“What did you say? You want to spar with me?” Ji Yuan was momentarily stunned.
After a brief pause, Ji Yuan burst into laughter.
“Haha, what a colossal joke. Even when you had your inner strength, you couldn’t defeat me. Now, reduced to a cripple, you still want to spar with me? Where does your confidence come from, Lin Yun?”
Ji Yuan’s piercing laughter echoed through the reception hall.
Master Tu Fan also turned his gaze, his face showing surprise and doubt. He, too, knew that Lin Yun was now a cripple.
Thus, Master Tu Fan was puzzled. How could a crippled Lin Yun dare to speak of sparring? Where did Lin Yun find such confidence and audacity?
Master Tu Fan wondered if Lin Yun was merely seeking a fleeting moment of verbal bravado. If so, wasn’t Lin Yun just inviting trouble?
“Prince Ji Yuan, the source of my confidence is my own business. You only need to answer whether you dare to accept the challenge!” Lin Yun’s tone was resolute.
“Against a cripple like you, why would I hesitate? But I fear being mocked for bullying a weakling. Tell me, how do you propose we spar?” Ji Yuan said with utmost arrogance.
“We each strike one palm, and the outcome is decided in a single move. How about that?” Lin Yun’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Fine! Don’t worry, I’m not one to bully the disabled. I’ll go easy on you!” Ji Yuan said with a smile.
Ji Yuan knew Lin Yun was now a mere cripple. Even without using his full strength, he could easily win!
He couldn’t fathom where Lin Yun found the courage to challenge him, but he didn’t need to overthink it. This was a chance to teach the overconfident Lin Yun a lesson!
“Prince Ji Yuan, if you lose, what then?” Lin Yun looked at Ji Yuan.
“Lose? Haha, me lose to a cripple like you? If I lose, you can say whatever you want. But if you lose, you and your daughter will crawl out of here on the floor!” Ji Yuan declared haughtily.
Master Tu Fan, seated in the hall, did not intervene.
Instead, he watched with keen interest. Though he knew the vast gap between the two—one a powerful Prince Ji Yuan, the other a cripple—he was curious. Where did Lin Yun find the audacity to challenge Ji Yuan? He wanted to see how Lin Yun would end this farce!
“Daddy, please… don’t fight, okay?”
Lin Kexin clung to Lin Yun’s arm, tears welling in her eyes. She knew Lin Yun couldn’t use his inner strength and was worried her father would be injured.
Lin Yun turned, smiling, and patted Lin Kexin’s shoulder. “It’s fine, Kexin. You’ve never seen your dad fight, have you? Today, I’ll show you.”
Lin Kexin, just over twenty, had never seen Lin Yun fight in person, as he had been poisoned for twenty years. She had only heard of his sword practice and legendary tales.
Then, Lin Yun turned back to Ji Yuan. “Prince Ji Yuan, let’s begin.”
“Lin Yun, you brought this on yourself. Don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
Ji Yuan’s eyes sharpened as he raised his palm, striking towards Lin Yun.
Boom!
The palm carried surging inner strength, the air shrieking terribly as it passed.
When the palm reached Lin Yun, he swiftly raised his own, a terrifying force erupting from his hand.
Bang!
Their palms collided fiercely.
A powerful shockwave swept through, shattering vases and teacups in the room with a ‘crash’.
Thud, thud, thud!
Under the terrifying force, Ji Yuan’s smiling face turned pale, and he stumbled back uncontrollably.
Each step crushed the stone floor beneath him.
After five or six steps, Ji Yuan stomped his foot, sinking it into the ground to halt his retreat.
“What?!”
Master Tu Fan, watching from the hall, leapt to his feet, shocked beyond composure.
As a master of the imperial clan’s formations, he rarely lost his composure.
What shocked Tu Fan wasn’t just Lin Yun’s victory!
He noticed that Lin Yun hadn’t emitted any inner strength fluctuations.
In other words, Lin Yun, without using inner strength, had forced Ji Yuan back?
How could this not shock him?
“Daddy won?”
“Wow, Daddy really won!”
Lin Kexin, seeing this, danced with joy. She had been worried, never expecting her father, unable to use inner strength, to triumph.
“This… this… how is this possible!”
Ji Yuan, steadying himself, was utterly stunned.
As he looked at Lin Yun again, his face showed disbelief.
The key wasn’t that Lin Yun had pushed him back, but that Lin Yun had done so without using inner strength!
“Prince Ji Yuan, you kept calling me a cripple.”
“But now, it seems you couldn’t even defeat this cripple. Doesn’t that make you less than a cripple!?”
Lin Yun stood tall, his voice booming, sharp, and commanding!
“You… you…”
Ji Yuan was so furious his lungs felt ready to explode.
“I just didn’t use my full strength. Out of pity for you being a cripple, I… I held back! If I went all out, how could you be my match?” Ji Yuan’s face reddened as he argued.
Of course, his earlier strike hadn’t been at full power, as he thought it was more than enough for a cripple like Lin Yun.
How could he have imagined that a crippled Lin Yun could unleash such terrifying power?
Lin Yun stepped forward, shouting, “Then let me tell you, I didn’t use my full strength either. In fact, I only showed a fraction of my power. The fact is, you lost!”
Lin Yun wasn’t lying. If he had used his inner strength, who knows how much stronger he’d be!
Lin Yun continued, “Our one-move agreement was heard clearly by Master Tu Fan. Surely, Prince Ji Yuan, you wouldn’t deny it?”
“What… what do you want?” Ji Yuan’s face was grim.
He remembered his own words: if Lin Yun won, he could demand anything.
How could he have thought Lin Yun would actually win?
“Apologise to me and offer one hundred thousand Tribulation Pills,” Lin Yun said calmly.
Lin Yun needed Tribulation Pills to break through from the Nine-Turn Tribulation Realm to its peak.
The pills he had earned before were mostly distributed, leaving him with only a few thousand—not enough for the peak of the Nine-Turn Tribulation Realm.
