“According to you, that Zhou Donghuang, a youth of sixteen, is already a level-two adept?”
Li Pingyun gazed coldly at the middle-aged man.
“Even among the current generation of youths in the prefecture capital, the two fastest people to attain level-two of Qi-gathering did so only when they were eighteen years old. Now, you are telling me that there is a sixteen-year-old, level-two adept in Qingshan Town?”
Evidently, Li Pingyun did not believe the middle-aged man’s words.
“Young Master, I would not believe it if I had not seen it with my own eyes, that there could be a sixteen-year-old, level-two adept in a small town like Qingshan Town… but that Zhou Donghuang’s ability has already been demonstrated on me.”
Seeing Li Pingyun’s disbelief, the middle-aged man began to get anxious.
“I fought him straight up, and I was no match for him!”
“Enough.”
Li Pingyun looked over the middle-aged man impatiently and said to the two junior Li family members standing to the side, “Send him back to his home.”
The two junior Li family members were also the ones who had carried the middle-aged man in.
“At once, Second Young Master.”
The middle-aged man, with his limbs maimed, could only lie on the stretcher and be carried away. The two junior Li family members lifted the stretcher and walked out briskly.
“Second Young Master, if you still intend to buy Yunxuan Restaurant, you must send an elder who is a level-three adept to Qingshan Town. If not, he will not be a match for that Zhou Donghuang!” the middle-aged man continued to remind Li Pingyun loudly as he was being carried away.
After the middle-aged man had been carried away, Li Pingyun smiled scornfully.
This useless fellow really thinks I will believe what he says? A sixteen-year-old youth from a small town, a level-two adept? If there really is such a person, then for twenty years, haven’t I, Li Pingyun, been living like a dog?
Li Pingyun, the son of the patriarch of the Li family of the provincial capital, was the cream of the Li family’s current generation of youth. He was twenty years old and had attained level-two of Qi-gathering a year before.
However, to be able to maim Li Dong like this is proof that this Zhou Donghuang really is an adept with formidable abilities on his side… he’s at least stronger than Li Dong, but definitely not a level-three adept.
After all, if he was a level-three adept, the Lin family of the prefecture capital could not possibly punish his mother, Lin Lan that severely over a blood-staunching elixir that was past its prime, out of respect for that level-three adept.
It has to be said that Li Pingyun considered matters carefully. And he had indeed guessed correctly.
Zhou Donghuang was not a level-three adept.
I’ll leave early tomorrow for Qingshan Town… I’ll find out whether that Zhou Donghuang dares to reject me, Li Pingyun, to my face.
A cold look flashed across Li Pingyun’s eyes, and he muttered softly to himself in an icy tone, “If he dares reject me, I’ll make him regret it for the rest of his life!”
…
Qingshan Town, Yunxuan Restaurant.
“Three Young Masters, isn’t it rather inappropriate for you to act this way?”
Chief Steward Fu walked out of the restaurant and looked at the three young men who were blocking the entrance, looking rather foul.
The three young men were all dressed in splendid clothes and had tender white skin, and one look was enough to tell that they were the pampered sons of wealthy families. Behind one of the youths was a middle-aged man. This middle-aged man was solidly built with a thick waist, broad back, and a sword sheathed at his waist. He gave off an aura of harshness as he stood there that kept people away.
Peng!!
Fu had just walked out and finished his sentence when a young man dressed in blue landed a kick on Fu’s chest, sending him flying. He crashed heavily into one of the pillars at the side of the restaurant’s entrance.
“Ahhh—”
Fu slid to the ground and spat blood, his face unhealthily pale. However, he gritted his teeth and stood up again.
“Three Young Masters, how is Yunxuan Restaurant supposed to do business if you behave like this?”
The three young men before him had come out of nowhere and immediately chased all the guests in Yunxuan Restaurant away. After that, they had blockaded the door of Yunxuan Restaurant, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
The two guards who were near the level-one of Qi-gathering had attempted to intervene, and the middle-aged man behind the three youths, felled each of them with a blow, driving the fight out of them.
“I hope you three young masters don’t make too big a scene… the owner of Yunxuan Restaurant does not have a very good temper,” Fu said seriously.
Fu was indeed not bluffing.
The new owner of Yunxuan Restaurant, Zhou Donghuang, had made a name for himself by killing the level-two adept of the Wang family, Wang Yukun. Then he had killed the original chief steward of Yunxuan Restaurant, Li Xian, and finally, he had maimed a level-two adept who claimed to have been sent by the Li family of the prefecture capital.
Putting it all together, it was not hard to see that the owner of Yunxuan Restaurant really did not have a very good temper.
“Your boss does not have a very good temper?”
A young man wearing green looked down at Fu with a condescending gaze and smiled.
“I heard, the owner of Yunxuan Restaurant, the one called Zhou Donghuang, is only sixteen years old, and he killed the level-two adept of a lesser family, the Wang family, Wang Yukun? And so, you people of Qingshan Town all believe he has the ability to kill a level-two adept?” the young man in green asked, his tone dripping with disdain. “Sixteen years old, and he killed a level-two adept? Whoever believes that is a fool! Especially those people who said they witnessed it! In my opinion, they probably accepted who knows how much money from the owner of your Yunxuan Restaurant.”
A condescending look flashed across the eyes of the last young man dressed in yellow.
“He thinks he can spend money and get people to spread this story everywhere and fool people to protect his Yunxuan Restaurant? It has to be said that he really is naive!”
“You have one chance… send someone to tell Zhou Donghuang to come out here!” said the young man who had just sent Fu flying through the air with a kick. He was smiling coldly.
“Who are they?”
“No idea. Looking at their bearings, they are obviously not ordinary people. Even those few young masters from the three lesser families of Qingshan Town are not as imposing as them.”
“They should be from outside.”
“They don’t believe that Young Master Donghuang of Yunxuan Restaurant killed Wang Yukun? And they even think that we took his money and are helping Young Master Donghuang exaggerate the story?”
…
Many onlookers had gathered outside the main entrance of Yunxuan Restaurant. And just when the young man in blue ordered someone from Yunxuan Restaurant to summon Zhou Donghuang out, there was a commotion at the back of the crowd.
Many people turned around and saw at once a handsome and delicate looking youth dressed in snow-white clothes, walking slowly towards Yunxuan Restaurant with a calm expression.
“Young Master Donghuang!”
“Young Master Donghuang!”
The crowd parted of its own accord and bowed respectfully to the youth.
“Boss.”
Fu dragged his badly injured body up, gritting his teeth as he walked out one step at a time to greet Zhou Donghuang.
Once he was before Zhou Donghuang, Fu said shamefully with his head lowered like a child caught in the wrong.
Boss, I’m really useless. I failed to look after Yunxuan Restaurant properly… Boss, get someone else to take my position. I, Fu, am not fit to be the chief steward of Yunxuan Restaurant.”
“Who injured you?”
Seeing Fu so badly injured, Zhou Donghuang remained expressionless. He spoke to Fu nonchalantly.
“Huh?”
Fu did not respond.
“I asked… who injured you?” Zhou Donghuang repeated.
Fu had not yet spoken when the young man dressed in blue who had attacked him cut in, looking at Zhou Donghuang as he spoke, “You are the owner of Yunxuan Restaurant, Zhou Donghuang, right? He was injured by me, and with a kick that sent him flying no less… what? You want to avenge him?”
As he spoke, the young man in blue smiled coldly, and he looked condescendingly and disdainfully at Zhou Donghuang.
“Which leg?” Zhou Donghuang asked as he merely glanced at the young man in blue before looking back at Fu.
This time, Fu reacted when he heard Zhou Donghuang, glancing discreetly at the right leg of the young man in blue.
And just when Fu’s gaze was fixed on the right leg of the young man in blue, Zhou Donghuang moved without warning.
Swoosh!!
A shake of his body and Zhou Donghuang had flashed past the gathered crowd like lightning, right up to the young man in blue.
“Stop!!”
The middle-aged man standing behind the young man in green reacted the fastest, and his expression changed as he drew the sword hanging at his waist from its scabbard.
Ka-chak!
Ka-chak! Ka-chak!
…
In the time it took for the middle-aged man to draw his sword, the clear sound of bones breaking was heard, followed closely by a piteous scream.
“Ahhhhhh—!”
The piteous scream was incredibly shrill, and it caused the scalp of each person in the crowd to tingle. It was difficult to imagine just how much pain it took to trigger such a scream.
Then, as the crowd recovered their wits, they saw that the young man in blue had already fallen to the ground, and Zhou Donghuang was stepping on the lower part of his right leg. Where Zhou Donghuang’s leg was, the lower leg of the young man in blue was almost flat on the ground, flattened like a meat patty!
Immediately after screaming, the young man in blue fainted from the pain.
“The bones in his lower leg are shattered to bits… even a superior-level medicine master would probably not be able to restore his leg, right?”
“Not just a superior-level medicine master, even the legendary earthly-level medicine master or heavenly-level medicine master would probably not be able to get him standing on that leg again.”
“This Young Master Donghuang of Yunxuan Restaurant… is too fearsome.”
“I feel that out of everyone who provokes him, not one remains unharmed. Nevertheless, he really does treat those around him well, and this time he is standing up for Chief Steward Fu of Yunxuan Restaurant, which is why he is so ruthless.”
Just looking at the lower leg of the young man in blue, which had been stomped into a meat patty, everyone in the gathered crowd involuntarily felt a shiver.
“Boss.”
Fu recovered from his shock, and the gaze he gave Zhou Donghuang was full of resolve.
Right then in Fu’s heart, his boss, Zhou Donghuang, assumed a place more important than his own life.
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