Swagger unleashed

"Heh heh heh..."

Lin Shisan laughed happily.

Yet bloody foam still dripped from the corners of his mouth.

After all, Chen Yang was at the fourth level of the Body Tempering Realm.

With fists raining down on him, even a Lin Shisan forged from iron could not have endured it.

Surviving was already a miracle.

"You idiot."

Tiny Waist's nose stung, and tears slid from the corners of her eyes. "They beat you to this state, and you can still laugh, you dark-skinned fool?"

"Heh heh heh..."

Lin Shisan wiped the blood from the corner of his eye, but his smile only grew brighter.

"In the Azure Cloud Mountains, only you treat me like a person, Senior Sister Mu. Seeing you makes me happy."

"Senior Sister Mu, didn't I shut you outside the door? Why did you come back?"

"These beasts devour people without even spitting out the bones. They won't spare you. You shouldn't have come back."

After smiling, Lin Shisan regained his reason.

All around him, eyes stared at him like those of wild beasts.

Especially Chen Yang, a bloody mess of mangled flesh, and that donkey-faced man whose head had nearly been blasted bald.

They wanted nothing more than to tear Lin Shisan apart piece by piece.

Naturally, they would not spare Tiny Waist, who had returned after leaving.

This time, they really would all die here. There was no chance of escaping.

"You fool. If you could risk your life to get me out, why couldn't I risk mine to come back and save you?"

Tears glistened in the corners of Tiny Waist's eyes.

She gently wiped Lin Shisan's blood-caked face.

"The only ones dying will be these beasts who devour people without spitting out the bones. I'll make them repay their blood debt in blood."

Tiny Waist helped the battered Lin Shisan up with her left hand, pointing her whip around them with her right.

"Every last one of you here today who hurt Lin Shisan-I'll repay you double someday."

"An insignificant little fish who doesn't know her limits. Someday? If you can't even get out of here today, how can you talk about repaying us double someday?"

"Senior Sister, watch out... Hiss, hiss..."

Faint whispers of wind carried a chilling murderous intent, and Lin Shisan instinctively raised his head.

His heart clenched, and he hurriedly twisted around.

He shielded Tiny Waist with his body, taking the incoming bone whip squarely.

Blood streamed down. That single lash had split Lin Shisan's skin and laid his flesh open.

"Hmph... Tough enough, aren't you?"

A middle-aged man with a high nose bridge slowly approached.

His refined face bore a pair of sinister eyes.

An overbearing presence rippled invisibly outward.

He was precisely the powerful figure backing Chen Yang: the Inspection Team's chief steward, and something of a mentor to Chen Yang.

"Godfather..."

Even Chen Yang's voice changed. At the sight of him, he dropped to his knees with a thud.

Snot and tears streamed down his face as though he had seen his own father, and he sobbed out his grievances with tears of blood.

"Greetings, my lord."

"We pay our respects, my lord."

The three Inspection Team members and the two stewards all came forward at once to bow and pay their respects.

Behind them, the Servant Disciples followed suit, kneeling together and respectfully kowtowing.

This was Tie Dan, chief steward of the Inspection Team. One more step upward, and he would become a deacon whom everyone revered like an immortal.

He was a bona fide member of the Law Enforcement Team, serving under the Outer Disciplinary Team.

"Surround them. Kill anyone who resists."

Old Zhao, Old Ma, the three Inspection Team members, and the bright-eyed Servant Disciples swarmed around them.

This was a golden opportunity that rarely came along.

Old Zhao and Old Ma, in particular, were itching to act.

The reason they had chosen to intervene earlier was to use Chen Yang to make the acquaintance of his godfather, Tie Dan.

With the opportunity right before their eyes, they naturally had to seize it with all their might.

"Why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken? Please watch from the sidelines, my lord. Just wait while the two of us capture this little fish for you."

Steward Old Zhao's fawning, bootlicking face was exposed in full.

None of his earlier lofty righteousness remained.

"Little fish, should I capture you myself, or will you crawl over here to meet his lordship?"

"You can be a dog with such a clear conscience. No wonder you're a big fish who's served as a steward. You certainly have a keen eye."

Lin Shisan's words dripped with mockery.

He had truly misjudged the man earlier.

At one point, he had even hoped the man might give him a fair hearing.

He had never expected that, once benefits appeared, this man would be the first to reveal his hypocritical face.

"You..."

Old Zhao's aging face burned, and his eyes bulged with fury.

In front of so many people, the little fish he had mocked had actually called him an old fish.

It had struck him where it hurt.

"Fine, fine, fine. I hope you can still be this arrogant and foul-mouthed in a moment."

Whoosh...

With a thought, a powerful surge of divine sense power enveloped them.

His right hand stretched out, fingers forming a claw.

Blood-colored light shone, and an illusory black bird beat its wings, driving its sharp iron beak toward the space between Lin Shisan's brows.

Iron Eagle Black Hand, Old Zhao's signature technique.

...Screee!

For a fleeting moment, there really seemed to be a black bird crying out.

"The fifth level of Body Tempering?"

Steward Old Ma and Chen Yang cried out in shock almost simultaneously.

That aura, that force, utterly overwhelmed them.

Old Zhao, who never showed his mountains or revealed his waters, had quietly advanced to the fifth level of Body Tempering.

He truly hid his depths.

At the fifth level of Body Tempering, he was unquestionably among the best of the stewards.

"...Mm."

Tie Dan nodded in satisfaction.

In fact, the moment he entered, he had already sensed the aura of the fifth level of Body Tempering from Old Zhao.

Now it was confirmed.

"Shisan..."

Old Zhao's divine sense power lifted Lin Shisan bodily into the air.

Meanwhile, Steward Old Ma blocked Tiny Waist.

He had already seen the delight in Tie Dan's eyes. If he did not act now, he would lose his chance to show his worth.

"One shameless old bastard and two shameless little bastards, striking to kill two juniors. I, Han, have never seen anyone so utterly brazen."

A heavily bearded middle-aged man approached amid those mocking insults.

A wine gourd hung at his waist.

He was Han Yansong, chief steward of the servants' District C.

After buying a dessert and returning home, he had discovered Tiny Waist was gone. Despite rushing as fast as he could, he had still arrived a step too late.

At the same time, Old Zhao and Old Ma were dumbstruck.

They stood frozen there, as though trapped in a swamp, unable to advance even an inch.

Old Zhao, in particular, turned ashen, sweat pouring off his entire body.

A red blade-shaped mark even appeared on his forehead, with blood seeping from it.

Crack...

A solid cracking sound rang out, and the black eagle Old Zhao took such pride in split apart before their eyes.

"Aaargh..."

Steward Old Zhao let out a heart-rending scream.

Then he rolled like a tumbling donkey, crashing into a pillar.

Blood gushed from him. At least three bones had broken, and bone fragments even protruded from his back.

The blade-shaped mark on his forehead grew increasingly distinct, like a tattoo.

Blood no longer seeped from it; it dripped.

He was a miserable sight.

"Drunkard, this is your dog. Isn't it a shame to cripple him just like that?"

The refined Tie Dan remained unmoved, with a sinister smile lurking undisguised in the depths of his eyes.

"A dog that doesn't recognize its master has only one fate: becoming a hotpot meal."

...Pop!

"...Aah!"

Han Yansong opened his right hand, and a speck of starlight flashed and burst.

Along with it, something exploded inside Steward Old Zhao, who lay curled up on the ground clutching his dantian.

His dantian had burst. Just like that, his cultivation was crippled, and his road to immortality was cut off forever.