Repay interest

Long Chen looked toward the people arriving and his eyes couldn't help but turn cold. A crowd of people, like stars surrounding the moon, were escorting a young man inside.

That man had a face like jade, a tall and straight posture, and was extremely handsome. The person who arrived was none other than the son of the Barbarian Marquis, Zhou Yaoyang, who had once beaten Long Chen to the point of near-death on the arena stage before throwing him off.

Zhou Yaoyang was the legitimate eldest son of the Barbarian Marquis, and his cultivation was among the top of all the young lords, which was why he had such high popularity among them.

As soon as Zhou Yaoyang came in, he saw Long Chen and his group. He smiled slightly, walked over, and looked at Long Chen, saying: "I am very sorry about the last time; I actually beat you until even your mother couldn't recognize you."

Though he spoke of an apology, there wasn't a hint of regret on his face. His words were filled with disdain, as if he were a supreme emperor looking down on Long Chen.

"It's fine. Soon, I will beat you until even your grandmother won't recognize you," Long Chen smiled faintly, while secretly feeling angry in his heart.

When he woke up that day, only his mother and that old apothecary were there; this phrase must have been spread by that old bastard.

Zhou Yaoyang's words were equivalent to telling Long Chen that the old man was one of them. Although Long Chen's injuries looked frightening, none of them were fatal. Even the injury on the back of his head, although bloody, was not serious.

There was absolutely no need to use such an Advanced Medicinal Pill to treat him. These guys had clearly scared his mother and emptied all her savings.

Not killing him, but wanting to weaken his family's financial resources to make their lives even harder—there must be a conspiracy behind this.

"Long Chen, you are seeking death! I think you've forgotten the pain now that the wounds have healed. Do you still want to be beaten half to death by Brother Yaoyang again?"

"Exactly. A piece of trash who cannot practice cultivation dares to spout such wild words; you are truly seeking death."

"An idiot. To actually have such an idiot as a fellow young lord is simply an insult to us."

Before Zhou Yaoyang could speak, the people beside him had already started pointing at Long Chen and cursing loudly, spraying saliva everywhere.

"Long Chen, although you and I are both young lords, one is in the heavens and the other is on the ground. You are just a tiny ant who can only look up to me. So, even if I bully you, you can only endure it. Otherwise, the consequences will be the same as last time: being beaten into a dead dog," Zhou Yaoyang said, pointing a finger at Long Chen's nose.

"Snap."

Long Chen smiled slightly. Suddenly, he reached out his large hand, and before anyone could react, he tightly grabbed that finger of Zhou Yaoyang's and applied a little force, causing a crisp sound.

Zhou Yaoyang let out a miserable cry. A wave of intense pain swept through his entire body. The fingers are connected to the heart, and after being twisted by Long Chen, he couldn't help but lower his head.

Although he was a powerhouse at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, as long as he hadn't stepped into the Blood Condensation realm, the strength of his Physical Body was only slightly stronger than a Mortal.

Furthermore, since it happened suddenly, he had no time to circulate his Qi to defend himself. Once his vital point was controlled, he was no different from a Mortal.

Long Chen looked down at Zhou Yaoyang, whose face was twisted in pain, and asked with some confusion: "High and above? Looking down? Are you talking about yourself?"

The sudden turn of events shocked everyone. At this moment, Zhou Yaoyang was already in too much pain to speak, and the others only then reacted and rushed toward Long Chen.

"Bastard, let go of Brother Yaoyang quickly!"

"Whoever dares to come over, I will slap him to death!"

The people beside Zhou Yaoyang saw him being attacked by Long Chen and were shouting as they prepared to swarm him. Just as Long Chen was about to make a move, a tall figure suddenly appeared beside him. He let out an angry roar at that group of people, which sounded like thunder, causing everyone's eardrums to ring.

When he saw who it was, a smile appeared on the corner of Long Chen's mouth. The person who arrived was none other than Shi Feng.

The few young lords who originally wanted to rush up immediately stopped in their tracks because of Shi Feng's appearance.

Shi Feng was aloof by nature and did not like to form cliques, but his cultivation was the highest among all the young lords. Coupled with his tall and burly figure, he shocked them instantly.

For a moment, everyone fell into silence. In the entire Literature Hall, only the sound of Zhou Yaoyang's groans could be heard.

"What are you all doing?"

Suddenly, an angry rebuke came. An old man walked in, and everyone's expressions tightened as they looked toward the old man.

That old man was the lecturer of the Literature Hall, a Confucian scholar. It was said that he was honest, upright, unsmiling, and quite dignified.

"Fighting inside the Literature Hall requires detention for one month according to the law. Do you want to try it?" The old man snorted coldly.

Long Chen rolled his eyes, let go of Zhou Yaoyang's finger which was already twisted and deformed, and hurriedly smiled at the old man: "Sir, you have misunderstood. We were not fighting just now; we were only conducting a test."

"Oh? A test? What kind of test?" The old man was clearly not so easily fooled and looked at Long Chen coldly.

"We were testing how long the strength of one finger could last while being besieged by five fingers. Through this test, we reached a conclusion: the power of unity is irresistible. No matter how strong a single finger is, it is isolated and its strength will eventually be exhausted. Only with the support of partners can it continuously obtain energy, becoming stronger and more durable. In this test, both Zhou Yaoyang and I have gained recognition and understanding of power, which will be of great help to our future cultivation. It can be said that we benefited a lot. Brother Zhou, don't you agree?" Long Chen looked at Zhou Yaoyang with deep meaning.

Zhou Yaoyang was so angry he almost fainted, but it was clear that he had to swallow this bitter pill. Otherwise, if he denied it, both he and Long Chen would be detained. Even a young lord could not break the rules of the Literature Hall.

"Yes."

Zhou Yaoyang tried his best to keep his voice calm, but after the intense pain, even his voice was hoarse, making people feel like it was scraping iron.

The old man looked at Long Chen, a hint of playfulness flashing in his eyes, and nodded: "Since that is the case, I will not blame you. Remember, you are not allowed to mess around here in the future."

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but sigh at Long Chen's good luck. The old man clearly saw that Long Chen was spouting nonsense, yet he still let them off.

"You just wait for me."

Zhou Yaoyang gritted his teeth and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

Long Chen's move was too ruthless. Not only did he twist his finger, but he also didn't know what technique he used to twist the meridians inside that finger into a twist; otherwise, Zhou Yaoyang wouldn't have been in such a pathetic state from the pain, without a shred of power to resist.

"Brother Zhou is welcome to test me again at any time."

Long Chen smiled politely. Little brat, today is just collecting a little interest; the good show is still to come.

Over two hundred young lords sat quietly. The old man nodded with satisfaction and began a set of archaic, incomprehensible lectures that made everyone drowsy, yet no one dared to sleep.

Although that old man didn't have any cultivation, he had the final say in the entire Imperial College. If one were to anger him and get expelled, then there would be no need to think about the martial arts classics in the afternoon.

This was just like two eggs, one rotten and one good, but if you want to eat the good egg, you must first eat the rotten one.

The old man talked about history, governing the country, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing. Even Long Chen almost dozed off.

However, Fatty Yu and the others listened very carefully because they could not practice cultivation and were counting on their knowledge to secure an official position in the future.

After a painful ordeal, it finally reached noon. After lunch, everyone swarmed toward the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Even those like Fatty Yu who could not practice cultivation followed along. The Martial Arts Pavilion contained countless Cultivation Techniques and martial arts, so trying one's luck was a good thing.

The Martial Arts Pavilion was divided into three floors, but only the bottom floor was open to all the young lords.

Although there was only one floor, the seventeen bookshelves were filled with various martial arts and Cultivation Techniques, making people feel dazzled.

"Brother Yaoyang, I have already issued a life-and-death duel to Long Chen. This time, I will definitely kill him to vent your anger, Brother Yaoyang."

Li Hao did not know when he had snuck to Zhou Yaoyang's side and said respectfully.

At this time, Zhou Yaoyang had already used his Qi to stop the pain in his finger, but the joints were dislocated and the meridians were twisted. He had to find an apothecary to help him treat it.

"Now is not the time to kill him, otherwise I would have killed him last time." Zhou Yaoyang shook his head and suddenly asked: "By the way, how did you get defeated by him last time?"

"This, sigh! Actually, I was careless and Long Chen seized the opportunity. Damn, I'm so pissed off. I actually got defeated by this piece of trash once," Li Hao said with lingering resentment.

The defeat last time had greatly reduced his reputation, and there were even people whispering behind his back, which made him almost go crazy. He had always believed that last time was a small oversight, so this time he developed a murderous intent toward Long Chen.

"Long Chen absolutely cannot die, at least not now. Do not ruin the big plan." Zhou Yaoyang was afraid that Li Hao wouldn't understand his meaning, so he deliberately repeated it.

"Then what should we do? Just let him go like this?" Li Hao said, somewhat unwillingly.

Zhou Yaoyang looked at his twisted and deformed finger and gritted his teeth: "Although we can't kill him, we can still take one or two parts from him."

Li Hao's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said excitedly: "Good, this time I want to kick his balls until they burst. By the way, I also want one of his eyes. Damn, his gaze makes me very uncomfortable."

Zhou Yaoyang and Li Hao looked at each other and smiled, but they didn't notice that Long Chen, who was pretending to look at the bookshelves, was also smiling. However, that smile was colder than theirs, just like a leopard watching two whispering sheep.

From where Long Chen was, his Soul Power could just barely detect the movements of the two people. Although he couldn't hear what they were saying, he could guess most of it by looking at their lip movements.

Seeing the two of them flipping through the books on the shelf as if nothing had happened, Long Chen was too lazy to pay attention to them and began to truly search for his own target.

In his memory, except for the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, almost everything was about Alchemy. He now urgently needed to master a martial art.

Long Chen set his eyes on a martial art and was about to reach out to take it when a dark-faced man suddenly grabbed that martial art first.

"Sorry, this young lord has taken a fancy to it."

The man didn't even look at Long Chen and flipped through it as if no one else was there.

Long Chen frowned slightly. This was clearly intentional, but Long Chen did not flare up and changed to another bookshelf.

Just as he saw a palm technique and was about to make a move, that dark-faced man, who had been waiting on the side, grabbed it again.

"Sorry, this…"

"Slap."

A loud slap landed heavily on that dark face, interrupting his words. The powerful force sent him flying directly.