Chapter 9: Revealed Strength
Qiu Er looked at Jian Chen with obvious anger in his eyes, making it seem as if he was a wild beast that wanted to take Jian Chen down.
“You little bastard, I’m going to teach you a lesson today!” Qiu Er roared angrily. He dashed towards Jian Chen and sent a kick towards his head. The kick was fairly fast, and if it connected, it definitely would not result in a small wound for any normal person. But since Jian Chen was still in the body of a child, a direct hit from such a strong kick had a high chance of killing him.
Assessing the strength of Qiu Er’s kick, the 20 year old servant’s face suddenly lost its humorous expression and became pale. Shouting out in alarm, he cried, “Brother Qiu Er, stop!” Jian Chen was still the fourth master as well as the son of Changyang Ba despite being a cripple, he still had some degree of respect around the Changyang Mansion. It was barely okay to mock him, but to raise a hand against the fourth master was unforgivable. Even if they had the support of any of the elders they would still incur a terrible punishment upon them.
Seeing the intensity of Qiu Er’s kick, Jian Chen’s face changed as well. His eyes grew cold as he leaned to the side again. Calmly staying outside the reach of Qiu Er’s kick, he didn’t retreat. Instead Jian Chen rapidly approached Qiu Er’s body, he placed his arm on Qiu Er’s still outstretched thigh while the other hand went to the other thigh. With a low growl, Jian Chen released all of the Saint Force he had stored in his body into his waist and surprisingly lifted the over a hundred pound Qiu Er above his tiny body.
Raising Qiu Er’s body, Jian Chen didn’t bother giving him time to retaliate, both his legs began to move across the ground as Jian Chen threw the heavy body of Qiu Er forward.
Qiu Er’s body flew over 5 meters before slamming into a table meant for cutting vegetables. Coincidentally, underneath his falling body was a stack of iron skewers, falling down onto that would make him resemble a bizarre human porcupine.
Qiu Er fell on top of the skewers, and at least an inch of skin had been pierced through by them. Immediately, Qiu Er screamed in pain as the skin of his body was distorted and the pain in his nose was still piercing through his mind.
Every servant in the kitchen suddenly came to a standstill from the unbelievable event they had just watched. A single 7 year old not only fought back against a heavyweight person like Qiu Er, but he even defeated that person, who had reached the 3rd layer of Saint Force. If news of this got out, no one in the Changyang clan would be able to believe it.
Jian Chen looked at Qiu Er’s suffering with cold eyes while making a mocking face at him. He didn’t say anything, and decided to leave the kitchen instead, without taking even a single steamed bun with him.
After exiting the kitchens, Jian Chen slowly exhaled. He didn’t think that even the servants in the kitchens would begin to mock the fourth master.
Throwing away the depression from his heart, Jian Chen began to stroll around the Changyang Mansion once more. With the mansion being so vast, Jian Chen had never once seen the entirety of it. Even the scenery around the place was nice to look at, as gardens surrounded every inch of the outside yards. There were many lakes as well as flower gardens that had very rare specimens that could not be seen anywhere else and they carried a sweet fragrance.
As the fourth master of the Changyang clan, Jian Chen was free to wander wherever he wanted. As he wandered to and fro, he would come across important roadways and buildings that had many experts concealed everywhere. When he saw those experts however, he had decided to think no more about it; after all, he knew that the Changyang clan is one of the four great clans of Lore City. Lore City was was a First Class City, so the title of being a big clan was a prestigious one.
As he walked, he had unconsciously came to the middle of a calm flower garden. Jian Chen had not noticed that his third brother Changyang Ke had been carrying a wooden axe as he trained within the same flower garden. However, in the eyes of a battle hardened Jian Chen, it looked as if Changyang Ke was just recklessly swinging the axe around with no particular style in mind at all.
Although Jian Chen had studied the way of the sword in the past world, he had studied many different axe wielding experts and how they fought. So even Jian Chen was familiar with how one should use an axe, but the way Changyang Ke was handling it, Jian Chen was speechless. How could this be considered training?
Just as Jian Chen was about to turn around to leave, Changyang Ke noticed him out of the corner of his eye. Slowly ceasing his movements, Changyang Ke’s face started to show signs of ill intent as he smiled.
“Fourth brother, come on over, your third brother has some candy for you to eat.” Changyang Ke cried out to Jian Chen.
Hearing Changyang Ke’s words, Jian Chen nearly tripped down onto the ground in disbelief. Secretly thinking to himself, he thought, “Even a 7 year old wouldn’t fall for such a line.” However, Jian had forgot to account for that aside from the experiences of his past world, he was still no better than a 7 year old child.
But he paid no mind to the words of Changyang Ke and continued to keep on walking without even turning his head back.
Seeing that Jian Chen was getting farther and farther away, Changyang Ke began to get angry. Throwing the wooden axe in his hands to the ground, he dashed towards Jian Chen and eventually caught up to him.
“Fourth brother, did you not hear me just now?” Changyang Ke blocked Jian Chen’s path like a cork in a bottle, his face red with anger as he stared at Jian Chen.
“Is something wrong?” Jian Chen looked at Changyang Ke with a calm gaze while implying a hint of coldness in his question. Jian Chen did not harbor any good sentiments towards his third brother. In the past two years, Changyang Ke would always look for some way to bully Jian Chen, and ever since the news of Jian Chen being a cripple, his actions became much more severe. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jian Chen rarely went outside, the amount of times Changyang Ke bullied Jian Chen would have been increased tenfold. However, every time he had tried to bully Jian Chen, it would always result in failure and sometimes Jian Chen would also find a way to bully him back. This had created a sense of resentment within Changyang Ke’s heart which made him seek revenge even more.
“Fourth brother, come accompany your third brother in practicing some martial arts.” While talking, Changyang Ke had already started dragging Jian Chen towards the place where he practiced and did not give Jian Chen a chance to respond. Changyang Ke was actually very excited at the moment, for although he was not a match for Jian Chen when comparing their intelligence, he did not think he would be weaker than Jian Chen in terms of strength. After all, his fourth brother was a cripple in terms of martial cultivation and could not even cultivate any Saint Force, in Changyang Ke’s mind, this was the perfect opportunity to exact his revenge.
Not long after Jian Chen had been forcefully dragged by Changyang Ke to where he was practicing his martial arts, Changyang Ke picked up the wooden axe he had thrown to the side earlier and then said to Jian Chen, “Third Brother, are you ready? I am going to start attacking now.”
Seeing Changyang Ke’s gentle smile, Jian Chen let a hint of playfulness appear within his eyes. Holding both of his palms in a clueless manner, he asked, “Third Brother, you have a weapon in your hands, don’t tell me you want me to fight against you barehanded?”
Hearing his brother talk, Changyang Ke looked distracted for a second. Looking at the wooden axe in his own hands, he hesitated only for a second before tossing it towards Jian Chen, as he said, “Then I shall give you the axe fourth brother, and I will be the one that will fight bare handed.” Although the axe was wooden, it was still 10 pounds. Even for a 10 year old child, swinging this around would prove to be difficult. Changyang Ke had thought of this and threw it towards Jian Chen for this reason. He wanted to make Jian Chen humiliate himself while he would look like the gracious one.
Jian Chen took the wooden axe in front of him and started to inspect it. The axe was very crudely made, only the shape of the axe was there, while the blade of it was almost non existent. Even if he were to try to chop at a person, it would not cause significant harm. At the very most, the axe would only leave behind a sore bruise.
Seeing Jian Chen hold up the 10 pound axe with ease, Changyang Ke’s eyes revealed a trace of shock. He had not been expecting this change of events.
Jian Chen looked at Changyang Ke and gave a faint laugh, “Third brother, perhaps you should use this axe instead.” Right as he spoke, he tossed the axe back at Changyang Ke.
Catching the axe he had only just thrown at Jian Chen, Changyang Ke began to feel suspicious, “Fourth brother, could it be you still wanted to fight me bare handed?”
Jian Chen began to laugh as he shook his head. Grabbing a nearby tree, he snapped off a branch one meter long. Shaving away the little twigs and leaves, Jian Chen was left with only a single branch.
“This will be my weapon!” Raising the branch, Jian Chen laughed gently.
Changyang Ke looked at the tiny stick that could be quickly turned into chopsticks in Jian Chen’s hand and laughed. He was no longer angry as the day that he would be able to beat Jian Chen with ease seemed to be getting closer and closer. The dream of being able to bully Jian Chen without taking any losses had finally come for Changyang Ke. This would make him extremely happy.
Changyang Ke clasped onto the axe firmly, “Then fourth brother, you’d best be careful. Your third brother will begin to attack!” Right after saying it, Changyang Ke immediately stormed towards Jian Chen with the axe held in both his hands before trying to bring it down onto Jian Chen.
This axe wasn’t able to inflict a fatal wound, so Changyang Ke didn’t bother to hold back and swung with all his might.
Jian Chen’s legs crossed forward each other as he dodged the axe. Swinging his tree branch with frightening speed, the branch had suddenly became more frightening in power. Even Jian Chen’s demeanor had changed abruptly, as he pressed forward, the normally safe branch became a deadly sword in his hands.
Jian Chen was swinging the sword with unbelievable speed, leaving Changyang Ke with almost no room to counter when at last, the tree branch had already placed itself on Changyang Ke’s throat.
“Third brother, you’ve lost!” With a playful banter, he returned the axe that Changyang Ke had dropped shortly in the middle of the match.
Changyang Ke could only stare at the tree branch at his neck with disbelief flashing across his eyes. He had not seen the tree branch move at all, by the time his eyes had saw a sign of movement, the match had already finished.
Still in shock, Changyang Ke shook his head. Grabbing the tree branch at his throat, he snapped it in two and cried out in disbelief, “That didn’t count. It definitely didn’t count! Fourth brother, you weren’t fighting fair at all.”
Jian Chen laughed as he looked at the red faced Changyang Ke. “Third brother, you don’t even know if I was fighting fair or not.” He said in a strange voice.
“That…that is…” Changyang Ke scratched at his cheek and stammered as he tried to think of an excuse. In the end, he still couldn’t accept the result and said, “Either way, that match just now didn’t count. Let’s fight one more time!”
Jian Chen gathered the pieces of the tree branch that Changyang Ke had snapped with a laugh, “Okay, let us fight one more time then.” Without further ado, he walked 5 meters away from Changyang Ke.