[Volume 2] Chapter 16: The Spacetime Administration Bureau Gets to Work

Xiao Yan clutched his right cheek, which burned with pain. As he struggled to his feet, fury and shock warred within him.

He was furious that this man had dared slap him in public—and shocked because he had no idea where the man had come from.

After a moment’s thought, Xiao Yan decided Nalan Yanran must have sent him. He might even be an elder of the Misty Cloud Sect. Only someone of that level could possess such terrifying speed.

He glared venomously at Chen-Awelon. “Nalan Yanran! Misty Cloud Sect! I’ll remember how you bullied and humiliated me today. Just you wait! Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Never look down on the young—”

Slap!

Another slap cracked across Xiao Yan’s left cheek, sending him spinning through two full rotations before he hit the floor with a thud.

Both cheeks swelled up like red buns, with a clear handprint stamped on either side.

Chen-Awelon grinned and flexed his fingers. “As expected of the Flame Emperor’s face. Damn, it feels good to slap!”

The Strongest Flex-and-Face-Slap System chimed in his mind.

[Face-slapped Dou Emperor Xiao Yan! Successful flex! 500 Flex Points awarded!]

“Enough!” thundered Xiao Zhan, head of the Xiao Clan—and Xiao Yan’s father.

He shot to his feet, fists clenched. Pale-cyan Dou Qi gradually spread across his body, then gathered around his face in the hazy outline of a lion’s head.

The Xiao Clan’s supreme Qi Method: Raging Lion’s Fury! Rank: Mid-level Xuan!

Xiao Zhan glared at Nalan Yanran, fire blazing in his eyes. “Yanran! You dare let someone strike my son before my very eyes? Xiao Yan may have refused to annul the engagement, but humiliating him like this is an insult to the entire Xiao Clan!”

“I don’t know him either,” Nalan Yanran said in a small voice.

Ge Ye stepped forward to shield her. “Clan Head Xiao, I have never seen this man before. He has nothing to do with either Nalan Yanran or the Misty Cloud Sect. We do not know who he is.”

As Ge Ye looked at Chen-Awelon, unease stirred in his heart. Chen-Awelon had appeared in an instant, and Ge Ye had sensed nothing at all.

Neither had any of the other Xiao clansmen, including the clan’s three elders.

They all knew what that meant: the gap between their strength and his was enormous. Fear quickly took hold.

Xiao Yan stubbornly climbed to his feet and met Chen-Awelon’s gaze.

The moment Chen-Awelon saw Dou Emperor Xiao Yan standing again, he struck without hesitation.

Slap! Slap!

Two crisp smacks rang out. Xiao Yan was knocked down once more, a fresh red handprint appearing on each cheek.

The Strongest Flex-and-Face-Slap System sounded again.

[Face-slapped Dou Emperor Xiao Yan! Successful flex! 500 Flex Points awarded!]

[Face-slapped Dou Emperor Xiao Yan! Successful flex! 500 Flex Points awarded!]

Heh heh...

Chen-Awelon was delighted. He hadn’t expected slapping Xiao Yan to earn him so many Flex Points. It looked like he would have to get a few more slaps in later!

When Xiao Zhan saw his son struck again, he could no longer contain his rage. He crushed the teacup in his hand. The pale-cyan, lion-shaped Dou Qi around him condensed until it was almost solid, poised to erupt.

All at once, the hall flooded with daylight!

Everyone stared in shock. The roof had been torn away, allowing brilliant sunlight to stream inside.

A moment later, a three-meter-tall mountain of a man dropped into the hall. His immense weight sent a tremor through the floor.

The newcomer was Bearmont, a Tier Four expert in the mid-stage of the Ethereal Realm.

Xiao Zhan failed to rein in his attack. The sight of yet another unknown outsider barging in only stoked his anger further.

He leaped high and drove the full force of Raging Lion’s Fury into Bearmont’s chest with a single punch.

Bearmont took the Xiao Clan’s supreme Qi Method head-on without suffering so much as a scratch.

He patted his chest and looked down at Xiao Zhan, whose head barely reached his chest.

“Was that supposed to tickle?”

Xiao Zhan’s face drained of color. His strongest Dou Qi attack had done absolutely nothing.

Realizing the enormous difference between them, he turned to flee.

Bearmont extended a hand as broad as a window and seized the Xiao Clan’s patriarch as though snatching up a scrawny monkey.

Xiao Zhan struggled desperately, unleashing several more Dou Techniques against him, but Bearmont soon lost patience and simply broke all four of his limbs.

Crack! Crack!

The sharp snaps echoed through the hall. Bearmont then gave him a casual toss.

Xiao Zhan flew across the hall and smashed through the clan head’s chair. He lay amid the splintered wood, groaning in agony, unable to rise.

Ordinarily, Bearmont would have killed him without a second thought. But today, their only target was Xiao Yan.

Chen-Awelon had instructed him to avoid attacking anyone else if possible, lest they throw this world too far off course. That was the only reason Bearmont had merely broken Xiao Zhan’s limbs.

Xiao Zhan was considered one of the strongest experts for miles around. Otherwise, he never could have become clan head.

Yet the towering giant had crushed him in a single exchange. Everyone in the hall was stunned.

No one dared make a sound, afraid that the terrifying expert who had appeared out of nowhere might break their limbs next.

Finn and Jyan-Tyenhaw entered the hall soon afterward. Eager to flex, Chen-Awelon had rushed ahead of them to slap Xiao Yan.

Chen-Awelon had specifically cultivated a speed-boosting movement art so he could catch others within his IQ-Suppression Aura before they reacted. That was how he had reached Xiao Yan’s side in an instant.

Sainquartz was patrolling outside. This was standard procedure for the Spacetime Destruction Bureau: whenever they had enough personnel, someone always remained on watch.

Beyond the Imaginary World, Moonbell had remained behind to monitor the situation and sound the alarm if necessary. Meanwhile, outside the Xiao estate in Wutan City, Sainquartz hovered in a secluded corner, surveying the area.

Sainquartz’s entire body was made of crystal. By altering his internal structure, he raised his light transmittance to one hundred percent, allowing light to pass through his body without being reflected or absorbed.

This rendered him optically invisible. Since he neither breathed nor emitted an aura that needed concealing, he was also almost impossible to detect by other means.

Back in the now-roofless hall, Jyan-Tyenhaw swept his gaze over the trembling crowd and pressed one palm downward in a calming gesture.

“Please remain calm. We have come for one person only—Xiao Yan.”

“Xiao Yan?”

The Xiao Clan elders, Nalan Yanran, Ge Ye, and Xiao Xun’er all turned toward him in surprise.

“How could that useless Xiao Yan have brought a disaster like this upon our clan?”

“Xiao Yan, what did you do to offend such supreme experts? Apologize to them at once!”

Xiao Yan’s cheeks were still badly swollen. He had been slapped repeatedly for no apparent reason, yet instead of protecting him, the clan elders were demanding that he apologize.

The resentment and fury in his heart burned even hotter.

“I don’t even know you! Why are you attacking me? Who the hell are you?” Xiao Yan demanded as he struggled upright.

“An upright man has nothing to hide! I am Zan-Yee of the Spacetime Administration Bureau!” Bearmont declared righteously.

“My name is Jimmy. I am an administrator of the Spacetime Administration Bureau,” Finn said coldly.

“I am Chen-Awelon, director of the Spacetime Administration Bureau!”

As the undisputed king of flexing, Chen-Awelon had never seen any reason to hide his identity.

“Jyan-Haw. Undercover investigator for the Spacetime Administration Bureau,” Jyan-Tyenhaw added.

“The Spacetime Administration Bureau?!” Xiao Yan’s eyes widened, and he froze.

He had lived on the Dou Qi Continent for more than a decade after transmigrating here, and in all that time, he had heard nothing that sounded so modern.

Then realization struck him.

He was a transmigrator!

That had to be why the Spacetime Administration Bureau had come after him!