The crowd amidst the Chu clan was delighted to see that the Wailing Whip was working its wonders. As long as she could get a few more hits in, the sheer amount of pain should be enough to make Yuan Wenji pass out.
At her father’s reminder, Chu Huanzhao continued to flick her wrist to pressure Yuan Wenji.
“Did you think that I’m unprepared?” However, Yuan Wenji suddenly retrieved a shield from behind his back. It wasn’t too big initially, but for some reason, it suddenly expanded to become big enough to shield his entire body.
Chu Zhongtian immediately straightened his back. “It’s no wonder why the arms produced by the Yuan clan suddenly improved so drastically. They have indeed managed to find a formidable runemaster to back them up!”
The shield was indubitably the work of a runemaster, wielding the ability to expand and contract at will.
In an instant, the tables were turned on Chu Huanzhao. Her whip was formidable, but Yuan Wenji was able to easily guard himself with the shield. Step by step, he slowly shortened the gap between them, rendering him helpless.
Qin Wanru clutched her husband’s arm and said, “He seems to be prepared in advance.”
Chu Zhongtian nodded with an awful look on his face. “Indeed. There’s no doubt that there’s a spy in our Chu clan now. They revealed our sequencing to the enemy; that’s why they are able to curb us to this degree. They even thought of how to deal with Huanzhao’s Wailing Whip in advance.”
“Who in the world is it?!” Qin Wanru turned to look at their own people, but with doubt lingering in her eyes, everyone looked like a possible spy to her.
“We’ll slowly look into it once we get back.” Chu Zhongtian closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “We’re doomed today. However, this works fine too. At least we know the threats lurking by our side, so we can guard against them in the future.”
“But we’re paying too great a price for that!” Qin Wanru knew just how important the arms market was, as well as the implication of losing it. “Should we get Huanzhao to hold on a little longer? There might just be some hope.”
Chu Zhongtian hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he decided to go along with his wife’s wishes. He didn’t want to lose the arms market which the Chu clan had dominated for centuries either.
Meanwhile, on the dueling ring, Yuan Wenji had already pulled close to Chu Huanzhao. A glint flashed across his eyes as he suddenly rolled forward and swiftly got into extremely close range to Chu Huanzhao.
Chu Huanzhao was horrified. She quickly hurled her fist forward in retaliation, but her cultivation was beneath that of Yuan Wenji, and her other hand was still holding onto the Wailing Whip. Given such disadvantages, how could she hold her own against him?
Yuan Wenji grabbed her left hand and dislocated her wrist, leaving Chu Huanzhao crying in horror.
Alarmed, Chu Zhongtian immediately stood up and declared, “We admit defeat this round!”
However, even while he was saying those words, Yuan Wenji gathered his strength toward his fist, and channeling his accumulation of rage over the years, he struck heavily on her abdomen.
Pu!
With a spurt of blood, Chu Huanzhao was sent flying.
Chu Zhongtian quickly rushed forward to catch his daughter before hurriedly dealing with her injuries. He had no spare attention to care about anything more given the circumstances.
Those from the Chu clan quickly crowded around Chu Huanzhao, leaving Zu An no space to squeeze in. So, he turned around to glare at Yuan Wenji coldly, saying, “We’ve already admitted defeat, so why did you still deal such a vicious blow?”
Under his guilty conscience, Yuan Wenji was overwhelmed by Zu An’s imposing disposition for a brief moment and ended up stuttering.
It was then that Yuan Wendong stood forward to speak up, “How could an ordinary human like you know about the battles between cultivators? There’s only a fine line between victory and loss in a fight, and Wenji has witnessed Chu First Miss’ glorious splendor in defeating a sixth rank cultivator earlier. Who knows? Chu Second Miss might just have other means to exert in the situation back then. Who could have known that Chu Second Miss turns out to be so lacking instead? Haa, she really should learn more from her older sister and practice more.”
Yaun Wenji also quickly snapped out of it and said, “Indeed! I was simply too immersed in the fight earlier that I didn’t hear the Brightmoon Duke’s words!”
“You didn’t hear my words?” Chu Zhongtian suddenly bellowed furiously. He had already confirmed that his younger daughter was in no danger, so he raised his head to look at the man still standing on the dueling ring. “Are you saying that the words spoken by an eighth rank cultivator are too soft for the likes of you to hear?”
A terrifying aura suddenly weighed down on the dueling ring, leaving Yuan Wenji gulping in horror. His body began shuddering uncontrollably as he took a step back.
“Is being an eighth rank cultivator that big of a deal to you?” Wu Wei suddenly appeared right in front of Yuan Wenji to shield him. “This is a conflict between the juniors. What’s an adult like you stepping into this and bullying the juniors for?”