Chapter 544: Wedding (Violence)

I will yield one hand.

The crowd thought they had misheard.

But looking at Yan Jing's left hand resting at his side, the group of Ninth Tier experts fell silent.

Shock? Anger? Perhaps both.

For some inexplicable reason, several of them began to laugh in unison.

Zhou Mian looked at Yan Jing with a smile, the veins on his forehead bulging slightly:

"Do you know that even if Mu Tian were at his peak right now, he wouldn't dare say such a thing?"

Yan Jing smiled.

"Have you all misunderstood? Weren't we discussing the bouquet?"

A brief silence fell over the crowd.

Indeed, they were discussing the bouquet. No one wanted to step forward and forcibly escalate the stakes of this clash while the situation remained unclear. "Alright, then let us see where Commissioner Yan gets the confidence to claim this bouquet."

Song Huien smiled faintly, then turned her beaming eyes toward Xue Wan above them.

"Come on, our beautiful bride."

Hearing this, Xue Wan looked at the glaring group of Ninth Tier experts, nodded, and turned her back to the crowd.

"Whoosh."

Without a countdown, Xue Wan channeled her weird energy. The bouquet in her hands flew toward Song Huien with pinpoint precision, moving at extreme speed as if it had grown eyes.

Yes, Song Huien had used her ability through the very words she spoke to command Xue Wan to begin.

She had previously planted a seed in Xue Wan's mind, making a casual sentence enough to influence the bride's actions. But just as the bouquet reached a few meters in front of Song Huien...

"Plink, plonk."

Yan Jing's right hand danced lightly across the piano keys.

The brisk piano melody sounded like spring water splashing melodiously against moonlit stones. A relaxed, joyful mood instantly swelled in the hearts of everyone present.

It felt like rain after a long drought, or running into an old friend in a distant land. They had no idea what was happening, but they were inexplicably happy. Happy enough... to want to dance.

In an instant, everyone unconsciously swayed their limbs and joined hands with whomever they were facing.

This didn't just affect the great prison's citizens on the viewing platforms, but also the newlyweds above and the Ninth Tier experts.

With the bouquet right before her eyes, Zhou Mian suddenly reached out, grabbed Song Huien's hand beside him, and placed it on his waist. "Idiot! What are you doing? Don't touch me!"

Song Huien snapped furiously, but her body had already begun to sway unconsciously.

Bai Yue and Bai Chen also joined hands at this moment, their expressions awful and tinged with awkwardness.

Although they were biological siblings, they hadn't shared such an intimate gesture since childhood.

Zhan Cangtian looked back. There was no one else around. In the end, his body involuntarily walked toward Merkel on the viewing stand. Moonlight; Waltz:

Waltz, as a brisk piece of music, compels those who hear it (they must be able to hear your music) to start dancing. At the same time, you will gain weird energy regeneration, recovering one-fifth of your total capacity every minute.

This was a Moonlight track that Yan Jing rarely used.

Because he had never found the right opportunity.

A second later, several grayish-white threads shot out from Yan Jing's eyes, effortlessly wrapping around the bouquet in midair and yanking it downward.

"Did I say you could take it?"

Finally, a split second before his hands could clasp Merkel's waist, Zhan Cangtian let out a furious roar and bit down hard on his tongue.

Driven by the sharp pain, he finally broke free from the piano's control.

Taking two strides, he shattered the void outright, appeared directly in front of the bouquet, and reached out.

"Hiss."

Weird energy transformed into surging mist, leaking from between Zhan Cangtian's fingers.

Ever since he made a name for himself, he had always fought with such grand, sweeping strikes.

Every casual movement of his could destroy the surrounding environment. This wasn't merely because of his weak control over his own strength, but more importantly, due to his combat instincts.

Walking the Combat pathway, he possessed the most terrifying combat instincts in the entire great prison.

This combat talent ensured that whenever he struck, he would habitually use his excess strength to alter his surroundings, turning what was originally a "loss of control" into an advantage.

Like right now.

Weird energy flooded into the spatial rifts he had just crushed open, widening the fissures. Instantly, a terrifying suction force dragged the bouquet—which was still tethered by the threads—toward his palm.

"Ting."

The piano melody changed again.

Zhan Cangtian's body staggered. He felt as if he had plunged into a bottomless quagmire, his speed dropping drastically.

On the other side, however, the bouquet's speed didn't drop; instead, pulled by the threads, it plummeted at a terrifying velocity.

"Crash!!"

Countless water droplets splashed in midair as a vast ocean materialized out of nowhere, engulfing the bouquet.

Zhou Mian's figure slowly surfaced within the ocean.

Because the Waltz had shifted into a speed-controlling Sonata, he had managed to break free from his shared dance with Song Huien and finally made his move.

Although he himself was still affected by the Sonata, the currents he controlled had no such limitations. By summoning an ocean out of thin air, he managed to grasp the thread-wrapped bouquet in his hands.

The gurgling water pushed the bouquet straight toward his palm.

"Crackle."

Fragmented ice crystals spread along the threads, instantly freezing the surrounding seawater.

The bouquet's movement came to a halt.

Not only did it stop, but as Zhou Mian watched the frost vines surging toward him, fear surfaced in his eyes.

These frost vines were directly stripping him of his control over the surrounding water elements. He had not yet fully shifted from his liquid state back to his true body. If he were covered by this ice, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The critical issue was... right now, his movements felt terrifyingly slow.

In clashes at this tier, even the slightest difference in speed could manifest as a world of difference.

He was doomed...

His heart tightened.

However, at the exact moment the frost vines were about to cover his body, a voice slowly rang out.

"Restore."

It was Song Huien's voice. She had started speaking the moment the Sonata began, and had finally managed to finish the word.

Her timing was impeccable.

As her voice fell, Zhou Mian felt his speed recover by at least fifty percent. Although he hadn't returned to his original state, this was enough.

In the next instant, he forcibly severed his still-unformed liquid lower half and retreated hundreds of meters away.

When he looked up at Yan Jing again, his forehead was drenched in sweat.

Although he had luckily escaped this time, the pressure this man exerted on him was immense.

Furthermore, this level of control over the ice element...

He couldn't help but look back at Wen Xu, who was watching the show with a beaming smile from the stands.

But now was not the time to think about this. The bouquet was only a few meters away from Yan Jing.

In the nick of time, a rift tore open in the air.

Bai Yue's figure charged out from the rift, intercepting the bouquet's path.

Freed from the hard control of the Waltz and cleansed of the Sonata's deceleration by Song Huien, she could finally unleash her advantage.

The Space pathway. The greatest advantage of this pathway was its speed.

Air resistance simply didn't exist for Bai Yue. Her velocity was the absolute maximum speed a person could reach under ideal conditions. "It's mine."

The corners of her lips curled up.

But Yan Jing's lips had curled into a smile as well.

Bai Yue was indeed very close to the bouquet, but she was also far too close to him.

Just as Bai Yue reached out to grab the bouquet, countless threads descended behind her. Like a blooming chrysanthemum, they were prepared to swallow her whole in the next second.

"Watch out!"

Flapping his wings, Bai Chen kicked Bai Yue away, forcefully enduring the strike himself.

The enormous wings on his back folded closed, forming an iron cocoon that blocked out the threads.

"Squelch." Countless streaks of blood splattered everywhere.

Yan Jing deployed his Death-Sewing Garment. The threads acted like bizarre insects, swarming relentlessly toward the massive wings, only to be completely repelled.

"I'll be taking this."

Taking advantage of their standoff, Song Huien flashed to the bouquet and reached for the flowers caught at the end of the threads.

This phrase was no mere declaration of impending victory; she had utilized her ability once again.

Bai Yue and Zhan Cangtian, who had both wanted to snatch the bouquet, hesitated at her words.

Song Huien's fingertips were only half a foot away from the bouquet.

However, in the next second.

Red liquid dripped onto her hand.

What was this?

Song Huien froze. An instant later, an agonizing pain that pierced straight to her marrow flared from where the liquid had landed, nearly causing her to pass out on the spot. Her body jolted aside, brushing right past the bouquet.

Only then did she finally get a clear look at the liquid.

It was the blood that had splattered from Bai Chen's wings. White downy feathers had already begun sprouting from the bloodstained spot on her arm. "Damn it! Damn it!!! Are you all idiots?!"

Song Huien channeled all of her weird energy to halt the spread of the feathers. She had no desire to turn into a bizarre bird covered in white plumage for the rest of her days. Faced with Song Huien's furious roaring, Bai Yue's expression was grim:

"That's not my brother's ability."

Not Bai Chen's ability?

Song Huien was stunned again.

Then it could only be...

She looked at the man sitting before the piano. Even at a juncture like this, his gaze remained tranquil. With one hand resting on the keys, only the corners of his mouth curled into a subtle arc.

"Stop arguing!!!"

Zhan Cangtian tore through the void once more. Amidst the shifting winds and clouds, he appeared in front of the bouquet.

His shout jolted the others awake.

At this point, if the bouquet was truly taken by a man fighting five of them alone, it would be an utter humiliation.

It had come to this. The bouquet before them was no longer a simple probe of strength; it concerned their sheer dignity as Ninth Tier experts.

By unspoken mutual agreement, all of them dashed toward the bouquet.

No matter who got it, they absolutely could not let Yan Jing have it.

That was their bottom line.

In a flash, with the exception of Bai Chen, the other four appeared right in front of the flowers and reached out.

Terrifying weird energy caused the entire sky to tremble violently. Massive rifts were torn directly into the heavens, and chaotic clouds cascaded down from them like waterfalls, frantically sucking in light, clouds, and even the air itself.

The scene playing out was nothing short of the apocalypse.

But...

"Ding, dong, ding."

The melodious piano chimed again.

In an unnoticed corner, a speck of gray suddenly materialized in midair.

In the next instant, the gray expanded from that single point to blanket the entire sky.

Everything paused.

The cascading chaotic clouds, the thunderous weird energy, the abyssal spatial rifts, the turbulent crowds, and the four Ninth Tier experts before the bouquet—every drop of sweat and every eyelash on their faces was frozen within this gray expanse.

Yan Jing gently reached out, plucked the bouquet into his hand, and then played the final note of his performance.

By the time the gray faded away, the group of Ninth Tier experts stared at the bouquet in Yan Jing's grasp with immensely complicated expressions.

They had lost. Truly lost.

One man had defeated all of them.

"It wasn't a deathmatch, after all."

Zhan Cangtian shot Yan Jing a cold glare and was the first to vanish from the sky.

Even so...

The truth was that today's events had dealt a severe blow to his psyche.

He needed to hurry back and stabilize his Dao Heart.

Next were Bai Yue and Bai Chen.

The two retreated simultaneously.

This human's combat strength far exceeded their wildest imaginations.

Under these circumstances, Mu Tian's condition might not even be the most important issue anymore.

Yan Jing alone was enough to require them to think long and hard about their countermeasures.

Zhou Mian also turned around, preparing to leave.

Compared to the others, he knew more, and he had to consider much more.

He decided to reconsider the relationship between Wen Xu and Yan Jing.

If necessary, he might need to win Wen Xu over to his side.

However, right at this moment, an anomaly occurred.

A wisp of wind blew past. Coarse grains of sand drifted on the breeze, falling toward the back of Yan Jing's neck.

"Swish."

With a nearly imperceptible sound of tearing air, a hand materialized from the sand, its dagger thrusting straight at the neck of the seemingly oblivious Yan Jing. The crowd had no time to react.

They watched as Shaliko's bandage-wrapped figure appeared right behind him.

At such close proximity, it was too late for anything.

There wouldn't even be enough time for Yan Jing to play a note.

Bai Yue, Bai Chen, and Zhou Mian, who hadn't gone far, as well as Song Huien, who was still in her spot, all froze.

No one had expected Shaliko to have laid in ambush for so long, only to launch a sneak attack at this exact moment.

Song Huien's eyes shifted, her mind already conjuring the image of Yan Jing being severely wounded.

However...

The instant the dagger stabbed into Yan Jing's neck, it suddenly dissolved into a handful of quicksand and slid down his collar.

Shaliko's eyes went wide.

This scene reminded him of something, but it was already too late.

Yan Jing raised his right hand and grabbed several of the bandages wrapped around Shaliko's body. He dropped his shoulder and flung his arm forward.

"Bang!"

Shaliko slammed heavily onto the floor, smashing directly into a massive crater.

Then, Yan Jing blinked in front of him, delivering another brutal punch straight to his head.

Shaliko tried to use sandification.

But he had already completely lost control of the sand, taking the heavy blow in full.

This filled his heart with even more terror.

He was certain now.

The person in front of him was—

"Bang!"

A punch strong enough to shatter a mountain interrupted his thoughts.

He couldn't utter a word, his mouth stuffed full of the surrounding sand.

Yan Jing knew the man had figured out his identity.

So he didn't give him another chance to speak.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The sound of each successive punch felt like it was hammering into the crowd's hearts.

In truth, Yan Jing hadn't even eaten a Fear Fruit. The strength of his physical body at the Summit wasn't quite enough to completely crush a Ninth Tier. Yet, it was precisely because of this that the scene was so visually shocking.

With every punch, Shaliko's appearance seemed to change completely.

With every punch, the desert tyrant's body twitched violently.

Several punches later, Yan Jing stood up, leaving behind Shaliko, whose head had been reduced to a mangled pulp of flesh and blood.

He wiped the blood from his fists, looked up at the Ninth Tier experts staring down at him from the edge of the crater, and smiled.

"Apologies for the spectacle. I didn't expect to see an assassin at a wedding."

"Don't worry, everyone. You are all guests, and guests are treated quite differently from assassins."

"It's just that the wedding isn't over yet. Why don't you all... stick around a bit longer and watch?"