Chapter 225: Rainy Night: Bring an Umbrella, Not a Knife

Ning'an City.

A torrential downpour.

Streaks of ghastly white lightning tore through the night, illuminating the filthy alleys of the Old City District in flickering light.

Rain.

Blood.

Mud.

Guo Zixuan felt his lungs as if they were burning, scorching, each breath tinged with the metallic‑sweet taste of blood foam.

He was covered in wounds, crawling miserably through the icy mudwater, and behind him were five Shadows.

Five Shadows brandishing knives, their faces wearing a cat‑catching‑mouse‑like mocking grin.

"Run, you little mongrel, why have you stopped?"

The leading Dao Ba Lian stomped his foot onto Guo Zixuan's hand, crushing it hard.

"Aaaah—"

The crisp sound of bone shattering was drowned by the rain, yet the excruciating pain remained crystal clear.

"Your elder brother told you to die with some dignity; you had to make it look so ugly."

Another assassin lifted Guo Zixuan's chin with the tip of his blade, forcing him to look up.

"Honestly, if the boss hadn't ordered us to finish you off quickly, I'd love to slice that pretty little face of yours, cut by cut, slowly scar it."

A hoarse growl rumbled from Guo Zixuan's throat, the flames of hatred nearly spitting out of his eyes.

He hated!

He hated the father who gave birth to him yet never acknowledged him!

He hated those so‑called "brothers" who treated him as a thorn in their side, using every despicable method to marginalize him!

He hated the Guo Family that valued lineage over ability!

Why?

Just because he's an illegitimate child, should all his effort and talent be rightfully erased?

Just because they are legitimate, can they calmly hire assassins to kill and eliminate his sole threat?

Unfair!

Utterly unfair!

If... if I could survive...

He would make these people pay blood for blood!

Just as Guo Zixuan's consciousness was about to be devoured by endless despair.

Creak... Creak...

A horribly discordant sound of a wheelchair rolling through puddles echoed from the alley entrance.

Several assassins turned toward the sound, their brows furrowing.

Under the alley's streetlamp, a man holding a black umbrella pushed a wheelchair, walking slowly.

A girl sat in the wheelchair, covered with a thick Raincoat, appearing to be asleep.

The man wore a well‑tailored suit and a meticulously slicked‑back hair.

He pushed the wheelchair, his gaze steady, as if he hadn't seen the bloody scene in the alley, only wishing to pass quietly.

"Damn, unlucky. A witness?"

Dao Ba Lian spat, giving his subordinate a signal.

"Send the two of them on their way, keep your hands clean."

One assassin understood, grinned wickedly, and raised his knife as he walked over.

"Kid, consider yourself unlucky; may your eyes be brighter in the next life!"

He lifted his cleaver high, aiming at the man's throat.

"Go die!"

The shout, mingling with the rain, sounded especially harsh.

The girl in the wheelchair was startled awake, shifting uneasily beneath the Raincoat, emitting a dream‑like whimper.

It was that sound.

It froze the air throughout the entire alley.

The man pushing the wheelchair halted.

He slowly lifted his head, his gaze behind the lenses landing on the assassin's knife‑raised face.

He sighed.

Lightly, very lightly.

"Why..."

"Did you have to wake her up?"

The moment the words fell.

Dao Ba Lian suddenly felt something was off.

Too quiet.

The torrential rain was still falling.

Yet he could not hear a single patter of raindrops hitting the ground.

He looked down.

He saw countless pea‑sized raindrops suspended midair, motionless, refracting the streetlamp's dim yellow light.

Time was put on pause.

The knife‑wielding assassin, the grimace on his face still frozen, his body as if filled with lead, could not move.

Everyone could not move.

Except the man pushing the wheelchair.

Chen Shao.

He bent down, gently tugged the edge of his sister's Raincoat, then extended his slender fingers and lightly covered his sister's ears.

An invisible barrier blocked all noise.

After doing all that, he slowly straightened up.

Left eye.

That left eye, the sclera completely dyed crimson, the pupil turned into a constantly rotating, bottomless vortex.

—Dominating Demon Eye.

He looked at the five assassins before him, terrified to the point their eyeballs seemed about to burst, and in a nearly compassionate tone issued a command.

"You fight each other."

"Until... death."

The next second.

Time resumed flowing.

"Ah?"

The knife‑wielding assassin froze for a moment, then felt his arm completely out of control.

The blade that should have struck Chen Shao, at a Weird angle, brutally and mercilessly plunged into a nearby companion's chest!

"Pfft!"

"Madman! What the hell are you doing!"

The stabbed companion stared at him in disbelief, then his own body also lost control, and the dagger in his hand suddenly slashed another person's throat.

"No! Not me!"

"My hand! My hand won't obey!"

"Help! Help!"

The alley instantly turned into the bloodiest, most Weird battlefield.

The five well‑trained assassins, faces bearing extreme fear and bewilderment, their bodies became the most efficient life‑reaping machines, crazily attacking each other.

Every knife drew blood, every sword sealed throats.

Blood plasma splattered fourfold.

They wanted to stop, to scream, to escape this hellish scene.

Yet their bodies faithfully carried out that man's orders, slaughtering former companions in the cruelest way.

Chen Shao simply watched quietly.

He even took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the bloodstain off his clothes, his movement elegant as if attending a banquet.

Soon.

The alley fell silent.

Only the last blood‑soaked Dao Ba Lian remained, he stared in terror at the litter of limbs and arms on the ground, then, in his desperate gaze, slowly drove the knife in his hand into his own heart.

"Thump."

The last person fell.

Chen Shao's left eye's crimson vortex quietly faded.

He didn't even glance again at Guo Zixuan lying on the ground like soggy mud, pushing his wheelchair, ready to step over the corpses and keep moving.

As if merely... stepping on a swarm of road‑blocking ants.

But at the moment he was about to exit the alley mouth.

"Wait!"

Guo Zixuan exhausted the last ounce of strength in his body, hoarse, he roared.

He looked at that god‑like silhouette, fear had already been replaced by something more fanatical, more obsessive.

Power!

This is true power!

With this power, any talk of the Guo Family, of legitimate versus illegitimate, is all nonsense!

He wants revenge!

He wants to take back everything that belongs to him!

"No matter who you are!"

Guo Zixuan propped up his upper body, and toward Chen Shao's silhouette let out a beast‑like roar.

"Give me this power!"

"I can give you everything you want! Money! Status! Even... the whole Ning'an City!"