"Mo Yangling! How dare you behave in such a disrespectful manner in front of the King!"
Mo Yangling raised an eyebrow when hearing his father's question.
"Amitabha, what disrespect are you talking about Clan Head?! I just showed up! At least wait for me to do something before shouting!"
The Monk shouted without an ounce of shame as he walked forward, ignoring the gazes on him with a bored look on his face.
"Y-you!?! How dare you act like this in front of the Clan Head and the King!" One of the elders of the Mo Family, Mo Wang, spoke out as well, but Mo Yangling just shot him a sideways glance.
Mo Yangling seemed genuinely confused for a moment, then he started looking around.
Ignoring the scared and judgemental gazes, he took notice of everyone's attire, including those of the elders.
Then, he looked up to Guo Zhu, the King, who was the only other person in the room wearing golden attire.
Only at that point did it click for him.
"Oh, that's what it was! I didn't know gold was reserved for the king..."
On the side, Kong Tingfeng looked down at the Monk with an annoyed gaze, he immediately addressed the King.
"You disrespectful rat! At this point, no one can save you from execution! Your Majesty, how shall we deal with this bastard?!"
Unbeknownst to the Clan Heads and those around them, Mo Yangling and the King were, at that moment, locked into a staring contest.
Guo Zhu's eyes widened as he looked at the young man, who seemed to match the intensity of his gaze and withstand the pressure without even blinking.
Every person within that hall stilled in silence as the crushing presence of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator descended onto Mo Yangling's shoulders.
This time, the majority of the younger generation near the monk fainted just from being in the relative vicinity of the target.
However, the actual target seemed more annoyed than anything.
"Amitabha, enough with this bullshit. Why do you old fucks always have to flop your Internal Energy on the table like it's the only chip you've got?"
The King blinked a few times, perplexed as he immediately stopped applying pressure.
Meanwhile, Mo Weisheng trembled, fille with both frustration and fear for his son's fate. No one survived after disrespecting the king.
'Why... Why must you make it so difficult for me to protect you!?'
But Mo Yangling didn't care about his 'father's protection. He didn't feel the need to be protected.
He saw the King as powerful, maybe even close to his Brother Ren, but he was also confident in his own strength enough to not feel pressured by him.
"F-Father allow me to be the one to crush this ant! He shouldn't dare to make such comments towards the crown!"
The First Prince also walked forward from his father's side, but Guo Zhu just shot him a glance, forcing him to back down instantly.
"Just stand down and look... Let's see how capable this 'Mo Yangling' is first..." The King sighed as he tried to teach his first son how to properly use his subordinates.
'Why must you step up personally when there are others to do it for you? You mustn't demean yourself so easily.'
Meanwhile, the Third Princess, Guo Cuifen was also shocked and stupefied at seeing her former fiancee's new appearance and demeanor.
'W-what? Don't tell me he's pulling such a stunt to impress me... Even if he's cultivated a bit, to think that he'd dare to disrespect Father like this...'
"Mo Yangling, was it? You have a good spirit. But only the strong can stand that proud in the Guozhi Kingdom...
Only if you win today's Grand Assembly will you be spared from execution, do you understand?"
Guo Zhu's words seemed to take many by surprise, they expected him to just continue killing Mo Yangling with his pressure alone.
"Such a merciful king!" "Praise be!" "To think he'd receive the lord's grace!"
Many elders and members of the younger generation were surprised by their king's generous and merciful nature.
But the Monk still looked unimpressed.
'What? Is he just using me for publicity or something? Two can play that game... I was done with keeping a low profile anyway, I've already judged the strength of the cultivators here anyway.'
"Amitabha, fine... But let's make things more interesting..." The Monk smiled as he looked the King in the eye, displaying the same confidence from before.
He then turned to walk towards one of the tables nearby, grabbing a glass of wine whilst the other Young Master nearby made way for him, not wanting to gain the gaze of the King on them.
He then turned and walked towards the platform standing on it before looking back up at the king.
"If we are to fight for entertainment, may as well make it interesting. Whoever makes me spill a drop of this wine wins automatically ~"
The King smiled when hearing that, much to the shock of anyone looking up at him.
"Fine! If you wish to entertain us then so be it!" The King's loud voice thundered through the grand hall, many going pale just from hearing the feral excitement within it.
"Don't misunderstand King, this is also for my own entertainment..." The Monk returned his wide smile with one of his own as he continued to drink from the glass of wine.
"Hmph, you've grown quite arrogant, Mo Yangling! You are nothing but the Mo Family's rejected trash."
Before anyone had even realized it, a person walked up on stage, a young man with a very wide smile plastered on his face.
'Heh, I just have to beat up this bastard?! Easiest layup of my life! Since he's offended the King then whoever beats him gets plenty of benefits!'
The elders from above were also cheering their students on to go ahead and crush Mo Yangling, their gazes burning holes into him.
The Grand Elder of the Mo Clan looked quite a bit different, his gaze was more reserved than anything.
'Holy shit, why does my head hurt when I look at that brat?! And why is he humiliating our Mo Family like this?
Well, he did withstand the King's pressure treasure or not that's bound to leave a good impression on the King, so I guess I'll just watch and see what he's up to...'
Meanwhile, many in the audience who knew who Mo Yangling was cussed silently, feeling that they had missed the opportunity.
Only Mo Qiao among them knew that it wouldn't have been much of an opportunity.
'Honestly, we'll all be lucky if we manage to make him move a step away from his current position...'
And in the stands above, Guo Cuifen looked more bemused than anything. She knew very well the type of person Mo Yangling used to be.
He had never been the type to act so boldly in front of that many people. Even if he seemed more capable than before she doubted that it would end well.
When seeing his opponent, the monk just shook his head in front of the Low-Stage Martial Soldier who had stepped up to challenge him.
"Who are you exactly? Wait! Before you answer... I don't care either..."
All that the monk could tell was that it was one of his Clansmen attacking him.
'Maybe one of the kids that used to bully Mo Yangling...? He expected me to remember him after all...'
"Hmph! You'll sure remember my name after today!" The skinny young man immediately unsheathed the blade on his back and rushed the monk with a swordsmanship that he already knew very well.
'Wow... So it wasn't just Mo Qiao's instructors that were bad...'
The Martial Soldeir rushed the Monk, who didn't even more and only looked at him with pity.
The young man immediately thrust his sword at the Monk's head, a move that he was all too familiar with.
In the audience, Mo Qiao couldn't help but wince when seeing the young man's move.
'Oof, that's not going to end up well...'
And like she predicted, Mo Yangling just tilted his head to the side.
But this time he didn't even bother to enter the Horse Stance, he just extended his free hand forward into a punch.
The Martial Soldier did try to duck underneath the punch, but it was just too fast for him.
In an instant, his nose was broken and he was sent flying, tumbling in the air as he eventually crashed into the wall on the other side of the hall.
"Amitabha, one cannot have fun with this quality of opponents..." The monk shook his head and took another small sip of wine.
"Seems like the Mo Clan does not have that many talents tonight, Brother Mo..." Another person walked up at that moment, one that Mo Yangling was more familiar with.
"Oh, if it isn't Brother Luo Qiu! I see you've brought a glass for yourself already." Mo Yangling eyed the second Young Master of the Luo family with quite a bit of interest.
Instead of coming up with his weapon unsheathed, the young man had come up with a glass of wine of his own.
"What the hell is that young man doing?" "Why is he wasting our time like this... Tsk."
Many of the elders above started complaining loudly, but they immediately shut the fuck up when the King shot them a glance.
Luo Qiu and Mo Yangling seemed to not care about the situation above though, they were just catching up.
"Of course, we did say that we were to drink a glass tonight... I just was not expecting it to be under these circumstances, hoho~"
Luo Qiu was dressed in light blue robes, bearing the sigil of the Luo Clan on them. His long hair arranged nicely, as well as his sharp and slender features, were a direct contrast to the Monk, who looked more like a barbarian at that point.
"Bah, who cares? Let's toast at least! I have some losers to beat up afterwards!"
The Monk immediately walked up to Luo Qiu and raised his glass.
The 2nd Young Master of the Luo Family smiled, immediately raising his glass as well, but instead of nicely clinging them together, he immediately pushed his further, aiming to tip the monk's glass over.
'Don't blame me for this, Mo Yangling, you've brought this upon yourself.'
But Mo Yangling seemed to have expected that, moving his wine glass backwards almost instantly and taking a sip before any wine was spilt.
"Wow! Hahaha~ I must admit that was smart, Brother Luo! Especially since you only moved the arm I expected you to, that actually could have worked if you were faster! I won't hit your face for that, since it was a good attempt."
"Thank you... I knew beating you was not an option, figured that I'd at least try..." Luo Qiu just shook his head and took a sip from his drink before placing it on the ground and crossing his arms in front of him.
In the next instant, the Monk's leathery palm struck the man's guard, sending him flying backwards into the crowd, just forcefully enough to make sure he wouldn't land back in the arena, but just gentle enough to allow him to land gracefully.
Murmurs immediately spread about Mo Yangling's strength and control, though one question still entered everyone's minds.
"So, who's up next?"
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Heyoo, know how I said that I'd try to upload a bit sooner today? Yea, that didn't happen.
Actually, didn't even get to read/proofread much either, literally worked all day. Hope its more freer tomorrow
It's been so busy that I didn't even get the chance to thank everyone for their support and the power stones spent on this story last week.
Even if we didn't reach the 250 goal we still got close to it. I'll try to make up for it this week and upload more chapters by the end ;)
If you want to support me and read up to 24 chapters ahead you can find me on Patr_eon by looking up 'VeganMaster'