“W—What?”
Not only was the tall and brawny Li Yingxiong astounded, the few young men of the Li family in his company were also shocked. Even the young people of other families who overheard their conversation looked at them in astonishment.
Over the past few days, the young people of the few families had gathered for training. Li Yingxiong had distinguished himself by defeating a lot of good warriors of his peers in a row. His brutality was pretty well known.
Everybody knew that his attacks were heavy, vicious, and aimed at the critical parts, as if they were not training but in a life-and-death battle.
Nobody wanted to mess with such a crazy and unreasonable man.
But right now, the seemingly ordinary Li Jialing was bold enough to do so.
“You heard me,” Li Jialing said with a smile. “Do I need to repeat it for you?”
“Hehe…” Li Yingxiong’s pupils constricted nonstop, with crimson beaming out. Thick veins protruded out of his forehead, from which hot steam was popping up.
“By the way, do you know why I never bothered to counterattack when you beat me before?” Li Jialing drew a napkin tissue to wipe his mouth before he folded the napkin tissue and said casually, “Because your punches were no worse than the bites of mosquitoes. It could not raise my interest at all, dumb bear!”
Li Jialing curled his finger and flicked the balled-up napkin into Li Yingxiong’s face.
“*sshole!”
If he could swallow such humiliation, he would not have been Li Yingxiong. The tall and brawny young man roared crazily and leaned forward, extending his arms that looked like iron sticks and trying to pull Li Jialing up from his seat.
He had already grabbed Li Jialing’s shoulder and was about to stab his fingers into Li Jialing’s flesh when Li Jialing suddenly snatched his wrists, pressed them hard, and dragged him backward. He was dragged over the dinner table and thrown onto the ground heavily, covered in dust.
Everybody was shocked.
The dinner room was caught in silence.
Even the adult Immortal Cultivators who had just returned from the trials in the Land of Sins observed the fight between the two young men with great interest.
“How is it possible?”
“Li Jialing… He…”
Although most people could tell that Li Yingxiong did not use his full strength, or even barely used any spiritual energy, in the attack just now, it was still beyond everyone’s expectations that Li Jialing could catch and fling him away.
“You!”
Li Yingxiong jumped to his feet immediately, with brutality and killing intent beaming out of his eyes.
Li Jialing’s unexpected throwing just then did not really hurt him.
But such great humiliation in public was certainly an unprecedented blow to his mind.
Li Yingxiong felt that his ears were humming in congestion, and his eyelids were twitching fast. He could see nothing but Li Jialing’s mocking gaze. His heart pounded like drumming, repeating the same melody that asked him to kill the young man!
It was not until then that Li Jialing glanced at him casually and then moved his eyes down at his waist.
A small vibration dagger was hanging from Li Yingxiong’s waist, which mostly served as a multipurpose tool.
He did not think to draw his dagger before, but Li Jialing’s shivering eyes reminded him.
Grinning hideously, he plucked the dagger and lunged at Li Jialing.
To this moment, Li Yingxiong had still maintained the last bit of his sanity. He knew that such a public fight, especially one witnessed by the members of many other families, was best kept without anyone dying.
Otherwise, his outcome would not be good after he returned if he brought shame to the Li family.
Therefore, he only planned to intimidate Li Jialing with the dagger and cut a few wounds on Li Jialing’s face so that the boy would pee his pants and run away.
But out of his expectations, although Li Jialing had acted so confidently and casually a moment ago, he panicked upon seeing the dagger get drawn. He jumped from his seat and tried to escape, but his left foot was blocked by a chair. Losing his balance, he sent his neck, and the carotid artery in particular, to his dagger.
Li Yingxiong was slightly dazed. He did hesitate for a moment, wondering if he should stop cutting the throat of the boy in public. If he was truly going to do that, it was best to be done on a training field.
But very soon, he did not need to hesitate anymore.
The moment his dagger pierced Li Jialing’s carotid artery, or rather, Li Jialing’s neck volunteered to crash into the tip of his dagger, the uncertainty in Li Jialing’s eyes turned into ecstatic mockery.
In the blink of an eye, Li Jialing’s carotid artery brushed past the vibration dagger narrowly. Then, Li Yingxiong’s wrist hurt so excruciatingly that his dagger somehow fell to the hands of Li Jialing before it circled Li Yingxiong’s neck as fast as lightning and stabbed deeply into his chest, completely mincing his heart!
Li Yingxiong bulged his eyes. Blood darted out from his ripped neck and his pierced chest, while he stepped back and collapsed to the ground, cramping.
Li Jialing lowered his head, not interested in looking at the guy anymore. He went to the buffet window for a second bowl of soup and sat back in the corner where he had been standing right next to Li Yingxiong’s body that was still cramping, continuing to enjoy the delicious hot soup slowly.
The quick and clean skill of killing shocked everyone.
Even the adult Immortal Cultivators narrowed their eyes and looked at Li Jialing and his seemingly weak hands in disbelief.
“Did you have to kill him?” Li Yao asked.
Li Jialing said, “Do you not feel that this is more suitable for my character? I believe that Li Lingfeng must be observing me through a certain channel right now in secret. Only with such a performance can I completely satisfy him and relieve him of his suspicions, right?
“What? You think that the big silly bear looks like an innocent good guy who does not deserve to be killed?”
Li Yao thought for a long time and shut his mouth.
The clattering noises of crystal suits echoed from outside the dining room. The guards of Manjusaka arrived.
Although the Immortal Cultivators worshipped the doctrine of survival of the fittest, it did not mean that anybody could attack each other anytime and anywhere. Without the restrictions of certain laws and rules, the order of the whole society would collapse.
It was one thing to ‘accidentally’ hurt someone in a training field, but it was a whole other thing to intentionally kill someone in a street fight.
However, many people had seen with their own eyes that it was Li Yingxiong who provoked Li Jialing first, attacked first, and drew the dagger first. In the end, he even stabbed the dagger at Li Jialing’s carotid artery. Considering the power of the vibration dagger, the attack could indeed have been fatal.
Therefore, Li Jialing’s counterattack when his life was under threat was not exactly a violation of the rules.
Although many people who were smart could tell that what Li Jialing had done was certainly not a counterattack in self-defense, nobody really cared about the details.
So, it truly came as no surprise that Jialing was led away by the guards not to a brig or a temporary prison cell but directly to Li Lingfeng, who was smiling in delight.
“You really couldn’t wait, could you?” Li Lingfeng smiled. “You hadn’t enjoyed enough killing?”
“I only wanted a bowl of soup in peace.” Li Jialing shrugged. “It was the big bear who messed with me first. I couldn’t swallow the humiliation meekly anymore, could I?”
“Well said,” Li Lingfeng said happily. “From today, you don’t have to be meek to anybody!”
“But how am I going to explain it?” Li Jialing said. “I’m not asking how I should explain killing the big bear but how to explain why I suddenly turned so strong.”
“Remember,” Li Lingfeng replied, “the strong do not explain.”
Li Jialing was slightly dazed. With brilliance beaming out of his eyes, he said softly, “Got it. Then, where are we going now?”
“To the stream center of the ‘Heavenly Eye Group’.”
Leading the way in the front, Li Lingfeng said casually, “Like I told you before, I have been sincerely raising you as an heir.
“To become a real powerful and influential expert, combat ability alone is far from enough. You also have to recognize the logic and methods of the operation of our world.
“Only when you completely figure out the logic of the operation of our world can you expect to control the entire world!”
“Control the entire world?” Li Jialing mumbled. “I don’t understand.”
“Come with me, and you will understand it.”
With a casual smile, Li Lingfeng said, “You know that the government of the Imperium of True Human Beings was founded on the basis of ‘true human beings’ ruling over ‘hominoids’. The true human beings are the essence and future of mankind, the winners in the race of evolution, and the one percent of humans whose true selves are awakened!
“The other ninety-nine percent, the hominoids, are just ignorant, human-shaped beasts, abnormal creatures who do not have independent thinking and pure emotions, and inferior goods that are born to be entangled by laziness, cowardice, and all other negative factors.
“Making the hominoids perceive the significance of their life and their great responsibility to boost the advancement of the civilization of mankind as burning fuel is the greatest problem that the Imperium has faced in the past thousand years.
“In the past thousand years, true human beings used to manage hominoids through simple and straightforward approaches. At that time, the Imperium was still in the phase of great expansion. Despite the enormous threat of the Covenant Alliance at the central battlefield, we were finding new territories all the time in the rear and could earn incessant resources and slaves from the new territories, which brought benefits to all hominoids. Therefore, the world at that time when the conflicts of the two parties hadn’t escalated operated based on such logic.
“However, about three to four hundred years ago, the Imperium passed the phase of high-speed expansion. It had been a long time since a resourceful, populated Sector was last discovered. Even if some discoveries were made occasionally, the cost of exploration, conquest, and shipping after the establishment of space gates significantly outweighed the profits that the new worlds could possibly bring.
“In other words, the potential earnings of the Imperium’s expansion had dried up. We were forced to find more resources from the territory and the population that we already had in order to compete with the Covenant Alliance.”