However, he also knew that if these two young men standing before him weren’t con artists, then the secrets they possessed could be worth a fortune. It probably wouldn’t be possible to strike a deal in just a few sentences.
As he considered how best to handle them to maximize his own gains, a knock sounded at the door.
The knocking was somewhat urgent. General Director Gu knew that the only person who would dare knock while he was in the middle of a conversation was probably his butler. Something must have come up.
General Director Gu frowned and said displeasedly, “Come in.”
The door opened, and the butler hurried inside. He stole a glance at Chu Tian and Bai Mingxi before bowing and saying, “Master, there’s been a bit of trouble.” As he spoke, he discreetly wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Meanwhile, on the other side…
After Chu Tian and Bai Mingxi entered the main hall, Quan Xiaoyu and the others were escorted into a room in the neighboring building. It looked like a proper reception room, and someone even brought them tea.
The tea leaves didn’t smell particularly good, but in the apocalypse, this was already an unusually generous reception.
Quan Xiaoyu paid no attention to such things. What he had witnessed over the past two days had left him feeling deeply uncomfortable. He had already been apprehensive about their journey north, and now he couldn’t help having some second thoughts.
While Quan Xiaoyu sat silently, lost in thought, Li Nan obediently kept him company. The other three, however, couldn’t sit still.
The peaceful, beautiful garden outside the window was far more appealing than this stuffy reception room. After a little while, the three began growing restless.
One after another, they eagerly pawed at the windows, trying to get out.
Seeing their antics, Quan Xiaoyu had no choice but to ask the guards stationed at the door for permission. Then he let the three go and run around in the garden to their hearts’ content.
The guards had been instructed that these guests from the capital were all ability users and had to be treated with care. Naturally, they didn’t dare stop them.
After a while, the three had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and started running farther and farther away, practically treating the place as if it were the wilderness.
Li Nan realized this wouldn’t do. After all, this was someone else’s estate, and they shouldn’t cause too much trouble. He therefore offered to go and call the three back.
Quan Xiaoyu saw no particular danger in the estate, especially with the three of them out there, so he nodded in agreement. Li Nan left, while Quan Xiaoyu remained in the reception room, staring blankly into space.
No matter how large an estate was, it still had its boundaries. Li Nan hadn’t walked very far before he spotted the three playing in the distance. They seemed to know they were somewhere inhabited and were behaving much more cautiously, without making too much of a commotion. So he didn’t immediately call them back. Instead, he stood where he was, smiling as he watched them play.
Completely off guard, Li Nan was suddenly lifted into the air by a man. A warm, damp, fishy breath washed over his neck, carrying an overpowering stench of alcohol.
“How fragrant. This is a real premium specimen! Since when has the Center had such a little beauty? General Director Gu has been keeping this one all to himself!”
The man holding Li Nan spoke in a hoarse voice, the rasp of someone who had overindulged in alcohol and women. His flushed face was filled with infatuation.
“Deputy General Director Qian certainly has a good eye. You spotted him from so far away!” The man behind him bent forward, seizing the opportunity to flatter him.
“Exactly! None of us even noticed such a pretty little thing in the garden. But you spotted him at a glance, Director Qian. Truly impressive!”
The second man was clearly more skilled at flattery. He had deliberately dropped the word “Deputy” from the title.
The first man, who had spoken earlier, was still regretting his choice of words when Deputy General Director Qian burst into laughter.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a clean, pretty little thing. I’m telling you, the stock at the Center has been getting worse and worse lately.”
Since the apocalypse began, Li Nan had been very well protected. He had his beloved Xiaoyu-ge by his side, as well as the formidable Chu Tian-ge. The people in Xiao Ziran’s group might not have been paragons of virtue, but they were all extremely reliable companions.
Even though Quan Xiaoyu and Chu Tian often took him along on combat missions, everyone instinctively protected him. This was especially true after his healing ability became public knowledge. At the Dawning Base, he was practically the person everyone respected and protected most.
He had also made a group of friends his own age at the Dawning Base. During this period, Li Nan had almost felt as though he were living in the world before the apocalypse.
The sudden turn of events left him stunned for quite some time. It wasn’t until the men had finished speaking and the disgusting man’s mouth began moving toward him again that Li Nan finally came to his senses. He swung a hard punch at the man’s face.
The unpleasant memories from the early days of the apocalypse suddenly flooded back. The grief over his father’s death, which he had deliberately buried deep in his heart, resurfaced along with them.
Rage and revulsion surged together from his stomach, and Li Nan nearly vomited.
He threw a punch and struggled several times. Unfortunately, he was small, so his punch lacked strength, and he couldn’t break free from the man’s grasp.
Director Qian was stunned by the blow—not because it had hurt, but because he had never expected Li Nan to dare lay a hand on him.
The children at the “Mind-Healing Center” were all purchased and trained into obedience. Kept in luxurious private estates, they served as personal pets for powerful men. How could any of them possibly dare strike someone?
Of course, his shock lasted only a few seconds. Deputy General Director Qian immediately flew into a rage. He had just been struck by a lowly little pet in front of his subordinates!
His expression twisted viciously. He grabbed the struggling Li Nan by the neck and squeezed hard.
“You little slut! You actually dare fight back! Very well, very well! I’ll teach you what obedience means today!”
As he spoke, he even began tearing at Li Nan’s clothes.
The men standing nearby had initially been just as stunned by that punch. Now, however, they all let out lecherous chuckles, their faces twisted with obscene grins.
In the blink of an eye, a black shadow flashed past.
Before the men could even see what had happened, a scream of agony rang out across the estate.
They all jolted and looked closely. Deputy General Director Qian, who had been so eager moments earlier, was now sprawled on the ground. His right forearm—the one that had been gripping Li Nan’s neck—was gone.
A mutated beast stood in front of Li Nan, who had fallen to the ground. It bared its sharp teeth and crouched low, ready to launch another attack at any moment.
The men were horrified. How could there be a mutated beast inside the general director’s estate? They hurriedly retreated and assumed defensive stances.
Another mutated beast leaped over. It looked almost identical to the first and adopted the same vicious attack posture.
“Xiaoyu! Xiaoning! Bite him!” Li Nan shouted furiously, giving the two little ones the order to attack.
Li Nan was usually gentle and well-behaved. Outside of combat, he rarely gave the two little ones orders to attack anyone.
Because they had spent so much time at the Dawning Base, Xiaoyu and Xiaoning had learned not to attack humans without Li Nan’s permission. Otherwise, the man’s head would have been torn off just now instead of merely losing an arm.
Now that Li Nan had given the order, the two little ones immediately pounced on Deputy General Director Qian, who was rolling around on the ground.
Unexpectedly, despite his appearance as a man whose body had been ruined by alcohol and lust, Deputy General Director Qian was actually an ability user.
At the same moment Li Nan issued the command, two earthen spikes shot up from the ground, thrusting toward the beasts’ abdomens.
But the attack failed to stop them. Both beasts sprang into the air, moving even faster as they leaped.
With the two beasts almost upon him, Deputy General Director Qian reacted quickly. He rolled across the ground, rapidly moving away from his original position, and shouted at the men behind him, “What are you standing around for? Kill them!”
Only then did the others snap out of their stupor. Three men unleashed three different abilities, attacking the two little ones at once.
Fire, water, and ice—the three men were ability users too.
However, when water balls and ice arrows struck them, the two little ones didn’t dodge at all. They let the attacks hit their bodies without so much as a flinch, then swept their golden-yellow eyes over the three men with utter contempt.
They did dodge the fireballs flying toward them. Although the flames couldn’t do them much harm, singeing their fur would be unsightly.
That brief evasion gave Deputy General Director Qian another chance to catch his breath.
Only now, after seeing that water balls and ice arrows had no effect on the two beasts, did he truly begin to feel afraid.
He summoned another set of earthen spikes while rolling toward the main hall. All the while, he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Help! Somebody! Get over here!”
The commotion finally alerted the estate’s guards. It also jolted Quan Xiaoyu out of his daze.
Remembering that the little ones were playing outside and that Li Nan had not returned, Quan Xiaoyu shot out of the reception room like a gust of wind.
Li Nan had already gotten back to his feet. After gagging several times in revulsion, he vigorously scrubbed the spot on his neck where the man had kissed him, rubbing it so hard that the skin became red and swollen.
The two little ones were already fighting the guards who had rushed over at the sound of the commotion, along with the three ability users. However, without a new order from Li Nan, they hesitated, unsure whether they should seriously injure the people attacking them. As a result, they refrained from killing their opponents outright.
Xie Mingxuan had also hurried over after hearing the commotion. Seeing the two little ones fighting, he naturally wanted to help, but Li Nan grabbed him firmly and held him back.
Xie Mingxuan was a zombie. If he joined the fight, his identity would be exposed. Li Nan had not forgotten where they were.
When Quan Xiaoyu arrived, this was the scene he encountered.
Seeing Li Nan’s swollen, reddened neck and the man on the ground struggling to crawl away with his arm severed, a blood-red hue rose in Quan Xiaoyu’s eyes.
That man was the main target of the two little ones’ attacks, while everyone else was concentrating on protecting him. Seeing all this, how could Quan Xiaoyu fail to understand what had happened?
Unacceptable! Absolutely unforgivable!
These people were filthy. Their bodies and souls were rotten through and through!
Quan Xiaoyu could tolerate that.
But they had actually dared to extend their filthy hands toward Li Nan!
Unacceptable! Unforgivable!
Quan Xiaoyu was now moving so fast that these people couldn’t even see him.
While the group was still entangled with the two little ones, the head of the man on the ground suddenly rolled away from his body. Warm blood sprayed high into the air, splattering their faces and clothes.
Only then did someone stop attacking and slowly turn around.
“Go back to Xiaonan,” Quan Xiaoyu said calmly.
At his words, the two little ones gradually ceased their attacks and retreated to Li Nan’s side. After spending so much time together, they were intelligent enough to understand what Quan Xiaoyu meant.
Meanwhile, Quan Xiaoyu stood motionless beside the headless corpse. Blood had splattered all over him too, but he hadn’t bothered to dodge.
The samurai sword in his hand glinted coldly. A few remaining streams of blood continued to trickle from the blade.
His expressionless face radiated a bone-chilling murderous aura. Spattered with blood, he looked like a god of slaughter, coldly staring at the people who had stopped fighting and turned to face him.
A wave of icy dread pierced everyone present. For a moment, they could barely breathe.
The blood-stained gleam of the samurai sword seemed capable of taking their lives in an instant. At that moment, they all felt as though death were standing right beside them.
Who was he? A demon from the underworld?
Many of them thought of the same word at almost exactly the same time: Asura.