"Jiang Chen? Junior Sister Ziyou knows Jiang Chen?"

"You guys don’t know? I’ve got the inside scoop. That Jiang Chen and Junior Sister Ziyou come from the same family. The grudge between them runs deep; they both wish the other one dead!"

"Remember the Blood-colored Killing Order from the Celestial Alliance a while back? Junior Sister Ziyou was the one who issued it against Jiang Chen!"

"Now this is going to be a good show!"

On Martial Saint Peak, the more than one hundred thousand Inner Sect experts broke into a clamor of discussion.

Amidst the crowd...

A slight smile tugged at the corner of Jiang Chen’s mouth. He rose to his feet and dusted himself off.

Bai Ling’s delicate brows furrowed, her eyes filled with worry. "Jiang Chen..."

Yuwen Xunyi and the others also looked at him with concern.

Jiang Chen smiled slightly. "It’s fine. I’m just going to take care of a small matter. After this is over, we’ll all take on the Celestial Fate Hunting together!"

"Brother, you got this!"

"We believe in you!"

The group nodded solemnly.

Jiang Chen gave a slight nod to the four of them and began walking forward, step by step. With each step, his body rose several dozen feet, treading on the air as he ascended into the sky.

In no time...

Jiang Chen had already flown high into the sky, where he stood face-to-face with Jiang Ziyou, their eyes locking.

There was none of the expected fury, no hoarse roars or furious curses.

Everything seemed calm!

"I thought I would never have to see you again in this lifetime. To think we’d still run into each other today!" Jiang Ziyou spoke calmly, her voice frosty and devoid of any emotion.

Jiang Chen nodded, his tone indifferent. "I can understand how much you don’t want to face me. Just as I, at every waking moment, want to kill you with my own hands!"

"Kill me? Heh heh heh..."

Jiang Ziyou broke into a charming smile, her expression filled with arrogance and thick disdain. Her laughter subsided as she said, "A year ago, during the Yulan Festival in Yandu City, if you had tried to kill me with all your might, I truly would have had no way to resist. But now? In my eyes, you’re nothing more than a slightly stronger ant. I—can crush you with a flick of my wrist. Believe it or not."

As she spoke, Jiang Ziyou leaned forward slightly, her half-lidded eyes fixed on Jiang Chen.

Disdain!

Arrogance!

Indifference!

Utter condescension!

Jiang Chen shrugged, his tone playful. "It seems Lan Haichen has given you quite a few benefits this past year, boosting your strength considerably!"

"Hmph, Senior Brother Lan’s methods are beyond your imagination!"

Jiang Ziyou said with a look of pride, "Senior Brother Lan is a peerless prodigy, the greatest under the heavens, without equal. With his help, the achievements I’ve made this year have reached a height you could never attain in your entire life."

When she spoke of Lan Haichen, Jiang Ziyou’s eyes were filled with infatuation and adoration.

"Hahaha..."

Jiang Chen threw his head back and roared with laughter, doubling over until tears streamed from his eyes. He pointed a trembling finger at Jiang Ziyou, his face a mask of ridicule. "Jiang Ziyou, a dog really can’t be taught not to eat shit! Back then, to curry favor with me and get my Nourishing God Pills, to have me guide your cultivation, you spent six whole years by my side, acting like a perfectly obedient lapdog. Now, you’re climbing up by relying on Lan Haichen. Don’t you have any ability to survive besides begging for handouts from men?"

At his words, the smug look on Jiang Ziyou’s face vanished without a trace.

A light as sharp as a sword’s edge glinted in her phoenix eyes as they fell upon Jiang Chen. She ground her teeth. "Jiang Chen, if you dare say that again, I’ll rip your mouth apart!"

"What? Did I strike a nerve? Worried I’ll spill all your embarrassing secrets from back then?"

"Hahaha, if you don’t want people to know, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place! Back then, Jiang Ziyou, to get my Nourishing God Pills, you were all ’Brother Chen this’ and ’Brother Chen that,’ following me around like a piece of snot you couldn’t shake off. Then, a little over a year ago, I awakened my Martial Soul, and it was judged to be trash-tier, Yellow Tier First Grade. You turned on me on the spot and drew a clear line between us!"

Jiang Chen’s eyes were bloodshot. He remembered that scene on the Jiang Family’s martial arts training ground in Yandu City. At his most vulnerable moment, the person he had cared for diligently for six years chose to betray him without a second thought.

How painful was that?

It was no different from pouring salt on the wound!

What’s more...

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth. "If you had only decided I was unworthy of you and cut ties with me because my talent was trash, I, Jiang Chen, am not so petty as to blame or hate you for it. But you never should have driven me from my own family, never should have laid a finger on the Saint Martial Order my father left me, and you absolutely should have never tried to have me killed time and time again!"

"Jiang Ziyou, it’s been a full year since Lan Haichen took you away. Not a single moment has passed where I, Jiang Chen, haven’t thought about this day."

"I, Jiang Chen, once said that anyone who wrongs me will swallow the bitter fruit of their actions with their own mouth!"

"The river flows east for thirty years, and west for thirty years. Never bully a young man for being poor!"

"Today, the waste of space you see before you will defeat you fair and square. I will let you know that your so-called arrogance and talent are nothing but a pile of shit in my eyes!"

Jiang Chen was practically roaring as he bellowed the last words, "Jiang Ziyou, let’s fight!"

BOOM—

Jiang Chen erupted in a blaze of dark gold light, shooting forward like an arrow released from its bowstring.

He left a streak of dark gold light in his wake, like a meteor tearing across the firmament.

Jiang Ziyou hovered in the air, a gale whipping around her and sending her long hair flying. A cold killing intent flickered in her eyes as an unparalleled murderous aura locked onto Jiang Chen. "From this day forward, the name Jiang Chen will no longer exist in this world. I’ll make you accompany my father in death, and I’ll show you just how vast the gap between us truly is!"

Jiang Ziyou spread her hands and waved her arms in front of her.

In an instant...

Before her, her two hands became four, and the four became eight!

They finally transformed into a dense, circular forest of arms, like a thousand-handed Guanyin, as palm after palm struck down violently toward Jiang Chen.

A thousand arms blotted out the sky, resembling a shower of falling stars.

"An Earth-Tier High-Level Martial Skill, the Thousand Leaves Palm?"

"I never would have thought Junior Sister Ziyou’s talent was so great that she even cultivated the Thousand Leaves Palm to the Perfection Realm."

"With a Palm Technique like that, Jiang Chen probably can’t block it!"

"That’s not necessarily true. After all, Jiang Chen once killed Yanm Tianjue of the Heavenly Destiny Realm Sixth Stage..."

A wave of gasps rose from the crowd as they stared at the terrifying palm silhouettes that blotted out the sky.

Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed. The dark gold light pulsing around him flared as he threw a punch from mid-air toward the dense forest of arms. "Eight Celestial Dragon Divine Fist—Azure Dragon Emerges from the Sea!"

ROAR—

A massive dragon’s head burst forth from his fist. Its twin horns were like swords, its mouth a gaping maw, and its serrated, sharp fangs glinted with a menacing cold light. The dragon’s body writhed, shaking the heavens as it charged toward the forest of arms.

RUMBLE—

The dark gold Scale Armor around the Azure Dragon was blasted apart by the palm silhouettes, but it felt no pain, its momentum unceasing. Roaring loudly, it whipped its body around in a Divine Dragon Tail Swing, piercing through the terrifying forest of arms with destructive power.

The two tyrannical torrents of energy annihilated each other at the same time.

They dissipated into nothingness.

Jiang Chen remained hovering in the air, a sharp glint in his eyes that seemed to see right through Jiang Ziyou. He said in a low voice, "Heavenly Destiny Realm Fifth Stage?"

At that moment, Jiang Chen was quite shaken internally.

’When I first entered the Saint Martial Sword Sect, Jiang Ziyou was challenging the Earth Martial Hall, and she was only at the True Martial Realm Seventh Stage. How much time has passed since then, for her to have already broken through to the Heavenly Destiny Realm Fifth Stage?’

’A speed like that is simply unbelievable!’

"That’s right!"

Jiang Ziyou gave a cold smile, then said proudly, "Ever since I found out you came to the Saint Martial Sword Sect, I’ve been cultivating in the Profound Light Realm with Senior Brother Lan. With his help, I’ve already broken through to the Heavenly Destiny Realm Fifth Stage. Jiang Chen, do you still think you’re capable of fighting me now?"

Jiang Chen snorted, his fighting spirit blazing like a wild fire, materializing as it shot from his eyes. "So what if you’re at the Heavenly Destiny Realm Fifth Stage? Today, even if you, Jiang Ziyou, were to become the Celestial Dao itself, I would still shatter the firmament and break the heavens and earth. One year from today will be the anniversary of your death!"

SWOOSH—

The Dustfall Sword appeared in his hand, and Jiang Chen soared against the heavens!

A world-shaking battle.

Atop Martial Saint Peak, it had truly begun...