He did not want to traumatise the boy even further because of their greed.
....
The elders sat in silence.
"So, what do we do then?"
"Realistically, it is not possible for that boy to win against two veterans alone."
It sounded fake to most of them, unrealistic.
"Also, there’s this rumour that Li Shan has taken Ye Yaming as a subordinate. So, it could be them who wanted to use the boy’s name."
Another elder added, causing others in the meeting to nod in agreement. It could indeed be Li Shan’s work.
"Or it could be someone else who wants the boy’s punishment to extend." Another one of the Elders was suspecting one of them. To be more specific, he was suspecting Elder Zhenyu.
All of them glanced briefly at an empty chair, Ye Zhenyu’s designated spot.
"We will ignore this incident. There is no way that child would be capable of that." Ye Canglan concluded.
There was no point arguing this case anymore. It was pointless, unnecessary.
The Elders looked at Ye Canglan then at each other before nodding complicity.
But before the end of the said meeting, Ye Canglan briefly glanced at every one of them and warned. "I hope none of you are involved in this."
...
"Boy, you look bad." Ren spotted Ye Yaming and commented. He hurried his steps and matched his pace with the boy.
"Did you just come out from training? I thought you would spend all of your childhood inside that place."
Chuckling, he made another comment but the boy did not seem receptive to him at all.
Ren walked side by side with him but even after a few seconds of awkward silence Ye Yaming kept walking ahead without speaking a single word to him.
"Did they not teach you how to speak in your noble Ye clan?"
Ren finally couldn’t stand being ignored like that and spoke in a snarky tone.
Ye Yaming reacted to it, he glanced back at REN’s face and resumed walking.
’What does he want?’ He thought for a second before resuming his walk.
He was exploring the prison. The place had a natural wall in the form of mountains, some small mountains were present even inside the boundary of the prison.
In fact, many residences seemed to be carved out from the mountains itself.
’Not bad.’ He thought to himself after finding a four meter tall rock to climb. He reached the top with a single jump, landing on the top.
"Isn’t he that boy?" He was spotted by a group of four men who seemed to be talking about him.
’It’s irking me.’ He would have ignored them but something about their expression and tone made him agitated.
"Lower your voice, he killed two of his clansmen." Seeing the boy stare at them, one of the four, Jin, warned the other three.
"Do you really believe that? Let me show you." Kai seemed to take Jim’s words as a joke. He was the older of the four and had some reverence in the group for his strength.
Gu Yan and Gu Wei looked at Li Kai expectantly. In the group of four, Gu Yan and Gu Wei were brothers, Jin and Kai were more experienced and stronger than them, so they formed a small group to survive.
"You boy! Come here." Kai ordered in a commanding tone as he pointed at Ye Yaming.
Ye Yaming ignored Kai. The man looked slightly muscular but nothing noteworthy to him.
’A small mutt like him. How dare he stare arrogantly at me?’ But Kai did not take it lightly. He had an image to maintain. Three men behind him were watching intently, his ego could not accept being dismissed by a mere boy.
Picking a stone from the ground, he threw it at Ye Yaming.
Since Ye Yaming was lost in thoughts, he got hit on his leg and it hurt.
"Hmm?" His eyes narrowed at them. It was obvious who threw the stone but the Gu brothers had stepped forward and were snickering at him.
"He looks angry. Look at him. Do you think just because you are Li Shan’s lackey, we’d fear you?" Kai commented from behind and laughed. He was aware of the boy’s back in jail so he only aimed at leg.
Someone like Li Shan would not bother him because of a small injury on his lackey. He was almost a Second-rate Qi warrior albeit without a Beast Soul.
He was not some noble. Most of the prisoners were normal warriors excluding a few like Li Shan.
’Even if he could kill two, we are four.’ Jin looked assured that they wouldn’t be defeated but he still stepped back.
They were normal warriors, weaker than those with Beast Soul but still, strength was in numbers.
SHK!!
Gu Yan stared stiff at his brother, his brother’s bleeding neck to be precise. ’Brother....’
"Did you say something?" Ye Yaming jumped down and landed on the falling body of Gu Wei. He had thrown the blade he had gotten from Li Shan to aim at Gu Wei’s neck.
A good chunk of the man’s neck was missing, destroyed from the blade’s intensity.
"Fucker! Grab him!!" Kai shouted from behind as he dashed forward to tackle Ye Yaming. He had prepared himself for a slight altercation when the boy jumped but the blade projectile mid air was a surprise.
Gu Yan grabbed Ye Yaming’s neck, still shocked, in grief. He was the closest to him. He poured all his Qi to strengthen his hands and strangled the boy’s neck.
Ye Yaming glanced at the blade. It was stuck in the ground, painted red. Jin, that man, was dashing to grab the blade from the ground.
Covering his palm in his Beast Qi, Ye Yaming slashed at Gu Yan’s wrist instinctively.
Schlk!!!
"Aaaarghhh!!!" Gu Yan stared with wide eyes at his hands, the part below his wrist was gone.
Kai had already reached them by then. The sight of blood did not avert him. He aimed his fist with full strength at Ye Yaming’s tiny head, fully intent on smashing it.
He had seen Gu Yan’s palm being separated from his hands. He further intensified the Qi in his fist, aiming to splatter the boy’s head.
He could see his fist connecting with the boy’s head. The scene of head splattering, he could envision it.