Chapter Twenty-Seven: Family Discipline

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“This is today’s punishment. If you dare talk back again, I’ll break your other leg as well.” Raina clapped his hands as though he had done nothing more significant than swat a fly, then turned to leave.

To his surprise, Lei Bin cried out only once. After that, he made no further sound of pain. Instead, he gritted his teeth and glared viciously at Raina, cursing him. “Do you think breaking one of my legs will make me submit? This is your so-called family law? Disgusting. This is nothing more than a vicious means of protecting your precious reputation and suppressing everyone else’s freedom. And they call you a Federation Marshal? You’re nothing but a selfish, self-centered bastard. You won’t allow anyone else to have their own thoughts or freedom. Everything has to be done your way. That’s tyranny. You’re a despot!”

“Hm?” Raina’s brows shot up. He had not expected that breaking one of Lei Bin’s legs would fail to make him behave. Instead, the boy had become even more explosive.

In the past, whenever Raina had personally crippled one of the Lei family’s young men, that person would regard it as a lifelong disgrace and warning, returning home to reflect seriously on his actions.

Lei Bin, however, showed no sign of remorse. He simply unleashed another torrent of abuse.

Since birth, Raina could not remember anyone ever cursing him so viciously.

This boy was outright defying him.

Raina’s expression turned cold. Without hesitation, he waved a hand. He did not even need to approach Lei Bin. A stream of force shot from his palm, and with a sharp crack, Lei Bin’s other leg was broken as well.

Lei Bin fell heavily to the floor, but he acted as though the leg did not belong to him. Apparently feeling no pain at all, he continued to curse from where he lay.

“Go ahead, hit me! Hit me! You think that because you have power, you can do whatever you want, and that everything has to revolve around you. Anyone who refuses to obey you is branded a rebel. Don’t you realize that you’re just a stubborn, backward old fossil with a feudal mindset? You even imagine that you command great authority, that everyone admires and respects you. In reality, they’re all being coerced by your strength. If you didn’t have that power, who would sincerely respect you? Without it, you’re nothing…”

The insults Lei Bin hurled that day were, by his standards, remarkably restrained. He did not curse Raina’s family or ancestors, because doing so would too easily have dragged his own father into the abuse as well.

“Fine. Fine. You say I’m tyrannical? Then I’m tyrannical. Let’s see how long that mouth of yours can stay so hard.” Raina’s chest heaved violently with anger. With a clawing motion through the air, he lifted Lei Bin’s body, then pressed one finger against an acupoint at the small of Lei Bin’s back.

The point lay along one of the body’s meridians. If true energy entered it, the resulting pain would pierce the marrow and become nearly unbearable. Raina had been thoroughly infuriated by Lei Bin, which was why he resorted to such a method of punishment.

In truth, however, none of the places he struck were vital. They would cause no serious injury or lasting aftereffects, and with the medical technology of the age, they could easily be healed. His only purpose was to make Lei Bin suffer.

The Lei family had finally produced another heir. How could Raina truly cripple him? That would be no different from digging his own grave.

“Ah… You think this will make me willingly become a member of the Lei family? You think this proves your authority as the head of the household? You think I’ll fear you just like all the other members of the Lei family? Let me tell you something… you’re wrong! I would rather die than submit!”

Held firmly in Raina’s grasp, Lei Bin had no chance of fighting back. All he could do was continue cursing, relying on the iron tongue and steel teeth he had forged in the old district since childhood. He was determined to curse the old bastard into a breakdown.

“Hm? I’ve already struck his acupoint. Anyone else would have been in too much pain to make a sound by now. How is he still able to keep shouting?”

Raina knew exactly what he was doing. He understood how intense the pain should be. Even specially trained soldiers could not possibly endure it. Yet Lei Bin was still holding on.

What he did not know was that Lei Bin had endured torment far worse than this at Xing Meng’s hands. Compared with that, this pain was child’s play.

Raina did not dare increase the force, afraid that he might cause Lei Bin any real harm.

For the first time, he was genuinely at a loss. His methods of educating the family’s younger generation had always been simple: stern reprimands and physical punishment. Not a single member of the family had ever failed to submit obediently. Even Lei Xingfeng, who had been the most rebellious in his youth, had never dared argue when Raina punished him. He had always admitted his mistake without protest.

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Lei Bin, however, was completely unmoved by any of Raina’s methods. Raina had truly exhausted every option.

At that moment, Raina realized that he really did not possess many ways to educate the younger members of his family. He relied primarily on his authority and the family’s laws.

Once that violent method lost its effect, he had no other good solution.

Seeing that Lei Bin was still cursing at the top of his lungs, Raina gave a faint snort and dislocated his jaw, finally granting himself some peace and quiet.

“Ah… wah… ah… wah…”

With his jaw hanging loose, Lei Bin could no longer curse. He could only make those incoherent sounds. Only then did Raina let out a breath of relief, unaware that his back was already drenched in sweat.

“I’ve actually been driven into such a fluster by a little brat that I’m sweating.” Raina could not help mocking himself inwardly. It had been a very long time since he had experienced anything like this.

“Lei Huan, take him back. He doesn’t need to attend tomorrow’s press conference. Just say that he’ll be holding a ceremony to formally return to his ancestral family, and issue the announcement in his place.”

Raina tossed Lei Bin onto the table and spoke to Lei Huan.

“Yes, my lord.”

Lei Huan bowed at once, then walked over to Lei Bin and sighed helplessly.

“Young master, why put yourself through this? You’re a member of the Lei family. That’s something you can never change. Come on, come back with me. From now on, I’ll be the one looking after you.”

Lei Bin’s eyes rolled white with rage, while his mouth continued to produce a stream of unintelligible sounds.

Seeing him like that, Lei Huan found it both amusing and exasperating. He knew that with Lei Bin’s temperament, the boy would probably refuse to acknowledge the Lei family for a very long time.

He had been destined to become an exceptionally outstanding member of the family, yet somehow he had ended up in open conflict with them.

Lei Xingfeng was also helpless about Raina’s punishment of Lei Bin. Lei Bin resembled him far too much in his youth—indeed, the boy was even more reckless and arrogant than he had been.

Lei Xingfeng was also baffled by the way Lei Bin had trained his body. The boy showed no fear at all before Raina’s pressure and had endured the family punishments without flinching, as though pain meant nothing to him.

It seemed that as a father, he truly knew far too little about his own son.

Lei Huan took out a communicator and spoke a few words into it. Before long, the meeting-room doors opened, and several people entered carrying a stretcher.

Lei Huan gently patted Lei Bin.

“Young master, be good. The more you struggle, the more it will hurt. Come back with me quietly and I’ll treat your injuries. A wise man doesn’t fight when the odds are against him. Why make things harder for yourself?”

After hearing this, Lei Bin tilted his head and thought it over. It did make sense. He then closed his eyes and lay still on the table.

A doting smile appeared on Lei Huan’s face. With one hand, he gently lifted Lei Bin’s body, which drifted onto the stretcher as lightly as a feather. Lei Bin was barely touched at all, and none of his injuries were disturbed.

“Hm? That was one hell of a technique. The old man is incredible.”

Lei Bin opened his eyes in surprise and glanced at Lei Huan.

He had been speaking with Xing Meng a moment earlier. When his body was lifted, Xing Meng immediately projected a holographic image into his mind, allowing him to understand exactly what had happened.

He had never expected that this seemingly kind and amiable man, who resembled a grandfatherly neighbor, would possess such formidable strength.

What level of ancient martial artist could accomplish something like that?

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“Judging from his technique and the aura of energy surrounding him, he is at least a ninth-level ancient martial artist,” Xing Meng answered at precisely the right moment.

“Damn, ninth level?”

Lei Bin cried out in shock.

There were only ten levels among ancient martial artists. Above the tenth level was the Sacred Realm, whose practitioners were known as Martial Sages. If even a steward of the Lei family possessed such overwhelming strength, just how terrifying was the power of the entire family?

No wonder those two major generals had shown him such excessive respect.

“Correct. His strength is extremely formidable. Even throughout the Federation, he stands at the very peak. However, my records contain very little information about him. That suggests many aspects of his life have been deliberately concealed. His origins are certainly anything but ordinary,” Xing Meng added.

Lei Bin clicked his tongue.

“Ninth level, huh? When will I ever reach the ninth level? Come to think of it, my old man must have been pretty incredible back then too. Lei Xingfeng—the First Sword of the military. Damn, how did I never notice how much I resembled him in those old photographs? I even idolized him for a while. Hell, it turns out he was my father all along. What a ridiculous twist. If I’d known, I would’ve asked him for an autograph.”

Lei Bin still felt a little proud that his father had such an impressive identity.

After all, every child and adolescent hoped that his father would be a great hero, the most formidable father in the world. That feeling remained with people as they grew up.

“By the way, Xing Meng, how strong is that grandfather of mine?” Lei Bin suddenly remembered the question. When Raina had seized him earlier, he had been completely incapable of resisting. Raina’s strength had seemed utterly terrifying. And that pressure of his—he had nearly collapsed from it alone. Just what level of power did that represent?

“He is one step away from entering the Sacred Realm,” Xing Meng replied.

“Damn, that powerful? No wonder he’s so arrogant, overbearing, conceited, and tyrannical. He actually has the strength to back it all up.”

Lei Bin had no affection whatsoever for this grandfather of his, but from an outsider’s perspective, he could still admire Marshal Raina’s strength.

These were two entirely different emotions. If Raina had no close connection to him, Lei Bin might even have worshiped him. How Raina disciplined the younger members of the family would have been his own affair. Lei Bin would not have cared; he might even have thought that a man like Raina was exactly the sort of person who should discipline his family that way.

But now Raina was his grandfather, and he was the sole remaining heir of the Lei family. That completely changed the angle from which he viewed everything.

Raina was no longer the Federation Marshal he admired. He was the grandfather who had inflicted immense suffering on Lei Bin’s father and then abandoned both father and son.

Since the family had abandoned him back then, Lei Bin had long since abandoned it in return. Pride ran deep in his bones, and he felt no sense of belonging toward such a family—only contempt.

When I was suffering in the old district, none of you cared. Now that I can live perfectly well on my own, you come looking for me only because your bloodline is about to end? Sorry, but I’m not interested.

Do I even know you people?