"Fatty!"
Dai Mubai barked, but Ma Hongjun paid him no heed.
"Damn it!"
Watching Ma Hongjun ignore him, Dai Mubai cursed.
He stood rooted to the spot, a fierce struggle flashing through his evil eyes.
But that idiot Ma Hongjun had already caught up with them.
Dai Mubai gritted his teeth, then finally started forward.
Though the figure ahead looked somewhat familiar, Dai Mubai simply couldn't believe it.
With two nations facing off along the border, each with two hundred thousand troops, there was no way the Star Luo Crown Prince, Dai Mobai, would dare swagger into the territory of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible!
At the same time, Li Yue tilted her head slightly, about to say something to Dai Mobai.
Her lips parted, but before she could speak, a black shadow flashed into the corner of her eye. Moving at astonishing speed, it cut diagonally across their path and stopped in front of her.
Almost at the same instant, the bustling crowd on the street stirred in the subtlest way.
A peddler carrying a shoulder pole set it down and slipped a hand inside one of his baskets.
A mercenary crouching by the road and munching a flatbread lifted his head, his knuckles cracking.
More than eighty people came to a halt at once. Their gazes, like eighty invisible arrows, locked onto the fat figure standing in front of Li Yue.
In an instant, the air throughout the entire block froze, like a bowstring drawn taut, ready to loose its deadly arrow at the slightest release.
Dai Mobai casually waved his hand.
At the signal, the Breaking Clan elites hidden in the crowd reined in their killing intent all at once.
The eighty-plus people melted back into the crowd. The entire thing took no more than a breath, so fast it seemed never to have happened.
Ma Hongjun didn't notice a thing.
His eyes were fixed entirely on Li Yue's delicate face, fresh and translucent as a lychee. His little, squinty eyes brimmed with undisguised fascination and greed.
He might not have been old, but he'd certainly seen his fair share of women.
Yet compared to the woman before him, all the others he'd known were nothing but barnyard hens.
Li Yue was exquisite beyond anything he'd ever seen, whether in her looks, her figure, or that frosty, aloof air about her.
Completely captivated by her, he had no idea he'd just taken a trip to the gates of hell.
If Dai Mobai had given that signal half a second later, Ma Hongjun would have been riddled with more than eighty spears.
Dai Mubai, who was hurrying after him, was the one who sensed something amiss.
That killing intent had been sharp as a spear, cold as iron, and had made his hair stand on end.
But the moment he instinctively circulated his Soul Power to defend himself, the aura suddenly vanished without a trace.
It disappeared so quickly that Dai Mubai wondered if he'd imagined it.
He shook his head, pushed down his unease, and hurried forward.
"Beautiful miss, my name is Ma Hongjun."
Blocking Li Yue's path, Ma Hongjun pressed one fat hand to his chest and bowed, convinced he was the picture of elegance.
A smile he thought was charming spread across his face.
He had no idea that the layers of fat on his face made the word "elegant" entirely inapplicable.
Far from making him look graceful, the smile only squeezed his face into a grotesque shape.
The flesh piled up on his cheeks, squashing his eyes into two deep slits. His face was slick with grease, and he looked downright lecherous.
"May I ask your lovely name?"
Oblivious to himself, Ma Hongjun let his gaze cling to Li Yue, looking her up and down, then down and up again, before finally fixing it on her icy face. He couldn't tear his eyes away.
He didn't even notice Dai Mobai standing beside Li Yue, much less the knowing smile at the corner of Dai Mobai's mouth.
Li Yue's hand instinctively fell to her waist.
Her gaze turned abruptly cold, the warmth in her eyes plunging to freezing in an instant.
She had been at Dai Mobai's side for years, and apart from him, no man had ever dared look at her that way.
But as her fingers touched the hilt of the soft sword at her waist, just as she was about to draw it, a flicker of hesitation crossed her eyes.
No. His Highness's goal on this trip is Suotuo City. If I make a move now, it'll inevitably cause a commotion.
If the city guards notice us and His Highness's whereabouts are exposed, it could disrupt the plan he's been preparing for so long. That would truly be a loss not worth the gain.
Thinking this, Li Yue slowly moved her slender hand away from her waist.
She gritted her teeth, deciding to swallow her anger for the moment.
He was just a lecher. He wasn't worth ruining His Highness's plans over.
But just as her hand left the hilt, Dai Mobai's voice reached her ears.
"Hit him."
Li Yue turned sharply to look at Dai Mobai.
Dai Mobai didn't look at her. His gaze remained fixed ahead, and the smile at the corner of his mouth barely changed.
At Dai Mobai's order, the hesitation on Li Yue's face turned to resolve in an instant.
She raised her hand again, fingers spread and palm tensed, ready to slap Ma Hongjun across his chubby face as he stood there smiling smugly.
But just as her hand was about to swing, she saw the thick layers of fat on Ma Hongjun's face.
A look of undisguised disgust flashed through Li Yue's eyes.
Her raised hand dropped again.
She gripped the hilt of the soft sword at her waist.
With a crisp metallic ring, the soft sword worn as a jade belt sliced through the air. As Soul Power coursed through it, the blade snapped straight.
A fierce glint flashed across its edge, exploding in the midday sunlight so brightly it hurt the eyes.
The light fell across Ma Hongjun's little, lecherous eyes, still fixed on her.
His pupils contracted sharply.
Before he could react, the soft sword, rigid with Soul Power, cracked hard across his face.
"Smack—"
The sharp crack rang out, like someone slamming a wet rag onto a flagstone.
The fat on Ma Hongjun's face shuddered violently from the blow, rippling in waves visible to the naked eye.
His round body was lifted clean off the ground and sent rolling sideways like a kicked ball.
He crashed through several stalls before finally coming to a stop in front of the stone lions at a nearby hotel.
Li Yue hadn't held back much.
She hadn't used a Soul Skill, but her Soul Emperor-level physical strength combined with the soft sword's flexibility was enough to knock a grown man unconscious with one strike.
But Ma Hongjun had so much fat on his face that its thick layers acted like natural armor, absorbing much of the force.
A blow that should have knocked him out only left half his face badly swollen.
The taut, flushed skin shone like half a ripe persimmon stuck to his face.
He struggled to his feet amid the wreckage, a rotten cabbage leaf perched on his head and a scrap of flowered cloth draped over his shoulder. He spat out mouthfuls of dirt.
His little, squinty eyes were no longer leering. In their place burned the fury of a man enraged by public humiliation.