161: I won't kill you. I'm a civilized and polite young man!

"Boom!!!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion as expected; instead, there was a dull, muffled thud of impact!

Immediately after.

A visible ripple spread out, centered from where the fist and fingers collided!

The next second,

Elder Hong's joined index and middle fingers—actually! Actually! Actually!—shattered right from the roots!

Following that, his entire body was sent flying backward, feet off the ground, as if struck head-on by a speeding train, moving even faster than when he approached!

"Boom!!!"

His body smashed through the door of the inner casino hall and slid weakly to the ground.

The entire room fell into dead silence!

All the gamblers, along with Liu Qingluo, and even the casino security and dealers... all widened their eyes and gaped in shock.

What had they just witnessed?

Elder Hong, an inner sect elder of the Hidden Sect and a powerhouse in the mid-Xuan Realm, had unleashed his signature technique, the 'Red Fiend Finger.' His momentum was fierce, with rolling heat waves that seemed capable of incinerating everything...

Yet, he had been smashed by Ye Chen's plain, unadorned punch, resulting in shattered finger bones, vomiting blood, and being sent flying through the door?

This is fucking ridiculous!

Were they sure they weren't dreaming?

But the smell of blood permeating the air, the corpses lying around, and Elder Hong, whose fingers had been ruined...

All of it told them that this was real!

That young man, who looked no more than twenty, had used just one punch to cripple the hand of a Hidden Sect elder and severely injure him!

"Cough... cough, cough!"

Elder Hong lay sprawled in the ruins at the entrance of the inner hall, coughing up a pool of blood violently.

Then.

His face was filled with terror.

"Your... your strength..."

"Is actually... above mine???"

A person so young, their cultivation actually surpassed his, a mid-Xuan Realm expert who had cultivated for decades?

How is this possible?!

The Hidden Sect's young lady was a genius rarely seen in a century, cultivated with the resources of the entire Hidden Sect, yet she had only just barely touched the threshold of the Xuan Realm!

This Ye Chen... who on earth is he?

Could he truly be a descendant of some ancient family with a terrifying background that has remained hidden from the world?!

Ye Chen walked up to Elder Hong, stopped, and looked down at him with a calm expression.

"I don't know exactly what level I'm at."

"But killing you..."

He paused, smiled slightly, "should be no problem."

Elder Hong's breath hitched, and the shadow of death instantly enveloped his heart.

He endured the intense pain and fear, hissing, "You... do you dare kill me? If you dare to touch me, the Hidden Sect will exhaust the power of the entire sect to take unscrupulous revenge on you and everyone around you! You..."

"Rest assured."

Ye Chen interrupted him, his smile growing brighter.

"I won't kill you."

"After all, I am a good young man who promotes new customs, is civilized, and understands etiquette."

"Such crude things as killing don't align with my core values."

The entire room: "..."

What the hell kind of "good young man" is that!

A person who wiped out twenty-two lives in the snap of a finger and sent an old man flying with one punch could in no way be associated with being a good young man...

Everyone's mouth twitched, and their facial expressions were completely out of control.

Upon hearing this, Elder Hong felt a sudden surge of joy, like a drowning person grabbing onto the last straw!

He wasn't going to kill him! Good! That's good! As long as he could survive today, he would definitely pay this bastard back a hundredfold in the future!

One had to know... the Hidden Sect had plenty of ways to make this kid wish he were dead!

A trace of malice quietly flashed deep in his eyes.

However, before he could start fantasizing about how to kill Ye Chen, Ye Chen's next words made his face turn pale instantly, and his body felt as if it had fallen into an ice cellar!

"I originally intended to have that trash, Shadow Demon, take me to your Hidden Sect's lair."

"However..."

Ye Chen squatted down to look at the deathly pale Elder Hong eye-to-eye and continued with a smile.

"Since you've appeared and so warmly hosted me."

"Then the job of leading the way will be left to you."

"So..."

He reached out and gently patted Elder Hong's old face.

"I will only cripple you."

"I'll leave you your dog's life, your tongue, and a pair of eyes that can recognize the way."

"Pretty generous, right?"

Elder Hong's face was ashen, and he screamed in terror, "You cannot cripple me! You cannot!!!"

"Ye Chen! I'll do whatever you want!"

"Lead the way? I'll do it! I'll personally take you to the Hidden Sect!"

"Just please spare my cultivation! I will be your beast of burden!"

What was the difference between crippling his cultivation and killing him? No, it was even more cruel than killing him!

Once his cultivation was crippled, decades of hard work would go down the drain, and he would become a useless person with no power to truss a chicken. In the survival-of-the-fittest environment of the Hidden Sect, he would lose everything!!!

Status! Power! Dignity! Even the right to survive!

Even if the Hidden Sect could really avenge him in the future, a crippled elder could never return to a high position and would only be discarded like trash.

This made him a thousand times more terrified than if he had just been killed!

Ye Chen, however, had his hands in his pockets and said nonchalantly.

"It's fine, just a moment."

"It'll be quick, it won't hurt."

That posture! That look! What was the difference between this and bleeding a chicken?

Elder Hong's pupils constricted, and his desperation and survival instinct exploded!

"I don't want that!!!"

He roared, squeezing out one last bit of strength from somewhere.

Then, he slammed his uninjured left hand against the ground, his body moving like a venomous snake struggling in its death throes, desperately bolting toward the emergency exit on the other side of the casino!

He had to run! Run immediately!!!

But fast as he was, Ye Chen was faster!

The moment Elder Hong moved, Ye Chen reached into his pocket, and a Silver Needle was already held between his fingertips.

The next moment, he flicked his wrist. "Swish—!"

The Silver Needle transformed into a streak of cold light, barely visible to the naked eye, striking first despite being launched later, and precisely embedded itself into the energy center below Elder Hong's lower back!

"Pfft!"

With a soft sound, Elder Hong's lunging figure suddenly stiffened, as if all the bones in his body had been extracted.

Immediately after, a sense of weakness, as if his soul were being extracted, swept through every inch of his flesh and every nerve like a tsunami!

He suddenly felt... his energy center, which he had cultivated for decades, was like a punctured balloon, shattering! Collapsing!

The surging true qi instantly lost its restraint, rampaging through his broken meridians, dissipating, and finally vanishing into nothingness.

"Urgh... my cultivation... no!!!"

Elder Hong was incomparably terrified, but his legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

He struggled to raise his hand, wanting to touch his lower abdomen, but he couldn't even muster that much strength.

For a moment, his eyes glazed over, leaving only despair.

Ye Chen came before Hong Sanqian and said indifferently.

"Alright, our game is over."

"I want you to take me to the Hidden Sect."

"Understand?"

Hong Sanqian lay on the ground like a dying stray dog, glaring fixedly at Ye Chen, hissing.

"You... you crippled me, ruined my lifelong cultivation!"

"And you still want me to lead the way for you???"

"Hahahaha! Keep dreaming! You're delusional!!!"

His face was twisted, laughing maniacally, his laughter filled with despair and hatred.

"Ye Chen! Even if I die! Even if my soul is scattered! I will never help you, this devil, point out even half a step of the way!!!"

"If you have the ability, then kill me! Come on! Kill me!!!"

Ye Chen watched his hysterical appearance, his expression not fluctuating in the slightest, just shaking his head gently.

"Why bother?"

"It's just an energy center."

"If it's shattered, it's not like it can't be rebuilt."

"As long as you honestly take me to the Hidden Sect, after it's done, if I'm in a good mood..."

"Perhaps, I might just fix it for you while I'm at it."

Hmm... the condition had been set. Whether he did it or not was his business.

Hong Sanqian's laughter stopped abruptly, a trace of mockery appearing on his face.

"Fix it? Ye Chen! Do you take me for a three-year-old child?"

"The energy center is the foundation of a martial artist, the source of the sea of qi!"

"Once shattered, it means the foundation is completely destroyed and the meridians are withered!"

"Throughout history, countless miracle doctors and alchemy masters have been helpless against it!"

"This is the consensus of the martial arts world! There is no cure! No technique can heal it!!!"

"Just relying on you? A wet-behind-the-ears brat, and you dare to make such a boast?!"

"It's simply the biggest joke in the world!!!"

He didn't believe it at all! This was definitely a lie fabricated by Ye Chen to trick him into leading the way!

Ye Chen was not angry, just looking at him calmly, with a trace of faint pity in his eyes.

"I don't know about others, but there is no such thing as 'can't' when it comes to me."

Hong Sanqian was about to continue refuting... just then! A cold female voice reached everyone's ears, enunciating every word clearly.

"Hong Sanqian, do you still... remember me?"