Faced with a mob that was numerous but, to his eyes, roughly equivalent to grasshoppers by the roadside, Ye Tianxie couldn’t be bothered to expend any real effort. So long as there was no chance of anything reaching Su Feifei, he didn’t even trouble himself to dodge. He simply swung a hand here and lifted a foot there — and every casual swing, every casual kick, sent a man flying, screams tearing out of them… He certainly wasn’t going to take their lives. But he was ruthless enough to shatter one hand or one foot on every single man who came at him. The crisp crack of breaking bone was almost unbroken, and it raised the hair on the neck to hear it.

In half a minute the floor was carpeted with bodies. Every man who had rushed him lay on the ground clutching a hand or a leg, moaning in agony. The scene turned every waitress in the room white-faced — and yet, when they looked at Ye Tianxie, their eyes couldn’t help betraying a helpless admiration. The handful of men who hadn’t managed to reach him stood with their legs shaking, weapons raised, unable to make themselves advance.

Is that even a man…? In the blink of an eye… one man had flattened more than thirty… while shielding a woman… using effectively one hand… and taken not so much as a scratch, his breathing not even disturbed. Was that a man, or a monster?

“Hee, that was so fast! I wanted to watch a bit longer.” Su Feifei tipped her head back to look up at Ye Tianxie’s face, her bright eyes rippling like a sky full of moving stars. She genuinely hadn’t had enough — she wanted to watch him more, to feel him protecting her with one arm while sending every “bad man” flying with the other… Wasn’t this exactly what she’d longed for in her dreams?

Li Tianpeng and Li Lulu, who had retreated well out of range, were both slack-jawed, unable to credit what they’d seen… The Li family employed first-rate bodyguards, naturally, but not even the strongest man they knew of could have done anything remotely like this — one man crippling more than thirty without a flicker of expression. This was a fantasy out of a science fiction film.

When Ye Tianxie’s gaze turned toward them, both their bodies went rigid at once, a cold seeping in through the gaps in their clothes and running from the skin straight to the heart. Li Lulu, who had never been struck in her life, still felt the pain of that slap, and Ye Tianxie’s faintly smiling face was no different from a demon’s. She hid behind Li Tianpeng, and the sound of his approaching footsteps nearly made her scream.

“What do you want?” Li Tianpeng said darkly, watching him come. With every step Ye Tianxie took, the men still standing retreated one carefully — and not one of them dared come forward again.

“If you don’t touch me, I’ve no interest in troubling you. It was only a wager, after all. Hand over the money I won and there’d have been no problem at all. As for this useless sister of yours, all I did was give her something to remember, and teach her how to speak… But you did just say something about breaking my arms and legs. Unfortunately, I’m a man who repays every slight. Since you said that to me, and since you’ve failed to break my arms and legs, you’ll have to bear the cost of saying it… All right, I’ll be merciful. One hand and one foot. Take your pick — the hand, left or right? The foot, left or right?” Ye Tianxie wore a mocking smile, watching Li Tianpeng’s expression shift and shift again. His words sent a jolt of alarm through Su Feifei, who had been pressed against him this whole time… Living with him, she’d never noticed it. But in this one short outing, she was beginning to experience just how ruthless, how nearly deranged, he could be.

She couldn’t help thinking of what her father had once told her… People are born good. And a man only becomes hard-hearted because this world once wounded him deeply.

Her father — Su Luo — had, ten years ago, after her mother was assassinated, become like a different man, setting down every hesitation and every softness.

So then… what about him?

Looking at that faint smile on his face, the one she knew now and had begun to be entranced by, her eyes grew hazy… Had he been abandoned by this world once, wounded deeply by it, and was that why he was so cold and merciless to anyone who crossed him or wronged him, even in the smallest way…? Was that it?

And why did he live alone… Where were his father and mother? Why did he always deflect whenever she asked? Had they abandoned him, or were they no longer alive…? He was still so young; his parents shouldn’t have died of old age… What had happened to him?

She was seized, suddenly, by a fierce longing to know all of him.

“Don’t push a man too far. Leave a way out for yourself and for others, and everyone can go on living.” Li Tianpeng took a step back, but his expression actually settled, and his voice turned darker.

“Oh? That sounds very reasonable. Only—” Ye Tianxie smiled with a face full of regret. “Unfortunately, I’m a man who never takes back what he’s said. You’d be better off thinking hard about how to protect your limbs.”

Click.

Li Tianpeng’s face went dark, and the right hand he’d slipped to his waist finally came out… holding a small, matte-black pistol, its muzzle aimed straight at Ye Tianxie’s head. Ye Tianxie’s advancing foot came to a stop.

“And now? Do you still dare ask for my hand and my foot?” Li Tianpeng leveled the gun, a savage grin on his face. Pushed to it by Ye Tianxie, he had finally drawn the weapon he hadn’t wanted to draw short of absolute necessity.

…

…

Jinghua City. The thirty-sixth floor of the Tengyun Building.

This was a private room in which even the least conspicuous corner was decorated to the limits of extravagance, and only the most honored guests were permitted to use it. Around the gilded circular table at its center, six men were eating with gusto, boasts of every description flying back and forth, the scene thoroughly boisterous.

A man with rough features and a huge, heavy frame — imposing even seated — occupied the head of the table, laughing constantly, loud enough to set eardrums buzzing. He looked no more than twenty or so, and the other five were of similar age; the oldest couldn’t have been more than thirty.

Anyone with eyes could see that the star of this lavish gathering was the big man at the head of the table. The other five, by their clothes and bearing, were plainly wealthy or well-born — and yet everything they said and did was some form of flattery aimed at the fat man, overt or covert, direct or indirect.

“Come, Young Master Zuo, allow me to toast you again. It’s no small thing to have the honor of your company. We must drink our fill.” The man on the big man’s right raised his glass, laughing.

The big man refused nobody. He raised his glass, clinked it, and boomed, “Hahahaha! Good! I’m not bragging, but the five of you put together couldn’t out-drink me. If you’re all flat on the floor later, don’t expect me to be responsible for calling anyone to carry you home.”

“Hahaha! Who in all of Jinghua doesn’t know Young Master Zuo’s capacity is beyond dispute? If the five of us brothers could out-drink you today, that would be the strange thing. If we actually managed it, our names would be ringing louder than they ever have.” The pale-faced young man on his left said it with a laugh — and just as he finished, his phone rang.

He swore good-naturedly and picked up. Before he could speak, a panicked voice came through. “Second Young Master! There’s trouble at the casino — look at the security feed, quickly—”

The young man’s brow furrowed. He hung up and quickly pulled up the live feed from the casino — and the moment it opened, he saw a scene of total chaos: more than thirty men lying on the floor, and Ye Tianxie advancing step by step on a visibly terrified Li Tianpeng and Li Lulu… His face changed at once.

“Second Young Master Li, why’s your face gone the color of pig’s liver from looking at a phone? Someone run off with your woman? Hahahaha.” The fat man set down his glass and tore into a chicken wing, mumbling around it.

“Heh…” The man addressed as Second Young Master Li forced a laugh and rose. “My apologies, Young Master Zuo, gentlemen. Something’s come up with my older brother and sister. I’ll step out to make a call and be right back.”

“Call your sister’s what — sit down. Let me see what’s going on; I’ll sort it out for you.” The fat man hauled Second Young Master Li back with one hand — that enormous frame concealed even more enormous strength, and he lifted the man like a chick and dropped him back into his seat — then snatched the phone out of his grip.

Several faces crowded in at once, peering at the screen with undisguised relish. Taking in the wreckage and the men howling for their mothers, the fat man broke into a wide grin. But when his eyes landed on Ye Tianxie—

“Oh, hell—!!” He shot to his feet as though someone had driven a knife into his backside. The violence of it, and the noise, nearly knocked the men crowding around him flat onto the floor.

“Young Master Zuo… what is it?” Seeing the veins standing out on the fat man’s head, Second Young Master Li sensed something very wrong and asked carefully.

“What is it?” the fat man roared. He stepped left, hauled the utterly bewildered Second Young Master Li up off his feet, and snarled, “You dare ask me what it is! Call that blind idiot of a brother of yours right now and tell him to apologize to that man — no, wrong, to kowtow. Tell him to knock his head on the floor three times, and I want to hear it. Have you understood me!!”

At which point it wasn’t only Second Young Master Li. Every man at that table simply went blank.

Kowtow?! In this age, kneeling was not the cheap thing it had been in antiquity, sold like cabbage at a market. In this age, a man knelt only to his parents, his elders, his master, or someone to whom he owed an enormous debt. Otherwise, if a man bent his knee and knocked his head to another, then however great his achievements might one day be, he would never lift his head in that man’s presence again, and would carry an unwashable shame the rest of his life.

And Young Master Zuo… was ordering the eldest son of the Li family to kneel — and kowtow — to that man?

(End of Chapter 134)