"You're truly ruthless and vicious! I'd like to know just how the Treasure Pavilion has offended you!" The grand manager's eyes were dark and sinister. He was wary of Yang Kai's brutality but gritted his teeth and snarled under his breath.
This young man had charged in and killed four of their Dao Source Realm cultivators, then crippled the bald man's cultivation. His attacks had been decisive and cruel—there was absolutely no way today's matter could end peacefully. However, although Yang Kai was powerful, the grand manager wasn't overly afraid of him. After all, even a mighty dragon couldn't crush a local snake. On this patch of ground in Gao City, anyone had to show the Treasure Pavilion a little face.
"You haven't offended me," Yang Kai said, fixing the grand manager with a cold stare, the corner of his lips curling upward. "But you've offended my Junior Sister. Don't you dare claim you know nothing about this. Hand the things over, or your fate will be the same as his!" As he spoke, Yang Kai pointed a finger at the bald man.
The grand manager's expression changed. He had originally intended to stall for time, stringing Yang Kai along until reinforcements arrived. Once they showed up, whatever Yang Kai had done in the Treasure Pavilion would be repaid a hundredfold. But he hadn't expected Yang Kai to give him no opportunity at all—judging by his words, he wasn't even going to allow a moment's breathing room.
"Does this honorable guest even know what place the Treasure Pavilion is, and who stands behind it, that he dares shout and bluster in here like this?" The grand manager had lived for many years and possessed cultivation at the peak of the Dao Source Realm, so naturally he couldn't be intimidated by a few words from Yang Kai.
"It seems you've made your choice. Since that's the case, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Yang Kai snorted coldly. The other party's intentions were so obvious—how could he not see through them? But he had nothing to fear, and he couldn't be bothered to waste any more words. With that thought, Yang Kai's figure blurred, and he appeared directly in front of the old man. Drawing upon the Laws of Space, the area within a dozen zhang solidified in an instant, the space freezing in place.
The grand manager's soul nearly fled his body. Cold sweat beaded across his forehead. With his strength and perception, he hadn't even been able to track how Yang Kai had closed the distance. He realized then that he had truly kicked an iron plate. Feeling the space around him congeal, his face twisted in horror as he frantically channeled his Source Power to retreat backward while bellowing, "The Treasure Pavilion is the City Lord's property! If you dare run wild here, don't even think about leaving Gao City alive!"
By this point, he'd lost all patience for pretense and revealed his backer outright, hoping that Yang Kai might think twice. After all, within Gao City, the City Lord was the most powerful—a genuine Emperor Realm powerhouse, the only one of his caliber.
But to his surprise, Yang Kai remained completely unmoved. The old man searched the young man's eyes and found not the slightest flicker of emotion, as though he had already anticipated this.
This kid has gone mad! The old man's mind reeled with shock. To know that his backer was the City Lord and still act this brazenly—didn't that mean he simply didn't fear the City Lord? How laughable that he had tried to use the City Lord to pressure him, only for it to backfire entirely.
Bound by the surrounding space, even the formidable old man couldn't move freely. He felt every meridian in his body obstructed, his Source Power unable to flow properly. In desperation, he bit the tip of his tongue, spat out a mouthful of vital blood, and summoned a pair of large scissors that blazed with golden light. He slashed them toward Yang Kai.
The golden scissors were of no low grade—they radiated the energy fluctuations of an upper-grade Dao Source Realm Artifact. Moreover, they seemed to possess some mysterious power, for the moment they were unleashed, they sheared a crack through the solidified space.
The old man felt the pressure around him loosen, and the Source Power in his meridians finally began to flow smoothly again.
But before he could take any further action, a faint golden glow leisurely bloomed before his eyes.
He instinctively raised his head to look at Yang Kai and saw that the young man's left eye was radiating brilliant golden light. The pupil of that left eye had transformed into a solemn, vertical slit, and from it surged a soul-shaking power. Meeting that eye, the old man felt an inexplicable wave of panic wash through his heart.
In the next instant, a lotus bud on the verge of blooming shot forth from the vertical golden pupil, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
The old man froze in place, his entire body as though struck by lightning. Everything else vanished from his field of vision—as though heaven and earth had been reduced to a single lotus bud. Under his gaze, the pristine white lotus bud rapidly unfurled its petals.
And as the lotus bloomed, his Divine Sense dissipated at a terrifying speed. In his mind, an excruciating pain surged, like ten thousand ants devouring him from within.
No good—this is a Soul Secret Technique! The old man snapped back to awareness, desperately trying to resist, but he was utterly powerless. The young man's Divine Sense was vastly superior to his own, and this mysterious lotus technique devoured his spiritual power in the blink of an eye, leaving his entire body weak and his face twisted in terror.
A sharp, searing pain jolted him back to full consciousness. He looked down and saw that his arm had been severed clean off, blood spurting from the wound and splattering across the floor.
The young man wore a cold, stern expression as he calmly extended a palm and pressed it against the old man's chest.
Recalling what he had secretly witnessed happen to the bald man, combined with what Yang Kai had said earlier, how could he not understand what this gesture meant?
He truly intends to destroy my cultivation!
The old man's entire body trembled like a sieve. Summoning every ounce of strength he had left, he screamed, "Don't! Let's talk this over calmly—I'll agree to any request, anything at all!"
*Thud—*
Yang Kai's palm pressed down all the same. The old man's chest seemed to cave in by an inch. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward in a pathetic state, crashing heavily into the counter. That single palm strike had destroyed the old man's Dantian just as it had the bald man's—his meridians shattered, his cultivation completely annihilated.
"When I was willing to talk things over properly, you didn't know to appreciate it. Now there's no need for you to say anything." Yang Kai didn't even spare the old man a glance. He simply reached out, snatched the spatial ring from the severed arm, and tossed it to Liu Qianyun. "Check if your things are inside."