Sun Hua took a few steps back from the slap, a clear imprint of five fingers on his face.
Yang Chao's expression darkened. Sun Hua was his loyal subordinate, and not only had Yang Hai stolen Hu Lie's credit to claim the reward, but he also took the opportunity to deliberately hurt his man.
"Big brother, you've gone too far!" Yang Chao said in barely suppressed anger.
"Gone too far?" Yang Hai glanced at Yang Chao and said, "What, you want to fight for your subordinate? Yang Chao, don't blame your elder brother for not reminding you, accidents happen in a fight!"
Upon hearing this, Yang Chao grew furious and said, "Fine, then let me experience your superior moves!" With that, he assumed a fighting stance.
Seeing this, Yang Hai snorted coldly, set down Hu Lie's head, and without another word, he slid forward, closing the gap, and hurled a punch towards Yang Chao's chest.
This punch was the Yang Family Manor's Fierce Tiger Killing Fist, and it was the strongest move of the technique.
Yang Chao, in response, circulated his Innate Qi and also threw a punch upwards.
Boom!
Their fists collided with each other.
Yang Chao was knocked back several steps from the impact.
Although both were at the fourth level of Innate, Yang Chao had just entered this level, while Yang Hai had long been in the late stages of the fourth level of Innate. In terms of True Yuan, Yang Hai had a clear advantage over Yang Chao.
Yang Hai sneered and rushed forward again, his fists attacking Yang Chao relentlessly, giving him no chance to catch his breath.
Under the continuous fierce attacks from Yang Hai, after more than a dozen moves, Yang Chao was driven to desperate straits.
Just then, Yang Ming arrived with a large group of guards from a distance, and shouted, "Stop!"
"Father," Yang Hai hurriedly approached Yang Ming and said, "I discovered Hu Lie first. My second brother wanted to snatch Hu Lie's head. He struck at me, and I had no choice but to fight back."
Yang Ming glanced at Hu Lie's head in the distance and nodded.
Yang Chao stepped forward to explain, "Father, I discovered Hu Lie's body first. It was the big brother who..."
"Silence!" Yang Ming didn't wait to hear the rest and rebuked, "Dare to quibble? For a mere Hu Lie's head, you turned on your brother. You and your son are just the same."
It was clear that Yang Ming still remembered how Yang Xiaotian had hurt his beloved grandson, Yang Zhong, at the family's annual competition.
"Go back and reflect on where you went wrong!" Yang Ming coldly huffed at Yang Chao and then left with Yang Hai and the guards.
Yang Chao stood still, watching his father Yang Ming's retreating figure, his expression grim.
"Second Manor Lord, are you alright?" a few Yang Family Manor guards came up to Sun Hua and asked with concern.
Yang Chao looked at them, feeling a warmth in his heart, and shook his head: "I'm fine."
Sun Hua said indignantly, "It was clearly the Great Manor Lord who stole the Second Manor Lord's reward. Not only did the Manor Lord not listen to your explanation, Second Manor Lord, but he also scolded you."
"The Manor Lord is too biased towards the Great Manor Lord."
Yang Chao looked up with a sigh and fell silent.
Since his Martial Soul was not as good as his big brother's, his father had favored his older brother since childhood. Now with Yang Zhong awakening a top-tier level 10 Martial Soul, his father's favoritism towards his big brother and Yang Zhong grew even stronger.
"Let's head back too." Yang Chao's voice was somewhat dejected.
Meanwhile, Yang Xiaotian had arrived at the mountain valley cave abode and sat down on the Cold Jade Bed, swallowing a Four Symbols Spirit Pill.
Immediately, the strength of the Spirit Pill turned into rolling waves of heat.
Yang Xiaotian quickly began to practice the Primordial Dragon Art.
The force of the Spirit Pill was continuously converted into Fighting Spirit within Yang Xiaotian's body.
As the Fighting Spirit in his body grew stronger and stronger, suddenly, there was a booming sound inside Yang Xiaotian. The barrier of Innate was finally broken through.
At this moment, all the Fighting Spirit in his meridians converged at the Dantian, swirling and condensing into a massive cyclone.
Several hours later, Yang Xiaotian stopped.
Peering into his Dantian at the large cyclone, his face lit up with joy.
After breaking through from the Acquired realm to the Innate realm, a cyclone would form in the Dantian.
This meant that he had indeed successfully stepped into the realm of the Innate.
Once one steps into the Innate, in the Martial Soul World, one's status is completely transformed, with a sky-high difference between Innate and Acquired realms.
In places like Yang Family Manor, Acquired masters could only serve as guards, whereas an Innate Grandmaster would be an esteemed guest.
In the entire Yang Family Manor, there were only seven Innate Grandmasters.
However, the cyclone in his own Dantian was somewhat large; typically, an Innate Grandmaster's cyclone would only be the size of a fist, but his was several meters across.
But the larger the cyclone, the more profound the True Qi.
This was a great thing.
Yang Xiaotian emerged from his cave dwelling and came to an open space in the valley, holding the Heaven-Penetrating Divine Sword and again performing the first move of the Heaven-Penetrating Sword Technique.
"One Sword Yin Yang!"
Instantly, a stream of Sword Qi shot from the tip of the sword, and then the Sword Qi suddenly split in two, swiftly penetrating the mountain wall in the distance, creating two startling sword holes tens of meters apart on the wall.
Previously, when he was still in the Acquired realm, Yang Xiaotian could unleash only one stream of Sword Qi with this move, unable to split it into two, so he could not bring out the true power of the technique.
Now, having entered the Innate realm, he could finally unleash the full power of this move.
Afterward, Yang Xiaotian took out the Heaven-Penetrating Secret Manual and flipped to the second move; now that he had entered the Innate realm, he could practice it.
Soon, Yang Xiaotian memorized the second move in his mind. However, he was not in a rush to practice. Instead, he mentally rehearsed it before executing the move with his sword.
He practiced the sword technique for a while, and as the sky began to brighten, Yang Xiaotian hurried back to Yang Family Manor.
Upon returning to Yang Family Manor, he did not sleep but took out Hu Lie's Soul Severing Blade Technique to study.
According to the book, the Soul Severing Blade Technique was an Innate martial arts technique from the Soul Severing Sect of the neighboring Tiandou Imperial Kingdom.
Yang Xiaotian quickly went through the Soul Severing Blade Technique and then, using a tree branch as a substitute for a blade, practiced in the courtyard; the Soul Severing Blade Technique consisted of sixty-four moves, and Yang Xiaotian practiced from the first move to the last.
"Innate martial arts don't seem that hard to cultivate," Yang Xiaotian thought to himself.
His father had said that it often took months of hard work to fully learn an Innate technique.
But he had learned it all with just one reading.
Just then, his sister Yang Ling'er walked in, her face puffed up with anger.
Yang Xiaotian was curious and asked, "Little sister, what's wrong?"
With Yang Zhong not around, there shouldn't be any kids bullying her at Yang Family Manor.
"It's our uncle; he took father's bounty," Yang Ling'er said furiously, then explained how Yang Hai had claimed the bounty for Hu Lie's head.
Of course, she too had heard it from a few guards of Yang Family Manor.
Yang Ling'er angrily said, "Father mentioned that with those three thousand gold coins, he could have bought you three portions of Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid, and then you could have broken through to the second tier."
Upon hearing this, Yang Xiaotian laughed. So this was what really bothered the little girl.
Feeling warmth in his heart, he touched his cute sister's face and said with a smile, "Don't worry, even without those three portions of Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid, your big brother will break through to the second tier very soon."