The Shrewd Ma Hongjun!

Dai Mubai looked at Ma Hongjun lying on the ground like a dead dog, and a surge of satisfaction rose in his heart.

This idiot who thought with nothing but his lower half had brought it entirely upon himself.

"I've changed my mind."

Tang Tianlin looked at them and chuckled. "You can escape death, but not punishment."

"If each of you can take one punch from me, I'll let you go."

At those words, Dai Mubai's face instantly turned deathly pale.

What difference was there between taking a Titled Douluo's punch head-on and seeking death?

Sprawled on the ground, Ma Hongjun shuddered, his face ashen.

It's over, it's over. Everything's over.

My Cuihua, my brothels, my life-it's all over.

"However..."

Tang Tianlin abruptly changed tack. "How hard I punch depends on how well you know what's good for you."

Both were shrewd enough to grasp his meaning instantly.

Just as Tang Tianlin had said, they could escape death, but not punishment.

If they wanted to survive unscathed, they had to pay the corresponding price.

Dai Mubai barely hesitated.

He reached into his robes and pulled out a bulging brocade pouch, then untied the money pouch hanging at his waist and offered both with two hands.

"Senior, these are all my savings. I hope you won't find them lacking."

Though he was a prince of the Star Luo Empire, he had run away, and the little money he had carried had long since been spent during his flight.

This money was everything he had managed to save over more than half a year.

He had planned to wait until Zhu Zhuqing was in a good mood someday, then take her sightseeing in Heaven Dou City and perhaps get a room along the way.

Now it was all gone, but his life mattered more.

Dai Mubai glanced sidelong at Ma Hongjun sprawled on the ground, a trace of disdain curling his lips.

This fatty spent all his time burrowing into brothels, spending at least several dozen Gold Soul Coins a night. He probably couldn't scrape together even five hundred Gold Soul Coins.

Just then, Ma Hongjun struggled up from the ground, reached into his robes, then drew an oilcloth bundle from a hidden pocket inside his waistband.

When he shook it open, Gold Soul Coins gleamed dazzlingly in the sunlight.

Without even counting them, he held the bundle straight out to Tang Tianlin.

"Senior, this is three thousand Gold Soul Coins. It's all I have on me."

Ma Hongjun's voice still trembled, but his tiny eyes, squeezed into slits by his flesh, now held a rare gleam of shrewdness.

Dai Mubai's expression changed.

Three thousand?

Where did this damned fatty get so much money?

So he'd been playing poor at the brothels while secretly sitting fatter than anyone?

Tang Tianlin raised an eyebrow, took the bundle, and hefted it.

He hadn't expected the stingiest fellow in the original story to have secretly saved so much money either.

"Fine. You know what's good for you."

Tang Tianlin put the Gold Soul Coins into his Storage Soul Tool and turned to Dai Mubai.

Feeling his gaze, Dai Mubai swallowed, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

That damned Ma Hongjun had actually stabbed me in the back at the crucial moment.

The problem was, he truly had no more money to offer.

"I told you, how hard I punch depends on how well you know what's good for you. What you gave me is only enough to make me take thirty percent off."

Tang Tianlin reminded him, "And just a reminder: that punch I threw earlier used only fifty percent of my strength."

Dai Mubai's vision went black.

Fuck, fifty percent was enough to knock Zhao Wuji unconscious with one punch. Wouldn't seventy percent smash me to pieces on the spot?

Beside him, Ma Hongjun had also gone pale.

By that ratio, the three thousand Gold Soul Coins he had given could only take sixty percent off.

Even the remaining forty percent would be enough to pound him into pulp with one punch.

At that moment, Dai Mubai gritted his teeth and tore a gold chain from his neck.

It was the only ornament he had kept when he fled the Star Luo Empire. Set with a thumb-sized red crystal, it had been placed around his neck by his mother, the empress, herself all those years ago, and was a symbol of royalty.

"Senior... this chain is worth at least two thousand Gold Soul Coins."

Tang Tianlin glanced at the red crystal, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes.

He could faintly sense an extremely high-quality power within that red crystal.

Could it be...

Tang Tianlin suddenly recalled that, in the comic version, a million-year soul beast named the Evil Eye Saint King had fused a wisp of his remnant soul into the Dai Family ancestor's White Tiger Martial Soul while grievously wounded and near death.

He had wanted to pass down through the Martial Soul from generation to generation, seeking a descendant talented enough to serve as a vessel, intending to be reborn in a borrowed body.

In the comic, Dai Mubai was the most talented of all the generations of that bloodline, as well as the final successor chosen by the Saint King.

Could the Evil Eye Saint King's remnant soul have instead taken up residence in this red crystal by Dai Mubai's generation?

Forget it. Rather than thinking so much, I might as well take it and study it.

With that thought, Tang Tianlin reached out and accepted the necklace, smiling faintly. "Not bad. This can take another forty percent off."

"With timely treatment, you'll at least have a breath left."

Dai Mubai's expression shifted slightly at those words, but he accepted reality all the same.

Having a breath left was better than being punched straight to death.

Beside him, Ma Hongjun frantically calculated in his mind and finally reached a conclusion.

If I don't offer something more, I'm still going to die!

But he had already handed over even his marriage savings. Where was he supposed to get that much money now?

"Don't worry. I'm not unreasonable. If you don't have enough money, you can borrow it," Tang Tianlin said with a chuckle.

At those words, a sharp gleam flashed through Ma Hongjun's tiny eyes.

Right, I can borrow it!

Ma Hongjun's eyes darted about, his gaze sweeping over the onlookers behind him.

He knew Oscar well. That fellow spent all day pushing his little cart around selling grilled sausages, and not only did he fail to make money, he ended up losing quite a bit.

As for Zhu Zhuqing, though her figure was outrageously good, she radiated a chill that kept people a thousand miles away. One look told him she wouldn't be easy to talk to.

After turning it over in his mind, Ma Hongjun finally fixed his gaze on Ning Rongrong.

She was the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, decked out in gold and silver all day. She was bound to have money on her.

But the problem was, why should she lend it to him?

He had only known Ning Rongrong for a few days. Their relationship was nowhere near the point where he could ask to borrow money.

But with his life nearly gone, face wasn't worth a fart.

Ma Hongjun drew a deep breath, forced out a smile uglier than a crying face, and dragged his fat body over.

"M-Miss Ning."

Ning Rongrong naturally knew what Ma Hongjun was thinking. She said nothing, merely watching him with a half-smile.

Ma Hongjun's scalp prickled, but he steeled himself and said, "Um... could you lend me some money? I promise I'll pay you back!"

"How much?"

Hearing her reply, Ma Hongjun felt a burst of delight and hurriedly gestured. "Six thousand Gold Soul Coins. Would that be all right?"

Six thousand, added to the three thousand he had already given, made nine thousand Gold Soul Coins in total. That should let him cling to his little life.

"Six thousand?"

Ning Rongrong said with a half-smile, "I certainly don't lack those six thousand, but first, why should I lend them to you?"

"W-we're classmates," Ma Hongjun said with an ingratiating smile.

"Classmates?"

A trace of disdain curled Ning Rongrong's lips. "Why didn't you remember we were classmates when you and Dai Mubai joined forces to ostracize me a while ago?"

In all her life, no one had ever cursed her to her face.

If she hadn't sneaked away from home, Dai Mubai would have been a dead man long ago after saying those things.

At those words, Ma Hongjun's smile froze on his face, and his fat body trembled uncontrollably.