Ever since entering Xuzhou City.
Chen Huangpi had felt deeply out of place. Everyone he saw and everything he heard was strange.
Every person said things he couldn't understand.
Did things he couldn't comprehend.
Fortunately, not everyone was abnormal.
These cultivators, for instance, were perfectly normal.
Disagreent? Kill soone.
That was exactly how cultivators should behave, in Chen Huangpi's understanding.
anwhile, to these cultivators, the boy who had just snapped a Golden Core cultivator's neck like wringing a chicken — and then smiled with satisfaction — was clearly an unhinged lunatic.
Every one of them edged backward, terrified that a single wrong word would provoke him into another rampage.
And on the margins of the road — the so-called Horse Road and Ox Road — the barefoot, mud-spattered commoners stared with expressions of profound shock.
Cultivators were lofty figures of imnse stature.
These were "humans" that ordinary cattle and horses like themselves had to avoid — couldn't even dare to glance at.
Yet today, a young Daoist who talked strangely and seed unwell in the head.
Had crushed a "human" to death with his bare hands.
It was utterly terrifying.
Chen Huangpi noticed the commoners staring at him with fear.
He felt a flush of unnad pride.
He puffed out his chest and said, with a hint of swagger, "There's no need to be afraid. You're all quite strange — but I'm not a bad person. Oh — sir, why does your candied hawthorn stick have glutinous rice filling?"
"Does that make it taste better?"
He walked right up to a middle-aged man carrying a straw pole studded with all manner of candied hawthorn sticks.
His gaze was razor sharp.
His expression was yearning.
The middle-aged man's legs buckled. He dropped to his knees with a thump.
Then he began kowtowing frantically. "Spare , my lord! Spare , my lord!"
"I'm no lord."
Chen Huangpi corrected him. "I'm only thirteen. Master says I'm still a child."
"Spare , child! Spare , child!"
Crash...
Every commoner in the vicinity fell to their knees.
Chen Huangpi was baffled. "Huang Er, why are they kneeling?"
The Brass Oil Lamp said, "That cultivator said the commoners walk on the Ox Road and the Horse Road — aning they're oxen and horses. Oxen and horses are disobedient, so they need whips. I imagine these oxen and horses are afraid you'll whip them."
Hearing this.
Chen Huangpi had an epiphany. Then he rounded on the commoners angrily. "So that's it! I just wanted to know if the hawthorn was any good, and you're all projecting your assumptions onto . You're trying to make look bad!"
"You'd even bully a child. Shaless!"
"All of you — stand up! Right now! Or I really will get angry!"
At these words.
The commoners didn't dare stay kneeling. They shot to their feet in unison — though they kept their heads bowed, not daring to et Chen Huangpi's eyes.
Chen Huangpi was thirteen.
Tall for his age.
But compared to adults, he only ca up to their chests.
Yet the commoners were all hunched over, making every adult he looked at seem like a field of bent lons.
It gave him a feeling he couldn't quite na — sowhere between uncomfortable and wrong.
"What — feeling that thick wall again?"
The Brass Oil Lamp sneered. "Your cultivation is powerful and your strength extraordinary. These people are just walking, yelping, talking oxen and horses. Even catching a glimpse of you is fortune enough to last their families eight generations. No need to dwell on it."
Chen Huangpi shook his head. "There's no wall between and the remnants back in the mountains."
There were plenty of remnants throughout the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Though he'd only t those of Huanghu Village, who treated him as their savior and called him "young master" — there had been no barrier between them. Conversation flowed naturally.
But here in Xuzhou City.
The commoners lived better than the remnants, yet every one of them seed beaten down and wilted.
Just then.
From within the carriage bearing the "Cao" banner.
A clear, lodious voice rang out.
"This fellow Daoist — if my Cao family has given offense, please speak plainly. Why take it out on these cattle and horses? Wouldn't that only invite ridicule?"
A woman descended from the carriage. She wore a hairpin flower in her coiffure and an embroidered silk dress. A maidservant of fifteen or sixteen trailed behind her.
The maidservant's cultivation was formidable.
The woman herself was at the Nascent Soul level. She lacked Song Qiuyue's natural, unadorned beauty — but beneath heavy, artful costics, she possessed a certain vivid, eye-catching radiance.
Like a flower blooming defiantly in the dead of autumn.
"You're very pretty."
One look, and Chen Huangpi felt his mouth go dry, his face flush, his heart hamring.
And his killing intent surging beyond control.
But this woman bore him no hostility.
He wasn't about to walk up and chop her head off.
The woman noticed Chen Huangpi's unblinking stare.
Though she felt a twinge of displeasure, her expression didn't shift a fraction.
This boy was only twelve or thirteen.
His cultivation was already remarkable.
He had likely reached the upper limit of Nascent Soul.
Even among descendants of great families, he'd be considered a top-tier prodigy.
One raised with concentrated resources from birth.
She could not afford to be careless.
"This humble woman is nad Cao Huaying — styled 'Flowing Brilliance,' after the radiance of fireflies. I am a daughter of the Jiangbei Cao family. Might I ask how this fellow Daoist is addressed?"
Cao Huaying couldn't quite read Chen Huangpi's depths.
The foremost family in Xuzhou City was, naturally, the local branch of the Song family of Qinghe. The rest were the Cao, Yang, Wang, and Li families.
Of these, the Cao family — like the Song family — wasn't originally local. They had followed Governor Song Tiangang when he took office. Though "relocated" was the word, it was really more of a gesture of loyalty.
Most of the ti, Cao Huaying wasn't even in Xuzhou City.
Her departure today wasn't because she knew trouble was coming — she was simply visiting her maiden family.
Otherwise she wouldn't have traveled in such ostentatious style.
Chen Huangpi said, "My na is Chen Huangpi. I live on Mount Yuqiong."
"Brother Chen — I'm honored."
Cao Huaying bowed gracefully. "What a remarkable na, Brother Chen. 'Huang' — the color of earth, embodying the virtue of bearing all things. But 'pi' — what is its origin? Could it refer to the skin of raw jade? Hidden potential, unrevealed glory — power that manifests only when shown?"
Fine words.
But privately, Cao Huaying had ntally sifted through every prominent family in Da Kang and couldn't recall one surnad Chen.
And where exactly was Mount Yuqiong?
'Chen Huangpi, this girl makes a fair point!'
The Brass Oil Lamp spoke inside his mind. 'I always wondered why the Guanzhu gave you such a lousy na — what's the difference between Chen Huangpi and Chen Ergou or Chen Goudan? But hearing her interpretation, maybe that really is the true aning of your na.'
'She's twisting my na to fit her agenda. It's sophistry!'
Chen Huangpi looked at Cao Huaying with a blank expression. "From all that wordplay, you must be an educated person?"
"Brother Chen flatters ."
Cao Huaying smiled demurely. "Won in Da Kang are barred from the imperial examinations. Though this humble woman has a small reputation for learning, my reading is cursory at best. If pressed, I'm rely a dilettante adding fragrance to soone else's study."
"Good. At least you have so self-awareness."
Chen Huangpi said coldly. "But since you know you're uneducated, why flaunt it in front of ?"
"When did this humble woman flaunt anything?"
"You deliberately distorted my na. If that's not flaunting, what is?"
Chen Huangpi glared at Cao Huaying. "I was born with yellow skin. That's why I'm called Chen Huangpi. What does it have to do with dirt or rocks? You're clearly mocking ."
"You say you 'read without seeking deep understanding' — so why bother reading at all?"
"I've read five cartloads of books. I am one of the world's foremost talents. And even I would never dare twist the words and anings of a text. How many books have you read, to think you can spout such drivel to my face?"
"Never call yourself a reader again. Because you are illiterate."
Chen Huangpi's tirade.
Left Cao Huaying's face cycling between red and white.
The cultivators surrounding her were a nervous wreck.
They couldn't fathom what was happening.
The Cao family was one of the great houses.
This Chen Huangpi had cursed out a daughter of the Cao family to her face and called her illiterate. The woman was one of Xuzhou City's most celebrated literary talents.
Even Governor Song Tiangang himself had once praised her writing.
He'd said: if not for being born a woman, she'd have beco a minister of the Emperor.
Cao Huaying drew a deep breath.
She fought to maintain her composure as a woman of letters, though her expression inevitably cooled.
"Brother Chen, the fault was mine."
Cao Huaying said icily. "But Brother Chen killed one of my n and is now blocking our way. Might I ask how the Cao family has offended you? If there is a grievance, please state it. If there is none, then perhaps we might settle this with a banquet and a proper apology at a later date."
Chen Huangpi said, "I don't know your Cao family. Your man claid the road and told to scram. Then he wanted to kill . So I killed him first."
"Just because of that?"
Cao Huaying was stunned.
She'd assud this Chen Huangpi had so grudge against the Cao family.
That he was using this as an excuse to provoke a confrontation...
Chen Huangpi said, baffled. "What else? I'm a reasonable person. I'm not so deranged killer."
"Brother Chen, there's no need for such pretense."
Cao Huaying bowed once more, suppressing her fury. "We are both of noble birth. Among the great houses, there is no right or wrong. If any offense was given, you need only say the word — the Cao family will present rich gifts and host a banquet to make ands."
Chen Huangpi shook his head. "I can't accept your apology."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm not of noble birth."
"Then how does soone your age possess such cultivation?"
"Master says I'm a genius. Geniuses are naturally different."
"You say you live on Mount Yuqiong. Where is that?"
"In the Hundred Thousand Mountains."
"I see."
Cao Huaying gave Chen Huangpi a blank nod, then turned and climbed back into her carriage.
"If he's not of noble birth, then he's no genius."
"Just a commoner with a bit of talent."
"Kill him."
The mont those words fell.
Pillars of divine light erupted skyward from the carriages at the rear of the convoy.
One by one, spectral forms of gods materialized above the city.
Ten deities, wreathed in the blazing power of incense, gazed down from on high — cold, pitiless — at Chen Huangpi below.
"Kneel!"
The gods spoke in unison. Their voices bood like great bells, carrying an irresistible force.
The commoners on the Horse Road and Ox Road — the very ones Chen Huangpi had just ordered to stand — collapsed to their knees, beyond their own control.
Chen Huangpi said indignantly to the gods, "You wicked deities! They did nothing to offend you. Why are you making them kneel?"
The gods said, "We are commanding you to kneel."
"I haven't done anything wrong. On what grounds should I kneel?"
"How laughable — you presu to reason with us."
"Very well then. I'll stop reasoning."
Chen Huangpi had no choice but to draw the sword fashioned from a Magic Tree branch.
The next instant.
A colossal arc of sword qi — roughly a hundred ters wide and unspeakably terrifying — soared upward toward the ten deities.
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