Chapter Ninety-Eight: A Partner? Heavens! It all looked like a rather infamous knoll in the northeastern part of the city.

The grass was verdant, flowers bloomed in profusion, and towering oaks encircled a level stretch of lawn where over a thousand white marble headstones faced the ocean before them.

This was the Gu family mausoleum.

All direct descendants of the Gu family were interred here upon their passing.

Three black sedans glided along the paved road outside the mausoleum gates toward the main entrance. The sunroofs were open, allowing the brilliant sunlight to spill over Gu Xichen.

In a suit of black, a cape of black, gloves of black, a bow tie of black, and shoes of black, Gu Xichen was clad today in an ensemble so utterly black it seemed to suffocate the air around him.

A faint melancholy clung to his person; the bouquet of white tulips he held in his hands appeared, somehow, to be weeping as well.

The driver was Penghua, his entire musculature taut with tension, his hands fumbling awkwardly as he manipulated the steering wheel, the accelerator, and the gear selector.

This automobile was an exceedingly rare, purely handcrafted, antique gasoline-powered vehicle. Compared to the popular grav-flyers and energy-engine cars of the day, its operation was significantly more complex.

Though this was Peng Hua’s first time piloting such a vintage machine, even his superhuman strength was insufficient to keep him from feeling utterly clumsy and constrained.

Click-snap.

In a moment of sheer nervousness, Penghua wrenched the gear stick until it resembled a twisted piece of metal. He cursed the manufacturer with a low, furious growl.

Gu Xichen gazed serenely out the window, softly humming a slow, languid melody.

A procession of over twenty black sedans suddenly roared up from behind, traveling with outrageous arrogance, nearly scraping past Gu Xichen’s car as they surged ahead.

The lead vehicle in the charge was particularly brutal and domineering. Relying on an energy engine tens of times more powerful than the gasoline motor, its chassis was a dozen times heavier and sturdier. It roughly sideswiped Gu Xichen’s car, smashing the right-side rearview mirror clean off.

With heavy impacts between the vehicles, Gu Xichen’s sedan, caught between the cars in front and behind, was shoved violently off the roadway, nearly plunging down the slope and into the sea.

Penghua roared an oath.

He violently yanked the gear lever back.

He slammed the selector into the highest gear.

Then, he mashed the accelerator pedal down with brutal force.

Crack.

The pedal sank entirely into the floorboard under Penghua’s foot. The engine issued a deep, sullen roar, and in a mere three to five seconds, the car’s speed rocketed past 120 kilometers per hour.

“Hahahaha!” With a wild shriek of laughter from Penghua, the car slammed broadside into one of the sedans in the middle of the opposing fleet.

CRASH.

A tremendous explosion of sound ensued. The front end of the car disintegrated, and the black vehicle was flung airborne, tumbling over a dozen times before it struck a great oak tree head-on.

Penghua, still laughing maniacally, crashed through the sedan’s windshield and flew out like a bullet, covering over thirty meters before colliding with another tree. His neck snapped at a perfect ninety-degree angle.

Both fleets of cars braked hard simultaneously. Nearly a hundred lean, black-clad men poured out of the opposing vehicles, leveling their personal firearms at Gu Xichen’s group.

With a heavy kick, Gu Xichen sent the mangled car door flying. His face grim, he stepped out of the wrecked chassis while still cradling the bundle of white tulips.

The moment his toes touched the ground, more than a dozen rounds hammered into the pavement right before them.

A burly man pointed a finger at Gu Xichen and barked fiercely, “Hands up! Get on the ground, damn you, you’re looking for death!” A fireball, the size of a large head, whistled through the air, striking the brawny man dead center.

A massive boom followed, like the detonation of a large-caliber mortar shell. In the flash of fire, a dozen of the men were tossed high into the air.

However, these men had clearly all reached the realm of Innate Fighters. While the fireball’s force was significant, it only managed to blast the clothes off them, causing no real damage—save for the one who had been shouting commands, whose chest cavity suffered a massive area of scorched, missing flesh.

Sirene, Aduan, and Aruipaya emerged from the leading car. A wisp of blue smoke still curled around Aruipaya’s fingers; she had been the one to launch the fireball.

From the rear vehicle stepped Banruo and Mohe, accompanied by several other Innate Fighters from the Hardwood Corporation.

The two factions glared at each other, hostility thick in the air, the barrels of the guns remaining fixed on the vital points of Gu Xichen’s party.

Gu Xichen cast a cold glance over the mass of men. His eyes swept over the thumb-sized dragon insignia stitched onto their cuffs.

“The Gu Conglomerate. Such a grand display.” He sneered coldly. “With such a vast road, surely there’s room for more than just you?”

The sedan Penghua had struck suddenly disintegrated. Gu Juechen, wreathed in rising red light, stepped out with his two sons.

He shot Gu Xichen a dark look, then sneered, “The road is wide enough. But it depends on who is using it! This is the Gu family mausoleum. What business do you have here?” He shook his head slightly.

Gu Xichen suddenly pursed his lips and smiled. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Remember what Father taught us: Harmony brings wealth! Harmony brings wealth! With such a fiendish expression, you might scare off your guests, hehe. The Gu family mausoleum? You think I can’t come here? Even if I no longer hold shares in the Gu Conglomerate, I am still a member of the Gu family, am I not?”

Gu Juechen strode up to Gu Xichen, staring him down intensely. “You count yourself as Gu family? Little—” He reached out and flicked a speck of dust from the collar of Gu Juechen’s jacket.

Gu Xichen smiled faintly. “Don’t forget the agreement you struck with my Master. Waving weapons around like this shows utter disrespect to the two elders! Heh heh. Who says I’m not a Gu clan member? Did you say so? Can you strip me of my status as a Gu family ‘direct descendant’?”

Gu Juechen’s fists clenched tight. He trembled with fury as he stared at Gu Xichen.

Another convoy of sedans came roaring up. Seeing the disturbance, the fleet pulled to a halt over a hundred meters away, and a large contingent of black-clad figures rushed out of the cars.

This new arrival consisted entirely of direct and collateral members of the Gu family, including all of Gu Juechen’s sons, grandsons, and their spouses, among others. The collateral relatives stood further back, knowing well that the collateral branch held little real power within the Gu family structure.

Gu Juechen’s descendants swaggered forward, backed by at least three hundred Gu family warriors.

“What? Relying on numbers to bully me?” Gu Xichen raised his hand and slapped Gu Juechen’s shoulder. He smiled coldly, “Don’t forget, this is the Gu family mausoleum. I dare you to try and lay a finger on me here. Penghua, Senior Brother, call the New York Times editorial office. Tell them that Gu Jue, of the Gu Conglomerate, is assaulting his younger brother in front of their parents’ tombstone! All in the pursuit of family wealth!”