221: That beating wasn't for nothing!

"Stop... stop!"

Just then, a weak voice struggled to come from the direction of the wooden stake.

Everyone paused their movements and turned their heads in unison.

They saw Chu Niubi, who was tied to the stake, managing to lift his head with great effort.

His face was a mess of tears, snot, and sweat, and he was grimacing.

"Dad... stop..."

"I... I told him to whip me!"

The anger on Chu Shixiong's face instantly froze, and then his mouth opened; the whole man was stunned.

"What?"

"You told him to whip you?"

"Chu Niubi! Have you been hit in the head by a door, or did you eat the wrong medicine?!"

"Look at yourself now! What difference is there between you and a tattered rag?!"

"You like women! Your sexual orientation is completely normal! Since when did you pick up this... this depraved hobby?!"

The more he spoke, the angrier he became, his chest rising and falling violently, as if he might explode at any moment.

"I sent you abroad to study so you could gain knowledge and experience, not to learn these crooked ways! Playing some alphabet game?!"

"And you let yourself be tied up and whipped? You son of a..."

"I want to practice martial arts!" Chu Niubi suddenly interrupted his father's roar. Although his voice was weak, it was resolute.

Chu Shixiong's scolding came to an abrupt halt.

He stared at his son, as if seeing him for the first time: "Practice... practice martial arts?"

Chu Niubi gasped for breath, enduring the burning pain all over his body, and continued, emphasizing each word.

"Yes... practice martial arts."

"I begged the Master to take me as a disciple and teach me kung fu..."

"The Master said my aptitude wasn't good enough, and the normal path was blocked..."

"This is the only way to forcibly open my aptitude!"

As Chu Shixiong listened to his son's intermittent explanation, the anger on his face gradually turned into helplessness, heartache, and disappointment.

"Practice martial arts! Practice martial arts! Are you still obsessed with practicing martial arts?!"

"Have you forgotten? Your grandfather, back then, licked that old face of his and brought you around like a lapdog, begging those so-called martial arts masters, those Experts of the Mystic Sects!"

"East, West, South, North, Buddhist, Taoist, secular—our Chu family almost visited everyone famous!"

"Even the other four of the Five Great Families of the Capital!"

"And what was the result?!"

He pointed at Chu Niubi, his finger trembling.

"Some said your temperament was too restless! Some said your aptitude was mediocre! Some wouldn't even let you in the door!"

"The last one was relatively polite; he invited you for a cup of tea, and then tactfully told you..."

"That you are fundamentally not cut out for it! Give up on that idea early!"

"Have you forgotten all these words? Huh???"

Chu Niubi trembled all over from his father's shouting, but the stubbornness in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

He bit his bleeding lip and said in a low voice.

"I... I haven't forgotten, but I don't want to give up."

"Give up your mother's ass!"

Chu Shixiong completely erupted, his spittle almost spraying onto Chu Niubi's face.

"Don't want to give up? Is it up to you whether you want to give up or not?"

"That is a fact verified by countless Experts! You are simply trash at martial arts! Don't even dream of touching that threshold in this lifetime!"

"Look at yourself now! What do you look like? Huh? You've turned yourself into this wretched state just for a dream that is completely impossible?"

"My son, Chu Shixiong's son, can be a profligate, can be a spendthrift, can even be useless!"

"But I absolutely will not allow you to be whipped like a fool, doing something so meaningless and self-humiliating!"

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the black-clothed guards, roaring sternly.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Untie the Young Master for me! Take him back to his room!"

"Whoever dares to stop you, cripple them directly!"

"Yes!" The black-clothed guards responded in unison, and immediately two of them stepped forward quickly, about to untie the ropes on Chu Niubi.

Chu Niubi panicked, struggling violently and shouting hoarsely.

"No! I'm not leaving! Dad! Let me try! Just let me try this one time!"

"Master, he is different! He is not like those people! He said there is a way, so there must be a way!"

"Shut your mouth for me!" Chu Shixiong couldn't listen at all, his face filled with the fury of wishing iron could become steel.

Just as the hands of the two guards were about to touch the ropes...

Suddenly!

"He cannot leave now."

A calm voice suddenly rang out.

The two guards, who were about to act, stiffened and subconsciously turned to look at the source of the sound.

They saw that Ye Chen had, at some unknown time, put down the blood-soaked vine whip.

He put his hands back into his pockets, stood there, and looked calmly at the furious Chu Shixiong.

"The training is only halfway done."

"If it's interrupted now, all the suffering endured before will be wasted."

Chu Shixiong slowly turned around, his tiger-like eyes like two red-hot knives, stabbing fiercely at Ye Chen's face.

Their eyes met.

It seemed as if invisible sparks were sputtering in the air.

"Bastard!"

"You mean..."

"You still want to continue???"

"That's right.", Ye Chen's expression did not change. "The whipping before was just 'skin breaking,' stimulating the blocked pores and shallow meridians around his body. Next, I will teach him the introductory mantra for body tempering, guiding the medicinal power and the circulation of his own qi and blood. Whether he succeeds or not will be clear soon."

"Talk your mother's dog nonsense!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Shixiong was not relieved; instead, he was enraged.

"Skin breaking?"

"I think you are just deliberately being mysterious, finding new ways to torment my son!"

"And a mantra? I will let you taste what it's like to be hung up first!"

He waved his hand abruptly, pointing at Ye Chen, and roared fiercely at the surrounding black-clothed guards.

"Take him down for me! Tie him to that stake!"

"Doesn't he like whipping?"

"Today, I'll let him taste the flavor of this vine whip too!"

"After whipping him, I'll personally teach him the mantra!"

Those black-clothed guards attacked without hesitation!

Facing the ten Experts rushing over like wolves and tigers, Ye Chen didn't even lift an eyelid.

He simply took a light step forward.

His right foot landed.

"Bang!"

A loud tremor, like a giant hammer striking the earth, exploded outward in a ring centered on where Ye Chen landed!

A visible wave of air burst out in a ring!

"Bang bang bang bang bang—!"

The five or six guards at the very front hit an invisible steel wall, screaming as they were thrown backward, smashing heavily into their comrades behind them, instantly causing chaos and tumbling into a heap!

The remaining few guards were also jolted by the sudden wave of air, their figures staggered, their attacks instantly disintegrated, and looks of horror appeared on their faces.

With just one step, the ground shook, and air waves burst out, instantly scattering over ten elite guards!

Chu Shixiong's pupils constricted sharply: "You... who exactly are you?!"

Being able to shake away his meticulously trained guards with one foot was something an ordinary Yellow Realm Expert could not achieve.

It was at least the level of the Xuan Realm!

When did such a young and terrifying figure appear in Yan Jing?

He actually had no impression of him?

Wait, could he be...

Ye Chen looked up at him: "Ye Chen."

"Ye Chen?"

Chu Shixiong was stunned for a moment, and then a name he had heard not long ago suddenly shot into his mind.

Then...

It overlapped with the young, calm face before him.

The astonishment on his face instantly turned into shock.

"Ye Chen!"

"You are the Ye Chen who single-handedly took down the entire Wang family last night?!"

Although the news of the Wang family's overnight collapse was quickly sealed by the Dragon Group, with the Chu family's influence, Chu Shixiong naturally obtained some core intelligence immediately.

Even...

He had seen the on-site footage obtained through special channels.

In the footage, the figure who was invincible among the Wang family's masters gradually overlapped with the person before him.

It was just that a moment ago, seeing his beloved son's miserable state had caused him such acute distress that he hadn't made that connection at all.

Now, reminded by Ye Chen announcing his name, combined with this terrifying strength, it was like a sudden enlightenment, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

Ye Chen nodded slightly: "If there wasn't a second Wang family uprooted last night, it should be me."

Chu Shixiong's expression became extremely complex.

Anger!

Fear!

Dread!

All kinds of emotions intertwined.

He took several deep breaths before forcibly suppressing the surging waves in his heart, but his face remained grim.

"Even if your strength is heaven-defying, and you achieved great merit last night, making you a favorite of the Dragon Group, you still cannot so blatantly..."

"Mistreat my son!"

"Look at him now!"

Ye Chen heard this, but smiled lightly.

"Patriarch Chu, I said, I am not mistreating him."

"I am helping him, using my method, to walk a path that can break the verdict of his 'mediocre aptitude'."

"Helping him? Helping him to this extent?" Chu Shixiong pointed at the bloody and mangled Chu Niubi on the stake, his anger burning.

Ye Chen stopped arguing with him and directly turned around to face Chu Niubi.

"Chu Niubi, listen carefully, I will only say this once."

"Calm your mind, concentrate your spirit, forget the pain, feel the flow of qi and blood within your body, follow my guidance..."

Immediately after.

An ancient and difficult-to-pronounce mantra slowly came from Ye Chen's mouth.

This mantra was not a method for cultivating internal energy, but a technique focused on guiding the physical body's qi and blood, stimulating deep potential, and coordinating with external medicine to trigger reactions for body tempering.

The dying Chu Niubi, the moment he heard Ye Chen's voice, somehow summoned a surge of strength from nowhere and desperately concentrated his scattered spirit.

Then...

Following Ye Chen's guidance, he laboriously tried to perceive and guide...

At first, there was no reaction.

Only boundless, searing pain.

But gradually, as his will concentrated and the mantra was repeatedly recited silently...

A strange numbing sensation began to generate deep within those fiery whip marks.

This numbing sensation was faint at first, but it spread rapidly, and wherever it passed, the heart-piercing pain slowly receded like a tide!

In its place was a warm feeling, as if countless tiny life forces were sprouting from the wounds.

What shocked him even more was...

He could feel that there seemed to be a "warm current" inside his body, slowly beginning to travel along the path guided by Ye Chen's mantra!

Wherever it passed, his body, which was exhausted to the point of death, surprisingly regained a trace of strength!

"This is..."

Chu Niubi suddenly opened his eyes wide. Although he was still weak, an unprecedented brilliance erupted in his eyes.

He could feel it!

That qi sensation!

Master didn't lie to him!

This beating... was not in vain!