117: Chapter 117 Hitting People Specifically in the Face

At this moment, on the top floor of Deng Long Pavilion, the ninth floor 'Lanshing Terrace' was already bustling with noise and filled with the scent of fine clothes and perfume.

The air was permeated with the mellow aroma of top-tier 'Nu'er Hong' wine, the charred scent of roasted meat from precious Vicious Beasts, and the expensive perfume wafting from the meticulously dressed noble ladies of aristocratic families.

These countless scents mingled together, fermenting into the unique aroma of luxury and power that belonged exclusively to the upper society of the Imperial Capital.

There were over a hundred people seated here, every one of them a proud son of heaven with an illustrious origin and monstrous background.

They were either offspring of high-ranking court officials, true disciples of millennium-old Sects, or heirs to regional powerhouses. Everyone, in their own territory, was an existence whose word was law and who was surrounded by others like stars around the moon.

They wore the most luxurious brocade robes, with priceless swords or jade pendants hanging at their waists, gathered in small groups, chatting and laughing with affected elegance, discussing romance or the latest gossip from the Imperial Capital.

But beneath that seemingly harmonious atmosphere, there surged a turbulent and violent vigilance, hostility, and desire for one-upmanship, like volcanic lava.

Every seemingly casual intersection of gazes seemed to have invisible swords clashing fiercely in the air, sparking invisible fireworks.

They appeared to be enjoying the song and dance, but in reality, they were all using the corners of their eyes to vigilantly size up every potential competitor, secretly evaluating the other's strength and threat level in their hearts.

Just then, a slight commotion came from the staircase leading to the ninth floor.

A middle-aged man dressed in the uniform of a Grand Tutors Residence steward was bowing slightly, leading three figures with a humble expression as they slowly stepped into this banquet hall filled with power struggles, arrogance, and the scent of gunpowder.

Hum— It was as if someone had pressed the pause button.

The originally noisy hall experienced an instant of extreme, eerie silence.

Everyone's movements froze at that moment. Then, over a hundred gazes, like iron filings attracted to a giant magnet, 'swished' and focused in unison on the three uninvited guests.

The one leading them was none other than Gao Feng, using the pseudonym Lin Fan.

The well-tailored moon-white Confucian robe he had changed into today perfectly concealed his athletic physique, which was filled with explosive power like a leopard, yet it highlighted his broad shoulders and upright posture.

He no longer carried that exaggerated and menacing three-pointed, double-edged blade on his back; instead, a simple, ancient longsword hung casually at his waist. The scabbard had no extra decorations, only a cyan sword tassel that swayed gently with his steps.

His face was handsome with sharp, well-defined features, and his expression was as calm as a pool of autumn water. His deep, abyssal eyes were like two purest obsidian stones, unruffled, sweeping indifferently across the entire room.

Regarding the complex gazes filled with scrutiny, curiosity, disdain, jealousy, and contempt surrounding him, he turned a blind eye, acting as if he were walking in his own back garden, calm and unhurried.

However, the two people behind him were simply too eye-catching to be ignored.

The one on the left was so bulky that he hardly seemed human! He was like an iron tower cast from black iron; just standing there, he brought a suffocating, pure, physical sense of oppression to everyone present.

He seemed less like a person and more like a prehistoric giant beast wearing human skin. His honest face currently carried a hint of curiosity and confusion, like someone entering the Grand View Garden for the first time. His large, copper-bell-like eyes looked left and right, finally fixing firmly on the mountains of delicacies piled up on the banquet tables, with a trail of crystalline saliva even dripping from the corner of his mouth.

It was Big Fool.

The other person was the exact opposite. He was also bulky, but stood straight like a javelin piercing the sky. On his bronze skin, a faint cyan wolf-shaped totem flickered in the light, emitting a desolate and wild Aura.

His face was devoid of expression, cold as a ten-thousand-year glacier. But those gloomy and vigilant eyes, like a lone wolf on a snowy plain, made any aristocratic child who met his gaze feel an inexplicable palpitation, as if they were being targeted by a Vicious Beast ready to devour them, causing their Souls to tremble and forcing them to subconsciously look away.

It was Wulu.

The visual impact formed by such a combination of three people with vastly different styles but equally powerful Auras was incomparable.

The eerie silence lasted only a few seconds. Immediately after, bursts of deliberately suppressed whispers, filled with sarcasm and disdain, sounded like the buzzing of mosquitoes, rising and falling in every corner of the banquet hall.

'Is that the guy in white, Lin Fan? That Northern barbarian who got lucky and was picked up by the Grand Tutor from who knows what corner of the world?'

'That's him? Hmph, he doesn't look like he has three heads and six arms, just plain and unremarkable. But those two guards behind him really look like humanoid Vicious Beasts that crawled out of a savage jungle. How terrifying!'

'Tch, just brute courage, a total boor. Look at his uncouth appearance; he really brings shame to us scholars who passed the official Martial Examination. A mud-legged peasant who hasn't even participated in the provincial exam—what right does he have to sit on equal footing with us?'

'Keep your voice down! He's a favorite in the Grand Tutors Residence now, Grand Tutor Lin's 'grandson'! We can't afford to offend him!'

This sarcastic use of 'grandson' drew a wave of suppressed, malicious chuckles.

Lin Fan's hearing was incredibly sharp; these malicious words reached his ears without a single one missed.

But it was as if he truly hadn't heard them; his face remained expressionless. Led by the steward, he looked straight ahead and walked directly toward the empty table specifically reserved for him, near the central main seat.

That was one of the best spots in the entire banquet hall, representing the host's regard for the guest.

Just at the moment he was about to sit down, a luxurious, lazy, yet infinitely arrogant and contemptuous voice, like a poisoned feather, softly yet clearly drifted over from the central main seat.

'Lin Fan, is it?'

Lin Fan slowly raised his eyes and looked over.

He saw that in the center, on a massive grand armchair covered with an entire white tiger pelt, sat a young man wearing a four-clawed dragon brocade robe and a purple-gold crown. His face was handsome to the point of being eerie, but between his brows was an indelible gloom and haughtiness. He was looking Lin Fan up and down with the gaze of someone examining merchandise, or perhaps, examining an ant.

Beside the youth, surrounded like stars around the moon, sat a dozen or so aristocratic children, equally luxuriously dressed and possessing powerful Auras.

He didn't even stand up, merely leaning lazily against the back of the chair, his slender fingers toying with a crystal-clear, iridescent glass wine cup. That posture, that gaze, were as if a monarch high above the Nine Heavens were looking down at the lowly subjects crawling at his feet.

He was the host of this banquet, the son of the Third Prince, Prince Ying, known as the number one person of the younger generation in the royal family, the 'dragon blood heir' who possessed the ancient Heavenly Dragon Bloodline—Ji Xuan!

As a direct descendant of the royal family and the most favored son of the most powerful Prince Ying in the court, Ji Xuan had grown up with a domineering personality that looked down on everyone, believing in 'those who follow me prosper, those who oppose me perish.'

His talent was unparalleled; from a young age, he had practiced the secret royal technique 'Heavenly Dragon Prison Suppression Technique,' and his Qi and blood were domineering and fierce. By the age of twenty, he had already stepped into the Fourth Order Peak realm, which ordinary Martial Artists could hardly reach in a lifetime!

He was originally the strongest contender for the position of Top Scholar of the Martial Examination, destined to step on the bones and glory of everyone else, reach the Peak, and add the heaviest weight to his father Prince Ying's cause for the throne!

But the appearance of Lin Fan made him feel an unprecedented, bone-deep annoyance!

A mud-legged peasant who popped out of some godforsaken place dared to publicly severely injure Wei Xuan, the most capable lackey under his father's command? Dared to disrupt the layout his father had painstakingly managed for years in Wangjiang City?

Even more, he had gained the favor of that stubborn old fool who opposed his father at every turn—Lin Zhengde—and transformed into the 'grandson' of the Grand Tutors Residence?

In his eyes, this was simply a great humiliation! It was the most naked provocation against him and the Prince Ying's Mansion!

Today, he was going to, in front of all the geniuses and elites of the entire Imperial Capital, ruthlessly and completely trample this ignorant hick, and the face that old bastard Lin Zhengde had just built up, under his feet and grind it into the mud!

Let him, and everyone else, know that there are some people whom he can never look up to in his entire life, and even less afford to offend!

'Kneel and answer.'

Ji Xuan looked at Lin Fan, who was still standing straight, a cruel and mocking arc curling at the corner of his mouth. He gently shook the glass cup in his hand and, in an unquestionable, commanding tone, calmly spat out four words.

Boom! As soon as these words were spoken, the whole hall was shocked!

No one expected that Ji Xuan would be so ruthless and so domineering! Coming right out, without even a word of superfluous nonsense, he wanted to use this most humiliating way to insult a Top Scholar of the Martial Examination who was personally recommended by the current Grand Tutor and held a Martial Examination gold medal!

This was no longer just a show of force; this was tearing off Lin Fan's face, along with the face of the Grand Tutors Residence, in public and throwing them on the ground to trample!

'Roar!' 'Clang!'

Big Fool's honest eyes instantly turned blood-red, a suppressed, beast-like low growl erupted from his throat, his entire body's bones cracked and popped, and he was about to explode into action!

Wulu was even more direct; his right hand had already gripped the hilt of the scimitar at his waist. With a 'clang,' the bright blade was already an inch out of its sheath, and a bone-chilling, icy Killing Intent instantly locked onto Ji Xuan in the main seat!

The terrifying Evil Qi on the two of them, condensed from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, almost becoming substantial, erupted uncontrollably at this moment, causing the surrounding air to stagnate and the temperature to plummet! The few aristocratic children nearby were so scared that their faces turned deathly pale, and they subconsciously retreated.

However, Lin Fan merely raised his hand slightly—a simple action that firmly suppressed the two prehistoric Vicious Beasts behind him that were about to go on a rampage.

He looked at Ji Xuan, who sat on the main seat with an arrogant and mocking expression. Instead of the anger, fear, or humiliation one would expect from an ordinary person, his face revealed a look of piqued interest and a playful smile.

He did not kneel.

He did not even bend his waist.

He walked straight to his seat and sat down calmly. Then, under the gaze of hundreds of people—some shocked, some gloating, some disbelieving—he picked up the jade pot on the table and poured himself a cup of amber-colored wine.

The entire process was smooth as flowing water, calm and unhurried.

"Your Highness," he slowly raised his wine cup and gestured towards Ji Xuan from afar. His voice was not loud, but thanks to the infusion of his Internal Energy, it clearly reached every corner of the hall. "Lin Fan has come to attend the banquet under the orders of the Grand Tutor. I am here to attend the banquet of talents, to meet the elites of the Great Qian, and to receive the grace of the royal family. The Grand Tutor once personally taught me that we Martial Artists must stand tall and upright, kneeling only to six types of beings in our lives—the Heavens and Earth above, our sovereign and parents below, our mentors in the middle, and the hearts of the common people at the end."

His gaze locked directly onto Ji Xuan's eyes, which were gradually turning gloomy, and the smile on his lips deepened.

"I wonder, Your Highness, which of these six do you... belong to?"

Boom!

These words were spoken neither humbly nor arrogantly, without a single flaw! Yet every word pierced the heart, sharp as a blade!

He first brought up the Grand Tutor, Lin Zhengde, a mountain no one could bypass. Then, he stood on the moral high ground of "Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parents, and Teacher," and finally, he subtly separated the identities of "Sovereign" and "Your Highness."

You, Ji Xuan, are not my sovereign, not my kin, and certainly not my teacher. Why on earth should I kneel to you?

This statement left Ji Xuan with no room to retort! Unless he dared to openly declare that he was above "Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parents, and Teacher," which would be an act of treason and rebellion!

"You!"

Ji Xuan's face instantly darkened, as if water could drip from it! The glass wine cup in his hand was gripped so tightly it creaked, as if it might shatter at any moment! The noble descendants around him were all terrified into silence, not daring to even breathe loudly.

None of them had expected that this seemingly ordinary barbarian from the North would dare to confront Ji Xuan in public like this! This was no mere peasant; this was clearly a fierce dragon that had crossed the river!

"Good! What a sharp tongue you have!" Ji Xuan laughed out of extreme anger. He slowly sat up straight, his Aura beginning to climb steadily. "Since you keep mentioning that old scoundrel Lin Zhengde, I am truly curious: what exactly did he see in a barbarian from the North like you?"

His tone shifted, and his malicious gaze moved past Lin Fan, landing on Big Fool and Wulu, who stood behind him like two door gods, radiating Killing Intent.

The mockery on his face deepened: "Oh... I understand now. So, he took a liking to your skill in training vicious dogs?"

As he spoke, he used a frivolous gesture to lightly splash the priceless "Fire Dragon Saliva" from his cup in the direction of Big Fool and Wulu.

The golden wine traced an arc in the air before hitting the mirror-polished floor at Lin Fan's feet with a "splat."

"A reward for you." Ji Xuan pointed his chin at the puddle of wine and said to Big Fool with contempt, "Since you are a dog, you should act like one. Get down and lick it clean."

Insult! This was a naked, unmasked, and ultimate insult to their dignity!

He was not just berating Big Fool and Wulu; he was comparing Lin Fan to a dog owner!

"Roar!!!" This time, there was no trace of reason left in Big Fool's crimson eyes! He let out a deafening roar; the sound was truly like an ancient Vicious Beast bellowing, shaking the rafters of the entire Deng Long Pavilion until they trembled!

His tower-like body, muscles bulging, was about to tear everything in front of him into pieces!

However! In the thousandth of a second before he was about to act, a warm and powerful palm, like an iron pincer, once again gently pressed down on his broad shoulder.

It was Lin Fan.

Lin Fan did not even turn his head. He simply looked calmly at Ji Xuan, who sat on the main seat with a cruel and triumphant smile on his face, and slowly raised his own wine cup.

"Many thanks for the wine, Your Highness."

His voice remained terrifyingly calm, calm enough to make one's skin crawl.

"However, these two brothers of mine come from the bitter, cold lands of the North. They have wild temperaments and do not understand the rules of the Divine Capital."

"They... are not accustomed to drinking wine spilled on the ground."

His voice remained calm, but in his deep, pitch-black eyes, a chilling, Soul-freezing, peerless cold light suddenly flashed!

"They are only accustomed to..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a sudden change occurred!

The wine cup in his hand, crafted from high-quality celadon and incredibly hard, was, under his unimaginably terrifying control of Internal Energy, reduced to a handful of snow-white powder—finer than the finest quicksand in the desert—without even a sound of cracking, silently within his palm!

He did not even make any extra movements; he simply brought the handful of powder to his lips and gently... blew a breath towards Ji Xuan, who was several yards away.

Whoosh—the handful of white powder, like a living spirit or countless invisible, sharp arrows unseen by the naked eye, silently cut through the air, crossed the distance of several yards, and shot straight at the precious table in front of Ji Xuan—a table crafted from a single piece of thousand-year-old golden nanmu wood, priceless and incredibly hard, where ordinary swords could barely leave a mark!

"Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!" A sound of cutting, faint to the extreme and chilling to the teeth, rang out.

Under the horrified gazes of everyone present, as if they had seen a ghost, a line of... wild, cursive calligraphy appeared out of thin air on the mirror-smooth nanmu table, carved deep into the wood!

"Drink human blood!"

Those three characters were written with the vigor of dragons and snakes, with strokes like iron and hooks of silver! Every stroke and every line seemed as if it had been carved with the sharpest battle blade, dipped in the hottest blood! Between the lines, an lawless, domineering, and unparalleled arrogance permeated! That cold, cruel Killing Intent seemed to burst forth from the deep engravings, piercing straight into the depths of everyone's Soul!

Silence! A deathly silence! The entire Deng Long Pavilion was so quiet at this moment that one could hear a pin drop!

Everyone was dumbfounded, eyes wide, staring at the table that had been carved through the air, their brains plunged into a blank state of system failure due to extreme shock.

This... what kind of terrifying control of Internal Energy is this?!

To silently vibrate a hard porcelain cup into the finest powder! Then, using Qi to control objects, turning this handful of soft powder into the sharpest carving knife in the world! From several yards away, with pinpoint accuracy, to carve such deep, spirited, wild cursive calligraphy onto hard wood!

This level of cultivation! This level of skill! This effortless, masterful ease! It had completely and utterly exceeded the cognitive scope of most of the so-called "Geniuses" present!

This is not a Martial Skill! This is sorcery! This is a Divine Ability!

On the main seat, Ji Xuan's handsome but sinister face had become twisted and ferocious due to extreme shock, humiliation, and anger, his features all bunched together!

He stared fixedly, intensely, at the three blood-colored characters on the table, which were filled with endless mockery for him. He felt that they were not characters at all, but three extremely loud, stinging slaps across the face, delivered fiercely and mercilessly in front of all the Geniuses in the Divine Capital!

He, the dignified dragon blood heir, son of Prince Ying, had actually been nakedly... humiliated by an ant, a hick in his eyes, in a way he had never even dared to imagine!

"You... are... courting... death!!!" A roar, unlike any human voice and filled with endless violence and Killing Intent, erupted from the depths of Ji Xuan's throat!

Boom!!! A violent, crimson-gold smoke of blood and Qi, like a volcanic eruption, exploded from his body and shot straight into the sky! The tiger-skin-covered armchair behind him could not even withstand this terrifying Aura; with a "crack," it was shattered into fragments flying everywhere by the violent force of his Qi!

He was already consumed by rage and, disregarding everything, was about to kill Lin Fan on the spot!

However, just at this moment! Two equally powerful, yet stylistically distinct Auras rose up from two corners of the banquet hall, almost simultaneously, one on the left and one on the right, forming a three-legged standoff with Ji Xuan's domineering Dragon Qi!

One of them was cold, bloodthirsty, and filled with ominous and deathly implications, as if it came from the depths of Hell. It was the one who had remained silent all along, seemingly indifferent to everything, the "blood hand butcher" Mo Wuxin.

His scarlet eyes, which seemed to have been soaked in a pool of blood, were flickering with unprecedented, excited light at this moment, looking back and forth at Gao Feng and Ji Xuan with great interest, as if he were looking at two delicious dishes about to be served, making him drool with greed.

The other one was sharp and peerless, pure to the extreme! That presence did not feel like a human, but rather like a peerless divine sword that had just been unsheathed, severing all shackles of the world!

"shadowless sword" Limitless Sword had opened his eyes, which had been closed all this time, without anyone knowing when. In his clear eyes, there were no Impurities, no greed, no slaughter, only the purest, soaring Battle Intent of meeting a worthy opponent!

His gaze, like an iron needle attracted by a magnet, was locked firmly onto Lin Fan, as if saying: You, finally, are qualified to be my opponent!

Three equally powerful, yet completely different, terrifying Auras at the fourth-order Peak were clashing, squeezing, and contending crazily within the small banquet hall!