Achoo~! Achoo~! Achoo~!
Three outbursts disturbed Zhuo Fan’s smooth sailing. It got so bad that he almost took an unscheduled dive.
This had gone beyond mere cursing, they wanted to skin him alive. [Who the hell hates me so much? Is it Chu Qingcheng? Has her fury outmatched hell’s?]
Shuddering to his very core, Zhuo Fan shook the thought away.
He was oblivious that it was totally unrelated to Chu Qingcheng, but instead the person responsible was his buddy-buddy brother. In fact, his intention was no different than flaying Zhuo Fan.
Thank god he had no clue what Dong Tianba said, or he’d panic, [This guy barely has any talent, yet makes for quite a love doctor. How is it that you know who my heart longs for before even I do?]
Though he had to admire him for such skill, even when Dong Tianba only skirted the waters and never actually dipped.
Zhuo Fan kept on flying in confusion. He soon arrived at his destination and released his Discerning Field.
Hum~
Zhuo Fan’s eyes lit up in joy. Huangpu Qingtian, the biggest headache, wasn’t there.
It couldn’t be better. He’d go in there and remove the pests first. Since if they laid a trap, they would harass him to no end. [That wouldn’t do, wouldn’t do at all!]
He now recalled Luo Yunhai’s warning. Huangpu Qingtian and company had something special in mind just for him. Lin Xuanfeng let it slip when he lost his cool and Zhuo Fan doubted he was so smart as to make it intentionally misleading.
Zhuo Fan took it to heart as well. He may have Divine Eye of the Void as his ace in getting out of almost any situation, but he wasn’t about to take unnecessary risks. Triumphant pride precipitates a dizzying fall. Zhuo Fan made sure to never make such an elementary mistake as letting power get to his head!
Zhuo Fan’s figure flashed and thunder struck the earth the next second, picking up dust.
People turned to look in fright. With only weak third and second rate clan members around, this loud and out of the blue noise had them on edge.
But when the dust settled, they gasped.
Soaring Demonic Dragon, Zhuo Fan?
With a twisted grin, Zhuo Fan’s eyes glanced over his future victims, “I have come, as requested, for the Brimming Sacred Pill. Where is Huangpu Qingtian?”
“Uh… eldest young master waited for days so he took young master You and young master Yan in search of the other four. Sir, why not wait for them?” An honest to god man, naive perhaps, spoke up fearlessly.
This set Zhuo Fan’s worries at ease. His grin grew wider, “Am I to understand you stood me up?”
“Uh, no, never. It’s you…”
“I am quite angry right now, and the consequences are deadly!” Zhuo Fan cut him off with his bloodthirsty gaze, “Now, who do you think I should kill first?”
They all felt like crying. [You clearly had this idea from the start!]
[But… how does this have anything to do with us!]
[Huangpu Qingtian issued the challenge, not us. You didn’t just miss the due date, but also saying that we stood you up… that’s clearly bullshit!]
[We’re just the little guys. Why take it out on us? Think we’re easy targets, is that it?]
Fear swept their hearts as they had long heard of Zhuo Fan’s power. Be it the taunts he threw at the seven houses by killing their elders, or through the slaughter of thousands on the fighting stage.
Not even Six Dragons and One Phoenix wanted to mess with him, least of all them!
But then the demon came anyway. And to make matters worse, he landed just when the big boss was out on a stroll.
Could they take him on?
The bitter and resigned faces answered aplenty.
“Z-young master Zhuo, we are just errand boys! It would be a great dishonor to you sir, if you kill us!” Someone spoke up with a calm voice, quite odd when one took in the fearful gazes of the rest.
The rest bobbed their heads and gave him a secret thumbs up.
This line was a good deterrence to most big shots. Since it brought a bad taste in their mouth hearing rumors about them picking on the weak.
The greater the man, the greater the deterrence.
Take Six Dragons and One Phoenix for instance. As long as one left them be, they wouldn’t go out of their way to be heavy handed on small fries. Not because of their lofty and noble characters, far from it, but because they felt it would become a stain on their pedigree.
These guys were so puny, so insignificant, they weren’t worth even tying a big shot’s shoes, to say nothing of killing them.
So, with that educated guess, drawn from Zhuo Fan’s reputation being equal to Six Dragons and One Phoenix, they must be in the clear, probably. A shame they were dead wrong. The likes of Zhuo Fan only had self-interest above all else, not some useless and ephemeral thing like honor and glory.
To an unscrupulous man such as him, appealing to his honor, or lack thereof, was an exercise in futility! Since in all his lives, he had stomped dead all who had ever tried it…
Grinning from ear to ear, Zhuo Fan’s cold eyes snapped on the man and a ripple swept him.
His eyes lost their light and he slumped on the ground, dead.
Killing with intent!
The rest jumped back in abject fear.
Despite the rumor mill going strong about Zhuo Fan, only after witnessing the true power of Radiant Stage had a dread set in like no other.
Zhuo Fan smiled, “Whenever I kill, I do it on a whim. There’s nothing else to it. As for my reputation and what not, ha-ha-ha, please, I am but a small steward of a poor third rate clan. I am far beneath your illustrious names! There’s no dishonor whatsoever even if I tear you all apart.”
It only worked to make them even more bitter.
[This punk is a scumbag! Since when could a bloody, rotten and vile third rate clan’s little steward mock the seven houses and get away with it?]
[What modesty? He’s clearly showing off!]
Zhuo Fan picked up on their thoughts with a laugh, “Yep, I’m grandstanding, and I’m only killing you to relieve my boredom. The kill count doesn’t matter, what matters is the entertainment. Who told you to make an enemy out of me? Ha-ha-ha… “
Bang~
As if thunderstruck, their minds went out of commission. They stood there, frozen and lost, scared to even speak.
[God dammit all! He is a demon who escaped from hell whose sole purpose is to relieve his boredom! He is a psychopath who has no value for life!]
Not even those hedonistic disciples from the seven houses were that bent on a murder spree.
[This guy has lost it, he’s psychotic!]
The fear was closely working its way up to their tipping point, but Zhuo Fan’s last words remained nonetheless, [Who told you to make an enemy out of me?]
It couldn’t be a more fitting description. They were all gripped by the fear of ending up another bloody smear on the ground, but in the back of their minds, an obsession was ingrained. None could fight Zhuo Fan, he was out for blood!
And that was what Zhuo Fan aimed for all along.
He may not get the respect of everyone, but he would get their fear. Humans clung to life, tooth and nail. As long as they feared him, they’d never dare do anything against him. Regardless of what plot Huangpu Qingtian was cooking, if he got the help of these simps, he’d foil it when Huangpu Qingtian least expected.
While also gifting these helpers of his a heart demon.
And to make sure the heart demon wasn’t going away anytime soon, his eyes flashed and three more people collapsed.
They were positively despairing at this point.
“Ha-ha-ha, how amusing. While we wait for Huangpu Qingtian, I’ll take out my boredom on you! Now, who’s next?”
Zhuo Fan broke into his trademark evil grin.
The targets of his creepy glinting eyes shivered and crumbled from fear. But there was one who shouted, “Run!”
That woke them up somewhat. If they didn’t flee now, they’d be toyed to death at this point.
They all broke out into a frantic scramble to keep their poor lives intact.
Zhuo Fan smiled, but didn’t budge. He didn’t really want to kill them, not that many at least. He merely wanted to drive the fear of the devil in them.
Although, to make this play of his more believable, Zhuo Fan took merely two steps and killed another five Bone Tempering experts.
The rest thought Zhuo Fan was on the hunt and ran like mad. With so many of them and only one of him, someone was bound to get out alive. Right?
Each hoped he’d be the lucky winner.
They prayed for it too, never slowing down for a second.
Zhuo Fan cackled from behind, instilling the horrors of what was to come into their very souls. He found them almost out of his sight, but all he did was shake his head.
He wasn’t an addict getting his fix by killing, it was all so he could shroud them in a thick and unshakable shadow so that when the time came, they’d foil Huangpu Qingtian’s big plan from the inside.
Since he drove his point quite clean through, chasing them had lost its purpose.
And that guy was right about one thing, Zhuo Fan would never care about some small fries.
Smirking, Zhuo Fan’s eyes flashed, waiting for Huangpu Qingtian.
But then he heard a faint breathing.
Squinting, Zhuo Fan flipped around and snapped, “Come out!”
Zhuo Fan moved faster than the other person and grabbed at the target’s hiding place. But what he saw left him speechless…