Chapter 222: Dragon's Indifference
In the Stonehaven Grove, under the pale glow of the evening sun, a small crowd of disciples had gathered around Su Tianhao's cottage. Two figures stood at the centre of their attention.
One was the second-ranked new recruit—Jin Yulong. The other was a young man who shared his blonde hair and piercing green eyes, but was considerably taller, with sharper cheekbones and an imposing presence that didn't need to announce itself.
Jin Aoshi. One of the Jadeclaw Peak's top talents and an Azure Cloud Ranking disciple. And from the look of things, Jin Yulong's cousin.
At this moment, the two of them were deep in an argument that had clearly been going on for some time.
"Cousin, how many times do I have to tell you—Su Tianhao is my problem! I don't need your help!" Jin Yulong's voice carried the particular frustration of someone who had been making the same point for hours.
They had been at it for a while now, drawing a crowd of spectators that grew naturally around them. But this stubborn cousin of his refused to relent. And there was nothing Jin Yulong could do about it—he was only a 5th Level Martial Adept while Jin Aoshi was already a 5th Level Martial Core Realm expert. The gulf between them was massive.
Jin Aoshi ran a hand lazily through his long hair. "Don't be ridiculous. He humiliated you in public. He deserves to be punished." His gaze moved across the watching disciples with casual contempt. "And what are you still doing in the Silverblade Peak? You're a hand-to-hand fighter, not a blade user. I'm disappointed that you let Lord Duan's reputation drag you in here with the rest of these people."
The gathered disciples stirred visibly at the obvious mockery in his words. None of them spoke.
Before superior strength, pride was an expensive luxury.
"You're wrong," Jin Yulong said, his frown deepening. "I didn't come to the Silverblade Peak because of Lord Duan. I came on my own terms."
"For a petty rivalry?" Jin Aoshi's voice sharpened. "Just let me handle it. Focus on getting stronger so the same thing doesn't happen again."
"Su Tianhao is my nemesis." The words came through gritted teeth, Jin Yulong's green eyes burning with quiet ferocity. "No one gets to put him in his place except me. Not even you."
Jin Aoshi stared at him in silence for a moment. Then he burst into an abrupt laughter.
"Hahahahaha!"
The laugh was unrestrained, carrying genuine amusement at the expense of his cousin's dignity. He wiped the corner of his eye. "Did you hear yourself? Your nemesis." The amusement faded into something more direct. "He's a monster among monsters, little cousin. An anomaly. One year younger than you, Peak-stage Martial Adept, and a talent that shattered the Aptitude Rating Stele rather than merely breaking it. You're an eight-star genius at 5th Level Martial Adept—remarkable by any standard." A pause. "Against him, it isn't enough. Not yet."
Jin Yulong opened his mouth. No words came out. As much as he hated to admit it, his cousin was right.
Jin Aoshi stepped forward and placed a steady hand on his shoulder, leaning in. "Good thing your token hasn't had the Blood Ownership claim made yet. Come with me to the Distribution Hall afterward and have it changed to the Jadeclaw Peak's." His voice dropped into something colder. "This is your father's orders."
"Father..."
The words left Jin Yulong's lips before he could stop them. His muscles tightened visibly.
---
Just then, a low voice cut through the crowd like a temple bell at dusk.
"Su Tianhao's here!"
The disciples turned. Their expressions shifted—surprise, unease, and something harder to name. The atmosphere grew heavier.
Jin Aoshi removed his hand from Jin Yulong's shoulder and turned slowly, his green eyes narrowing as they found the approaching figure.
"So that's him... the new King of the Stonehaven Grove."
Several metres away, Su Tianhao had slowed his steps as he noticed Jin Aoshi's gaze.
"Who's that?" Su Lei asked.
"Jin Aoshi—Jin Yulong's cousin," Wang Bing said, her expression darkening. "From the looks of things, he's been waiting for you. And he hasn't come with good intentions."
"That much is clear," Su Tianhao said. His golden eyes moved past Jin Aoshi and found Jin Yulong—standing rigid, knuckles white, veins visible across his forearms.
He studied the scene for a moment.
"Brother Tianhao," Wang Bing said, tugging his sleeve. "What do we do?"
He rolled his shoulder once.
"We ignore them."
---
Jin Aoshi watched them approach with arms crossed, the smirk already in place. When Su Tianhao was close enough, he stepped forward.
"If it isn't the Anomaly himself. I've come today to—"
Swoosh!
A cold wind brushed past him. He paused. His eyes widened.
Su Tianhao was already behind him—already past him—moving toward his cottage with the absolute indifference of someone for whom this particular obstacle had not registered as an obstacle at all.
Jin Aoshi froze.
'Did he just ignore me?'
The disbelief lasted exactly one second before his expression twisted.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
He turned sharply. "How dare you—do you know who I am?!"
The air went still. The crowd held its breath. Su Lei and Wang Bing watched without moving.
Su Tianhao stopped.
He didn't turn immediately. For a few seconds he stood with his back to the clearing, something stirring in the depths of his composure that he did not let reach the surface. Then he turned—slowly, head raised—his golden eyes coming down on Jin Aoshi with the particular weight of something that had existed long before either of them was born.
"Do You Know Who I Am."
It didn't come out as a question. It arrived as something older—a declaration that reverberated through the clearing with absolute authority and ancient dominance. No technique. No spiritual energy. Just weight.
Jin Aoshi felt the dread before he understood it. Cold sweat broke across his skin. His body trembled—not with fear, but with something older than fear. Instinct. Those golden eyes, regal and luminous, pierced through him like a divine spear. For a moment, it was as though his entire existence had been laid bare.
Everyone in the clearing felt it. That unspoken dominance that felt like the cold edge of an executioner's blade at the back of their necks.
"Hmph!"
Su Tianhao's snort arrived like the first wind of winter finding a gap in a closed door—quiet, unbothered, and cold enough to remind you that warmth had never been guaranteed to last. Without another word, he turned and walked toward his cottage.
Jin Aoshi snapped out of his daze. His heart was still racing, but his pride moved faster.
"Wait! I challenge you to a duel—do you dare accept it?!"
The disciples leaned forward collectively. A 5th Level Martial Core expert challenging a Peak-stage Martial Adept was absurd on its face. A one-sided massacre by any reasonable measure. But something in Su Tianhao's presence had already made the arithmetic complicated, and every person watching felt it.
"A duel?" Su Tianhao didn't turn. "For my cottage?"
"I couldn't care less about the cottage!" Jin Aoshi's voice climbed. "I'm here to seek revenge for my cousin!"
"Is that all?"
"W-what do you mean?" Jin Aoshi's brow twitched. "Answer me!"
"I won't be playing your childish games," Su Tianhao said, already reaching for the door handle.
Jin Aoshi's composure broke entirely. "Listen, bastard! Zhu Yong is my friend. Don't think that becoming King of the Stonehaven Grove means you can look down on everyone. He is King of the entire Outer Court—and I can make sure he makes every single day of your life in this sect miserable!"
'Zhu Yong...'
Su Tianhao's hand paused on the handle.
'Isn't that the scoundrel who's been harassing Senior Sister Mei?'
His lips curved—barely, and not into anything that resembled a smile. Something sharper than that. More patient.
'Interesting.'
Seeing Su Tianhao pause, Jin Aoshi's sneer returned. "If you know what's good for you, come back here and apologise. Maybe then I'll go easy on you."
"Go home."
Two words.
Quiet. Flat. Final.
Bam.
The door shut.
Silence dropped over the clearing like a stone into still water—immediate, total, spreading outward in every direction. The disciples stared at the closed door as if it had said something they were still processing.
Jin Aoshi stood exactly where he had been standing. He looked like a man who had walked into a room to deliver a verdict and found no one present to receive it—the speech prepared, the authority assembled, the audience simply absent.
Jin Yulong raised his head slowly and looked at Su Tianhao's door. Something settled behind his eyes—not defeat. Something quieter and more durable than that.
"Let's go, cousin," he said, patting Jin Aoshi's back. "I have decided to join the Jadeclaw Peak."
Jin Aoshi shook him off violently. His face was flushed, his body rigid with the impotent rage of someone who had brought force to bear and found nothing to push against. His glare fixed on the closed door—intense enough to strip bark—but the door held its silence just as completely as its occupant had.
He couldn't do anything. He wasn't a Silverblade Peak disciple. He wasn't a Stonehaven Grove resident. Su Tianhao had entered his safe space, and no one in the sect had the authority to force him out. Even if he waited, Su Tianhao had no obligation to accept the challenge. No one watching would hold it against him. It was only logical. Only a fool would jump into a fight with a 5th Level Martial Core expert without good reason.
Jin Aoshi stared at the cottage for several long minutes, his frustration growing heavier with each passing moment.
Then—Crack!
He drove his foot into the earth. A spiderweb of cracks spread outward from the impact, the surrounding grass flattening in a ring around it. He turned to Jin Yulong, his expression heavy and final.
"Let's go."
Jin Yulong nodded solemnly and followed without another word.
Su Lei and Wang Bing exchanged a glance—wordless, wry, and carrying the shared expression of people who had just watched something deeply unreasonable and could not decide whether to be alarmed or impressed.
Then, without a word between them, they parted. Each moved toward their own cottage with purposeful steps. There was cultivation to return to, techniques to begin memorising, and the quiet kind of preparation that happens when you can see a storm forming even if the sky is still clear tonight.
The remaining disciples dispersed the way crowds always do when the main event is definitively over—gradually, in ones and twos, until the grove returned to its ordinary evening quiet. They left carrying different emotions, different private calculations. But every single one of them would remember today. Not just because of what happened—but because of the moment those golden eyes turned, and the clearing went silent before anyone had decided to be silent.
Some things didn't need an explanation.
They just needed to be witnessed.