"Impudence!"
Seeing his grandson lying injured on the ground, Nie Beichuan, unable to control himself, quickly rushed forward.
There was a flash of lightning, before Nie Beichuan suddenly arrived besides Nie Hong. He crouched down, and while supporting Nie Hong with one hand, he pressed his hand on the sternum area above Nie Hong’s waist.
Nie Hong felt a warm current of spiritual power entering his body, which was quickly decreasing his pain. He could not help but aggrievedly murmur, "Grandfather..."
Nie Beichuan raised his head and with a ghastly look in his eyes, stared at the dazed looking Nie Tian, who, despite everything, was still ruminating over that unknown power. He then shouted, "Scoundrel! Fighting isn’t prohibited within the family, but who allowed you to be this vicious?"
Not waiting for Nie Tian's reaction, he once again swept over the abashed Wu Tao with a malicious gaze and shouted, "And you! As our honourable guest, whose job it is to oversee this training field, what have you done?! You could obviously see that Nie Tian, who was trying to resist the pain, acted murderously! Why didn’t you stop him? Did we, the Nie family, recruit you to eat rice for free?"
"This..." Wu Tao forced a smile.
"Second Grandfather, Nie Hong is injured... we should worry about treating him, instead of worrying about Mister Wu’s negligence." Nie Xian said. She couldn’t stand Beichuan any longer and tried to help Wu Tao.
She had seen the whole story clearly, especially when Nie Hong was about to strike at Nie Tian's heart. She knew that Wu Tao had questioned Nie Beichuan intentions, and at that time Nie Beichuan didn't even speak a single word, meaning that he obviously didn't intend to stop the match.
Later, when Nie Tian had bursted forward in the blink of an eye, as if he had obtained a divine power, everything had happened too fast for Wu Tao. He simply didn’t have enough time to stop it.
Nie Xian still had the mentality of a youth. Although she clearly knew that speaking up for Wu Tao was bad, she was still unable to prevent herself from revealing her innermost feelings.
"When did it become your turn to speak?" Nie Beichuan coldly asked. He gave a sidelong glance towards Nie Xian and said, "Who do you think you are? You’re only a branch child of our Nie Family. If you wish to have the right to speak in the family, wait until you break into the ninth Lianqi level and enter the Lingyun Sect. Only then do you have permission to speak to me!"
Nie Xian’s young and tender face showed obvious signs of anger at his remark.
But then she carefully thought about it and rigidly restrained herself, knowing that it was just as Wu Tao had said. Before she became a disciple of the Lingyun Sect, she really didn’t have much influence in the Nie Family.
Especially since it was likely that Nie Beichuan, in a year or two, would replace Nie Donghai as head of the Nie Family.
“Second Grandfather, it… it was Nie Hong that challenged me. What just happened was due to his own initiative, breaking the rules as he treacherously aimed at my vital point.” Nie Tian had finally awoken from his confusion. Seeming to know the current dire situation, he straightened his chest and with a righteous air shouted this.
“Grandfather, I just wanted to scare him! I wasn’t really going to injure him!” Nie Hong gritted his teeth, as he furiously glared at Nie Tian, and criticized, “From the start, when I blasted my strength before his stomach, I already intended to reserve my power and retract my hand. I absolutely did not expect for him to take advantage of this moment. Suddenly, I wasn’t prepared to take the attack from the greedy ambitions of this killer!”
“Inside, you know what you actually wanted to do!” Nie Tian shouted.
“Silence!” Nie Beichuan shouted deeply, preventing Nie Tian from continuing to speak. He coldly looked at Wu Tao, before saying, “How the event occurred is not the most important issue here. The current result is that Nie Tian didn’t comply with the family rules and maliciously injured Nie Hong. Mr. Wu, you are the Nie Family’s guest elder. According to the family’s rules, how should we punish Nie Tian?”
“He should be banished to Lingyun Mountain’s mine for three years,” Wu Tao softly replied, while helplessness and bitterness filled his heart and his eyes were full of apologies.
“Mr. Wu, in accordance with the family rules, has handled it!” Nie Beichuan said calmly.
“Great Grandfather.”
“Great Grandfather, we all saw that it wasn’t like Nie Hong said it is.”
Many children upon seeing him, heaved a sigh of relief and then one after another began to shout their grievances.
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the vicinity was suddenly astonished.
“I am tired and already have no energy left to lead the Nie Family. You already know my current situation... Before, I wanted to borrow the family’s power to help Qian’er and Jin’er to get justice, so I was reluctant and slow to give up my position.” Nie Donghai looked despondent. “But I’ve thought about it and decided. I plan to give up, and afterwards… the Nie family will look to you, Second Brother.”
“Big Brother, how can this be okay? Within the Family, you’re still a person of virtue and prestige, I…” Nie Beichuan unenthusiastically said.
“So it’s like this.” Nie Beichuan lengthened his voice and in a hypocritical show of affection, said, “If Big Brother insists on this, I also will not urge anymore. Big Brother, don’t worry; Qian’er and Jin’er’s matter, I will place the utmost importance on it. I will consider them as my own children and do my best to help them seek justice.”
Nie Donghai looked at him deeply and nodded his head, “Nie Tian is still young, I hope…”
As he had finished talking, he took the lead in leaving the plaza. His figure, from the back, had a bleak sense of a hero past his prime.
Wu Tao and the rest of the Nie Family’s younger generation watched his figure slowly depart and deep inside their heart, knew that Nie Donghai’s era of control had finally come to an end.
Nie Tian said nothing and silently followed behind Nie Donghai, his face carrying a terrible appearance.
Right before he left and disappeared from the square, he paused, turned and looked at the high-spirited and energetic Nie Beichuan, before he secretly clenched his fists.
Nie Tian was only ten years old, but had already reached a sensible maturity. He naturally understood that Nie Donghai had taken initiative to abdicate, all for him.