Yoriichi stood perfectly still, his loose dark robes rustling slightly in the breeze. His crimson eyes, devoid of any anger or malice, rested on the five youths who had violently barged into his sanctuary.
Lie, flanked by four sneering second-year students, puffed out his chest. The humiliation he had suffered in the arena had completely overridden his basic survival instincts.
"Why are you bothering me?" Yoriichi asked, his voice a calm, deep rumble that seemed to absorb the ambient noise of the courtyard. "Can your ego truly not accept a fair defeat in a sanctioned ring?"
"Shut up, you arrogant freshman!" Lie shouted back, his face flushing an angry red. He gestured to the sprawling, luxurious estate around them, his eyes gleaming with blatant greed. He laughed, a harsh, grating sound, turning to his older friends.
"Listen closely, Xiao," Lie sneered, taking a threatening step forward. "If you pack your bags and get out of here right now, I will spare you a beating. Me and my brothers will live here from now on. We have connections with the Law Enforcement Unit; as long as we don't cripple you, the guards won't even look in this direction."
The four senior students chuckled, already eyeing the cherry blossom tree and the plush meditation room. A private courtyard was a symbol of absolute status. If they could bully a mere 'C' rank freshman out of it, they would be rich in cultivation resources and famous among their peers.
Yoriichi did not offer a final warning. He did not flare his Dou Qi to intimidate them. He simply decided that words were a waste of breath.
Right in front of their eyes, the stoic youth vanished.
There was no explosive sound, no crater left in the stone pavement. He was simply there one fraction of a second, and completely gone the next.
Whoosh!
Before the sneer could even drop from Lie's face, a sickening THWACK echoed through the garden.
Yoriichi had materialized directly behind the tallest senior student—a formidable four-star Dou Zhe. With a smooth, casual backflip, Yoriichi drove his foot directly into the center of the senior's spine. The impact bypassed the youth's hastily raised Dou Qi defenses entirely. The senior's eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed to the dirt like a puppet with its strings cut, temporarily paralyzed.
The remaining three seniors panicked, wildly throwing punches infused with elemental Dou Qi.
Yoriichi vanished again. He slipped under a blazing fire-attribute hook, his fist shooting upward in a devastatingly precise uppercut to the second senior's solar plexus. The boy vomited a mouthful of bile and crumpled. A sweeping leg kick shattered the third senior's stance, sending him face-first into the gravel. The fourth senior barely had time to scream before Yoriichi's palm struck his neck, plunging him into unconsciousness.
The entire brutal subjugation took exactly three seconds.
Lie was left standing stupidly in the center of the rock garden. The arrogant grin was frozen on his face, but his eyes were wide with sheer, unadulterated horror. His four 'powerful' brothers were groaning in agony on the ground, completely neutralized.
The trance broke. Lie started trembling violently. "W-Wait! Xiao Ning, I—!"
Yoriichi did not let him finish.
He stepped forward, his leg snapping up in a blindingly fast front kick. This strike carried significantly more kinetic weight than the ones he had used on the seniors.
BANG!
The kick connected squarely with Lie's stomach. The energetic boy was literally lifted off his feet. He flew backward through the air, completely clearing the courtyard's decorative rockery, and crashed violently into the massive trunk of an ancient oak tree just outside the open wooden gates.
A shower of green leaves rained down as Lie spat out a mouthful of blood, sliding down the bark to end up in a crumpled, groaning heap in the dirt.
The four seniors on the ground, struggling to catch their breath, felt an icy chill grip their hearts. The physical pain was excruciating, but the psychological terror of realizing they had just tried to extort an absolute monster paralyzed them far more. They cursed Lie viciously in their minds. Their hot-blooded, reckless brains had instantly followed their clanmate to avenge him, without ever bothering to ask how Lie had been defeated in the first place. Seeing this luxurious courtyard should have been their first clue to walk away.
Yoriichi calmly brushed a speck of dust from his wide sleeves. He walked with a slow, measured pace toward the open gate, stopping right in front of the broken, bleeding Lie.
Lie looked up, his eyes filled with absolute terror, expecting the killing blow.
"This time, it is only a little pain," Yoriichi stated, his voice as cold and indifferent as a frozen lake. "But if you ever cross this threshold again, bones will break. You will be confined to a healing bed for months."
Yoriichi looked down at the other four groaning seniors.
"Do not try to make this place dirty again," Yoriichi commanded softly. "Now. Get out."
Despite the agonizing pain in their guts and spines, the sheer, primal fear radiating from the stoic youth pushed their bodies past their limits. The seniors scrambled to their feet, practically dragging the sobbing Lie between them, and sprinted down the cobblestone path as fast as their trembling legs could carry them.
Within moments, the area was completely empty.
Yoriichi watched them flee, a faint sigh escaping his lips. He could have simply thrown them out with a light scuffle, but he knew the nature of arrogant youths. A light beating would only buy peace for a few days before they returned with even stronger upperclassmen. To ensure his absolute isolation and focus, he had to completely crush their spirits. If he wanted to stay out of trouble in a place like the Black-Corner Region, he had to demonstrate a calculated, overwhelming ruthlessness.
Just as he turned to walk back into his home, the sound of light, rhythmic footsteps echoed up the path.
"Ah... you beat those goons pretty badly, didn't you?"
Xiao Yu strolled into view, her hands clasped behind her back. She looked down the path where the seniors had fled, a highly dramatic, amused sigh escaping her lips. "They are running like a pack of greased pigs. Let me guess, someone couldn't handle losing a sparring match?"
Yoriichi raised an eyebrow, a faint, genuine smile finally breaking his stoic mask. "They were merely lost. I provided them with some aggressive directions."
Xiao Yu laughed, stepping through the gates and admiring the pristine rock garden. "Well, you certainly have a talent for hospitality."