleeves snapping continuously in the air...
The young girl stood beside him, mimicking his movements, though her mastery fell far short of his...
Still, her Tai Chi was quite respectable. She possessed delicate, well-defined features, and perhaps due to her martial arts training, there was a hint of heroic spirit between her brows. With finely arched eyebrows, apricot-shaped eyes, snow-white skin, and a straight, dainty nose, her full, rosy lips were striking.
She looked to be around Xia Qingcheng's age. As she moved through her forms, her graceful figure shifted under the loose white uniform, half-revealing her contours.
At that moment, Ye Chen slowly opened his eyes, finishing his meditation.
"Sigh, the spiritual energy here is worlds apart from the peak of Kunlun Mountain..."
Ye Chen muttered under his breath, unable to help a soft shake of his head accompanied by a trace of disappointment.
After all, Green Water Villa occupied the most prime real estate in Jinling City, boasting picturesque mountains and clear waters. If the spiritual energy here was this lackluster, other places were bound to be utterly hopeless!
To his surprise, the young woman practicing Tai Chi caught his reaction. Her delicate brows knitted together, and wearing a cold expression, she marched right up to Ye Chen. "You're shaking your head and sighing—are you looking down on the martial arts I practice?"
"Huh?"
Ye Chen lifted his eyelids for a look. The girl was quite striking, around eighteen or nineteen years old, with skin as white as snow, an exquisite heart-shaped face, and breathtaking facial features...
Clad in a crisp white martial arts uniform, her soft, raven-black hair was tied back in a ponytail. A passing breeze caught it, lending her a remarkably dashing and spirited appearance.
"Shaking my head?"
Ye Chen blinked slightly before replying, "You misunderstand. I wasn't shaking my head because your form is poor; I was simply reminded of some personal matters..."
"What?!"
At those words, the girl's pretty face frosted over. "So when you boil it all down, you *do* think my martial arts are trash?!"
For him, the young girl's Tai Chi indeed left much to be desired...
Yet, his headshake just now hadn't carried a shred of mockery toward her; he was merely lamenting the thinness of the ambient Qi in this place!
"I meant no such thing."
Too lazy to argue the point, Ye Chen rose to his feet, preparing to leave.
"Trying to run?"
Seeing this, the girl's face grew even frostier, threatening to turn to ice. She lunged forward with a push-hand technique, attempting to block his path. "If you don't give me a clear explanation, you're not going anywhere!"
Her fair, tender hands appeared soft and weak. Yet Ye Chen could distinctly feel the internal force concealed within her palms. Had an ordinary person stood in his place, nine times out of ten they would have been sent stumbling backward and sprawling onto the ground in disgrace.
However, Ye Chen was no ordinary person...
Noticing her incoming strike, he smoothly sidestepped and said, "Young lady, I harbor no ill intentions. Please stop pestering me."
"Hmph! Lady is fine, why add the 'young'?"
A flash of indignant petulance crossed the girl's face. Widening her apricot eyes, she glared fiercely at Ye Chen. "You really do understand martial arts after all! Which means your head-shaking and sighing just now... you really *were* looking down on my Tai Chi! I'm going to teach you a lesson!"
With that, her aura shifted. When she struck out again, the wind whistled sharply against her sleeves.
"Wan'er, do not be rude!"
Seeing the girl resort to genuine hostility, the old man's expression changed, and he hurriedly barked a warning.
But it was already too late. The girl had convinced herself that Ye Chen held her in contempt, and this time, she held nothing back...
"Sigh."
At this point, Ye Chen was truly out of patience. He knew that without displaying a bit of real skill, this girl would pester him endlessly.
Lifting his left hand slightly, he waited for her to charge, then smoothly guided her arm outward... The girl's palms had been aimed at striking his pressure points, but under the momentum of his lead, her body somehow spun entirely out of control.
"Ah, yikes, ahhh! Grandpa, Grandpa save me!"
Carried along by an invisible momentum, no matter how frantically she struggled, her stumbling feet carried her straight toward the edge of Green Water Lake!
"Wan'er!"
Horrified, the old man lunged forward to grab her, but he was too late. With a loud splash, the girl plunged straight into Green Water Lake, instantly transforming into a drowned rat.
"Gulp, gulp..."
Struggling, the girl broke the surface, pointing an accusing, furious finger at Ye Chen. "Grandpa, this villain pushed me into the water! Hurry up and punish him, avenge me!"
"Wan'er, hold your tongue."
The old man cast a glance at his granddaughter, then stepped over to Ye Chen, bowing slightly. "I had no idea the young friend was also a practitioner of the Martial Dao. That push just now... though Wan'er was careless, this old man could never pull off such a feat! Might I ask whose lineage you belong to?"
"Lineage...?"
Ye Chen shook his head slightly. "My master has already passed away."
"Ah... My condolences, young friend. If your late master could witness the heights you've reached in the Martial Dao today, he would smile in the netherworld."
As the old man spoke, the girl managed to paddle her way ashore.
Green Water Lake wasn't deep, but the season was bitterly cold, and coupled with the chill of dawn, taking an involuntary dip was an thoroughly unpleasant experience.
"Grandpa, why are you exchanging pleasantries with him? He pushed me into the water, he tried to harm me..."
The young girl looked furious. Brought up in the lap of luxury, she hadn't suffered such a grievance since childhood. Seeing that her grandfather refused to take her side, she ignored her soaked clothes, struck a fighting stance, and prepared to throw herself at Ye Chen once more.
"Wan'er..."
Frowning, the old man started to scold her, but the girl had already lunged forward again.
"Will this ever end?"
Ye Chen frowned. It was true he had knocked her into the lake, but since she kept provoking him over and over, a minor lesson was more than justified.
Besides, he had held back; that push had used only a fraction of his strength.
Otherwise, the girl wouldn't just have taken a swim—at best, she'd have broken a few ribs; at worst, she'd be dead.
Finishing the thought, Ye Chen increased his output by another fraction of a percent. Before she could even brush the hem of his clothes, he unleashed a heavy punch accompanied by a whistling gale.
"Wan'er, watch out! Young friend, show mercy!"
Catching sight of the punch's momentum, the old man's heart skipped a beat. He had assumed the young man's previous display of pushing his granddaughter into the water was his limit... He hadn't expected the youth to still be concealing his true strength.
That terrifying fist, howling like a tiger, would shatter several of the girl's ribs at the very least!
Realizing the danger, the old man didn't dare hesitate. Gathering every ounce of internal force within his body, he crossed his arms into a defensive 'X' shape across his chest and threw himself in front of his granddaughter to take the brunt of the blow.
Thud!
A dull, heavy impact echoed out. The old man let out a deep groan, his arms trembling violently as if he had been struck by a speeding car.
Not just his arms—his chest churned wildly, and if not for decades of solid foundation backing him up, he would have spewed a mouthful of blood right then and there...
"Grandpa, Grandpa, are you okay? Grandpa!"
Seeing her grandfather's face turn as pale as dirt, a film of moisture welled up in the girl's beautiful eyes. "Grandpa, Grandpa, don't scare me..."
Weeping, she whipped her head around, ready to fight Ye Chen to the death!
"Wait... wait..."
The old man grabbed his granddaughter's wrist with a firm grip. After regulating his breathing for a few moments, his lips trembled as he managed to say, "Just now... he was showing mercy. Otherwise, this old life of mine would already be gone!"
With that, the old man pushed himself up with a trembling frame, walked step by step toward Ye Chen, and bowed deeply. "It was our hubris. We never imagined the sir's Martial Dao Force would be so formidable, and we accept this defeat wholeheartedly. Had the sir not held back seventy percent of his force just now, these old bones of mine would have been left right here."
"You needn't be too modest. To have mastered the *Mystic Qi Breathing Technique* in a mere two years... not bad." Ye Chen said calmly.
When the old man had been regulating his breath just now, he was using none other than the *Mystic Qi Breathing Technique*.
This breathing method originated from Kunlun, and Ye Chen had once taught it to a disciple.
Only, that disciple hadn't been in touch for quite some time, and when Ye Chen returned to Jinling, the man hadn't shown up either...
"You know the *Mystic Qi Breathing Technique*?"
Shock flared in the old man's eyes. "Furthermore, you can even tell precisely how long I've practiced it... May I ask who you truly are..."
In the span of half a minute, the old man had upgraded his address for Ye Chen twice.
First it was 'young friend', then 'sir', and now it had escalated to 'you'!
"I am Tie Kuangyun's master..."
Without concealing his identity, Ye Chen stated each word clearly: "I am Ye Kunlun."