“Don’t cause trouble,” Nie Qian said, glaring at him. “We still have things to do. Don’t waste our time on these annoying people. Let’s go.”
As she spoke, she pulled harder on Nie Tian’s arm, trying to get him away from the jewelry shop as soon as possible.
“Don’t leave so fast,” Yuan Qiuying said with an overtly vicious smile. “It’s been so long since we’ve last met. Us sisters gotta catch up. What’s to be afraid of? Is this the fatherless Nie Tian? Haha, didn’t I hear days ago that he was dying? How pitiful is it to be a child both fatherless and motherless. Actually, living a life like that is a joke.”
Nie Tian wrinkled his nose in disdain and snorted. “Old woman! You do have a mother and a father, but they failed at educating you! Only a shameless shrew would force a man to marry her, knowing he already has a wife!”
Yuan Qiuying almost exploded with anger. “Little bastard! Where did you learn to talk like that? How dare you insult me!”
Nie Tian’s words perfectly poked at her weak spot. All these years, what she hated most was when people used this matter against her.
She knew that stealing Yun Zhiguo from Nie Qian wasn’t exactly honorable, and she was also well aware of the fact that numerous people in Black Cloud City had been talking about it and deemed her shameless.
However, since she came from the powerful Yuan clan, nobody dared to speak of the matter to her face.
She originally planned to humiliate Nie Qian for fun, but Nie Tian’s words had lit up the anger in her, and she instantly lost her temper.
“I was just stating the truth,” Nie Tian said with a snort. “Everyone knows what you’ve done. What? You can do it, but can’t bear to hear people talk about it? You’re afraid of people talking, yet you shamelessly stole someone else’s husband? Have you no shame? Don’t you care about losing face?”
“Little Tian!” Nie Qian called out anxiously.
What Nie Tian had said was exactly what she had been wanting to say, and hearing it did bring her pleasure, but she knew Yuan Qiuying well and she was afraid that she might snap in front of others.
“You fatherless, motherless bastard! I’ll teach you some manners today!”
Yuan Qiuying’s eyes were filled with burning flames of rage as she raised her left hand, ripples of purple spiritual energy emanating out from her palm.
Yun Zhiguo hurried to stop her. “Qiuying! We are in front of the Spiritual Treasure Pavilion. Don’t lower yourself to the kid’s level. People would laugh at us!”
By this point, a large number of passersby had sensed the mutual hostility, and had gathered nearby, keenly interested in whether or not open conflict would break out.
The onlookers even started to discuss the matter amongst themselves as they backed slowly away from Yuan Qiuying and Nie Qian.
“Hey, it’s people from the Nie clan versus people from the Yun clan.”
“They’re about to put on a good show!”
“Yun Zhiguo’s wife is acting as arrogant and rampant as always!”
“Her father is the master of Frost Stone City’s Yuan clan. She can afford to behave that way.”
“Well... the Nie clan is really unlucky to have gotten involved with this Yuan clan’s unreasonable twat. It was because of her that Nie Donghai got terribly injured, which resulted in him losing his position as clanmaster. Absolutely tragic.”
“... ”
Among the crowd was a young girl with a delicate face, who curiously looked on with her hand held by a burly middle-aged man with a square jaw.
The little girl was about Nie Tian’s age. She was wearing a yellow dress and had numerous bright silver bracelets on her pale-skinned wrist. Her bright eyes flickered with wit and intelligence, and she just so happened to be munching on some sunflower seeds.
“Uncle Fan, what’s happening over there?” the little girl asked with great interest.
The burly man with the square jaw looked at the domineering Yuan Qiuying. Frowning briefly, he proceeded to explain all the details to the girl in a low voice.
Having heard the whole story, the girl seemed shocked. “How come the woman surnamed ‘Yuan’ is so arrogant and rampant after stealing someone else’s husband?”
“Because her last name is ‘Yuan’ and her father is Frost Stone City’s Yuan Fengchun.” The burly man let out a sigh. “Generally speaking, the Nie clan is attached to us, and Nie Donghai can be considered to have done years of hard work. Moreover, what happened wasn’t the Nie clan’s fault, so we should have stepped up and delivered justice, however...” The big man shook his head, his eyes showed a bit of shame.
“Aren’t we supposed to protect those who depend on us?” the little girl said angrily.
The burly man’s expression turned somewhat grim as he said, “Nie Donghai’s second daughter was named Nie Jin. If she was alive, she would have been your elder martial sister according to seniority. She had an extremely outstanding cultivation talent just like you, so in the sect, she was treated as a ‘seed’, and an excess amount of cultivation resources were spent on her. Our sect had really high expectations of her.
“However... she made a terrible mistake in the prime of her life. She had a baby with a man whose identity hasn’t been revealed to this day and she passed away shortly thereafter. All the precious materials our sect had spent were wasted. Many in our sect thought that Nie Donghai failed to educate her, thus they secretly resented him.
“The Yuan clan and the Yun clan were also well aware of this, and knew that Nie Donghai had lost our favor.
“It was because of this that Yuan Fengchun and Yun Meng dared to mess with him.
“Also because of this that those in our sect who had high expectations of Nie Jin and had placed significant stakes on her simply ignored what happened.” The burly man quietly explained all the reasons behind it in detail.
After hearing the whole explanation, the little girl looked at the distant Nie Qian and Nie Tian and murmured, “That family really has bad luck. “
Meanwhile....
As Yuan Qiuying was being held back by Yun Zhiguo, she noticed the large group of onlookers gathering around them. She suppressed her rage with great effort, and as she coldly glared at Nie Tian, she said, “Fine! I won’t lower myself and bully a young kid!”
“Yun Song!” she called out to her son. “Go! Teach that little bastard a lesson on behalf of your mother!”
Upon hearing his mother’s words, Yun Song, who had already found Nie Tian an eyesore, immediately rushed out like a swift leopard.
Seeing this, people made comments, but no one dared to actually step up and administer justice, since they were all in fear of the Yuan clan.
“I heard that Yun Zhiguo’s son had broken through into the seventh level of Qi Refining three months ago. On the other hand, Nie Tian... seems to have barely entered the fourth level of Qi Refining after his high fever. The seventh level versus the fourth level is too ill-matched. This is completely an act of bullying!”
“That woman is always bullying people. What’s there to fuss about?”
“Good point.”
“Nie Tian, don’t fight him. Let’s go!” Nie Qian’s heart was torn with anxiety.
The recent battle between Nie Tian and Nie Hong had left her heart still fluttering with fear. Though Nie Tian had won the fight, he had burst into a high fever that very night. If it weren’t for the fact that Hua Mu happened to be in Black Cloud City, Nie Tian would probably have already died.
Hua Mu had left Black Cloud City days ago, and his current whereabouts were untraceable. If Nie Tian had another outburst, who would be able to save him?
Just as she yelled, hoping to stop Nie Tian, Nie Tian suddenly broke free from her grasp and recklessly dashed towards Yun Song, without any regards to danger.
The square-faced man in the crowd looked on with glittering eyes. “Applaudable courage,” he murmured to himself. “Unfortunately, the gap between their cultivation levels is too large. Courage alone simply isn’t enough.”
The little girl by his side seemed to enjoy battling by nature. The moment she saw Nie Tian and Yun Song beginning to fight, she immediately got excited and couldn’t stop cheering.
BOOSH! BOOSH!
One after another, fireballs flew out of Yun Song’s clenched fists, like burning stones, and smashed directly towards Nie Tian’s face.
Those balls of flame were one step ahead of Yun Song’s fist, which was drawing near to Nie Tian!
The seventh level of Qi Refining! Spiritual power breakaway!
This was a higher and better way of commanding spiritual power than the spiritual power overflow of the sixth level.
The spiritual power overflow of the sixth level could only allow spiritual power to flow from the dantian’s spiritual sea to the surface of the cultivator’s body. However, the spiritual power wouldn’t completely leave the body, and could only wreath the arms and fists.
It was the breakaway spiritual power of the seventh level that would allow spiritual power to break away from the body and fly out of the fist before it directly hit the enemy.
Power at this level was terrifyingly stronger than the power of Nie Hong’s lightening-covered fists!
POW! POW! POW!
Numerous reddish-orange fireballs rained down onto Nie Tian’s forehead and back.
Nie Tian’s clothes and hair instantly ignited as the flames tried their best to penetrate his skin to get to his flesh. The pain was so unbearable that he had to cry out.
Just as Yun Song’s fist was about to reach him, he dropped to the ground and started to roll, extinguishing the flames on his body and hair.
When he got up again, there was a big, round hole burnt into the back of his shirt, and his hair was pluming black smoke. He didn’t look good.
“Ha ha ha!”
Seeing him in such sore straits, Yun Song didn’t rush to make the next move, but instead burst into laughter.
He planned to take his time to humiliate Nie Tian.