Chapter 316: Arrogant Families

The dense, bustling streets of the central district’s market plaza were completely packed with thousands of cultivators. The crisp morning air hung heavy with the smell of spiritual herbs and raw martial energy. Tony Clark stood quietly near the shadow of a massive stone pillar, his hands casually tucked into the deep pockets of his dark hunting cloak.

His Void Dragon’s Shadow Bow remained fully hidden beneath the black fabric. Over the past two days, Tony had deliberately refrained from touching a single cauldron. Instead, he utilized his Truth Eye to gather intelligence on the absolute forces dominating this city.

He had just arrived in this massive, sprawling central city from his smaller hometown, but his name had already traveled ahead of him like a violent storm. The martial network of this realm was a singular, hyper-connected system. The moment Tony had shattered the Black Iron Stone pillar at the Black Fire Academy and vaporized the elite Vance clan elders, the news had been blasted across every communication device on the continent. The local merchant guilds, rogue factions, and aristocratic clans had spent the last forty-eight hours frantically analyzing the sudden rise of the “talentless orphan archer” who had brutally upended the regional power balance. He was already a marked man, a viral sensation whose sheer audacity had deeply offended the entrenched nobility of the capital.

Through the market networks, he had perfectly deduced that this grand central city was governed by a tight, ruthless alliance of four supreme powerhouses, each controlling a completely different sector of society: the Faith Family managed the premier alchemy trades, the Vance Clan held the monopoly over weapon forging, the Royal Vanguard handled the empire’s absolute military support, and the Grand Abyssal Exchange directed the breeding of high-tier companion beasts.

To trample over the absolute laws of this universe, I must ruthlessly tear out every single root of these four factions, Tony thought to himself, a slow, villainous grin curling his lips.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A series of sudden, deafening metallic crashes violently shattered the busy chatter of the bazaar. A massive wave of high-tier spiritual energy erupted from the central avenue, causing the packed crowd of common cultivators to frantically scatter to the sides like a parting sea.

Tony remained perfectly still in the middle of the shifting crowd, his lazy posture intact as a massive, luxurious spiritual carriage made of pure white jade and drawn by four flaming crimson horses rolled into the open plaza, surrounded by dozens of elite, dark-armored bodyguards.

“Move out of the way! The young masters of the four great powerhouses have arrived!” a lower-tier rogue cultivator hissed in a frantic, terrified whisper right next to Tony’s shoulder.

“Look at the head of the vanguard!” another merchant murmured in absolute awe. “That is young master Gerald Vance from the weapon forge clan! His arrogance is so immensely high that he once slaughtered an entire merchant line just because their carriage blocked his view!”

Tony casually focused his vision toward the front of the white jade carriage. Gerald Vance was standing tall on the driver’s platform, dressed in fine, glittering golden silks, his face a mask of supreme condescension as he cracked a heavy, lightning-infused whip through the air to force the commoners back into the dirt.

Right beside the carriage, a second figure rode on the back of a massive, roaring frost wolf. This was young master Kevin from the beast-selling faction, his eyes gleaming with an intense greed as he looked down at the commoners with absolute, unadulterated scorn.

Suddenly, the white jade carriage door slid open with a smooth, fluid motion, and a slender young lady dressed in magnificent, flowing red silks slowly stepped out onto the marble floor. The moment her leather boots touched the stones, a visible wave of pure, crackling fire-attribute laws violently rippled across the ground, causing the nearby wooden market stalls to faintly scorch.

The crowd instantly let out a massive gasp of recognition and biological fear. “It’s Lady Scarlet from the Royal support faction!” an applicant whispered frantically. “She possesses an incredibly beautiful face but a completely terrifying, fiery temper! They say her internal fire precision is so profoundly advanced that she can manually summon a Vermilion Beast Fire from her meridians to vaporize an ordinary 10th-Class Grand Disciple within a single microsecond!”

Lady Scarlet tilted her chin upward with an agonizing amount of royal pride, her fiery eyes sweeping over the silent, trembling crowd with absolute disgust. “A pack of useless, noisy common insects,” she sneered coldly, her silky voice carrying a sharp edge that made the ambient temperature in the plaza spike. “Gerald, Kevin, stop wasting our precious time staring at these trash commoners. The Abyssal Lotus Pavilion’s apprentice trial opens in exactly twenty-four hours, and my internal fire body is perfectly ready to claim the absolute top spot before Lady Vivienne’s eyes. Let us move to the registration altar immediately.”

“Haha! Lady Scarlet speaks the absolute truth!” Gerald Vance roared, his arrogant laugh echoing fiercely across the plaza as he whipped the flaming horses forward. “A talentless orphan like that Tony Clark might have used brute strength to surprise a few lower elders back in his backwater academy, but when it comes to the real, innate fire selection tomorrow, his pathetic archery skills will look like nothing more than a common joke beneath our feet! He actually had the nerve to register for this exam yesterday, thinking his country-bumpkin muscle could fool Lady Vivienne!”

Tony Clark stood completely hidden within the dense crowd of watching spectators, a slow, ruthlessly brilliant smile spreading across his face as he listened to their childish insults and public boasts. He didn’t show even a fraction of anger or internal distress. He knew that in this world of cultivation, finding an exceptional Fire Body or a rare Beast Fire was the ultimate cheat code for an alchemist.

True fire precision came entirely from the quality of the flame born inside one’s physical meridians. To a true supreme villain, their immense arrogance and their high-tier fire bodies were nothing more than the perfect, magnificent ingredients he needed to execute a total public catastrophe.

He casually adjusted the folds of his cloak, his dark eyes locking onto the disappearing white jade carriage with a sharp, predatory intensity that promised that on the grand morning of the exam tomorrow, the four great powerhouses would find out who truly owned the absolute laws of fire in this universe.