Chapter 1025: The price to pay

Suddenly, Wu Long’s eyes caught the face of a figure standing outside the entrance courtyard of the restaurant, peeking in.

He perceived him with Spiritual Sense before, but largely dismissed his presence.

But what he saw did make him pause.

He didn’t recognize the man, but could instantly see the glee and malice in his eyes.

That kind of malice was not something that someone has for complete strangers, so he knew he had to know him from somewhere, and as he searched through his memory, it finally, although vaguely, clicked in his head.

Wu Long’s figure disappeared, leaving Tiezhu Bo to kneel but for some reason not trying to get up, his right hand previously held up fell to the fine gravel below next to the other one as he continued looking to be in pain, unable to move freely.

This prompted the Iron Claw Group members to move forward, but the golden swords sprang forth, unleashing a golden flurry of precise strikes that forced them away again, restoring the standstill.

Meanwhile, Wu Long grabbed another figure by the throat, raising it up against the inside of the gate archway, narrowing his eyes, "You... I know you, don’t I?"

Huo Bai’s eyes widened with fear and pain as he felt numb from electricity running through his body, Wu Long’s hand on his throat restricting his breathing a bit, but not completely.

But after a few seconds of struggling, the reality of being caught finally settled, as he realized that he screwed up and there was no way out. And then something snapped in his mind.

His lips then curled up in a malicious sneer, as he looked at Wu Long with gloating eyes. "Khuh... ke ke ke, recognize me? Kh~... you just signed your death warrant, idiot. So what if you caught me... kehehe, you’re already done for. Do you even know who you messed with? You’re going to be very sorry soon! Ahaha! And it is because of me! Khahahaha! How is it, being cornered by a little me who you’ve effortlessly slapped away before, huh? Khahaha!"

"Yes, now I do seem to remember... you’re... Gwi Butang, right?"

"Khh~ WHO THE HELL IS GWI BUTANG?! I’m khek~... Huo Bai!!! Don’t... just randomly make up names!"

"Ah~, sorry, thought you’d be sour if I didn’t remember you in such a moment of your triumph", Wu Long shrugged his shoulders a bit guiltily, genuinely feeling a bit bad about not remembering someone who held such a deep grudge and was having his ’epic moment of revenge’, which prompted him to try and play along, and then added, "Close enough though, no?"

"That’s... khukh... even worse! And... not even a little close!!!", Huo Bai’s eyes were filled with raging flames.

"Anyway, now you had your moment, and I get the gist of what happened", Wu Long moved past the awkward moment in the conversation with a poker face as if the whole situation still held its solemnity and weight, "I have no use for you left, Gwi Butang. Farewell"

Gwi Butang opened his mouth to start replying, but powerful arcs of electricity shook him. Although they abruptly stopped right after.

"Oh, shit, that wasn’t the right name, right? It’s the one that I made...", Wu Long belatedly realized his slip up, making a guilty expression, but seeing it was too late, sighed, throwing away the corpse and walking back past the members of the Iron Claw Group who watched him with both horrified and wary eyes toward Tiezhu Bo.

"I have no use for you either now. I’ll be honest, I... don’t remember your name either, but at least I won’t be making up any, plus you didn’t name yourself so you can’t blame me", Wu Long walked in front of Tiezhu Bo inside whom he left a loop of Sustained Charge Lightning, and crouched.

The latter raised his head to look at him with bloodshot, and enraged eyes. But now there was distinct fear in them as he realised from Huo Bai’s death that Wu Long wasn’t just bluffing. He knew exactly who they were and he was still going to kill him.

Arcs of lightning appeared around Wu Long’s hand, that stretched forward, toward Tirzhu Bo’s head, but then halted.

Wu Long’s eyes then moved up toward a figure that appeared a moment after his eyes turned to that spot, "You’re quite late, Gwi-... that guy over there must’ve called you over quite a while ago. Also, wasn’t it restricted to fly within the City limits?"

"What the hell is happening here?!", the man in 8th level Essence Gathering Realm who appeared above was Go Ritian, who watched the scene with maddened eyes as he shouted.

"Consequences", Wu Long sighed, his hand continuing its path.

"Don’t!", the Chief of the Iron Claw Group shot toward him with a roar containing both rage and desperation, but a blinding light caused him to pause, and shield his eyes with his right hand, while the left one in the clawed gauntlet was still outstretched as before.

A bolt of lightning connected heaven and earth, as the sudden boom of thunder made everyone in the vicinity jump in a scare.

Go Ritian floated down with a face full of despair as he looked at the smoking black corpse that fell on its side, arcs of lightning still dancing around it. He fell down to his knees in front of it, stretching out his slightly trembling hands but halting without reaching it.

And then his gaze turned into one of anger and violence as he turned them up to the man who was now standing not far in front.

"You will pay for this", he spoke in a low growling voice.

"You’re not the one entitled to be angry here", Wu Long’s eyes and tone turned cold, the arrogance of young masters he could go past, but not of grown men who should know better, "And if you are angry anyway, blame the one you’re kneeling in front of for his stupidity, the price for it that you seek, as you can see, has already been paid though. I advise you to take his remains and leave here quietly"

"Heh,don’t get cocky, youngster. You’re only alive because I can’t seem to make up my mind if the price I will pay to this boy’s father will be made lighter if I bring only your head to him, or bring you alive so he could do with you as he pleases himself"

"I said", Wu Long’s voice resounded behind Go Ritian, quite close as he leaned a bit down, "I advise you to leave quietly"

Only arcs of lightning dancing on a flat stone were left where Wu Long stood before, reflected in widely open eyes of Go Ritian, whose entire left arm encased in the gauntlet fell down to the ground, the wound scorched and the thick metallic parts of the Spiritual Treasure glowing with heat as sparks of electricity flashed atop.

Wu Long held a sword, the blade of which was completely encased with a thin layer of light, occasional sparks revealing it was concentrated lightning.

"Aaargh!", Chief of the Iron Claw Group clenched his shoulder with his right hand.

Meanwhile Wu Long proceeded to move around him and walk toward Nie Xiwang, raising the sword to look at it, or rather at the blade of lightning around it with a pondering expression, "Hmm, I wanted to leave damage on the shoulderplate, not cut the arm off... to cut through a 2nd-tier Profound Grade protective treasure so smoothly... perhaps it’s a better technique than I gave it credit for... although it’s still questionable how it would perform against a fully active defense or another weapon instead..."

He stopped, turning around and eyeing the weapons of the members of Iron Claw Group who were kept at bay by the golden swords, sowing horror in their eyes as they began throwing down their blades and hurriedly try to remove the gauntlets.

"Tsk, I didn’t even say anything... I just looked... what am I, a maniac?", he muttered with a bit of dejection at such a strong reaction, and then turned his gaze to Go Ritian, "Now you’ve paid the price as well. I’ll give you a second chance to leave quietly. There won’t be a third"

The latter now looked at him with fear, and hurriedly collected the corpse to his Spatial Ring.

However, as his Spiritual Sense reached for the severed arm, Wu Long’s sword still encased in lightning pierced the arm pinning it to the ground, "I said you paid the price"

Go Ritian didn’t argue, hurriedly commanding the rest of the Iron Claw Group members to retreat and going with them, only now noticing Ko Gunwen amid the chaos, the latter starting at the darkened spot that Tiezhu Bo was struck at.

’I... was lucky’, was his thought, as he realized, that it could have been him.