Death… and me

"That's right! Regardless of whether it might be age, cultivation or background, he doesn't have any say in this!" Ji Mo laughed and continued, "Gu Du Xing! I am not a coward afraid of death and would cling on to his own life at the expense of others! Do not think you will be able to threaten me! The reason I came here was to see if this Chu Yang you talked about is what you said he is! If he is able to convince us that he is capable of leading us into the Upper Three Heaves, then I, Ji Mo will recognize him as the boss! If not, even if you might take my life, I will never yield to him!"

"Yes! Both of us feel the same way! He is not only the youngest in terms of age amongst us but also has the weakest cultivation! On what merit should we consider him as our boss?" Luo Ke Di shouted.

"Good! Good! Since you are heartless, do not blame me for being ruthless!" The anger hidden in Gu Du Xing's eyes began to reveal itself and grew stronger and stronger. Moreover, he began to emit a murderous aura as his face turned red with anger. "Shiiing…" In an instant, he drew the Black Dragon Sword and was ready to fight.

"Wait!" Chu Yang immediately intervened.

All of these people are of great talent! Gu Du Xing's decision to use force to talk to them might not be the wisest decision. Moreover, being in charge, how would I be able to gain their respect without even demonstrating to them what I am capable of?

Despite the fact that these people were childish, they weren't the type of people who would willingly submit to someone who was weaker than them.

"With regards to qualifications, I guess I will give you a hint of what I am truly capable of!" Chu Yang replied calmly, "Based on what? All of you are thinking that I am younger and weaker in terms of cultivation compared to all of you. Therefore, by what merit would I deserve to order you around? Although, I agree that each one of you has a much higher cultivation and a more powerful background compared to me. However, the moment you arrived, all of you are ranked lower than me!"

Chu Yang smiled and looked over at all the people in front of him, "I am qualified simply because I am stronger than all of you!"

The three smiled condescendingly.

"I, Chu Yang am a commoner with a humble background. I was abandoned since I was little and was raised by my master. In this aspect, I am stronger than all of you!" Chu Yang then raised his index finger and continued, "I have a master who loves me. In my heart, he is my father! He would give everything for my sake! In this alone, you are of no match for me! While you were born into privilege and had powerful masters, none of you have a master like mine!"

Chu Yang then continued, "Secondly, I have great martial brothers! My junior martial brother is one of my good brothers although he might not be physically here. However, I have Gu Du Xing!" Chu Yang said with pride. "Perhaps all of you are wondering why Gu Du Xing even bothers to listen to me?'

It was true that this was something that had been bothering them. It could even be said that they had come specifically to find out the reason for this.

"It is simply because we see each other as martial brothers! Gu Du Xing would do anything for me and I would do anything for him! I would be willing to exchange my life for Gu Du Xing and I am sure he would be willing to do the same!" Chu Yang said with arrogance as looked at the three of them and replied, "The ability to boast of the relationship and brotherhood that you have, do any of you have it? Do you have a martial brother willing to sacrifice everything for you?

The three of them remained silent.

If they did, they would not have been wandering in Jiang Hu all by themselves.

All youths of Jiang Hu dream of having a martial brother who would live and die with them, sworn loyalty to one another. Only in Jiang Hu would one be able to have such friends. Moreover, they had experienced the internal strife within their own clans and through which, learned that the only ones whom they could trust were themselves!

The reason they were unable to afford to have such martial brothers was due to their fear of betrayal. The positions which each one of them held within their clans were highly sought after and extremely precarious. One wrong move and they would lose everything as such they felt as though they were destined not to have any friends within their clans.

Having martial brothers whom you could count on regardless of the situation! This was the greatest desire of all the young people in Jiang Hu but was also the heartache of the descendants of great clans.

"Thirdly! I was born a commoner and my background could not be any lower than it already is. However, I have achieved success using my own means!" Chu Yang looked at the three youths before him indifferently. "I have both fame and power in Iron Cloud. Moreover, I can put to death countless people with a single command. Such is the extent of my power!"

"Everything in which I have told you, I can achieve it within three months! Are you people capable of doing that?" Chu Yang looked at them coldly and asked.

All three of them were perspiring profusely.

"You said you have power in Iron Cloud. Who are you?" Luo Ke Di asked in a low voice.

"Who am I?" Chu Yang smiled and said, "My surname is Chu; people call me King of Hell Chu!"

King of Hell Chu! The three were now horrified! Although they were people of the Middle Three Heavens, the famed King of Hell Chu seemed to have caused chaos and a commotion which spanned the entire world. They went to the Lower Three Heavens to train, how could they be unaware of the famed name of King of Hell Chu?

He was the miraculous leader of Bu Tian Pavilion that had purged the Iron Cloud Citadel. He went head to head with the Golden Horse Riders Department with such a small force and did not lose.

They were all well aware of the legends which surrounded the King of Hell Chu.

However, these three men would never have guessed that this legendary King of Hell Chu was the young man smiling and talking to them! He had such great accomplishments within the short span of just three months. The King of Hell Chu was certainly worthy of anyone's admiration.

Although this might have sounded simple, Ji Mo and the others knew very well that they were not capable of such a feat!

"Fourthly, a year ago, I was only a third grade Martial Pupil. However, as you can see, this is now what my cultivation is!" Chu Yang breathed out and lightly activated a bit of his martial energy. A light blue mist appeared on his hand.

"Martial Artist!" At this moment, all five people exclaimed. Even Gu Du Xing's eyes widened.

"Sorry! Peak fourth grade Martial Artist!" Chu Yang pulled back his aura and grinned widely, "Twenty-one grades in just one year! This is nothing worth boasting about!"

The five of them had cold sweat dripping down their faces and wiped it off all at the same time.

Twenty-one grades in just a year and it was nothing to boast about? What they had not known was that Chu Yang was, in fact, being modest. He had actually managed to reach this level in about half a year.

"The amount of time that Gu Du Xing used to spend finding you people was a month and six days. At the time he left, I was only a sixth grade, Martial Warrior." Chu Yang smiled and continued, "I will concede if your cultivation speed is faster than mine!"

The four people turned toward Gu Du Xing almost at the same time. They could only see his widened eyes looking at Chu Yang. With a look of terror on his face, he murmured, "How could this be… How could this be…?"

The four of them became even more shocked.

All four of them knew Gu Du Xing's temperament well. He looked down on lying, and would rather have used force to persuade them to join forces with Chu Yang than to deceive them.

Moreover, his reaction was as though he had just seen a demon!

Such a demeanor could not be faked!

Could there be such a monster in this world? Advancing twenty-one grades in one year? No… seven grades in one month?

How could this guy be so monstrous?

"Lastly, I am stronger than every one of you simply because I have ambitions and aspirations! I have already said that the target of the Heavenly Armament Pavilion is to advance to the Upper Three Heavens. However, my plan does not simply stop at advancing but to take over the Upper Three Heavens!"

Chu Yang's eyes were filled with arrogance as he looked at those three people, "Do you have that sort of ambition? Have you ever thought about this? You say that you want to go there but have you ever thought about what you would do when you get there or how you are going to achieve it?"

The four hung their heads in shame.

"You are unhappy with your clans and just want to relax! You have all said that your clans treated you unfairly. While you were bullied, you never bothered to retaliate. You people just want to leave your clans for a while and after you are done relaxing, go back and continue living under their control…"

Chu Yang reprimanded them, "All of you are a bunch of cowards who don't even have the guts to fight for yourselves! You are simply overwhelmed by fear and unable to do anything. The only thing you do is go around the Middle Three Heavens, earning yourselves the lame title of young master! You have shamed your reputations so that the eldest young master would not see you as a threat and leave you alone. All you want is to live your life in shame with whatever life that you have left…"

Chu Yang smiled coldly, "Anyone is in the position to question my authority, but you people don't have such rights! Although my background and cultivation level are unable to match yours, I still depend on myself and use my own two hands to kill and take what I have!"

"Did you know that there is a disabled veteran camp next to those mountains over there? There are groups of poor disabled veterans there, and you people can't even compare to them! It is because they fought on the battlefield with their own lives, and they are capable of living in poverty! However, you people cannot!" Chu Yang's gaze was as sharp and his words pierced through their hearts as he looked straight at the three.

He coldly smiled and continued, "You want me to call you elder martial brothers? Do you have the guts to receive that position?"

"Second young master, only second young master!" Chu Yang looked up and laughed, "Are you even worthy of being men? Are you in the position to ask for my qualifications?"

The three of their faces reddened from ear to ear. With eyes burning, they said, "Chu Yang! You can look down on us but you don't have the right to insult us!"

"I don't have the right?" Chu Yang sneered, "I am insulting you! What are you going to do about it?"

"If you people want to prove that you are not useless, then you can stay! I shall grant you the opportunity to walk with arrogance in Jiang Hu!" Chu Yang paused for a short while before continuing, "If you don't want this, you can leave right now! My place does not take young masters or big brothers!"

"Because you were willing to be second young masters, you are not worthy of being a boss!" Chu Yang yelled.

"Motherf*! I will stay!" Ji Mo said loudly, "When I am stronger than you, I will challenge you!"

"Yes! I will be the one to defeat you and Gu Du Xing!" Luo Ke Di yelled, "Do not for a moment think that you have convinced me!"

"I am staying because I want to see what gives you the audacity to say that you will lead us into Upper Three Heavens!" Dong Wu Shang said as he glared at Chu Yang.

"I want to stay because Boss Gu is here! Even if you kick me out, I won't leave!" Rui Bu Tong laughed. He was probably the most relaxed out of the four of them.

Gu Du Xing breathed a sigh of relief. He thought to himself: Chu Yang is definitely convincing; he has clearly managed to convince these punks into staying by scolding them.

"You want to stay? Is it that easy?" Chu Yang sneered, "What kind of place do you think my Heavenly Armament Pavilion is? Just because of your second young master titles do you think that when you want to stay I will let you stay?"

Chu Yang had intentionally emphasized the words "second young master," as he asked sarcastically.

The three immediately turned purple with rage and replied, "Are you despising us?"

"If you want me to value you, you have to show me your strength." Chu Yang sneered, "Do you think that just your current cultivation level is sufficient?"

"I am a Martial Great Master!" Ji Mo practically screamed in his face; he was so angry, he wanted to spit up blood, "My cultivation level is sixth grade Martial Great Master, the same as Gu Du Xing!"

"Sorry! I am already at seventh grade! Thank you very much!" Gu Du Xing glared.

Ji Mo's face lost its color, "Seventh grade? You broke through?"

"Yes, one day before I saw you!" Gu Du Xing folded his arms, looked at Ji Mo, and said slowly, "You are finished Ji Mo!"

"We are also the same!" Luo Ke Di and Dong Wu Shang said in unison, "We are also Martial Great Masters!"

However, the two of them were third grade and fourth grade Martial Great Masters. There was a great gap between them and the two people in front of them and therefore they chose not yell it out loudly.