Dominion's End

Volume 5, Chapter 7: Meeting Saint Again

Translated by Michimochi (proofread by Xuan & Lala Su; C/E edited by Simone & lucathia)

I walked out of the room. Just as I was finishing wolfing down the crystals from the red envelope, Feng had handed me a few more. Lying in bed could speed up my recovery even more, but my decision to stay for one more day wasn’t so that I could sleep.

Glancing toward the elevator, I happened to meet Ben’s dead-fish eyes. His arms were crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall, and he had a face that said “I’m not surprised to see you again.”

Being caught in the act, I scrambled for an explanation. “I got tired of lying in bed, so I’m going out for a walk, not to run off!”

Ben’s dead-fish eyes became even more lifeless. Entirely unconvinced, he said, “You were only in bed for two hours. The doc said that you’re seriously injured and need to rest for at least five to six days.”

I explained, “I’m fine after eating the crystals. This isn’t like before the apocalypse!”

“Our doc has looked after a whole bunch of people these past six months. He factored in the effects of the crystals.”

Ugh. I bit the bullet and continued, “The crystals in the red envelopes were humongous. After eating them and sleeping for two hours, I feel much better.”

“Is that so?” Ben grumbled in disbelief, “But then again, Madam doesn’t know anything about crystals, and she’s both principled and generous. Maybe she really did get you the best ones. What were they called again: tier one crystals?”

I was stunned. Then again, it was that Jin Xiaoyue who had said it. However, from yesterday’s conversation, I didn’t really believe that Jin Xiaoyue was a threat, just a bit impulsive and absent-minded. She was even a well-protected little princess, without much room for advanced development in power. The only issue was that I didn’t know what kind of power she had.

Maybe I should have responded with the same question when she pried about my powers yesterday. It was just that, at the time, I was too preoccupied with my fear of offending Jin Zhan. Now that I thought about it again, I was only eighteen this year. I should have impulsively asked her something like, “What about your power? I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” Maybe that would have been more suitable for an eighteen-year-old.

But in the end, the reason I’d suddenly dare to act like that obviously is… Cough, cough, I have Feng to cover for me!

As I remembered that I had just turned eighteen this year, I immediately put on a “naive” persona and deliberately yelled, “Just let me go out for a walk! It’s so boring being cooped up in the room!”

Ben’s expression remained dubious. He didn’t even loosen up one bit.

No use, huh? I pondered. Changing my tone, I said in an awkward manner, “Please man, I just want to know more about the Jin family. This is, after all Feng’s, home…”

Before I finished my sentence, I suddenly found myself feeling depraved. I had just asked Jin Feng to wait two years, yet I had still used her name behind her back. To use a woman’s feelings this way, I couldn’t help but feel that my past self would despise me…

After I changed my tone, Ben loosened his brows. With an air of arrogance, he grudgingly said, “Since you let Feng-jiě have her way, I’ll take you to meet Feng-jiě’s underlings. They probably also want to see what her husband looks like.”

Wait! I thought with alarm, Feng had her way with what?

“With you, of course!”

It wasn’t until Ben responded that I realized I had actually hollered the question out loud.

“Feng-jiě seemed pretty happy just now.” Ben looked joyful. He even patted my shoulder satisfactorily.

Although I wanted to shout, “She didn’t have her way at all” and that Jin Feng was not shameless enough to make a move on the wounded, this hollering might cost me the golden opportunity to investigate the Jin family in great depth. I could only grit my teeth, neither confirming nor denying his statement as I followed Ben toward the elevator.

“But then again, that was way too short!” Ben said disapprovingly, “Even though Feng-jiě might not mind, you have to make up for it. If you can’t make Feng-jiě happy, when she finds someone else, you won’t even have enough time to cry!”

Too short? We haven’t even done anything yet…just, just kissed. How much time can that take? Plus, Feng promised that she would not look for anybody else, so don’t go dragging her down!

Walking into the elevator, Ben leaned closer and said in a quiet voice, “Since you’re determined to be with Feng-jiě, you should be careful. Last time Feng-jiě saved a man and brought him back. The guy isn’t as good-looking as you are, but his looks aren’t that bad either. Plus, he’s taller and has more muscles than you. He even likes to pester Feng-jiě!” Ben clicked his tongue.

“…” He must be the one that Hu Zong was talking about! And you said you wouldn’t find anyone else! You even promised to wait for two years. Now who would believe that? I grinded my teeth and asked, “And Feng just lets him pester her?”

Ben scratched his head and said, “He didn’t really do much, just asked a couple questions about abilities. His ability isn’t too bad. Feng-jiě is probably observing him. As long as he performs well, she’ll let him join the crew.”

After hearing this, my mood dropped even further. I asked, “What’s his power?”

Ben evaded my question and switched topics instead, “If you ever get assigned a mission to go out in the future, you have to help drop a few nice words about me in front of Feng-jiě. That way I can go out on missions with you without having to wait until I’m sixteen.”

I think you should wait until you’re eighteen! “If you don’t answer my question, I’ll tell Feng that sixteen is too young and she should change it to eighteen!”

Let’s all wait for two more years, hurray!

As if he had stepped on an aberrant, Ben snarled, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll help the other guy?”

“Go ahead!” I sneered, “Let’s see if Feng likes me or the other guy!”

Ben examined my face and became discouraged. “I think that face of yours is bound to win.”

No kidding! This face has met no competition.

He explained dejectedly, “That guy’s ability is strange and quite a sight. He can emit a very bright light, but it’s pretty useless, since the light might only be able to scare some people. The light has one use though, as many aberrants will get scared. Most will just run without looking back. Granted, using it on people works just as well. The light is so bright that it can temporarily blind people for a few seconds.”

Light emission? I frowned, unable to recall any particular power that had this characteristic. Or more like, there were just too many powers that could emit light that it was just treated as some “side effect.” Many people would even try to get rid of that light. When unleashing one’s power, the subtler and quieter one was, the more powerful one could be. No one would shout “Pegasus Meteor Fist” before making their move.

The elevator arrived at the floor with a ding. The door opened. Ben said nervously, “You have to follow right behind me. Don’t go running around by yourself. If you get bullied by someone, Feng-jiě is going to skin me!”

I gave him a blank stare, then scoffed, “Feng wouldn’t skin you for such trivial matters.”

“Says who?” Ben retorted, “Just look at Hu Zong. That guy was cooked medium well!”

“Last time he trespassed into Feng’s room. This time he tried provoking a division in public, so Jin Feng taught him a serious lesson. Otherwise, if she were to let anyone act that presumptuous to her face, how could she lead?”

Ben’s eyes widened, his face full of disbelief. Hmph. Did you finally realize that I don’t only rely on this face of mine? I may not be entirely familiar with how the underworld works, but in the apocalypse, the number of mobs that formed was as many as the hairs on an ox. I’ve already had my fill of experiences!

“You sure know our dàjiě really well.”

Right outside the elevator door, Scar Lin Qi looked at me with satisfaction.

Ben said cheerfully, “Dàjiě isn’t just ours anymore. She’s also Xiaoyu’s wife!”

“Hmm?” Scar nodded, then said admiringly, “That’s Feng-jiě, all right. She works really fast. I’ll tell the underlings to call you Jiěfū.”

…I suddenly feel that Ben’s age is great. His calling me ‘Brother-in-law’ rings so nicely in my ears! But since Scar looks so much older than Jin Feng, his calling me “Brother-in-law” would really render me speechless.

“Just call me ‘Xiao Yu’,” I couldn’t help but say.

Scar raised his brow. “If you were only going to be Dàjiě’s plaything, then you could be called whatever ‘Yu’ you like. But since Feng-jiě intends to have you as her inamorata, that means that we can’t play around. You can’t just be called whatever.”

Inamorata… I really don’t understand the mobsters of this era. Using such a retro terminology, would that be considered cultured or uncivilized? Is it really okay to call someone of the male sex an “inamorata”?

I said in a low voice, “Then just call me Jiěfū.”

With that, Ben’s nervous expression finally relaxed a bit. “With Scar here, surely no one would even dare to bully Xiao Yu—no, Jiěfū!”

After the “Jiěfū” confirmation, Scar appeared to be a lot more enthusiastic. His scarred face pulled into a smile, but since the smile pulled at his scars, his whole face became crooked. It was horrendous.

“You haven’t eaten that many crystals, right?” I asked a bit puzzled, “After consuming some crystals, the scars from my childhood disappeared.”

Although his scars may have been old and also large, so they might be more difficult to eliminate, Jin Feng would not mistreat her people. Once a person ate a bunch of crystals, not only would scars disappear, even lost teeth would have a chance to grow again. Regrowing a severed limb was not an impossibility either.

But then again, I had only heard about that from rumors. In the apocalypse, if a person were to break an arm or a leg, he or she would die very quickly. Either they would be eaten or infected and transform into an aberrant. No one I knew of had the opportunity to eat enough crystals to grow a limb back.

Ben curled his lips and said, “Who says he didn’t have many? Feng-jiě gave him so many crystals, even tier one crystals, so it’s not like Scar hasn’t eaten them. It’s why his face is barely passable. If you were to take a sudden look at him in the past, I swear you would vomit all of yesterday’s breakfast.”

So, this is passable? The corners of my mouth twitched. It seemed that it was not an exaggeration when Jin Zhan mentioned that Scar had almost chopped his own head in half.

Ben looked at Scar with discontent. He said, “Wasn’t it just for a woman? Because her face was disfigured, you followed suit and also cut your face? Why hack at your brain when you clearly already have holes in it?!”

Scar glared at Ben. He said coldly, “A brat who has barely grown any hair shouldn’t dare to talk about women. Wait until Feng-jiě hears about this. She’ll beat you up for sure!”

“Feng-jiě doesn’t care about such trivial things.” Ben didn’t seem to care at all. He turned around and said to me, “Scar liked a girl who lived next door when he was a kid. But because she was a gifted student with good grades, she wouldn’t even spare him a glance.”

Scar snapped, “Yirou didn’t look down on me! She even bailed me out before!

Ben rolled his eyes. He added, “Sure, she didn’t look down on you. You were just a coward. You didn’t even dare to speak out when you watched your beloved marry someone else.”

He turned his head and continued, “That Rourou married off into a foreign country. This Scar of ours didn’t even dare to go and visit her. It wasn’t until later, when he went back to his hometown to give some money to his mother that he unexpectedly discovered her return. After asking around, he found out that her husband’s house was burnt to the ground. She risked her life trying to get her mother-in-law out of the house, but half of her face got burned. In the end, her husband was a shithead. At first, he said he wouldn’t turn his back on her, but soon after, he had an affair with another woman and divorced her.”

“Then Rourou got together with Scar-gē?”

My interest peaked. This story was even more dramatic than TV dramas. Since there was no television to watch during the apocalypse, listening to stories was the best way to pass time. I had listened to stories like this to live through ten years in my previous life!

“No. She refused. She said that because her face was ruined, no one would like her, and that she would never marry again in this life. So, Scar used a knife to hack up his face, almost killing himself. He allowed her to take care of him for more than six months before he was able to get out of bed. Once he was able to walk, he rushed to her house to ask for her hand. His ugly face was so menacing, he almost scared his father-in-law and mother-in-law to death!”

Apparently, he is the romantic idiot type, huh? My impression of Scar immediately soared sky high.

Ben smirked. “After eating crystals and discovering the scars on his face had faded, Scar became quite the eager beaver. He harvested more crystals than anyone else just to give them to his wife. If it weren’t for his fear of being unable to win against aberrants if he wasn’t strong enough, this guy would have given all of his crystals to his wife.”

After listening to the end of the story, I took a better look at Scar. This man’s handsomeness meets no competition. Those scars on his face are so cool!

During the story, Scar had put on a cold expression and did not speak a single word. But I could tell that he was not in a bad mood. He was simply being shy! This fierce hunk actually became abashed. Such a gap! I wanted to say that this was gap moe, but Scar and “moe” could only ever go together if someone stabbed themselves in the eyes first.

“Scar-gē is such a good man!” I gave him a thumbs up. This type of high-class romantic idiot of a good man must be showered in praise!

Scar was no longer able to keep up a poker face. His mouth pulled into a crooked grin.

“That’s right, that’s right.” Ben nodded. “You need to learn from Scar. You should not look at other pretty ladies. Even though men like to look at beauties, you already belong to Feng-jiě. If you dare to let your eyes wander, be careful. She will have your eyeballs dug out!”

I harrumphed. “Dig out my eyeballs ? Feng will chop off your hands before that!”

Ben sneered. He stared at me, his teeth bared like a little black dog ready to bite.

“You’re being too nosy, Ben. Feng-jiě has it all under control.” Scar pulled me away and simply said, “Come, let’s take you to meet Feng-jiě’s underlings. Get to know them and let them get to know you to prevent infighting.”

I nodded. Though I was more interested in Jin Zhan’s underlings, I knew that my current persona was that of a good-for-nothing pretty boy. Even if I were Jin Feng’s lover, Jin Zhan’s people might not take an interest in me.

As we walked through the grand hall, gunshots could be heard from outside, yet the people here did not even bat an eye.

It sounded like it was some distance away. I frowned as I looked out the window. Beside me, Ben explained, “There’s all kinds of noises outside around here. There are explosions from time to time. A while back, there was a big snake running rampant on the streets. When we looked out from the top of the building, we were terrified. These gunshots are nothing.”

Hm? That snake wouldn’t have been the Yggdrasil Earthworm, would it? I gazed into the distance. I was never going to admit that I was the culprit.

Finally, we arrived at a small hall. The nameplate hanging at the entrance of the hall was a bit interesting. So this place was called Imperial Phoenix Hall. It was no wonder Jin Feng’s team would be placed here.

As soon as we walked in, Scar shouted, “Come and get to know Feng-jiě’s man. This is Jiěfū. You all better watch your mouth…”

“It’s you!”

Before Scar even finished speaking, a young man standing next to the door nearly jumped from excitement, his face full of disbelief.

I looked at the young man. He seemed a bit familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I had seen this guy. His clothes were quite bold and he didn’t seem to fit in with the others. He looked less like a mobster and more like a normal college student, the sporty, sunny kind on some basketball team.

“How come you’re here?” He asked, astounded.

Beside us, Scar frowned. He looked a bit unhappy, but he didn’t attempt to interrupt the man.

I said calmly, “I got rescued.”

“Rescued?” He looked even more bewildered. “Even you need to be saved by someone?”

This guy’s reaction was very abnormal. When most people saw me, their first impression of me would be that of a pretty boy, and many would even label me as a weak chicken. Who told my body to be unable to grow any big muscles? I do have some finely chiseled body lines, but they are all covered by my clothes. So being labeled as a weak chicken isn’t exactly wrong.

Could it be that he had once hid himself and watched me fight? What a miscalculation. I should have brought this persona out a lot sooner.

“Of course I do.” I decided to continue the pretense of being stupid. I needed to work out his identity and said, “It’s so dangerous out there. Don’t you know?”

The man hesitated, then he nodded, “True, you may be strong, but the monsters out there are indeed terrible.”

This prat must have seen me in battle! Damn it! Beside us, both Scar and Ben looked over at me with suspicion. Would it still be possible to continue this meek persona?

Someone chuckled. “Chen Yishao, are you sure you have the right person?”

That name sounded oddly familiar, but I couldn’t seem to remember where I had heard it. He can’t be some classmate from elementary or middle school, right?

Chen Yishao immediately dismissed that, “Impossible! How could I not recognize that face!”

Everyone stared at my face in silence, then nodded in agreement.

He looked at me and in an awkward tone said, “You don’t remember me?”

I examined his face more closely trying to find any familiar traces. I took a wild guess, “Were you a classmate from elementary school? Or junior high? Sorry, my memory isn’t that great.”

As a diligent student who had been admitted to his first choice college, my memory was of course very good. However, after the merging of Guan Weijun’s memory, some trivial matters had gotten mixed together, making it difficult to tell which memories came from which life. Other things just weren’t worth remembering and only left a sliver of impression.

Chen Yishao shook his head. “It’s normal that you don’t remember me. We only met in passing on the road. You saved us that time.”

When did I save strangers──Ah! I remember! It was after I got kidnapped by the carrion-bloom bird and was brought to Zhongguan City. Jin Feng rescued me, then let me return home. On my way back, I played Mother Teresa but was still shot at, shattering my saint heart!

That saint complex needs to vanish or else endless troubles will follow! I gritted my teeth, but then remembered the mother and son pair. Could I really turn a blind eye on them when they were right there?

“I remember now. What happened to those kids from back then?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Chen Yishao was at a loss. “I don’t know. Later, we were trapped on the roof of a building. There were hundreds of monsters out there and we were running out of food. Everyone was getting so hungry that someone had even thought about killing a child to eat. I, I stopped them a few times, but it was impossible to keep on stopping them. In the end, I volunteered to draw the monsters away to create an opportunity for the rest of the group to run.”

What a holy friggin saint, I’m impressed!

“Just as I was about to be torn apart by the monsters, my body suddenly glowed. The monsters became scared and scattered. I took the opportunity to run and was able to buy some time, but in the end, I was surrounded again. I thought I was really going to be eaten then, but Jin Feng came to rescue me—”

Before he even got to finish speaking, he was hit on the back of his head by Ben. Ben snapped, “It’s Feng-jiě! You think you’re good enough to call Feng-jiě by her name?”

Chen Yishao rubbed his head and apologized without any sincerity, “Oh, sorry.”

He looked very uncomfortable, obviously unaccustomed to the ways of the underworld. Then again, that was not too surprising. Normal college students definitely would not fit in among the mafia.

Ben nudged me, his face full of suspicion.

I pondered for a moment, then briefly explained, “I saved his group before, but one of them opened fire at me. He wanted to rob me of my stuff, so I stabbed him and ran.”

To be 100% truthful, that was just a rough description of how it had gone down. I didn’t say how I rescued the group nor how I killed the man. This way it sounded as if I had saved them on the way without much trouble. Moreover, Chen Yishao shouldn’t have a problem with my story; after all, that was indeed what had happened.

Ben suddenly had an epiphany. He immediately told Chen Yishao, “Since Jiěfū is your lifesaver, you can’t compete with him over Feng-jiě!”

Chen Yishao gawked, and even started blushing. He stuttered, “I, I never thought about…”

At this point, he stopped and hesitantly turned his head toward me. He asked, “Jiěfū? Is he talking about you? Are you really Jin Feng’s husband? You look so young. Were you even in college?”

The f*ck. To hell with my saint complex, I ended up rescuing a mistress! His mouth was so full of Jin Feng this, Jin Feng that. Call her Feng-jiě, you prat!

“I’m almost nineteen and a college student!” I insisted on pushing this point. If I hadn’t gotten hit by a tile, I would have been admitted to college.

Chen Yishao frowned. “You’re still so young. Why are you killing people at such a young age?”

Young my *ss. My past life plus this life is more than enough to make me your dad!

“He shot at me!” I barked, “Can you even tell right from wrong? I saved you guys, yet he wanted to kill me and take my stuff. I only fought back but you still keep blaming me for killing him!”

He retorted, “You’re so strong that you obviously didn’t need to kill him when you fought back. Killing him doesn’t count as self-defense at all!”

Killing as self-defense? I was so angry I was at the point of laughing. “He dared to open fire at me, so he should’ve been prepared to accept the consequences!”

Beside us, Scar nodded, obviously agreeing with this statement. Ben was even more direct, openly glaring at Chen Yishao with contempt.

Chen Yishao also seemed to understand that his ideology would not be accepted in a place like this. He didn’t have the guts to continue, quite fearful of the reaction of the onlookers. And yet even though I had killed in front of him, he was still not afraid of me. Scar and the others looked like they definitely had blood on their hands too, while in comparison, I looked young, thin, and weak. This appearance just could not give anyone a scare.

He asked with uncertainty, “But you shouldn’t be a gangst…ugh, no, you’re not part of their group, are you?”

I shook my head

He was puzzled. “Then, how were you able to defeat those monsters so easily?”

“My big brother is a mercenary and taught me a few tricks,” I said firmly. After all, it was all because Dàgē taught me well. Even if I had killed someone, that was because Dàgē taught me bad!

It suddenly clicked for him, though he probably only understood half of it. A normal college student wouldn’t understand anything about the ways of a mercenary unless he had read countless novels.

In general, mercenaries were hired as armed forces. They would do whatever their employer ordered them to do.

Of course, Dàgē still had scruples when choosing assignments, at least way more than his frivolous ways with women. He didn’t accept every assignment that came his way or randomly take on some unreasonable tasks.

I looked at the people around me. They were all curious but not too surprised, even though mercenaries and mafia weren’t exactly the same trade. My brother even mostly took on missions abroad, rarely taking on domestic missions for the sake of his siblings’ safety. Taking on tasks domestically too often would be inevitably dangerous.

Even though that was how Dàgē had put it, I knew that another reason he chose tasks that were abroad was because they were much more exhilarating. Even if there was a task available within the country, most of the missions that would grab my brother’s attention were from abroad. He could go out of the country for missions, plus it would likely cause less trouble for his younger siblings.

Chen Yishao looked like he wanted to continue his inquiries, but Scar interrupted him impatiently, “Brat, who gave you permission to butt in? If you don’t get out of the way, there will be consequences!”

If Hu Zong’s two provocative sentences got him burned medium well, then Chen Yishao’s casual blabbering and interruption should have gotten him burnt to charcoal. If Scar and Ben had not been curious about my situation, they probably would have kicked him within an inch of his life right from the start.

Even after hearing that, Chen Yishao still wanted to continue his questioning. But as Scar pulled a serious face, he didn’t dare to say anything and obediently stepped aside.

Scar turned toward me and praised, “Feng-jiě said you weren’t weak, but who knew you had a few tricks up your sleeve! You’ve actually seen blood before.”

Heh, I can’t even count how many people and aberrants I’ve hacked to death. Crystals became my meals. Why stop at simply seeing blood? Blood is something to be showered in!

I lowered my head and sighed helplessly, “My big brother forced me to. He said that in this era, if I continued to be naive, it wouldn’t be long before I met the grim reaper.”

I could just blame Dàgē for everything. I was just a pretty weakling who had no choice but to take out a knife.

Chen Yishao exclaimed, “What’s the matter with that big brother of yours? He actually forced you to kill?”

Scar was furious. His hideous expression looked as if he wanted to exterminate Chen Yishao. However, instead of drawing out his gun, he stretched out his hand and grabbed at the empty air. Chen Yishao was dragged a couple steps forward, as if someone had pulled him by his collar.

Then, Scar turned his palm up and pushed upwards. Chen Yishao actually floated upwards, suspended in mid-air. When he initially left the ground, he tried to break free. But after he was lifted higher than a person’s height, he didn’t even dare to twitch.

In the end, the big boy floated until he was a mere one meter away from the ceiling. Remember, this was a five-star hotel. You could tell with your eyes that this lobby’s ceiling was at least three stories higher than that of an average building.

Ben chuckled and took two steps forward. He bent his legs and jumped, shooting up right in front of Chen Yishao. For him to achieve that height with such ease, this must not have been his limit. Such a jump was already amazing, but that was not all. He whipped out a kick at Chen Yishao so fast that you could only see the shadow of his leg. Chen Yishao’s whole body smacked against the rear wall.

After kicking him, Ben flipped his body and jumped off of the ceiling. Borrowing the force of gravity, he immediately landed on the ground and kicked a sofa underneath Chen Yishao before the latter had even hit the ground.

Although he had a sofa to cushion him, Chen Yishao’s landing was a fall, not a proper sitting position. After crashing on the sofa, he dropped to the floor, lay on the ground holding his stomach, and groaned. Although he couldn’t get up, he didn’t seem to have broken any arms or legs.

I was breathless. The abilities of these two were so good. I wanted to snatch the two of them away. Wanting to steal people with good abilities was definitely an illness. How do I treat it?

I almost drooled. Fortunately, I stopped myself and thought about my subordinates back home. Ah Nuo and Ah Qing had metal and spatial abilities respectively, Watermelon had power over gravity, Lin Zuojun could teleport, and Diao Ming had a fantastic farming ability. Plus, there was also Peng Weijie who thought his ability was merely vibration.

Heh, their ability type is trivial. The most important thing is that my subordinates are combat professionals who obey orders and have good moral conduct!

The Ice Spears were truly overly amazing. They might not be comparable to Dàgē’s mercenary troops, but they could definitely throw Xia Zhengu’s team more than ten streets away. I should be content with that.

As I came back to my senses, Ben’s expression was full of “So, how’s that?” Despite trying to hide his pride, he couldn’t suppress the corners of his mouth. His face expressed his desire to be praised, befitting his age of fourteen.

I rubbed his head and praised him, “That was incredible!”

His hair beneath my hand felt pretty good, just a bit stiff. Of course, it could never compete with the silkiness of Junjun’s hair.

“Don’t touch my head!” Ben snapped.

He flushed. His expression might have looked angry, but in my opinion, it was more annoyance than actual anger. It seemed like this kid did not hate getting patted, but he couldn’t bring himself to show it. You’re a real tsundere, little black dog.

I puffed out my chest. With confidence, I said, “I’m your brother-in-law, but I can’t even touch your head, huh?”

Ben gaped. He scrunched his eyebrows in distress. As he stood there unable to figure out how to react, someone rushed in from the entrance. He got straight to the point and said, “Scar, gather the men. Feng-jiě is in trouble!”

With this, everyone in the Imperial Phoenix Hall pricked up their ears to listen in. With a “swish,” they all stood up, each individual expression fiercer than the next.

Scar frowned. “What’s the situation? How come you’re here to report? Did Feng-jiě say how many she needs?”

The person shook their head, “Jin-gē sent me upstairs to keep watch. I saw in the distance that Feng-jiě clashed with a group of people. Both groups are now hidden in a building. At the moment, there are no direct confrontations. Their location is about three kilometers east. The building where Feng-jiě is hiding is green. The other group is hiding in the white building right across from them with “Chen Family’s Ocean Freight” written on it.”

“Are you sure it’s humans, not aberrants?” Scar asked carefully.

The person refuted, “It’s definitely humans. They’re carrying guns! Their fire power should not be underestimated. Who knows where they came from?”

I looked over to the person. Visual ability?

Scar became enraged. “Are they from the same gang as the one who ambushed Jin-gē?”

The person was startled, but then his face changed drastically. “It’s possible! I have to go and tell Jin-gē.”

“Go then. I’ll bring some people over to help Feng-jiě first.” Scar turned his head and shouted at the people in the hall, “Go fetch your weapons. Be at the entrance in one minute.”

Everyone rushed out of the hall immediately, almost busting the door.

Scar turned to leave as well, but Ben put on an ugly face, probably because he knew he wasn’t allowed to follow.

“I’m going as well!”

Chen Yishao hurriedly walked over to us. He was still holding his belly at first, but when Scar glanced over, he straightened up immediately. As expected, he didn’t suffer from too much damage. Ben had still gone easy on him.

Scar scrunched his brows. “According to the rules, you’re not allowed to bring a gun.”

“I won’t take one. I don’t even know how to use it anyway!” Chen Yishao blurted, “I’ll just emit light. After eating some crystals, my light shines brighter. I can definitely help Jin Feng.”

Scar didn’t take long to consider and nodded, letting him go straight to the entrance.

I squinted and raised my voice, “I want to go as well!”

Scar looked at me flabbergasted. He cursed, “Don’t be ridiculous! We don’t know who those guys are. I don’t have the time to babysit you.”

I raised my chin and said, “I don’t need you to take care of me. I’m a man that can roam around Zhongguan City and Lan City by himself!”

Ben chaffed, “Sure, and have Feng-jiě save you every time.”

“…”

Seeing their expressions of “Just don’t come and mess things up,” I feared that if I didn’t reveal a couple cards, I really wouldn’t be able to follow. I thought about my previous fight against Jin Zhan, how Xiaorong had struck out with his branches. The icy thorns had been among walls of ice, so he should not have been very conspicuous.

Summoning Xiaorong, I became aware of his sleepy eyes and drowsy spirit. I was reluctant to burden him, so I let him continue his rest. As long as he stretched out the branch on the right for me to use, all would be well.

A translucent whip protruded from the cuff of my sleeves, long enough to circle around me at my feet.

I cracked the whip, slashing some dining chairs in the distance into a pile of broken wooden slats. Although this move was a bit inconsistent with my weak pretty boy persona, it wasn’t too strong. If I didn’t at least have this level of fighting skill, even if I claimed I could walk through the city by myself, no one would believe me!

Scar glowed with admiration. He asked, “Do you know how to use a gun?”

“Yes! My brother is a mercenary. Other than a sniper rifle, I can use any gun. Though I can’t say I could hit a hundred targets in a hundred shots, eighty out of a hundred is absolutely not a problem!”

I continued using Dàgē as an excuse.

Scar nodded in satisfaction. He said, “Let’s go. We’ll grab you a gun.”

Booyah! I glared at Chen Yishao. I had never gotten particularly annoyed at any of Xia Zhenggu’s mistresses in my previous life. There had been way too many. Forget hating them, I couldn’t even remember them all!

But in this life, rivals in love, don’t even think about showing your face!