The Rest of His Life

The pictures Luo Qiu saw in Ren Ziling's office were all related to the evil organization, secretly taken by her during this period.

When he saw those pictures, Luo Qiu felt vaguely uneasy.

This restless feeling reminded Luo Qiu of how hurriedly Ren Ziling had left that morning.

He did not care whether it was appropriate or not and immediately called Ren Ziling, but her phone was switched off.

Luo Qiu immediately returned to the club. Without any hesitation, he spent fifteen minutes of his lifespan at the altar to purchase information about Ren Ziling's location.

At first, he had only been worried.

But by the time he arrived, that worry had already become reality.

When he saw the burly man looking at Ren Ziling lecherously and trying to violate her, an anger that had vanished after his father's death suddenly erupted in Luo Qiu's chest for the first time.

It was completely unstoppable.

When the black cane came crashing down, it carried nearly all of Luo Qiu's fury.

He had not used any supernatural power as the club's owner. He had merely swung it with the strength fueled by his rage, smashing the burly man's bones.

Only after that blow did Luo Qiu calm down a little.

This woman had taken care of him for several years. She had given him what should have been the best years of her life without complaint, and had even tried every possible way to open his tightly closed heart.

Day after day, she had exhausted herself for him.

Several years passed. Luo Qiu did not feel that the window of his heart had opened again, but she had already moved inside.

Although they were relatives only in name, their feelings had gone beyond those between ordinary family members.

A woman like this—a woman Luo Qiu regarded as being as important as his own life.

No one was allowed to touch her!

It had nothing to do with whether he was the club's owner. Even if he were merely an ordinary person, he would have done the same if he had been there.

He would only have fought with his life on the line.

Luo Qiu climbed the stairs leading to the second-floor corridor, walking with extraordinary composure, one step at a time.

At the same time, the old man known as the Spirit Master stood motionless where he was, his legs trembling and his eyes filled with terror.

It was not that he did not want to move! On the contrary, he wanted to move more than anyone else... But his body was completely incapable of moving.

Even the air in his lungs seemed to have been sucked dry, leaving him suffocating!

The Spirit Master frantically wondered who this man wearing a Clown Mask and calling himself Clown really was. At that moment, words he had always dismissed as idle talk began to resurface in his mind.

They were words once spoken by the teacher who had taught him those extraordinary methods.

"There are countless extraordinary people in this world. You have only learned a little of the basics, so don't dream of doing evil. If you encounter a true expert with superior methods, you will only suffer the consequences."

Where could there be so many "experts" in this world? He had gone through endless hardship just to meet one.

He had never expected... that he really would encounter one.

By then, Luo Qiu had already reached the Spirit Master.

The Spirit Master hurriedly said in terror, "P-please let me go... I was only momentarily blinded! I swear! I swear I'll never commit another crime... Please..."

Luo Qiu used his cane to push open the door of the room beside them. He glanced inside... and quickly lost interest in looking any further.

A group of men and women inside were engaged in depraved acts, abandoning themselves as though they had lost all reason.

The scene was already bizarre.

"I-I didn't harm anyone... These people all had some darkness in their hearts," the Spirit Master said timidly.

"Don't believe him! That bastard has extorted who knows how much money! Several people here are almost at the point of losing their families and livelihoods!" Ren Ziling shouted from a distance.

Luo Qiu lightly tapped the railing with his cane. Ren Ziling's mouth instantly snapped shut, and she discovered in terror that she could no longer speak. She stared at the Clown in shock and fear.

Well... although she was the woman he valued most in his life,

sometimes Luo Qiu really wished Ren Ziling would keep quiet...

So he let her keep quiet.

But her words had already done their work. The Spirit Master became even more terrified, his face full of unease. He wanted to speak but did not dare, afraid that one wrong word would bring disaster upon him.

Luo Qiu said calmly, "What happens to the people inside has nothing to do with me. What you said isn't entirely wrong, either. If the people inside were smart, they naturally wouldn't have been so easily bewitched. They brought it upon themselves and have no one else to blame."

The Spirit Master hurriedly said, "I'll return them to normal! I swear I won't do it again!"

Luo Qiu instead asked, "You want me to let you go?"

The Spirit Master hurriedly nodded.

Luo Qiu said indifferently, "Then what will you use to trade for it? You want me to let you go... isn't that what you want?"

"Money! I'll give you all my money!" the Spirit Master blurted out without thinking.

Luo Qiu shook his head. "Money is useless to me. To be honest, although these people brought their fate upon themselves, I have no intention of seeking justice for them. But seeing this makes me dislike it very much, so I have the urge to kill you... I want to kill you. In other words, you're buying your life. What do you think you can give me that would be worth your life?"

"I... I don't know..." the Spirit Master said fearfully. "You name it! Whatever it is, I'll give it to you!"

Luo Qiu did not say anything else. He tapped the Spirit Master's forehead with the black cane, then said, "It seems the saying that bad people live for a thousand years is true. You still have sixty years left. But I think someone like you would be lucky to live another two or three years. Fifty-eight years. You can use fifty-eight years of your life to buy my promise not to kill you. Of course, you can choose not to buy it. I won't force you."

Buy a life with one's life?

The Spirit Master could not understand the logic at all... Could lifespans really be exchanged like this? Was this man out of his mind?

But regardless, if there was room for negotiation, he did not want to die here.

He remembered his teacher saying that the extraordinary people who walked the world were all eccentric and impossible to read... The Spirit Master took a deep breath and cautiously asked, "If I sell it... will you really let me go?"

"Yes." Luo Qiu said calmly, "As long as you sell it, I won't go back on my word."

The Spirit Master gritted his teeth. "You are an expert from beyond the mortal world. I believe you wouldn't deceive a nobody like me, and you wouldn't stoop to deceiving a nobody like me... But how exactly do I sell it?"

Could he be planning to let him live another three or five years before coming back to kill him? The Spirit Master could not help thinking in that direction... Whatever happened, he would survive this crisis first.

After three or five years, he refused to believe that this strange fellow could still find him!

Luo Qiu said, "You only need to agree to sell it... Are you selling or not?"

"I'm selling!"

Luo Qiu suddenly smiled. "Thank you for your patronage, honored guest... I won't kill you now."

The Spirit Master suddenly felt his body relax. His hands and feet could move freely again. But he did not dare act rashly and hurriedly said, "Thank you! Thank you, Master! I swear I won't do it again!"

Yeah, right... Once I get away, the sky is high and the birds can fly wherever they want!

But he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Although his body was free, a feeling of weakness suddenly spread throughout him! The Spirit Master stared at his hands in terror as they began to shrivel.

Even the muscles that had been bulging on his body began to wither. His body hunched over, and wrinkles covered the cheeks that had once been youthful despite his white hair... Even his teeth began to fall out, leaving only a few hanging lonely from his gums.

"What... What did you do to me?!" the Spirit Master cried, shocked and furious as he stared at the changes in his body.

Luo Qiu said blandly, "The process of life is generally irreversible. You no longer have fifty-eight years left, so what remains is naturally the appearance of someone in the final two years of his life. What's strange about that?"

"You... You deceived me!!" the Spirit Master roared furiously and lunged at Luo Qiu without thinking.

But he already looked like a man on the verge of death, weak and powerless. Forget Luo Qiu, the club's owner—even an ordinary adult could have knocked him to the ground with a light push.

The black cane struck the Spirit Master's knee. He fell heavily to the ground and struggled, but was too weak to get back up.

"H-He became like this?"

Ren Ziling had actually climbed up by then.

It was probably because the Spirit Master's loss of lifespan had caused his method targeting Ren Ziling to lose its effect. As for Luo Qiu making her shut up, it had only lasted briefly.

He simply could not bear to be too harsh with this woman.

Luo Qiu ran the black cane across the Spirit Master's face, scraping off his beard. "This fellow wasn't old at all. He probably disguised himself as an old man and showed off his strong muscles to make himself more convincing."

"But now..." Ren Ziling resumed her professional instincts as a reporter.

Luo Qiu made Ren Ziling shut up again.

"I'm leaving. You can handle things here," Luo Qiu said calmly. "These people can't hurt you."

He tapped the floor with his cane. The men and women engaged in depraved acts inside the room instantly collapsed and passed out.

The four burly men downstairs suffered the same fate.

"I left you two years, not because I thought you deserved to live another two years." Luo Qiu looked at the Spirit Master one last time and said calmly before he too passed out, "It's because I think you need to use those remaining two years to properly repent for everything you've done... Hmm, probably somewhere like prison."

The Spirit Master fainted with an unwilling look on his face.

Luo Qiu looked at Ren Ziling one last time. "It would be best if you didn't tell anyone that you saw me... Finding out your background would be easy for me, and so would finding out who matters to you..."

After delivering what amounted to a warning, Luo Qiu calmly walked down the stairs, opened the teahouse's metal shutter, and left.

Ren Ziling shuddered violently, feeling as though she had finally come back to life.

"Damn... Could I really have encountered a deity? The Clown Deity? What am I even saying?"

PS: I really want someone to tip me...