Thanks to Zhuang Sheng Xiao Meng Mi Hu Die A for the generous 50,000 contribution, and to all the readers who have been quietly supporting and tipping Xiao Mo all this time.
As the group was talking, a wave of draconic pressure suddenly billowed across from the other side of the island. It was clear that Zhu Lie had been right — Fu Chi really was coming.
Sensing that familiar aura, Madam Hua grew even more brazen, her expression twisting with vicious resentment.
"Scram!" Zhu Lie suddenly barked, raising his hand and striking down at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai saw it coming and tapped his foot against the ground, drifting gracefully to the side.
Without a sound, Madam Hua — who had been quietly plotting in her mind how to torture Yang Kai and the mother-daughter pair of Lü Sanniang — suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood. Every bone in her body shattered. Tearing agony erupted from every part of her body as her life force rapidly drained away. With tremendous effort she twisted her head around, staring at Zhu Lie with an expression of utter disbelief. "My lord, you—"
Her neck went limp. In an instant, she was dead, eyes bulging wide open.
Until the very end, she could not fathom why Zhu Lie had suddenly turned on her and struck with lethal force.
Lü Sanniang clearly didn't understand either. Seeing Zhu Lie raise his hand and casually kill Madam Hua, she rubbed her eyes vigorously, convinced she must have misseen.
An accident? Surely not. An Eighth-Order Dragon Clan member — how could he possibly make a mistake like that?
While she was still reeling in confusion, Zhu Lie struck again, sending out a palm blow to each side.
Two muffled groans rang out. The two women who had come with Madam Hua now bled from all seven orifices and collapsed on the spot, dead.
Lü Sanniang's face drained of all color.
This was no accident. This Dragon Clan member had deliberately killed all three of Fu Chi's women. What was going on? By all rights, shouldn't he have killed Yang Kai instead? Yet not only had he refrained from attacking Yang Kai, he had killed Madam Hua and the other two?
Lü Sanniang felt her mind struggling to keep up. What she was witnessing defied all understanding.
Zhu Lie turned his head and fixed his gaze on Lü Sanniang and her daughter. The killing intent in his eyes could not have been more obvious. His palm rose, as though he was about to strike again.
Lü Sanniang's heart lurched, and her face went white.
A figure flashed before her — Yang Kai had stepped in front of her, speaking softly: "You can't kill these two!"
Zhu Lie said: "Better to be safe!"
Yang Kai shook his head.
Zhu Lie huffed in irritation: "Suit yourself. If word gets out, that's your problem." With that, he turned his head to look over at Yuan Wu.
Yuan Wu had been lying there unconscious ever since Yang Kai had struck him earlier. At last, his body began to tremble.
He was, after all, a Second-Order Emperor Realm cultivator and a Dragon Descendant at that. Yang Kai's strike hadn't been particularly powerful — there was no way it could have knocked him out. He had simply been pretending to be unconscious. Everything that had happened since was crystal clear to him, and the string of bizarre turnabouts left his heart hammering with dread.
Zhu Lie's decision to kill Madam Hua and the other two was especially terrifying.
He vaguely sensed that Zhu Lie seemed to be helping Yang Kai. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to silence witnesses before Fu Chi arrived.
If silencing witnesses was the goal, then he himself was surely marked for death as well.
The moment he saw Zhu Lie glance his way, Yuan Wu knew things were about to go badly. He weighed his options between begging for mercy and fleeing, and chose to run. He bolted straight toward the direction Fu Chi was approaching from, shouting at the top of his lungs: "My lord, save me!"
He didn't know exactly why Zhu Lie was killing to silence everyone, but he knew that Zhu Lie would not spare him. Begging would be useless — the only slim chance of survival lay with Fu Chi. It wasn't much, but it was better than no hope at all.
Zhu Lie watched his fleeing figure with cold eyes, then raised his hand. A dragon of fire surged forward, fangs bared and claws extended, its presence overwhelming.
Blazing flames filled the sky. Yuan Wu's face went pale with terror. He glanced back and nearly lost his soul on the spot, screaming: "Spare me!"
The fire dragon had already wrapped around him. This was pure Dragon Flame — with Yuan Wu's strength, there was no way to counter it. He let out a wretched shriek as flames wreathed his body. He plummeted to the ground below, crashing down hard and rolling wildly in agony.
In the span of five breaths, Yuan Wu stopped moving. His flesh and blood had been completely incinerated, leaving behind only a charred, blackened mass.
Fu Chi finally arrived.
He appeared to be a man in his early thirties, powerfully built, his expression carrying a natural authority that brooked no defiance. Arcs of lightning crackled and snapped around his body.
His eyes swept over Zhu Lie, and his gaze darkened — he clearly held no goodwill toward him. It seemed the two of them had some other grudge between them.
He glanced at Yang Kai as well, but his gaze didn't linger. A mere human was not worth his attention.
It was Lü Sanniang's presence that made him furrow his brow.
He certainly hadn't forgotten her. Back then, he had been the one to drag Lü Sanniang from the Northern Territory to Dragon Island, and he had personally been the one to expel her. Over a dozen years — he still remembered.
Lü Sanniang didn't dare look at him. She simply shielded Lü Yuqin behind her, her delicate frame trembling, face pale as paper.
Fortunately, Fu Chi didn't pay her much mind either. His gaze lingered for only a moment before sweeping past.
The next instant, Fu Chi's expression contorted with rage, and he growled through clenched teeth: "Zhu Lie, what have you done!"
He had seen the corpse of his most favored woman lying sprawled on the beach — her beautiful eyes frozen wide open, dying with eyes unshut, her mouth crusted with blood. Faint traces of draconic energy still lingered around the body, making it obvious she had been killed by a Dragon Clan member.
And right here and now, there was only one Dragon Clan member present. No questions were needed — Fu Chi knew it was Zhu Lie who had struck the killing blow.
A furious rage erupted within him.
This was his territory. That woman had been his exclusive possession. To die without cause at Zhu Lie's hand — Fu Chi could not and would not tolerate it.
Fu Chi's fury was incandescent.