Chapter 164 Back Then
“Who… who are you?” Zuo Zhiyuan stammered.
“I’ll give you three minutes to think about it, and then I’ll send you on your way.”
Zuo Zhiyuan’s body shook, and his brows furrowed. In an instant, he felt his heart in turmoil.
It was a nightmare for him, one he would rather keep buried deep in his heart if it hadn’t been mentioned now.
Fifteen years ago, a nameless old monk passed through Brighouse, specifically challenging the Zuo family and proposing a bet.
If the Zuo family lost, they would teach him the Wind Blade techniques; if the old monk lost, he would teach the Zuo family the equally precious Meteor Fist.
The Zuo family noticed the monk’s aura and were initially hesitant.
However, the monk pointed to a child about ten years old standing beside him and taunted, “If anyone in your family can defeat my disciple, you’ll win.”
Perhaps it was because of their long-term exposure to the elements, the child had dark skin and seemed frail, without any traces of having trained before.
When they heard his words, the then head of the Zuo family was enraged.
This was utterly intolerable contempt, so they ultimately decided to accept the bet.
However, although his opponent was just a skinny, dark-skinned child, the family head didn’t dare underestimate him. After all, this was related to the foundation of the entire family. How could they afford to lose and hand over their secrets so easily?
So they sent Zuo Zhiyuan, who was on the verge of entering the Foundation stage at that time, to accept the challenge.
The result shocked everyone.
Zuo Zhiyuan had been defeated without even having a chance to fight back.
That was the nightmare Zuo Zhiyuan couldn’t forget. For more than a decade, the event had haunted him. He practiced diligently, hoping to redeem himself one day.
In the meantime, he had also sent people to search for the old monk, but the monk and his disciple seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.
He never expected to encounter the person today, and he still couldn’t withstand even one move from him. How ironic?
“Are you… that little boy from back then?” Zuo Zhiyuan asked with mixed emotions.
“It seems you haven’t forgotten,” Xiao Shun smiled.
“Now you can die without regrets.”
He slowly raised his hand and waved it gently in the air. Time seemed to pause, and the snowflakes hanging in the air came to an abrupt halt.
With a slight tilt, he clenched his fist in the empty air, as if tearing off a piece of space itself. A giant axe, formed from the condensed snowflakes, materialized in his hand.
Zuo Zhiyuan was horrified inside, never expecting him to have grown so incredibly powerful.
The giant axe made of condensed snowflakes was indeed formed by his energy, as solid as a real object!
“Go!”
Xiao Shun swung the giant axe towards Zuo Zhiyuan. The axe, about ten meters long, seemed weightless in his hand, yet carried an overwhelming force. A white arc traced through the air, descending with a thunderous boom.
Zuo Zhiyuan’s face changed drastically, and he hastily gathered energy, pushing off the ground with one foot, leaping more than ten meters away.
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The ground shook as if having an earthquake, with shattered stones flying everywhere. The giant axe left a trench several meters long in the floor where it had struck.
Though Zuo Zhiyuan had narrowly avoided the thunderous strike, he was still terrified.
“Again!”
Whoosh!
An eerie howl filled the air.
The giant axe, accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, swept towards him.
As the axe left a white afterimage in the air, snow on the ground suddenly formed several white mini whirlwinds that soared up and raced forward.
Zuo Zhiyuan was horrified, finding himself cornered in an instant, with no choice but to take the hit head-on.
In a panic, he quickly condensed energy around him into a faintly glowing shield.
Bang!
An explosion sounded beside him.
The massive impact felt like a cannonball had exploded right next to him. His vision went black, and a salty, metallic taste flooded his mouth.
With a hiss, the pristine snow on the ground was stained crimson.
His body swayed, and he could no longer support himself, finally dropping to one knee. With one hand on the ground, he barely managed to keep from falling completely.
Fifteen years had passed, and it seemed he had wasted his time, while the boy from back then had become an unfathomably power. Zuo Zhiyuan realized he had no hope of ever besting him.
Fear inevitably crept into Zuo Zhiyuan’s heart.
At this point, perhaps only the grandmasters in the association, or even the chairman, could stop him.
Maybe that legendary Yuan Dian as well.
“Is this a movie?! Can this be real?”
People in the hall rushed out, staring at the scene in disbelief, thinking to themselves.
Such a scene should only be found in television or movies.
“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought it was a TV drama.”
Chu Jing muttered silently, swallowing hard. Fortunately, he hadn’t impulsively provoked him, otherwise, he might not have had the chance to stand here now. He could hardly believe anyone could withstand such an axe blow.
Everyone from the Sikong family felt a sense of despair deep down. Was their family destined to be destroyed?
Especially Sikong Xing. Besides shock, he felt endless regret.
He had been the most likely candidate to inherit the family’s leadership, and almost everyone in Stillwater had been watching him.
Xiao Shun, on the other hand, was seen as a useless coward.
Yet in just three short months, he had managed to embarrass himself enough. He watched in disbelief as the worthless coward everyone looked down upon became an invincible presence.
And he had pushed the entire Sikong family to the edge of an abyss.
“Qingzhou, what’s going on? What was that sound just now? It didn’t sound like a gunshot.”
“Song Qingzhou? Are there heavy weapons involved?”
“What’s going on?”
Song Qingzhou went outside the hall to report to Feng Yuanjia. He was in the middle of speaking when he saw what had just happened, and was instantly rendered speechless.
“Boss, I think he doesn’t need any protection…”
“Mr. Xiao, what exactly do you want to do? Do you really have to kill everyone in our ranks?”
Knowing that he was no match for Xiao Shun, Zuo Zhiyuan quickly dropped his previous arrogance. If he continued to confront Xiao Shun head-on, not only would he be unable to protect the Sikong family, but he might also be killed himself.
“My friend paid with his life to teach me a lesson that I should never leave a loose end,” Xiao Shun said coldly.
“If you kill me, you’ll offend the Zuo family and the entire Old School Society. By your logic, are you planning to wipe out the Zuo family and the Old School Society as well?”
“And then what? Not to mention the thousands of members in the Old School Society, just the Zuo family alone has hundreds of people. More and more people will be involved, do you intend to kill everyone in the world?”
Zuo Zhiyuan continued, “Everyone here has witnessed the strength you demonstrated today. There’s probably no one left in Stillwater who would dare to be your enemy. Why not just stop here and tell us what you really want?”
“We are all willing to follow you!”
“From now on, anyone in Stillwater who opposes Mr. Xiao will be considered an enemy of us all!”
After this battle, the influential elites gathered at the entrance of the hall finally realized that the balance of power in Stillwater was about to shift.