A cry of anguish rang out. It was Uncle Li's voice.
Lu Guan frowned and set down the flatbread in his hand.
The stove outside the Stewed Beef Pot Shop had been overturned, and the earthenware pots had fallen to the ground and shattered.
Beef broth flowed across the ground, its rich, meaty aroma rising with the steam. The place was a complete mess.
Uncle Li lay at the shop entrance, blood at the corner of his mouth and one eye swollen. His face was filled with grief and fury.
Three burly men stood outside the shop.
Their leader was bald. Despite the bitter cold, his arms were bare, exposing dragon tattoos. The other two were tall and heavily built as well, their fierce brows and glaring eyes making it clear they were no good.
"Li, a wise man knows which way the wind blows." The bald man sneered. "Nobody on this street dares refuse to pay protection money. You keep making excuses. Do you take me, Guang Long, for a beggar?"
A crowd had gathered around them, but not one person dared speak.
"You think I'd come here every day just to collect your small change? If your stewed beef weren't so damn good, I'd have crippled you long ago." Guang Long pointed at Uncle Li on the ground. "Enough bullshit. If you can't cough up the money today, you can forget about keeping this shop open."
Uncle Li lay on the ground, his voice trembling. "Brother Guang Long, it's really not that I won't pay. My wife is terribly sick. Every little bit I earn working from dawn till dark goes toward her treatment.
"You can't destroy my livelihood! If you do, my wife won't survive, and I won't live either."
Guang Long laughed. "Oh, sure! Threatening me with your life, are you?"
He stepped forward onto the broken earthenware pots.
"You think I give a damn about your worthless life? Without you, someone else will open up here and pay me protection money just the same. If you can't pay, get lost. Stop taking up space."
As he spoke, he stepped forward and kicked the remaining half of the stove at the entrance clean over.
Uncle Li cried out in anguish. "Guang Long, I'll fight you to the death!"
He struggled to his feet, lowered his head, and charged at Guang Long.
Guang Long grinned viciously, raised his leg, and sent him tumbling with a kick.
"Fight me to the death? You're not even qualified to try." Guang Long patted his chest. "Don't forget, I'm a Soul Master."
The moment he finished speaking,
a hand settled on Guang Long's shoulder.
Guang Long froze for a moment, then turned his head.
Lu Guan stood behind him, a full head shorter, yet there wasn't a trace of fear on his young face.
"You're disturbing me," Lu Guan said evenly.
Guang Long looked Lu Guan up and down and scoffed. "Where'd this little brat come from? You haven't even grown your hair yet, and you dare stick your nose in my business? Get lost!"
He jerked his shoulder, trying to shake off Lu Guan's hand.
It didn't budge.
That hand clamped down on his shoulder like an iron vise.
Guang Long's expression changed, and the soul power within him erupted.
Two yellow hundred-year soul rings rose from beneath his feet.
A Soul Grandmaster!
"You're asking for death!" Guang Long roared, driving his right fist straight at Lu Guan's face with a rush of wind.
Lu Guan didn't even dodge.
Dark red Battle Mist exploded from his body without warning, instantly enveloping everything within five meters.
The next second,
a thick arm reached out of the mist and seized Guang Long's wrist.
It wasn't Lu Guan's own hand, but a dark red demon body arm formed by his martial soul.
Crack-
The sound of breaking bone rang out.
Guang Long screamed like a pig being slaughtered. His entire right arm had been snapped by brute force and hung limply at his side.
The other two burly men roared and lunged at him.
Lu Guan didn't even look their way.
Two more arms extended from the demon body, one to either side, and clamped precisely around their throats, lifting them like chicks.
They slammed together brutally.
Their heads collided with a heavy impact. Their eyes rolled back as they lost consciousness, and they were tossed onto the ground like torn sacks.
Clutching his broken arm, Guang Long stumbled backward, his face filled with terror.
"You... who are you?! My big brother is Guang Biao from the Mecha Brigade! If you dare touch me..."
Lu Guan stepped forward and kicked Guang Long in the knee.
Crack!
Guang Long's legs buckled, and he crashed to his knees hard enough to crack the blue stone paving beneath him.
Lu Guan reached out, grabbed Guang Long by the collar, and lifted him bodily into the air.
"I don't care who your brother is."
Lu Guan raised his right fist and smashed it into Guang Long's face.
His nose shattered.
Another punch.
Teeth flew out amid a spray of blood.
A third punch.
Guang Long passed out completely, his face swollen like a pig's head, breathing out far more than he breathed in.
Lu Guan casually tossed Guang Long onto the ground and dusted off his hands.
Not a sound came from the crowd.
Every onlooker was dumbstruck.
A child barely over nine had crippled the tyrannical Soul Grandmaster Guang Long with just a few punches and kicks!
Lu Guan turned, walked over to Uncle Li, and helped him up.
"Uncle Li, it's all right now."
Uncle Li trembled all over. Looking at Guang Long on the ground, unsure whether he was alive or dead, he began to cry.
"Child, hurry and leave! You've brought terrible trouble on yourself!" Uncle Li pushed at Lu Guan's hand. "Guang Long's older brother, Guang Biao, is the captain of Eastsea City's Mecha Brigade. His men are all Soul Masters with mechas. You beat his little brother. He'll never let you off!"
Lu Guan smiled, pulled over an undamaged chair, and sat down without a care.
He picked up the half-eaten flatbread from the table, tore off a piece, and tossed it into his mouth.
"I'm not leaving," Lu Guan said as he chewed. "I'll wait for him here."
Na'er and Gu Yue came over and stood on either side of Lu Guan.
Gu Yue looked at Guang Long on the ground and frowned slightly. "Wouldn't killing him outright save us the trouble?"
Na'er nodded along. "Exactly. A bad person like him will only cause more harm if we keep him alive."
Lu Guan swallowed his food, took a tissue, and wiped his hands.
"Killing someone is easy, but it brings plenty of trouble afterward."
"We're under Federation rule now. We're good, law-abiding youngsters."
With that, Lu Guan stepped on Guang Long's broken hand and ground it hard beneath his foot.
"Are you going to call the police?" Gu Yue asked, puzzled.
Lu Guan shook his head. "Not yet."
Of course he would call the police. The forces backing all three of them were extremely powerful, and that was precisely why they couldn't act rashly.
When someone from a major power killed in the city in full public view, public opinion could become a vast ocean.
If someone steered it afterward, white might well be painted black.
Lu Guan had little faith in the people of the Douluo Continent's ability to tell right from wrong.
Otherwise, how could they still fail to see the true nature of Shrek's Hengshui model after so many tens of thousands of years?
But as things stood, even if he called the police, Guang Long's crimes would only amount to extortion in the eyes of the law. That wasn't much.
He needed to raise the stakes.
And so Lu Guan kept Guang Long underfoot like a dead dog and waited quietly.
Until a piercing roar came from the end of the street.
A purple mecha descended from the sky.
A giant of a man, over two meters tall and covered in knotted muscles, jumped down.
He spotted Guang Long lying in a pool of blood at once, and his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
"Which blind bastard dared lay a hand on my little brother?!"
Before you continue