Chapter 597: Pride
The terrifying attack directly shattered Old Vulture’s attack, and the Claw Seals with five dragons quickly wrapped around him. Long Chen’s next move would surely be able to tear Old Vulture to shreds!
Long Chen had absolutely won this battle, defeating Old Vulture! Everyone understood that if Jiang Wuya was the one who had dealt with him, he would not have achieved this result without being harmed himself. This meant that Long Chen was likely the strongest person present!
No one would have thought that this teenager would be able to achieve this!
They recalled that yesterday, Long Chen had managed to escape from Zhao Danchen not due to luck, but because he was powerful!
Jiang Wuya and Old Vulture were no longer the strongest in the Battle clan—Long Chen was!
The members of the Dragon clan looked at each other. They had not expected their youngest brother to become the strongest among them!
When Long Chen was about to kill Old Vulture, Lei Zhen, who had regained consciousness, suddenly shouted, “Seventh Brother, have mercy!”
Although Long Chen had an endless desire to kill him, Lei Zhen was the victim and Long Chen had to listen to him. Though this did not mean that he had to let Old Vulture go lightly. When Lei Zhen shouted, Long Chen held back slightly, though his Soul Dispersing Dragon Claw directly severed several Martial Veins within Old Vulture’s abdomen!
If they were not treated as soon as possible, he would become a cripple. This also meant that he was temporarily incapacitated right now! Old Vulture cried out in pain and crashed into the ground, his blood dyeing the earth red. Of course, as a resilient Earthly Martial Realm cultivator, he would not die so easily.
“Father!” screamed Lei Ming, but Jian Chen hit him to knock him out. He knew that Lei Zhen had many questions for Old Vulture.
When the bloody Old Vulture landed on the ground, everyone was completely quiet. They all looked at the blood-red figure standing in the middle, and their mouths ran dry. He had defeated Old Vulture at such a young age! If he continued to grow, he would be on the same level as ultimate prodigies like Zhao Danchen!
This was hard to believe!
Everyone looked at him with added reverence. After a long time, they woke up from the shock of his power and drew in sharp breaths as they watched Lei Zhen’s next move.
With Jiang Wuya’s support, Lei Zhen walked up to Old Vulture’s side, and everyone followed. At this moment, Old Vulture’s eyes were glazed over, his face was pale, and he was barely breathing. He struggled to flip his body over, then he stared at everyone with a bleak look in his eyes.
“Uncle Vulture, could you explain to your nephew why you did this?” Lei Zhen asked hoarsely. His eyes were fixed on Old Vulture and his expression was unreadable, but everyone could see that he was in great pain. This was a crucial moment that would determine the Battle clan’s survival, yet as the strongest member of the clan, Old Vulture had decided to assassinate the clan leader!
“Why?” Old Vulture started to chuckle, wincing from the pain. He looked at Lei Zhen coldly and said, “You want to know why? I’ll tell you, Lei Zhen! It’s because you will cause the downfall of the whole clan! You will destroy the whole clan! You will become the great criminal that destroys generations of hard work!”
“I don’t understand what you mean,” said Lei Zhen, shaking his head with confusion.
“You don’t? Don’t you act stupid!” Old Vulture spat on the ground.
Lei Zhen sighed and stood up straight. “Uncle, I get it now. You’re upset that I’m leading the Battle clan to war against the Martial Alliance, right?”
Old Vulture smirked with contempt and said, “At least you're smart. The Martial Alliance will follow the conditions of the three duels, but only to uphold their reputation. However, I know that you will never follow the conditions. The moment we lose, you will lead the whole clan to war against them. I think that will be the day our whole clan goes extinct!”
Lei Zhen looked at him wistfully. “Uncle, don’t you understand that the Battle clan lives to die in battle? Do you mean that you want the Battle clan to submit to the Martial Alliance, becoming their slaves forever?”
Old Vulture said coldly, “What do you mean, slave? Being a slave is better than being dead, right? Why did I want to kill you? Because if you don’t die, you will lead the whole clan to their deaths. If you had died, I would’ve been able to lead the whole clan to join the Martial Alliance, thus giving us all a chance to live!”
“No!” Lei Zhen roared. His face was pulled tight and the tendons on his neck popped up. He clenched his fists tight and roared at Old Vulture, “A chance to live!? What would that mean!? Becoming the Martial Alliance’s slaves!? Or their dogs!? The Battle clan is a wolf in the wilderness! We are proud and we never submit! If a wolf turns into a dog just to live, what right does he have to call himself a wolf?”
He panted heavily, glaring at Old Vulture as he continued yelling, “Uncle, you don’t understand that while our bodies would be alive if we submitted to the Martial Alliance, our spirits would be dead! We are the Battle clan! We live to fight, and we will never submit! Death is not scary; the scary part is losing our souls to become walking corpses!”
Lei Zhen pointed at his chest and said, “Our ancestors have given us a strong backbone because they wanted us to live as free people who can stand up straight! Not because they wanted us to bend over and become dogs! If every warrior of the Battle clan needs to give their lives to preserve our pride, all I can say is that I, Lei Zhen, will not regret it!”
When Lei Zhen finished, the other six Battle Kings surrounded him, and everyone’s eyes were blood-red. They gazed at Lei Zhen with determination and respect, saying, “Broken jade is better than whole clay! If the Battle clan becomes the Martial Alliance’s dogs, we won’t be able to call ourselves the Battle clan—we will be the Dog clan! Our ancestors gave us this life because they wanted us to conquer the lands with glory, not for us to submit to other people! Old Vulture, I have always respected you, but if you want to become a dog of the Martial Alliance just because you’re afraid of death, I will never forgive you!”
“We will never submit! If the enemy is powerful, they can destroy our bodies, but they will never break our spirit! If we die, we will go to hell and tell our ancestors with our heads held high that we died in battle!”
“A clan that has lost its spirit cannot call itself a clan. We are guarding our spirit! We will die with pride!”
Every person’s declaration was a blow to Old Vulture.
He had not felt much when Lei Zhen spoke alone, but when everyone told him the same thing, he slowly became more and more dejected.
“No! That’s not right … This is not the way …” Old Vulture shook his head fervently and glared at everyone venomously. “You will cause the downfall of the Battle clan! You are all criminals!”
Lei Zhen shook his head tiredly. “Uncle, if you want the Battle clan to become the Martial Alliance’s slaves, you are the true criminal. We are all proud people. If we are lucky enough to produce descendants, we want them to live dignified lives, not be someone else’s dog the moment they are born. If that happens, I’d rather they not be born at all!”
Old Vulture’s eyes widened as he looked at Lei Zhen and every Battle King. When he saw the determination and passion in their eyes, his heart went cold. As his gaze swept across each person, it ultimately fell on Long Chen, the one who had defeated him.
Long Chen shook his head, looking at the defected old man. He had watched the whole argument, and as a whole, Long Chen respected Lei Zhen and the others. The idiom “broken jade is better than whole clay” was very fitting here.
Long Chen stretched and said to the Old Vulture, “Who said that the Battle clan is sure to lose to the Martial Alliance? Even if we lose, we will make sure they end up in a worse state than us! They are strong, but how will we know who is stronger without a proper fight? Old Vulture, if we had not fought today, would you have known that I’m stronger than you?”
His words successfully lifted the mood.
Lei Zhen nodded. It was time for him to end today’s matters. He hesitated for a while, as he did not really want to kill Old Vulture.
“Uncle, you tried to kill me and almost succeeded. I will need to lock you up before the Battle clan’s major day. Once we survive this ordeal, I will decide what to do with you.”
This was indeed a very generous sentence for him, but everyone knew that it was a little inappropriate to sentence Old Vulture to death when they were facing such a huge threat as a clan.
“You’re locking me up? How will I face anyone after what I’ve done?” Old Vulture looked down and smiled like a madman. “I did not succeed today, so I must admit that you have won. However, Lei Zhen, even though I’ll die today, you all will still be criminals!”
Then Old Vulture pierced his own heart with his sharp talons.
No one stopped him from killing himself. When Lei Zhen caught him, he had already stopped breathing.
Everyone looked at each other.
After a long time, Lei Zhen finally stood up and said tiredly, “Old Vulture did not grow up in the Battle clan, so he does not know what ‘spirit’ means to us.”
“He has always been the strongest member of the clan. This is a huge pity.” The other Battle Kings shook their heads. They were all passionate men who respected Lei Zhen. Lei Zhen’s courageous personality was the reason why they supported his becoming the clan leader.
The matters of the day had finally come to an end.
“Clan Leader, are you still going to the Lightning Pool?” asked one of the Battle Kings.
Lei Zhen shook his head and said, “I’m badly injured. I need ten days of rest to heal.”
“What will happen to the duel, then?” Lei Zhen was supposed to participate in the First Earthly Martial Stage duel.
Lei Zhen grinned. Everyone followed his gaze and looked at Long Chen. Then everyone gave proud smiles too.