"Ye Bei!" Su Jianxi snapped. "Do you have any idea what you're doing? Grandpa saved you back then, and the Gu family has been targeting us ever since!"
"You were doing fine away from here. Why did you have to come back? And now you're actually contacting them yourself?"
"You're throwing your life away! Don't you understand? And you're dragging our whole family down with you!"
She poured out her resentment in one breath. To her, his behavior was utterly unreasonable.
She and her grandfather had waited for him for ages under the blazing sun. Was this how he repaid them?
"Exactly. If you don't have what it takes, stop putting on an act."
"Leave him alone. Once the Gus get here, he'll find out what death looks like."
"I just hope they don't decide to deal with us too."
"This is all Ye Bei's fault!"
...
As the complaints continued, the roar of engines reached them from outside the gates.
They turned to see ten Land Rovers pull up in front of the estate.
Click.
Click.
The doors opened, and dozens of black-clad bodyguards got out together and took up positions beside the vehicles.
One guard opened another door. A young man around thirty, with slicked-back hair and sunglasses, stepped out leisurely. He placed a cigar between his lips, and a bodyguard immediately cupped a hand around a lighter to light it.
His name was Gu Zehao, the eldest grandson of the Gu family head, Gu Changfeng. He held considerable influence within the family and was already showing signs of becoming its next leader.
Su Wanshan's face darkened. He had not expected the Gus to arrive so quickly, let alone to send Gu Zehao.
The young man inhaled, then exhaled.
"Well, well. Old Mr. Su!" Gu Zehao blew out smoke and swaggered toward him as though he owned the world.
Stopping beside Su Wanshan, he asked, "Still alive, are you?"
"Insolent brat!" Su Wanshan growled. "Even your father wouldn't dare speak to me that way. Have you no manners at all?"
"Of course, of course. You're absolutely right." Gu Zehao wore a roguish smile. "But times have changed."
"Calling you Old Mr. Su is already more respect than you deserve. Surely you know what your family has become these last few years?"
"If my grandfather hadn't shown some consideration for old ties, would there even be a Su family left in Jinghai?" With that, he blew smoke straight into Su Wanshan's face.
In the next instant, a sudden blow drove the cigar into his mouth, sending it down his throat and into his stomach.
"Aargh!"
Gu Zehao had barely screamed when a fist struck his chin, snapping his mouth shut.
His teeth shattered, flying in every direction with spatters of blood.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
One hand clamped over his mouth and the other over his belly, he hopped in place in agony.
"Boss!"
The Gu bodyguards surged around him in alarm. Everything had happened too fast for them to react. They had never imagined anyone in Jinghai would dare lay a hand on a member of the Gu family.
"Get away!" The words whistled through Gu Zehao's ruined teeth. He shoved aside the men in front of him and glared savagely at Ye Bei, who had struck him.
"Ye Bei! So it really is you! You fucking dared to come back!" His gaze was viciously cold.
When a daughter of the Gu family had been raped years ago, the family had ordered a strict cover-up. But bad news traveled fast. It had still become gossip on every street in Jinghai, bringing shame on the entire family for seven full years.
"Kill him!" Gu Zehao snarled.
The dozens of bodyguards moved at once.
"Don't you dare!" Su Wanshan roared. His own bodyguards stepped in front of the two men.
The groups faced off. Covering his damaged mouth, Gu Zehao spoke first. "You old fossil! Did I give you too much respect? Fine. I'll wipe out your family along with him! Get them!"
The Gu guards drew their collapsible batons and charged.
"We're finished..." The Su family went ashen. Their worst fear had come true.
As things stood, they had no power to stand against the Gus.
"Away!"
Ye Bei's low command was accompanied by a wave of invisible pressure.
The surrounding trees snapped. Dozens of Gu bodyguards flew backward, filling the air with tumbling bodies.
The Sus stared, speechless. He had sent dozens of men flying with a single word. What kind of power was that? Was it even humanly possible?
"A... A Martial Practitioner!"
Gu Zehao stood frozen, trembling uncontrollably.
Ordinary people might know nothing of Martial Practitioners, but he knew all too well. His own grandfather was one. That was the principal reason the Gus had risen to become Jinghai's foremost family.
Martial Practitioners could shatter stone with ease. No ordinary person could match them.
"What... What are you doing? Don't... Don't kill me." As Ye Bei approached, Gu Zehao's legs gave out beneath him.
His parents must have felt this same despair that night.
Pain stabbed through Ye Bei's heart.
He drew the saber from Lü Zhongyuan's waist and looked up at the sky, grief welling inside him.
"Don't kill me..." Gu Zehao turned white at the sight of the blade. As it fell toward him, he cried desperately, "Don't kill me! I know where your child is!"
The saber stopped dead. In seven years of military service, Ye Bei had never been involved with a woman. Where could this child have come from?
Seeing his disbelief, Gu Zehao hurried to explain. "That night seven years ago, after you and that bitch—no, after you and Gu Moli... she got pregnant. She was expelled from the family and later gave birth to a daughter."
Ye Bei froze as though struck by lightning.
That night, he had indeed had sex with Gu Moli.
Other than her, he had not touched a single woman in all these years.
"Where are they now?!" True or false, he needed to ask her in person.
"At... at a flower shop on Minghai Road," Gu Zehao answered quickly, seeing a chance to live.
The words had barely left his mouth when Ye Bei vanished in a blur.
Gu Zehao gulped for air, his clothes already soaked with sweat.
"Aah! My legs!"
Only then did he realize, with a scream, that both his legs had been cleanly severed. Bone and flesh lay exposed as his unsupported body toppled to the ground.
The young women of the Su family covered their faces and screamed at the bloody sight.
"Grandpa, who is he? He actually dared attack the Gus!" Su Jianxi kept her hands tightly over her eyes, her beautiful face pale with fear.
Su Wanshan stared for a long time in the direction Ye Bei had disappeared.
"The moment he returned was the moment the Gu family's fate was sealed."
"Forget the Gu family. Any one of the men beside him could level all of Jinghai with ease."
"He is a legend."
Su Jianxi was stunned. Was he really as powerful as her grandfather claimed?