Chapter 274 - 266: King

Yu Mingshen had been the manager of the Xianlido for twelve years. He greeted guests and saw them off day after day; to him, the Xianlido was like a second home.

But now, he was watching the Xianlido—a symbol of Shenghai's utmost class, luxury, and splendor—turn into something like a Zhabei street market.

The beautiful black-and-white marble floor was being brutally and crudely trampled by countless dirty feet, leaving trails of black shoe prints...

He couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.

It was like watching a high-and-mighty, exquisitely dressed young lady being pinned to the ground and violated by street thugs.

However, the thought of the generous reward he would receive after today instantly made that pang of heartache vanish.

Yu Mingshen found an excuse for himself: 'Out with the old, in with the new. This is a perfect opportunity to renovate the hall. When I report the expenses to the boss, I might even be able to skim a little extra off the top...'

Yu Mingshen stood on the third floor, in the open Central atrium—an absolutely safe position.

From this high vantage point, he could see the entire dance hall, yet he was guaranteed to be safe from the brutes below.

He had even gone so far as to bring over a record player and secretly open a bottle of red wine he was usually reluctant to drink.

After all, a spectacle like this wasn't something you saw every day, nor was it for everyone's eyes.

Just half a month ago, the man below had been one of the most powerful and celebrated figures on Shenghai Beach, one of the Four Young Masters of Shenghai, his glory boundless. Yu Mingshen remembered the last time he had come to the Xianlido—the man hadn't even deigned to lift his eyes in his direction...

What a pity. In the blink of an eye, times had changed. The great Young Master of the Qinglian Gang was now the "mad dog" of Shenghai Beach, despised by all.

He had lost his backing, become a wanted criminal of the Xin Republic, and was now cornered here. The person pulling the strings had given the order to beat him into a bloody pulp...

'I hear this Young Master is quite a fighter.'

Yu Mingshen swirled the red wine in his glass.

'But just how good a fighter is he? Can he really withstand a siege by more than three thousand men from the Woodcutter Gang?'

He took a sip of wine, narrowed his eyes, and waited for the show to begin.

—

By now, the men below had almost completely filled the Xianlido's dance hall. A black, impenetrable mass of people stretched from the main entrance deep into the second-floor corridor.

They clutched axes, machetes, and pistols, their faces etched with murderous intent, a thunderous cry of "Kill!" on their lips.

They surged relentlessly toward the second floor, into the corridor, toward the man's location.

Suddenly, Yu Mingshen heard a tremendous noise from deep within the second-floor corridor.

"BOOM!—"

The plaster on the wall beside him seemed to tremble, and the hand holding his wine glass paused.

He blinked, thinking: 'Don't tell me these guys are using dynamite? If so, the entire Xianlido will need to be renovated from scratch...'

Then another sound reached him.

Screams.

Not one or two, but an unending torrent of screams, one after another, like pigs being slaughtered.

Mixed with the screams were periodic loud bangs, RUMBLE RUMBLE, that made one's hair stand on end.

Yu Mingshen's hand, holding the wine glass, froze in mid-air.

He heard the screams getting closer and closer, as if something was coming this way.

Then, he saw the men in the second-floor corridor start to run back—not charging forward, but running back!

Their faces were filled with a panic and terror he had never seen before as they desperately pushed their way back!

He heard someone yelling "Demon!", "Run!", some crying, some screaming for their mothers... They trampled over their own men, scrambling backward on all fours...

'This isn't quite what I imagined.'

Yu Mingshen subconsciously took a step back.

He didn't know why he was retreating; his legs simply moved on their own.

By now, the men in the corridor and the hall had fallen into disarray. The ones in front were trying to run back, while the ones in the rear, unaware of what was happening, were still pushing forward.

The two groups collided, creating a bottleneck where no one could move. Curses, cries, and screams mingled together, descending into utter chaos.

Then he saw him.

The figure emerged from the depths of the second-floor corridor.

He walked slowly, as if deliberately giving the men in front of him time to flee.

Not a speck of dust was on him. His fine, tailored suit was as clean and pristine as when Yu Mingshen had first welcomed him in.

He had one arm around a woman.

Yu Mingshen recognized the woman—Zhu Zhu. He had chosen her himself.

He had picked her because she was beautiful and bold, daring enough to handle any situation.

But now, the woman's expression was as vacant as a puppet's, her every step stiff and unnatural. Her fair face was spattered with blood, as were her body and clothes... She looked as if she had just been dragged out of a pool of blood!

Yu Mingshen was stunned.

He had been the manager of the Xianlido for twelve years. He had seen drunken brawls, fights over women, and gang negotiations that turned violent.

He thought he had seen everything.

Only today did he realize he had seen nothing!

One man was single-handedly forcing hundreds, even thousands, to desperately retreat!

The man held nothing in his hands. He just stood quietly at the end of the corridor, yet when the others saw him, they reacted as if they had seen a ghost, scrambling desperately backward.

Some were so frightened their legs gave out, and they collapsed to their knees, only to be trampled. Others fired their guns at him, but the screams that followed came from within the crowd itself.

The man took a step forward.

Just one step.

The crowd below instantly receded like a tide, surging back more than ten paces. Some fell, some were trampled and couldn't get up, and others crawled backward over the bodies of their own men.

Axes and machetes lay scattered on the floor, forgotten.

Yu Mingshen didn't understand, not until he shifted his position and caught a glimpse of the scene behind the man, down the corridor he had just walked through—

Deep in the corridor, bodies were piled everywhere, haphazardly.

Their postures were bizarre, contorted into shapes no human should be able to make.

Some were twisted, some were stacked, some were draped over the railing, some were jammed in doorways... Blood pooled beneath them, flowing everywhere, staining the entire corridor floor a dark crimson. The blood was still spreading, reaching the edge of Yu Mingshen's view, where it dripped, drop by drop, from the second floor...

His legs went weak. His face turned deathly pale, and the wine he had just drunk surged up his throat. He barely managed to keep from vomiting.

Just then, the man, ignoring the bullets flying everywhere, walked step by step up to the third floor.

He walked to the very spot where Yu Mingshen had just been standing.

He turned on the record player. Raspy jazz music flowed from the horn, drowning out the cries from below.

He then used the empty wine glass Yu Mingshen had left behind to pour himself a glass of red wine.

Then he turned around. With the glass in one hand and his arm around the dazed, beautiful woman, he stood in the center of the third-floor corridor.

He looked down, gazing upon everyone below.

"CRACK—"

A bolt of lightning split the sky!

The lights in the hall had gone out at some point—perhaps they were broken in the chaos, or maybe a circuit breaker tripped. The room was plunged into darkness, illuminated only by flashes of lightning.

The lightning's glare fell upon the man.

Everyone below craned their necks, staring blankly up at him, watching him stand on the third floor with his wine glass, as if upon his throne.

Then they saw him—slowly, he brought the glass to his lips and took a gentle sip.

Outside, the downpour was torrential.

Inside, it was dead silent.

Only the raspy singing from the record player mingled with the sound of the rain.

They couldn't make out the expression on his face. Only for the brief moment a lightning flash illuminated him could they see his eyes.

A pair of unnaturally calm eyes.

There was no killing intent, no anger, no satisfaction—nothing.

And it was precisely this "nothing" that was more terrifying than anything.

The dead silence lasted for several seconds.

It was shattered by a furious roar, tinged with a tremor.

"KILL—!!!"

The men below erupted once more. Gripping their weapons, they surged madly up the spiral staircases on either side!

Yu Mingshen cowered in a corner, hands clapped over his head, face ashen, his whole body trembling.

Soon, he was completely overwhelmed by the sound of the rain and thunder from outside, and the gunshots, the whistles of objects cutting through the air, the screams, and the shattering of windows from within...

Warm, sticky blood splattered constantly before his eyes, splashing onto his face, his hands, his body... just like... the glass of red wine he had accidentally knocked over moments before.

........

"WHOOSH—"

On the long street, the rain was a deluge.

Rain hammered against the enamel windows, blurring the view with a watery haze.

On the second floor of Buye Heaven, Luo Chengying stood with his arms crossed, watching the entrance of the Xianlido across the street with Chen Qingyuan. Their gazes were cold.

By now, nearly half of the three-thousand-plus Woodcutter Gang assassins he had summoned had stormed the Xianlido. But he had been waiting for so long, and now even the rain had started, yet there was still no sign of any major commotion from inside.

Just as Luo Chengying was growing impatient, suddenly—

A window on the second floor of the Xianlido's main facade was abruptly shattered!

A man dressed as a Woodcutter Gang member leaped out of the window, crashing hard onto the street below. He rolled twice in the rain, scrambled to his feet, and took off running, screaming as if something was chasing him.

"AHHH—!"

Then a second window broke.

A third, a fourth, a fifth.....

More and more men leaped from the second and third-floor windows, plummeting onto the street below.

Some of them didn't move after they landed, lying in the puddles on the road as a large pool of red slowly spread from beneath them. Others broke their legs, and after a sharp cry of pain, paid no mind to their injuries, struggling to their feet to limp and run for their lives.

It was the same for every single one who survived the fall.

They leaped recklessly from the windows of Shenghai Beach's grandest den of pleasure, running for the hills without a single look back.

It was as if... some indescribably terrifying Demon Fiend was lurking inside, and anyone who was a step too slow would be devoured alive!

Luo Chengying's brow furrowed. He was just about to say something.

Suddenly!

"KABOOM!—"

A deafening explosion, louder than the thunder in the sky, sent a shockwave crashing into the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor of Buye Heaven. The entire window trembled, letting out a low hum.

Luo Chengying watched, wide-eyed, as the Xianlido's magnificent neon sign disintegrated in an instant. It, along with the main doors, was blasted onto the street by an invisible force, shattering into a million pieces.

A huge section of the crowd packed at the Xianlido's entrance was violently cleared—the men were sent flying like scraps of paper, landing everywhere.

Then, a figure walked out of the Xianlido.

The man stood under the portico, unmoving.

From across the street, through the pouring rain, the man's gaze instantly locked onto Luo Chengying's position.

Luo Chengying met those eyes, completely unprepared.

His heart clenched. He subconsciously stumbled back two steps.

When he came to his senses, he was instantly filled with shame and anger.

With a wave of his hand, he ground out an order through clenched teeth: "Tell Chai Xiong to double the reward for every man! As for those who run... kill them on sight!"

The order was issued. Several gunshots rang out on the street as a dozen or so fleeing, broken members of the Woodcutter Gang were executed on the spot. Only then was the chaos slowly brought under control.

Under the promise of great reward and the threat of severe punishment, the retreating, scattering crowd finally found their courage again.

They tightened their grip on their weapons, turned around, and faced the figure slowly walking toward the center of the street.

And surged forward like a black tide!

Luo Chengying watched this scene unfold. His gaze swept over the several impassive Westerners, his bodyguards, who had yet to make a move. His heart rate finally began to slow.

He crossed his arms again, a cold sneer playing on his lips.

He waited to see the man be swallowed by the tide.