Holding His Head Too High

Chi City, Feng Household.

"Still not here?"

Feng Jiaqi stood there with a dark expression, staring at the courtyard gate.

An hour had already passed since the agreed time, yet that person still had not arrived.

"Young Master, could something have happened to those people?"

Ma Sheng, standing on the right, could not help speaking up.

"By the way, Young Master Feng, does the other side really still have Blood Embryo Pills?"

Liu Attendant, standing on the left, also asked.

"Yes, definitely. But whether they will give them to us, I cannot say."

Feng Jiaqi shook his head.

Just as his words fell, Ma Sheng and Liu Attendant, standing on either side, suddenly tensed. They raised their heads and looked toward the courtyard gate.

The next moment, two figures appeared at the gate.

On the left was a tall man in blue robes, around thirty years old. His features were fairly handsome, his skin held an unnaturally pale whiteness, and his lips were an alluring crimson. Yet the faint smile on his face sent chills crawling down one's spine.

Behind him followed a burly man like a small mountain, over ten feet tall. He wore a bamboo hat, his face covered by black cloth, revealing only a pair of icy eyes.

The instant the two stepped through the gate, Ma Sheng and Liu Attendant felt as though their breathing had been strangled. An abyss-deep, terrifying pressure spread from the two men.

Two Transformation Grandmasters had appeared at once, and their auras were more than ten times stronger than Li Xiao's.

That meant their strength far surpassed Li Xiao's.

Middle Transformation Force Stage? Or perhaps the late stage?

For a moment, Ma Sheng and Liu Attendant did not even dare breathe loudly, afraid of provoking the two men's displeasure.

At this moment, Feng Jiaqi, who had been standing there dumbfounded, was the first to regain his composure. He strode forward in three quick steps, cupped his fists, and said,

"Welcome, Envoy."

"Where is that old thing Feng Wanqian?"

"Reporting to Envoy, my father is gravely ill. The Feng Household's affairs are temporarily under my management. Whatever orders you have, Envoy, I will carry them out without fail."

Feng Jiaqi answered cautiously.

"Oh? You have become the head of the household?"

The man called Envoy glanced at Feng Jiaqi with a half-smile.

"Yes. Please rest assured, Envoy. I will only do better than my father."

Feng Jiaqi straightened his back, his voice full of resolve. He knew this was his only chance.

After a moment, the envoy standing opposite him introduced himself.

"I am Shang Qi. He is Ghost Ape. Do not call us Envoys again."

"Yes, Lord Shang Qi."

"At least you have better sense than that old bastard Feng Wanqian."

Shang Qi gave a cold snort and went straight to the point.

"So the Blood Embryo Pills were snatched away?"

"Yes, Lord Shang Qi."

Feng Jiaqi nodded and continued, "The other party was a Transformation Grandmaster, and—"

Before he could finish, Shang Qi raised a hand and seized him by the throat, lifting him into the air. A trace of chill entered the smile on his face.

"Who gave you permission to let someone else take the Blood Embryo Pills?"

"Those were important research results of ours, and you actually let someone steal them away?"

There was not a shred of emotion in Shang Qi's voice. The icy killing intent even dropped the temperature in the courtyard by several degrees.

"N-no... s-sorry... I... urgh..."

Feng Jiaqi's face flushed red as his throat was clamped shut. He could not even form complete words. Intense suffocation swept over him, and the fear of death drowned him whole.

He had never imagined things would turn out like this.

The other party did not even intend to hear his explanation. They simply wanted to kill him.

Just when Feng Jiaqi thought he would be strangled to death, Shang Qi released his hand.

"Haa... haa... haa..."

Feng Jiaqi dropped onto the ground on his backside, gulping down great breaths of air. None of his former overbearing arrogance remained.

Only now did he understand. In Shang Qi's eyes, he was no different from an insect. There had never been any possibility of cooperation.

"Speak. Who took the Blood Embryo Pills, and where did the other Blood Embryo Pills go?"

Shang Qi looked coldly at Feng Jiaqi and commanded.

Feng Jiaqi shuddered and hurriedly revealed where the Blood Embryo Pills had gone.

After hearing everything, Shang Qi's smile grew even brighter, though there was not the slightest trace of amusement within it.

At that moment, Liu Attendant, who stood some distance behind them, bit his lip and stepped forward. Looking at Shang Qi, he said,

"Lord Shang Qi, I am willing to help you track down the Blood Embryo Pills. I only ask that you grant me one Blood Embryo Pill. As long as I step into the Transformation Force Stage, I will surely be useful to you."

Liu Attendant looked at Shang Qi with a face full of longing.

However, the moment his words fell, the smile on Shang Qi's face froze completely.

"You are... ordering me?"

"Ah, no, that is not it, Lord Shang Qi, I—" Liu Attendant opened his mouth, but before he could finish, an invisible force swept across his neck like a sickle.

Splurt.

Blood gushed out in torrents. Liu Attendant's eyes widened as he clutched his throat and fell straight backward.

Even at the moment of death, his face remained filled with disbelief.

Ma Sheng, standing nearby, was so terrified by this sight that he did not dare make a sound.

At this moment, Shang Qi casually swept him a glance and spoke.

"Hey, you are holding your head too high!"

As soon as the words fell, Ma Sheng instantly understood. Without the slightest hesitation, he swiftly dropped to his knees.

Feng Jiaqi likewise followed suit, immediately pressing his head against the ground, not daring to lift it even a fraction.

Only then did Shang Qi reveal a satisfied expression.

"That is why failing to understand your own place is an exceedingly foolish thing."

"If your Feng Household had obediently helped test the effects of the Blood Embryo Pills, nothing would have happened. Yet you just had to entertain all sorts of wild thoughts."

"Ah, idiots truly are irritating. Now you have even forced me to clean up this mess."

As Shang Qi spoke, he turned and looked at the burly man named Ghost Ape.

"Ghost Ape, go destroy Thunder Martial Hall. Do not leave a single one alive."

The moment he spoke, Ghost Ape turned and vanished through the courtyard gate.

Meanwhile, Feng Jiaqi and Ma Sheng, kneeling on the ground, became even more tense.

However, their tension vanished the next moment.

"Ah, do not worry. Soon, the two of you will be going to die as well."

Shang Qi said these words that drove the two men into utter despair with a face full of smiles.

Ma Sheng could naturally feel the killing intent emanating from Shang Qi.

Especially with Liu Attendant's corpse still lying quietly nearby.

If he did not do something now, he would die here too.

With that thought, Ma Sheng did not hesitate in the slightest. A faint bloody glow instantly emerged from his body as he unleashed all his force and fled into the distance.

But before his foot could even step out of the courtyard gate, invisible force caught up from behind and sliced his body into several chunks of flesh that dropped to the ground.

A thick stench of blood instantly filled the air.

Feng Jiaqi, still kneeling on the ground, buried his head even lower, his body trembling without stop.

Why had things turned out like this?

His father's words had truly come to pass. He had not only brought death upon himself; he had even brought death upon the Feng Household.

Deep despair and regret spread through his heart.

At that moment, Shang Qi's voice sounded beside his ear, carrying a hint of temptation.

"Oh, right. I can give you a chance to live. But whether you survive will still depend on you."

As Shang Qi spoke, he took out a pill with a bright red exterior and placed it before Feng Jiaqi.

"This is a new test product. Its effects are far more overbearing and powerful than the Blood Embryo Pill's. If you can endure it, I will spare your life."

"I..." Feng Jiaqi hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and picked up the pill. Though his hand trembled constantly, he finally closed his eyes and swallowed it in one gulp.

Seeing this, Shang Qi's grin widened, and the smile in his eyes grew thicker.

This time, at least, it had not been a complete loss.

An experimental subject who had successfully broken through into the Transformation Force Stage after taking a Blood Embryo Pill—though he had become a corpse—still had research value.

Then he could also test the effects of the new drug along the way.

The only slightly troublesome matter was that fellow named Chen Liu who had stolen the Blood Embryo Pills.

Once those above learned that the Blood Embryo Pills had fallen into a place beyond their control, he would certainly be punished.

Whether to avoid punishment or to seal off news of the Blood Embryo Pills, he had to find and kill Chen Liu.

Deep within the Feng Household estate, inside a small room, Feng Wanqian let out a faint sigh.

"Sigh, it really has come after all."

"The destruction of the Feng Household was fated."

"But..."

As Feng Wanqian spoke, he lowered his head and looked at the slightly yellowed manuscript before him.

Over these years, he had secretly recorded the research notes concerning the Blood Embryo Pills.

Now that the Feng Household was destined to be destroyed, all he could do was hand these research records over to someone else—preferably someone who would come into conflict with this organization.

This could be considered the last resistance he was capable of making.