Precisely!
Everyone had eyes only for Zhuo Fan and were unable to see the bigger picture. That whenever Lin Zitian sent Zhuo Fan flying, it brought him one strike closer to the eastern stand.
With all the experts down in the arena, it left poor Lin Tianyu, disciple of Lin Zitian, alone.
Lin Tianyu was watching how his master taught that man who brutalized and humiliated him in front of so many people a hard lesson. Yet, Vicious Pill King’s yell got him staring blankly.
[W-why me again?]
Lin Zitian also stopped from shock.
But Zhuo Fan snickered and his eyes flashed with killing intent, “Humph, too late!”
He stomped and shot like a cannonball for Lin Tianyu. He no longer hid his intense killing intent and released it out onto the world.
Zhuo Fan was still just a hundred meters away from Lin Tianyu. It took a mere blink to one with comparable speed to those Profound Heaven experts to close this distance, leaving Lin Zitian unable to do a thing.
“Lin Zitian, you seemed to have had a blast kicking me around. Now, I will kill your prized disciple. Let’s see how you like them apples!”
Frightened, Lin Zitian knew he’d been led by the nose. But how, when he was a highly intelligent man, yet never saw any signs pointing to this?
However, this was no time to think, his disciple was in Zhuo Fan’s evil clutches. Lin Zitian flashed behind Zhuo Fan and punched as he roared, “Zhuo Fan, fight me if you have the guts! Leave my disciple out of it!”
Whoosh~
Zhuo Fan vanished from his sight. Then a groan escaped his lips and his body trembled. Lin Zitian’s rage-filled eyes went stiff.
Looking down, he saw a hand sticking out of his chest whilst holding a slowly beating heart.
“Wish granted, ha-ha-ha…”
A sinister laughter reached Lin Zitian but all he could feel was his body growing colder. His life ebbing away.
But his eyes were ever clouded in doubt. He struggled to look back at the demonic youth, “Y-you, how did you match my speed…”
“Didn’t your disciple tell you? I already told him. It doesn’t matter how fast you are when I know who your target is!”
Zhuo Fan clenched his hand and the beating heart splashed blood everywhere. Lin Zitian’s ice-cold corpse slumped on the eastern stand. His eyes wide as saucers, dying with regret.
Lin Tianyu wailed in fear and curled up in a corner, not even daring to look Zhuo Fan in the eye.
“Trash! You don’t even dare look at your master’s killer? Disappointing!” Zhuo Fan left with a snicker.
What met him were the frightened eyes of everyone else.
Merry Woods’s elder Lin Zitian was killed in one blow. But the worst was Zhuo Fan’s casual expression when doing it. It looked like he was squashing a bug and not a Profound Heaven expert.
And his calculative eyes looked on as if everything fell in his predetermined plan. It was as though he was able to easily pluck the lives of his enemy at the drop of a hat.
[Demon!]
This was the sole impression he conveyed.
“Edifice Lord Chu, I told you. You know nothing of this brat. Did you see it just now? He is a Demon King, in the flesh!” Xie Tianyang’s expression was grave. Although this made it the second time he saw Zhuo Fan kill a Profound Heaven expert, the shock was in no way lessened.
Zhuo Fan’s slaughter was incomparable to any other’s. It was as natural as a king disposing of his slave.
Such a cold and unfeeling manner made him shiver whenever he saw Zhuo Fan strike. The same went for everyone there as well.
“This brat is worse than Vicious Pill King!” Peony Overseer’s lip trembled, “I-I can see now why the Hell Kill Order was issued. But I feel that the Hell Kill Order is not enough to make him feel an ounce of fear!”
“Qingcheng, you need to think this over carefully, whether he is the man you want to return to!” Iris Overseer sucked a deep breath and spoke her concerns.
Chu Qingcheng muttered to herself for a while. her eyes were filled with uncertainty, but soon hardened, “Indeed. What you all say has its merits. But! Isn’t this the very same Demon King who saved our Drifting Flowers Edifice?”
“Yeah, sister Qingcheng. Husband may be vile, but only to our enemies. He never harmed us. Don’t ever think otherwise.” Xiao Dandan blurted.
Her devotion to Zhuo Fan was unflinching. Afterall, she desired to be with him for as long as they lived. However, Zhuo Fan once said he didn’t accept Chu Qingcheng’s dowry. So, how could she accept her then, when she was nothing but an extra?
So Xiao Dandan had to keep Zhuo Fan in Chu Qingcheng’s heart. Otherwise, he would not only refuse Chu Qingcheng, but the free gift as well.
The heart could only bear so much for love!
The two overseers also sighed seeing Chu Qingcheng making up her mind. They all knew, however, there would not be one day of peace around someone like Zhuo Fan.
Vicious Pill King watched the cold and sinister Zhuo Fan up in the stand and sighed, “I was wrong. You didn’t aim for Lin Tianyu, but was after Lin Zitian from the start.”
“Correct. I wanted that old coot’s life from the very beginning. Why would I go after his trash of a disciple for?” Zhuo Fan chuckled, “Also, I may be holding Lin Tianyu hostage, striking fear in Lin Zitian, but would Huangpu Qingyun and 5th elder care about his life? Am I someone who doesn’t know a person’s value?”
“Ha-ha-ha, right. When a viper bares its fangs, it will strike its mark. I was wrong in thinking Lin Tianyu was important!” Vicious Pill King lamented and shook his head, “However, your fight leading to Lin Tianyu was all according to your plan.”
“You’re catching on!”
Zhuo Fan raised his head and grinned, “Lin Zitian was a fool, thinking he was in control. When in fact, every strike was predetermined. When all paths are sealed, his only choice was the only one he saw. It was the path I let him see. This was the conclusion I came to while I was kicked around.”
“What a sinister brat!”
Huangpu Qingyun gnashed his teeth, “If only I noticed earlier. I and 5th elder would’ve stepped in and save Elder Lin’s life.”
“Ha-ha-ha, don’t kid yourself Huangpu Qingyun. You’re overconfident if you think a daft brat like you can see through my schemes. Do you think a few books on ruling are enough to grasp the people’s hearts? Humph, you’re far beneath me.”
Zhuo Fan laughed with scorn, “It would’ve been quite the high stakes mind game if You Guiqi was here, but you guys, just don’t cut it!”
Clenching his fists, Huangpu Qingyun was infuriated. The great Regent Estate’s second young master had never been patronized in his life by his peers, to the extent of being mocked as a daft brat.
This was no different from a beggar cursing at an emperor in the middle of the street. The emperor was no emperor if he would take it lying down.
Or he wasn’t Regent Estate’s second young master if he let it slide.
Zhuo Fan’s mockery only grew worse when he noticed his fury, “Huangpu Qingyun, you can’t take it? Then let me reiterate. You know nothing of the ways of ruling, so don’t go smear mud on the true way of grasping the people’s hearts.”
“If the three of you had gone together against me, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. So I had to relieve you of one man, the oh so intelligent and ambitious Elder Lin.”
Everyone was fixated on Zhuo Fan, who was telling how he led them by the nose, and managed to kill Lin Zitian. Huangpu Qingyun’s heart was bleeding from hatred, yet his ears were attentive to catch the details.
“First things first, a ruler needs to see talent, to be tolerant! With how vain Lin Zitian was, all I had to do was to fling some dirt at him and he lost control. And you, instead of appeasing him, you mocked him from the side, making him fly off the handle. In his anger-addled mind, he left you behind fighting me all by himself!”
The witnesses turned to see how Huangpu Qingyun would react. One thing was clear though, he wasn’t tolerant in the least, not at all how a ruler should behave.
To be blunt, he was not leader material.
Huangpu Qingyun sensed the change in everyone and his hatred for Zhuo Fan grew.
Yet, Zhuo Fan just kept going, “Moving on, a ruler has control over the situation, placing worth on the greater picture. Of all people here, only Lin Zitian could counter my speed. But you let this valuable asset go further and further away from you in his battle with me, out of your range. You only had to stay close to him and he would still be alive. This is another fault of yours.”
“Enough! It is you who killed Lin Zitian, and now you’re trying to pin it on me? Humph, everyone knows how deceitful you are!” Huangpu Qingyun could no longer sit still while listening to his mockery.
Smiling, Zhuo Fan scorned him, “A regent is a regent because he is leading the people. Those that shirk responsibilities are not fit to be regents, and are not worthy to follow!”
The people’s hearts shivered. They watched Zhuo Fan, amazed at how much sense he made. It also worked to dampen their respect for Huangpu Qingyun by a great deal.
They respected Regent Estate’s second young master at first, for his strict handling of affairs, for being a ruling talent.
But Zhuo Fan opened their eyes to the truth. He was no leading material and following him would lead them to a dead end. Even 5th elder’s eyes changed, now sporting a different opinion.
Sowing discord!
But this sowing was hidden very deep, since he was driving a wedge between their trust and not just based on emotions. Huangpu Qingyun’s retinue was formed of blind followers, thinking there was nothing he couldn’t do. If it worked, it couldn’t be better.
But Zhuo Fan’s killing of Lin Zitian fell mostly on his shoulders. Saying he was unfit to lead at this point, whether the people believe or not, it cut down a great deal of his prestige.
He would become someone no one wanted to follow and, most importantly, the cooperation between Huangpu Qingyun and 5th elder would falter, making them weaker.
Zhuo Fan smiled his evil grin, as if all were dancing in the palm of his hand…