Chapter 329: Want a Tyrant?
"Do you hear him?!" Fairy Xue sobbed angrily, glaring at Ji’an. "He is so broken by the darkness that he accepts your abuse! Unhand him right now, you red-robed tyrant! Surrender your Sovereign Tokens and step away from Senior Brother Shen, or the Azure Crane Sisterhood will strike you down where you stand!"
Twenty rapiers were drawn in unison, the sound of ringing steel echoing in the ravine.
Ji’an stood on the ridge, looking down at the twenty furious, beautiful, righteous maidens.
She looked at Shen Zechuan, who was standing there holding her wok, looking like a martyred saint, secretly laughing at her predicament.
Ji’an’s patience, already depleted by the lack of caffeine and the failure of her party-sync, snapped completely.
’You want a tyrant?’ Ji’an’s inner goblin roared, a dark, arrogant, absolutely unhinged smile spreading across her face. ’You want a villain? Fine. I am tired of playing defense. I will give you the most toxic, arrogant young-master performance this server has ever seen!’
Ji’an didn’t back down.
She didn’t explain that she was trying to interrogate him.
She leaned into the role of the irredeemable scum villain.
Ji’an took a slow, deliberate step forward, planting her red leather boots firmly on the edge of the ridge.
She raised her cast-iron spatula, resting it casually over her shoulder.
She tilted her chin up, looking down her nose at the gathered maidens with an expression of absolute disdain.
"Bullying?" Ji’an drawled, her voice rolling across the ravine like thunder.
She let out a loud, harsh, incredibly arrogant laugh.
"Maidens of the Azure Crane, you possess eyes, yet you fail to see Mount Tai! I am not bullying the Senior Apprentice. I am simply utilizing the resources the Sect Leader so graciously provided for me."
Ji’an snapped her fingers, pointing directly at the ground beside her boots.
"Shen Zechuan," Ji’an barked, her voice dripping with tyrannical authority. "My feet are tired from walking down this slight incline. Put the wok down and serve as my footstool."
A horrified shriek erupted from the maidens.
"You monster!" Fairy Xue cried out, tears in her eyes. "Senior Brother Shen, do not listen to him! Draw your sword! Defend your honor!"
Shen Zechuan looked at the furious maidens.
He looked at Ji’an’s incredibly smug, villainous smirk.
The abyssal prodigy didn’t hesitate.
He gently set the four-hundred-pound wok down on the moss.
He walked over to Ji’an, gracefully knelt in the mud, and knelt on one knee, offering his thigh as a resting place for her boot.
The psychological devastation inflicted upon the Azure Crane Sisterhood was absolute.
Their Tragic Prince had completely submitted to the Iron Wok Demon!
"You see, ladies?" Ji’an sneered, resting the heel of her red boot lightly against Zechuan’s pristine white thigh, projecting the ultimate, toxic aura of a corrupted noble. "He obeys because he recognizes true, undisputed supremacy. I can make him carry my pots. I can make him clean my boots. And there is absolutely nothing you, or your fragile little rapiers, can do to stop me."
She pointed her spatula directly at Fairy Xue.
"Now," Ji’an commanded, her silver-flecked eyes flashing with dangerous, predatory light. "You have exactly five seconds to drop your Sovereign Tokens into the mud and sprint out of this ravine, before I decide that my pack-mule needs a new coat made of blue water-silk."
The overwhelming pressure of her arrogant, villainous performance completely broke the morale of the Azure Crane Sisterhood.
They weren’t fighting a noble rival.
They were facing an unhinged and psychopathic tyrant who had completely broken the mind of the Sect’s greatest prodigy.
"R-Retreat!" Fairy Xue stammered, her hands trembling so violently she dropped her rapier into the mud. She unhooked the leather pouch containing her team’s gathered Sovereign Tokens, tossing it frantically onto the ground. "Leave the tokens! Flee! The Demon cannot be reasoned with!"
The twenty maidens broke rank.
They turned and sprinted wildly into the dense fog, scrambling over rocks and vines, fleeing the ravine as if the hounds of hell were snapping at their heels, weeping over the tragic fate of their beloved Senior Apprentice.
Within thirty seconds, the ravine was entirely silent again, save for the distant sound of panicked footsteps.
.
.
.
Ji’an stood on the ridge, her foot still resting on Shen Zechuan’s knee.
The theatrical, arrogant smirk slowly melted off her face, replaced by an expression of exhausted, teeth-grinding frustration.
She pulled her boot off his leg and kicked a nearby rock, sending it careening into the fog.
"Why?!" Ji’an exploded, turning to glare down at the kneeling abyssal prodigy. She threw her arms up in the air, completely abandoning her villain persona. "Why didn’t you stop me?! Why didn’t you get mad?! I literally used you as furniture in front of your entire fan club! Any normal cultivator would have absorbed my soul by now! What is your problem?!"
Shen Zechuan slowly stood up, brushing the mud off his knee with elegant, unbothered grace.
He looked at her flushed, furious, deeply frustrated face.
The hollow, serene, melancholic mask vanished.
The dark, bottomless voids of his eyes shifted.
They sparked with a familiar light.
It was a look of deeply hidden, yet sharp older-sibling amusement.
"You have always possessed a flair for the dramatic, Ji’an," Zechuan murmured.
The voice was no longer the hollow baritone of the Senior Apprentice.
For a fraction of a second, the cadence, the tone, and the heavy, resonating rumble shifted, sounding exactly, unmistakably like Lin Feng.
Ji’an froze.
The blood drained from her face.
"What did you just say?" Ji’an whispered, her heart hammering against her ribs, her grip on her spatula tightening until her knuckles ached. "Who are you?"
Shen Zechuan didn’t answer.
He smiled, a warm, knowing, protective smile that belonged exclusively to the Vanguard Commander of the Azure Empire.
But before Ji’an could grab his collar and demand an explanation, the ravine’s ambient temperature plummeted around them.
With the sudden, suffocating chill of an apex predator’s killing intent.
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