Smack!
Zhao Hao slapped him directly across the face, sending blood gushing from his nose. He thundered like an explosion, “Useless fool! Instead of studying and training diligently every day, all you know is chasing girls, racing cars, gambling, and causing trouble. And now you’ve made me lose face!”
This roar was like a clap of thunder, a wrathful shout from a vajra warrior, shaking Ye Feng’s chest so violently that his blood and qi churned, nearly making him vomit on the spot.
“Big Cousin is absolutely right!”
Lei Gang, who had always been the tyrant of Jinling, capable of summoning wind and rain with a wave of his hand, was struck, yet he nodded and bowed like a cowering grandson, his eyes filled with dread and fear as he admitted his mistake.
“Step aside! Today, I’ll let you witness the might of a true martial artist!”
Zhao Hao’s eyes blazed with an intimidating, icy light as he strode menacingly toward Jiang Tian, sneering:
“Come on, come on! I am Zhao Hao, styled as Ritian, and I love nothing more than a good fight. Today, the two of us will have a match. Let’s see how you manage to swat me away!”
“You can step aside. You’re not even worth my effort,” Jiang Tian replied with a faint smile.
Zhao Hao was indeed a martial arts prodigy, barely in his twenties and already possessing Inner Strength cultivation.
But compared to Jiang Tian, he was far too weak. Against a martial artist of this level, Jiang Tian couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger.
“Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to be so arrogant?” Zhao Hao frowned, his face a mask of disbelief.
Tang Bao’er’s eyes shifted craftily as she chimed in sweetly, “Brother Zhao Hao, his name is Jiang Tian. He used to be the young master of the Jiang family in Jinling!”
“The Jiang family of Jinling… What kind of thing is that? Are they a martial arts family?”
Zhao Hao, rough around the edges but not without caution, preferred to understand his opponent before acting. He asked with a furrowed brow.
“Have you heard of the Medicine King Group? That’s his family’s business. Though, the Jiang family isn’t what it used to be…”
Tang Bao’er explained in a sugary tone.
She was clever, or perhaps more accurately, a fickle opportunist. Seeing Zhao Hao’s overwhelming power, she feared offending him and deliberately drew closer, hoping that even if Zhao Hao defeated Jiang Tian and settled scores with everyone afterward, she might escape unscathed.
As a scion of a martial arts family, Zhao Hao looked down on ordinary secular clans. He cut her off mid-sentence with a cold laugh, “Oh, so he’s just the son of a mere pharmacy owner, and he dares call himself a ‘young master’? Utterly ignorant of his own insignificance. Come on, let’s fight!”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, he stomped his feet, causing the bluestone-paved ground to crack inch by inch.
“He’s so strong! Is he even human? He’s practically a superhero like Spider-Man!”
Witnessing this, Chu Mengyao and Lin Monong were so shocked their pretty faces turned pale. They stood dumbfounded, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.
“He’s incredible! Brother Ye Feng, compared to him, you fall far short. From now on, I’m changing my idol!”
Tang Bao’er, ever carefree and heartless, cheered and jumped with glee, utterly captivated, already considering Zhao Hao her new idol.
“So powerful! Truly worthy of being called a young martial arts master. I really was a frog at the bottom of a well before!”
Ye Feng broke out in a cold sweat, his eyes glazed over. His heart was filled with dejection, loss, and even despair.
Having fought for years in the world of assassins and earned a formidable reputation, he had been exceedingly proud and self-satisfied. But today, after seeing Zhao Hao, he realized there were always greater masters beyond his own horizons.
“Jiang Tian, be careful…” Lin Monong cried out in alarm, tears welling up in her anxious eyes.
She felt deeply grateful to Jiang Tian and had secretly vowed that if he were crippled by this fight, she would care for him for the rest of her life; if he were killed, she would follow him in death.
Under the stunned and fearful gazes of the crowd, Zhao Hao leaped high into the air, his posture wild and ferocious, like a dragon or a tiger.
Then, with a straight punch that shot out like a cannonball, the air itself seemed to explode. Carrying boundless killing intent, his fist viciously aimed for Jiang Tian’s chest.
“You really are too annoying!”
In response, Jiang Tian lazily smiled and slowly raised his jade-white hand, swatting down as casually as if he were batting away a fly.
The next moment.
Zhao Hao flattened on the ground like a toad with a sickening splat, vomiting blood, his mouth crooked and eyes askew, motionless.
The entire scene fell into utter silence. Dead silence.
You could have heard a pin drop.
Everyone stood frozen in place, staring at Jiang Tian with disbelief, their faces etched with shock.
“How is this possible?” Lei Gang was utterly dumbfounded, muttering to himself as if his soul had left his body.
In his eyes, his big cousin was a genius. A single punch from him could unleash explosive Inner Strength, pulverizing even a massive rock. His body was so tough he could withstand blades and swords. Yet, Jiang Tian had knocked him down with just a casual flick. It almost seemed like a prearranged prank between the two.
“Jiang Tian can actually fight like that!”
Chu Mengyao and Tang Bao’er felt as if they were in a dream, unable to believe their eyes. What they had just witnessed seemed like a myth.
“What has he been through to become so powerful?”
As for Lin Monong, looking at Jiang Tian’s back, beyond her shock, she felt an indescribable sense of security.
It was as if Jiang Tian were a towering mountain, capable of shielding her from wind and rain, making her instinctively want to draw closer and look up to him.
“This is a major incident! We must report to the family head…”
Upon seeing this, several of the Zhao family servants were filled with fear and panic. They rushed out the door, running toward the main assembly hall.
——-
Zhao Yuankun had just left the assembly hall and was heading toward the courtyard where Jiang Tian was staying when several servants came stumbling and scrambling toward him, tripping over themselves in their haste.
Seeing this, he stood imposingly, frowning, and barked in a low voice, “What’s with all this panicked, flustered behavior? Are you trying to make a laughingstock of us in front of the entire martial world? You’re disgracing the Zhao family’s reputation!”
“Family Head, something terrible has happened! Young Master Zhao Hao has been beaten until he’s spitting blood by a guy named Jiang Tian!”
The servants cried out, their faces deathly pale.
“What? Zhao Hao is injured!” Zhao Yuankun’s face contorted with shock and disbelief.
He knew his son’s temperament all too well—the one nicknamed “Zhao Ritian” was arrogant, overbearing, wild, and brash, a powder keg ready to explode at the slightest spark. He had caused plenty of trouble in the past.
But Zhao Hao’s cultivation was also formidable. Among the younger generation of martial artists, he was a standout, on par with figures like Zhang Qitian.
Usually, he swaggered around like a giant crab, bullying others, breaking their bones, and injuring them until they coughed blood. When had he ever been the one getting beaten?
The next moment, Zhao Yuankun thought of another crucial question: “Who is Jiang Tian? Where is he from? Which family’s descendant?”
In the martial world, Jiang Tian was famously known by the name “Taichu.”
As for the name Jiang Tian, he never revealed it himself and had all those in the know strictly keep it confidential, all to maintain a peaceful life in the secular world.
Therefore, while the name Jiang Taichu was so familiar to Zhao Yuankun it made his ears callous, the two words “Jiang Tian” felt completely strange to him.
“He came from the Jiangbei area, seems to be from Jinling. He brought Gui Jiaoti with him and is staying in the ‘Listening Wind Water Charm’ courtyard!”
“He’s incredibly strong! With just one slap, Young Master Zhao Hao was flattened on the ground, vomiting blood!”
The servants all clamored to report what they knew.
“It’s Jiang Taichu!”
Zhao Yuankun’s expression turned grave, a deep unease settling in his heart. How could his son be so blind as to pick a fight with Master Jiang? This was a young grandmaster! If he made a move, could Zhao Hao possibly come out unscathed?
Thinking this, he quickened his pace. With a single step covering five or six meters, he hurried toward the courtyard where Jiang Tian was.
——-
“Dreamyao, you’re here too? What were you saying just now? There was a fight?”
Over at the Listening Wind Water Charm courtyard, an elegant young man, surrounded by several companions, walked over quickly.
His name was Xia Miao, Chu Mengyao’s boyfriend. The Xia family ranked within the top twenty in Jinling, dealing in securities trading. Most of the securities firms in Jinling were owned by his family, with assets totaling several billion.
As soon as Jiang Tian saw him, his handsome face darkened slightly, a faint, cold glint flashing in his eyes.
Back in the day, Xia Miao studied in the Finance Department at Jinling University, right next to Jiang Tian’s school. However, he was an outstanding student, frequently winning national-level scholarships.
It was said that even as a sophomore, he and a few friends from the Finance and Computer Science departments had developed a mathematical model for stock trading. It was extremely accurate in stock selection, never making mistakes in predicting trends. Starting with the ten million his father gave him, he had made over a hundred million in the stock market.
At that time, Jiang Tian was also pursuing Chu Mengyao. Xia Miao had people give Jiang Tian a severe beating and subjected him to all sorts of humiliation, calling him a toad lusting after swan meat and telling him to take a good look at himself in a puddle of piss.
Actually, back then, the Jiang family was doing quite well. As the young master of Medicine King Group, Jiang Tian naturally couldn’t swallow this insult and fought back fiercely.
But in several confrontations, Jiang Tian ended up on the losing side.
Because Xia Miao was too exceptional. He associated with wealthy, influential families, forming private funds to manage their assets, while Jiang Tian only knew a few spoiled rich kids. How could he possibly be a match?
In the end, Jiang Tian’s mother learned about his conflict with Xia Miao and repeatedly advised and mediated until Jiang Tian reluctantly gave up his self-destructive attempts at retaliation.
Jiang Tian still remembered, in his past life, when those three major families shorted Medicine King Group and launched the equity battle, Xia Miao had actually participated in the market manipulation, defeating Medicine King Group and Chen Zhenming utterly.
After they secured the equity, Xia Miao, like a victorious general, strutted into his old classmate Chen Zhenming’s trading room, flaunting his success and calling Jiang Tian and the others a bunch of good-for-nothings. This provoked Chen Zhenming, who had been working non-stop for half a month without sleep, into a heart attack on the spot, nearly killing him.
——-
“Jiang Tian hit someone…”
As if finding a pillar of support, a flustered Chu Mengyao hurried to his side, clinging to his arm, and said, “And he hit Zhao Hao, Lei Gang’s big cousin! What should we do?”
“What! That’s Zhao Hao!”
Zhao Hao’s face was covered in blood and grime, so Xia Miao hadn’t recognized him at first. Only upon hearing this did he take a closer look at Zhao Hao, who was slumped by the rockery, and nearly jumped out of his skin in fright.
Xia Miao had been here for two days and had interacted with Zhao Hao. He understood all too well the terrifying power of the Zhao family.
In Jinling, he was considered a top-tier young master, on par with figures like Chen Bo of the Chen family and Sun Hao of the Sun family. He had swaggered through Jinling, capable of summoning wind and rain, quite pleased with himself.
But after witnessing Zhao Hao’s imposing might, he realized what true transcendent power was, what real top-tier authority meant, and what genuine high society looked like.
Those individuals with tens of billions in assets, who frequently appeared on rich lists, would still bow respectfully and yield deferentially when they met Zhao Hao, a mere junior.
Just a couple of days ago, a young master whose family was in the iron ore business, with assets worth tens of billions, accidentally bumped into Zhao Hao at a banquet. Zhao Hao broke his leg and threw him out.
And that young master’s parents didn’t dare utter a single word of protest. Instead, they repeatedly apologized, almost kowtowing and begging for forgiveness.
“This guy is nothing but a troublemaker! Causing trouble in Jinling wasn’t enough; now he’s brought his mess to Jiangxi Province! He simply doesn’t know when he’s out of his depth!”
The next moment, rage surged within Xia Miao. Gnashing his teeth, he muttered under his breath.
