Chapter 426 Only a Burden
The old man walked up to Isabella, his aged and arrogant voice saying, "You're just a woman; how dare you talk big here? You hurt my disciples, so I'll make you pay. You'd better kneel and kowtow to my disciples a few times. Otherwise, whichever hand you used to hurt them, I'll cripple that hand of yours."
"Is that so?" Isabella smirked, her dark eyesfixed at the old man with a cold, sinister smile. "Who do you think you are? You're just from the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance— what's so great about that?"
The old man's eyes turned vicious. "Fine, since you're so ungrateful, I'll send you to—"
Before the old man could finish, there was a loud bang.
A wave of Internal Energy from a powerful fighter surged from a distance.
The old man's body immediately flew backward, smashing a huge hole in the wall.
The old man fell to the ground in a sorry state, clutching his chest and coughing up blood.
Everyone's eyes widened in terror as they all turned to look in one direction.
Gwyneth and Wilmer walked slowly toward them.
Gwyneth seemed to have come from a formal occasion, still wearing an evening gown, her steps elegant and unhurried.
She narrowed her eyes, looking at the old man with a dangerous gaze, her demeanor like that of an empress looking down upon the world.
She spoke in a low, cold voice, "You, old man, relying on your age to show off in front of a girl who just came of age, how shameless."
The old man looked at Gwyneth, a trace of surprise flashing in his eyes.
This woman looked only about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, but that strike just now clearly showed her strength was above his.
Outside of Elyndra, there was actually an ancient martial arts professional with such high talent?
How was this possible?
The old man's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Who are you? Who asked you to meddle?" the old man shouted through gritted teeth.
"The Powell family, Gwyneth," she said in her cool, indifferent voice.
The old man's face immediately changed.
The Powell family?
Even people from Elyndra knew that outside forces were led by the Powell family.
Gwyneth ignored the old man and looked at Isabella. "Ansley, are you okay?"
Isabella shook her head. "I'm fine."
"Wilmer, take Silas back for treatment."
"Yes."
Wilmer quickly came to Silas, picked him up from the ground, and rushed toward the hospital.
Seeing the old man still staring at them, Gwyneth's faceexpression with displeasure. "Leave now, or do you want to die?"
The old man's expression looked unpleasant, but he didn't dare say anything and could only quickly leave with those young men.
"Ansley, let's go back," Gwyneth said.
Isabella followed Gwyneth into the car.
Before getting in, she faintly felt a gaze coming from a certain direction, as if someone were watching her.
She instinctively looked in that direction but only saw a closed window, not the person behind it.
In a nearby café, Raven and Mirror sat by the window, silently watching the Powell family's car leave.
Raven picked up his coffee cup and took a sip. "Looks like now isn't a good time to make a move."
They had been having coffee when they happened upon Isabella getting into a dispute with those people from the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance and had planned to take advantage of the chaos to capture Isabella alive and bring her back to The Whispering Sect.
After all, Verity was still trapped in a nightmare and needed Isabella to break it.
But they hadn't expected Gwyneth to arrive so quickly.
Mirror clenched his palm, his eyes cold. "It doesn't matter."
"There will be plenty of opportunities in the future."
——
After Isabella and Gwyneth returned to the Powell family's castle, they went to the back mountain.
During her absence, the elite team arranged by the Powell family to participate in the ancient martial arts competition hadn't stopped training.
They were all at the training ground on the back mountain.
Including two reserve team members, there were seven people representing the Powell family in the competition.
They were all from the Powell family's younger generation, with the best talent and strongest abilities.
Isabella planned to go greet them.
On the way to the training ground, she ran into Walter.
When Walter saw Isabella, he was slightly startled, then greeted her, "Ms. Powell."
"How's your training going?" Isabella asked.
"Pretty good."
"Ms. Powell, let me take you to meet them," Walter offered.
"Okay."
Isabella followed Walter to the training ground and saw the seven elite competitors—five men and two women.
They were all young, the oldest no more than twenty-two.
"Let me introduce everyone. This is Ms. Powell, our team leader," Walter said.
Isabella glanced around at these talented young people. Before she could say anything, she heard them whispering among themselves.
"So this is Ms. Powell, doesn't look like much."
"Her strength is probably not even as good as ours?"
"Her?"
Zander Powell even said disdainfully, "I heard she grew up outside, she probably doesn't even know what ancient martial arts are? Can someone like her participate in the ancient martial arts competition? And be our team leader? Is this a joke?"
"I heard she's a dual practitioner of ancient martial arts and hypnosis."
"What's so great about being a dual practitioner? If you can master both, then you're a dual practitioner. If you can't master either, then you're just a useless waste."
"Looking at her, she doesn't seem like someone who can fight. If you ask me, she'd be better off being a proper young lady, staying quietly in the castle. What's she doing participating in an ancient martial arts competition? She'll just drag us down."
"..."
Several people showed no regard for Isabella's status, and their mockery and sarcasm all fell on Isabella's ears.
But Isabella wasn't annoyed. She just smiled slightly and looked at them, saying:
"I know you're all outstanding members of the Powell family's younger generation. In terms of talent, you're all better than me, and you're all very confident than me. But I still hope you can save that energy for the competition, not here. What do you think? After all, your opponents aren't me."
After she said this, everyone quieted down a bit.
Just then, Walter and Zander exchanged glances.
Zander, as if receiving some signal, immediately lifted his chin slightly to look at Isabella with a challenging attitude. "Ms. Powell, don't stand there talking without feeling the pain. Among us, Walter has the strongest abilities, and I only respect him. As for you, I really don't want to participate in the competition with you."
Hearing this, Walter felt slightly pleased.
During Isabella's absence, he had been secretly sowing discord, portraying Isabella as incompetent and making these talented young people dissatisfied with her.
And what Zander just said was right—he indeed had the strongest abilities among them, so they all respected him.
"If you don't want to participate in the competition, you can quit. I naturally have no objection," Isabella said.
At these words, Zander's expression stiffened, and his expression immediately became unpleasant.
The others were also stunned, never expecting Isabella to speak so directly.