Chapter 234 - 228: He Renli

Chapter 234: Chapter 228: He Renli

Shenghai Beach, the Ten-Mile Foreign Field.

Buye Heaven.

Crystal chandeliers shattered golden light across the marble floors, reflecting countless twirling skirts and the gleaming tips of leather shoes. The air was thick with the scents of cigars, perfume, and hair pomade.

"Well, we’ll be heading out then. Hope you have a great time tonight, Minister He!"

"Happy New Year, Minister He."

"You’re too kind, too kind..."

In a booth at the edge of the dance floor, after a burst of laughter and clinking glasses, the crowd dispersed, leaving He Renli alone.

After enduring the final round of toasts, the plastered smile on his face receded like the tide. He sank heavily into the sofa, grabbed a glass of ice water, and chugged it down.

The cold water couldn’t quell the strange, agitated heat in his chest. He loosened his collar, lit a cigar, and squinted through the swirling blue smoke to look at the dance floor.

The smiling faces, flickering in and out of the light of the revolving colored ball, looked to He Renli like a giant, magnificent soap bubble being painstakingly blown ever larger—beautiful, yet fragile.

"You’re afraid."

A voice came from the darkest corner of the booth. It wasn’t loud, but it was clear.

He Renli turned his head.

The colored lights from the dance floor swept by, briefly illuminating a man in his forties wearing an old-fashioned brocade robe.

The man was utterly out of place amidst the glamorous, Western-style affair, yet he possessed a unique, quiet, and somewhat somber temperament, like a forgotten prince who had stepped out of a faded scroll painting.

Throughout the evening, countless women had tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he had coolly turned them all away.

"What would I be afraid of?"

He Renli sneered, flicking the ash from his cigar. "Here, everyone respects me, fears me. What do I have to be afraid of? They should be the ones afraid of me!"

"If you’re not afraid, why don’t you dare go home on New Year’s Eve?"

the man said calmly.

The words seemed to instantly pierce He Renli’s facade. A muscle in his cheek twitched. He abruptly grabbed a glass in front of him, downed the amber liquid in one go, and panted in silence.

After a moment, he suddenly let out a small laugh and asked in return, "Why aren’t you drinking?"

"I can’t."

The man’s voice was flat, without a ripple of emotion. "And I quit long ago."

His gaze casually swept over the coffee table. Without any perceptible movement from him, a glass over a meter away slid silently and smoothly outward by an inch after his eyes passed over it.

He Renli’s pupils constricted at the sight of this incredible feat. He couldn’t help but put down his cigar and applaud softly. "Amazing. Truly worthy of the ’Young Master,’ one of the top-ranking Thirteen Taibao. With you by my side, I really have nothing to fear."

With that, he stood up, the smile returning to his face. "You’re right. New Year’s Eve... It’s time to go home."

He Renli staggered toward the nightclub’s exit. Along the way, people sitting in the booths stood up one after another to greet him.

Calls of "Minister He" were incessant.

He Renli nodded and smiled, methodically handling the greetings. As he reached the entrance, he suddenly came face to face with a group of people striding toward him.

He Renli squinted, his eyes glinting as he recognized the leader of the group. He immediately put on a broad smile. "Well, if it isn’t Young Master Luo Chengying? It has been a while."

Under the dim hallway lights, the young man opposite him—who had sharp features and a gold hoop in his ear—said nothing. He simply offered a cold, sinister smile in return, not breaking his stride as he brushed past He Renli.

He Renli’s fake smile vanished as soon as the young man passed. He spat softly at his back. "Little bastard!" Then he strode out the door.

Outside Buye Heaven, his entourage had already prepared the car.

"To the usual place."

As soon as the car door closed, He Renli gave the casual order, then leaned back against the seat and began to snore.

The convoy drove out of the Ten-Mile Foreign Field. At an intersection, He Renli’s car silently veered into a side road, using the shadow of a building for cover as it split from the convoy. It was now heading in a completely different direction.

The snoring from the back seat stopped abruptly. He Renli awoke from his deep sleep. In the light of the streetlamps passing outside the window, his eyes were clear and bright, without the slightest hint of drunkenness.

"You don’t have to look at me like that..."

He Renli met the gaze of the Young Master, who was sitting beside him, and sneered. "That bastard Nan Xiangcheng is eager to move up. He probably dreams of my death.

"Mr. Wen sent a top expert like you to be my personal bodyguard, so I’m not afraid, but there’s no harm in being a little cautious.

"Tonight, I’m spending the night at a lover’s place. It’s hidden away, and it’s in the French Concession. No one would ever think to look for me there..."

Noticing a flicker of something close to surprise in the Young Master’s eyes for the first time, He Renli looked a bit smug. He lowered his voice and continued, "My friend, we’re in the same boat now. We have to help each other if we want to stay afloat.

"Once Mr. Wen’s business is settled, I’ll find a way to take out Nan Xiangcheng. You come and help me, and I’ll save the position of Chief Inspector of the Hua Realm for you."

His tone became confidential. "I know about what happened with ’Smoker’ recently... Friends, well, if you get along, you stick together. If you don’t, you go your separate ways. It’s like with women—why hang yourself on a single tree, am I right?"

Just as he was speaking, the smoothly cruising car was suddenly rocked by a violent jolt.

THUD!

Caught completely off guard, He Renli slammed his head hard against the car’s roof, seeing stars.

The pain nearly brought tears to his eyes. He was about to start screaming at the driver, but just then, the man in the driver’s seat let out a shriek of pure terror, a sound so panicked it was off-key.

"AHHH—"

The large sedan was violently flipped and thrown into the air by some immense external force. It tumbled several times in midair before crashing down hard on the side of the street, exploding into a massive fireball with a deafening BOOM!

He Renli lay sprawled on the ground, his face deathly pale as he stared at the exploding car. The moment it had been thrown into the air, the Young Master had grabbed him and pulled him out.

"Wait here! Don’t move! I’ll go check it out!"

"Okay... okay, okay!"

He Renli nodded hastily, scrambled up from the ground, and pulled out the pistol he carried.

With a grim expression, the Young Master produced several silver coins between his fingers. Paying He Renli no more mind, he vanished into the darkness ahead like a black shadow.

He Renli listened to the faint sounds of whooshing air and muffled grunts coming from the darkness. He gripped his pistol so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Before long, the sounds from the distance suddenly stopped. Everything fell deathly silent.

He Renli waited for a moment, but his fear finally overwhelmed his reason. He turned and bolted in the opposite direction.

He hadn’t run more than a few steps when a figure slowly emerged at the far end of the long street. It was abnormally tall, completely shrouded in a wide black cloak. Its steps were slow and heavy, yet they carried an oppressive weight, like a mountain bearing down on him as it walked toward him, one step at a time.

"Fuck!"

He Renli cursed under his breath, raised his pistol, and fired at the cloaked figure.

The bullets whizzed out and struck the cloaked figure, but they vanished without a sound, like a clay ox sinking into the sea. They didn’t even make the figure pause for a second.

Even after he had emptied an entire clip, the figure continued its unhurried advance.

Seeing the cloaked figure draw ever closer, He Renli, drenched in sweat, began to back away while reloading his pistol with trembling hands.

Just then, he heard footsteps behind him.

He whirled around in a panic and saw a familiar figure emerge from the shadows in the other direction—it was the Young Master!

Overjoyed, He Renli nearly burst into tears. He broke into a run, heading straight for the approaching figure.

But after only a few steps, he froze in place as if struck by lightning. His pupils dilated in absolute terror, and the blood drained from his face, leaving it the color of ash.

He could see clearly now.

It was indeed the "Young Master."

Only, this "Young Master" was standing stiffly, his limbs locked in an indescribably strange and awkward posture. His face was covered in a dense pattern of gruesome gashes, each the size of a baby’s mouth, with the flesh peeled back. The sight was unspeakably horrific and tragic.

The most horrifying part was a bloody hole, the size of a silver coin, in his throat.

The bright red tip of an Oil Paper Umbrella was slowly, millimeter by millimeter, pushing its way out from that bloody hole...

The Young Master stared blankly at He Renli, struggling to force out three muffled words from his gushing, bloody mouth.

"Run... quick... run!"

Accompanied by the sweet, delicate giggle of a young girl from behind the Young Master, He Renli fell to his knees with a THUD.

A few breaths later, a scream of absolute, soul-crushing terror shattered the silence of the long street on this late New Year’s Eve night.

"AAAAAHHH—!"

.....

"CAW—AW!"

The shriek of a jackdaw pierced the silence of the mountain wilds, startling a large flock of gray sparrows from the forest. With a flurry of wings, they flew into the low, leaden-gray sky.

Fu Juemin stood atop a massive, bare rock, looking down from his high vantage point. He quietly observed the surface of the cold pool below, which was churning as if boiling, teeming with countless gathered fish.

He had currently activated his [Great Medicine] and was attempting to lure the dormant Old Turtle Spirit from the depths of the Du Mountain Reservoir.

...