Shibal, Brother

"Crack, crack!"

The sound of ice crystals rapidly forming rang out. The two security guards' voices vanished in an instant, and silence returned.

Bone-chilling cold seeped through the gap in the door, with wisps of white, frostlike vapor drifting faintly in the air.

The four people inside looked grave.

Wang Ai looked at the teacup on the square table. At some point, its contents had frozen solid.

What an intimidating entrance. Whoever this is, they aren't here on friendly terms.

The wooden door was shoved open with a bang!, and Feng Baobao's dopey figure came into view.

She was shivering uncontrollably, her arms wrapped around her chest and snot running from her nose.

"Zhang Chulan, what'd you come running here for..."

But all four people inside fell utterly silent. Inside and outside were two completely different worlds.

Beyond the redwood door, everything had become a world of ice and snow.

Ice and white snow blanketed the courtyard, as though the world itself had changed.

Wang Zhuo's black sleeveless top stood out sharply against the snow. He walked over with his hands in his pockets. "Shibal, brother!"

"What'd you come running here for? I've been looking everywhere for you."

Lü Gong, who had been so overbearing moments before, could not stop his hands from shaking at the sight.

Changing the world in an instant-what kind of heaven-defying power was this?!

Lu Ci was inwardly horrified and froze for a moment. He actually found himself unsure whether he could take the other man down in a single strike.

If he couldn't, and they attracted other people's attention, things would be bad.

Wang Ai was the most shaken of all. He knew the young man's background was extraordinary, as was his physical conditioning, but he had never expected his mastery of cold to be so earth-shattering as well.

Wang Zhuo walked inside. "Well, well. Two old men from the southern village, bullying my brother because he's young. What's this, then?"

"Looking for a fight? How many beatings can those old bones of yours take?"

He chuckled, his muscles gradually tensing as his upper body leaned forward.

This seemingly hunched posture was the classic stance of hollowing the chest and rounding the back, spreading the shoulder blades, loose outside and taut within.

Lightning clung to his left upper arm and fire to his right, while ice formed beneath his feet. He was clearly ready to get serious.

Now that's fucking loyalty!

Zhang Chulan was deeply moved.

In all his life, Liu Guanyi was one of the few brothers who had shown him such loyalty!

Wang Zhuo grinned. "Sure, my brother's got three big nothings-no money, no influence, no women-and he's a lifelong virgin, but that doesn't mean just anyone gets to kick him around!"

"Even beating a dog, you've got to consider its owner."

Zhang Chulan: ...

You mother***!

Rather than getting angry, Wang Ai smiled. "Hehe, young people these days really are hotheaded, coming in shouting about fighting and killing."

"Why would two old men like us give a youngster a hard time?"

At that, he turned his kindly old face toward Zhang Chulan. "Isn't that right, Zhang Chulan? We haven't done anything at all."

"Hahaha, that's right, that's right." Zhang Chulan immediately put on a smile.

"Put your powers away, Brother Liu. It's really nothing. These two elders took a liking to me and just invited me over for a chat."

"All... right..." Wang Zhuo reined in his abilities, and the frozen, snow-covered courtyard returned to its original state.

Zhang Chulan looked at Lü Gong, who had been too frightened to utter a word the whole time.

After all, this Liu Guanyi could swing Wang Bing around like nunchucks. If he really got angry, the two elders might be fine, but Lü Gong was guaranteed to be the first to suffer.

"Hehe, Brother Lü, that's why we should talk everything over, right? Whatever you want to ask, I'm happy to tell you."

In truth, Zhang Chulan sneered inwardly.

A bunch of old bastards who bully the weak and fear the strong. When I try reasoning with you, you talk with your fists. When I talk with my fists, you start trying to reason with me.

Scum!

Lü Gong nodded and, at his great-grandfather's signal, began using the Soul-Searching Technique.

Zhang Chulan spoke calmly. "My grandfather never passed the Qi-State Origin-Flow on to me. He never even mentioned a word of it. I never knew anything about it, from beginning to end."

"He never told me anything about the Outsider world either. He only taught me Yang Five Thunder and the Golden Light Mantra."

Lü Gong pondered for a moment, then looked at the two old men in the seats of honor. "Everything he said is true."

"..."

The two fell silent for a moment, at a loss for what to say. Lu Ci snorted and said nothing more.

The wrinkles on Wang Ai's face bunched together in a smile. "Haha, we were just curious, that's all. It's best that you don't know. If you don't know, no one can covet it from you."

"Go on back. You don't look comfortable staying here anyway."

"All that fuss over something this trivial." Wang Zhuo clicked his tongue.

Zhang Chulan hurriedly tugged him and Feng Baobao along. "All right, sirs, no need to see us out. We'll be going now."

Lu Ci was reluctant to let it go and wanted to ask a few more questions, but when he saw the freakishly strong, muscle-bound young man beside Zhang Chulan, he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

Since Zhang Chulan didn't know, there was nothing more to get out of him. There was no need to keep offending him beyond repair.

Offending Zhang Chulan was nothing, but if that young man of mysterious origins could make Wang Ai wary, he definitely had significant connections.

"Well now, Elder Lu, Elder Wang, what business did you two gentlemen have with our company's handsome young fellow?" Xu Si walked over with the air of a street thug.

Xu San followed beside him, smiling all the while.

"Hehe, what business could we have? We were just curious about this fine young man, Zhang Chulan, and wanted a look. Who isn't curious these days?" Lu Ci changed his expression. The smile he forced onto his half-scarred face looked uglier than crying.

Xu Si smiled along. "If there's nothing else, I'll take them away."

Lu Ci suddenly stood up. "Zhang Chulan... I won't have made a youngster like you come all this way for nothing."

"The Celestial Master Mansion's purpose in inviting you here this time may not be entirely pure. Do you know why your grandfather disappeared from the Celestial Master Mansion back then and took the alias Zhang Xilin?"

"He was charged with colluding with the fiends of Quanxing!"

?!!

Zhang Chulan's pupils trembled. "Elder! What exactly happened? Please, explain it to me!"

Before he could kneel, Wang Zhuo hauled him up and pulled him to his side.

"Oh, enough. It's nothing. So he colluded with Quanxing. It's not like he betrayed his country to the enemy. What's there to pursue?"

"Frankly, your face reflects your heart. These two old bastards don't look like good people. Maybe they're even more Quanxing than Quanxing. Who knows how many vile things they did back in the day?"

"Maybe they even bullied men and seized women, kidnapped people for ransom, and served as accomplices to evil."

Those remarks made Lu Ci's and Wang Ai's hearts lurch as memories of the past surfaced in their minds.

"Colluding is colluding, and doing evil is doing evil. They're different things, Zhang Chulan. They're unrelated."

"There's no need to get to the bottom of it. All you need to know is that those who kill will, in turn, be killed."

Wang Zhuo patted him on the back, showing neither of these two members of the Ten Elders the slightest courtesy.

"Right and wrong aren't that important. There are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who treat me well are good. Those who treat me badly are evil."

Everyone: ????

Seriously, what mountain did a vicious bastard like you come down from?!

Right... How could I have been so stupid?!

Zhang Chulan suddenly understood. Did these things really matter? What meaning did right and wrong have? Whoever killed his grandfather was evil!

Those who kill will, in turn, be killed!

Ignoring the two men's thunderous expressions entirely, Wang Zhuo pulled Zhang Chulan out of the courtyard.

"Good and evil receive their due. Fortune and calamity have no gate; people bring them upon themselves."