Being thoroughly ignored by this suddenly-appearing, violet-robed youth, whose disregard carried a faint, condescending contempt, the grin Xue Beng had barely managed to hold on to completely crumbled and froze on his face, making him look extremely ridiculous.
A blaze of shame and rage rushed straight to the top of his head. His eyes burned red, his mind almost losing its grip on reason.
He was wrapped in brocade and silk, but the royal blood of the Heaven Dou nobility flowed through his bones!
Nominally, he was the most exalted Fourth Prince of this empire. How could anyone treat him like this—as if he weren't worth more than a stone in the roadside gutter?
And it was right here, on this long street, in front of the very Ye Lingling he wanted to touch, and in front of the Dugu Yan he envied, that he'd been slapped in the face again and again, his dignity utterly trampled!
This sharp sense of humiliation, like venom, burned away his reason in an instant. He temporarily forgot the close relationship between the other party and Dugu Yan, and even suppressed his earlier trace of fear about Chen Yi's unknown identity.
At this moment, all he could see was the back of the violet-robed youth, turning away with complete indifference, walking off without a backward glance. The youth's back was straight, his steps steady. The distance between them felt like an unbridgeable gulf, as if he never once took Xue Beng seriously.
Xue Beng stared fixedly at that back. His eyes, out of control, exploded with a piercingly cold light, and a faint yet very real killing intent emerged from the depths of his heart like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, coiling itself around the figure he hated.
He roared inwardly, swearing to himself:
"No matter who you are or who stands behind you, I will dig out your roots! I will make you pay the heaviest price for today's arrogance and disrespect!"
Yet in the very instant his killing intent had not yet fully subsided, Chen Yi, having already taken several steps, suddenly stopped—without any warning.
He neither turned his head nor shifted his body. But the formless, ten-thousand-year-cold Xuan Ice soul power within him was like an invisible arrow piercing the void, like an absolute-zero domain silently spreading out. In an instant, it accurately crossed the distance between them and swept over Xue Beng without restraint!
"Ah—!"
Xue Beng felt as if his heart had been struck by an unseen hammer of ice, as if an extremely cold needle had been stabbed deep into the core of his soul.
An indescribable pain and vertigo surged over him like a whirlpool. He couldn't hold back a strangled groan.
The blood drained from his face in an instant. He turned as pale as paper, then flushed with a strange, unhealthy color as his qi and blood surged in reverse. His body trembled violently, his legs going weak. Without the quick reaction of the attendants behind him, who rushed to support him, he would have collapsed on the spot.
"Your Highness! Your Highness, what's wrong?!"
"Brat! What trick did you use on His Highness?!"
"Impudent! How dare you! Do you know who stands before you? This is His Highness the Fourth Prince of Heaven Dou Empire! How dare you—"
Deep down, they were terrified of this strange, unpredictable method. But the instincts honed by years of bullying the weak gave them a false courage. They pointed at Chen Yi's back and cursed sharply, trying to use the Prince's illustrious status to suppress the other party and salvage some of their master's dignity.
Chen Yi slowly turned around.
The warm golden rays of sunset fell over his long, ink-black hair like a mysterious halo, but they could not melt the chill in his expression in the slightest.
His eyes were as calm as an ancient well, as deep as a still pool without ripples. Yet when those abyss-like pupils fell upon Xue Beng, the latter felt a chill surge from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, completely enveloping his spirit.
It was like being trapped in a cage with a peerless beast. Even his soul trembled uncontrollably, and the thought of resisting never even arose.
Chen Yi completely ignored the barking of those dog-like attendants. His gaze was like a cold sword, nailing itself onto Xue Beng's pain-twisted, fear-filled face. The very sight of that man made him feel a kind of profound revulsion.
"In your ignorance, I'll let you off lightly this first time—as both a small punishment and a grave warning."
Chen Yi's voice wasn't loud, yet it strangely drowned out all other noise. It entered the ears of everyone present, each syllable carrying a chilling weight that trembled in their hearts.
"But this is also the last warning you'll get."
He paused slightly. The temperature of the air around them seemed to plunge with those words, as if frozen.
The short silence pressed down on everyone's chest like a weight.
"Next time…"
His tone remained flat, but his killing intent had solidified into something almost tangible, making Xue Beng's blood feel as if it had frozen.
"If you so much as show a hint of killing intent in front of me again—
You. Will. Die."
The final sentence boomed through the suddenly silent street like nine days of thunder. All whispering ceased abruptly.
Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at the violet-robed youth in disbelief, almost doubting their own ears—
He had… publicly threatened a prince's life?!
Chen Yi's gaze drifted lazily over Xue Beng's pale, twisted face, filled with extreme terror. The corners of his lips curled into a disdainful arc that seeped into the bone, as if he were looking at some insignificant, disgusting insect.
He added one last sentence, his voice not loud, but imbued with a contempt that looked down on all living things.
"A Heaven Dou prince? You're just a rice-weevil, parasitizing this empire's body and sucking the fat and oil of its people. Killing you would only dirty my hands."
With that, Chen Yi didn't even bother to look at Xue Beng again. It was as if taking one more glance at him would be an insult to himself.
He turned back to the stunned Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling. The frost on his face melted in an instant into a gentle smile, his tone returning to its earlier calmness.
"Let's go."
The three turned around once more. Under the gaze of the surrounding crowd—gazes filled with awe, curiosity, and fear—they walked away. Wherever they passed, the people instinctively parted to open a path. No one tried to stop them; no one dared to speak.
Only when their figures disappeared at the far end of the long street did the suffocating pressure gradually dissipate.
Not until Chen Yi's figure had completely vanished from sight did the cold, oppressive force gripping Xue Beng's heart and throat finally recede.
His legs lost all strength. He collapsed weakly onto the arms of his supporters. Without their help, he would have fallen to the ground like mud.
He gasped harshly, like a man just waking from a drowning nightmare. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead and sideburns, soaking the fine clothes on his back until they clung to his skin with a clammy chill.
It was not just the intense pain and vertigo caused by the trauma to his spirit. It was also a terror that rose from the deepest depths of his soul, nearly swallowing him whole.
In that instant, he had clearly felt the breath of death.
That violet-robed youth—he truly dared to kill him!
Moreover, he possessed a terrifying power that could take his life in an instant, without giving him the slightest chance to resist.
"Who… exactly… is he…?"
Xue Beng's voice was hoarse and dry, trembling uncontrollably.
Someone who treated the dignity of the Heaven Dou royal clan as nothing, whose strength was unfathomable, whose methods were bizarre—whatever power stood behind him was undoubtedly a giant beast that inspired fear.
Before he could learn the other party's true background, the resentment and desire for revenge in his heart were firmly suppressed by that bone-deep, marrow-freezing fear.
The great humiliation he suffered today… he could only—
Swallow it down. Grind his teeth and drink his own blood.
"Let's… go… Take me… back…"
Xue Beng forced those words through his clenched teeth with the last of his strength. His voice was filled with a weakness and panic he had never shown in his life.
There was no trace of the arrogance he'd had when harassing Ye Lingling earlier. Supported by his subordinates, he pushed through the not-yet-fully-dispersed crowd like a dog with a broken spine, fleeing this street that had stripped him of his last shreds of dignity.
On the street, only a few low voices lingered. Shock and speculation about the mysterious, powerful, and contemptuous purple-robed youth rippled outward like a stone dropped into a lake, rapidly spreading across the entire Heaven Dou City.
...
Bonus chapter at 100 PS