Jiang Xiaoxiao had a blank, defiant look on her face, which angered Zhu Yan.
"Little miss, didn't anyone teach you that there are consequences for making bold claims?"
He said, standing up and a cold, mocking sneer appeared on his face.
"To prevent outsiders from laughing at me, the examiner, for bullying you, here's the deal - I'll let you have three punches. If you can knock me down within those three punches, I'll exempt you from the rest of the exam."
"Three punches?"
"What, are you scared? If you're scared, just admit defeat now while you still have the chance."
Zhu Yan's mocking grew even more, "Although I don't know where you stole those talisman papers from, if you can acknowledge your mistake in time and leave the inn voluntarily, I'll be magnanimous and not pursue it further. Otherwise..."
He trailed off, his tone carrying a dangerous warning, "the consequences could be dire!"
Jiang Xiaoxiao was still pondering what he had said about the "three punches".
Zhu Yan saw her head bowed and snorted disdainfully, then rubbed his brow, somewhat exasperated with himself.
Why was he wasting time engaging in a meaningless contest with a little girl who was no match for him?
The atmosphere in the hall was somber for a moment, then Jiang Xiaoxiao suddenly spoke up, "Just now you said that if I can knock you down within three punches, you'll exempt me from the rest of the exams?"
"Of course."
Knowing the other was just a delicate flower, Zhu Yan's earlier agitated mood had completely settled.
"The condition is that you can't rely on any external forces."
He said this just to make the delicate flower back down.
But to his surprise, the delicate flower looked at him again, "And if I can knock you down with one punch, can I directly become the Director?"
Exams, how troublesome, Jiang Xiaoxiao preferred to solve everything with her fists at once.
After a pause, she politely asked again, "Or is there a condition even if I can knock you down with one punch? If so, what level of injury would I need to inflict - a flesh wound? Internal injury? Partial disability? Total disability? Brain damage? - for me to become the Director, you can set the requirement."
Zhu Yan spat out a mouthful of tea.
With such a delicate, gentle appearance and polite tone, she was actually spouting such arrogant and presumptuous words!
Damn it, this is so infuriating!
Slamming down the teacup, Zhu Yan's face turned extremely ugly, "You impudent girl, don't act so shameless!"
"Oh, are we going to fight now? If you don't mind the table and chairs getting damaged, I can do it right here in the room."
Jiang Xiaoxiao still had a docile expression on her face.
Clenching his fists, Zhu Yan's facial muscles twitched, and he was already fuming with rage. He shouted, "Go outside, I want to see what skills you have to come up here and spout such nonsense!"
The servants quickly set up a sparring platform.
Aside from Xie Xun and a few others, Zhu Yan's personal servants were also standing by to watch the spectacle.
The things Jiang Xiaoxiao had said in the front hall had already spread, and they were discussing and sneering.
They couldn't understand whether it was the little miss on the stage who was crazy, or if it was the Supervisor Gu who was crazy, actually daring to pit a little girl against their Lord Zhu.
After all, Lord Zhu was the personal disciple of the Grand Master, and once he became the Director of the Yin Yang Office, he would be a big shot who could walk around Yanjing City with impunity.
If she had just acknowledged her mistake and left, she could have retained some dignity. But now that it had come to the stage, not only would the girl lose face, so would the Supervisor Gu for shamelessly indulging her reckless behavior.
The servants snickered, then turned their gaze to the platform.
The two stood on the platform, facing each other from a great distance.
Zhu Yan's patience had run out, and he said, "Little miss, if you're ready, begin!"
Jiang Xiaoxiao rubbed her chin with her finger, as if in deep thought, muttering softly, "I still have to talk to him after this, can't completely disable him... After all, it's our first meeting, partial disability might also be impolite, so internal injury it is!"
Zhu Yan heard every word of this, and a raging fire instantly burned on his head.
Just as he was about to curse her out, Jiang Xiaoxiao suddenly charged at him with lightning speed, and before he could even see clearly, she landed a heavy punch right on his chest.
The punch was so powerful that it felt like it could have punched through him.
Even though Zhu Yan had quickly mobilized his spiritual energy to protect himself, he still heard the sound of his rib bones shattering.
Soon, he could no longer hold back, and a mouthful of blood spewed out.
His legs unstable, Zhu Yan collapsed to the ground.
Jiang Xiaoxiao looked down at him, "One fractured rib on the left side, is that enough for me to become the Director? If not, I'll add another one, and if that's still not enough, I'll just shatter them all."
It was as if she was asking a street vendor if the price could be lowered a bit. If this price won't do, I'll add another rib.
Clutching his chest, Zhu Yan suddenly realized that he had underestimated this girl - her strength was definitely not just empty talk.
"Hahaha..." Zhu Yan suddenly burst into laughter, his face twisted in rage, "You brat, you've injured me, do you think you can just walk out of here alive?"
He then sat down cross-legged on the spot, and after resting for a moment, a massive Qimen formation appeared beneath him.
Seeing this, Supervisor Gu's expression immediately changed, "Oh no!"
It seemed Zhu Yan had mastered the Qimen Divination Technique, and if he used it against Jiang Xiaoxiao, she might not be able to win.
"Your Highness, this..."
He wanted to ask Xie Xun if he should stop the match immediately.
However, before he could speak, Jiang Xiaoxiao had already been drawn into Zhu Yan's Qimen formation.
The brim of Xie Xun's hat creased slightly as his brows furrowed.
After much inner struggle, he chose to trust Jiang Xiaoxiao.
Now that Zhu Yan had already lost his temper, even if he went up to stop the match, with his abilities, he wouldn't be able to help Jiang Xiaoxiao, and would only end up causing more trouble for her.
...
Although Zhu Yan's Qimen Divination Technique wasn't exactly top-notch, he could still easily manipulate the powers of the Eight Trigrams.
The first one he summoned was the Fire of Separation.
He pushed his hands forward, and two raging fires rapidly flew towards Jiang Xiaoxiao. These flames were a hundred times hotter than normal fire, and if they touched the skin, it would instantly turn to ashes.
Jiang Xiaoxiao stood still.
She was looking for the position of Zhu Yan's right ribs.
As the two fires approached her, she nimbly slipped past the Fire of Separation, and quickly landed a heavy punch on the spot she had targeted earlier.
Zhu Yan, who had been struck again, was greatly alarmed.
The Qimen Divination Technique should not only be able to manipulate the powers of the Eight Trigrams, but also allow him to predict the opponent's attack patterns in advance.
Yet, just like before, he couldn't react in time, and two more of his right ribs were broken.
Jiang Xiaoxiao crouched down, looking at the blood-vomiting Zhu Yan on the ground, and without any expression of triumph or mockery, she asked with determination, "Now that I've added two more ribs on the right side, can I become the Director?"
With three ribs broken in succession, even though Zhu Yan had spiritual energy protecting him, he couldn't hold on anymore.
The Qimen formation on the ground quickly disappeared, and he was drenched in sweat from the pain, his gaze towards Jiang Xiaoxiao filled with hatred and a hint of indescribable fear.
Why? Even his Qimen Divination Technique couldn't predict her attack pattern?
This girl, who is she?
