# Chapter 2030: Holding Life Hostage
Although the person before him was nothing more than a lowly piece of trash not worthy of a second glance, this man had once "jumped and stomped" in front of him, and before he had the chance to crush him to death, he had been witnessed fleeing in disgrace.
How could he possibly not remember!
After the initial surprise, what appeared on his face was a twisted excitement and amusement, as if he had suddenly found a lost and recovered toy.
"It's... you!" Yun Che seemed to have only just recognized him. The same two words, but his tone was much heavier.
As he spoke, his footsteps slowly retreated one step, but then immediately stopped. His expression gradually calmed as well, and he uttered the man's name in a low voice: "Meng Jianzhou!"
Back in the Linyuan Realm, Hua Caili had called out his name. Meng Jianzhou caught Yun Che's movement of wanting to flee but then stopping, and the smile at the corner of his lips became even more contemptuous and amused: "It seems in this time, it should be enough for you to understand what kind of identity the name 'Young Master' represents. Hmm? Run, why aren't you running? Is it because you know you can't escape so you're waiting to die obediently, or are you thinking of begging for mercy, dreaming that this young master will spare your worthless life?"
"Begging for mercy? Hah..." Yun Che let out a low laugh, putting on an air of resignation that made him fearless: "As the son of a revered Divine Venerable of a divine kingdom, you should be a figure like a brilliant star in the sky in the eyes of the world. Yet you openly engage in lewd and evil acts in a border region, which is already nauseating. Now in this Mist Sea, you use such despicable methods to harm innocent people."
"A lowlife like you—do you even deserve to be the son of a Divine Venerable? Do you deserve my begging for mercy?"
"Hahahaha!" Instead of getting angry, Meng Jianzhou burst into loud laughter: "They say the bravest people in this world are those who know they are going to die. Unfortunately, the words you managed to utter with your dying breath are only at this level? As expected, commoners are just commoners. The abyss hound I crushed to death an hour ago barked more pleasantly than you."
Yun Che gave a faint smile, his voice instead becoming gentle and unhurried: "Meng Jianzhou, it seems your status in the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom is quite low."
One sentence made the evil smile at the corner of Meng Jianzhou's mouth instantly stiffen by a fraction.
"A son of a Divine Venerable born with noble status and full of praise would never stoop to bullying the weak. Only a waste who, among a group of imperial princes and princesses, is inferior in talent, cultivation, and refinement—looked down upon and sneered at, someone even his own biological parents don't want to give a second glance—would rely on tormenting the weak to seek that pathetic sense of superiority and control."
The smile disappeared from Meng Jianzhou's mouth, and even his fair face took on a layer of lividity.
Because every word Yun Che said struck deeply at his sore spot.
Facing Meng Jianzhou's slightly changed expression, Yun Che slowly raised his hand and made a contemptuous gesture with his finger: "Garbage exists everywhere, even among the sons of Divine Venerables. And you are the dirtiest and smelliest one of them all."
"Thinking about it, your siblings must be ashamed of you. The Dreamless Divine Venerable who sent you out to train must surely wish you would die out here. After all, who would want a stinking, foul insect mixed in among their children?"
After these words were spoken, Meng Jianzhou's reaction was far more intense than Yun Che had anticipated.
His entire face visibly turned the color of pig liver.
Tsk tsk... Yun Che thought to himself: This guy really doesn't have it easy in the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom. It would take at least a few hundred or thousand years of pent-up frustration to produce such a complexion.
Meng Jianzhou slowly raised his hand, his fingers twitching restlessly. He forcibly maintained the certainty and arrogance of having the whole situation under control, but he could not suppress the violent and twisted light in his eyes no matter what.
"Heh... heh heh heh!" He let out a strange laugh, momentarily unable to think of what method to use to torture Yun Che to death in order to vent the rage and hatred in his heart: "Very good, very, very good. As a reward, this young master will definitely grant you... a nightmare that will make you regret being born into this world!"
In the second half of the sentence, he could no longer maintain his composure. Both his voice and expression became utterly ferocious.
"With just you? A half-step Divine Destruction Realm who only dares to hang around the outer edges of the Mist Sea?" Yun Che's face showed none of the humility and fear Meng Jianzhou had hoped to see. Both his tone and gaze held only contempt, as if what stood before him was not the son of a Divine Venerable but a pile of garbage not worth looking at directly: "Son of a Divine Venerable? Hah... a disgraceful thing! A piece of trash like you—if given to me as a son, I'd find you too lowly to even accept!"
As his voice fell, just as Meng Jianzhou's pupils suddenly erupted in chaos, Yun Che's profound energy burst forth, stirring up a gale as he instantly fled far away, plunging straight into the Mist Sea.
"Want... to run?" Meng Jianzhou's gaze was sinister, his teeth clenched tightly... And it was at this moment, as Yun Che released his profound energy, that he realized the other's cultivation was actually at the second level of the Divine Lord Realm.
He remembered that at the Linyuan Realm, Yun Che's cultivation was still at the peak of the Divine Sovereign Realm. Now, in just six or seven months, he had actually crossed an entire major realm plus a minor realm!
But at this moment, he obviously had no time to ponder this. Moreover, the Divine Sovereign Realm and second-level Divine Lord were essentially no different under his hand.
In the height of his rage, he did not choose to control souls. Instead, he burst forth, his speed several times faster than Yun Che's. His outstretched five fingers aimed directly at Yun Che's nape.
He wanted to personally tear Yun Che apart... piece by piece, flesh and bone, into fragments.
Although the dust of the abyss provided cover, the enormous gap in cultivation made Yun Che's desperate escape, perfectly timed, seem like a joke in Meng Jianzhou's eyes.
In just a few blinks, he had closed in to only a few steps away from Yun Che. His five fingers, condensed with cold light, stabbed straight at Yun Che's throat bones.
And at that moment, just as he was about to have Yun Che in his grasp, Yun Che's figure suddenly stopped. Then, facing him, he revealed a particularly eerie smile.
Yun Che opened the Yama King Realm Gate and his hand suddenly grabbed toward the onrushing Meng Jianzhou. The terrifying pressure he released far exceeded the boundaries of the Divine Lord Realm, causing Meng Jianzhou to instantly choke, his pupils nearly splitting.
But he could no longer stop his momentum and practically crashed heavily into Yun Che.
Boom!! The violent collision was followed by a miserable scream and an even more miserable sound of breaking bones. In that instant, Meng Jianzhou's arm and body seemed to have smashed violently against the most terrifying celestial hammer in the world. The remaining five fingers of his right hand were all broken, bone fragments flying everywhere. His protective profound energy was shattered in an instant. His body, which should have been strong, was easily crushed like rotten soil. An ice-cold palm broke through his sternum and plunged straight into his chest... viciously grasping his heart meridian and internal organs between its five fingers.
Chi-crack!!
A soul-shattering sound rang out. The space above Yun Che split open, revealing a beam of profound light releasing terrifying pressure.
Yun Che was not panicked in the slightest. With one hand gripping Meng Jianzhou's heart meridian and internal organs tightly, his other hand grabbed his neck, locking the man firmly in front of him as a shield: "Come on, make a move. Let's see who dies first—him, or me!"
To Yun Che now, Meng Jianzhou was no longer a threat at all.
What was truly terrifying was the guardian secretly following him!
That old man in gray robes with short hair and a long beard!
That old man most likely had the cultivation of the mid-stage Divine Destruction Realm, far beyond what Yun Che could handle. Moreover, given his cultivation and age, his experience must be extremely rich. Being in the Mist Sea, his vigilance would certainly be at its peak. Acting cautiously, Yun Che first provoked Meng Jianzhou, then pretended to "escape" to lure him to approach voluntarily. His goal was to avoid triggering the gray-robed old man's vigilance... and now he had succeeded in grasping Meng Jianzhou's life in his hands before the old man could make a move.
"You... ngh ngh!" A painful and terrified groan leaked from Meng Jianzhou's mouth. His eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, as if he had suddenly fallen into a nightmare, his soul scattered and body trembling. A moment ago, the other party was just a toy that had angered him. In the blink of an eye, his life was already in the other party's hands... He never knew that the feeling of having his life pinched between someone's fingers could be so vivid. If the other party exerted even a little force, his heart meridian and internal organs would be crushed to powder, and his death would be certain.
Ahead, a gray shadow descended slowly. It was the old man who had appeared at the Linyuan Realm that day to take Meng Jianzhou away.
Meng Jingzhe.
At this moment, his expression was even darker than the dust and mist of this Mist Sea.
"Release him."
A commanding tone, each word carrying the heavy, unparalleled might of a demigod.
At this point, how could Meng Jingzhe not understand? The young man had known of his existence from the very beginning. His entire series of actions earlier had been to blind him.
And he had indeed fallen for it. It was not until Meng Jianzhou's heart was crushed and he was taken hostage that he reacted, belatedly and frantically... and even then, he had been stunned for a moment.
Because Yun Che's cultivation was simply too deceptive.
Such progress in half a year was astonishing, but after all, he had only just entered the Divine Lord Realm. Not worth his attention.
But the profound energy Yun Che had suddenly exploded with when he turned the tables on Meng Jianzhou... If his perception was not mistaken, it was actually a pressure comparable to a demigod!
Meng Jianzhou, though worthless, had been built up by countless abyss crystals to the Half-step Divine Destruction Realm. Yet he was crushed in an instant.
This clearly proved... that the demigod-level might was not an illusion or error.
"Release him?" Yun Che's gaze held not a trace of fear toward the demigod of a divine kingdom. Instead, it was as if he were staring at an idiot: "Then wouldn't I be dead for sure? How do you have the face to utter such three stupid words?"
Meng Jingzhe's brows sank sharply. Within his heart, there was three parts killing intent and seven parts doubt... Regardless of the profound energy that completely did not match his cultivation level, this man clearly knew his own and Meng Jianzhou's origins, yet he showed no fear at all and even dared to insult him like this!
"Master Jing... save me... save me!" Meng Jianzhou trembled as he spoke. His heart meridian felt as if it were caught in the claws of a demon. The death so close, seemingly only a hair's breadth away, left him not daring to struggle at all. His entire body shook from head to toe like a sieve.
This noble-born, pampered son of a Divine Venerable, who took pleasure in tormenting others, revealed an even more wretched appearance in the face of death than most ordinary people.
"Shut up!" Meng Jingzhe scolded softly, his ice-cold and piercing gaze stabbing straight at Yun Che: "Who are you?"
"Yun Che," Yun Che answered calmly.
A name that did not match any force in his memory. Meng Jingzhe continued: "Since you know who he is, you should understand that your action... is utterly foolish!"
"Foolish? Hahahaha!" Yun Che sneered directly: "If I didn't take his life hostage, I would have to die. So in your eyes, dying is the right thing to do, and seeking to survive is foolish? If that's the case, why are you still standing here? Why don't you go die yourself? Or are you actually calling yourself a fool?"
"..." Meng Jingzhe's expression did not change, but his gaze grew even colder: "I will say this one last time. Release him, or else—"
Crack!!
Yun Che's five fingers, gripping Meng Jianzhou's neck, stabbed straight into his throat, sending blood splattering everywhere along with Meng Jianzhou's hoarse, dying-duck-like scream.
"You—!!" Meng Jingzhe stepped forward, his eyes nearly splitting. Yun Che slowly lowered his brows and said with a smile: "Or else what? Kill me? Fine. Although this Meng Jianzhou is nothing but a pile of stupid and foul garbage, at least in terms of identity, he is the son of a Divine Venerable. Having him as company for my death wouldn't be too much of a loss."
Meng Jingzhe's facial features twitched slightly. Profound energy surged violently between his fingers, but he did not dare release even a fraction of it.
"Come on, go ahead and make a move." Yun Che provoked wantonly, even stimulating the other party without any restraint: "Your Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom is best at soul power, isn't it? Don't you want to see if my soul, after being attacked, still has enough consciousness to crush this Divine Venerable's son's heart meridian?"
At this moment, a chill suddenly ran through Meng Jingzhe's entire body. He realized with alarm that his demigod aura, his demigod soul pressure, and even the words "Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom" were completely useless against the person before him.
This was a madman with strange power, a strange soul, who completely did not fear death, did not care about consequences, and left no room for retreat!
"Don't... don't... don't move recklessly... don't attack..."
Meng Jianzhou, whose throat had been pierced, used all his strength to utter a hoarse voice. At this moment, he thought of something and shouted desperately: "Release me... I am the son of Dreamless Divine Venerable..."
"My soul has a soul imprint placed by my father god... If I die... everything I saw and heard in the ten breaths before death... will be transmitted to my father god... Even the Mist Sea... cannot... stop it..."
"Then that would be even better!" Instead of being threatened, Meng Jianzhou's threatening words made Yun Che's eyes gleam with excitement. He looked at Meng Jingzhe and said with a grin: "That way, the Dreamless Divine Venerable will know that his son, under your personal protection, was cruelly killed by a mere little Divine Lord with no background at all."
He slowly parted his lips at the corner: "Helping Dreamless Divine Venerable get rid of his most useless and incompetent son—what a great achievement! I wonder how the Dreamless Divine Venerable will reward you then? I'm truly very curious."
"..." Meng Jingzhe's expression barely maintained a calm and composed demeanor, but his gray-streaked long beard trembled uncontrollably.