A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage)
Chapter 1706

Ye Qingtian was so distracted by Ye Fan's greatness that he completely missed Tang Hao's point.

"No, the Chu family did not submit to him. Chu Yuan showed up at the very last minute and injured Ye Fan severely," Tang Hao replied, snapping Ye Qingtian back to reality.

The look of pride on his face was immediately replaced by anxiety as he pressed on, "Welt? What happened after that? Did you two help him out? Did Ye Fan manage to escape? Honestly, that brat sure is a stubborn one! I've warned him not to underestimate the Chu family's power, but he never listens! Now, look what he's done! He got that old monster to come out of hiding!"

"I think we should assume him dead..." Tang Hao replied with a sigh.

"Don't give me that crap! I want to know what happened in the end! Did Chu Yuan engage Ye Fan in combat?" Ye Qingtian asked anxiously.

Tang Hao shook his head. "Sword Saint and I left halfway through the battle, so we don't know what happened afterward—"

Sword Saint cut him off mid-sentence, "I don't think we need to see it to know what happens. Chu Tianfan may be as powerful as the Sky Ranking's top three, but he has also expended a huge amount of energy fighting those continuous battles. Chu Yuan was the Sky Ranking's strongest ten years ago. Even if he hasn't ascended to the god realm, he'd at least be halfway there by now. Judging by the huge power difference between them, it'd be safe to assume that Chu Tianfan is dead."

He sounded like he was really certain that Ye Fan had died in combat.

To his surprise, Ye Qingtian got furious upon hearing that.

"So you two abandoned Ye Fan and returned to China because you were afraid of being caught in the crossfire? Is that why you guys just left him to die?" he shouted with a gloomy look on his face.

Unsure of why he was so angry at them, Sword Saint snapped back at him coldly, "What do you mean afraid of being caught in the crossfire? Do you think I'm doing this for myself? I'm doing this for the sake o China's martial arts forces! Do you seriously want the War God Castle to challenge Chu Yuan and the entire Chu family because of Chu Tianfan? He's not even a member of the War God Castle, so we have no obligation to protect him! Also, before leaving Mount Chumen, I have announced to all martial arts leaders in the world that the Unrivalled has been removed from China's Supreme list. From now on, there will only be five pillars of China!"

"What? I trained Ye Fan and made him one of China's Supremes! How dare you remove his title without my permission, Sword Saint?"

Ye Qingtian's anger was so intense that the table in front of him broke into pieces instantly.

Noticing that War God looked ready to fight Sword Saint, Tang Hao quickly tried to defuse the situation. "Calm down, Ye. None of us expected this to happen. Given how powerful the Chu family is, Sword Saint did what he had to do. I mean, Ye Fan tried to take on the entire Chu Sect alone! We had to cut ties with him orthe Chu family might think China sent him there.

Sword Saint had no choice but to sacrifice him for the greater good!"

"Greater good? What greater good? Are you two going to deliver me to the Chu family too if they wanted to kill me?"

Ye Qingtian got so mad that he shattered the tile beneath his feet with a powerful stomp before storming off. "Ye! Come back, Ye! Damn it! What the hell is going on here?" Tang Hao shouted as he ran after Ye Qingtian, but the latter refused to listen.

With that, Sword Saint and Tang Hao were all that remained in the War God Castle.

It was the first time they had ever found the place to be so cold and empty.

Sword Saint's resolve began to waver after a prolonged moment of silence.

"Tang Hao, do you think what I did was wrong? Should we have stood by Ye Fan's side till the bitter end?" he asked while staring blankly at Tang Hao.

For the briefest of moments, Tang Hao felt as if he could see the signs of aging on Sword Saint's handsome face.

"You weren't wrong, Sword Saint. Neither of us was. As the Hall Master of War God Castle, there wasn't much you could've done in that situation. Besides, we didn't know that he was Chu Tianfan at the time. We had no idea he was this strong. Honestly, I doubt we could've changed anything by helping out. Who knows, we might even end up getting all of China's martial arts forces in trouble if we did! Don't think too much about it, Sword Saint. With everything that has happened, it doesn't matter who's right or wrong anymore. What's done is done. Right now, we should focus on devising plans to deal with the threat from the Chu family and the Chu Sect."

Tang Hao was feeling extremely conflicted as well.

I don't want to leave Ye Fan behind, but it was his own decision to attack them like that. He has no one else to blame but himself. As for Sword Saint... While his decision may have been a little extreme, he didn't really have much of a choice in that situation. Personally, I don't fully agree with him removing Ye Fan's title as the Unrivalled. After what Ye Fan has done for the country, it seems awfully cold to just disavow him like that.

Of course, Tang Hao kept those thoughts to himself as Ye Qingtian's words had hurt Sword Saint badly enough.

He feared Sword Saint would break down mentally if he were to lecture him too.

Sword Saint nodded after hearing what Tang Hao said.

"Still, War God did have a point. I feel like I was being a little too cold-hearted by placing too much importance on our interests. How about we personally hold a funeral for Ye Fan? Although we may not have gotten along with him all that well, it is undeniable that he has contributed to China's martial arts world. This funeral shall be China's final form of repayment for him."

Sword Saint seemed to have thought things through and actually wanted to hold a funeral for Ye Fan.

Tang Hao nodded in agreement. "Yeah, this is a good idea! Still, I think we should keep things quiet. We can hold that funeral in Ye Fan's hometown and attend it secretly. At a time like this, we don't want to be giving the Chu family any reason to make a move."

He too, believed that Ye Fan was most likely dead and even agreed to help Sword Saint hold a funeral for him.

Ye Fan and the Chu family have been enemies to begin with, so there's no way Chu Yuan would let him go after he nearly wiped out the entire family!

With that in mind, Tang Hao walked up to the window and glanced at the ocean in the distance.

"Word about that huge battle should be spreading like wildfire across the martial arts world soon. It won't be long before we receive news about Ye Fan's death."