"Wait! You can’t kill me! I’m a Shadow of the Jiang Family from Yanjing. If you kill me, the Jiang Family will not let you go!" Tan Chang shouted in terror.
The Jiang Family of Yanjing!
The name alone weighed like a mountain on the hearts of Su Daiyi, Old Jiang Ba, and Fang Zheng.
Su Daiyi hesitated. "Mr. Xu, the Jiang Family in Yanjing is an undisputed Martial Dao powerhouse. If you kill one of their Martial Artists, I’m afraid..."
Xu Lai lifted his right foot.
Tan Chang thought Xu Lai was afraid of the Jiang Family and quickly peeked out. To his surprise, Xu Lai’s left foot came stomping down again.
"I lift one foot and you think you can run?" Xu Lai asked, a smile playing on his lips that wasn’t a smile.
Tan Chang was so furious his lungs felt like they would burst.
You just wait! If I don’t die today, sooner or later I’ll drag you into a mud pit and humiliate you completely! But he didn’t dare to speak these thoughts aloud.
Tan Chang even forced a smile and pleaded, "I beg you, Senior, to spare my life. Let us forge a good relationship with the Jiang Family today. I promise that when I return to the family, I will not mention a single word about you to the Young Master, and the Ye Family’s destruction will have nothing to do with you."
"Their Young Master is probably Ye Wanqing’s fiancé..." Fang Family Head Fang Zheng explained.
"Yes, yes, that’s right," Tan Chang nodded repeatedly.
Xu Lai stomped Tan Chang back into the shadows. "Did I say you could speak?"
Tan Chang could only sputter in muffled rage.
"Mr. Xu, I think it’s better to just kill him," Old Jiang Ba said with a cupped fist salute. "I once heard a friend mention that the Jiang Family’s Shadows are all top-tier assassins trained from a young age. If we let him go, it would be like releasing a tiger back to the mountain—the future trouble would be endless!"
"I can swear a death-vow!" Tan Chang said anxiously.
Although his special cultivation technique meant he wouldn’t live past thirty-five, who wouldn’t want to keep living if they could?
"He has a special brand from the Jiang Family on him; he can’t be trusted," Old Jiang Ba continued.
Tan Chang’s mouth twisted. You just wait, you damned old man! I’ll get you for this!
"How about this? I’ll erase the mark for you, and from now on, you will follow me."
With his hands behind his back, Xu Lai spoke casually, yet his words sent terrifying waves crashing through Tan Chang’s mind.
"You... you can erase the Jiang Family’s mark? Impossible! Not even a Martial Ancestor can do that..."
"Follow me and live."
Xu Lai added, "You have one second to consider."
"I’ll follow you! I’m willing to follow you!"
Tan Chang’s face darkened. One second? What the hell is there to consider?
Xu Lai lifted his foot.
Tan Chang felt as if an invisible thread tethering him to something had suddenly snapped. This discovery made his expression change dramatically.
It was a special brand personally imprinted by the Jiang Family using a secret method, one that not even a Martial Arts Grandmaster could remove.
"Who are you, exactly?" Tan Chang stepped out of the shadows, eyeing Xu Lai warily.
"Me?" Xu Lai said nonchalantly. "Just an ordinary person."
"..." everyone else thought.
A smile curled at the corners of Tan Chang’s mouth, his face beaming. "But still, thank you for removing the brand. Now I no longer have to live or die for the Jiang Family. As a peak Sixth Grade Martial Artist, I’m about to start a new life! Hahahaha!"
With a final, boisterous laugh, Tan Chang crashed through a second-floor window of the gymnasium and fled.
This sudden turn of events made Su Daiyi’s beautiful face lose all color. "Oh no, he’s escaped!"
Xu Lai curled his lip.
Run? He was only a mere Sixth Grade Martial Artist. Even a Ninth Grade Martial Ancestor was nothing more than a child before him. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel_fіre.net
A hundred meters away, Tan Chang was already laughing wildly.
Free! From this day forward, I’m finally free!
His body suddenly froze, unable to move an inch. Then, Xu Lai’s voice, laced with clear mockery, echoed in his ears:
"I’ll give you a choice. You can keep running, but if I find you, you will die.
"Or, you can crawl your way back here obediently."
That was voice transmission! And spatial immobilization!
Tan Chang’s face went deathly pale. His opponent wasn’t just a Martial Ancestor; he was likely an Eighth Grade from the upper three grades.
These were definitely not the techniques of a Seventh Grade Martial Artist!
Tan Chang’s eyes flickered with indecision. After a long moment of hesitation, he finally gave up on the idea of escaping, though he knew this submission was only temporary.
"Very good," Xu Lai’s voice echoed from afar again.
Tan Chang felt control return to his body just as a stream of white light shot toward him, imprinting itself onto his palm.
Opening his hand, he saw a blooming white petal.
"Go to East Sea City and wait for me."
Tan Chang was stunned. "Hey, hey, hey, what’s this petal? Say something! Answer me!"
But no matter how he yelled, Xu Lai paid him no more attention.
Though he desperately wanted to go back and demand an explanation, he was also afraid of being crushed underfoot by Xu Lai again. In the end, Tan Chang could only get into a taxi bound for East Sea City, his heart seething with grief and indignation.
He had a sinking feeling he knew what this was. The white petal was probably just like the Jiang Family’s brand—another tool to control him.
"Damn it!" Tan Chang’s eyes filled with despair. "I’ve just escaped the wolf’s den only to enter the tiger’s lair!"
「Inside the gymnasium.」
Of the forty pieces of jade that had been cut, Xu Lai didn’t take a single one, leaving all of them for Su Daiyi and Old Jiang Ba.
It was a fortune so vast that even Fang Zheng’s eyes burned with envy.
Su Daiyi and Old Jiang Ba, however, were on pins and needles. They understood that some money could be accepted, and some could not.
The two quickly spoke up, "Mr. Xu, please rest assured. We won’t spend a single cent of this money recklessly. It will all be used as capital to move against the Ruan Family."
Xu Lai checked the time and saw it was nearly noon.
After a simple meal in Hangcheng, Xu Lai returned to East Sea City alone. Old Jiang Ba and Su Daiyi, however, still had to deal with the jade.
"Eighth Master, Daiyi, what do you think if I go to the Ruan Family tomorrow and reject the marriage alliance?" Fang Zheng asked.
"Uncle Fang, it would be best if you didn’t go personally," Su Daiyi frowned. "Mr. Xu doesn’t like to be conspicuous. You are the Fang Family Head, after all. If your presence alarms the Ruan Family, it might displease Mr. Xu."
"Then..." Fang Zheng was conflicted.
"Family Head, allow me to go," the Martial Artist, Fang An, said in a low voice. "I’ll go to the Ruan Family the day after tomorrow to reject the marriage alliance and invite Mr. Xu to witness it. That way, it should be foolproof."
"An excellent idea," Fang Zheng’s eyes lit up.
「At three in the afternoon.」
Xu Lai arrived at the Dongli University medical clinic.
When he pushed the door open, he saw the school physicians, Liu Nanwei and Zhou Feng, look up at him with complex expressions.
News of the incident two days prior, when Xu Lai had treated the comatose students on campus, had already spread throughout the university. The president had even held a school-wide assembly yesterday to praise him. The only awkward part was that Xu Lai hadn’t shown up yesterday.
But that was a trivial matter nobody cared about.
Zhou Feng looked at Xu Lai coolly. "I retract my previous prejudice against you. I am willing to compete with you fairly for the position of clinic director!"
Zhou Feng was left speechless.
"By the way, Director Li Shouzhong from the First People’s Hospital Emergency Department waited for you all day yesterday," Liu Nanwei said, her demeanor as cold as ever. "It seems he wanted to discuss medical techniques with you."