Chapter 160: The Heavenly River Trembles

You are Grandmaster Jiang?

When the black-robed chief administrator shrieked those words, everyone in the room slid off their stools, their hearts turning to ashes.

"You know me?"

Jiang Yu pulled out a stool, sat down with a faint smile, as casual as entering his own home. The indifferent gaze in his eyes, which viewed the lives of all mortals as mere ants, chilled everyone to the bone.

The black-robed chief administrator retreated powerlessly a few steps, pressing against the corner of the room, with nowhere left to hide, nowhere left to retreat.

The teenage grandmaster of Jiangbei, the contemporary myth, the number one warrior on the Martial God Rankings, the undisputed supreme figure beneath earth immortals, reigning supreme over the two provinces of Jiangbei and Moshan. With the bearing of a youth, he had shaken all the heroes and champions of the world. Take out any single title—which one was not resoundingly famous?

Damn the intelligence network! Who was the one who claimed the newcomer was at most at the peak of the Transformation Qi realm? Now, seeing the martial world-shaking Grandmaster Jiang standing right before his eyes in the flesh, he wished he could crush the person who gathered this intelligence to death with his bare hands.

That single night in Yuzhou, Jiang Yu had unleashed peerless divine abilities, forcing the Hidden Sects to bow and cowing the people of Yuzhou with terror. Even the four grandmasters dispatched by Shadow Kill and the Rothschild family had been slain by his sword, resting forever in the Yanzi Mountains.

Just moments ago, the black-robed chief administrator was still contemplating that if the intruder was merely in the Transformation Qi stage, with his own half-step grandmaster cultivation, he might still be able to put up a fight. Now, with the living myth standing before him, he discovered that when facing Grandmaster Jiang, he could not even muster a single thought of resistance.

Merely the accidental aura overflowing from Grandmaster Jiang's body made his chest feel heavy, as if even the magic power within his dantian was being suppressed.

Fight? How could he possibly fight? It was like a three or four-year-old child facing a full-grown adult; the gap between them was insurmountable.

In present-day China, the only ones capable of handling Grandmaster Jiang, aside from Gu Changsheng and Chen Shanhe, were the king of Zhongzhou, Xu Daozhi. In Zhongzhou and Jiangnan, although Xu Daozhi was not a mighty earth immortal, he was revered by the locals like a living god.

The black-robed chief administrator was decisive enough. He dropped to his knees on the spot and asked in a trembling voice, "I know not how our Martial Alliance has offended Grandmaster Jiang. As long as you are willing to spare our lives, I will give you whatever you want."

Out in the secular world, the black-robed chief administrator had conversed and laughed with business titans and discussed the dao with martial grandmasters—how majestic he had been! Across all of Tianhe, the black-robed chief administrator held a transcendent status, controlling the underground forces and dividing the turf equally with the three major clans of Tianhe, yielding to none.

At this very moment, his courage had shattered to pieces, and he knelt before Jiang Yu, shaking like a sieve.

Jiang Yu joked playfully, "Didn't your Martial Alliance want me, Jiang Yu, to come personally and offer a formal apology? Now that I have come before you in person, what say you now?"

Offer a formal apology?

The black-robed chief administrator was stunned. When on earth did he ever dare to demand an apology from Grandmaster Jiang?

"Grandmaster Jiang, you jest. What virtues or abilities do I possess to dare ask the contemporary myth to apologize to my Martial Alliance? Would that not be growing tired of living?"

Jiang Yu now understood that the entire matter had been orchestrated by some minor lackey at the bottom rungs of the Martial Alliance. Someone of the black-robed chief administrator's rank certainly knew nothing of it.

However, Jiang Yu acted according to his own will in matters of life and death. Since he had already tracked them down, how could he let the Martial Alliance off the hook simply because of a claim of ignorance? If he thoroughly offended the Martial Alliance tonight, though he himself would be fine, he could not guarantee whether the people of the Martial Alliance would target those close to him after he left.

In this world, there were still far too many ignorant and reckless ants.

"Oh, is that so?"

Jiang Yu rubbed his chin, pondering softly.

The black-robed chief administrator nodded hurriedly: "A misunderstanding, truly just a misunderstanding! I will thoroughly investigate the matter and give Grandmaster Jiang a satisfactory answer."

Jiang Yu smiled: "Since that is the case, then all of you may die."

As his words fell, Jiang Yu flicked his ten fingers as if strumming a pipa, and over a dozen brilliant beams of sword energy snapped through the air. Whether it was the black-robed chief administrator or anyone else, before the edge of that light, all were equal.

Inside the room, everyone was separated from their heads, their bodies severed. Powerful as the black-robed chief administrator was—a half-step grandmaster—he didn't even have the chance to scream, dying instantly on the spot. Before death, the expressions of terror, incomprehension, and fury frozen in his eyes remained entirely fixed.

Lin Dong was shaking violently. This method of killing wielded by Jiang Yu was something he had never witnessed before. Amidst laughter and casual conversation, lives were taken with the flick of a finger, including that of a half-step grandmaster—a supreme existence he usually had to look up to—yet Jiang Yu slaughtered them as easily as butchering chickens and dogs.

"The Martial Alliance, nothing more than this. I actually thought they possessed some extraordinary traits, even managing to lure my grand-disciple in. Alas, these disciples and grand-disciples of mine grow less impressive with every generation."

Jiang Yu sounded slightly disappointed.

Lin Dong dropped to his knees on the spot, gazing at Jiang Yu with tearful, pleading eyes: "Grandmaster, I know my mistake. From now on, I will never shame you again."

Jiang Yu sighed with emotion, "Forget it. The Martial Alliance once took one million from Aunt Yan. You handle the arrangements and return one hundred million to her family tomorrow. I, Jiang Yu, do not like owing favors. What can be resolved with money is no issue at all. Remember, I have temporary concerns and do not wish to expose my identity."

Lin Dong's eyes rolled around like a macaque's, and he instantly grasped Jiang Yu's intent.

He nodded, "I will definitely handle this matter properly, and then I will leave Tianhe to find my teacher and cultivate with single-minded devotion from now on."

Jiang Yu stood up, glanced calmly at the corpses on the ground, and casually tossed out a few minor spells, reducing the bodies of these people to ashes without leaving a single trace behind.

Tonight, the Martial Alliance was trampled into oblivion, leaving behind not a single corpse, all incinerated by Jiang Yu. To outsiders, these people had simply evaporated into thin air, leaving no tracks to follow and no traces to seek.

By modern standards, it was completely impossible to figure out what had happened.

"I should be heading back."

Jiang Yu lit a cigarette and leisurely walked out of the Martial Alliance Building.

...

The next day, the news that all the core members of the Martial Alliance had vanished without a trace swept across Tianhe.

What about the black-robed chief administrator? Wasn't he a half-step grandmaster?

Upon hearing the news, many people immediately thought of the black-robed chief administrator. With his strength, even if he encountered a grandmaster of harmonized qi, he could still put up a fight for a while.

"Did the missing people include the black-robed chief administrator?"

In a certain prominent family, someone asked with curiosity.

The subordinate nodded: "Yes, even the chief administrator vanished along with them. Afterward, no one stepped forward to take over any of the Martial Alliance's industries."

Everyone was dumbfounded. Exactly what kind of terrifying power could cause dozens of core members of the Martial Alliance to evaporate and vanish entirely from Tianhe City within a single night?

Today, a question rippled through the upper-class society of Tianhe:

"Did Grandmaster Jiang of Jiangbei come to Tianhe?"

Faced with this conjecture, the entire city of Tianhe fell silent.

Countless people were keeping a close eye on the Martial Alliance incident, and several prominent families even utilized their formidable intelligence networks to investigate the matter. Yet despite trying for a long time, they obtained no useful information whatsoever.

That was the grandmaster ranked first on the Martial God Rankings, before whom even Xu Daozhi had to yield half a step. People could not forget the immortal divine abilities Grandmaster Jiang had displayed back in Yuzhou; even people as far away as Tianhe could feel the terror of it.

Under all these ominous signs, a pressing question naturally arose: Could Xu Daozhi of Zhongzhou manage to withstand Grandmaster Jiang of Jiangbei?

With the black-robed chief administrator gone, eighty percent of the Martial Alliance's assets in Tianhe were swallowed up by various parties in the span of a single morning. For the sake of billions in assets, everyone engaged in covert struggles and treacherous schemes, stopping at nothing.

While this incident was causing a massive uproar in Tianhe, Jiang Yu was strolling leisurely through the campus with Han Qingyu. The two walked side by side in silence, both enjoying the serene atmosphere they brought to each other.

"Jiang Yu, aren't you afraid?"

Han Qingyu suddenly lifted her exquisite and stunning face.

Jiang Yu smiled: "What do you think I should be afraid of?"

Han Qingyu said with worry: "The person pursuing me has heavens-reaching connections and an unshakeable status in Tianhe City. You are openly taking a walk with me, and if someone sees this, aren't you afraid of bringing trouble upon yourself?"

"A while back, a wealthy tycoon booked the Tianhe Building for me and set off fireworks for three consecutive nights. A few days later, he vanished from Tianhe, and I've never been able to find him. Pursuing me comes with mortal danger."

Jiang Yu smiled faintly: "If something were to truly happen to me, would you feel sorrow and distress for me?"

Han Qingyu pressed her lips into a smile and did not answer directly. Her mind filled with worries, she gazed into the distance. Just last night, the Han family received word that all the core members of Tianhe's overlord, the Martial Alliance, had vanished entirely overnight.

This seemed to represent a certain ominous signal.

Ever since she started walking with Jiang Yu, she had been absent-minded.

"Jiang Yu, tonight I'm inviting a few friends for a small gathering at my home. Would you like to come?" Han Qingyu hesitated for a moment before finally extending the invitation. The wonderful atmosphere when she was with him was something she had never experienced before.

This was also the main reason Han Qingyu had not rejected Jiang Yu; in some unfathomable way, there seemed to be something about him that deeply attracted her.

Jiang Yu smiled: "Is this considered meeting the parents?"

Han Qingyu shook her head, a hint of playful annoyance in her tone:

"You rascal, always so unserious."