The five Elders of the Crimson Fang stood like statues carved from malice, their weapons humming with spiritual energy. Their knuckles were white, their gazes locked on Li Yu’s throat.

  They were coiled springs, waiting for a single twitch of Patriarch Cyrus’s finger to unleash a torrent of destruction that would turn the Alliance Headquarters into a crater. They had heard enough and there was no way they would let this boy go.

  Li Yu stood relaxed with his hands behind his head. It didn’t look like he was ready to fight or thought a fight would break out at all. Tekton was growling low in his throat above him in the sky.

  Everyone watched Cyrus. Valen, still on his knees, held his breath until his lungs burned. Torben gripped the hilt of his sword. He was still debating internally if he should get involved in this. Shen Tu’s eyes were narrowed to slits, his cultivation swirling silently, ready to erect a barrier to save the bystanders if needed.

  Cyrus raised his hand.

  The Elders tensed, their spiritual pressure spiking. This was it. The kill order. But the hand didn’t slash downward in a command to attack. Instead, it turned palm up, fingers relaxing in a gesture of placidity.

  “You make a compelling point, young friend,” Cyrus managed to say.

  The silence that followed was heavier than the killing intent had been. It was the silence of absolute confusion. There were many thoughts going through everyone’s head but not a single person thought this would be what Patriarch Cyrus would decide on.

  The red aura surrounding the Patriarch receded, sucked back into his body with practiced control. The grandfatherly mask which had slipped moments ago was firmly back in place. However, the eyes behind it remained as cold as a frozen lake.

  “We are civilized men and a pillar of this great continent.” Cyrus continued to say. His voice was smooth, though a keen ear could hear the grinding of teeth beneath the words. “Fighting here would indeed damage the Alliance’s infrastructure. It would be… counterproductive to the war effort.”

  Li Yu raised an eyebrow. “So?”

  “So,” Cyrus said, forcing a smile that looked painful. “If it is compensation you require to settle this grievance, then the House of Crimson Fang is magnanimous enough to provide it. We are not unreasonable. We can admit when a junior has been wronged. We care about the people of this continent.”

  A collective gasp rippled through the onlookers.

  They were paying? The Crimson Fang? The clan known for taking what they wanted and crushing anyone who whispered a complaint was actually going to pay extortion money to a young man? After being openly insulted and talked down to?

  It was unthinkable. It was historic. It also didn’t seem right to many of the people here.

  Cyrus turned to the Elder on his right, a burly man holding a massive jagged hammer. “Elder Brek. Your ring.”

  The Elder’s eyes bulged. “Patriarch?”

  “Your ring,” Cyrus repeated. “And yours, Elder Halo. And yours.”

  He moved down the line. The five Elders looked as though they had been slapped. Their faces flushed with humiliation and rage but under the absolute authority of the Patriarch, they dared not disobey. With trembling hands and utter confusion, they pulled the spatial rings from their fingers.

  Cyrus collected them. He took out his own ring, an ornate band of black metal and began the process of transferring items.

  For a full minute, the only sound in the square was the soft shimmer of spatial energy as Cyrus moved mountains of wealth from the Elders’ rings into a single, high-capacity storage ring. He was consolidating their liquid assets.

  It was a display of dominance. They had so much wealth that it took so long to consolidate. But at the same time it was also of surrender. Many looked on in awe at what they were witnessing. Could they ever see such a scene again in their lifetime? Many were punching their arms into the air inside their heads.

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  Finally, Cyrus held up a simple silver band. He flicked his wrist and the ring arced through the air, glinting in the sunlight. Li Yu caught it with one hand, not even looking at it as it landed in his palm.

  “Check it,” Cyrus said. “You will find it… sufficient.”

  Li Yu sent a strand of spiritual sense into the ring.

  His eyebrows shot up.

  It was a dragon’s hoard. Inside the small pocket of space there were mountains of high-grade spirit stones that were glowing with pure energy. There were crates of rare spiritual herbs, ingots of different types of metals and vials of pills that could drive mortal cultivators into a frenzy of greed. The value was indeed impressive.

  Li Yu withdrew his senses and looked at Cyrus. He was genuinely surprised.

  ‘He actually stopped,’ Li Yu thought. ‘He was ready to kill me. He wanted to kill me. But he stopped.’

  Li Yu’s gaze drifted over Cyrus’s tense posture. He saw the way the Patriarch’s eyes were scanning him. Not with fear but with intense, calculating scrutiny.

  ‘Ah. I see.’

  Li Yu smiled internally as he most likely figured it out. It wasn’t mercy. It was fear of the unknown.

  Cyrus was a man who had survived for centuries by being a predator and a successful predator never attacked prey it didn’t understand. Li Yu had hidden his cultivation perfectly. He had mocked an 8th Level Soul Formation expert to his face. He was doing things many thought was impossible and did so without any fear.

  To Cyrus, Li Yu was a black box that he couldn’t see inside. Was he a hidden master in disguise? Did he have a powerful guardian nearby? Was he a trap set by a rival faction?

  Cyrus was paying not to settle the debt, but to buy safety and more importantly time. He was thinking: ‘Give the boy the money. Let him leave. Watch him. Find out who he is. And once I know his weakness… hunt him down and take it all back, plus his life.’

  It was a loan, not a payment.

  Many in the crowd, the smarter ones like Shen Tu and Torben, realized this as well. They saw the gleam in Cyrus’s eye. This was a tactical retreat. He would lose face now and then murder Li Yu later. Probably parade his body around for all to see what happens to those that went against the Crimson Fang.

  “Is it enough?” Cyrus asked. “That represents a significant portion of the assets we carry on us. We have met your price, surely.”

  Li Yu looked at the ring and then at Cyrus. He tossed the ring up and down in his hand with the metal clinking rhythmically as he did so.

  Some thought he should take it. It was a fortune. He could walk away now, rich and victorious. It was the logical move. Many more people thought taking it was as good as buying your ticket to the after life. There was no way the Crimson Fang would take this and leave him alone.

  But Li Yu looked at the arrogance hidden deep in Cyrus’s eyes. He looked at Valen, who was still kneeling on the ground. He had the look of a man who knew he was going to die either way. Whether it was Li Yu that killed him or Cyrus, he would definitely die for the trouble he caused.

  Li Yu hated bullies. And he really, really hated people who thought they could buy him off while planning to stab him in the back later. He knew better and he was definitely not going to let it end like this.

  “Enough?” Li Yu repeated.

  He stopped tossing the ring and closed his fist over it.

  “Patriarch Cyrus,” Li Yu said, his voice dripping with sudden and confused innocence. “I think there has been a misunderstanding.”

  Cyrus frowned. “What? What could it be now?”

  “I told you not to take me for a beggar,” Li Yu said. He gestured vaguely toward Shen Tu. “Did you not hear? I just turned in a mountain of beast corpses. I have a lot of merit points. I have wealth. I have resources.”

  Li Yu held up the ring between two fingers. He was looking at it with a mixture of pity and disdain.

  “You throw this… allowance at me and expect me to be grateful? You think this paltry sum compensates me for the emotional trauma of being threatened by your dog? For the delay of my lunch?”

  Cyrus’s face darkened. The veins in his neck began to bulge. “That ring contains wealth that many sects around here can only dream to have. You call that paltry?!”

  Li Yu blinked. He looked at the ring again and then at Cyrus. Then, he slapped his forehead with his free hand.

  “Oh!” Li Yu exclaimed loudly. “Oh, I understand now! I am so sorry! I have not been considerate!”

  He looked at Cyrus with wide sympathetic eyes.

  “I didn’t realize… I didn’t realize the House of Crimson Fang was struggling so much. Have you fallen on hard times? Is this really all you could scrape together?”

  Li Yu shook his head sadly as he looked at the crowd.

  “Everyone, look. The great Patriarch Cyrus has emptied his pockets for me. He has given me his life savings. And here I was, demanding proper compensation. How inconsiderate of me to demand water from a dried-up well. I truly feel ashamed. Please forgive me everyone, I didn’t know!.”

  Stunned silence. Complete, suffocating silence.