After returning from Qingfeng Valley to the Servants’ Peak, Yang Ye arrived at the dining hall. The moment he stepped inside, he noticed that half of the people in the hall were staring at him. Some of the servant disciples greeted him with friendly smiles, while others looked at him with expressions of schadenfreude.
Yang Ye nodded back at those with friendly smiles and was about to get some food when a cold voice suddenly called out from behind him.
“Yang Ye, stop right there!”
Yang Ye's brows furrowed upon hearing the voice; he recognized it all too well. It was Manager Xu. Trouble had come for him again.
Yang Ye turned around to face Manager Xu, a man in his forties with a fat, fleshy face and a body so large that from a distance, his eyes were barely visible. Despite wearing an oversized servant’s robe, the fabric was stretched taut around his massive figure, the fat around his shoulders and back bulging out with a reddish hue.
Within the Sword Sect, Manager Xu was known by the nickname “Xu the Flayer,” because anyone who crossed him would be sure to suffer severe consequences, often leaving them feeling as if they had been skinned alive.
Standing next to Manager Xu were Du Xiu and his two companions, sneering at Yang Ye. Seeing this group, many of the servant disciples in the dining hall showed a mix of deep fear and resentment. These four often exploited them and made life miserable, but no one dared to stand up against them.
“I told you, didn’t I? Yang Ye hit Du Xiu, and Xu the Flayer isn’t going to let that slide. Yang Ye is finished now…”
“Yeah, there was someone who stood up to Xu the Flayer once, and he got beaten to death by these four right on the spot. Why couldn’t Yang Ye just have endured it back then? Young people and their impulsiveness—it’ll be the death of him…”
“Shh, stop talking! If Xu the Flayer hears you, you’ll be in for a whipping too.”
Manager Xu and his three followers made their way toward Yang Ye. When they reached him, a whip had somehow appeared in Manager Xu’s hand. With a sinister grin, he looked at Yang Ye, who remained calm, and said, “Yang Ye, you need to understand reality. You used to be an outer disciple, but you’re not anymore. Now that you’re on my turf, you follow my rules. You attacked my nephew—how do you think we should settle this?”
“Uncle, why waste time talking to him? Just kill him!” Du Xiu spat out viciously, glaring at Yang Ye. He still couldn’t swallow the humiliation he had suffered.
Yang Ye gave Du Xiu a cold glare, then turned to Manager Xu and said, “Tell me, how do you want to settle this?”
At Yang Ye's words, Manager Xu started to laugh. He pulled out an envelope from his robe, the seal already broken, indicating it had been read. Taking out the letter inside, he chuckled, “Yang Ye, I hear you have a younger sister, still in her teens? She hasn’t married yet, right? How about letting her become my concubine? I love young girls. And then, you can kneel and apologize to Du Xiu…”
Before he could finish, Manager Xu’s voice was abruptly cut off. A huge fist came crashing toward him.
The moment Yang Ye heard Manager Xu insult his sister, his expression twisted with rage. Without hesitation, he threw a punch. His sister and mother were his reverse scale, the boundary no one could cross.
“Bam!”
Manager Xu hadn’t expected Yang Ye to strike so suddenly. Caught off guard, his face slammed into Yang Ye’s fist. With a scream, he fell to the ground, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.
But Yang Ye didn’t stop there. Instead, he lunged forward, snatched the whip from Manager Xu’s hand, and started lashing it down on the man’s fat, quivering body.
“You scum! How dare you think you’re worthy of my sister? I’ll beat you to death…” Yang Ye’s face was twisted with fury as he swung the whip relentlessly.
“Ah! Yang Ye, you’re dead! How dare you hit me! Ah, stop! Please, Yang Ye, I’m begging you, stop! I was wrong…”
Everyone in the dining hall was stunned. They never expected Yang Ye to actually attack Xu the Flayer, an official manager appointed by the Sword Sect. But soon, the shock faded, replaced by excitement. Yang Ye was doing what they had only dreamed of.
Many servant disciples clenched their fists in excitement, their eyes shining with exhilaration.
“Yang Ye, let go of my uncle, or you’re dead!” Du Xiu finally came to his senses. He wanted to rush forward but was too afraid of Yang Ye’s strength, so he could only shout angrily from the side.
Yang Ye ignored Du Xiu and struck harder, the whip landing repeatedly on Manager Xu’s bloated body. Within moments, Manager Xu had been whipped over a hundred times, his body covered in bloody welts, a horrifying sight.
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To Yang Ye, if someone bullied him, he might endure it. But if anyone dared to threaten his family, he would turn into a demon without hesitation. Manager Xu had crossed the line by targeting his sister, and that was something Yang Ye would never forgive.
“Ahh… Ahhh…”
Manager Xu’s screams echoed through the dining hall. Except for Du Xiu and his companions, the other servant disciples grew more excited with every scream, feeling a sense of justice being served. Xu the Flayer had tormented them for years, withholding wages and whipping anyone who displeased him. More than ninety percent of the thousands of servant disciples on Servants’ Peak had suffered under his abuse.
“Stop!”
Suddenly, a stern voice rang out. An elder in a blue and white robe appeared in the dining hall, his voice infused with profound energy, causing everyone’s ears to buzz.
Hearing this, Yang Ye felt a chill run down his spine. He turned and saw the elder, his expression complicated. Taking a deep breath, Yang Ye put down the whip, ignored the barely conscious Manager Xu on the ground, and walked up to the elder. He bowed deeply and said, “Elder Qian!”
This elder was the one who had originally accepted him as an outer disciple in Anyang City. It was this elder who had changed his fate. If not for Elder Qian warning the Liu family back then, his mother and sister might have already fallen into their hands.
Even though Elder Qian had later demoted him to a servant disciple, Yang Ye had never blamed him. On the contrary, he was deeply grateful. One of the reasons he worked so hard was to prove himself to this elder. Back when he couldn’t absorb any profound energy for a whole year, Elder Qian had been mocked by the other outer elders because of him.
He wanted to prove to the Sword Sect that he, Yang Ye, was not useless!
Elder Qian’s eyes also held a complicated expression as he looked at Yang Ye. He knew Yang Ye’s talent better than anyone. However, for some unknown reason, Yang Ye had failed to absorb any profound energy for an entire year and never became a Profound Practitioner. He had no choice but to demote Yang Ye to a servant disciple. Seeing Yang Ye now, Elder Qian felt a complex mix of emotions.
Du Xiu suddenly fell to his knees in front of Elder Qian and pointed at Yang Ye, crying, “Elder Qian, you must give us justice! Yang Ye beat me severely and even forced me to do his chores. My uncle came to talk to him, but he was beaten nearly to death instead. Elder Qian, please give us justice!”
Hearing Du Xiu’s distorted version of events, Yang Ye frowned but remained silent. The surrounding servant disciples, however, were furious, enraged by Du Xiu’s shameless lies.
Elder Qian glanced at the barely breathing Manager Xu on the ground and then looked at Yang Ye. His eyes suddenly widened with surprise. A wave of spiritual sense enveloped Yang Ye, and moments later, Elder Qian’s eyes lit up. “You… you’ve reached the fourth rank of the Profound Practitioner realm?”
Yang Ye nodded. Profound energy surged from his body, and a faint golden glow appeared in his palm. “Elder Qian, I can absorb profound energy now!” As he said this, Yang Ye felt a weight lift from his heart. He had pushed himself to his limits so he wouldn’t disappoint the elder. Though he had failed before, he could now finally tell Elder Qian he had succeeded.
Seeing the golden glow in Yang Ye’s hand, Elder Qian’s eyes widened, as if he had seen something extraordinary. He moved swiftly to Yang Ye, his gaze intense. “Your… your profound energy is golden?” His hands trembled slightly.
Seeing the elder’s serious expression, Yang Ye hesitated before nodding. His profound energy might not be exactly gold-attributed, but it was certainly not inferior to it.
“Haha…”
Seeing Yang Ye nod, Elder Qian suddenly burst into laughter. After laughing for a while, he seemed to realize it was inappropriate, so he suppressed his excitement, patted Yang Ye's shoulder with his right hand, and said, “Good, very good, excellent.” Five-element spiritual energy appears only once among millions, and not only does Yang Ye possess five-element energy, but it’s also the strongest of them all: metal elemental energy. How could he not be excited?
Hearing Elder Qian's words, Du Xiu, standing nearby, suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. But when he looked down at the severely injured Steward Xu on the ground, he took a deep breath, braced himself, and knelt before Elder Qian again, pleading, “Please, Elder Qian, grant us justice!”
Elder Qian frowned and shot a cold glance at Du Xiu, then turned to look at the people around them. He declared, “Tell me everything that happened just now. Don't worry—no one will be able to threaten you with me here. But if anyone dares to hide the truth, don’t blame me for being merciless.”
Upon hearing this, Du Xiu's heart sank, and his face turned deathly pale. He realized that Elder Qian had already decided to side with Yang Ye.
The surrounding servant disciples didn’t dare to hide anything and recounted everything that had happened. Some of them, understanding Elder Qian's favorable attitude towards Yang Ye, even saw this as a chance to take down Steward Xu. As a result, they revealed all of Steward Xu’s past misdeeds, with some even exaggerating their accounts.
Hearing the testimonies, Du Xiu and his two companions turned as pale as ghosts, their bodies trembling with fear. They knew that this time, they were doomed.
Yang Ye calmly walked over to Steward Xu, took the envelope and letter from Xu’s body, and tucked them into his robe.
Once Elder Qian heard everything, his expression grew dark. He glared at the terrified Du Xiu and said coldly, “I never imagined—truly never imagined—that while the outer sect elders and disciples have been busy with cultivation, the Servants’ Peak has become your uncle-nephew duo’s playground. How utterly audacious!”
“Please spare us, Elder, please spare us…” Du Xiu and his companions immediately dropped to their knees, begging for forgiveness. “We won’t dare to do this again, never again…”
At this moment, the three of them deeply regretted ever provoking Yang Ye. If they had known he had become a cultivator, they wouldn’t have dared to confront him even if they had a hundred lives to spare.
Elder Qian snorted coldly and declared, “From now on, Steward Xu is no longer the manager of Servants’ Peak. All four of you are to mine at Star Mine Mountain for ten years. Everything you earn will belong to the sect. After ten years, you’ll be expelled from Sword Sect and will never be allowed to return.” After delivering his judgment, Elder Qian nodded at Yang Ye, then reached out to grab Yang Ye’s shoulder. In a flash, the two of them disappeared from the hall.
Upon hearing Elder Qian’s decision, the servant disciples erupted into cheers, while Du Xiu and his companions fainted on the spot. They knew they were now doomed to serve the Sword Sect like slaves for the next ten years.