BANG!
An explosive noise rang out, causing everyone to become completely dumbfounded. No one had noticed how, but at some point, Jian Ren had appeared right in front of Li Hao just like a demon. This was due to his Wind chasing Steps. This technique increased his speed to the max, especially in close range, and the explosiveness was something that was impossible to guard against.
Li Hao's two claws hit nothing while Jian Ren's leg viciously kicked out and hit him between the legs with such a ferocious force that his whole body was lifted into mid-air.
After the explosive noise passed, a little ball flew out of Li Hao's trousers and was flung towards the crowd.
Wang Mang was still imagining Li Hao tormenting Jian Ren and making Jian Ren suffer a life worse than death. But the current situation completely shattered this delusion of his, and his jaw dropped, dumbstricken.
He was completely oblivious to a small, grape-sized thing that was now flying towards his mouth. By the time he noticed it, the thing had already entered into his open mouth.
Before he could even react, that slippery thing passed through his throat into his stomach, bringing with it a grotesque, foul smell.
"AHH!"
Only now did Wang Mang react and desperately began using a finger to dig at his throat, causing him to vomit. After a while, a small ball was vomited out.
When Zhou Yaoyang and the rest of the people beside him saw that ball, they also started retching, swiftly scattering away from it.
"AHH!!!"
On the martial arena, Li Hao was tenaciously holding onto his crotch, his face twitching and contorting. If he hadn't set up his spiritual qi to protect himself, he would have long since lost consciousness from the pain.
For a moment, the whole audience was completely silent. Everyone's eyes roved from Li Hao on the stage to the distant round thing on the ground, and their expressions became extremely odd.
"This is good for you. Now you'll be able to walk without slanting and tripping," Jian Ren said, nodding his head.
"You…!"
Li Hao's furiously glared at him, wanting to tear him apart. His last family jewel was stripped off him, and now that it had entered Wang Mang's stomach, it had already been corroded to the point that even if he collected it, he wouldn't be able to use it.
One was taken away by a wild dog while one was no longer usable; Li Hao was now destined to become a sterile person incapable of reproducing.
"You fucker, go die! Stone Crushing Fist!"
Li Hao crazily roared, forcefully circulating his spiritual qi to restrain the pain coming from his lower body. His fist shot towards Jian Ren, the wind whistling as it passed.
The full power of his third Heavenstage of Body Refinement cultivation base exploded out. By now, he had already descended into madness and completely forgotten about Zhou Yaoyang's instructions. The only thing on his mind was to completely destroy Jian Ren.
Seeing Li Hao became completely berserk, a cold killing intent appeared within Jian Ren's eyes. He roared, the sound like violent thunder capable of shocking the sky, blasted the surrounding people's ears.
An incorporeal aura engulfed Jian Ren. Not taking any actions to avoid it, he also attacked with a fist.
"Spirit of the Bull!"
BOOM!!!
An explosion was followed by the sound of bones breaking. Li Hao let out a miserable scream, his blood flying everywhere. People were shocked and horrified to see that one of Li Hao's arms had been completely crushed.
Jian Ren was still resting in his punching position. His eyes were icy cold and completely apathetic. A terrifying killing intent spilled out from him, shaking people's souls.
The current Jian Ren seemed like a cold-blooded death god. His whole body brimming with an icy cold killing intent that caused everyone to tremble in fear.
The whole crowd was deathly still. The amount of power that he had released just now was something that even Zhou Yaoyang at the seventh Heavenstage of Body Refinement felt somewhat afraid of.
"How is this possible?! He can use Battle Skills?"
"Isn't it impossible for him to cultivate? What the hell is happening?"
"His expression is absolutely terrifying!"
People were unable to hold back their shock, and as for the ones who had previously ridiculed and sneered at Jian Ren, they were all completely filled with dread. Seeing Li Hao lying on the martial arena, it was like they were seeing images of themselves. They couldn't help but to tremble, their spirits shivering.
Even Jian Ren himself was somewhat shocked. It appeared that even he had underestimated the Broken Heaven Scripture; otherwise, if it was a normal person using a low-grade Battle Skill, it would not be able to release such a terrifying strength.
Slowly walking over towards Li Hao, each of Jian Ren's steps rang out loud and clear. The sound of it was like the overture of a murderer, each step pressing down on the people's hearts.
Step… step… step…
By now, Li Hao's previous expression of anger had vanished, replaced with complete terror. Shaking and quivering, he stuttered, "Don't… don't come over!"
Li Hao wanted to run away, but the completely terrified him only noticed now that his body couldn't exert even the slightest strength. To him, Jian Ren who was slowly but gradually walking closer to him was like a nightmare which he couldn't run away from.
"Don't… don't kill me! It was because of Zhou Yaoyang's instructions!" Li Hao sobbingly begged.
Below the stage, Zhou Yaoyang's expression changed, and he angrily shouted, "Li Hao, what nonsense are you saying?"
"I'm not saying nonsense. You told us to handle Jian Ren and that afterward, you'd give us some benefits! All of this is because of you!" Li Hao pointed towards Zhou Yaoyang as he hysterically rambled. In the face of death, he had already forgotten everything.
"Li Hao, you're asking for death!" Zhou Yaoyang's face turned ashen, and his two eyes were filled with killing intent.
"Zhou Yaoyang, you bastard! You used me for your advantage! Jian Ren, I'll tell you. Zhou Yaoyang is nothing more than a henchman dog, in reality"
Jian Ren suddenly felt a chill in the air ordaining an attack; sensing the air of death, he quickly retreated without even thinking about it.
However, even after Jian Ren had retreated, it didn't appear like anything had happened. But when Jian Ren once again looked at Li Hao, he saw that Li Hao's eyes had already lost focus, and he had already taken his last breath.
Jian Ren's expression changed slightly; turning to look at the crowd, all he managed to see was a figure wearing a conical bamboo hat who was quickly fleeing the scene. With just a few strides, he had already disappeared from the crowd.
The unexpected events caused an uproar amongst the crowd. Obviously, that mysterious figure had killed Li Hao!
"Jian Ren wins!"
After a brief spell of confusion, the martial arena's overseer still ended up announcing this final outcome.
Although Li Hao wasn't killed by Jian Ren, Jian Ren had already defeated him. If he had wanted to kill Li Hao, it would have been as easy as turning his hand, so in the end, they still announced that it was Jian Ren's victory.
Following Jian Ren's victory, countless people sighed in regret. With this outcome, they had no way to take back their bets.
As for the tens of people who had bet on Jian Ren, they all crazily shouted in joy. Fatty Yu and the others shouted out especially loudly.
Lying on the martial arena, Li Hao would never again be paid any attention to. The martial arena's organizers would send a message to his family, and they would come to pick up his dead body.
The life and death battles were all protected by the imperial capital. No one was allowed to secretly take revenge. Li Hao was only a low-born noble whose status was not especially high. If he died, then he died; there would not be any waves following his death. This was one of the unbreakable rules of the imperial capital.
Jian Ren walked off the stage, receiving a heroic welcome from fatty Yu and the others. Shi Feng tightly hugged him.
"You brat, when did you become so strong? And you didn't even tell anyone about it! My heart almost leaped out watching you," grumbled Shi Feng.
"Brother Jian Ren - no wait, elder brother Jian, in the future, we'll all be muddling along with you; you have to cover for us," said fatty Yu and the others with bright eyes.
Jian Ren laughed, "Of course. Come on, let's go to the betting place."
In front of countless admiring stares and everyone's cheers, Jian Ren received no less than three million gold coins.
At the moment when the crystal card with three million gold coins landed in his hand, Jian Ren was actually even more excited than when he had been beating Li Hao.
He had known that Li Hao was nothing more than a little dog. But the words that he had said right before he had died caused Jian Ren to become even more cautious than before.
Originally, he had thought that all the bullying had been because of enmities with his parents' generation, but that didn't match with what Li Hao had said. It seemed that it was not such a simple affair as he had thought; most likely, he was just a single pawn.
He was just a trashy teen, and his family was completely impoverished now. There was no need for someone to actively plot against him in such a deliberate and methodical manner. The clear reason would be due to someone clashing with his father who was stuck guarding the barbarian border.
"It seems like it's very complicated…"
But staring at the three million gold coins in his hand, Jian Ren was filled with endless confidence. Was that the confidence that came with being rich?
Leaving with the huge crowd, Jian Ren found a teahouse and invited his friends to eat whatever they wanted and returned them their money.
However, the money that had been earned was kept with him. Jian Ren gave his friends a promise that caused them to be endlessly excited:
Everyone's future cultivation would all be taken care of by him.
This caused fatty Yu and the others to go mad with joy. They were all completely incapable of cultivating, and if someone else promised this to them, then they wouldn't believe it.
However, Jian Ren was originally the same as them. Now that he had managed to dispatch Li Hao in such a quick way, how could they not believe him?
Hearing Jian Ren promise this, everyone was overjoyed. However, Jian Ren told them to keep this secret, and they all frantically nodded.
Their future cultivation was something that was basically just as important as their life and adding on to how solemn Jian Ren's words were, they would not dare to treat it unimportantly.
After fatty Yu and the others left, Jian Ren stayed behind to chat a bit with Shi Feng. Shi Feng was a genius whose aptitude was the greatest amongst all the noble heirs. He was already at the eighth Heavenstage of Body Refinement and could enter into the ninth Heavenstage at any time. Entering the Qi Condensation stage before twenty should not be that difficult for him.
Through how Shi Feng had acted during these last two matters, Jian Ren knew that he was definitely a person deserving his trust. After asking about Shi Feng's current stage of cultivation, Jian Ren split up with him and decided to go to the Alchemist Guild.