System S.E.X. (Seduction, Expansion, eXecution)

Chapter 608: Humiliation of the Pride

"Brother!" said the young noblewoman. She let out a horrified shriek as her elder brother collapsed onto the blood-slicked stones, clutching his broken, bleeding face.

"How dare you, you low-born beast!" said the young mistress. Her eyes blazed with fury as she violently drew her sword. The blade instantly erupted into a roaring, scorching sheet of red flame that illuminated the dark plaza. "True Lion’s Fire Slash!"

She lunged forward, swinging the burning blade in a lethal vertical arc meant to incinerate Ethan on the spot.

Ethan simply tilted his head to the side, the fiery edge missing his ear by an inch. He looked directly into her enraged eyes, his expression completely bored.

"Is this the kind of fire you use to roast meat?" said Ethan. He let out a low, mocking chuckle. "It feels entirely too weak to even warm my tea."

"Die!" said the young mistress. Blinded by raw hatred, she twisted her stance and threw a desperate horizontal strike aimed at his throat.

Ethan didn’t bother drawing his weapon. His hand shot forward like a striking viper, his fingers locking around her wrist like an iron vise. With a brutal twist, he forced her arm behind her back, breaking her balance and instantly pinning her face-down against the cold cobblestones. He forcefully yanked her hips upward, completely trapping her beneath his overwhelming weight.

"You have been a very naughty little girl," said Ethan.

*Smack!*

"Ah!" said the young mistress. A sharp, humiliated gasp tore from her throat as Ethan’s heavy palm delivered a resounding, stinging slap directly across her backside.

*Smack!*

"Let me go, you absolute monster!" said the girl, her face burning with a mix of intense pain and absolute horror as the sound of a second slap echoed loudly over the plaza.

Using her own captured weapon, Ethan swiftly dragged the sharp edge down the fabric of her luxurious crimson tunic. With a loud tear, the expensive silk shredded completely apart, leaving her exposed to the cold morning air.

Ethan burst into a loud, boisterous, completely shameless laugh as he released his grip and stepped back. "Your hair down there matches your family’s name perfectly! Crimson red! They are quite beautiful, hahaha!"

The young mistress scrambled up from the stones, her face flushing a dark, chaotic crimson that completely eclipsed the color of her family’s robes. Realizing she was entirely exposed in front of thousands of onlookers, she let out a tearful, panicked shriek, dropped her weapon, and turned to flee out of the arena, desperately trying to cover herself as she ran.

A heavy, absolute silence blanketed the immediate area. Nearby applicants completely halted their life-or-death battles, their jaws dropping as they watched the proud daughter of the prominent Red Lion family run away in total, naked disgrace.

"I will butcher you! I will hack your soul into a million pieces!" said the elder brother. He forced himself up from the ground, completely ignoring his shattered nose and the thick river of blood masking his face. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, driven completely insane by the utter destruction of his sister’s honor.

If this news spread back to the core world, their lineage would become the laughingstock of the entire cultivation realm. He could no longer care about the rules, the exam, or his own survival. With a roar of suicidal madness, he gathered every ounce of his spiritual qi, ignited his weapon with a volatile, unstable flame, and charged straight at Ethan, determined to take the shameless tyrant down to hell with him at any cost.

The furious youth unleashed a flurry of violent, desperate strikes, his sword carving wild arcs of unstable crimson flame through the air. The intense heat singed the nearby stones, but Ethan simply glided around the onslaught with effortless, teasing grace.

"Your form is getting sloppy, young master," said Ethan. He tilted his torso back, letting a burning blade pass a hair’s breadth from his chest. "Is this all the great Red Lion family has to offer? A toddler swinging a lit branch?"

"Shut up! Shut up and die!" said the noble youth. He roared through the blood clogging his throat, overextending his weight to drive a heavy, overhead chop meant to cleave Ethan in two.

Ethan didn’t even bother to deflect the strike. He stepped subtly to the side, letting the flaming sword bury itself deeply into the stone pavement. Before the noble could pull his weapon free, Ethan drove a heavy, brutal counter-punch straight into the youth’s exposed solar plexus.

BARM!

"Guh..." said the elder brother. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, all the air violently exploding from his lungs. The sheer force of the impact completely bypassed his external defenses, instantly shattering his inner qi flow and leaving him completely incapacitated. He collapsed into the dirt like a puppet with its strings cut, twitching weakly as a trail of dark bile mixed with blood spilled from his lips.

The surrounding examinees who had been closely watching the brief, chaotic altercation felt a cold sweat wash over their backs. Everyone in the core regions knew the reputation of the Red Lion bloodline; their descendants were definitely not helpless rabbits. They were ruthless, battle-tested fighters born with top-tier cultivation resources. Yet, right here on the frontier steps, this dominant nameless tyrant hadn’t just defeated them—he had utterly, systematically humiliated them beyond any hope of recovery.

than calmly stood over the twitching body of the Red Lion heir. He bent down, effortlessly ripping the spiritual talisman from the noble’s ruined robes, before tossing it casually up and down in his palm.

"If this is the peak of the core region elites, these trials are going to be incredibly boring," said Ethan. He looked around the immediate perimeter, his piercing amethyst eyes locking onto the surrounding cultivators who were still staring at him in frozen horror.

The moment his gaze swept over them, the applicants instantly snapped out of their shock. They scrambled backward in a frantic panic, violently shoving each other out of the way just to clear a thirty-foot path around the dominant monster. Nobody wanted to be the next target of his ruthless whims.

High up on the viewing platforms, the hidden observers from the core families watched the scene with dark, narrowed eyes, their knuckles whitening against their seats. The undercurrents of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion were already beginning to churn, but Ethan simply let out a low, cold laugh, his solitary figure standing completely unbothered as the brutal countdown of the first trial continued to tick away.

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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??