Chapter 3: Bully the Protagonist! Keep Bullying, Keep Feeling Good!

Upon hearing Chu Yanran agree to marry Su Chen, Ye Fan was so enraged that he spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot; he struggled, trying to stand up.

Seeing this, the old man behind Su Chen narrowed his eyes, and the pressure weighing down on Ye Fan grew a few degrees heavier.

Pfft—Ye Fan spat out another mouthful of blood, and like a stray dog, he crawled on the ground, gasping for breath, yet his eyes still glared viciously at Su Chen.

At this moment, the hatred in his heart for Su Chen reached its peak; he wished he could strangle Su Chen to death.

Seeing Ye Fan's miserable state, Chu Yanran's pretty face turned deathly pale in an instant, and tears welled up in her eyes, "Ye Fan, please, say no more."

Su Chen glanced at Chu Yanran, a flicker of amusement in his eyes, then shifted his gaze back to Ye Fan, saying indifferently, "I am the Young Master, and I am marrying your master—do you have an opinion?"

"Pah, despicable villain!"

Ye Fan spat out a mouthful of blood and cursed through gritted teeth, "If it weren't for the Su Family backing you, you would be nothing!"

Hahaha. Upon hearing Ye Fan's words, Su Chen suddenly threw his head back and laughed.

"You—why are you laughing?!"

Hearing the laughter, Ye Fan felt a bad premonition in his heart, but he did not retreat; instead, he mustered his courage and roared.

"I am laughing at you for being an idiot!"

Su Chen sneered, "I was born into the Su Family; that was arranged by the heavens. In the end, this is also a part of one's strength. Your jealousy only shows that you feel ashamed of your own humble birth."

Upon hearing this, Ye Fan's expression turned gloomy in an instant, his fists clenched tight, and a flash of unwillingness crossed his eyes; his Dao heart clearly showed signs of collapsing.

Su Chen's words rang in his ears over and over again like a curse.

This was the impact brought by strength, the pressure brought by strength! Compared to the noble-born Su Chen, his own birth was far more humble; his parents were just a pair of ordinary people, and he was the only person in his village to awaken a Martial Soul in a hundred years.

He had received the adulation of everyone in the village. In order to get the Immortal Sword Sect to take him as a disciple, he had performed with all his might on the day the Immortal Sword Sect opened its gates to recruit, just to catch the sect's attention and successfully enter the Immortal Sword Sect as a disciple.

Due to his outstanding performance, he was lucky enough to be taken in by the Saintess Chu Yanran as a Personal Disciple, entering the ranks of the Immortal Sword Sect's core disciples in one fell swoop.

However, his efforts did not earn him the respect of the other disciples in the Immortal Sword Sect; instead, due to his humble background, he encountered exclusion and bullying from the other disciples.

But whenever he thought of Chu Yanran's care for him, Ye Fan felt stimulated and practiced with all his might, eventually becoming a leader of the Immortal Sword Sect's younger generation.

Yet today, facing Su Chen, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his pride and self-esteem were trampled upon heavily, and he felt his own insignificance.

He would always be a grade lower than Su Chen.

He would never be able to be mentioned in the same breath as Su Chen!

In front of Su Chen, he was nothing but an ant.

No! He didn't even count as an ant! Ye Fan's gaze dimmed, and a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Seeing this, the mockery on Su Chen's face grew even more intense; making the protagonist's Dao heart collapse was more fulfilling than directly destroying his physical body.

"No! It's not like that!"

Ye Fan suddenly let out a shout, raised his head, his eyes filled with madness, "I am the Son of Heaven's Mandate! What right do you, a piece of trash, have to talk about me!"

Slap—a crisp sound echoed through the great hall!

"Presumptuous! Is the Young Master someone you can insult?"

At this moment, an Elder of the Immortal Sword Sect nearby stared coldly at Ye Fan and slowly withdrew his right hand.

The person who struck was the Immortal Sword Sect's Enforcement Elder—Xuan Ming.

Upon learning of Su Chen's status in the Su Family, he had developed a desire to curry favor.

Just now, seeing Ye Fan dare to insult Su Chen in public, he knew his time to perform had arrived.

"Ye Fan, you have repeatedly insulted the Young Master today and provoked him; your intentions are truly sinister. Are you trying to sow discord between the Su Family and my Immortal Sword Sect?"

"Young Master, I shall drag him to the dungeon now to await disposal!"

Before Xuan Ming could finish, another Elder stood up and shouted sternly.

He was also a shrewd man; seeing Xuan Ming's attitude toward Su Chen, he immediately understood what was going on and took the opportunity to pledge his loyalty to Su Chen.

Su Chen had taken their Immortal Sword Sect's Saintess as a concubine, and the Immortal Sword Sect could thus be considered to have latched onto the Su Family, a thigh as thick as a sky-propping pillar.

"Indeed, Sect Master, why not take this opportunity to abolish Ye Fan's cultivation and expel him from the sect?"

"It would be just right to offer an apology to the Young Master."

The remaining Elders were also shrewd; they immediately stood up, righteous and stern, loudly rebuking Ye Fan for his disrespect and offense.

Hearing the reprimands of the Elders, Ye Fan's complexion turned deathly pale in an instant.

His heart was stirred into a stormy sea.

He realized that the situation today was extremely unfavorable for him. Almost everyone present was fawning over Su Chen; even his own master, Chu Yanran, and the Sect Master, Jiang Yunxi, were silent at this moment.

What was happening? Why were so many Elders standing unanimously on Su Chen's side? He was the peerless genius of the Immortal Sword Sect; how could they help Su Chen, an outsider? Just then, the ring on Ye Fan's right index finger emitted a faint golden light once more, and Ye Fan, who was on the verge of collapse, suddenly calmed down.

That flash of golden light vanished in an instant; if one hadn't been paying close attention, they wouldn't have noticed it at all. However, Su Chen, having read the original work, knew the power of the ring on Ye Fan's hand.

He had been keeping his eyes on the ring on Ye Fan's index finger with his peripheral vision.

Tsk tsk tsk.

Luo Shen, I didn't expect you to make a move after all.

Yes, you heard that right; inside the ring on Ye Fan's index finger was the Ancient Great Expert Luo Shen, also one of the Ten Great Heroines in the original *Invincible Martial Soul*, though at this moment, she was but a wisp of a remnant soul.

Legend has it that during the ancient Great War of Ten Thousand Races, Luo Shen fell, and at the final moment, she sealed a wisp of her remnant soul inside the ring.

She stayed there for millions of years, until she was finally dug out of the dirt by Ye Fan by accident, allowing her remnant soul to see the light of day once more.

To repay Ye Fan, Luo Shen had been meticulously guiding Ye Fan on his path of cultivation, allowing him to avoid many detours.

The relationship between the two gradually grew closer.

Ye Fan had always addressed Luo Shen as Aunt Luo.

In the original work, in the later plot, Ye Fan allowed Luo Shen to solidify her physical body and then ruthlessly possessed her.

In the end, these were all Ye Fan's fortuitous encounters.

However, as someone who had transmigrated here, Su Chen would not let these heroines follow the original plot.

As long as it was the protagonist's fortuitous encounter, then sorry, he would snatch it all away.

Chu Yanran is one of them, and naturally, Luo Shen cannot escape his clutches either.

Thinking of this, a wicked smile curled the corners of Su Chen's mouth.

Feeling Su Chen's gaze landing on his face, the inner rage within Ye Fan was ignited once again, and he roared, "Su Chen, I challenge you to a life-or-death duel!"

Hearing this, everyone turned their gazes toward Su Chen.

In the Cultivation World of the Tianxuan Continent, there is a rule that if conflicts arise between cultivators, they can be resolved through a life-or-death duel; once Su Chen agrees, no one may interfere in the two's struggle, otherwise, they will be jointly hunted down by all cultivators of the Tianxuan Continent.

"Hahaha!"

Hearing Ye Fan's provocation, Su Chen laughed incessantly, "Kid, an ant of lowly birth like you is not worthy of being this Young Master's opponent!"

In a word: This Young Master will not be brain-dead enough to play this game of one-on-one with you.

Su Chen shook his head indifferently, withdrew his gaze, and was unwilling to look at Ye Fan for even a second longer.

He couldn't help but sigh in his heart, why are the protagonists in every cultivation novel so edgy and fond of posturing? His own mission after transmigrating is to torment the protagonist.

No, it's to torment the dog! Keep tormenting, keep enjoying it!

Su Chen turned around, wrapped his arm around Chu Yanran's willow waist, and said with a gentle and kind expression, "Saintess, this Young Master will ask you one last time: are you willing to marry this Young Master? If you are unwilling, I shall leave now and will never force you."

Pfft~ Once these words were spoken, even the old man to the side couldn't bear to watch; he rolled his eyes upward and cursed in his heart, "This kid is simply too shameless, hehe, but I like it—he has the style I had back in the day."

A group of Elders from the Immortal Sword Sect all focused their gazes on Chu Yanran, terrified that she might be displeased and reject the marriage contract with Su Chen on the spot.

Su Chen's words sounded so pleasant, and on the surface, they carried no threat, but they contained an extremely terrifying menace; if Chu Yanran refused, in the next second, the entire Immortal Sword Sect would disappear from the Tianxuan Continent forever.

Therefore, the lives and livelihoods of everyone in the Immortal Sword Sect were all held in Chu Yanran's hands, and cold sweat continuously seeped from their backs.

Feeling the gazes of the crowd, Chu Yanran secretly glanced at Su Chen with her beautiful eyes; seeing his gaze was profound and his face indifferent, her face immediately flushed red, but she quickly returned to her normal expression.

She bit her red lips lightly, "Young Master, this concubine is naturally willing to serve the Young Master."

Hearing Chu Yanran's answer, everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and the more timid ones even secretly wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads.

"Very good! Since that is the case, you will return to the Su Family with this Young Master now; this Young Master would like to see in advance how well you serve people."

Hearing this, Chu Yanran's body trembled visibly, and she said tremblingly, "It... it is all up to the Young Master's decision."

She naturally knew what Su Chen meant by these words, but she had no way to say the word 'no'; compared to the lives of thousands in the entire sect, what did her innocence count for?

Feeling the trembling of Chu Yanran's body, Su Chen's mouth curled up, "Very good, let us depart now!"

A twisted melon isn't sweet, but it quenches thirst!

"No!"

A furious shout suddenly erupted in the great hall!

(End of this chapter)