Chapter 609: Lawless
Chapter 609: Lawless
"Ambush!"
The thousand-man squad reacted quickly and professionally, evidently well-trained for such encounters. However, their ambushers were far too powerful.
In just ten minutes, the entire thousand-man squad was wiped out, leaving no survivors.
However, as they dealt the killing blows, Meng Yinwan and the others were puzzled. Why was the bridge of every squad member’s nose broken?
"Retreat!"
The hundreds of black-clothed, masked figures quickly vanished into the darkness.
They had just left when a woman with disheveled red hair, wearing a cheongsam and red high heels, emerged from the shadows.
It was Ming Yue.
"Ye Xiu is such a bastard, making me come to a place like this to work in the middle of the night."
Muttering to herself, Ming Yue collected all the mobile phones from the squad members, stuffing them into her backpack. She then drained the Martial Prowess from every single one of them. Only then did she depart.
Less than half an hour after Ming Yue had left, Kristina arrived, panting heavily.
"This..."
Upon seeing the corpses strewn across the ground, Kristina’s expression changed instantly. "How could this happen?"
Her composure shattered, and Kristina let out a furious howl in the deep, dark mountain. She had been planning to have these men escort the Ye and Long Families to Biluo Island tonight, but now they were all dead.
In fact, Kristina had gone to the airport to meet them. After leaving the mountains, however, a taxi driver had driven her around aimlessly. By the time she finally reached the airport, the thousand-man squad had already departed. Kristina hailed another taxi to give chase, intending to pursue them on foot once the road ended, but the driver got them lost while navigating the mountain roads. That was why she had only just now caught up to the squad’s location.
"Ye Xiu, you bastard! This is all your fault! If you had killed all the Restorer Alliance members lurking in these mountains, this thousand-man squad wouldn’t have died!" Kristina screamed in a rage.
She then pulled out her phone, intending to call Ye Xiu and pin all the blame for the squad’s annihilation on him. But as it turned out, there was no signal in the mountains, and the call wouldn’t go through. Kristina was left speechless.
「The next morning.」
Ye Xiu woke up in his hotel bed. He had just finished breakfast and was preparing to head into the mountains when Qing Luan suddenly called.
"This is bad. All the workers have gone on strike."
"What?" Ye Xiu was completely taken aback. "What do you mean, ’all’ of them?"
Qing Luan explained, "It means all the regular workers have gone home and quit. Only the combat engineers and the ’construction fanatics’ are left in the mountains. Furthermore, the trucks delivering materials like cement and concrete stopped showing up at the site as of 1:00 AM."
"How could this happen?" Ye Xiu frowned. "I killed the Seventh Master. That should have intimidated everyone. Why would they go on strike?"
"I don’t know," Qing Luan said. "I’m investigating it now."
Just then, a text from Gong Jin arrived. After reading it, Ye Xiu told Qing Luan, "You can stop investigating. I already know what happened."
"Why did they go on strike?" Qing Luan asked.
"The CEOs of all the construction companies in Nanjing, along with the contractors, foremen, and the local heads of foreign construction firms, have all been taken to the Wu Family Fortress. The Wu Family Fortress forced them all into a mass strike," Ye Xiu said, his face hardening.
"You mean Wu Qishan? The War God ranked 11th on the Global War God Ranking?"
"Yes," Ye Xiu nodded. "I was distracted yesterday and overlooked a detail. The Seventh Master was the chairman of the Wu Corporation, but the Wu Family Fortress is the majority shareholder. Killing the Seventh Master was pointless."
"I see. So, what’s the plan?"
"I’m going to pay a visit to the Wu Family Fortress," Ye Xiu said grimly.
A winding mountain path led deep into the desolate mountains. At its end, hidden within a dense forest, lay a village known to very few.
This village was the Wu Family Fortress.
Or perhaps, it was more fitting to call it the Nanjing Ancient Martial Arts Village, since all of Nanjing’s ancient martial artists resided there.
At the very heart of the fortress was the Wu Family’s domain: an incredibly opulent and modern luxury manor, nestled by the mountains and water, boasting a delightful view. With no roads nearby, only a narrow mountain path, it was a mystery how such a modern estate had ever been constructed.
At this moment, in the manor’s back garden, a large group of people was kneeling. They were the executives from Nanjing’s construction companies, the contractors, the foremen, and the heads of foreign firms. They had been kneeling here ever since they were brought by force.
"There’s no order without rules," an old man in his seventies chided the group. "If you want to do business in Nanjing, you must first seek the consent of me, Wu Qishan. Have you all forgotten the proper way of things? Huh?"
"Forget about ants like you. Even if the number one expert on the Global War God Ranking came to Nanjing on business, he would have to pay me a visit first."
"If you don’t follow the rules I’ve set, if you don’t show me, Wu Qishan, the proper respect, then you can forget about establishing yourselves in Nanjing."
Forceful, domineering, and brutally savage, with an insatiable hunger for control and power—these were the things that defined Wu Qishan.
"Mr. Wu, this is kidnapping! It’s illegal!" someone couldn’t help but say angrily. "The chairman of the Wu Corporation was already executed by an instructor from the Red Flame Army for exploiting workers. Aren’t you afraid of bringing disaster upon yourself by kidnapping us and forcing a strike?"
Wu Qishan walked over to the speaker and asked, "Who are you?"
The man replied, "I am Jiang Shicheng, the project manager for the Flowing Cloud Construction Company in Nanjing!"
SLAP!
Wu Qishan’s palm slammed down on Jiang Shicheng’s head. "No one dares to talk back to me," he said coldly. "Jiang Shicheng. I’ll remember you."
Still kneeling, Jiang Shicheng began to bleed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. He then slumped to the ground, lifeless.
An uproar swept through the kneeling crowd, their faces paling in shock. No one had expected Wu Qishan to kill someone over a single disagreement. They had assumed he had brought them here simply to extort them for a share of their profits, but it was clear they were gravely mistaken. This Wu Qishan was utterly lawless. In an instant, everyone was scared into a deathly silence, and no one else dared to speak.
"A Red Flame Army instructor? Hmph..." Wu Qishan sneered with disdainful arrogance. "In the past, I might have given an instructor from the Red Flame Army some face. But now, with a great master backing the Wu Family Fortress, I’d dare to kill a mere instructor—I’d even dare to kill the Eight Great National Protector War Gods themselves if they came here."
The crowd was stunned. So that was it. Wu Qishan dared to kill so brazenly because he had powerful backing.
"Fortress Master." At that moment, a young man ran over. "Reporting to the Fortress Master, the Xuanse Medicine King, Ye Xiu, is here to visit."
"Oh?" Wu Qishan was startled for a moment, then burst out laughing. He scanned the kneeling crowd and announced triumphantly, "Did you hear that? Even the most sought-after man in the world today, the Xuanse Medicine King Ye Xiu, must come to visit me first upon arriving in Nanjing."
The kneeling crowd was horrified. Of course, they knew of Ye Xiu. He was the most influential figure in Xuanse, and since announcing his entry into the global medical market and becoming the chairman of the Global Commerce Association, his influence had spread across the entire world. They never imagined that such a major figure would also have to pay his respects to Wu Qishan upon coming to Nanjing.
"Go, bring Ye Xiu here!" Wu Qishan ordered.
His tone was wildly arrogant. It was as if the famous Xuanse Medicine King was not worthy of the courtesy of an ’invitation’, nor of being received personally, let alone welcomed into the drawing-room as an honored guest. His words and actions were all calculated to send a single message to the kneeling crowd: even the world’s most sought-after man, Xuanse Medicine King Ye Xiu, was nothing but a minor figure before him.
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