Perhaps infected by Chen Qiu's confidence, or perhaps unwilling to show weakness after remembering the bold words he had just spoken, Fat Dragon's expression shifted several times before he finally nodded with difficulty.
"Fine, let's gamble!"
He had rarely gone all-in in his life. Countless fellow entrepreneurs who had fallen in his previous life had taught him one truth: whether a company could survive long enough was not determined by how much profit a project made.
What truly mattered was how much the company would lose if that project failed.
He had never thought of making his company big. He had only wanted it to survive a little longer.
Compared to profit-taking points, what he had considered more in this life were stop-loss points.
Only by living long enough could one wait for a miracle.
Whether in his previous life or here.
"Mm."
Chen Qiu nodded with a smile, then walked straight out of the city gates. The men outside the gates who looked at him in stunned disbelief were precisely the people sent by the Huang Family. The moment they saw him step beyond the gates—
They tore off their black robes, drew their long blades from their chests, and surrounded Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon, staring at them like hungry wolves and cutting off their path back to Heaven-Question Market.
These thugs looked rather old. Some even had age spots on the backs of their hands, but the aura they gave off was not weak in the slightest.
"The Huang Family is conducting business!"
"Bystanders, keep away!"
"We ask everyone to make way!"
An old man in the Huang Family's standard long robe, his hands clasped behind his back, emerged from the crowd with a gloomy expression. He stopped before Chen Qiu and the others, remaining silent for a long while before saying with a smile that wasn't quite a smile, "You killed the young master of my Huang Family and still swagger around like this, without even wearing a cloak."
"You've got guts."
"Do you really think my Huang Family has no temper?"
Very soon—
Another three or four Huang Family thugs arrived, tearing off their black robes and joining the encirclement with long blades in hand. They stared fixedly at Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon, ready to cut the two down at any moment once the order was given.
These should have been the Huang Family's Seventh Elder at the Eighth Level of the Qi Refining Realm mentioned in Fat Dragon's intelligence, along with the thugs the Huang Family had prepared to deal with them.
The surrounding crowd seemed long accustomed to such scenes. They scattered to either side without the slightest surprise. As long as no fighting took place inside Heaven-Question Market, no one would care even if the outside world was turned upside down.
"What do we do?"
Fat Dragon swept his gaze over the Huang Family thugs surrounding the two of them with blades in hand. He leaned close to Chen Qiu, constantly scanning their surroundings as he lowered his voice. "Whatever the plan is, you should tell me now, right?"
He had probably already guessed Chen Qiu's plan.
Just like last time, they would use the Earth-Escaping Technique and the Illusion Technique to escape. But these two techniques required the situation to be chaotic enough for them to fish in troubled waters.
So, Chen Qiu should be planning to create chaos somehow, such as scattering a few Spirit Stones on the ground and drawing in the surrounding spectators.
The temptation of a few Spirit Stones was no small thing. There should be plenty of people unable to resist it.
Once Windward City's Heavenly Dao Trait melee erupted, the Chen Qiu brothers probably intended to use those two techniques to snatch chestnuts from the fire. The risk was a little high, but if they succeeded, the rewards would be astonishing.
Just as he had prepared himself to cooperate with Chen Qiu—
He suddenly felt a chill at his back.
"Hm?"
Fat Dragon instinctively turned around and saw a Wraith floating in midair behind him at some unknown point. It carried deathly energy all over its body, enough to make one's hair stand on end.
The Wraith's appearance was also extremely familiar.
It was none other than the Huang Family's young master who had died in the secret realm last night—
Huang Shikai!
"Ah?"
Fat Dragon's mouth slowly fell open as he stared blankly and incredulously at the scene before him. Could Chen Qiu's plan really be to simply kill their way out?
Was he insane? This was supposed to be a plan?
Fight if they could win, die if they couldn't, was that it?
Then, the next moment—
"Kill!!!"
Chen Qiu roared, yanking his Yellow Grade, Lower-Class Spirit Treasure, the Heaven-Slayer long blade, from his chest. He grabbed Huang Shikai by the collar with one hand and charged forward.
At the same time, the Huang Family's Seventh Elder also shouted "Kill" with an incomparably ugly expression.
Naturally, he recognized the Wraith in Chen Qiu's hand as their Huang Family's young master. A hundred people had entered the secret realm last night, and only two had emerged alive. They had not known who had killed their young master, so they could only vent all their resentment upon these two survivors.
But they had never expected that these two beasts really were the ones who killed their young master!
The order had been given, and blades were drawn.
The Huang Family thugs surrounding Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon shouted in unison, their expressions resolute and cold. Without holding back in the slightest, they swung their blades at Chen Qiu. Though they were old and their condition had declined somewhat, the combat experience they had accumulated over the years had not diminished at all.
They were most experienced when it came to bullying the few with the many.
However—
"Clang!"
Several sounds like blades striking steel suddenly rang out.
So it worked.
A curve rose at the corner of Chen Qiu's mouth. His left hand clenched Huang Shikai by the collar while his right gripped the hilt of his blade, and he charged into the crowd, slaughtering wildly!
He did not understand any blade techniques.
But he knew that a blade striking a neck would kill someone.
Huang Shikai's Trait was the Yellow Trait, No Attacks from Behind or the Sides. Attacks from behind or from either side of his body would be completely nullified. While he was alive, this Trait had not been especially useful, and its drawbacks were rather severe.
But after he died and became a Wraith, this Trait became exceptionally useful, like a shield possessing absolute defense.
Especially since a Wraith was a soul-type existence and had almost no weight. Holding it in his hand did not impede his movements at all.
In practically the time it took to brew a cup of tea, those six or seven Huang Family thugs at the Fifth and Sixth Levels of the Qi Refining Realm were lying in pools of blood without the slightest ability to fight back.
The gap between the Sixth Level and the Seventh Level of the Qi Refining Realm was not as vast as heaven and earth.
But it was not small either.
His realm already crushed theirs, not to mention that he had a huge shield with absolute defense. Killing them came without the slightest pressure.
Before Fat Dragon could even react, Chen Qiu was already carrying Huang Shikai in his left hand and swinging his long blade in his right as he charged toward the Huang Family's Seventh Elder at the very back.
"Come!"
Chen Qiu was somewhat blood-eyed by now. The savage aura he carried made the surrounding bystanders instinctively take several steps back.
Several breaths later.
Fat Dragon stared blankly at Chen Qiu's back. Before he even had time to draw his blade and join the battle, he saw Chen Qiu already beginning to dismantle the Huang Family's Seventh Elder's corpse.
Arms, thighs, head.
He dismembered him as effortlessly as a butcher carving an ox, then expertly rummaged through Elder Huang's robe. After a while, he pulled out three storage bags and stuffed them into his chest with satisfaction. Then he ran over to the other thugs and searched their clothes for quite some time before turning back to Fat Dragon.
"Did you come here to watch the show?"
"Want me to sing you another tune?"
"Was it really that simple and brutal?"
"What else?"
Chen Qiu nodded, rolling his eyes at Fat Dragon in irritation. He patted his newly bulging money pouch in satisfaction, casually took out a few taels of silver, and tossed them into the hands of the commander of the guards at Heaven-Question Market's gate. "Sorry to trouble you brothers with cleaning up this mess later."
"Just a little tea money."
.
Before you continue