The young man in the ink robe had moved so simply and so brutally, and his words had been so few and so exact.

With nothing in them to soften it.

So that these white tigers, unless they meant to stake everything on one desperate throw, could not so much as manage the face-saving words for a pretext.

Either strike, or get out.

In this place called Hongze, so long as the gap in strength between two sides was not truly enormous, it was very rare to see a scene as wholly unforgiving as that.

The company turned the young man's words over carefully.

The Glazed Azure Phoenix clan… was certainly a demon power with a great name in Xihong, and its standing needed no discussion. But plainly it had not reached the point where a man could be as domineering as this on the strength of it.

And yet the respectful look on that beautiful glazed azure phoenix told them something.

The young man's words had not seemed to hold the Glazed Azure Phoenixes up as any sort of backing. He had simply been stating a fact — he happened to be lodging there for the time being, that was all.

This pack of tiger demons had run up against something hard today!

Only, why had a young man of standing so lofty been put in a corner by the Dragon Consort? Surely not out of a wish to keep a low profile — not with the way he had behaved just now, which had nothing whatever to do with keeping low.

However it stood, this was a great personage.

And the depth of his backing was very likely beyond anything they could imagine.

Having reached that conclusion.

The company quickly put the enraged tiger demons out of mind; but they did not go out of their way to fawn on Shen Yi either.

Where standing differed by that much, forcing a connection on somebody far above might well only annoy him, and it was easy to bring a dangerous disaster down on one's own head.

A cultivator paired…