"I was going to be polite with you, but since you're so ungrateful, there's no need to keep pretending!"
Ma Hongjun flung the vegetable leaves stuck to his head aside, his face bright red.
Half of it was swollen; the other half was rage.
He clenched both fists, his whole body of fat trembling as thick, purplish-red Soul Power surged out of him.
The Soul Power carried scorching heat. The moment it touched the air around him, the vegetable leaves and scraps of cloth on the ground instantly charred and curled up, then burned to ashes within a few breaths.
Surging Evil Fire coursed over his skin, roaring softly as it sent the temperature at the street corner soaring by several degrees.
Waves of heat rolled outward one after another. The passersby who had gathered at a distance to watch retreated again and again, huddling together around the corner and daring to peek out only half their heads.
Within a fifty-step radius, there wasn't another soul besides him.
"Boss Dai, let's attack together!"
Ma Hongjun growled, and the Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul instantly possessed him.
Several long, fiery-red feathers sprouted with a hiss from the outsides of his arms, their edges singed black.
His usually messy hair also shot straight up under the impact of his Soul Power, turning into an eye-catching mohawk, with a few sparks drifting from the tips.
Two century-old Yellow Soul Rings spun beneath his feet, their bright yellow light spreading in circles and proclaiming his status as a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster.
As Ma Hongjun's Evil Fire blazed and he rubbed his fists together, he could hardly wait to burn the ungrateful man and woman before him to cinders and reclaim the face he'd lost in front of the beauty.
What he didn't know was that his good big brother, Dai Mubai, was already thinking of retreating.
To be precise, he didn't just want to retreat—he wanted to sew Ma Hongjun's troublemaking mouth shut, then disappear from this street at once.
Though Dai Mobai had only said two words, and not very loudly, his voice had been swallowed up in the bustling street in an instant. Even so, Dai Mubai had heard him clearly.
That voice, that inflection, that lazy way of speaking, tinged with nonchalance—he knew it all too well.
He didn't know why Dai Mobai had appeared here.
But now wasn't the time to think about that.
All he knew was that he couldn't stay here any longer.
Absolutely not!
Dai Mubai had planned to slip away quietly, before Dai Mobai noticed him, by backing into the crowd of commoners watching from the street corner and vanishing without anyone being the wiser.
But he had barely turned around when Ma Hongjun shouted at the top of his lungs.
The shout rang out with full-throated force, echoing down half the street and reverberating between the shops on either side.
Dai Mubai's burly frame suddenly stiffened.
He remained frozen in the middle of turning, his back as rigid as an iron plate.
If looks could kill, Ma Hongjun would have been riddled with holes by now.
Bastard! Damn fatso! Of all the people you could call, you had to call my name right now! And so loudly, too! Are you afraid nobody knows I'm behind you?
"Looks like you've done pretty well for yourself these past three years."
Dai Mobai's languid voice came from behind Dai Mubai.
Yet it was precisely that casual, nonchalant tone that sent a chill down Dai Mubai's spine.
"You've even become the boss, my—"
Dai Mobai paused deliberately.
Dai Mubai's breath hitched along with him.
"—dear little brother."
As those last three words fell, it was as if the air had been sucked out of the whole street.
Dai Mubai closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
His fingers curled into fists one by one, his knuckles cracking sharply.
He knew he couldn't leave.
From the moment Ma Hongjun called his name, he'd already lost the chance to leave.
Ma Hongjun was a little dumbfounded.
His brain, battered by the twin onslaught of Evil Fire and fury, finally cooled for a moment and struggled to process the information he'd just received.
He'd meant to call Boss Dai over so they could attack from both sides and take down this arrogant couple.
But he'd never imagined that Dai Mubai and his opponent were brothers.
Now he was in an awkward position: he couldn't attack, but he couldn't simply stand down, either.
But Dai Mubai heard a different meaning in those words.
Unfortunately, he couldn't leave now.
All he could do was turn around with forced composure, straighten his back, and do his best to make his expression seem calm and resolute.
The instant he turned, his gaze collided with Dai Mobai's.
The man's eyes were just as they'd been three years ago: calm, composed, unfathomable, and devoid of any unnecessary emotion.
He was even smiling.
That was the smile Dai Mubai hated most.
Because he could never tell what lay behind it.
"Dai Mobai, what are you doing here?"
Dai Mubai lowered his voice, striking first.
His tone was harsh, his voice laced with undisguised hostility.
Dai Mobai raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Have we really grown so distant after not seeing each other for three years?"
His gaze settled on Dai Mubai. It wasn't sharp, yet it pierced through him, leaving him nowhere to hide.
Dai Mubai felt as though his heartbeat were loud enough for everyone at the street corner to hear.
"You're not even willing to call me 'big brother'?"
Dai Mobai's voice was soft, his tone even.
But to Dai Mubai, those words stung more than any taunt.
Because Dai Mobai was telling the truth.
If he didn't call him that, then he was the one in the wrong.
And Dai Mobai had pointed it out in such a mild tone that Dai Mubai only came across as unreasonable.
"Stop putting on this hypocritical act!"
Dai Mubai ground his teeth and forced the words out through them.
His voice was low, but every word carried three years' worth of resentment and humiliation.
Dai Mobai was always like this, always saying the most cutting things in the gentlest tone, always cornering people with the most indifferent expression.
That was the trick he was best at, and Dai Mubai had fallen for it countless times.
Every time, he thought he'd learned his lesson. Yet every time he faced Dai Mobai again, a single sentence still struck him right where it hurt.
"All right."
The smile at the corner of Dai Mobai's mouth faded.
That faint curve that had always lingered on his face vanished completely in an instant.
His expression returned to utter calm, and even the warmth in his eyes disappeared.
But that calm was more frightening than anger.
Anger at least meant he still cared. Calm meant that, in his eyes, you were no longer worth the slightest stir of emotion.
"Since you're so distant, I'll go back to how things used to be."
Dai Mobai's voice was faint, his tone as light as a feather. But to Dai Mubai, it landed like a mountain, pressing the breath from his lungs.
Dai Mobai tilted his head slightly and looked at Li Yue beside him, then uttered four words.
"Li Yue, beat him."
Li Yue's hand had never left the hilt of her sword.
At Dai Mobai's words, she didn't hesitate for even a moment. She lightly tapped the ground with her toes, and her whole body shot forward like a streaking afterimage.