Chapter 57: I Gave You a Chance

"Aren’t you supposed to be tough? Get up and fight back, damn it!" Zhang Tianfeng let out a wild, raucous laugh, the humiliation of that night forgotten. For this scion from the capital, the act of trampling the strong beneath his feet brought him a manic exhilaration.

Not far away, Ye Fei’s body was covered in dust, yet he made no move to resist. Under the dim night, his eyes glimmered coldly, their chill sharpened by the darkness. In normal times, with his skills, he’d be able to cripple the man before him in the blink of an eye. But he did nothing.

To Zhang Tianfeng, this meant Ye Fei had been utterly ruined by A-Gui, unable even to lift a finger in self-defense.

"Pathetic," Zhang Tianfeng spat, his laughter dying as boredom crept into his expression. But soon, as if recalling something, his lips curled into a cruel grin. "A-Gui, I heard your Hunter Academy has a special method of execution—catching deserters, beheading them, and filming the whole thing for their families. I’ve never seen anything like that. Why don’t you put on a show for me?"

A-Gui said nothing, only nodded slightly, his boot pressing down on Ye Fei’s head. With a satisfied sneer, he drew a gleaming military knife from his pocket, ran his tongue along its edge, and set it gently against Ye Fei’s neck.

"No… please don’t… Stop… Zhang Tianfeng! Let him go! Let him go! I’ll do anything, just don’t kill him! He’s my junior apprentice!"

A trembling, desperate voice shattered the stillness of the night. Lin Qiqing, her cheeks streaked with tears, bit down on her lip as she pleaded with Zhang Tianfeng.

"Oh?" Zhang Tianfeng turned, intrigued. "So the proud and mighty heroine finally knows how to bow her head? Ha!"

"Yes," Lin Qiqing replied, closing her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Zhang Tianfeng, as long as you let my junior apprentice go, I’ll do anything you want. Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted… to have me? I’ll give you what you want. Just let him go!"

A sharp slap rang out.

"You filthy woman! Do you really think you’re in any position to negotiate with me?" Zhang Tianfeng snarled. "I used to treat you with courtesy out of respect, but in the capital, you’d be nothing more than one of my many playthings! I’ll do whatever I want with you!"

Stunned by the pain blazing across her cheek, Lin Qiqing’s eyes went vacant. Zhang Tianfeng raised his hand to his nose, inhaled the lingering fragrance on his palm, and grinned wickedly. His fingers traced the flushed skin of her neck. "But I’ve never tried someone of your caliber in the wild before. Since you want it so badly, I’ll indulge you tonight."

"But just doing it this way is boring," he sneered. "It’ll be much more fun to let your precious junior watch as I have you…" With that, he gestured at A-Gui.

A-Gui hesitated, then sheathed his knife and lifted Ye Fei’s head to face Lin Qiqing.

Beneath the lights, Ye Fei’s face was battered and caked with blood.

"Look at you, you useless dog! What good is being a fighter? In this world, power and status make the king! If I want you dead, all it takes is a word. Isn’t that right, Lin Qiqing?" Zhang Tianfeng gripped her chin, lust gleaming in his eyes. The knife in his hand slid along her clothes, its razor edge splitting silk to reveal pale skin beneath.

"Let him go… Let my junior apprentice go… I’ll undress myself!" Lin Qiqing, her beautiful face twisted in humiliation, never forgot Ye Fei, eyes squeezed shut as she begged.

"I told you," Zhang Tianfeng growled, "you have no right to bargain. You are nothing but a toy for my pleasure. Shut your mouth and savor what’s coming. When your junior has witnessed this little feast, he can be on his way. If you resist, those extra minutes of life you just bought him will be forfeit."

Laughing, Zhang Tianfeng caressed Lin Qiqing’s neck and began to unfasten his pants.

But no one noticed that, as Ye Fei lay bleeding on the ground, his eyes grew colder, merging with the icy moon overhead.

In the next instant—

A-Gui, gripping Ye Fei’s hair, suddenly felt an unnatural chill pierce his body. The surrounding air plummeted to freezing. An overwhelming killing intent coiled around him.

A sudden flash!

A-Gui’s head tumbled to the ground. A short, gleaming blade had somehow appeared in Ye Fei’s grasp.

His arm, twisted at an unnatural angle, gleamed under the moonlight as he effortlessly severed A-Gui’s head. Blood sprayed forth.

Then—snap. Snap. Snap.

The sound of bones mending themselves echoed in the quiet night, sharp and relentless.

"What’s that sound?" Zhang Tianfeng muttered, frowning, oblivious to what had just transpired. He turned around—and froze at the sight.

A headless corpse, a round, rolling head, and a pillar of blood fountaining up. And from the ground, a battered, frail figure slowly rising, body crackling as it healed.

"What!?" Zhang Tianfeng’s pupils contracted in terror. After taking such a beating, he could still get up? Was this even humanly possible?

Before he could react, before the knife in his hand could reach Lin Qiqing’s throat, the figure on the ground suddenly sprang upright, leaping behind him and seizing him by the neck.

"I… gave you a chance," Ye Fei intoned, each word cold and precise. "But you… clearly didn’t treasure it."

Zhang Tianfeng felt every hair on his body stand up. The terror radiating from the man in front of him was unlike anything he’d ever known—a chilling aura, as if Ye Fei had crawled out of a mass grave, suffused the air and wrapped itself around him.

"Ugh… cough… cough, cough, cough!" The agony in his throat set Zhang Tianfeng thrashing wildly. Eyes wide with fear, he stammered, "How… how the hell… did you get up…? Didn’t they break your arms and legs…?"