Chapter 536: Chapter 318: Ambush

BOOM!

Zhang Baoqing blasted out a massive fist seal, hurtling toward Xu Yang like a meteor. This was a punch thrown in a desperate bid for survival. It gathered his entire essence, qi, and spirit, consuming more than half of his Gang Yuan.

However, it was of little use. The terrifying fist pressure stripped him of his ability to draw upon the power of heaven and earth, nearly crushing his Martial Dao imagery. The fist seal began to dissipate the moment it was thrown, entirely unable to withstand the terrifying fist pressure permeating the air, and its power plummeted rapidly.

He watched this unfold in despair. The gap between a mediocrity and an absolute genius was even wider than he had imagined. It felt as if the person opposite him was not a Martial Artist of the same realm, but an expert at the Celestial Essence Second Layer.

BANG!

The fist seal was blown apart by a single punch. The dissipating force swept outward, pulverizing everything in the surroundings. Xu Yang’s fist struck with irresistible force, tearing through Zhang Baoqing’s Hutian Gang Yuan and slamming heavily into his crossed arms.

BOOM!

SPURT!

Zhang Baoqing trembled all over as if struck by heavenly lightning. A mouthful of blood spurted from his lips, his facial features twisting in agony.

CRACK!

The sound of fracturing bones rang out. The impossibly heavy fist crushed all resistance, breaking both of Zhang Baoqing’s arms before landing on his chest with mountain-shattering and mountain-breaking momentum. Vast power erupted, pouring into Zhang Baoqing’s body like a flash flood.

"Ah!" he opened his mouth and let out a shrill scream. His eyes bulged, looking as if they were about to be shaken out of their sockets.

CRACK!

Accompanied by a teeth-aching sound of bone cracking, Zhang Baoqing’s arms dropped limply, and his sternum caved in on impact. The robust fist force shattered his internal organs. A thunderous boom resonated as Zhang Baoqing’s body arched like a cooked shrimp. His feet left the ground, and he flew backward, spewing mouthfuls of blood mid-air, his body nearly falling apart.

He flew for dozens of meters before finally hitting the ground. By then, Zhang Baoqing was as dead as dead could be, leaving only his unresigned eyes staring wide open.

Xu Yang exhaled a breath of stale air. The riotous power dissipated, and his expanded physique rapidly returned to normal as his aura subsided. Taking large strides over, he bent down and swiped at Zhang Baoqing’s waist, snagging a coin purse filled with spirit coins. After casting out his mental sensing to ensure no one was around, he vanished into thin air like a wisp of green smoke.

About fifteen minutes later, a few people returning from Wu Family Castle passed by. Seeing Zhang Baoqing’s contorted, nearly dismantled corpse, they couldn’t help but feel a wave of horror.

"It’s the same person who killed Xie Jin yesterday. The method is very similar—ferocious strength resulting in a violent pummeling death. The killer cultivates a supreme yang technique," someone stepped forward to inspect the scene, looking at the battlefield that appeared as if it had been scorched by a raging fire, and reached a conclusion.

"Rumor has it that Zhang Baoqing also wanted to intercept and kill that person yesterday. This must be revenge. It’s laughable that he was just bragging in Wu Family Castle earlier, as if he was afraid people wouldn’t know he was one of the participants in yesterday’s ambush."

Soon, the experts of the Fuhu Gang arrived after receiving the news. They further confirmed that the person who killed Zhang Baoqing was indeed the one who had killed Xie Jin. Other than that, however, they didn’t obtain any useful information. They only knew that the culprit was not someone who would swallow his anger and seemed to have started taking revenge on those who attacked him the day before.

***

"Why bother with alchemy? Baiting fish is more than enough," Xu Yang murmured to himself.

Looking at the thirteen spirit coins in the purse, a smile tugged at the corner of Xu Yang’s mouth. Exerting a slight burst of force, he shattered Zhang Baoqing’s coin purse. He realized he had been going down the wrong path. He had constantly been thinking about how to earn spirit coins through alchemy, but how many could he actually make that way? Killing one person yielded more than several days of alchemy.

It was hard to justify targeting honest and law-abiding folks, but he could absolutely ambush and kill scum like Zhang Baoqing. For a moment, Xu Yang was quite tempted. As long as he strolled around Wu Family Castle every day and flaunted a bit of wealth, he would never be short of targets like Zhang Baoqing. He could kill as many of those people as he wanted with a clear conscience; it was simply punishing evil and promoting good.

"No!" he told himself, quickly suppressing his greed.

If you play with fire, you’re bound to get burned. Not everyone who liked to ambush others was stuck at the Celestial Essence First Layer. If you tempt fate long enough, your luck will eventually run out—Zhang Baoqing and his ilk were prime examples of this. He couldn’t let killing a few people get to his head. In a place like Yunzhou City, the Celestial Essence First Layer couldn’t be considered an expert at all, not even enough to make a name for oneself.

Upon returning to the Purple Sun Sect station, Xu Yang stopped going out and continued to cultivate in peace. Every five or six days, he would take out a spirit coin to absorb spirit iron essence and cultivate his Vajra Glazed Body. He heard that Xiong Wanhai had come looking for him once, but he hadn’t been around at the time, so they didn’t meet.

***

Half a month later.

After a wave of warmth passed through his body without any further reaction, Xu Yang could only get up in disappointment. Putting on his clothes, he pushed the door open and walked out. Every now and then, once he saved up enough points, he would add them to his root bone, yet his spirit bone still hadn’t leveled up.

In the courtyard, Ye Qiuling, Qi Xuancheng, and Zhang Hanzhou were sitting together. Sun Tao was also there. The atmosphere among the four seemed rather gloomy and somewhat off.

"Did something happen?" Xu Yang asked curiously.

"If it weren’t for a certain someone, we wouldn’t be just sitting around here doing nothing," Zhang Hanzhou said in a passive-aggressive tone.

Hearing this, Xu Yang frowned slightly. This "certain someone" was most likely referring to him, but he honestly had no idea why Zhang Hanzhou was being mocking out of nowhere. He swept his gaze over and noticed that Qi Xuancheng and Ye Qiuling also wore expressions of displeasure.

"Cut the passive-aggressive nonsense. If you have something to say, spit it out," Xu Yang scoffed coldly.

Zhang Hanzhou snorted but said nothing.

Sun Tao revealed a look of ridicule. "Does Junior Brother Xu not know? Today is the wedding of Huo Xiaochen and the legitimate daughter of the Xiao family. Many geniuses who came for the Dragon Ascension were invited to attend the wedding. A certain someone is throwing a fit here because he can’t get a taste of a thousand-year-old noble family’s grand banquet."

Huo Xiaochen and the Xiao family’s legitimate daughter were getting married? Xu Yang’s heart stirred. It seemed that even with Huo Xiaochen’s level of talent, he still couldn’t escape the fate of becoming a stud and a hired thug. Among the conditions for the Xiao family’s sponsorship, an arranged marriage was clearly part of the deal.

"Is it not because of him?" Zhang Hanzhou huffed. "All the other sects received an invitation from Huo Xiaochen, yet our Purple Sun Sect was the only one left out. If he hadn’t offended Huo Xiaochen, why wouldn’t Huo Xiaochen invite the Purple Sun Sect?"

He had heard rumors about the banquets of thousand-year-old noble families. There was unlimited spirit wine to drink, tables piled high with dishes prepared using various spirit medicines, and many secret royal recipes. Eating just one meal at such a grand banquet could easily rival at least ten days to half a month of bitter cultivation. Most importantly, at a wedding banquet like this, one could meet the true, top-tier bigwigs of Yun Province.

"Get your facts straight. It wasn’t Junior Brother Xu who offended Huo Xiaochen; it was that mad dog indiscriminately biting people," Sun Tao snorted coldly.

"Why didn’t Huo Xiaochen bite anyone else? There’s no smoke without fire," Ye Qiuling couldn’t help but say. With her current status and reputation, not being able to attend this kind of top-tier banquet in Yunzhou City was a direct blow to her image.

"You think way too highly of yourselves. Even if Huo Xiaochen and I had no grudges, he wouldn’t invite small fries like you. What use would Huo Xiaochen have in inviting mediocrities who can’t even squeeze onto the Lingyun List? To embarrass himself?

"Besides, do you have any sort of friendship with Huo Xiaochen? Even without my involvement, you’d be nothing more than a pile of dog shit on the side of the road to him—the kind that disgusts him just to look at," Xu Yang said without holding back.

These few actually thought that if they didn’t have a grudge against Huo Xiaochen, he would have invited them. It was utterly laughable. They had absolutely no sense of their own worth. Why would the fourteenth ranker on the Lingyun List invite complete strangers who hadn’t even made it onto the list to his own wedding? Even if a thousand-year-old noble family wasn’t afraid of freeloaders, they still wouldn’t invite people with whom they had absolutely no ties.

"You..." Zhang Hanzhou trembled with rage. Xu Yang’s words stabbed into his heart like daggers, belittling him to the point of utter worthlessness. After all, he, Zhang Hanzhou, was also a genius with a chance at the Secondary Dragon Ascension. Perhaps after the Secondary Dragon Ascension Selection, he could make it onto the Lingyun List too.

"Xu Yang, you bastard!" Ye Qiuling’s delicate facial features contorted, her creamy skin flushing bright red. When had she, Ye Qiuling, ever become a small fry or a pile of dog shit by the road? The geniuses on the Lingyun List had always flocked to her like ducks to water.

"Just wait until you get sniped by Huo Xiaochen during your Secondary Dragon Ascension. We’ll see who the real pile of shit by the road is then!" Qi Xuancheng couldn’t help but shout.

Seeing Xu Yang shatter the composure of all three of them with just a few sentences, Sun Tao was left completely dumbfounded.

Xu Yang sneered. "You don’t believe it? If you don’t believe it, let’s go out onto the streets and ask around. Or better yet, we can go directly to Huo Xiaochen and see—without me in the picture—whether he would invite you as honored guests, or treat you like a pile of shit on the road. Do you dare?

"Do you seriously not know your own worth?

"Only one of you has a bit of beauty to offer, and what skills do the other two have that would make a thousand-year-old noble family invite you to a wedding banquet?"

Xu Yang challenged them, ready for a confrontation.

The three of them twitched with fury, but they truly didn’t dare go out to the streets with Xu Yang to ask around. Deep down, they already knew exactly how much they were actually worth. If they were in Huo Xiaochen’s shoes, they probably wouldn’t invite a few nameless nobodies to their own wedding either.

***

Outside Yunzhou City, the main road leading to the Xiao family was bustling today. For today was the wedding day of the Lingyun List genius Huo Xiaochen and the legitimate daughter of the Xiao family. The various factions within Yunzhou City all considered it an honor to receive an invitation. On the road, which was several meters wide, carriages pulled by exotic beasts drove past from time to time.

On a nearby hill, Xu Yang lay hidden among the bushes. His grudge with Huo Xiaochen had caused him to be restrained and restricted at every turn before he had even set foot in Yunzhou City, drawing a massive amount of unwanted attention. He had long harbored the thought of slaughtering Huo Xiaochen, but he just hadn’t found the right opportunity.

Today was Huo Xiaochen’s wedding, so naturally, there wouldn’t be any chance. But the next few days were hard to say. Since he had nothing better to do anyway, he had come to lay an ambush. If he could finish off Huo Xiaochen before the Secondary Dragon Ascension, he wouldn’t need to expose all of his strength during the event and could continue to lie low. Otherwise, if he was forced to face Huo Xiaochen, he would have to expose the entirety of his talent in order to enter the Celestial Strategy Academy. The pressure and scrutiny he would face then would be incomparable to what he was dealing with now.

The sky gradually darkened. Luxurious carriages began to drive away from the Xiao family as the attendees of the wedding banquet returned one after another. The feast had likely concluded.

Sitting in the hills, Xu Yang retracted all his aura and killing intent, calming his mind to avoid being detected by any experts. His primary focus wasn’t on those carriages anyway. Those carriages likely contained experts, and without clairvoyance, he couldn’t see what was going on inside them.

He spotted quite a few geniuses from the Lingyun List, including the likes of Lin Jingyu and Li Chuyang. But even when the moon rose above the branches, he had yet to see Huo Xiaochen. However, considering it was his wedding night, Xu Yang hadn’t really expected to see Huo Xiaochen tonight. The main focus was on the next few days, during which Huo Xiaochen would likely return to Yunzhou City.

As long as he wasn’t accompanied by experts, Xu Yang would have a chance to kill him.

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