“Papa! Good luck!” Yun Xia shouted towards his father and waved her hands at him as Yun Ling walked towards the coliseum backstage at a steady pace.

Yun Ling paused in his steps as he turned back to his daughter and gave her a smile. He waved his right hand to her while saying, “Papa got this!”

Yun Xia grinned. She then followed her grandfather and grandmother towards the special seats reserved for the Yun Clan. She was excited to see how her father was going to perform in the competition. She couldn’t wait to cheer for him.

After that, Yun Ling continued heading backstage. The gentle and loving expression that was just on his face seconds ago while facing his daughter had completely disappeared. His eyes had become cold. Any lesser people who happened to crossed their gaze with him would surely be frozen stiff by the sheer coldness his eyes were emanating. It made anyone feel that if they happened to make a wrong move, he would instantly finish them off. That was the way Yun Ling felt to other people right now. In simple terms, he felt dangerous.

If there were any ferocious lesser beast who saw Yun Ling the way he was right now, they would surely retreat in fear.

“Let’s drink to our hearts’ content after this Golden Dragon Election!” a young man said to his companion as they were heading towards the coliseum’s backstage. They were also one of the participants of the Golden Dragon Election.

“Sure! Hahaha, you know what? I’ll introduce you to my sister later! I would love to have a funny brother-in-law like you haha,” the other young man let out a loud laugh while saying that.

“Haha for re—” the young man didn’t get to finish his sentence as he accidentally bumped into someone else. He immediately got angry and yelled, “HEY! WATCH YOur steps… will… you…”

The young man trailed off upon seeing who it was that he hit and yelled on. He instantly froze on the spot while sweating heavily.

It was Yun Ling.

Yun Ling’s eyes fell upon him as he frowned.

While facing Yun Ling, the young man felt as if there was a dangerous lesser beast staring at him, waiting to devour him whole. His body had gone stiff. He couldn’t move his body even a little bit. This was one of the human body’s natural reaction to danger, the fight-flight-freeze response. In this case, his body decided that the best course of action to take in order to protect himself was to freeze. Fighting or fleeing was out of the question as he might attract Yun Ling’s aggression.

After a few seconds, Yun Ling ignored him as he continued ahead.

The two young men immediately sighed in relief when Yun Ling finally left the area. Even the young man’s companion froze seconds ago even though he wasn’t the one that hit Yun Ling. Yun Ling was just that terrifying. He was giving off an incredibly bad vibe.

“That was Yun Ling, right?”

“Who else could it be?”

They found it quite hard to understand. They had seen Yun Ling a few days ago with his daughter and he seemed to be a great, caring guy. They took notice of him because he was fairly popular even to the nonresidents of the capital. It was really hard to associate the cold guy from earlier with the loving father that he was when they had first seen him.

“Hmm?” Yun Ling frowned. Someone was blocking his way to the backstage.

Upon taking a closer look, he recognized who it was. It was a hunchback old man he was more or less familiar with. It was none other than the Grand Chancellor of the empire, Zheng Yi.

“Grand Chancellor,” Yun Ling stated as he looked at Zheng Yi straight in the eye.

Zheng Yi chuckled at him, “Seeing you right now reminds me of how you were years ago. You were quite a fearsome individual in the capital back then.”

“I assume Grand Chancellor isn’t here to engage in some chit chat with me?” Yun Ling said.

“You’re right,” Zheng Yi let out a sigh. “You know what I’m here for. How is it?”

Yun Ling stared at him for a few seconds. He must be talking about the matter of the longevity fruit. Before he left the capital, Grand Chancellor Zheng Yi came to him and asked him to sell a longevity fruit to him if he managed to find one.

He shook his head as he answered, “I’m afraid I didn’t find any, Grand Chancellor. You know how extremely rare those things are. Moreover, I’m sure you already know what transpired in the Thousand Mountain Valley. I didn’t have the time to try searching for a longevity fruit there.”

Zheng Yi let out a sad smile as he dispiritedly said, “I knew that was the case. I didn’t really expect much when I asked you for a longevity fruit before you left for your task because of how rare it was. If it was so easy to find, I would have searched for it myself. Still, I can’t help but feel a little disappointment.”

Yun Ling didn’t say anything and just listened to him.

“Forget it, if this is heaven’s will, then there’s nothing we can do,” Zheng Yi shook his head with a lifeless smile.

“Grand Chancellor, may I go now?”

“Of course, forgive me for blocking the way,” Zheng Yi said as he got out of the way and let Yun Ling pass.

Yun Ling entered the backstage right away without a second thought. His gaze was looking straight ahead. He didn’t even look back and spare a glance to the devastated hunchback old man behind him.

“A pitiful man at his rope’s end,” Yun Ling muttered under his breath. That was his impression of the grand chancellor right now.

Time really makes a fool of men. Even the normally charismatic and awe-inspiring grand chancellor had been turned into such a pathetic display.

Whether Grand Chancellor Zheng Yi dies or lives, Yun Ling really couldn’t care much. He was just an outsider after all. Whether he was dead or alive, it didn’t matter to him.

“Yun Ling’s here,” Yu Shan told Yun Yi and the crown prince upon noticing his presence.

Yun Yi and the crown prince immediately turned their eyes towards the direction he was looking at. Then, Yu Shan and the crown prince let out a frown.

“He seemed to be different today,” the crown prince muttered.

“It’s like he had gone back to his previous self,” Yu Shan added.

Yun Yi, on the other hand, was overjoyed. This was what he was looking for! The Yun Ling in this state was the one he yearned to fight the most!

“Hahaha! Splendid, Young Master! Looks like you haven’t gone soft after all!”