Several elders hurried across the fractured floor, robes fluttering as they crouched by Bai Yulian's side. Golden threads of healing qi poured into her torn body, yet blood still trickled from the corner of her lips.
The higher-ranking Bai clan members, who had stayed silent before, now revealed faces twisted with terror and despair, as though a great calamity had descended upon their house.
At the center of it all, Jiang Mingshi stood motionless.
His expression was cold, carved in ice. To every eye in the Grand Hall, he looked like the ruthless sword fanatic of infamy, treating the scene of shattered walls and bloodied robes as nothing more than a trivial matter.
Matriarch Bai Meiling surged to her feet, crimson qi bursting from her like wildfire. Her crimson robe rippled with the force, phoenixes seeming to flutter alive across the silk.
"JIANG MINGSHI!" Her voice thundered like a great bell. The air shook. "What is the meaning of this?"
Mingshi did not answer.
He couldn't.
He stood frozen, his mind racing for any answer to the inevitable.
Before he could think further, Mu Yunyao stepped forward, her voice sharp enough to cut flesh.
"That one strike was mercy. If she cannot even survive it, then better she dies now than bring shame to the Young Master."
Gasps exploded through the chamber.
"She dares say this?"
"Too arrogant!"
"Unforgivable!"
The elders spat their outrage, but their fury only deepened the pit Mingshi felt sinking in his gut.
'How kind of her,' he thought dryly. 'Pour oil on the fire, then toss in the whole lantern.'
Meiling's qi flared hotter, her spiritual energy filling the chamber like a storm. At once, Yunyao's aura ignited to meet it. Red and crimson clashed mid-air, forming a violent tide. Stone tiles cracked. Pillars splintered. The ceiling groaned under the strain.
The pressure alone made servants cough blood, their faces pale as paper. Some fainted on the spot.
Both women stood unyielding. Two peaks of the Core Formation realm, their confrontation shredding the hall with invisible blades.
Yet amid the chaos, the elders kept working. Their hands hovered over Yulian's body, streaming healing qi into her burned hands and battered chest. At last, her ribcage stirred faintly, her lips trembling as more blood welled up.
Mingshi stood unmoving in the middle of the devastation, silently counting down the seconds until his life ended.
He had already begun to accept his fate.
Then—
[First Quest]
A translucent screen flickered before his eyes.
[Select one option:
(i) "Don't heal her. Let her wounds remain. They will remind her every day of what it means to stand before Jiang Mingshi."
(ii) "Anyone who thinks I went too far, step forward. I will let you test if you fare better than her."]
Mingshi's eyes twitched.
'What kind of bullshit is this?'
[Choose within one minute.]
'Choose? Are you insane? Why would I pick something that would surely lead to my dea—'
[Ten seconds remaining. If you do not choose, the system will automatically select option (iii).]
'There's not even a third optio—'
Then new words carved themselves onto the screen, glowing with cruel finality.
[(iii) "If Bai Yulian can crawl back to her feet, I will consider her barely worthy of engagement. Otherwise, the Bai Clan can find a crippled dog to marry her off."]
His lips twitched, and he chose the first option.
Then, almost against his will, a laugh broke free.
It wasn't gentle. Sharp, mocking, and far too loud, the sound echoed through the ruined Grand Hall, bouncing off jade pillars and broken stone.
Every head turned.
Meiling froze. Yunyao stilled. The elders' hands paused on Yulian's chest. Even the coughing servants turned wide, bloodstained mouths toward him.
For a heartbeat, silence ruled.
Then Jiang Mingshi drew his sword with deliberate calm. The steel whispered against the scabbard, gleaming under fractured light.
He raised it lightly, almost lazily, and spoke.
"Don't heal her." His voice rang cold, unhurried. "Let her wounds remain."
A pause. His gaze sharpened.
"They will remind her… every day… of what it means to stand before Jiang Mingshi."
Gasps shattered the silence.
The elders' faces turned scarlet, veins bulging at their temples.
"A fiend!"
"Bloodthirsty monster!"
But Mu Yunyao's eyes shone with pride. A proud, feral smile curved across her lips. She bowed slightly toward him, as though savoring her Young Master's ruthlessness.
Yes, this was the Jiang Mingshi she revered. The ruthless cultivator who bowed to none, who struck without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Jiang's heart dripped with tears. 'Hope my corpse doesn't end up as dog food.'
Across the dais, Bai Meiling's hands trembled. Her qi surged out again, denser, heavier, more suffocating than before. The air itself screamed under the weight.
Her teeth clenched. Then she moved.
In the blink of an eye, her figure vanished.
Yunyao's eyes widened, her arrogance collapsing into dread. A chill raced down her spine.
She hadn't even sensed Meiling move.
By the time her senses caught up, the Matriarch was already floating in mid-air above the ruined hall.
Her hand reached into a crimson-gold spatial ring. Liquid light poured out, swirling like molten mercury. It twisted, hardened, and in her grasp solidified into an artifact.
Ancient and timeworn, the halberd radiated immense might. Veins of silver ran along the dark steel shaft, its crescent-shaped blade gleaming with deadly precision. Its aura pressed down on the hall like a mountain on mortal bones.
"Quasi-Heaven grade…" gasped one elder, face pale.
The high-ranking family members shot up in alarm.
"Matriarch, please don't!"
"Yes, Mother, if we offend the Supreme Heaven Sect, our clan will be annihilated!"
Many others bowed, nodding rapidly in agreement, their voices rising in hurried pleas, each showing the same fear.
But another elder staggered forward, stopping just paces from Mingshi. His eyes blazed with rage, though tears carved lines down his cheeks.
"Matriarch!" His voice cracked. "Do it. Strike him down! I will bear all the blame!"
He pressed a palm against his chest, body shaking with fury. "We cannot allow a fiend who crippled Yulian'er to walk away alive!"
Meiling's gaze sharpened. "Very well."
Her qi surged, wrapping around the halberd in a storm of crimson flame. The weapon howled as though awakening from slumber.
The Grand Hall trembled. Servants crawled on their knees, pressing their heads to the floor to withstand the pressure.
At that moment, Mu Yunyao darted in front of Mingshi, her black sleeves snapping like banners in the wind.
"Young Master, please leave. I will hold her off. Do not worry for me."
Her voice was steady, yet the slight tremor in her frame betrayed her fear.
Mingshi blinked at her loyalty. Then, with perfect seriousness, he said, "Thanks… goodbye."
The winds howled so violently she barely caught his words. "What?"
But before she could ask for clarification, several elders stepped from the sides, blocking Mingshi's path of retreat.
Mingshi turned back with a hollow smile, pressing closer to Yunyao's side. His hand tightened on his sword.
'Fuck. Fucking motherfu—'
Then the pressure shifted.
A new presence descended upon the hall.
From behind Meiling, a shadow emerged.