Yang Kai smiled faintly, regarding Chai Hu with a measure of sympathy. Rather than answering, he posed a question of his own: "Must feel pretty wretched, doesn't it? The person you risked your life to save turns around and strikes you in the back — not a pleasant feeling, I'd imagine?"
Chai Hu's face was ashen. He glared at Yang Kai with his single remaining eye, his gaze hard as iron.
Yang Kai continued, "She didn't do it of her own free will."
Chai Hu started, then gritted his teeth. "You mean… she was being controlled?" As he spoke, he shot a venomous look at the middle-aged man held in Yang Kai's grip, murderous intent surging across his face. "Could it be this bastard?"
Yang Kai laughed. "Now you're catching on."
Chai Hu's face twisted with self-reproach. "I should have seen it sooner — I should have realized it long ago! How could Fifth Sister ever strike me from behind? Damn it! I should have figured it out! How could I be so stupid? I, Chai Hu, am the biggest fool in all the world!"
He shouted aloud, guilt and remorse written all over his face.
"Brother Chai…" Tears streamed down Luo Bing's face — whether from shock or something else, it was hard to tell. She rushed forward and shoved aside the city lord's mansion guards who had been holding Chai Hu down, then spread her arms wide like a mother hen shielding her chick, planting herself in front of him. "Brother Chai, run! I'll hold them off!"
She didn't know why she had done it. Before yesterday's crisis, before she had met Chai Hu, she had been the pampered princess of the city lord's mansion — sheltered, doted on, carefree, living each day in blissful happiness. But in just one night, she felt as though she had grown up by leaps and bounds. After seeing the look of anguished self-blame on Chai Hu's face, something in her ached inexplicably, and her body had simply moved on its own. She hadn't stopped to think it through.
"Bing'er!" Luo Jin's face contorted with fury. Flames of rage burned in his eyes as he glared at his daughter. Never had he imagined that his once docile, obedient child would defy him over and over again in front of all these guests — and now she was even protecting the scoundrel who had ruined his concubine ceremony! A wave of dizziness washed over him, and the fire in his heart blazed higher.
"Father, please let Brother Chai go. I'm begging you — he saved my life! You can't hurt him!" Luo Bing collapsed to her knees, weeping like a rain-soaked blossom, pleading desperately.
A complex emotion flickered in Chai Hu's solitary eye as he stared, transfixed, at the fragile figure before him. His heart churned with a tangle of feelings he couldn't begin to sort out.
The surrounding guests were visibly moved as well, their eyes fixed on the weeping Luo Bing. A quiet respect stirred in their hearts.
"Miss Bing, well said!" Yang Kai burst out laughing from the side, giving Luo Bing a thumbs up. His estimation of the girl rose a few notches, and he declared in a booming voice, "Rest easy — your Brother Chai won't suffer so much as a scratch today. I stake my life on it!"
Luo Bing's eyes lit up. She turned to look at Yang Kai. "Truly? You promise?"
Yang Kai's expression turned solemn. "I promise!"
Luo Bing wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and smiled through them. "Thank you. Thank you! Please take him away quickly — Brother Chai's cultivation has been sealed. He can't escape on his own. Someone as powerful as you must be able to get him out."
Yang Kai shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid I can't do that just yet. I still have unfinished business here. Once it's settled, I'll take him away." After a brief pause, he added with a smile, "Of course, if Miss Bing wishes to leave with us, you're welcome to come along."
"Me?" Luo Bing froze, then glanced over her shoulder at her father. She looked back at Chai Hu standing behind her, and a sorrowful smile crossed her face. "I'd better not. I need to stay by Father's side."
Luo Jin shut his eyes, his voice heavy with pain. "Bing'er — if you do not return to your room this instant, if you dare speak another word of this nonsense, then you are no longer my daughter!"
He had finally had enough. He felt he had been far too indulgent with Luo Bing, and that spoiling had led her to do something like this — humiliating him in front of everyone. The pain in his heart far outweighed the anger he felt over Yang Kai and Chai Hu disrupting the ceremony.
Luo Bing's delicate frame trembled. Tears blurred her eyes as she gazed at her father with a pitiful, pleading look, tears falling like pearls from a broken string. Luo Jin had never been this harsh with her before, never said anything so heartless. She simply couldn't process it and stood rooted to the spot, stunned.
"As for the two of you…" Though Luo Jin was furious at his daughter's defiance, he couldn't bear to look at her in such a state. He turned all his wrath upon Yang Kai, fixing him with a vicious glare. "No one leaves today! Activate the formation!"
The moment his words fell, the city lord's mansion let out a deep hum. A surge of formidable energy billowed upward, and suddenly a dense, luminous barrier enveloped the entire compound — some sort of grand sealing array had been activated, locking down every exit.
"Perfect — that's just what I wanted!" Yang Kai laughed heartily. "Now, until this is sorted out, nobody's getting away."
"Has that kid gone mad? He's truly lost his mind!"
"He dares offend the city lord's mansion single-handedly. I can't fathom where he gets the nerve — youth really is wasted on the young. Looks like he'll meet his end right here."
"What do we care? Just watch the show."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. After the string of disturbances, the guests had retreated to a considerable distance, clearing out a large open space in the center. Only Yang Kai and the middle-aged man he had subdued remained in the middle.
"Out with it. How exactly did you control the bride? I'm not a patient man — if you can't give me a satisfactory answer, I'll just kill you." Yang Kai's palm pulsed with Source Power, his expression utterly indifferent as he regarded the middle-aged man.
The man was only at the first-order Dao Source Realm — an entire level below Yang Kai. His face drained of color at those words, and sweat poured down his forehead. His voice trembled. "Young friend, you… you must have misunderstood—"
Before he could finish, Yang Kai raised his hand and swept it lightly across the man's arm.
Pfft…
A soft sound. The man watched in horror as his own arm flew free of his body and burst apart mid-air in a mist of blood. Then, from the severed stump, crimson blood sprayed upward like a fountain.