When Mu Cheng regained his composure, beads of cold sweat started to form on his forehead.

Seven Ancestral Veins!

Under normal circumstances, having one Ancestral Vein was already extremely extraordinary. After all, the entire Mu Clan only possessed one. Yet, this young man had seven!

Not only that, he was blatantly showing off these Ancestral Veins to them.

What does this mean? Is he doing this just to flaunt his wealth?

Mu Cheng found it unlikely because this young man did not seem like someone who liked to show off his wealth. Intuition told him that this young man was trying to goad the Mu Clan into robbing him so that he would have an excuse to annihilate them.

Yes! That must be it!

Mu Cheng glared at Ye Guan, his conviction growing stronger.

In front of Ye Guan, Captain Mu's eyes widened in disbelief. She was completely stunned when she saw his seven Ancestral Veins. She never would have thought that he was telling the truth when he said that he was rich. She truly regretted her actions now. If she had not been greedy from the start, wanting to monopolize the treasures, they could have formed a good relationship with one another. And if she had allied herself with him, the benefits would be endless. Unfortunately, she chose to become his enemy.

As if realizing something, Captain Mu abruptly lifted her head to look at him.

Why did he take out seven Ancestral Veins? And why would he dare to?

Obviously, he was doing it on purpose. He was not afraid of the Mu Clan. In fact, he was trying to get the Mu Clan to rob him.

With this thought, Captain Mu turned to look at the members of the Mu Clan and saw the greediness in their eyes. Then, she looked at Mu Cheng, whose gaze had now become calm. Her heart sank. She knew that her Clan Leader would not intervene anymore. This was clearly a trap and the Clan Leader knew it.

At that moment, Ye Guan swung his sword and Captain Mu's head flew out. Blood gushed out from her decapitated neck.

"How dare you!" An elite from the Mu Clan yelled. He was about to seize the opportunity to attack, but he was stopped by Mu Cheng, who was beside him.

Mu Cheng said, "Let him go."

The faces of the Mu Clan members were filled with disbelief. One of the elders roared angrily, "Clan Leader…"

Mu Cheng gave the elder a cold look, causing the elder to be shocked. The elder opened his lips, but he did not dare to say anything.

Mu Cheng turned to look at Ye Guan and said, "You've already killed her. The score between us is settled."

Ye Guan did not reply. He calmly collected his seven Ancestral Veins and then turned to leave.

As they watched him leave, the faces of the elites from the Mu Clan turned incredibly grim, filled with indignation. It was humiliating.

Mu Cheng looked at them with a fierce expression in his eyes and said, "Use your brains. Why would he take out seven Ancestral Veins for us to see?"

Everyone froze.

That's right, why would this young man take out seven Ancestral Veins? It can't just be for showing off, right?

Mu Cheng continued, "Then, think of why he would have seven Ancestral Veins. Seven!"

All of the Mu Clan elites quietened down.

What did possessing seven Ancestral Veins mean? The Mu Clan was a top-tier clan, but they only had one Ancestral Vein. Yet, this young man had seven! Would he be from an ordinary clan? Of course not!

Mu Cheng added, "If we all rush up together, we'll have a good chance of taking him down, but do you think he has no one backing him up?"

Then, he sighed and continued, "In fact, that young man not only dares to kill someone from our Mu Clan. He even dares to kill people from the Dao Market. Not long ago, he killed someone in the Divine Dao Realm… Until we investigate this person's background thoroughly, we should not act rashly. Otherwise, it will bring a catastrophe to our Mu Clan."

Even though the Mu Clan was a top-tier clan, it was not invincible. If they provoked someone that they shouldn't, the foundation of the Mu Clan that was built over millions of years could be destroyed in an instant. Hence, in times like these, as the leader of the Mu Clan, he had to remain calm. He could not let his emotions cloud his judgment and he must not be swayed by his own greed.

Of course, he was very tempted by the seven Ancestral Veins, but he knew that someone who could take them out casually was not someone they could afford to provoke.

Upon hearing Mu Cheng's words, all of the Mu Clan's elites finally calmed down and they began to ponder the situation.

That's right. Not only did this young man dare to flaunt seven Ancestral Veins in front of us, he even dared to kill one of our clan members. He does not fear us.

Mu Cheng said, "We should remain calm for now. Let's investigate this person and then plan accordingly."

An elder said in a low voice, "Clan Leader, I find it hard to swallow this insult."

Expressionless, Mu Cheng replied, "We must endure it, even if it's hard to swallow."

The elder's expression soured.

Mu Cheng continued, "Not only must we endure it. If he truly comes from a background that we can't afford to provoke, we must think of how to apologize to him…"

This was how the world worked. If you don't have strength, nobody will listen to your reasoning. However, if you're strong enough, your opponents will come begging you to listen to them. Mu Cheng understood this well. Therefore, even though he found this pill hard to swallow, he had to make the most rational choice.

…

After Ye Guan left the Luo World, he returned to the Dao Market once again. The Dao Market had teleportation arrays that could bring him back to First God Universe.

The moment he was back at the Dao Market, a mysterious aura enveloped him. He gripped the Qingxuan Sword tightly in his left hand with a calm expression on his face. He turned his head and saw an old man sitting in a tavern at the corner of the street. The old man was wearing tattered clothes and he was smoking heavily.

When the old man noticed Ye Guan's gaze, he glanced at him and then exhaled a puff of smoke. "Come over for a chat?" he asked.

Ye Guan walked up to him, put the Qingxuan Sword on the table. Seeming to have thought of something, he put the Qingxuan Sword away instead. Seeing this, the old man laughed heartily and said, "Interesting…"

"What's interesting?" Ye Guan asked.

The old man explained, "Putting the sword on the table was a subconscious action, but putting it away was a choice. You chose not to use your sword to intimidate me… I can see that the sword belongs to your family elders, but you don't want to rely on them, am I right?"

Ye Guan picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. He drank a sip and then said, "Are you here to talk, or do you want to fight? I'm fine with either."

The old man stared at him without a word. If he were to strike, he was eighty percent sure that he could kill this young man. As someone in the Divine Dao Realm with thirty-percent divinity, to say that he was only eighty percent sure he could kill this young man who was only in the Heaven Dao Realm was quite embarrassing. However, he was well aware that he might not even have an eighty percent chance.

The remaining twenty percent consisted of unknown factors, and ten percent of it was attributed to the sword he was holding.

After thinking about it for a long while, the old man flicked off some ash from his cigarette and chuckled, saying, "Then… let's try and use reason first?"

Ye Guan asked, "How about using our fists directly instead?"

The old man took two puffs of his cigarette and asked, "You're that confident?"

Ye Guan shook his head. "Not really. You just don't seem like someone who's reasonable."

"Whether I am reasonable or not depends on who I'm talking to. We can have a chat first. If talking doesn't work out, we'll use our fists."

"Fair enough. Let's have a chat first, then."

"I don't care about your enmity with the Mu Clan, but you should be aware that violence is prohibited here in the Dao Market. Yet, you've resorted to violence twice. How do you explain that?"

"The first time I acted, I killed someone from the Qi Clan because they accused me of stealing her Ancestral Vein… Strictly speaking, this is a matter between me and the Qi Clan and it's unrelated to the Dao Market. What do you think?"

"And what about the second time?"

Ye Guan recounted the details of the incident, without embellishing it. There was no need to do so anyway.

After listening to Ye Guan's explanation, the old man exhaled another puff of smoke and then said, "So you're saying that the Dao Market treated you unfairly first, which led you to resort to violence. Is that it?"

Ye Guan nodded and replied, "Yes."

The old man pondered for a few moments before he said, "Now I know the ins and outs of what happened… How about we settle this with our fists?"

Ye Guan nodded again. "I also think that reasoning with you won't work…"

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The old man shook his head, interrupting him, "It does, but whether or not your explanation was reasonable and whether or not I accept your explanation are separate matters altogether."

"Shall we go somewhere else to fight?" asked Ye Guan.

"Of course," the old man answered. He waved his sleeve and instantly, they appeared in a starry sky. The old man continued smoking as he looked at Ye Guan and said, "Come on, let me see how strong a swordsman in the Heaven Dao Realm can be."

After a slight pause, he continued, "You have to use that special sword. Otherwise, you have no chance of winning."

Ye Guan exclaimed, "Of course!"

He opened his palm and the Qingxuna Sword appeared in his hands. The old man looked at the sword before he said, "That's a fine sword."

Without wasting any more words, Ye Guan took a step forward and the next moment, a streak of sword light could be seen flashing across the air…