Poor Ye Qing, the Scheming Jiang Ruoxu

Nice!

A smirk curled at the corner of Jiang Che’s lips—dealing with a so-called "Child of Fortune" was just this easy!

"You... have no martial integrity!"

Ye Qing, beaten to a pulp, was left with a bruised and swollen face, his family jewels crushed by Jiang Che, and his lower half kicked into a bloody mess. The world had gained another eunuch.

With a desperate roar, he passed out from the pain.

"Tch—"

Jiang Che shrugged. What did you expect, dumbass? I’m the villain here—since when do villains play fair?

Well then, what’ll it be? Gang up or one-on-one?

If it’s a gang-up, it’ll be all the Jiang Family’s martial artists ganging up on you alone.

If it’s one-on-one, it’ll be you taking on all the Jiang Family’s martial artists by yourself.

Either way, Jiang Che was all about shamelessness.

Truth be told, a Child of Fortune like Ye Qing should’ve been insanely strong in combat. If not for that grandmaster from the Kunlun Sect stepping in to suppress him earlier, even seven or eight peak-level martial artists wouldn’t have been able to hold him down.

But no matter how much of a prodigy Ye Qing was, no matter how monstrous his talent, there was no way he could leap an entire major realm to defeat a grandmaster!

In ancient martial arts, every level was like an insurmountable chasm. To reach the grandmaster level, one had to forge their own martial path, comprehend their own martial domain, and extend their energy hundreds of meters—killing enemies across a river was child’s play.

Take Jiang Che’s grandfather, Jiang Yunhuang, for example. Over a decade ago, he’d once killed a grandmaster from the Land of Cherry Blossoms with a single palm strike across a river.

In the Dragon Country, there were nearly two hundred peak-level martial artists on record—and who knew how many more unrecorded ones lurked in the wild. But grandmasters? Only five existed!

Not even a hundred peak-level martial artists could take on a grandmaster—Child of Fortune or not.

Unless, of course, he had access to the ultimate truth—like, say... the Dongfeng missile series.

......

Ye Qing was dragged away like a dead dog.

Soon, the banquet resumed as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Jiang Che took a seat at one of the dining tables.

"Hmph~ You went way too hard on him. You really are a freak," came the unmistakable voice of Yu Wan'er.

Jiang Che smirked. "Oh? And just how ‘hard’ I am... shouldn’t you know best?"

Yu Wan’er instantly choked, teeth gritted as she glared at him.

"Alright, everyone full? Let’s hit up some fun spots in the capital this afternoon." Jiang Che pinched Yu Wan’er’s cheek and glanced around.

Ye Mengyao raised her hand excitedly. "Jiang Che, I heard there’s a new amusement park in the capital—it’s got an 80-meter-tall roller coaster! Super intense..."

Qin Qiaoqiao chimed in, her big, beautiful eyes sparkling with excitement.

Qiangwei and Bai Jie both nodded in agreement.

Only Yu Wan’er paled. For all her usual bravado—like riding roughshod over Jiang Che—she was secretly the biggest scaredy-cat of them all. Haunted houses were her worst nightmare, followed closely by roller coasters.

Jiang Che snapped his fingers. "Perfect! We’ll hit the haunted house first, then the roller coaster, followed by bungee jumping. After resting overnight... tomorrow, we’re going skydiving!"

Yu Wan’er: "..."

Skydiving?!

Are you trying to kill me?!

Just the thought of it made her feel like fainting on the spot.

......

After the banquet, Jiang Yunhuang approached Jiang Che with Jiang Ruoxu in tow, followed by several Jiang Family elders.

"Grandfather, what’s up?"

Jiang Che smiled politely at the white-bearded old man before him.

Half-step into the Heaven-Breaking stage!

Undeniably one of the pinnacle existences in the Dragon Country’s ancient martial arts world.

The martial ranks were as follows:

Manifested Force → Dark Force → Transform Force → Energy Force (Grandmaster) → Heavenly Force (Grandmaster)

Grandmasters were also known as Heavenly Force practitioners, but these were still within the realm of mortal martial arts.

Beyond that lay the divine—the realm of Martial Divinity.

Between Grandmaster and Martial Divinity, however, there was a transitional stage: the Heaven-Breaking stage. Breaking through the Heavenly Force to touch the divine.

Jiang Yunhuang was currently halfway there. But with Earth’s spiritual energy long depleted, taking that final step would be harder than scaling the heavens.

Jiang Yunhuang’s expression was grave.

"Che’er, that troublemaker Ye Qing from earlier... what do you plan to do with him?"

Jiang Che tilted his head. "Could just let him go. He’s practically crippled anyway."

Honestly, even if Ye Qing were released, Jiang Che wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

Did they think Monkey was just for show?

Monkey’s hacking skills allowed real-time surveillance of Ye Qing’s movements. With the Dragon Country’s omnipresent surveillance network, there was no escaping Monkey’s watch.

Besides, Jiang Che had just acquired three Heavenly Force peak-level puppets. He could easily spare one to tail Ye Qing.

Jiang Che also knew that Ye Qing’s masters had left him treasures—including hundreds of tons of gold and rare antiques worth billions.

And you bet I’m snatching those.

This intel came from the Book of Laws and Numbers, though its fragments couldn’t reveal everything yet. True omniscience was still far off.

So, for now, Ye Qing would make a perfect treasure-hunting rat.

"Che’er, Ruoxu told me something earlier. He’s seen this man in the Forbidden Martial Zone. He likely came from... beyond the ‘Gate.’"

At this, Jiang Che’s eyes narrowed.

"The Gate?"

"Indeed. The Dragon Country has five Forbidden Martial Zones—training grounds of sorts. Cultivation there is faster, but danger lurks everywhere."

"Each zone is guarded by one of the five grandmasters: the Kunlun Sect’s leader, the Wudang Sect’s leader, the Shaolin Sect’s leader, the Ancient Martial Arts Ai Family, and our own Jiang Family of the capital."

"Legends speak of a ‘Gate’ within these zones. Ye Qing probably emerged from it. Earlier, he kept boasting about his ‘invincible masters’..."

Jiang Ruoxu, silent until now, spoke up. "Brother, letting him go is like releasing a tiger back to the mountains. Why not just...?"

The boy drew a finger across his throat. Clearly, Jiang Ruoxu was a devious little schemer.

Jiang Che’s lips twitched. Seriously? You refused to fight him earlier, but now you want him dead?

"A tiger? Please. At best, he’s a house cat."

Jiang Che’s smile was dripping with disdain.

With the Book of Laws and Numbers, he could foresee the broader picture. And he still held plenty of aces up his sleeve.

Ye Qing’s biggest trump cards?

His eighteen masters.

But here’s the kicker—none of them could cross over to this world.

His other advantage? The storage pouch from his second master, stuffed with goodies.

Yet his storage pouch had inexplicably gone missing.

To make matters worse, it had somehow ended up in Jiang Che's pocket.