The Samsara Jade

Chapter 34

Li Chen pulled Wang’s arm straight out. Then, with a single, brutal, lightning-fast motion, Li Chen twisted his iron hands and pushed upward against Wang’s elbow joint. 

CRACK! 

The sound was sickening. It was a loud, wet crunch that echoed across the quiet morning arena. 

Wang’s right arm bent entirely backward. The elbow joint completely snapped. A sharp, white piece of bone tore through Wang’s skin and ripped through the sleeve of his clean grey robe. Bright red blood instantly sprayed into the cold air, splashing onto the stone floor. 

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" 

Wang let out a horrible, blood-curdling scream of pure agony. His eyes rolled back into his head. The pain was absolute and overwhelming. He had never felt anything like this in his entire life. 

Li Chen let go of the arm. 

Wang collapsed onto the hard stone floor like a puppet with its strings cut. He held his ruined, backward-bending arm against his chest. He rolled back and forth in a growing puddle of his own blood, screaming and crying wildly. 

The hundreds of Outer Sect disciples were frozen in total shock. 

No one spoke. No one moved. They just stared at the blood on the ground, and then they stared at Li Chen. 

The rules of the Azure Sword Sect were very strict. Disciples were allowed to fight in the arena, but fighting outside the arena was forbidden. Maiming another disciple was a serious crime. 

But Li Chen had just shattered a senior disciple's arm in front of hundreds of witnesses, and he did not look worried at all. He looked perfectly calm. He stood in the morning light, his black Enforcer coat blowing in the wind, completely untouched by the violence he had just caused. 

Li Chen slowly turned his head. His dark, emotionless eyes locked onto Sun. 

Sun flinched as if he had been struck by lightning. 

"You..." Sun gasped, taking a slow step backward. His voice was high and panicked. "You are crazy! You broke his arm! The Enforcers will kill you! Elder Zhao will kill you!"

Li Chen did not say a word. He just took one slow, heavy step toward Sun. 

That single step was all it took. 

Sun’s courage completely vanished. He let out a loud, pathetic squeak of fear. He dropped his own sword onto the ground. He turned around and ran. 

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He pushed roughly past the other disciples in the registration line, knocking several of them into the dirt. 

"Senior Brother Zhao!" Sun screamed as he ran toward the Inner Sect pavilions. "Senior Brother Zhao! The dead boy is back! The demon is back!"

Li Chen watched Sun run away. He did not chase him. He wanted Sun to run. He wanted Sun to tell Zhao Feng. He wanted Zhao Feng to know that the nightmare had finally arrived. 

Li Chen turned away from the running coward. He looked back at the registration table. 

Underneath the cracked wooden table, Elder Lu was curled up in a tight ball. He had seen everything. He had seen the steel sword bounce off Li Chen's skin. He had heard the bone snap. 

Elder Lu was a 6th Level cultivator, but he was old, fat, and lazy. He had not fought a real battle in thirty years. The terrifying, heavy aura radiating from Li Chen made Elder Lu feel like a small mouse trapped in a cage with a hungry tiger. 

Li Chen walked up to the broken table. He looked down at the fat elder hiding underneath. 

"Elder Lu," Li Chen said, his voice flat and commanding. 

Elder Lu jumped. He hit his head on the bottom of the table. He slowly crawled out from under the broken wood, dusting off his robes with shaking hands. 

"Y-yes? What is it, Li Chen?" Elder Lu stammered. He tried to look tough, but his voice was trembling. "You... you have broken a major sect rule. You attacked a fellow disciple."

"He attacked me first," Li Chen stated simply. He pointed to the shattered pieces of the blue sword on the floor. "He tried to cut my neck. I only defended myself. Is self-defense a crime in the Azure Sword Sect?"

Elder Lu opened his mouth to argue, but he looked into Li Chen’s endless, pitch-black eyes. He felt a sudden, terrible chill run down his spine. He realized that if he said the wrong word, this grey-skinned boy would snap his neck just as easily as he snapped Wang's arm. 

"No," Elder Lu whispered quickly. "No, self-defense is not a crime. Wang was out of control. I saw it myself."

"Good," Li Chen said. He looked at the large book on the table. He had seen Elder Lu write his name down, but he knew the rules of the tournament. Writing the name was not enough. 

"Give me my tournament token," Li Chen demanded. 

Every fighter needed a special wooden token to enter the gates of the stone arena. Without the token, the guards would not let him inside. 

Elder Lu hesitated. "Li Chen... you have a Broken Root. The tournament is for cultivators. Even though your body is strangely strong, you have no Qi. The rules say that only disciples above the 3rd Level of Qi Condensation can enter the fights. I cannot give you a token."

Li Chen stared at the old man. 

He did not want to reveal his heavy, dark Qi yet. He wanted to save his true power for the fights. He wanted to surprise Zhao Feng. 

But he needed that token. 

Li Chen leaned forward. He placed his iron-hard hands on the cracked wooden table. 

"Elder Lu," Li Chen said softly, leaning his face close to the old man. "Do you remember the shadow wolves of the Beast Chasm? Do you know how they kill?"

Elder Lu blinked in confusion and fear. "W-what?"

"They do not bark," Li Chen whispered. "They just bite the throat in the dark. Give me the token, Elder Lu. Or I will show you exactly how a wolf hunts."

The threat was clear. It was a promise of death. 

Elder Lu swallowed hard. He looked at Wang, who was still crying and bleeding on the floor. He looked at the cracked table. He did not want to die today. 

"Fine!" Elder Lu said quickly. His hands shook as he reached into a small wooden box on his desk. He pulled out a dark, square wooden token. It had the number '142' carved into it and painted in gold.