Torben clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle a hysterical laugh. Shen Tu’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

  Li Yu turned back to Cyrus, his voice taking on a tone one would use with a slow child.

  “I apologize, Patriarch. I didn’t know you and your house were poor. If I had known the Crimson Fang was barely making ends meet, I wouldn’t have asked for money. It feels like stealing from the destitute.”

  Crack.

  The stone beneath Cyrus’s feet pulverized into dust. He didn’t move but the sheer weight of his fury crushed the slab he was standing on. He couldn’t remember the last time he and his house was ever insulted in such a way. No, there had never been such a thing. That was impossible.

  “You…” Cyrus hissed. The air around him began to boil red. The sky darkened once again.

  “But!” Li Yu interrupted him as he raised a finger. “I am a fair man. Since you don’t have enough money, we can make up the difference with assets.”

  Li Yu pointed at the Elders behind Cyrus.

  “Leave your clothes,” Li Yu said cheerfully. “And your weapons. And your armor. High-level spiritual artifacts fetch a good price on the market. If you strip down and leave everything here, I will consider the debt paid.”

  “You are courting death you idiot!" Elder Brek roared. He charged forward with his hammer raised.

  “Enough!” Cyrus barked.

  The shout was infused with spiritual power, slamming into everyone’s chest. Elder Brek froze mid charge.

  Cyrus was trembling. It wasn’t fear. It was the herculean effort required to keep himself from obliterating everything around him. His reputation was in tatters. He was being asked to strip naked, metaphorically and literally in front of the entire Alliance.

  He had to kill him. He had to kill him now. Cyrus took a deep breath. His eyes flashed with a sinister light.

  “You want assets?” Cyrus said with an eerily calm. “Fine. You are greedy, boy. Greed kills more cultivators than old age. Heroes die young because of greed, you know.”

  “Don’t worry about me old man, I plan to live for a very long time.” Li Yu didn’t miss a chance to provoke him more.

  Cyrus produced another ring from his sleeve. It was smaller and made of bone.

  “This ring,” Cyrus said as he was holding it up. “Contains the core of a Void-Fire Beast. It is a very valuable treasure of my House. It is worth more than everything in that other ring combined. If you want it… take it.”

  He didn’t throw it.

  “Elder Vokin,” Cyrus said.

  A thin, wiry Elder with a face like a rat stepped forward. He held a pair of green daggers that dripped with a corrosive venom.

  “Take this to our… young friend,” Cyrus commanded. “Hand it to him personally. We must show him the proper courtesy, so he does not think we are lacking in manners.”

  The crowd shifted uneasily. This was wrong. Everyone knew it was wrong. It was so obviously a trap that it almost didn’t seem like one.

  A Patriarch throwing a ring was standard. Sending an Elder to walk twenty meters to hand-deliver it? That was a breach of safety distance. That was closing the gap.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Li Yu watched Elder Vokin approach. The Elder moved with a deceptive slowness, his feet gliding over the ground. He held the bone ring between his thumb and forefinger and his other hand hanging loosely by his side near his daggers. He wasn’t even trying to hide it.

  ‘Why go through all this trouble with such horrible acting? He thinks I’m stupid,’ Li Yu thought, watching the man come closer. ‘He thinks because I’m young, I’ll be blinded by the promise of treasures. That I have been winning since meeting them that I would let down my guard. He wants to get an Elder within striking distance to test my reaction speed. Or just to kill me instantly.’

  Li Yu didn’t move. He stood his ground as a small smile played on his lips. Let them think they perhaps won.

  ‘Tekton,’ Li Yu whispered. ‘Stay. Don’t interfere for now. You will know when to act.’

  The massive beast acknowledged his command but didn’t move from where he was.

  Elder Vokin stopped two feet away from Li Yu. The smell of the Elder was acrid, like old blood and chemicals. His eyes were dead and devoid of anything but murderous intent.

  “Here,” Vokin rasped. He extended his hand. “The Patriarch’s gift.”

  Li Yu reached out to take the ring.

  The moment Li Yu’s fingers brushed the ring, the world seemed to slow down.

  Vokin’s eyes snapped wide. The "gift" was the signal.

  ZING!

  Vokin’s left hand moved insanely fast. The green dagger slashed upward as it was aiming directly for Li Yu’s heart. At this range, evasion was impossible for most. Many couldn’t believe he let the elder get that close to him. The blade was coated in a neurotoxin that could melt a nascent soul in seconds.

  The blade passed through Li Yu’s chest and he fell backwards. Vokin grinned. A feral and triumphant expression. “What a fool, a young boy blinded by greed and hasn't seen the world.” He shouted.

  But then he realized something was wrong. There was no resistance. No spray of blood. No sound of tearing flesh.

  The dagger passed through Li Yu and he fell backwards but he felt no impact at all. Vokin stumbled forward, his momentum carrying him through where Li Yu used to be and the Li Yu falling backwards was nowhere to be seen.

  “An afterimage?” Vokin gasped as he spun around.

  “Too slow,” a voice whispered.

  It didn’t come from behind him. It came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

  Li Yu was standing ten meters back from where he originally was but he was already in the first layer of the void.

  “You people are so predictable,” Li Yu called out. He was holding the bone ring he had snatched from Vokin’s hand in the split second before the attack. “Thanks for the tip.”

  Cyrus’s eyes widened. He hadn’t even seen the movement from Li Yu. He didn’t know when he moved and more importantly did not know where he was. This was absolutely terrifying to him as he had always been in control in battle.

  “Find him! Kill him!” Cyrus roared as he abandoned all pretense. “Kill him now!”

  The five Elders auras erupted like volcanoes. They were preparing to fight but did not know where the opponent was. Cyrus himself raised a hand, gathering a ball of crimson lightning that crackled with the power many had never felt before.

  WOOOOOOOM.

  The sound wasn't loud. It was deep. It vibrated in the marrow of everyone’s bones. The air around the Elders and Cyrus suddenly turned gray.

  The blue sky and the stone ground, everything became a flat monochromatic gray to the elders and Cyrus. They were brought into the first Layer of the void.

  To those watching, the six of them simply vanished and disappeared. Li Yu and Tekton was also gone. No one dared to move any closer, everyone stood exactly where they were and probed around.

  Li Yu had been setting void runes since he began his conversation with Valen. It was never in his plan to let this matter end. From the very beginning till now, their death was sealed. It was only a matter of when and where. After talking with them for a bit, Li Yu decided that it will be here. For all to witness their defeated forms after he was done.

  Valen was still on his knees, staring at the empty space where his master had been. The crowd stood paralyzed, their brains struggling to process the impossible.

  Torben stared at the empty spot. He blinked once. Twice.

  “Did he…” Torben whispered. “Did he just kidnap the entire leadership of the Crimson Fang?”

  Shen Tu let out a long shaky breath. “No,” Shen Tu said softly. “A kidnapping would mean that they could be returned alive. I think this might be the last time we see them breathing. Or at least this will be the last time we see them with any kind of cultivation.”

  His words stunned the crowd. Everyone continued to wait where they were but that didn’t stop their mouths. Gossip was happening between everyone as they waited for their return.