I finished typing everything out by 6:30 PM, only to have the network cut out. Absolutely infuriating.

... After flashing his identity, Nangong Qiao stood still, a faint smile playing on his lips, waiting for his opponent to crawl over obediently, putting on all sorts of charming poses, tempting and seducing him—that was always the tactic women employed, wasn't it?

However, this time he realized he was wrong, and profoundly so! Slap!

A sharp, loud smack echoed through every corner of the private room, the reverberations lingering in the air. Nangong Qiao’s neck bent at a ninety-degree angle; his cervical vertebrae shattered.

Teeth were knocked free from his mouth, bouncing off the floor. Half his face swelled alarmingly, blooming into a mottled purple-red.

The two bodyguards behind Nangong Qiao stood frozen, completely forgetting to intervene. Even Nangong Qiao himself stared wide-eyed, his expression a mask of shock and bewilderment.

Stunned! He stared blankly at Ye Zhu, who had materialized before him like a phantom.

It took him a long moment to snap back to reality. The searing pain across his face felt like being branded with fire; half his cheek was nearly numb.

She actually hit me? Nangong Qiao glared at Ye Zhu, his eyes practically spitting flames.

Since childhood, he had been coddled by his father. In school, when a classmate so much as brushed against him, his father would hire someone to beat the offender half to death.

Even if he scored zero on an exam, his father wouldn't scold him; instead, he’d confront the teacher, blaming them for incompetence and misleading students. This was the first time he had ever been struck!

And Ye Zhu’s slap had been anything but gentle; she’d knocked out his teeth, and his head throbbed from the minor concussion. An unprecedented rage ignited in his chest.

He stared at Ye Zhu, horrified and furious, his face twisted into something menacing and feral, like a wounded vicious wolf. “Bitch, you—you dare strike me!!!” Ye Zhu’s demeanor was icy.

The gentle expression on her delicate features vanished, replaced by a frost so cold it could freeze the air. She spoke with a chilling voice, "This slap is a warning.

Don't shout at my brother. You are not qualified to give him orders!" At the dining table, Bai Long and the others were taken aback.

They hadn't expected the usually gentle and submissive Ye Zhu, with her touch of stubbornness, to possess such an aggressive side, almost as if Ye Chen had possessed her; she made no hesitation in taking action. Ye Chen, sitting beside her, managed a wry smile.

If they knew that this girl had once slammed her hands on a desk during a confrontation with the homeroom teacher over a trivial matter, they would realize she was far more than just a top student who paid attention in class and reviewed her textbooks afterward. Ye Chen still remembered that incident vividly.

He had been called into the office that day, facing the homeroom teacher’s stern, rigid face. He had meekly admitted he hadn't brought his homework, which the teacher refused to believe, coldly remarking things like, "No manners, a liar." Coincidentally, his sister, worried about him, had overheard the exchange just outside the office.

Like a fuel canister ignited, she erupted. Ye Chen hadn't cared much for such comments; he usually let things roll off his back, especially since he was somewhat timid then and preferred de-escalation.

But for his sister, who deeply respected their parents, that word struck a raw nerve. She burst in, slamming her palm onto the desk with such domineering force that the teacher jumped in shock.

Even the other teachers in the office turned to stare, unable to believe that Ye Zhu—the student with top marks, the attentive listener beloved by all her instructors—could commit the astonishing act of striking the homeroom teacher’s desk! Not only had she hit the desk, but she had also verbally lashed out, her rhetoric so sharp it left the teacher flushed with shame.

Thus, while this girl was gentle and kind, she was discerning about whom she showed it to. Cross her line, and the consequences were dire...

At that moment, Nangong Qiao, staring at the frosty beauty before him, felt a surge of intense anger. Noticing his two bodyguards hesitating behind him, he snarled in frustration, "What are you staring at, you two useless lumps?

Grab this girl!" The two men snapped back to attention but didn't rush forward recklessly. Dealing in life-or-death situations, they were naturally more cautious than Nangong Qiao.

They had instantly registered that they hadn't even clearly perceived the speed of the girl's attack! Based on this detail alone, cold sweat beaded on their palms, leaving them hesitant about how to proceed.

Nangong Qiao, still dazed by the blow, missed this crucial detail. Seeing his subordinates looking hesitant to attack, his rage intensified.

"You two good-for-nothings, I feed you for nothing!" Ye Chen glanced at him and shook his head slightly. "Kill them," he said, his tone as casual as if he were asking someone to slice a cucumber.

The two bodyguards beside Nangong Qiao stared at the group at the table in dismay. They suddenly noticed that everyone there looked relaxed, without a trace of anxiety, as if they were watching a frenzied monkey, with amusement flickering in their eyes.

This was clearly not an act. The hearts of the two bodyguards began to sink slowly.

Nangong Qiao, driven to madness by anger, laughed coldly instead. "Kill me?

You country bumpkin! Wipe the filth from your eyes and look at who I am!

If you dare touch a single hair on my head, I will..." The tirade abruptly choked off. A slender hand clamped around his throat, lifting his entire body.

He struggled desperately but found himself unable to break free from the girl's grip. A flicker of shock surfaced, quickly smothered by rage.

Power wasn't everything to him; the two powerful men beside him were still utterly subservient to his will, weren't they? Crack!

Ye Zhu squeezed harder, snapping Nangong Qiao’s throat. The spoiled heir died instantly, without even time for a scream, his eyes wide with disbelief that Ye Chen and the others actually dared to kill him!

Ye Zhu showed no mercy to the intellectually deficient Nangong Qiao. She rapidly channeled her energy, enveloping his body, and swiftly absorbed all the Vitality of Life within him.

A faint white light emanated, shrouding the skeletal corpse. With a flash, the body disintegrated into fine dust, leaving absolutely no trace behind.

The two bodyguards watched Nangong Qiao killed instantly and his body annihilated. Their pupils contracted; they stared at Ye Zhu with terror and stammered, "I, I promise I won't tell anyone, please..." Ye Zhu felt no pity.

She knew that if she let these men leave, endless retaliation would follow. Though she didn't fear it, being constantly bothered by flies was never pleasant.

If you offend someone, you must offend them to death! This was Ye Chen’s way of doing things—never letting anyone who held a grudge against them leave unharmed.

"Run!" "No—" Realizing begging was useless, the two bodyguards pointed toward the window behind Ye Zhu, then, regardless of whether she fell for it, they broke into a desperate sprint, aiming to burst out of the private room and alert the people outside, believing that would bring safety. However, the door, seemingly within reach, was suddenly impossibly far away.

Just as their hands were about to grasp the handle, their heads exploded. Both dead!

Accustomed to frequently hunting zombies and dissecting their remains, Ye Zhu was already desensitized to the gore before her. She merely frowned slightly, then channeled her power, swallowing the Vitality of Life from both corpses and purifying the remains into ash.

"It’s a miracle this man lived this long," Bai Long sighed, defeated by Nangong Qiao's lack of intelligence. Zhuge Fan smiled but said nothing.

It was unrealistic to expect someone who had been cheered by beautiful women everywhere he went since childhood, whose rivals his father had beaten into bruised pigs, and who had never faced true adversity, to possess profound cunning. Even if he occasionally reflected or managed a moment of realization, his father’s doting comfort would quickly sweep those thoughts aside.

In this respect, he differed greatly from other second-generation heirs; most young masters of wealthy families possessed some degree of scheming, like that Guo Feng. Having cleared up the disturbance, the group continued their pleasant meal, their moods undisturbed by another person's mistakes.

Not long after, the door to the private room slid open, and a tall, imposing man entered. He wore a Western suit outside, with soft beast hide armor underneath.

His bearing carried the particular charm of a successful man—a temperament that couldn't be quickly cultivated. He paused when he saw Ye Chen and the others at the table, then smiled faintly.

"Gentlemen, I'm looking for Nangong Qiao. I have some business with him." "He left," Bai Long said casually, immediately returning to wrestling with Yue Heng over a piece of roasted meat.

The man in the suit frowned slightly but quickly masked it with a smile. He said no more, but as he turned, he subtly surveyed the room, finding no trace of Nangong Qiao.

A trace of suspicion flashed in his eyes. Soon, the man in the suit arrived in the hotel lobby and instructed a young woman, "Go notify the Nangong Guild that their young master has gone missing here." The woman nodded in agreement and turned to leave.

The man in the suit glanced back, frowned. "Xiaomei isn't bold enough to lie to me, and everyone else saw that spoiled brat Nangong Qiao.

It should be true." After the man in the suit departed, Ye Chen hastened his eating pace, finishing quickly. "Let's go!" Bai Long stuffed mouthfuls into his mouth, asking in surprise, "So fast?" "That second-generation fool's father will probably send people over soon," Ye Chen remarked casually.

"Should I leave first and you cover the rear?" Bai Long rolled his eyes, then asked curiously, "How do you know he wasn't silenced?" "That manager must have gone to report," Ye Chen replied offhandedly. Bai Long blinked.

"That person was the manager?" Ye Chen glanced at him. "There was a manager's badge on his chest." Bai Long blinked dumbly.

He hadn't noticed such details. He managed a weak smile, and then the group quickly packed up, paid a nominal fee for the condiments, and left the hotel.

"How much longer until we reach those ruins?" Bai Long asked curiously as they walked. "Just a few days, approximately," Ye Chen replied casually.

Bai Long pouted. "That's as good as saying nothing." Just then, a sudden commotion arose, accompanied by many voices shouting for way to be cleared.

Some bystanders, confused, started to get angry, but upon seeing the medals pinned to the chests of the approaching group, they forcibly swallowed their protests. These were the elite fighters of the Nangong Guild!