Chapter 108: Return in Defeat

Miao Shouren suddenly thought of something and asked, “How did Bald Bao and the others fare on their errand today? Why are they still not back?”

“Could they have finished and gone straight off to celebrate? I’ll call and ask.”

Just as the subordinate reached for his phone, a thunderous crash rang out, and the basement door was slammed open from outside.

“Boss, something’s wrong! Something happened to Bald Bao and the others!” a panicked underling cried as he rushed in.

Miao Shouren frowned. Inwardly, he was puzzled. With the strength of the Four Guardians, what kind of trouble could possibly arise in Haizhou?

At that moment, a group of blood-soaked men, each supported by another, staggered into the basement. They were all from the team that had gone out that night with the Four Guardians to sweep the clubs.

Every one of them was gravely injured. None of the wounds were fatal, but it was likely that at least one or two months in bed would be needed before they could recover.

The worst injured of all were the Four Guardians themselves.

They were being carried in on four stretchers, borne from outside. Each had been beaten to the point of near death. Two of them were still covered with shards embedded all over their bodies, blood streaming from head to toe. The sight was simply appalling.

But even that was not the most important part. After being defeated by Lin Yue earlier, the Four Guardians had fallen into the hands of Yao Kun and Guan Tianxiong. Those four had long caused them misery, and they had also killed many of their brothers. Naturally, those men would not let the Four Guardians off lightly.

So the subordinates of Yao Kun and Guan Tianxiong had simply severed the tendons in all four of the Guardians’ hands and feet.

In truth, that already counted as mercy. Severed limbs could still be reattached. It was just that they would never be able to cultivate martial arts again, and all their former power was utterly ruined.

Being spared with their lives intact was already an immense act of kindness.

Seeing the Four Guardians, along with everyone who had gone with them that night, beaten into such a miserable state, all present were stunned.

Even Miao Shouren’s face showed shock.

These were the Four Guardians! The four most capable men under his command. To have them all crippled in a single night was a catastrophe for the Hongying Society!

“Who did this? Who the hell did this!” Miao Shouren roared in fury. His voice was like a tiger’s bellow, terrifying everyone present. They all fell silent at once, not daring to breathe too loudly.

“Guan Tianxiong? Or Yao Kun?” Miao Shouren pressed.

Yet at the same time, he felt it was unlikely. He knew exactly how strong Guan Tianxiong and Yao Kun were. Even if they joined forces, they would struggle to handle even one Guardian, much less leave all four of them injured like this in a single night.

“Neither of them…” Bald Bao, whose injuries were the lightest, forced the words out through the pain in his hands and feet.

“Then who the hell was it?” Miao Shouren urgently wanted to know. Everyone else was equally curious, all waiting for Bald Bao’s answer.

“It was... it was a brat of seventeen or eighteen...” As he said this, Bald Bao felt a chill in his heart. Just remembering the scene of his battle with that youth sent a wave of terror crashing over him.

“What?!” Hearing Bald Bao’s answer, everyone cried out in disbelief and erupted into uproar.

Miao Shouren’s expression changed in shock as well. He could hardly believe his own ears.

“Have you been beaten stupid? Are you telling me that you, the mighty Four Guardians, were beaten into this state by some brat of seventeen or eighteen?” Miao Shouren felt as though the man must have lost his mind.

“Boss, what Bald Bao said is true. The one who injured us really was a high school student, around seventeen or eighteen,” said the man with the twin blades.

His body was full of bleeding holes. Every time he spoke, blood poured from him.

Among the Four Guardians, he was the strongest. Since he said so, no one dared question it anymore.

To think that a mere high school student had beaten the backbone of the Hongying Society, the Four Guardians, into such a state. Everyone found it inconceivable.

Miao Shouren’s face turned from blue to white, his gaze filled with complicated emotion.

He knew exactly how strong the Four Guardians were. Leaving aside the others, the twin-blade man alone had already broken through to the late stage of internal force mastery. How could an ordinary martial artist possibly be his match?

And yet he had lost to a high school student. That student must have extraordinary origins.

“Explain more clearly. What kind of man is that boy?” Miao Shouren asked in a dark voice.

Bald Bao, whose injuries were the lightest, then told Miao Shouren how Lin Yue had defeated him with a single long-range punch.

After hearing this, Miao Shouren was even more alarmed.

“One punch? He used only one punch?” he said in astonishment.

He asked himself honestly: with his present level in Hong Fist, if he wanted to defeat someone like Bald Bao, a cultivator of only partial internal force mastery, with one punch, it would hardly be easy.

“Boss, that boy is terrifyingly strong. His martial arts cultivation is at least at the late stage of internal force mastery, perhaps even the peak. He may be very close to breaking through into the Transcendent Realm!” the twin-blade man exclaimed in a low voice.

“Peak internal force mastery? Breaking into the Transcendent Realm? A high school student?” Miao Shouren’s shock had reached its limit.

At his current age, well into life’s middle years, he had only just reached the late stage of internal force mastery. And he had achieved that after enduring, since childhood, a training regimen of cruelty unimaginable to ordinary people, later gaining insight through life-and-death struggles with tigers. Only then had his martial cultivation reached what it was today.

And now they were telling him that a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old youth had already attained the same level of accomplishment.

To Miao Shouren, it was nothing short of a staggering humiliation.

Compared with that boy, what was his own achievement worth?

What did all that tempering and all those battles with beasts amount to? Could it really still be inferior to a mere teenager’s dozen years of life?

Impossible. How could that be possible?

Miao Shouren’s mind was filled with disbelief.

Just then, one of his subordinates seemed to remember something.

“A seventeen- or eighteen-year-old high school student? A martial arts expert? Boss, I think I know who he is,” the man said.

“Who?” Miao Shouren asked in a vicious tone.

“Earlier today, one of our gold medal enforcers went to the city center to establish our rules there, and he was killed. According to the description from the men who came back, it seems to have been the same boy Bald Bao and the others mentioned!” the subordinate said what he had pieced together.

“Oh?” Miao Shouren cried out, surprised that they had already crossed paths with that person before.

“What’s even stranger is that boy seemed to have controlled a wild dog to bite our man to death directly! Killing someone in broad daylight, and yet no one could pin anything on him!” the subordinate marveled.

“What? He controlled a wild dog to kill someone?” Everyone else was shocked beyond words. This had completely exceeded the limits of their understanding.

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken?” Miao Shouren found it unbelievable as well.

“Absolutely not. All the men who came back said the same thing. That boy said he was going to take someone’s life, and the next second, one of our men had his throat bitten out by a wild dog. And later, that boy admitted it himself!” The subordinate was now utterly convinced.

Hearing this, Miao Shouren could not help drawing a sharp breath.

Although his own martial arts were not weak, he was absolutely incapable of controlling a wild dog to kill someone.

“Boss, that boy is incredibly arrogant. He even had us bring you a message, telling the Hongying Society to get out of Haizhou within three days, or else he’ll take action himself,” Bald Bao added.

“That’s right. The boy in the city center said the same thing. It seems they really are one and the same!” the subordinate exclaimed.

“Damn it, he’s come for me,” Miao Shouren said in a cold, sinister voice.

“Boss, what should we do now?” one of the men asked.

“No rush. For the next few days, stay put and behave yourselves. First, find out everything you can about that boy. We’ll wait until Brother Rong returns to the country before deciding anything else,” Miao Shouren said after a moment’s thought.

Brat, no matter how formidable you are, I refuse to believe you can be stronger than Brother Rong.

Since you’re a hard nut to crack, I’ll leave you to Brother Rong to deal with. That way, I won’t have to dirty my own hands.

A cold glint flashed through Miao Shouren’s eyes, and a sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.