Sui Xiong had resorted to this little trick out of sheer helplessness.
Originally, he had wanted to show off his strength—say, flicking a finger as though brushing away dust and sending those two lumbering oafs flying. But on second thought, given his status, if word got out that he had fought a pair of mortals—and two idiots who did not even qualify as beginner adventurers at that—it would practically count as a scandal.
Of course, Sui Xiong was not afraid of scandals, but he really was too embarrassed to cause one. The people in the church had worked so hard to promote him, shaping an image of him as either great, glorious, and upright or mysterious and aloof. Even if he could not help, he ought not to make things worse.
Thinking this over, he had no choice but to change his mind and use another method.
Fortunately, he was powerful enough and had plenty of methods at his disposal. With a turn of his eyes, he came up with a pretty good idea.
The man in gray had egged those two lumbering oafs on to cause him trouble, thinking he had been quite discreet. In truth, he had long been under Sui Xiong's watchful eye. Since this fellow wanted to make Sui Xiong unhappy, it was only fair and reasonable for Sui Xiong to take a small measure of revenge.
So he used divine power to switch the two of them, restricted the gray-clothed man's movements, and wrapped him in an illusory disguise so that he looked exactly like Sui Xiong.
As a result, the two lumbering oafs noticed nothing at all. They swung their bowl-sized fists and pummeled the man in gray with a barrage of thumps and bangs, beating him until one Buddha rose to heaven and