"You...!" Chengban had to forcibly suppress his anger through gritted teeth. "I will use treasures in exchange for this bet! What do you want in return?"

With everyone's eyes on him, even Chengban could not shamelessly refuse to acknowledge the earlier bet.

Therefore, he could only propose an alternative.

For country bumpkins who did not even belong to a major influence, surely promise of treasures would be too tempting to resist!

But what Chengban failed to recognise was that Lu Tianzi had even rejected an offer to become a core disciple of the Divine Storm Sect, so how would he care for the treasures that Chengban had to offer?

Lu Tianzi simply continued standing there, smiling at Chengban without saying a word.

"Do you want to do it now, or would you prefer I do it for you?" Dongquan Juewei could not watch on anymore. He just wanted to get this whole fiasco over and done with.

Chengban's expression darkened when he heard those words, and more so when he saw the looks of schadenfreude on the faces of the members of the Southern Faction.

Even some of the guests were wearing looks of amusement on their faces, seemingly not even trying to hide it.

How humiliating!

And yet, there was no helping it.

On this day at least, Dongquan Juewei was the man of greatest authority.

There was simply no defying his instructions.

Chengban glared at the hateful Lu Tianzi while slowly raising his trembling hand. With gritted teeth, he put strength behind his arm before slapping himself.

Pa-!

Pa-!

Pa-!

Three consecutive strikes resounded clearly across the silent main hall.

Chengban did not compromise on the strength behind the slaps.

He could not.

If he had compromised on the strength of the slaps, it would only be even more humiliating in the eyes of others!

"Are you satisfied now?" Dongquan Juewei asked with a tone that was as cold as before.

"I didn't want things to come to this either, but I believe it is only right to honour any bets made. I believe that's a virtue that the great Divine Storm Sect would advocate as well," Lu Tianzi clasped his fists towards Dongquan Juewei. "Sir Dongquan, if there's nothing else, I'd take my leave."

"Go," Dongquan Juewei's eyes shone with malice. "But please be careful from now on. After this incident, people who aren't fully in the know might actually think that you are on bad terms with the Divine Storm Sect and target you because they want to curry favour with us. We will try to clear the air about this matter as soon as possible, but it'd be best if you stay cautious as well."

Lu Tianzi narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Thank you for the warning, Sir Dongquan. I will be careful."

Dongquan Juewei turned back to the host of the ceremony. "Continue."

"Y-Yes!" the host quickly answered.

Nobody was interested in the host as he introduced the next item on the list.

All eyes were on Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue as they were led out of the main hall by a servant.

The servant was extremely tense from the stares, and even Nanlan Qianxue could not help but fidget uncomfortably.

Mengxi sighed in her heart. She knew that this was not going to be the end of it.

Even if the Divine Storm Sect did not do a thing, Dongquan Juewei's words at the end were like a signal to everyone who wanted to earn brownie points with the sect.

All of them would be begin to target Lu Tianzi just so they could gain a better standing in the eyes of the Divine Storm Sect.

In the end, it might have been a good thing that Lu Tianzi did not join their Southern Faction.

With his reckless personality, he might just do the faction more harm than good.

It was indeed as Dongquan Juewei said – talent alone was not enough to survive in this world!

Yet despite everyone's thoughts, it looked as though Lu Tianzi himself was oblivious to the danger he was in.

He completely ignored everyone's attention that had gathered upon him, exuding an air of confidence as he followed the servant out of the main hall.

"D-Do you wish to return to your room?" the servant asked nervously after they left the main hall.

"Don't worry, we didn't leave anything behind," Lu Tianzi shook his head. "Just lead us to the exit."

"Okay..." the servant did not want to dally further, quickly bringing them to the main exit of the Divine Storm Palace.

"Let's go," Lu Tianzi said to Nanlan Qianxue before heading straight for the city gate.

Nanlan Qianxue did not question Lu Tianzi's actions, simply following behind him in silence.

To everyone else on the street, they appeared to be just another passerby. But only they themselves knew what situation they were in.

Time was not on their side.

Before the banquet ended, they had to get as far away as possible!

Mengxi was not the only one who understood the underlying meaning behind Dongquan Juewei's words.

After having gone through so much, how could Lu Tianzi not know that it was not merely a threat?

It was equivalent to putting a bounty on their heads, calling everyone to punish them for the sake of the Divine Storm Sect!

Lu Tianzi knew this for a fact, and Nanlan Qianxue surmised as much from Lu Tianzi's actions.

Even so, the two of them did not hurry, maintaining a steady pace until they finally reached the city gate.

Speed was not the only thing that mattered.

Apart from that, they also had to put on a facade of not knowing that they were being pursued. Only then would any pursuers let down their guard, delaying any actions for the moment.

But everything changed the moment they exited the city gate.

"Go!" Lu Tianzi told Nanlan Qianxue through voice conveyance.

The two of them immediately sped up, shooting off into the distance.

Behind them, there were some people whose expressions suddenly changed.

The attendees of the wedding banquet were all people of at least a certain status, and all of them naturally had their own subordinates. These people might not have left the venue, but many of them had already passed down instructions to their subordinates waiting outside, asking them to keep an eye on Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue.

Having received their orders, their subordinates had been tailing Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue since they left the Divine Storm Palace, satisfied with the casual pace that the duo was taking.

Who knew that they would suddenly speed up like that?

"Damn it! Give chase!"

"Don't let them out of our sights!"

"Shit, how are they so fast?"

Lu Tianzi's level of perception had always been superior to others who were at his cultivation level. The moment these people gave chase, Lu Tianzi was able to lock onto each and everyone of them in return.

"One, two, three... twenty-two of them..." Lu Tianzi furrowed his brows.

Twenty-two Origin Core realm martial artists!

The number of pursuers was far more than he had expected.

Fortunately, all of them were only at the First or Second Origin Cycle. This made things far more manageable.

Lu Tianzi did not hesitate, directly dashing across the open space towards a group of tents that had been set up not far away from the city.

This group of tents was a small community of its own that existed solely because of the ridiculously high standards that Divine Storm City imposed on its residents.

According to Bocheng, this group of tents was the residential area for those who were either unable to enter the city, or those who could not afford the exorbitant rental prices within.

"What's going on?"

Many of the people staying in the tents caught sight of the twenty-four figures who were rapidly approaching.

"Looks like trouble. Quick, stay inside!" some seniors instructed their juniors to hide upon sensing the tension in the air.

The moment Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue reached the group of tents, they immediately split up, weaving in between the tents in a bid to lose their pursuers.

Their pursuers sneered in response.

Yes, the group of tents was messy and uncoordinated, making it such that there were countless blindspots that would be ideal for losing any pursuers.

However, they were all Origin Core realm martial artists!

Once they had locked onto their targets, how could anyone hide from their perceptions?

Or so, they thought.

But they were proven wrong at the very next moment.

"Where did the girl go?"

"Find her!"

"There's no way! It's like she just disappeared into thin air!"

"Damn it, there's no other choice. Let's just follow the guy!"

The twenty-two of them might serve different masters, but they understood that they all had the same goal. Therefore, they had already communicated beforehand, splitting into two groups that were supposed to pursue Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue respectively.

But now, their plan had been thrown into complete disarray.

Once they lost sight of Nanlan Qianxue, even searching with their perception was useless.

There was simply no way to find her!

With no other way around it, the two group could only join up and continue chasing after Lu Tianzi. After all, he was their main target from the start.

However, even that plan was not going to work.

With a sudden burst of speed, Lu Tianzi charged out of the group of tents, rapidly creating distance between them as he headed towards the north.

The pursuers immediately gave chase, but there was simply no way for them to keep up.

The distance between them only continued to increase, until Lu Tianzi completely escaped from the range of their perceptions!

"What?!" the pursuers was caught completely by surprise.

They continued searching towards the north for a while longer, but finally gave up one by one.

There was no use.

Even after they split up and searched in the north for an hour, they could not find even the faintest shadow of Lu Tianzi.

"Tch! Slippery bastard!"

"Let's go back and report the matter."

For lack of a better plan, the pursuers could only give up and return to the Divine Storm City.

Alternatively, they could have split up further and combed the cities to the north, but none of them wanted to take the chance.

After all, their opponent was someone who could defeat Chengban, a martial artist at the Fifth Cycle Origin Core realm.

If they were to encounter the other party alone, it was not difficult to imagine the fate that awaited them!

***

A good distance away, Lu Tianzi cancelled his beastial bloodline transformation when he noticed that the pursuers had finally given up.

His perception had always been far stronger than his peers. By remaining at a certain distance, Lu Tianzi was able to keep track of the pursuers' movements without revealing himself.

To do so, however, Lu Tianzi had to first create a huge distance between him and his pursuers.

Lu Tianzi might have his Flowing River Silent Strides, but it was only good for increasing his speed on the ground.

Faced with Origin Core realm pursuers who could easily fly across any obstacles, that alone was simply not enough for him to get away.

Therefore, Lu Tianzi had no choice but to activate his beastial bloodline transformation, using his powerful left wing to create a burst of speed far beyond what his pursuers were able to achieve.

In actuality, Lu Tianzi was not afraid of facing all twenty-two of them at once.

However, this could lead to a situation where he had to get rid of them all, and that was not something that he wanted to do.

He might have offended the Divine Storm Sect's Dongquan Juewei at the wedding, but Lu Tianzi did not want to create the same kind of enmity with the First Disciple's various subordinates.

If he were to kill all his pursuers, that would only give the other party more reason to go after him.

Rather than that, he would rather take the chance and hope that as a titan of an influence that the Divine Storm Sect was, they would be busy enough to forget about him soon enough.

After all, he did not actually injure or hurt any of their people, save for their pride.

Surely that was not enough to warrant mobilising their forces to seach for him?

Lu Tianzi took deep breaths to recover from his breathlessness, his body aching from the strain of his beastial bloodline transformation.

This beastial bloodline transformation had always been his trump card, but it seemed like his body was still unable to handle the physical strain.

The more he used it, the more Lu Tianzi was worried that it could cause some internal trauma to his body.

He let out a deep sigh.

In order to reduce the number of times he had to activate his beastial bloodline transformation, he really had to start working on improving his combat and movement techniques as soon as possible!