My Ares Son-in-Law

Duanmu Jue's exposed arm muscles were bulging, but they were turning gray and losing their luster at a visible speed, as if the life force in his body was being rapidly drained away by some strange force.

The scabs that had formed on his arm burst open and expanded instantly, gushing out black blood that dripped onto the ground, corroding the thick wool carpet and creating tiny, charred holes that emitted wisps of black smoke!
"Ugh!"

Duanmu Jue let out a pained roar that sounded inhuman. It was the backlash of his power being forcibly dismantled, coupled with the excruciating pain of his body being eroded by a strange power. The two kinds of pain intertwined, almost causing him to collapse.

He stumbled and staggered back seven steps, each step leaving deep footprints on the hard marble floor, cracks spreading wildly like a spider web.

With his final move, he slammed his left palm back, slamming it hard onto an overturned solid wood table behind him.

"Boom!"

The heavy solid wood table shattered into pieces, splintering wood everywhere. The immense impact barely countered the strange force that had been relentlessly assaulting the body through the fist.

He finally managed to steady himself, but his left leg was trembling uncontrollably, and his right arm hung limply at his side. Under his skin, faint dark golden threads moved rapidly like living things, and wherever they passed, the muscles quickly atrophied and withered, instantly losing their original sense of strength.

Duanmu Jue suddenly raised his head, his eyes wide open, staring intently at Xiao Chen.

His previously calm and composed face was now completely filled with horror and disbelief. His pupils were churning with turbulent waves, as if he were seeing this young man for the first time, not as an arrogant junior, but as a lurking prehistoric beast.

Xiao Chen remained firmly in place, his right hand, with fingers pointing outwards, slowly lowered, the dark golden light at his fingertips disappearing quietly like a tide.

His aura was as calm as a deep pool, his breathing was steady without a ripple, as if his casual flick of the finger had merely brushed away an insignificant fallen leaf.

His gaze swept over Duanmu Jue's nearly crippled, still slightly twitching right arm, past the shock, anger, and horror churning in the other's eyes. His face showed no trace of smugness, only an unfathomable indifference, as if the formidable enemy before him was nothing but dust.

"Prison Suppression?" Xiao Chen parted his thin lips slightly, slowly repeating the word, his tone as calm as if discussing the weather, but the end of his sentence carried a hint of nonchalant sarcasm, "That's it?"

"Wow,"

Duanmu Jue's Adam's apple bobbed violently. Just as he was about to speak in rebuttal, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

The blood, falling onto the marble floor, shimmered with an eerie dark golden hue, hissed, and emitted wisps of black smoke, instantly corroding several small pits.

He could clearly feel that the true energy he had cultivated for decades was being devoured, suppressed, and disintegrated by a higher-level power, and his meridians were being torn apart by intense pain.

He had never heard of or personally experienced the feeling of being crushed and devoured by a higher power in his life!

Although he didn't use his full strength, which could be considered underestimating his opponent, the opponent was truly formidable and might have injured him.

"Who...who exactly are you?!" Duanmu Jue clutched his chest, hissing as he questioned, a tremor finally creeping into his voice.

According to the General Administration's records, Xiao Chen was merely a young martial artist who had some fortuitous encounters and acted arrogantly. Even if he could defeat Ao Feiyang, he should not possess such bizarre and terrifying power! This kind of power does not belong to the realm of secular martial arts at all!

Xiao Chen didn't answer, but slowly lifted his foot and took a step forward. With just that one step, the weather changed dramatically!
All the intact glassware remaining in the banquet hall, whether decorative vases in the corners or wine glasses scattered on the tables, regardless of distance, simultaneously cracked with countless fine fissures.

Then, with a crisp "crash," it shattered into dust!
"Your Dragon Group," Xiao Chen's voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to carry a penetrating power, clearly reaching Duanmu Jue's ears and echoing in every corner of the deathly silent hall, "do you really like forcing others to kneel down and wait to die?"

He paused, his gaze sharp as a sword falling on Duanmu Jue's deathly pale face, his tone icy and chilling: "Now, it's your turn."

The moment he finished speaking, the colossal, primordial phantom behind him flashed away once more.

This time, Duanmu Jue saw it clearly; it was not an illusion, but a manifestation of the origin that was almost "Tao"!

At the same time, a will that was more magnificent, more ancient, and colder than Duanmu Jue's previous "suppressing the prison" aura quietly spread out like a curtain in the sky, enveloping all directions.

This will is not violent, but it carries an extreme sense of alienation and indifference, like a deity from the heavens looking down upon the struggles of ants on earth.

Under the pressure of this will, Duanmu Jue's martial will, which he had painstakingly cultivated for decades, instantly became like a candle flickering in the wind, teetering on the brink of collapse; his proud "Prison Suppression" might now seemed so laughable and utterly vulnerable.

“I’ll give you a few more years,” Duanmu Jue’s voice was hoarse like a broken gong, but it was unusually clear in the deathly silent banquet hall. “Perhaps others will say ‘perhaps,’ but I know it’s inevitable that you will be able to stand at a height that even I have to look up to.”

He stared intently at Xiao Chen, his right arm, corroded by the dark gold threads, hanging limply at his side, still twitching slightly, while his left hand slowly rose, his five fingers loosely clenched, a faint cold light swirling in his palm.

The few wall lamps in the banquet hall that were not completely broken began to flicker violently, casting half of his face in shadow, while the other half of his face was as hard as iron, exuding a chilling murderous intent.

"But, what a pity..."

Before he finished speaking, his left hand suddenly tightened its grip!

"Crack!"

In the distance, a perfectly intact high-backed solid wood chair exploded with a loud bang, sending wood chips flying but not scattering; instead, they eerily floated in mid-air.

All the sawdust tips were pointed directly at Xiao Chen, vibrating violently and emitting a sharp buzzing sound, as if they were about to pierce through everything in the next second.

A chilling killing intent, far purer and more concentrated than before, locked onto Xiao Chen's entire aura like a peerless, unsheathed blade. A faint, suffocating stench of rust and frost filled the air.

"Offending the Dragon Group means you have no future." Duanmu Jue spoke each word slowly and deliberately, each syllable like an ice pick striking the ground with a resounding clang. "Today, here, is the day your life ends..."

Before the last word "time" had even finished, a muffled yet soul-piercing explosion rang out without warning outside the already dilapidated doors of the banquet hall!
"boom!"

The sound wasn't the clash of metal; it was more like the roar of some heavy, resilient material compressing the air under immense kinetic energy, like a hammer slamming into everyone's heart. (End of Chapter)