Elders' Guard X Petty Cunning X A Cornered Rat

Jiang Ye stood on the rubble, his shadow lying quietly at his feet like a boundless black carpet.

His expression was so impassive that no one could tell what he was thinking.

Seeing him like that, Shu Mu suddenly felt another layer of cold sweat seep out on his back.

He had seen too many people turn pale at the mention of the Dawn Society and the Elders' Guard.

The mere name of Nubia was enough to make the legs of big shots who had spent over a decade in Meteor City go weak.

But the twelve-year-old child before him showed no reaction at all.

After hearing him out, Jiang Ye simply stood there without so much as moving an eyebrow.

That reaction brought an image to Shu Mu's mind.

A man stood by the sea. Someone told him a tsunami was approaching in the distance, but he merely glanced up before continuing to walk across the sand beneath his feet.

He felt no fear or respect for the tsunami!

"I did warn you."

Shu Mu kept his voice low, speaking as though he had Jiang Ye's best interests at heart.

"The president of the Dawn Society used to be in the Elders' Guard. He's not someone people like you and me can deal with."

"You'd better leave here quickly, or the whole Rust Bone Gang will be buried with you."

After saying that, he waited to see Jiang Ye's reaction.

Surely he would at least frown?

Or fall silent for a few seconds and weigh the pros and cons?

But Jiang Ye merely tilted his head, as though he had heard something inconsequential.

"The Elders' Guard?"

His tone carried an almost casual arrogance.

"So what?"

At those words, Shu Mu's mouth twitched.

The words "so what" landed lightly, like a feather striking an iron mountain.

He opened his mouth to speak, but all the words he had prepared suddenly caught in his throat.

He suddenly realized that this child's understanding of the Elders' Guard was on a completely different level from his own.

But Shu Mu was wrong. Jiang Ye knew perfectly well what the Elders' Guard was.

In Meteor City's power structure, the Elders' Guard was an armed force under the direct command of the Council of Elders. Anyone who could join its ranks was, at the very least, an experienced Nen user.

But as Jiang Ye saw it, it was just one level in Meteor City's overall power structure.

The elders, the guard, the Ten Dons, the Shadow Beasts.

By the fundamental logic governing life at the bottom of Meteor City, these things were an enormous mountain bearing down on everyone. But to Jiang Ye, they were merely a few thresholds he would have to cross sooner or later.

Seeing his expression, Shu Mu finally gave up trying to persuade him.

He dropped his concerned façade and put on another expression.

The smile on his face was fawning and ingratiating, the curves of his brows and eyes as slick as if they had been coated in oil.

"I've told you everything I should."

His voice became thin and soft.

"Boss, could you... let me go?"

Jiang Ye looked down at him and fell into thoughtful silence for a few seconds.

"Did I say I was going to let you leave?"

In an instant, the smile froze on Shu Mu's face.

He carefully recalled their entire conversation, from the moment Divine Dog: Totality had dragged him back, to his begging for mercy, to his disclosure of what he knew about Grey Elder and the Dawn Society.

From beginning to end, Jiang Ye really had never said anything about letting him go if he talked.

He had simply assumed he could live if he told Jiang Ye everything, but Jiang Ye had never made him a promise.

Something flashed deep in Shu Mu's eyes, there and gone in an instant.

Anger he dared not show!

But the moment that glimmer appeared, he suppressed it so quickly that it was as if it had never existed.

"I won't be a threat to you anymore."

His voice was so low that it betrayed almost no trace of emotion.

"I'll hand the entire Gray Rat Squad over to you."

"As long as you let me live, I'll do anything you want."

"Even if it means submitting to you forever and becoming your dog!"

He smiled as he said it.

The curve of his lips was just right, neither too humble nor lacking in sincerity.

But beneath his lowered eyelids, something was slowly gathering in his narrow eyes.

Stay alive.

As long as I'm alive, I'll have a chance to start over.

As long as I'm alive, I can wait for the day this child lets his guard down.

When that happens, I'll make him pay for Tie Liao's death, my humiliation, and every drop of blood shed today!

Jiang Ye looked at him and spoke.

"I know you're smarter than Tie Liao."

"You know how to assess a situation and make the most appropriate choice."

"But you're not truly wise. You're just petty and cunning."

His voice was calm, as though he were stating a conclusion he had already reached.

"Petty cunning might help you for a while, but it won't help you for a lifetime."

He bent down slightly, bringing his eyes level with Shu Mu's.

"In your next life..."

He paused.

"Remember to hide the killing intent in your eyes better."

At those words, Shu Mu's pupils abruptly contracted.

In that instant, the smile vanished from his face.

His fawning, ingratiating, humble demeanor was torn away as if by an invisible hand, revealing the cold and vicious face beneath.

He knew he had been exposed, and he also knew Jiang Ye had never intended to spare him.

He yanked open his collar and pulled out a flat iron liquor flask from against his body.

The flask was hot from his body heat, and its surface was covered in fine scratches, as though it had been with him for many years.

"I wonder if you've ever heard a saying."

Shu Mu unscrewed the cap, tipped his head back, and took a swig.

Dark yellow liquid trickled from the corner of his mouth and mingled with the blood on his shoulder, gleaming murkily in the dim daylight.

"A cornered rat takes a drink..."

He smashed the flask against the ground. The sound of porcelain shattering rang out sharply across the rubble.

"And turns into a local snake in a blink!"

The instant the last word left his mouth, all ten of his fingers curled against the ground at once.

The ten Nen threads he had laid out long ago snapped taut and tightened between the pieces of rubble, like invisible strings plucked all at once.

The thin threads pulled at things buried in the surrounding piles of scrap metal and gaps in the debris.

The next moment, more than a dozen crude explosives were yanked from cover at once and hurtled toward Jiang Ye from every direction.

At last, a genuine smile appeared on Shu Mu's lips.

There was no humility or ingratiation in that smile, only the madness of a dying man who had staked everything.

"These were originally meant for Tie Liao!"

His voice twisted with the last of his madness.

"He's dead... so they're for you!!"

Iron Wall and Shattered Eye reacted at the same time.

Shattered Eye threw himself to the side, while Iron Wall stepped forward, trying to use his shield to block the nearest explosion.

But the dozen or so explosives landed too close together, covering the entire central area of the rubble.

Boom...!

Flames engulfed the spot where Jiang Ye stood.

The blast wave spread along the ground, sweeping gravel, dust, and shards of iron into the air before they fell again.

The shock wave sent Iron Wall flying backward. His back struck a ruined wall, and he let out a muffled groan.

Shattered Eye tumbled into a pile of rubble two meters away, the lingering light of the explosion washing his pale eyes white.

Shu Mu lay at the edge of the blast, one side of his body cut by flying stones, but that smile still lingered on his lips.

He had succeeded!