Sun Sun thought that this will be an easy fight for her considering that Yun Jhin gave her such a big opening that she could exploit, she quickly made a motion with her hand and tried to poke one of Yun Jhin's meridians and paralyze him to humiliate him in front of Sikong Cui to make Zhu Cheng lose face.
Yun Jhin smiled inside as Sun Sun easily fell into his trap, the moment her finger touched the meridian that he exposed she immediately felt something wasn't right as Yun Jhin still moved forward.
Her eyes widened in horror as his hand went directly towards her head poking her forehead softly.
Inside her soul, her last soul jewel which was around the 8th stage of the refinery, the jewel started to crack as starlight poured out of it slowly.
Her starlit eyes intensified in color as she gripped her head in pain and horror, her eyes were dilated as she started screaming.
Yun Jhin watched on as the chain reaction started, as soon as he touched her forehead and inserted a little bit of extra starlight inside her soul jewel in the wrong way it broke the already unbalanced situation inside her crown.
Sun Sun growled and shouted like an animal as she fell to the ground and writhed like an animal, starlight fell from her body in quick succession, Sikong Cui frowned as she wanted to get up and do something but Zhu Cheng got in front of her and said:
"Watch on, the fight isn't done yet, is it? Or do you want to forfeit?"
Sikong Cui gritted her teeth and jumped on the arena to check on Sun Sun, she didn't care about the loss of the herbs as she saw from the corner of her eye Zhu Cheng taking everything on the table, she knew that she lost this one.
She checked Sun Sun's situation and she realized what happened, she was crippled and her cultivation was steadily dropping from the 9th stage of the King realm as her jewels combusted and exploded inside of her soul since the crown was on the head of the soul which was the center of the soul's thinking, she immediately became an idiot the first jewel exploded, most races had the center of their soul around the head, but some peculiar races had it at different parts of their soul bodies, the demons and devils for examples had it in their chest area around their hearts.
Yun Jhin watched on coldly as Sun Sun moved and writhed on the ground like a dying worm, Sikong Cui glared at him but he ignored her glare quite easily, she tried to create a ki weapon out of her sleeve and threw it at Yun Jhin, but Zhu Cheng was behind her with a similar type of weapon held at her neck.
Sikong Cui looked behind her and Zhu Cheng gave her a sunny smile that you wouldn't ever find on someone ready to murder you in a second.
Sikong Cui looked down at Sun Sun and sighed as she put her hand on her forehead, Sun Sun's body started to dissipate into dust as one moment of clarity passed through her murky eyes and some words fell from her mouth in the last seconds of her life:
"Thank you.... young lady..."
The others looked on without saying anything, those that didn't have an Emperor realm expert in their faction couldn't even comment on what happened or else they might offend Zhu Cheng and Sikong Cui and if they still wanted to have a table in the restaurant they would rather shut their mouths tight and watch on instead of commenting and inviting calamity.
Only the duo of other Emperor realm experts was talking in hushed tones, they were respectively from the 2nd and 3rd ranked clans, they were called Bugo Shun and Shin Xuan
Bugo Shun whispered to Shin Xuan slowly:
"Isn't this new general of the Zhu family quite ruthless, crippling such a beauty to the point she can't even be used in the bed anymore, what a pity, who would like to use a writhing crazy woman?"
Shin Xuan smiled and responded to him:
"Speak for yourself Bugo Shun, if Sikong Cui didn't end her I would have paid her a fair price to take her in as my slave."
Sikong Cui cultivation base was above them and they didn't hide their conversation so she could hear both of them quite well, she gritted her teeth as she left the arena and the restaurant all together with other people from her faction, she just gave Zhu Cheng one last glare before he left and mouthed something to him that looked like:
"I will make sure you will get what you deserve."
Zhu Cheng ignored her, he was happy as he hugged Yun Jhin and said:
"Brothers its inevitable accidents will happen in sparring, unfortunately, it seems that Sikong Sun Sun suffered from cultivation deviation, she must have rushed the refinement of her jewel and my compatriot here must have struck her too hard, we must drink in respect of Sun Sun's passing and have a moment of silence."
Zhu Cheng was quite hypocritical but no one pointed out that he was the one who told Yun Jhin to cripple Sun Sun, even the other Emperor realm experts kept mum and toasted with Zhu Cheng, they didn't fear Sikong Cui because she was a woman, even though she had a temper she wouldn't be able to do much to them because Zhu Cheng will protect them in the face of 'righteousness' since they talked about her now they were in cahoots with Zhu Cheng, and they didn't mind it, Zhu Cheng's momentum was increasing every day in the capital and people thought that the Zhu Family would replace the Sikong family as the first place soon enough as long as their ancestor succeeded in their closed-door cultivation.
The Sikong family was quite older compared to the Zhu Family and it was unknown if their ancestor was still alive or not, the same could be said about the Zhu Family's ancestor, even though she was a little younger than the Sikong Family ancestor, people were unsure if she was alive or not, but the Zhu family put on a strong front that made them think that their ancestor was still alive, they didn't dare to see if they were bluffing or not, after all, the ancestors of the top four houses were all equals before they went into closed-door cultivation.
While they were drinking, Zhu Cheng passed Yun Jhin the herbs along with a few more demonic hearts from his spatial ring, the others didn't bat an eyelid at what Zhu Cheng was doing, they realized that it was the reward for crippling Sun Sun.
They just drank and chatted merrily, suddenly while they were drinking Sikong Cui came back along with another youth, he had a mohawk haircut and wore an open robe that showed his muscular frame, he was around 2 meters tall and dwarfed Sikong Cui easily however his aura was weaker than Sikong Cui by quite a lot as he was at the 9th stage of the King Realm, but his aura had a blood quality with it which showed that he killed a lot of people.
Yun Jhin looked at the youth with narrowed eyes as he channeled some ki to his eyes and saw that he was hiding a bit of his cultivation base, he was a half a step away from the Emperor realm!
Sikong Cui glared at Zhu Cheng who was drinking merrily with the others and coughed to get his attention, Zhu Cheng already knew they were here but he was ignoring her on purpose just to make her madder.
Zhu Cheng put a surprised look on his face as he looked at the youth near Sikong Cui and asked:
"This brother is?"
Sikong Cui introduced the youth to everyone:
"This is Sun Sun's fiancee, he is called Sikong Mindu and he is very heartbroken to hear what happened with his fiancee, he came to ask revenge from Yun Jhin on the sparring arena."
Zhu Cheng frowned as he looked at Sikong Mindu and said:
"Accidents can happen in sparring, Yun Jhin can't be taken responsible from what happened, he didn't even hit her very hard, she mostly collapsed on her own, everyone here can attest to that."
Most of the people at the table nodded but didn't look at Sikong Cui in the eyes, Zhu Cheng smiled as he saw everyone going with his words, it meant that he cemented his position as the head of the youth gatherings in the capital.
Sikong Cui frowned but Mindu put a hand in front of her and walked directly to Yun Jhin as he glared at him from above and said in a booming voice:
"I know accidents happen in sparring but I would still like to spar with this brother here, after all, my fiancee wasn't weak and I would like to spar pointers with someone who could so easily see through her cultivation problems, might I be bold enough to ask for a spar with you?"
Yun Jhin would welcome him in a fight, even though he might not be able to beat him easily, there was a very low chance of losing as well, Zhu Cheng looked at him and then at Sikong Cui as he said:
"You know, my general is a busy man, he was supposed to go back and refine some pills so he could cultivate some more for the upcoming tournament, I'm not sure if he wants to fight anymore, maybe if you sweetened the deal for us, he could accept."
Sikong Cui gritted her teeth, this was openly disrespecting her along with trying to extort her of her riches, Yun Jhin opened his mouth to interject:
"I don't want much, just give me enough heavy starlight herbs and stones to the point that I can reach the 6th stage of the King Realm."
Sikong Cui guffawed at his shameless request, this would make her even some of her contribution points in her house along with her allowance for almost 4 months, there was no way she could accept this!
Zhu Cheng saw her expression then he yawned as he put a hand on Yun Jhin's shoulder and said:
"It seems Miss Sikong doesn't have enough money to accept this bet, brother Yun Jhin, let's go back to the house, we have partied enough and we should go back to cultivating, after all, there isn't much time left before the tournament, what was it again? 2 months?"
Sikong Cui knew that Zhu Cheng was trying to force her to accept, but she wasn't sure if Sikong Mindu could cripple Yun Jhin, what happened before was extremely quick and she couldn't get a grasp of his full battle power, she gritted her teeth as she watched Zhu Cheng leave with his people, but she didn't dare to do anything to him besides glaring and cursing him openly:
"We will see what happens in the tournament Zhu Cheng, you can't protect Yun Jhin then!"
Zhu Cheng gave out a hearty laugh as he left the restaurant and his voice traveled back to her:
"Your people should be wary of Yun Jhin in the future not the other way around!"
Yun Jhin and Zhu Cheng went back to their family's compound, after Zhu Cheng stocked on some more hearts that he sent to Yun Jhin personally, he congratulated him again by patting him on the back and telling him:
"You did very well today, if you continue like this you might get noticed by the leader, it's not like he doesn't have his eye on you already, but if I recommended you to him, he might increase your monthly allowance and even let you browse our martial depository for free!"
Zhu Cheng was using the carrot and the stick to stimulate Yun Jhin and make him work harder for him, however, if Yun Jhin ever failed Zhu Cheng would discard him just as Sikong Cui did to Sun Sun, Sikong Cui did it more of pitty rather than feeling that Sun Sun became useless, but Zhu Cheng wasn't as soft as Sikong Cui, he might even delight himself in the fact that someone crippled Yun Jhin.
He was a hearty and good fellow on the surface, but his words and actions had venomous underlying, he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Yun Jhin interacted with so many people like him that he lost count, he knew how to play to their tunes and backstab them the moment they found it the least possible, he didn't mind being his puppet as long as he didn't make him do something that would put him in peril.
Yun Jhin entered his room and Zhu Cheng watched him for a short while as he returned to his room as well.
His room was different from Yun Jhin's as it was as big and wide as the leader of the house, he was the next leader of the house as long as he reached the god realm.
His plump secretary was waiting for him with a document with information that she gave to him, Zhu Cheng bend her over and took the document, he read it while he was doing his 'job':
"Sumo empire, lower continents, hmm, he is such a country bumpkin that he came from the lower continents, but his bloodline is quite pure, it seemed he must be a pawn planted by the Sumo empire that they retrieved later and now they faked his recordings... whatever, he got recruited by the Zhu household and he would be our pawn now, that Sumo Emperor while strong he is only equal to our leader of the house and way below our ancestor."
After around 20 minutes he finished his 'job' with his secretary and went to his private room to cultivate, he already made a plan on how to use Yun Jhin fully to his advantage even in the upcoming tournament hosted by the imperial family.
Yun Jhin was unaware of what Zhu Cheng had thought out for him, and he wouldn't care much even if he knew, in the end, all of those that plotted against him ended up in two ways, killed or assimilated.
Now all he cared about was finishing another cauldron of pills that he could use to reach the fourth stage of the King Realm, if he got a slot to the Imperial tomb party it would be even better, who knew what type of things could be found inside the Imperial tomb of an Empire ruled by former pure Azure Dragons?
One thing was certain, the treasures inside would be of great help to the current Yun Jhin, who knows? Maybe he could even find some herbs that were created from some of the leftover essences of those previous God Realm experts that lived their last moments in the tombs, even though God Realm cultivators bodies would disappear once they died, some of them would leave some of their essences in the form of herbs or ores near the spots that they died.
Yun Jhin wouldn't mind getting his hands on some of these herbs, he could use them to further his cultivation after the pills he was currently using lost their effectivity, and they were doing it quite fast, he might not even reach the 6th stage of the King Realm as he wanted to, maybe at most the peak of the 4th stage.
He could feel that his body was innately resisting their medicinal properties along with his soul who was getting used to them, this was a thing about cultivators that refined their body that Yun Jhin didn't particularly like, they would get used to the pills effect faster, however, this also meant they had way fewer impurities left from pills in their bodies to the point that their refined bodies would innately reject this type of impurities automatically.
Yun Jhin sighed as he finished another cauldron of pills, it was time to refine his third jewel to the peak of its refinery stage and break through the 4th stage of the King Realm!