Chapter 18: The Chu Family’s Ultimate Double Standard

In the memories of his previous life, Chu Li’s fate had been quite different from now.

In the original timeline, after obtaining the Martial God Bone, he made successive breakthroughs, smoothly entered the Sacred Martial Academy, and repeatedly won matches in academy competitions, building quite a reputation.

Later, he even formed a demon-slaying team, traveling all over Great Xia to hunt demons, earning academy merit points while also improving his cultivation.

During this process, there were quite a few Heaven’s Pride geniuses who competed with him—one of them being Nangong Shi from the Nangong family.

But someone like Jiang Ying had never appeared in Chu Li’s memory.

“Perhaps it just wasn’t recorded in the original timeline. After all, Jiang Ying belongs to the Imperial Capital Martial Academy, not the Sacred Martial Academy.”

“Of the hundred names on the Heaven’s Pride Ranking, now that I think about it, only about a dozen actually showed up in the story. Jiang Ying might just be one of those who didn’t appear.”

With that thought, Chu Li withdrew his wandering mind and turned to look at the corpses scattered on the road.

Mount Yunlong lay in Yunzhou. Ever since strange phenomena had appeared on the mountain half a month ago, demons had started to appear frequently in the surrounding areas. The local authorities, overwhelmed, had neglected bandit suppression.

Over time, even this main road had become overrun with bandits, and all of Yunzhou had descended further into chaos.

Amid both natural disasters and human calamities, ordinary people naturally suffered terribly.

“You’re from Boyang? I’m from Pingye—there’s been a demon disaster there!”

“Same for us… there’s no going back. Our family of seven… how are we supposed to survive?”

“Me too… all we can do now is wander around looking for a meal.”

Among the gathered crowd, there were sighs and countless faces showing hopelessness.

Seeing this, Chu Li felt an even stronger sense of urgency to hunt demons, and together with Jiang Ying, they quickened their pace.

Half a day later, the two finally arrived at the foot of Mount Yunlong and at last saw their destination.

Looking up at the mountain, they saw it shrouded in mist faintly tinged with red, as if dyed in blood—strange and ominous.

In the small town at the foot of the mountain, though it was daytime, few pedestrians were in sight. Seeing this, Chu Li and Jiang Ying weren’t surprised, and headed toward the county yamen.

Students from the Martial Academy who went demon hunting had to register with the local authorities—this was the rule.

On the one hand, it allowed the local office to serve as witness, making it easier to claim merit points later at the academy. On the other hand, if the hunt failed, at least someone would know where they died and be able to collect the remains.

However, to their surprise, someone had arrived before them.

It was a demon-slaying team of four: three men and one woman, around the same age as Chu Li and Jiang Ying—but dressed quite differently.

Not only were their weapons at their waists finely crafted, but their clothes were also clearly expensive, marking them as sons and daughters of wealthy families from the imperial capital. Pride could be seen written plainly on their brows.

Even the officials from the county office kept bowing repeatedly, smiling obsequiously—obviously not daring to offend them.

“Are you two here to hunt the demons on Mount Yunlong?”

Seeing Chu Li and Jiang Ying enter, a county officer cupped his hands and stepped forward. Jiang Ying nodded slightly and replied:

“Yes, we’re from the Imperial Capital Martial Academy. We heard there are demons causing trouble on Mount Yunlong, so we came to eliminate them.”

“I see. In that case, please follow me to register.”

Hearing this, the county officer nodded repeatedly—but before he could finish, a mocking voice suddenly interrupted:

“Stop right there! Imperial Capital Martial Academy? A bunch of useless trash like you think you’re fit to hunt demons?”

“Exactly! With your half-baked skills, you dare fight us from the Sacred Martial Academy over demons? Unbelievable.”

“With us Sacred Martial Academy students here, hah, you think it’ll ever be your turn to slay demons?”

Hearing these few sentences, both Chu Li and Jiang Ying paused and turned to look to the side.

They saw a young man with an arrogant expression step out from among the four-person team, speaking coldly:

“I am Feng Jue from the Sacred Martial Academy. The demons on Mount Yunlong are ours to handle. Leave immediately.”

Feng Jue?

Hearing this name, Chu Li raised his brows in mild surprise.

The reason was simple: if he remembered correctly, the Feng family was under the influence of the Great Xia Martial God Hall.

In other words, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Chu family—they were a subordinate family.

As for Feng Jue himself, Chu Li also had some impression of him. In the original timeline, as part of the Chu family’s faction, Feng Jue had once tried to help Chu Li compete for a better academy ranking—but was unfortunately defeated by other teams.

Which led to the question: why would someone who should have been following the young master of the Chu family now show up here?

After thinking for a moment, Chu Li roughly guessed what had happened.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Feng Jue was growing increasingly impatient.

As a subordinate clan of the Great Xia Martial God Hall, the Feng family had always followed the Chu family’s lead, and naturally Feng Jue did too.

This time, Feng Jue’s team had come to Mount Yunlong not for themselves, but for the Chu family’s eldest young master, Chu Ming!

The Chu family’s most favored adopted son—young master Chu Ming—was known to all. However, Chu Ming’s martial cultivation was too low, only at the late-stage Qi Gathering Realm. Once he entered the academy, let alone competing for top place among his peers, he’d undoubtedly end up at the bottom.

To avoid this, the Chu family head, Chu Lingtian, made arrangements: ordering disciples from subordinate clans under the Martial God Hall to help Chu Ming accumulate merit points.

Feng Jue had come to Mount Yunlong precisely for this reason, so he absolutely couldn’t let anyone else interfere.

“You didn’t hear me? I told you two to get lost, didn’t I?”

Seeing that Chu Li and Jiang Ying still hadn’t moved, Feng Jue shouted harshly. Chu Li responded coldly,

“Master Feng, hunting demons relies on skill. There’s no such thing as ‘first come, first served.’ Why should we leave?”

“That’s right—you hunt yours, we’ll hunt ours. It doesn’t concern each other,” Jiang Ying added, supporting Chu Li’s words.

But unexpectedly, Feng Jue grew furious upon hearing this.

“Oh? You two useless scraps from the Martial Academy dare to speak as equals to us from the Sacred Martial Academy?”

“Let me tell you, this time we’re not doing this for ourselves—but to hunt demons for Young Master Chu Ming of the Chu family!”

“The Chu family under the Martial God Hall—you think you can afford to offend them?”

“If you know what’s good for you, scram right now! Otherwise, don’t blame us for being rude!”

As expected.

Looking at Feng Jue, who was shouting about “Young Master Chu Ming” of the Chu family, Chu Li found it deeply ironic.

Chu Ming—an adopted son—was now even honored with the title of “Young Master.”

Yet Chu Li, a true blood descendant of the Chu family, was standing right in front of the Chu family’s subordinates—and they had no idea who he was.

But Chu Li no longer cared about any of that. After all, he had already severed ties with the Chu family.

What truly saddened him was seeing that the Chu family—founded by their Martial God ancestor—had fallen so far.

That the family head, Chu Lingtian, could do something so foolish!

Once, when Chu Li asked the Martial God Hall for some healing pills, Chu Lingtian sternly refused under the excuse of “keeping public and private matters separate.”

But now, for Chu Ming’s sake, he had mobilized all the Martial God Hall’s subordinate forces to earn merit points for him?

Such double standards—utterly laughable!

Feeling this bitterness, Chu Li shook his head with a cold laugh, all his words stuck in his chest, leaving him both pained and helpless.

The next moment, darkness clouded his vision, and a metallic taste of blood welled up in his throat—forcing Chu Li to cut off his thoughts.

“So this is what ‘hurting one’s emotions’ means?”

Nearly fainting, Chu Li remembered Elder Mu’s warning. Just then, Feng Jue’s impatient voice rang out again:

“I told you, this is Young Master Chu Ming’s mission! Are you two still not leaving?”

“And what if I refuse?”

“What did you just say!?”

Hearing Chu Li’s calm yet chilling words, Feng Jue’s gaze turned sharp.

In the next moment, the system’s notification sound chimed:

【Ding】

【You have received a new mission】

【Beat the Dog】

【The dog barked — now it’s time to beat it】

【Mission difficulty: ★ (one star)】