Chapter 53 Dancer

"Excuse me. I don’t believe we’ve met. Could you please not block the door? I’m trying to leave."

The words were simple. Polite. Almost mundane.

But to Li Tianhao, they landed like a slap across the face.

For a moment, he genuinely thought he had misheard.

In his entire life, no one... no man, no elder, no rival had ever spoken to him in such a tone.

Not dismissively. Not casually. And certainly not as if he were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

His eyes widened slightly, disbelief flickering across his face.

Three slow breaths passed.

Disbelief turned into humiliation.

Humiliation ignited into rage.

"What... did you just say to me?" Li Tianhao growled, his voice low, trembling with barely restrained fury.

His face flushed a violent red as veins bulged across his neck and forehead.

"Say that again, you worthless piece of trash, and I’ll rip your tongue out of your mouth! You don’t even deserve to breathe the same air as me, Lin Feng! You’re nothing but a stain on this academy... a disgrace, a joke, trash among trash!"

He expected Lin Feng to stagger. To kneel. To tremble. To beg. But Lin Feng didn’t move.

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink.

Instead, he stood there with his hands calmly clasped behind his back, posture relaxed, his eyes steady and unreadable.

A faint, almost lazy smile curved his lips as he watched Li Tianhao’s tantrum, like a man observing a barking dog throwing itself against an iron gate.

After a heartbeat, Lin Feng sighed softly.

"It’s really true what they say," he said mildly. "The dumbest dogs bark the loudest."

The air seemed to freeze.

Li Tianhao’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"What did you just call me?!" he roared, stepping forward, his killing intent surging violently.

"You’re courting death! I’ll tear you apart piece by piece, you useless bastard!"

Lin Feng didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t even look remotely threatened.

He spoke before Li Tianhao could even attack.

"I’ll tell you one last time," he said, still polite, still gentle... yet somehow far more insulting than any curse.

"Move away from the door. I’m simply trying to leave. Or do you want me to engrave my message onto a jade slip? Maybe even carve it into a mountain so your brain can finally comprehend basic human speech?"

He shook his head slowly, genuine disappointment in his eyes, as if he had just encountered the lowest form of life in the entire cultivation world.

"Honestly," Lin Feng added, "I’ve met demonic beasts with better manners and higher intelligence than you. Even comparing you to a dog is an insult to all dogs... at least I think dogs are even smarter than you."

"You—!" Li Tianhao’s face flushed even darker, veins standing out like twisted ropes.

His chest heaved violently, and for a brief moment, it looked as though he might actually lose control and attack on the spot.

Every instinct in his body screamed at him to kill Lin Feng.

To rip that smug expression off his face.

To stomp him into the ground until nothing remained but blood and broken bones.

His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, nails digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood.

Then his gaze shifted.

And he saw Ning Xi.

She stood just behind Lin Feng, her expression tense, her brows furrowed, her eyes flickering between the two men.

There was a witness. Worse still... it was Ning Xi.

The one person whose opinion he cared about the most at this time since Li Tianhao wanted to win Ning Xi’s body.

No matter how furious he was, no matter how badly he wanted to kill Lin Feng, he could not afford to lose face in front of Ning Xi.

Killing Lin Feng here would only make him look like a reckless brute, a madman who couldn’t control his emotions.

And Li Tianhao prided himself on being powerful, proud, and dignified.

He swallowed his rage.

Barely.

Instead of attacking, he straightened his posture, forcing a twisted smile onto his face.

The veins on his forehead still throbbed violently, and his eyes burned with murderous intent.

"Very well," he said coldly. "Since you’re so eager to die, I, Li Tianhao, challenge you to a duel on the Dao Teaching Platform!"

His voice echoed across the area, loud and domineering.

"Do you dare accept, Lin Feng?!"

Lin Feng, however, showed no sign of fear.

Instead, he looked at Li Tianhao with a calm, almost amused expression, as if he had just been offered a child’s game.

"You dare challenge me?" Lin Feng said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you have no shame at all?"

Li Tianhao sneered. "What?"

"You’re already at the tenth stage of the Body Refining Realm," Lin Feng continued evenly, "while I’m only at the third. If I accepted, I’d truly be a fool."

Li Tianhao laughed loudly, his arrogance fully returning. "So you admit you’re a coward!"

"A coward no but..." Lin Feng paused, his lips curling into a faint, dangerous smile.

"I’ve been called a fool before. One more time wouldnt matter. And there’s only one condition under which I’ll agree to this duel."

Li Tianhao’s eyes lit up.

To him, this was already victory.

"What condition?" he asked eagerly. "Money? Women? Pills? Techniques? My Li Clan can promise you anything! Just say it, and I’ll agree to all your conditions!"

He laughed darkly, already picturing the scene on the Dao Teaching Platform... Lin Feng bloodied, broken, kneeling at his feet while the entire academy watched.

His dignity would be crushed beyond repair. His reputation would be destroyed forever.

Lin Feng stared at him in silence for a long moment, his gaze steady and unreadable.

"It’s simple," he said slowly. "I don’t need money. I don’t want women. I don’t care about power."

He took a step forward.

The air around him seemed to grow colder.

"I only need one thing," he continued, his voice dropping into a chilling calm.

"If I win..."

He paused deliberately, letting the words hang in the air like a blade suspended over Li Tianhao’s neck.

"I want you to crush your own balls."