Chapter 51

Canglan City, Jaded Sky Ocean’s Tavern.

“Look father, Brother Zhou Yan is as gifted as me, so you wouldn’t forbid your dear daughter from her pursuit of love and in turn would love to train alongside him right?”

Zhou Ying chuckled cheerfully, her heart grew increasingly excited as she stared at her father.

She was also oblivious to the fact that the silhouette she had adored since childhood had seared into her mind even after all these years apart.

“Al…alright then, as long as you’re happy,” the middle-aged man replied with a bitter laugh.

“You truly…can’t…underestimate Zhou Yan! Never did anyone expected, even me. I had foolishly assumed he was merely in possession of a single Qi Column with three segments, who would’ve known he had a twin Qi Column each with two segments!

“Based on what he had said, all of this change happened in a cycle of moon’s time. Truly a terrifying change.”

Everyone present in the tavern paid extra attention to everything Zhou Yan was doing. However, after they had bear witness to Zhou Yan’s talents and potential, these people were all silenced.

To have a man such as Zhou Yan appeared within the Zhou family, a huge number of pupils flooded into the main branch of Zhou family despite the circumstances Zhou Yan had found himself in. It would be without a shred of doubt that Zhou Yan’s reputation and status would be heightened and if this family had any hope to fall from glory, it would be an extremely difficult feat to accomplish!

Those scholars who once had an ill perspective of Zhou Yan had given up those thoughts as they no longer dared to cross Zhou Yan.

At the same time, Zhou Ying’s father, Zhou Han, had changed his perspective toward Zhou Yan as he felt extremely conflicted.

He knew there was very little he could do to stop his daughter, however, feelings of concern and worry had faded away, as he had a sudden excited hope… If his daughter was graced by the opportunity to live with Zhou Yan, then, genius their children would be.

If he was in possession of a twin Qi Column with three segments each, forming a Emperor Blade’s Core, would his heir be free from the shackles of the Essence of the Emperor? Thus forming a Blade’s Core of unimaginable special properties? Just by birth alone, the soul would have the potential of forming a Blade’s Spectre, would it be graced with incredible powers?

As the lad thought about all of that, he had become increasingly excited.

Indeed, it was emotions of pure excitement! Regardless of power or potential, the only thing he hoped for was his daughter to live a better life. It was the encounter with Zhou Yan which had caused the lad to assume his daughter would have a difficult life ahead. However, now that the young lad had proved his worth even to the infamous Elder Xing—who was known to make things difficult, he was amazed by young lad’s demonstration of natural gifts.

“Yes I know but the only thing that I don’t is if brother Zhou Yan would still remember me…”

As Zhou Ying spoke in a cheerful tone, hints of admiration and excitement flashed across her eyes, there were also some…awfully unique radiance from her eyes.

She recalled when she was still a mere child and was clueless to the world around her, she had seen Zhou Yan’s manhood and was curious to the reason of it being absent on her body. She had even go as far as doing a detailed search for the reason of the differences in their anatomy…

As she recalled the incident, she had felt extremely embarrassed by it. However, there was an odd feeling of warmth in her heart as the young lass had found it difficult to forget about the memories of those days. Although she was a naive child, she was filled with innocence. It was worth recalling.

…

As he noticed the coquettish blushing demeanor of his daughter along with some hints of confusion, he shook his head and thought, ‘Zhou Wangchen…you were the crux of countless women back then and now, your b*stard child has arrived. It seems plenty more women in the world would have been violated soon… Sigh… How I envy and admire you!”

As he spoke in his heart, he suddenly saw an unbelievable sight, he noticed five spectres of the Pale Dragons from a distance!

At the same time, most of the scholars in the tavern had all stood up instantly as they stared at the courtyard that once belonged to Zhou Wangchen!

Boom!

Five spectres of the Pale Dragons had instantly blown through the entire courtyard, leaving behind five enormous and deep trenches in the shape of a sword in the courtyard.

That explosion of Blade’s Menace was capable of instantly murdering a scholar in the peak of the first rank within the realm of the Blade’s Menace!

This was a truly menacing and immensely powerful attack, it felt like the raging roars from the ancient God of War!

Thus, in that instant, not only was Zhou Han and Zhou Ying, every single scholar on that floor was completely shocked by what they had just witnessed!

The strongest people in Canglan City was only in the realm of the Blade’s Menace and these strong and people of immense power were all in the peak of the first rank of that realm, since when a scholar had reached the realm of the Blade’s Menace, the training that followed would be indescribably difficult!

From the very beginning of this realm was an enormous trench! This trench was not something that would be able to be completely filled to the brim in a short span of time!

Hence, if a person was capable of killing such a powerful foe in a mere instant, every single person could not stay calm. With Zhou Yan’s powers alone, he was more than capable of killing them in an instant!

They had always assumed they were the elders and the natural gifts of the younger generations would never even come close to their level! However, Zhou Yan’s single attack, that earth shattering attack, was evidence enough to tell them, Zhou Yan could never be underestimated!

His combat prowess alone had unknowingly become their equal, even more so, far exceeded what they were capable of!

This truth was painfully obvious to them. As much as they hated to accept this fact, they had witnessed his powers with their own two eyes and this was without a shred of doubt the truth!

A hard inhale can be heard coming from the rooms of the tavern, it seemed after a deafening silence, someone could no longer hold back their emotions as they nervously inhaled with complete shock!

At this moment, not a single soul was sitting down as everyone stood with complete amusement!

“If Zhou Yan would never fall from grace, then this lad would be a genius that breaks the very balance and laws of the heavens! Such an abomination of nature!

“A man like him, his name would be known in the Valley of Prosperity, his reputation would cause an uproar in the City of Waters, no, the entire Compound of Pale Flames!”

An elderly man with a head full of white hair mumbled. The instant he opened his mouth, his loose teeth were exposed while his entire body trembled!

This man was one of the elders of the Huang family. This man was extremely close to being dead due to his age and had not been capable of breaking through the peak of the first rank within the realm of the Blade’s Menace. Now, he was extremely close to death!

However, upon witnessing such a scene, his already shrivelling body had an unexplainable excitement as his slumbering blood had seemingly begun to boil!

He felt, after he had witnessed the five spectres of the Pale Dragons…his soul had been shaken and it was through that he had finally seen a new sword’s way and Blade’s Menace!

That instant spark, made the elderly man extremely excited as he suddenly yelled, “I’ve been enlightened, I’ve finally been enlightened! This lad, Zhou Yan, truly is a one of a kind genius. The instant this odd Blade’s Menace were unleashed, the entire heavens and Earth shook, this alone had graced me with a new Blade’s Menace!”

The elderly man exclaimed like a mad man, as both his eyes were bloodshot red as his elderly body suddenly seemed bigger.

“Congratulations, Elder Huang!”

“The great Elder of the Huang family had suddenly been graced with enlightenment ascending into the second rank within the realm of the Blade’s Menace, his age spans centuries, truly something worth celebrating for!”

“To be enlightened at this moment, Elder Huang truly has been blessed, your great reputation would echoe into the future!”

…

Thus, various congratulatory greetings were being wished at this moment.

Elder Huang excitedly replied whilst breathing heavily, “This is all thanks to Zhou Yan’s unique and ferocious demonstration of Blade’s Menace, hence resulting in me being graced with something new. Everyone should contemplate and reflect upon it, I believe everyone would be able to gain something great from it.”

Thus, Elder Huang had praised Zhou Yan to such a high honorable regard, even the way he had addressed Zhou Yan had changed.

As he spoke about Zhou Yan, all the judgements and critiques he had before changed to honorable appraisals with the most respect!

In that single instance, he had been thoroughly captivated by Zhou Yan’s prowess!

Thus, as Zhou Yan had gained instant fame as his reputation had now shocked the world, he had gained the most respect from the main branch of the Zhou family and was even given four names. His actions of mercy by sparing the lives of the family members that had wronged him and had buried the hatchet won the respect of many scholars!

His attitude, this rash, and sincere attitude had gained the respect of different major families!

…

The Zhou family.

The courtyard remained in a state of deafening silence after Zhou Yan left.

Those five deep trenches laid on the spot they formed silently. This was still a terrifying scene to witness.

The Zhou family was silenced and it was like the loneliness of death.

Those few people who were targeted by Zhou Yan had mixed expressions.

Zhou Xian had a conflicted look. However, he had taken whatever Zhou Yan had spoken to him to heart in order to reflect upon it later.

Zhou Lingyi’s expression was cold but in fact, she had been slightly moved. Hence, her face looked complicated. However, after listening to everything Zhou Yan had to say and had thought about how he felt in his shoes… Her arrogant and prideful cold gaze instantly dimmed.

This was the first time in her life to have put herself in the shoes of another person. These emotions had heavily affected her, causing her to feel lost because of some of her actions

Could she truly be wrong?

However, who would have expected a useless trash such as Zhou Yan would suddenly rise to glory?

If Zhou Yan had not changed so drastically, would the Zhou family be completely ruined?

These were the puzzling thoughts that were plaguing Zhou Lingyi’s mind.

At this moment, Zhou Lingyao had a serious look on his face. However, he had seemingly been silenced. Without a word, this young lad walked alone and left the courtyard.

“Lingyi, Lingyao, Xian’er.”

Zhou Wuzhen called out to the trio.

“Zhou Yan was right, we kneel now, it is to admit the fault of our mistakes in planning and our severe oversight. But we also did not anticipate this change to happen.

“However, mistakes were made. So as we kneel, we’re doing so willingly. This has nothing to do with him. As he had said earlier, if he wanted to murder all of us, it would be as easy as trimming grass.

“That fight to the death, thank the gods it never happened, or else, the three of you…

“Next time, when you three enter the main branch of our family, don’t make his life unnecessarily difficult even if you resented him in your heart. He…has had a horrible and tragic life, it was all because of his struggles that he had achieved today’s status.

“You’ve seen his hard work.

“To even think that I, his own grandfather, have hired someone to murder him… Because of that incident, I had thought about leaving no potential threats behind in future… Even a tiger would not feast on its young, for all that I have done, I too, deserve to kneel…”

“Grandfather, but if it wasn’t for Zhou Wangchen…” Zhou Lingyao was still unsatisfied, as he finally spoke his mind to protest.

“What has happened in the past should stay in the past!” Zhou Wuzhen’s gaze was slightly lost. Although both his eyes were still slightly bright and had not been affected by anything, the edge of his eyes showed the deep wrinkles that seemingly had hidden plenty of despair and anguish.

“Yes, grandfather, we will never cross him again. However, now that he has a status and had cut ties with the Zhou family, we…me at least, would not submit without a fight,” Zhou Lingyao replied in a cold tone.

“Yes, as long as there aren’t any conflicts between you and him, anything else will be left to fate! Another thing, Zhou Gucheng, Zhou Momo, Zhou Bi, and Zhou Yao, the four of you should go and pack your things now.

“We had been too arrogant and in the end resulted in taking sides. We had never once grew any concerns about the matters of your natural gifts. However, just as Zhou Yan had spoken, if he claims your potential to be great, then he should be right.

“When you arrive at the main branch of our family, work hard, do not fail Zhou Yan’s name, causing him to be the laughing stock of others, do you understand?”

“We do, we shall heed your lessons, our lord.”

Zhou Gucheng, Zhou Momo, Zhou Bi, and Zhou Yao replied in unison.

Zhou Wuzhen nodded as he closed his eyes seemingly reflecting on the events of the past.

In that instant, he aged.

…