Chen Feng felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning, staggering to his feet, his eyes filled with an ineffable shock. "Felia, what did you just say?"

Felia turned her back, unable to meet his gaze. Her long, flowing hair obscured half her face as she stood perfectly still before him.

Chen Feng strode forward and seized her shoulders, his manner bordering on frenzied. "Say that again! Why won't you tell the truth..."

Gu Bo’s voice chimed in at the most inappropriate moment. "Patriarch Qigu, so this is how the Kenth family behaves once their true colors are exposed?"

Qigu roared, "Chen Feng, stop!" With a sweep of his hand, the men behind Chen Feng surged forward and restrained him.

"Kneel!" Qigu commanded.

Chen Feng’s mind was a battlefield. Rage, sorrow, regret—a tempest of emotions crashed over him. His head throbbed, his vision blurred. He flung out his arms, unleashing the swirling power of his Qi vortex; the men holding him suddenly found themselves unable to grasp him.

Gu Bo sneered. "The severity of the martial lineage's clan rules—I am truly enlightened! Openly defying the Patriarch’s command. Well done, truly well done!"

Qigu’s face cycled rapidly between red and pale. "Ungrateful whelp! Are you not kneeling yet!" He turned to an elder beside him. "Elder Yuqing, coveting another’s possessions and acquiring them through improper means—how does the clan law dictate this be handled?"

Elder Yuqing, the clan's enforcer, hesitated, glancing at the almost crazed Chen Feng. "This... according to the clan rules, he should have an arm crippled..."

Qigu declared, "Good! Why haven't you moved? Cripple this reprobate’s arm!"

Hearing this, Felia gasped first. She started to speak, to stop it, but ultimately bit back the words. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks as she lowered her head, daring not to look at Chen Feng again.

Several servants stepped forward and grabbed Chen Feng. One of them kicked him hard on the inside of his knee. Chen Feng cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground.

He could not believe he had been forced to his knees twice in the span of barely fifteen minutes!

Chen Feng could not endure such humiliation. The Qi vortex in his arms began to spin, unleashing a series of swift blows. Several sharp cracks echoed, and the servants behind him were sent flying sideways. A faint, scorching smell rose from every spot they had been struck—utterly bizarre.

"Chen Feng, don't be reckless..." Elder Yuqing urged anxiously. Openly defying the Patriarch in the main hall meant expulsion from the family. The immediate consequence of expulsion was the loss of familial protection. If nothing else, the Leve family would never forgive him. How could a mere fourteen-year-old survive on his own outside?

Thirty years ago, the Bart family expelled their eighteenth young master. This young master starved and froze outside, eventually dying at the hands of street thugs, primarily because he had stolen and eaten leftover scraps from a restaurant patron's dish out of sheer starvation.

Once a child of a major family is cast out, they first face endless insults, followed by bullying. Living under the indifferent gazes of others became profoundly oppressive, causing them to lose the will to live, resulting in no good end for any of them—all dying young, destitute, and alone.

Elder Yuqing had practically watched Chen Feng grow up, treating him like a treasure in his palm when he was small. Even after discovering Chen Feng was considered an imbecile, incapable of mastering the control of Dou Qi, the deep-seated affection remained. Hearing Qigu’s decree, Yuqing finally spoke up to dissuade him.

Harry watched the unfolding scene with a cold gaze, then suddenly let out a derisive chuckle.

Qigu interpreted the sound as a direct mockery of his incompetence. His fury intensified. He leaped down from the high platform, walked right up to Chen Feng, raised his hand, and slapped him across the face.

With a sharp smack, Chen Feng was sent flying sideways!

As a First-Rank Fighter, Qigu’s power, even without channeling Dou Qi, was terrifying. Chen Feng’s head spun; his body tumbled to the ground, and he spat out two teeth tinged with blood.

But before he could rise, Qigu strode forward, seized his left arm, and twisted it violently!

CRACK...

"Aargh..." Chen Feng screamed, cold sweat trickling from his neck into his tunic. His left arm was broken cleanly at the shoulder. It looked like even powerful Light Magic would require numerous sessions to heal this injury!

After snapping the arm, Qigu swayed slightly and returned to his seat.

Chen Feng clutched his broken left arm with his right hand, kneeling on one knee. The searing pain threatened to send him into unconsciousness, but the fire of fury inside him kept him terrifyingly lucid. Tears and sweat mixed with the blood, painting his face in mottled red and white.

So this was how the world worked. Explanations were utterly useless. He had been naive enough to believe Felia could offer an explanation for him, only to discover it was all a setup—a trap designed to ensnare him!

Felia’s face turned the color of parchment, utterly devoid of blood. She frantically pulled out the spiritual medicine used for healing wounds the day before, intending to apply it to Chen Feng, but Chen Feng flicked his right hand, knocking it away.

The white porcelain vial containing the medicine tumbled end over end in the air before shattering on the polished floor with a loud smash. The liquid splashed everywhere.

"I don't need your appeasement!" Chen Feng roared at Felia, his voice trembling.

Felia stood frozen where she was, trembling as if stunned. The once bright light in her eyes had been replaced by a dead, ashen gray.

Qigu stared down at Chen Feng as if he were looking at a stranger, not his son. "Chen Feng has violated clan rules and caused a disturbance in the council hall. His arm shall be broken, and he is expelled from the family!"

"Expelled? Hahaha..." Chen Feng sounded as if he had just heard the finest joke in existence. He struggled to stand. "Fine! Even if this family begs me to return in the future, I will not! Hahaha..."

A ferocious grin stretched across his red-and-white face. Chen Feng, clutching his broken arm, looked like a demon god. "What happened today—as long as I live, I will return! I will come back!" He bent down, picked up the two teeth knocked out earlier, wiped the blood from them, tucked them into his robe, and his eyes blazed with sharp light. His gaze fell first on Harry, then on Qigu... and finally on Felia. "I will have revenge! For this arm! And for these two teeth! In two years—two years from now—I will make you pay in blood!"

With that, he turned to walk away. Just as he reached the exit, a servant blocked his path.

"Expulsion requires review by the clan elders; you cannot depart so easily..." stated the butler of the Kenth family.

"Get out of the way!" Chen Feng growled, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

"Without the Patriarch's permission, Fifth Young Master, you cannot leave..."

The butler never finished his sentence. He saw a fist rapidly enlarge before his eyes, then his mind went dark, his consciousness draining away forever.

Chen Feng held his broken left arm with his right hand and walked forward. The servants ahead of him recoiled in terror as they saw him smash the butler’s skull into powder with one punch, brain matter splattering everywhere!

This was clearly a God of Slaughter...

The assembled crowd in the hall was stunned that Chen Feng dared to kill someone so openly, and with such brutal finality. In that moment of shock, Chen Feng had already swept out of the hall, vanishing into the courtyard like a wisp of smoke...

"Issue a Clan Order—Chen Feng, Code Jia Pursuit Order! Anyone who encounters him may kill him on sight..." Qigu roared, his face twisted in a grimace...

The Code Jia Pursuit Order was the highest level of kill order in the Kenth family, almost always signifying a fight to the death!

Harry Leve stood up. "Patriarch Qigu has handled this matter with relative fairness. I shall take my leave then! However, the Jade Bangle is a heritage treasure of my family, and I must reclaim it!" Ignoring Qigu's assent, he strode toward the exit. As he stepped out of the council hall, his voice dropped to a low command for his retinue behind him: "You few, capture Chen Feng for me..."

Felia stood silently where she was, gazing in the direction Chen Feng had vanished. After a long moment, the tears could no longer be held back and poured down. She murmured to herself, "I'm sorry, Chen Feng... I only wanted to save my brother..."

PS: To ensure everyone enjoys the reading today, I've decided to release four chapters! This is the first update. Throw all your recommendation tickets, watermelon tickets, movie tickets, food vouchers, and grain stamps my way! Hehe!