The Avenger's Return

Such a look made the four men deeply uncomfortable. Xiao Chen's wounded body was struck again, heavily.

"Who do you think you are? Do the Ninth Heaven of Mortal-Shedding make you invincible?"

"Today we torment you to death!"

Harsh voices echoed through the ruins.

Xiao Chen coughed blood and sneered. "My cultivation at the Ninth Heaven of Mortal-Shedding counts for nothing. But can your families produce a young expert of my age who matches me? I could sweep through every younger generation of your clans. Give me a few more years, and even you will be nothing before me—like clay dogs or straw chickens, unable to withstand a single blow."

Xiao Chen's defeat was not due to his own weakness, but to the overwhelming strength of his enemies, who outranked him by an entire generation. He kept provoking them only to buy time.

Seeming struck to the quick, the four redoubled their cruelty. Bones cracked in several more places.

"Old-timers are not supposed to act against the young so lightly. Have you truly abandoned those rules? Will you carry your shamelessness through to the end?" Xiao Chen's gaze was full of contempt.

"Hmph. Rules are dead; men are alive. If we kill you now, who will know? There is no one for ten li in any direction—only beasts. If you die, you die for nothing. Everyone will think you perished fighting for a sacred beast cub in the Southern Wastes."

"You are truly shameless—four middle-aged men torturing someone of the next generation. What rotten fruit such families produce!"

Cold laughter drifted over the ruins. The four men stared at Xiao Chen with icy eyes.

"Speak as you like. We will take our time breaking you, and we will see who suffers more."

"I suffer today at your hands, but the four of you are also doomed," Xiao Chen said with a cold smile. "Your families have always suspected my origins. Let me tell you now: I come from the deepest depths of the Southern Wastes!"

"Impossible!" The middle-aged man in the shadows was clearly startled. "We investigated thoroughly. You come from the Mortal World, not the depths of the Southern Wastes."

"Go ask in the depths of these wastelands. Someone must have seen me with four little Dragon Kings moving through the mountains—Dragon Kings born in the very heart of the Southern Wastes!" Xiao Chen's voice was bitingly cold. "You think humiliating me means nothing? Just wait. You will all be destroyed, body and soul."

Hearing this, the four involuntarily halted their assault. The Spiritist among them shot into the air and flew swiftly into the depths of the wasteland.

The other three stood silently in the ruins.

In less than a quarter-hour, the Spiritist returned and nodded to the others. "Someone saw him briefly in contact with several little Dragon Kings. I killed two witnesses, but according to them, two others also saw him and left long ago. I could not find them."

The four exchanged sinister glances, their eyes locked on Xiao Chen. They wavered between hesitation and grim resolution.

At that moment, Xiao Chen shouted, "Bind them!"

The four moved to strike, but a dazzling seven-colored radiance descended, flooding the area in an instant. All four were imprisoned within a brilliant cage of light.

The snow-white little beast Keke had returned, clutching a golden ginseng half a chi long. She glared furiously at the four. Not far away, the Little Defiant Dragon was also there, its low growl baring fangs of rage.

"Good!" Xiao Chen gritted his teeth. "Keke, hold them just like that. I will deal with them myself!"

The "domain" that the four Spirit-Treasury experts had erected had vanished, shattered by Keke's strange power, replaced entirely by a seven-colored prison.

Xiao Chen forced himself upright, then began to regulate his breathing. Precious light flickered from his body as joints crackled and popped. After a brief cycle of his profound art, the broken bones were temporarily reconnected, enough for him to move.

Drawing the pitch-black broken blade, Xiao Chen staggered forward. Without mercy, he chopped off all four left palms.

"Ah!"

Screams tore through the sky over the ruins.

"Don't worry, I won't let you die quickly."

The four had never imagined that Xiao Chen's snow-white beast could bind them. It was inconceivable. The bloody severed palms made them sweat with agony.

"You seem to enjoy humiliating others. Today I will serve you well—let you taste that pleasure yourselves."

Xiao Chen truly hated these four now. The black blade swung again—four left ears were sliced off. At the same time, the hazy light shrouding their faces collapsed, revealing their true features.

All four were golden-haired, around forty years old, their faces twisted in pain.

"So it's the Rigen Family. I thought you might be from the Zhuge family. I will not let Hofmann off this time!"

The four glared at Xiao Chen with venomous hatred.

"I do not care for that look. If you begged or cried out, it might lessen my anger. But this..." He swung the black blade again.

Pulp, pulp!

Blood spattered. Four lower legs were hacked off. There was no mercy or compunction in his heart now—only the burning rage from being tortured with bones broken in many places.

"Ah!"

The pain forced them to scream; they could not bear it.

"I slapped Hofmann because he deserved it—murder, arson, assaulting female students, every evil deed. If not for your family, I would have skinned him alive that day!" Xiao Chen's voice was chilling. "You tortured me to avenge a scoundrel. What kind of reason is that? Now I will repay in kind. You wanted to torture me to death? Let me give you a taste."

He struck four times, shattering many of their bones as well.

He had no mercy for mortal enemies.

Mercy to an enemy is cruelty to oneself. Xiao Chen was fully resolved. Blade in hand, he cut off their right lower legs. Blood spurted high, staining the ruins red.

"Xiao Chen, you will die a horrible death!"

The four cursed bitterly.

"Didn't you say dealing with me would be as easy as crushing a bug?"

Xiao Chen swung again. Arms and legs were all severed. Blood flowed freely, mist spreading through the forest.

He picked them up and threw them beside an ant nest. The forest's venomous ants were especially ferocious; soon they covered the bodies.

Ghastly screams set one's teeth on edge, painfully shrill.

After a quarter-hour, Xiao Chen walked over. "I will give you a quick death."

His blade fell. Four flashes of black light, and their heads were lopped off, flying onto distant treetops. Blood mist drifted through the woods.

Xiao Chen left with Keke and the Little Defiant Dragon, finding a secluded cliff to heal his wounds. To a cultivator at the Ninth Heaven of Mortal-Shedding, broken bones were not a terrible injury. He cultivated his body as a treasure, forging it to resist divine weapons. His physique was extremely tough. Within three days, all his bones had rejoined, during which the joints crackled loudly.

Those three days stirred no small commotion in the wasteland. The four Rigen Family experts had been found decapitated, their heads hanging from treetops, drawing much attention.

After another night of rest and meditation, Xiao Chen returned to Heavenly Emperor City with Keke and the Little Defiant Dragon. He had no interest in the two sacred beast cubs that might be of the strongest lineage—he did not want to wade into that swamp.

Upon entering the city, he immediately ran into a familiar sight: the tall Dugu Jianmo, iron sword in hand, was confronting a wild-looking youth with a demonic aura, and a blue-haired young man stood nearby with a faint smile. Many cultivators had gathered.

"Dugu Jianmo and Yuwen Feng are about to fight!" someone murmured.

As Xiao Chen drew near, Dugu Jianmo, Yuwen Feng, and the blue-haired youth seemed to sense him, turning as one. Xiao Chen felt an immense pressure, and his inner power surged forth instinctively.

Boom!

The four top experts released powerful energy fluctuations, and a "domain" materialized in the space between them!

At the same time, the Northern prodigy Wu Xingfeng arrived with two others, also unleashing their strongest energy.

Boom! The invisible domain intensified further.

"Interesting!" A unruly voice came from elsewhere, and another figure walked into the field from a different direction.

In that instant, the domain stirred up by the continent's young peak experts swelled with violent power!