"Shut up! I told you that I bought the chicken meat here and it caused me to feel drowsy! In fact, I even fell asleep in class yesterday and was reprimanded by my teacher! You must have doused it with sleeping herbs for the seasoning you damned old woman!" yelled a young man with short black hair. He bears an arrogant and haughty look to him.

In fact, a single look at his face and one would feel the desire to quickly beat him up!

What is up what that smugness?

"Do you know how shameful that is for me, Feng Li?! Now compensate me a hundred coppers and I will let this matter go!" he shouted again at Grandma Ying, the old woman who owned the grocery store, before his lips curled into a sneer.

"Otherwise..."

Just as he was still trying to finish his villainous lines, a loud 'pa!' sound could be heard. He was slapped by grandma Ying which caused him to immediately stumble backwards two steps, his expression looking stupefied!

She slapped me?

"You ruffian! How is that my fault? Are you dumb?!" shouted Grandma Ying back towards the startled young man, her voice unyielding.

This Grandma Ying was already in her late 70's and was known to have quite the temper as well. "That young man had picked the wrong person to vent his frustrations on..." thought Duan Li as he shook his head, sighing.

"Y-You! How dare you slap me?!" exclaimed the young man with a livid expression after recovering from his shock. "Are you blind old woman?! I am a student from the Jixue Knights Academy!" He shouted out loud, his right index finger pointing at the academy emblem on his right shoulder. The emblem had one sword and one saber crossing at one another, with a shield on the background.

The Jixue Knights Academy!

Who wouldn't know of such a prominent academy in the capital that had nurtured countless knights for the empire before?

The students there were all elites!

"Hah! Even if I'm deaf, I would still have slapped you the same with that ugly face of yours! Now get out of here!!" replied Grandma Ying angrily, tempted to slap the impudent young man before her again.

Seeing the old woman not backing down despite him revealing his identity, even looking at him in disgust, the arrogant Feng Li could not hold himself back anymore as he was embarrassed!

"Damned old woman!!" He stepped forward with his right hand raised.

"Stop!" someone shouted.

This voice was so loud that it startled the young man which immediately halted his hand mid-air just as he was about to hit the old woman in front of him.

Feng Li turned his head around to look at the person who dared to shout at him.

"Who the hell are you?! Don't try to meddle in my business you filthy peasant!" he harrumphed with a haughty look after he observed Duan Li's clothing. In his eyes, Duan Li was nothing but a simple peasant.

"Well... about that… I actually have some business with Grandma Ying over there..." Duan Li replied slowly while giving a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head and then continued, "So, if you hurt her, that would be quite difficult for me then..."

Hearing this, the haughty young man laughed out loud as if he had just heard an interesting joke.

Ptui!

Spitting on the ground near Duan Li's feet, he then replied, "Hah! Then let me teach you a lesson first as an example to everyone here on what happens to those who oppose me! Feng Li"

Woonggg!

A sword suddenly materialized in his right hand!

"woah!" the crowd gathering around them gasped in awe.

At first, Duan Li was also quite surprised to see a sword had come out of thin air. But, as he looked closer, he found out that in all honesty, the sword seemed to be of the common grade that he frequently saw on the rack of a shabby weapon store near them. They were even sold for quite cheap!

He knew this because the rack was always pushed to the window every morning not to promote it, but to block the sunlight!

Isn't this Feng Li guy quite poor for an elite of the academy? Is he actually a scammer?

Noticing Duan Li's strange and demeaning look towards his sword and the lack of reaction the other party had, the face of the contemptuous Feng Li flushed red before yelling out angrily, "What are you looking at?! Do you want to die?!"

"Oh? No... No of course!" Duan Li shook his head and then smiled widely, trying his best to look accommodating.

Cupping his chin with his eyes closed, he tried to cook up a good compliment so that the anger of the other party would soothe.

"That is a great quality sword you have there!" Duan Li finally decided that this compliment should be good enough and nodded, satisfied with himself. He was too lazy to properly give the matter some further consideration.

'Pu!' Feng Li choked on himself.

Great quality sword?

He himself knew that his sword was quite common that could be found anywhere. He only took it out randomly as he just wanted to scare Duan Li. He felt embarrassed and regretful. Had he known this earlier, he would have taken out a slightly better weapon to properly show off his wealth and status!

Feeling humiliated in front of everyone, his anger soon overwhelmed his mind!

"Y-You good for nothing peasant! How dare you humiliate me like this!" he barked out as he stepped forward towards Duan Li, brandishing his sword.

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"No! Stop!" Grandma Ying screamed in a terrified voice when she saw that the situation had started to spiral out of control.

If Duan Li were to become hurt because of her rashness, she would not be able to face his mother, Meng Yue!

"I'll chop off your arms so that you will remain disabled forever! HAHA!" Feng Li laughed in madness as he swung his sword. To him, a mere peasant losing an arm or two wouldn't really cause any issue.

That's what you deserve for humiliating an elite like me!

Due to the suddenness of this situation, Duan Li was not able to react properly at all. By the time the sword was swung halfway towards him, it already seemed to be too late for him to dodge!

Ring!

However, right at this moment, he could hear a weird ringing sound in his eardrums before the momentum of the sword began to slow down considerably until it only moved at a snail's pace!

Duan Li was shocked due to this bizarre scene that he was witnessing!

Taking advantage of this chance, knowing that there were no time for hesitation, Duan Li performed a single side step to the right as he dodged the incoming strike gracefully.

Swoosh!

"Woah! He dodged!" the crowd gasped in astonishment.

On the other hand, Feng Li was startled.

"What?!"

He just couldn't believe his eyes! In one instant before, he was sure that his sword would definitely amputate the darned peasant's left arm and could already imagine the next scene of a high pitched scream of pain with some bloody spray to the public. Yet in another instant, the latter suddenly moved with a speed so fast that his eyes couldn't follow! After that, his strike was dodged as if effortlessly!

"I... managed to dodge?" thought Duan Li in a daze as he realized that time had returned back to normal again.

The arrogant Feng Li was naturally unable to endure this and was convinced that it was nothing more than a fluke and the peasant had just gotten lucky!

Thus, gritting his teeth, he swung his sword again. But this time, he aimed for the knee!

Although Duan Li was now alert and could deduce that the other party was trying to chop off his leg this time, it was unfortunate that his reaction speed was still too slow that the sword had already reached halfway to his knees!

"Damn it! I'm not a martial arts practitioner to be able to avoid this! I'm doomed!" thought Duan Li as he panicked. It was then, that the ringing sound reappeared again in his eardrums as time began to slow down once more!

Ring!

"W-What? Again?" he was entirely stumped by this bizarre phenomena! The ringing sound was quite peculiar, similar to when one had reached a certain depth when swimming because of the pressure.

Thus, taking this chance once more, Duan Li lifted his right leg up from harm's way. But this time, he decided to retaliate a bit!

After raising his right leg, he immediately stomped downwards on the body of the sword that was passing slowly beneath him, pressing it firmly to the ground with his weight. After his counter-attack was completed, time began to flow normally again.

However when the time flow returned to normal, due to the sudden change in momentum, Feng Li's right elbow, which was the arm that he used to hold the sword, snapped and was twisted in a horrendous way accompanied with a loud 'crack!' sound.

"Eh?"

Duan Li hadn't expected this outcome at all!

He had only meant to stop the impudent young man from continuously attacking him by subduing the sword, but instead, his action got the latter's right arm broken into a cripple!

"ARGHHH!" Feng Li shouted agonizingly. "My arm! My arm!" he screamed out loud with a horrified look as tears started to churn out from both of his eyes.

Hissssss!

The crowd that was witnessing this fight could not help but to suck in cold breath from the sudden reversal! At first they thought that it was over for Duan Li. Yet, at the next moment, Duan Li had crippled that arrogant young man's arm instead!

The hairs on their back stood straight as they shivered! Then, they began to break into a commotion as they whispered towards each other.

...

"T-That Duan Li... he actually practices some kind of martial arts?" the crowd thought simultaneously. From what they knew, Duan Li was just someone who liked to be left alone, to sleep and eat comfortably, living the dream life of a fool.

But now, they had witnessed a new side to him that the village folks previously didn't know about! This caused some of them to start looking at Duan Li in a new light. In addition, some of them even had that look of awe and reverence towards him!

"Hais! I never knew! Who would have thought that all these while, Duan Li had actually practiced some martial arts to this terrifying degree?" said a villager as he swallowed his saliva.

"Me too! But it all makes sense now! The reason why he had always liked to be alone was because he was practicing such martial arts! Perhaps he had long tread the path of a martial artists before we even knew about it..." said another, shaking his head slowly in disbelief.

Similar thoughts and conversation sprang up among the masses that watched this commotion.

Meanwhile, Duan Li was just standing still looking unfazed with the sword still lodged firmly to the ground beneath his right foot. The crowd was totally awed by this calm composure of his!

In reality however, Duan Li had not a sliver of clue as to what was happening at all!

All he did was just waiting to be chopped up before time suddenly slowed down somehow and he moved to dodge accordingly. Then, what was up with these crowds and their reaction?

...

"Bastard! BASTARD!!" Feng Li howled in indignant as he glared at Duan Li with murderous intentions. "I will remember this! This is NOT over!!" he retreated backwards slowly while tucking his broken right arm, looking wary towards Duan Li in case the other party decided to attack him. After he retreated into a safe distance, he quickly turned his back and ran away.

"Not good!" said one of the villager, seemingly recalling something important as he slapped his forehead.

"What is it?" asked one of the crowd towards that man.

"That young man is a student of the Jixue Knights Academy! A simple scuffle would be of no issue normally... but now that one of their student has returned with a broken arm... the Academy is bound to take action for this!" replied the man as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

A sense of foreboding came into the rest of the crowd as they too began to realize this. In fact, this was not the first time that students from the Jixue Knights Academy were causing them troubles.

If not for the fact that they do not want to dishonor the name of the academy, as it had trained numerous people to become proper knights and serve the empire, they would have long rallied together to pummel these troublemakers themselves!

"Then... what are we going to do? Today's matter is not as simple as before! You guys too have seen how overboard that haughty young man from the Jixue Knights Academy was right?" said a man from the crowd, evidently feeling extremely displeased from the increasing brazenness of these troublemakers.

"Hais! The only thing we can do right now is to help report this matter to the village head, and pray that the village head will have some ways to settle this dispute in order to not escalate the matter any further!" replied an elderly man.

The crowd nodded to the elder's suggestion as they quickly walked off together, heading into the direction of the residence of the village head.

...

"Duan Li my boy! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Grandma Ying asked continuously with a worried expression. "I'm sorry… if only I hadn't slapped that haughty young man from before... things wouldn't have turned into this..." her voice grew weak as she continued, "Now that I have troubled you, oh no... What am I going to do... how am I going to answer this to Meng Yue!"

Hearing the concerned voice of Grandma Ying, Duan Li's heart grew warm as he put up a smile and hugged her. He then patted her backs gently to calm her down.

"It's going to be fine, I will naturally be able to handle this somehow! " Duan Li said confidently.

"Are you sure you are going to be fine? If those bastards were to find trouble with you again after this, this old grandmother will cause a ruckus at their academy for nurturing such degenerates!!" she exclaimed while clenching her teeth, but tears could be seen welling up at the side of her eyes, threatening to fall at any moment right now.

She was truly worried.

Duan Li shook his head and smiled again. He knew that Grandma Ying has always been protective of him ever since he was young. Somehow, he felt that Grandma Ying was like a true grandmother to him because of this.

After he managed to persuade her, he bought the things his mother asked of him before and immediately returned home after, his heart began to race in panic.

...