Chapter 499: You Think You're Qualified to Sneak-Attack Me? (7/10, Autumn Subscription)

Seeing Fang Yue in a foul mood that morning, Qingchen didn't dare say a word.

He just muttered to himself: if they kept tailing the big shot this round, they'd be handing over their heads on a platter.

No good, no good — he had to find a way to slip away.

In Qingchen's eyes, no matter how harsh Fang Yue's words got, it wouldn't matter — those two and Lord Liao were simply not on the same level.

Lord Liao was merely the steward in charge of their batch of people.

And whether it was Lord Horse Seat or Lord Ox Seat, both ranked above Lord Liao.

That much could be seen from the way they were addressed.

Phoenix Twelve Seats: Horse Seat, Ox Seat, Rabbit Seat, Tiger Seat, Sheep Seat…

Anyone who could be called one of the Twelve Seats — which of them was a pushover!

As for Lord Liao, he didn't even qualify for a spot among the Twelve Seats!

The gap in strength between them couldn't be explained by a simple superior-subordinate relationship.

Carrying Lin Ling on his back, Qingchen was frantic with worry, but the moment he followed Fang Yue out of the secret chamber and back to Lord Liao's room, he saw Fang Yue suddenly stop in his tracks.

"Big shot? What's wrong?"

"The people are gone."

"People?"

Qingchen followed Fang Yue's gaze and saw that the prisoners who had earlier been crowding the doorway, begging Fang Yue to keep protecting them as they escaped Feng Huang Ju Dian, had now vanished without a trace.

"Could it be…"

Qingchen stepped forward…

Hum!!

A flash of White Flame suddenly streaked past before his eyes.

Before he could even register what had happened, a sickening smell of scorched flesh rose from the ground.

Looking down at the floor, he saw a pool of black fresh blood slowly spreading across what had been an empty floor.

As if something had been sliced clean in two by Fang Yue's blade, fallen to the ground, and was spilling black blood.

Accompanied by Fang Yue stomping down.

Stomp!!

The black blood splashed high into the air, like spattered ink, scattering across the ground ahead.

In that instant, Qingchen's pupils contracted sharply.

In the direction the black blood had sprayed, a swarm of bug-like creatures — each the size of a human head, with long sharp spikes on their heads, their bodies half-transparent and grotesque — floated silently at the doorway, piling up densely into a wall that perfectly blocked the entrance.

"Step back a bit."

At the word, the flames on Fang Yue's body erupted with a roar.

In an instant, the crimson flame transformed into the far hotter White Flame.

Cloaked in self-immolating fire, Fang Yue charged to the main gate, throwing punch after punch amid the swarm of Big-Head Bug-Weirds!

Punch! Punch! Punch! Punch!!

Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!!!

Fang Yue's fury, carried by his fists, swept out in ring after ring.

Every punch precisely blew apart one 【Big-Head Bug-Weird】, accompanied by the sizzle-sizzle-sizzle of roasting flesh, as black blood burst open midair and stained the surrounding 【Big-Head Bug-Weird】s.

And Fang Yue didn't stop — he kept punching, kept swinging, one fist, one Weird; amid layered fist-shadows, the 【Big-Head Bug-Weird】s surrounding him exploded one after another like fireworks and firecrackers, going off in an endless crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack.

By the time Fang Yue stopped, the Qing Wei White Clothes he wore had already been dyed black.

"B-big shot?"

Qingchen spoke up carefully, and saw Fang Yue turn calmly to look at him.

"I'm fine. How's Lin Ling?"

"He's still unconscious. Big shot, listen to me — your friend definitely can't hold on in that state; he needs a physician right away. If you go back up now to duel those two lords, then what about me and your friend? Neither of us can fight a soul — the moment we run into a guard, we're dead."

Fang Yue knew this perfectly well.

It was just that the fury in his chest had robbed him of reason.

Now, after unleashing that flurry of wild punches, the burning rage in his chest had finally eased a little.

"Don't worry. I'll settle the score with the Phoenix Organization another day. Right now, the urgent thing is to get Lin Ling out of here safely."

After a pause, Fang Yue pointed at the pool of black blood on the floor: "Also — are these Weirds something your Phoenix Organization raises?"

"No, I've never seen them. We have strict requirements for the Weirds we capture alive — they have to be locked down tight, otherwise if there's an internal riot, aside from the stronger ones, most of us ordinary people would be done for."

"Oh…" Fang Yue's eyes lit up. "Where do you keep the Weirds you've captured alive?"

After a brief daze, Qingchen immediately understood what Fang Yue meant.

He got excited at once: "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Big shot, you're not thinking of doing that thing, are you?"

"What do you think?" Fang Yue said with a cold smile. "The Phoenix Organization owes me this much — they ought to pay some interest first!"

Qingchen grew excited, because he'd guessed what Fang Yue was about to do. It was something he'd always wanted to do but never dared!

That was: go to the 【Living Weird Room】 where the living Weirds were held, and slaughter every single Weird still alive but already locked down tight by the Phoenix Organization, on the brink of death!

What an enormous haul of resources that would be — so many Weirds, sheer numbers alone could stack his strength right up!

Qingchen had only ever dared to daydream about such a thing before. After all, he was a member of the Phoenix Organization — dare to do this, and before he even left the base, someone would chop his head off for discipline.

Without his life, no amount of Weird-slaying would matter — he didn't for a second believe that after killing every Weird in the 【Living Weird Room】, he'd be able to take on those three lords, or even necessarily beat a jail warden.

"You're in luck today — I'm taking you out for a feast!"

A cold glint flickered in Fang Yue's eyes.

Stepping out of Liao Guanjia's room and looking outward, he saw seventeen or eighteen corpses strewn along the road that stretched ahead.

Apart from two corpses that had been trampled to death in the crush, the rest had been killed by something bizarre.

With Qingchen leading the way, Fang Yue followed the correct path and advanced by the shortest route.

Just as he was nearing his destination, he saw a few people wearing Ning Mansion servant clothes suddenly fleeing past from the side.

When the two groups met, they both froze for a moment.

The next instant, the Ning Mansion servants whipped their heads around in terror and ran.

They had not run far when, with a sharp slicing sound, every one of their bodies was split cleanly in two from bottom to top; the two halves of each corpse toppled stiffly to the ground.

Qingchen instantly tensed up. Though he had clearly seen nothing, he felt as if he were being watched by some apex predator; his heart hammered, his breathing grew rapid.

Then he saw Fang Yue move.

One advance, one retreat—fast, so fast that before Qingchen could even gather his wits, with a sharp crack he was already back.

The next instant, a streak of white light shot straight up from the direction Fang Yue had just charged out toward, its speed pushed to the absolute limit.

But then, as if it had frozen for a beat, the pillar of white light—something like a wall—went rigid on the spot.

Because this bizarre wall of white light had caught sight of the wild, chillingly cold smile Fang Yue had bared.

"You think you're fit to ambush me?"

Before it could react, a towering wave of white flame had already swept in, swallowing it whole and burning it to nothing.

With a few clanging clinks, all that remained was a patch of black stones on the ground—proof that it had once been there.

(End of chapter)