Chapter 36 36 – Joel Han
The students talked about Ken's match when it was his turn to get into the ring.
"He can't be too confident now if his confidence relies on his second-stage cultivation. Leonard is also at the second rank, and his mastery over his Sky-grade techniques is almost at the basic level."
Ken entered the arena and faced a young disciple. Leonard, who was ranked 51, was 12 years old and already opened his major and minor meridians.
He was working on opening his collateral meridians those days, and those 50 medium Qi stones he could win from the challenge would support him with a pill or two.
"Junior Brother, you can come at me first. Since you're younger, I won't be unfair."
Ken found those words familiar this time. Since Leonard was also a commoner, he also didn't want to create problems with the Sue family.
'Are they all stupid? They only risk losing the match; no spoiled young master would care if they let him attack first before they beat him up.'
Ken questioned their intelligence inwardly but rushed forward to knock Leonard unconscious.
Leonard used a sword, so he struck it down with a powerful swing. Ken easily dodged to the side and landed an elbow on Leonard's face, breaking his nose and freeing a few teeth from the constraint of his gums.
Leonard didn't lose his consciousness yet; he got up slowly with dizzy and unfocused eyes. Everything happened so fast that he still didn't understand what was going on.
Ken ran forward again and kicked his opponent's throat, making him fall again and unable to breathe.
"Let me teach you a lesson. If a rich kid is about to attack you, you should aim to kill, because his attitude won't change even if you spare him."
He left a few words of advice to Leonard whose eyes widened in his struggle to breathe on the floor and left the stage.
"Quick, treat him!"
A few disciples who were Leonard's friends climbed into the stage and channeled Qi to relieve his throat and fed him with a healing pill.
Ken still had slightly under 2000 medium Qi stones after exchanging 18,000 for merit points. He sat again in the arena's seats and tried his hand at gambling.
Since there were brokers who weren't there yesterday, Ken targeted them instead of going after the brokers he impoverished yesterday. He obviously didn't have any problem remembering who he dealt with before.
After a few hours, he managed to win enough Qi stones to get to the 10,000 mark again.
"Young Master Joel, this is the man who won a lot of Qi stones from us by gambling today and yesterday. We didn't dare say anything to him because his robes have the embroidery of the Sue Family."
Ken looked toward the voices and saw a young teenager wearing blue robes with red embroidery of a qilin with flames around it. According to Rose, this should be the symbol of the Han family, another elite family on the same scale as his Sue family.
"Kid of the Sue family, I heard you earned some money from my Han family's gambling business. Is the Sue family so poor they need to gamble in the arena now?"
Joel stepped in front of Ken and mocked him. Ken heard them calling Joel's name earlier, so he knew who he was, with his memory, it wasn't difficult for him to remember seeing his name in the top list for ages 13-16.
Joel Han was ranked 33, and he was 16 years old. Just like Ken, he was in the Soul Strengthening Stage. Apparently, he oversaw the gambling business of his family, and it probably was his main source of income.
"Indeed, those are barren times. Even my Sue family can't support a junior like me. I hope you don't mind that I take some resources from you; the Han family is much richer."
Joel's face turned bleak when he heard Ken's words. He didn't expect Ken to be shameless enough to degrade his own family in public.
The worst part was that now if Joel said he couldn't allow Ken to keep betting, it'd mean his family had a hard time raising money too. Ken just jumped into the mud and pulled him along.
If Ken was a normal young master, Joel's expectations would be met. However, Ken didn't have any pride in his family, so he didn't care making both families lose face at once.
"Young Master Ken must be joking. The Sue family is as prosperous as always. Remember, although I can't challenge you myself and I already learned that nobody in your age group can challenge you, there are still missions outside. Those are always dangerous."
Joel decided to get out of the embarrassing situation by complimenting the Sue family. He preferred to keep both families' respect than make them both lose face.
Ken just smiled when he heard Joel's threat. It seems that his performance in the arena already garnered much attention to him. Joel couldn't challenge him since nobody was allowed to challenge disciples from lower age groups; only the other way around was permitted.
"How about that, since both families are prosperous, why not make a small bet over 200,000 medium Qi stones?"
Joel's face turned solemn immediately. Although 200,000 Qi stones were nothing to the Han family as a whole, it was a lot for him as a member of the youngest generation.
It would definitely make his status take a hit if he lost that much to a kid younger than him by a whole decade.
"What do you want to bet on?"
Since a younger kid took the initiative to challenge him for a bet in public, he didn't want to cower and refuse.
"You said earlier you can't challenge me, but I can challenge you. Let's fight, and the loser pays the winner 200,000. Do you dare, or the Han family's young generation is too weak to fight against a 6-year-old?"
"Are you serious?"
Joel gave a distorted smile. Never in his dreams did the option that a 6-year-old kid would challenge him one day cross his mind.
"Since you're the one who challenged me, nobody can say I bully children. Should we fight now?"
"Sure, do you need to go home to fetch 200,000 medium Qi stones first?"
"I don't. Everyone, give me the revenues you've collected those past days."
·ƈθm Joel turned to his brokers and ordered them to give him all they had earned. Everyone quickly emptied their storage rings and gave everything to Joel.
"There are around 231,000 medium Qi stones inside. If you win, you can have everything inside. Do you need to go and get 200,000 stones?"
The truth was that Joel only had a cut of 15% of the revenues, which meant only around 35,000 stones belonged to him. He didn't mind though; he believed in himself.
"I don't. I have 232,000 medium Qi stones in my storage ring, if you win, you can have everything inside."
Ken repeated his words but added one thousand stones just to mock the Han family. Joel frowned but ignored his words. The pair went down to the arena and entered right after the current fight ended.
"Young Master Joel fights Young Master Ken. Go away!"
Joel's followers sent away the fighters who were supposed to fight next in the arena. The fighters frowned, but they had no choice but to back off when they heard the backgrounds of those two.
Joel's followers didn't dare address Ken with a disrespectful name. Even if their master could, they still couldn't.
"I can't bully a junior. You can come at me and attack first."
Joel said disdainfully. Ken was already tired of hearing this line; he felt like everyone left their brains at home before coming to the arena.
Before Joel's disdainful expression could disappear, Ken walked past him and sheathed back his sword. The cultivation of normal humans couldn't be compared to Ken's. He was far superior in terms of cultivation and techniques.
Joel was still standing, frozen in his spot when Ken removed the storage ring from his finger and turned around to leave.
Joel collapsed on the ground, and his neck started spurting blood. At his point, he was deader than a steak.
"Young Master Joel! What happened?"
Everyone looked at the scene with astonishment. Only the disciples at the Core Formation Stage could follow the scene before the others saw Ken walks past Joel.
When Joel finished speaking, Ken executed his new One Step technique, followed by his new Flash Unwind. His sword quickly slashed Joel's throat and sent a pulse of Qi inside, destroying his throat from the inside and severing his spine.
'I don't need to worry about provoking the other families. Those would kill me when they have the chance anyway.'
Ken thought to himself as he left the stage. He knew that although nobody might care if the Sue family kill him, the Sue family wouldn't let outsiders kill him. It would damage their honor if outsiders could kill their family members.
As for the Han family, they couldn't do anything against him. As an unwritten rule, only members of the same generation could fight between the elite families.
If someone of an older generation attacked the younger generation of another family, then the older generation of that family would retaliate, until the whole younger generation of both sides would be annihilated.
He didn't worry about fighting the young generation; he was confident that he was the best among them.