A wrist severed in one stroke

After making sure Yulan was no longer moving, Jiang Yiming got out of the car.

He could easily cover a few hundred meters. If he had the taxi drive over, it might alert the enemy, which would only make things worse.

"Hey! You paid more than ten yuan too much!" the driver called, sticking his head out.

"Keep the change."

Thinking of the million-yuan reward he would get if he could save Yulan, Jiang Yiming was generous for once.

He turned his phone's brightness down to the lowest setting, then quickly closed the distance. When he was only a hundred meters from Yulan, he spotted a solitary villa in the distance.

According to the map, Yulan was there!

Jiang Yiming put away his phone and approached cautiously.

When he was about twenty meters away, he released Ghost Face and had it climb a tall cypress by the road to observe the villa from above.

The villa's gate was open. An SUV was parked in the open space inside, its engine still running but its headlights off.

Jiang Yiming knew nothing about cars and didn't know what make it was. He only noticed that its trunk was open.

Yulan said she was stuffed in a trunk. Could it be this car's trunk?

With that thought, he put on a mask, slowly approached the perimeter wall, and jumped straight over it. He had already reached the realm of a First-Grade Gu Master, with Gu Essence like water. Although he couldn't match Yulan in his use of Gu Essence, clearing a four-meter wall was still easy for him.

After landing, he hid behind a flower bed beside the wall, then released the Red Tail Centipede and had it use Earth Escape to scout.

The villa had three floors. At the moment, only one room on the north side of the top floor had a light on.

He immediately ordered Red Tail to burrow into the space inside the wall and crawl straight toward that room.

When Red Tail reached the roof and poked its head out, everything in the room was plain to see.

Three people sat facing one another at a three-meter-long oval table.

In the seat of honor was a familiar face—Tu Ming!

Beside Tu Ming sat a man in black, the very one Jiang Yiming had seen on the news.

Yulan sat opposite the two of them, her hands and feet entirely unbound. She looked more like a guest than a captive.

"Ha ha... Brother, you're incredible. You said you'd bring her here, and you did." Tu Ming picked up the Maotai on the table and poured a cup for the man in black beside him.

The man in black didn't drink. He merely said flatly, "I've done what I promised. What about what you promised me?"

"Don't worry. I paid 2.5 million yuan to win that thing at auction, but since I promised it to you, I'll naturally give it to you." As Tu Ming spoke, he raised his cup and drained it in one gulp.

After that cup, he looked invigorated. He stood up and laughed. "Heh heh! Wine stirs up desire; the ancients truly didn't lie to me! It's getting late. I've waited half the night, and now I can finally have my wish."

With that, he turned a lustful gaze on Yulan.

"You still haven't given me the thing!" The strange man in black stopped him with an arm.

"I'll give it to you when I've had my fun. With your abilities, are you afraid I'll run away?" Smiling, Tu Ming pushed the man's arm aside.

Yulan, on the other hand, didn't seem worried at all. She watched Tu Ming approach her with a calm expression.

When he reached her, Tu Ming picked up a cup of wine from the table and said with a smile, "This wine costs over ten thousand yuan a bottle, so don't waste it. Come, I'll feed you."

The moment he held out the cup, Yulan suddenly spoke. "If you dare reach another half inch forward, I guarantee your hand will be severed!"

Tu Ming froze and looked back at the strange man in black.

"I've already sealed her. She's just running her mouth," the strange man said coldly.

"Oh? Ha ha, you gave me a fright." Tu Ming continued holding the cup out to Yulan.

He liked to get people so drunk they lost their senses before taking his time enjoying himself. That way, he could conceal his shortcomings in a certain regard.

Sure enough, even as the cup was about to reach Yulan's lips, she still didn't move.

She did speak again, however. "Whoever cuts off that hand for me, I'll give him a hundred thousand yuan!"

Hearing this, Tu Ming laughed. "You want to buy my hand for a hundred thousand?! Do you know how much I'm worth? At least two billion! A hundred thousand yuan would only buy one of my hairs!"

After speaking, he glanced back at the strange man in black, who wasn't even looking their way.

Despite the ridicule, Yulan remained unruffled. "In some people's eyes, that hand of yours might not even be worth a hundred thousand!"

The moment she finished speaking, the room's window suddenly shattered, and a figure burst in at 100 km/h.

Of course, only Jiang Yiming could move that fast.

He picked up a table knife and brought it down.

Bang!

The cup in Tu Ming's hand fell to the floor with a sharp clatter. His hand fell along with it!

The hand had been severed at the wrist, the cut as smooth as a mirror.

Even with a cleaver, an ordinary person would have trouble chopping off a hand in one stroke, let alone making such a clean cut.

Jiang Yiming could do it with nothing but a table knife because he was fast enough! The greater the speed, the greater the power behind the cut.

Because the knife had struck so quickly, Tu Ming felt no pain at first.

Only when blood spurted out did he feel it. He clamped his hand over the wound and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Ah!!"

The strange man in black seemed to loathe the sound. His figure flickered, and he suddenly appeared in front of Tu Ming. He reached out and tapped Tu Ming's shoulder twice, and the bleeding from Tu Ming's wrist stopped!

Jiang Yiming wasn't watching Tu Ming's wrist, but the strange man's fingers—they were black, like a wild boar's hide!

"Who are you?!" Tu Ming had recovered somewhat and shouted at him, eyes wide.

The strange man in black picked up the severed hand, shoved it into Tu Ming's grasp, and said, "Get to a hospital, quickly!"

Only then did Tu Ming come to his senses. Without wasting any more time, he hurried off to his car with the hand tucked under his arm.

Jiang Yiming's attention was entirely on the strange man in black, and he made no move to stop Tu Ming.

Only three people remained in the room.

"Are you a Gu Master too?" the strange man in black finally asked.

"You could say that." Jiang Yiming went on, "As soon as my Gu worm crawled into the ceiling, you glanced at it, whether deliberately or not. I'm guessing you discovered me long ago. Why did you deliberately avoid warning Tu Ming?"

"Hmph! He went back on his promise to give me that thing and deliberately put it off. Who knows if he was trying to welch on the deal?" the strange man said. "Only after he suffers a little will he understand how little his life is worth."

"So it was for your own sake." Jiang Yiming had retreated in front of Yulan by then.

While they were talking, he deliberately rested a hand on Yulan's soft shoulder and asked in a casual tone, "Are you all right?"

Jiang Yiming wasn't the sort of person who liked taking advantage of beautiful women. He had put his hand on Yulan's shoulder because they had already discussed it over the phone: the first thing he had to do when they met was pass Gu Essence to her.

The instant they made contact, he had passed a stream of Gu Essence to her without anyone noticing.

Yulan quickly used that stream of Gu Essence to break through the restraint on her body.

"I'm fine!" She slowly stood up.