Chapter 32: Wealthy Young Master Remains Arrogant
As Jiang Yun and the beautiful woman headed back toward the elegant young master, Jiang Yun looked back at the unconscious guards he had just dealt with.
He had knocked them out with swift, precise strikes, feeling it wasn't appropriate to take their lives since they didn't harbor any genuine killing intent. Since he didn't know what else to do with these unconscious men, he simply left them slumped on the ground where they fell.
As they walked back, a sudden thought struck Jiang Yun. He realized he didn't even know the name of the woman he had just brought along.
This prompted Jiang Yun to turn to her and ask, "What is your name? We haven’t even introduced ourselves yet, despite going through so much together just now."
The beautiful woman offered a small, appreciative smile and said, "My name is Song Yurong from the Song family. As you probably heard from the rumors, my father is pretty famous for being incredibly wealthy—not that he and I get along."
She glanced up at him curiously. "Now that you know my name, what about you?"
Jiang Yun looked ahead and replied casually, "I’m Jiang Yun, just a rogue cultivator who recently founded a sect nearby."
Song Yurong’s eyes widened in surprise, her footsteps pausing slightly as she processed the news that Jiang Yun was actually a sect leader.
A spark of hope lit up her face, and she asked, "If you are a sect leader, then you must be very strong, right? Then... can you take me as a disciple, or at least let me have a chance of joining your sect?"
Jiang Yun looked at her and thought about it for a moment. He realized he now shared some fate with this woman.
Thinking about it he decided, "If you can pass my entrance test, then you can join my sect and pick a master. My sect doesn’t have many members, but you will still have the option to choose who teaches you if you manage to pass."
Song Yurong's expression turned fierce with determination, and she said confidently, "Then I will definitely pass your assessment and join your sect! When I do, I will choose you as my master, since we are already familiar with each other."
Jiang Yun remained silent, offering no promises, and decided to leave it entirely up to fate to see if she would actually pass.
Before long, the two arrived back at the bustling space where they had originally fled.
Not much time had passed, so there was still a dense crowd lingering around, refusing to leave because they wanted to watch the dramatic show unfold.
In the center of the square stood the elegant young man, looking entirely relaxed as he waited for his guards to bring Song Yurong back to him.
As Jiang Yun and Song Yurong stepped out of the crowd and approached, the elegant man blinked in surprise. Seeing the two return completely on their own without his guards anywhere in sight, his confusion quickly turned into a smug, arrogant assumption.
The elegant young man smirked and said, "It seems you have finally learned that you can’t escape me and have come back on your own. Since you are being sensible, I will lower your punishment."
He looked towards Jiang Yun. "If that man breaks his own arm right now, I will let him leave after that. As for you, woman, just come back with me quietly and I won’t make things hard for you."
Song Yurong stepped forward, her voice filled with defiance as she retorted, "I’m not here to be taken back by you. We’re here to settle things once and for all, and the man next to me is going to do it."
Hearing such blunt, rude words in front of the watching crowd, the elegant young man’s face twisted, and his voice completely lost its soft, cultured tone.
He said angrily, "You really dare to mess with me? Just wait for my guards to come back, and you'll see exactly how I deal with you!"
As the elegant young man continued to shout threats, Jiang Yun felt a wave of impatience. He felt he had already spent far too much time dealing with this arrogant young man and decided to end things right now.
Jiang Yun stepped forward in a instant and grabbed the young man tightly by the neck, lifting him slightly to strike absolute fear into his heart.
The elegant young man choked, his face flushing red as he struggled to breathe. Yet, he still tried to glare down at Jiang Yun and gasped, "Don’t you dare try to hurt me! I am Han Fei, the son of the richest man in the Eastern Region! If you dare hurt me, my father won’t let you go, and you’ll never have a peaceful day again!"
Listening to the exact same, predictable threats from an arrogant young master yet again, an indescribable wave of annoyance flared up inside Jiang Yun, making him want to simply snap the young master's neck right away.
Forcing himself to take a deep breath and calm his rising temper, Jiang Yun suppressed his killing intent.
He then said in a low, threatening tone, "I will give you a choice. Swear right now that you’ll end things here, and I will let you go. Of course, I will personally make sure you keep your promise, as I have my ways."
Jiang Yun tightened his hand slightly. "Your second option is that you keep your current attitude and don’t back down—in which case, I will have no choice but to kill you."
Han Fei, thinking Jiang Yun was merely bluffing, kept his arrogant tone and sneered, "I refuse! I won’t lower myself to bow before a lowly person like you. Even if I die, I won’t submit! Just you wait—when my father finds out, you will suffer miserably."
Jiang Yun completely lost his patience. Without another word, he began tightening his fingers to finally put an end to Han Fei’s life.
As his grip constricted and a very real, lethal pressure choked off his breath, Han Fei suddenly realized that Jiang Yun wasn’t kidding. The terrifying reality of death stared him in the face.
Instantly losing his initial arrogance, Han Fei began to panic and desperately pleaded, "Please, I was wrong! Let me go! I will swear not to mess with you, just let me go! I don’t want to die, I still have a long life to live!"
However, because Jiang Yun had already decided to kill him, he stopped listening to the pathetic pleas. He directly clenched his hand with a sharp snap, instantly killing Han Fei before the young master could continue to beg.
The watching crowd was instantly struck with absolute shock and fear. The son of the richest man in the Eastern Region had just been killed right here in their village. Everyone knew this would end terribly for anyone nearby once that powerful man found out about his son's death.
Panicking, the crowd immediately dispersed, running as fast and as far away as possible to avoid being implicated in the murder. Many secretly decided they wouldn't return for a few months until everything finally blew over.
Within moments, the once-crowded area around Jiang Yun and Song Yurong became completely desolate as everyone fled for their lives.
Jiang Yun calmly waved his hand, summoning a fireball that enveloped Han Fei’s corpse. Within seconds, it burned the body to ashes, leaving nothing behind as the remains blew away in the wind.
Song Yurong, who was just an ordinary mortal and had rarely seen such a brutal scene of death, felt her stomach churn. A wave of slight nausea hit her, but she clenched her fists and managed to hold it down.
After some time, as she struggled to recover from the gruesome scene, she was suddenly amazed by the pure simplicity of power. A desperate situation she had to work so hard just to run away from had been resolved in a matter of moments by Jiang Yun with absolute brute force.
It was so effortlessly achieved by the powerful, yet so impossibly hard for a weak woman like her. Feeling a fire ignite inside her, this realization deeply hardened her resolve to get stronger so she would never be that helpless ever again.
Song Yurong turned to Jiang Yun and asked curiously, "What are your plans now that you have killed Han Fei? I know Han Fei’s father is probably easy for you to deal with, considering how confident you were in killing his son, but that doesn’t mean he will let this go. Soon, he will come looking to cause trouble."
Jiang Yun looked down at her, his expression entirely unbothered. "My plan is for you to take my sect assessment right now. If you pass, I will immediately impart cultivation knowledge to you and usher you into the world of cultivation."
He gave a slight, dismissive shrug. "It won’t take long for you to break through to the Qi Refining stage. Once you do, you can deal with this 'richest man in the Eastern Region' yourself, as he is just a mere mortal."
Song Yurong nodded, but though she was still confident, she still asked, "Then... what if I fail the assessment?"
Jiang Yun replied firmly, his voice absolute, "If you fail, I will head over right after your failure and slaughter that mortal myself to prevent any future trouble."
He glanced out towards the horizon. "As for why I am not doing it right now, it is simply because going out of my way to kill a mere mortal is beneath me."
Jiang Yun then turned serious. "Once you agree, we shall begin the test immediately."