Chapter 96 Ye Liuyun, Overflowing with Killing Intent
Inside the tavern, the smell of cheap ale mixed with the stench of sweat filled the air. Thunder Leopard, one foot on a bench, patted his chest and boasted to his henchmen:
"What did I tell you? In Notting, if you're a dragon, you have to coil up; if you're a tiger, you have to lie low! Anyone who dares to mess with me, I'll make sure they don't see the sun rise tomorrow!"
The henchmen around him excitedly raised their glasses.
"The boss is awesome!"
"Awesome."
...
But then, the cheers abruptly stopped, and the lively tavern fell into an eerie silence, as if its neck had been suddenly snapped.
Thunder Leopard was getting into his story when, seeing no one responding, he frowned.
"What's wrong? Are you all mute? Why are you staring at me like that?"
He noticed that all his underlings were pale-faced, their eyes wide open, staring intently at his back.
An indescribable chill ran up the spine of Thunder Leopard, raising goosebumps all over his body.
The surrounding air seemed to turn into cold, raw iron in that instant, making it difficult for him to even breathe.
Thunder Leopard turned his head stiffly.
Ye Liuyun was standing less than half a step behind him.
His usually aloof face was now so gloomy it seemed to drip water, and his normally indifferent eyes were now swirling with a chilling, eerie light.
There were no angry roars, no fierce questions, only a deathly silence.
"Who are you..."
Thunder Leopard's voice changed instantly, sending chills down everyone's spines, from the hairs on their backs to their scalps.
Ye Liuyun did not make a move immediately. He simply stared at Thunder Leopard with the same look he had when looking at a corpse that was already rotting in a mass grave.
He spoke slowly, his voice low and hoarse, sounding particularly jarring in the quiet tavern.
"I remember warning you, did you think I was joking back then?"
Thunder Leopard swallowed hard, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"What...what are you saying...I don't understand."
Ye Liuyun took a step forward, and the floor beneath his feet made a crisp cracking sound.
He placed one hand on the shoulder of Thunder Leopard and applied a little force.
Click!
The sound of bones dislocating could be clearly heard.
"I'll keep my promise and show you what it means to wish you were dead."
Thunder Leopard let out a painful groan and cursed loudly.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand."
When the others in the tavern saw their brother being bullied, they smashed bottles, grabbed broken glass, and rushed forward, stabbing wildly.
"Coming here to cause trouble for our Lightning Gang is asking for death."
Ye Liuyun's right arm shone brightly, and the Immortal Azure Emperor Kai's right arm was attached to him.
After sending Dugu Bo away, he did not use the Ying Yang Ice And Fire Eyes to upgrade it blindly, which would have damaged its foundation.
He leveled up to level 48 and then stopped leveling up, focusing all his efforts on condensing the right arm of the Immortal Azure Emperor Armor.
Soul Skill 1: Convergence. Forcefully compresses the surging soul power around the body into an extreme point.
Soul Skill 2: Burst. Unleashes accumulated energy at several times its original value in an instant.
Previously, although he was very resilient, he lacked a decisive burst of power. Now, this piece of the puzzle has finally been perfectly integrated into his combat system.
"Soul Bone Skill - Burst!"
Ye Liuyun suddenly opened his eyes, and at that moment his right arm soul bone burst forth with dazzling brilliance, while the edge of the Immortal Azure Emperor Armor swirled with a cold azure light.
He took a step, twisted his body, and unleashed a powerful punch accompanied by his pent-up anger!
In that instant, the extremely compressed soul power transformed into a blazing sun falling to the ground, unleashing itself wildly at the point of the fist.
The dazzling light, like a tsunami, instantly swallowed the surrounding darkness, illuminating the area ahead as if it were daytime.
"boom--!"
Those who came forward didn't even have time to show a look of fear before their bones shattered instantly and their flesh was vaporized by the intense heat of that violent and unreasonable energy.
As the intense light faded, only a jagged, charred trench remained on the ground, and the figures had long since vanished, leaving only a wisp of blood mist rising and disappearing in the wind.
Ye Liuyun frowned.
"Sorry, I went too far."
"I'll be careful from now on. I'll play with you guys all night."
The entire room fell silent.
The thugs, realizing what was happening, rushed towards the door like madmen, only to find that the dense Blue Silver Grass had already woven the entire tavern into an airtight, ever-regenerating cage.
Kuang Lei Bao knelt down with a thud, the floor resounding loudly as he slammed his knees.
"I really don't know anything! You scared me to death that day. For the past month, I haven't dared to go near that yard within a hundred meters!"
Ye Liuyun slowly walked up to him, looking down at him with a cruel, cold smile playing on his lips:
"It's alright, we have plenty of time to talk about it slowly."
"Snap!"
Without warning, Ye Liuyun raised his foot and stomped heavily on Kuang Lei Bao's knee.
The sound of bones shattering was particularly jarring in the deathly silent tavern. Thunder Leopard let out a beast-like wail, cold sweat instantly soaking through his clothes.
Another thug slumped in the corner, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Please, please spare us... Even if we die, let us die knowing the truth."
Ye Liuyun's eyes were icy cold.
"Wang Sheng is dead. I warned you not to touch him."
Thunder Leopard was in so much pain that he almost fainted, but he stubbornly clung to the ground to protest.
"We really don't know!"
"Brother, you've got the wrong person! I wouldn't dare touch him even if you gave me a hundred lives!"
At this moment, one of the henchmen, terrified, collapsed to the ground, stammering incoherently:
"I saw it! At noon today, I saw Wang Sheng being beaten to death by someone near the tea shop! But it wasn't one of our people. He was running too fast and bumped into a very well-dressed Soul Master, getting his clothes dirty. That Soul Master raised his hand and struck... Wang Sheng was sent flying on the spot."
Ye Liuyun's eye twitched, a hint of absurdity flashing in his eyes:
"Killed someone just because you bumped into them?"
He sneered, and the Blue Silver Grass slowly pierced into the flesh of Thunder Leopard:
"Do you think I'd believe that? But it doesn't matter, you're no better than them anyway. Consider this a good deed for the day, and a way to rid the people of a scourge."
"Whoever reveals the location of their gang members and their hiding place first, I might consider sparing their life."
In their desperate attempt to grasp at that slim chance of survival, these thugs, who usually swore brotherhood and roamed the streets, completely ripped off their masks of hypocrisy.
Their faces flushed red, veins bulging on their foreheads, and they frantically poked the spines of the people next to them, as if they wanted to expose all the dirty secrets in the other person's heart.
"It was him! He was the one who led the robbery against that widow and her child! I was just standing by as a doorman!"
"You're talking nonsense! It was clearly your idea to defile the Liu family's daughter last time, and you even stole her only gold hairpin!"
"besides..."
...
"I've said everything I needed to say, can you spare my life now?"
Ye Liuyun listened expressionlessly, feigning deep thought, until the last person finished speaking, at which point he spoke calmly:
"After some consideration, I still think I shouldn't spare your lives."
These words struck like a bolt from the blue, exploding loudly in the tavern.
The thugs' faces instantly went from astonishment to deathly pale, then turned a bluish-purple hue of despair.
The hope of escaping death collapsed in an instant, followed by a completely frantic survival instinct.
Run! Run!
Someone let out a distorted scream.
Dozens of thugs suddenly sprang to their feet and scrambled toward the tavern's doors and windows.
They were wildly swinging their fists or slamming their shoulders against each other.
However, the originally tightly closed exit had long been completely sealed off by the thick, twisted Blue Silver Grass.
The deep blue grass blades coiled and overlapped like giant pythons, forming an impenetrable barrier at the doors and windows.
The thugs pounced on it like madmen, their fingers digging desperately into the tough veins of the leaf, trying to pry open a crack with their nails.
No matter how much they struggled or pushed, the Blue Silver Grass barrier remained unmoved. In fact, as they attacked, sharp barbs began to sprout from the grass leaves, piercing their flesh.
Desperate cries and the sound of fingernails scratching at the grass intertwined in this enclosed, deadly place, creating a prelude to death.
...
That night, blood and screams echoed everywhere.
Whether the infamous "Lightning Gang" of Notting City is completely wiped out is unknown, but no one dares to utter those three words.
Everyone knows that the Lightning Gang has messed with the wrong person, and who knows what will happen if they get involved.
The next morning.
Covered in blood and with vacant eyes, Ye Liuyun reappeared in front of the pastry shop owner's stall.
The overwhelming murderous aura made the boss drop the clips from his hand, and he trembled all over.
"Could you tell me more about what happened yesterday?" Ye Liuyun's voice was hoarse.
The shopkeeper, trembling, pointed to the tea stall in front of him:
"The person...the person died right there. The shop owner was right there; he knew better than I did."
Ye Liuyun walked heavily to the tea shop.
The shop owner was just about to open for business when he looked up and saw a blood-soaked figure standing in front of him, and he was so frightened that he dared not breathe.
"Tell me. How did that young man in white die yesterday?"
The tea shop owner, huddled behind the counter, retorted in a low voice:
"Well... it was that young man who was in a hurry, carrying a bag in his arms and not watching where he was going, who bumped into a passing Soul Master. The Soul Master seemed to be an important person and felt offended, so he casually unleashed a burst of Soul Power. But how could that young man withstand that attack? He immediately lay on the ground, vomited a lot of blood, and lay there for a while before he stopped breathing."
Ye Liuyun's fingers dug deeply into the wooden counter, his knuckles turning white from the force.
"Why...didn't you take him to the hospital?"
The boss muttered something under his breath, his voice carrying a habitual indifference:
"Who would bother with something like this? That was the work of the Soul Master himself; who would dare to get involved and bring bad luck upon themselves?"
Ye Liuyun was stunned.
He remembered Wang Sheng's tireless studying day and night, Xiaoya's hopeful eyes, and the food on the table that would never be touched again.
He guarded against Tang Hao, against Spirit Hall, and against the thugs, but he couldn't guard against the absurdity of the lowest level of this world.
Wang Sheng did not die from a conspiracy, nor from a revenge killing, but from a casual wave of a "passing expert," and from a bystander's comment, "Who would care about such a thing?"
He stood on the street as the sun rose, the bloodstains on his body beginning to dry.
He suddenly found it ridiculous.
He didn't even dare to go back to that little courtyard.
How should he tell Xiaoya?
Tell her that her husband tried desperately to change his life, but in the end, he was swatted like a fly because he bumped into the clothes of a high-level Soul Master.
Ye Liuyun looked up at the sky, gritting his teeth.
He didn't even know who to seek revenge against.
Was Wang Sheng killed by a human, or by the world itself?
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[end of the chapter]