Chapter 41 - 36: Going Too Far

"I’m telling you, that’s enough. Don’t take it too far."

Chu Xiuxiu shot to her feet and said coldly. She then gave Shen Lang a meaningful look, trying to get him to leave with her.

She was Chu Qingcheng’s cousin, so of course she knew about Shen Lang’s relationship with her. Besides, their families were on good terms with Shen Lang’s, and she couldn’t stand by and watch him be bullied like this.

However, Shen Lang seemed not to have understood her glance. Instead of backing down, he stepped forward, walking a few paces toward Tang Chaotian and saying with a smile, "So, what your attendant meant was..."

"It’s what *I* meant! Calling you trash is a compliment. You’re a first-rate, idiotic piece of trash! How else could you be too stupid to understand what I’m saying?" Tang Chaotian cursed, glaring at Shen Lang out of the corner of his eye.

"Shen Lang, let’s go." Chu Xiuxiu’s face darkened as she came over and grabbed his hand, trying to pull him away. To her astonishment, even after yanking a few times, she couldn’t budge him an inch.

"Hold it. You think you can just scram that easily?" Tang Chaotian said sinisterly. "This piece of trash wasted our time. Does he really think he can just walk away?"

As Tang Chaotian spoke, he gave a look to Xu Ping, Xiao Qiyun, and the others. The young scions from those families immediately stood up, cutting Chu Xiuxiu off from Shen Lang and preventing her from getting any closer.

Chu Xiuxiu’s Cultivation was slightly higher than theirs, but this wasn’t the time to drop all pretenses. Besides, there were simply too many of them. They surrounded her completely, leaving her unable to move.

"So, what is it you want, Young Master Tian?" Shen Lang asked, still perfectly calm.

For some reason, the calmer Shen Lang’s expression was, the more enraged Tang Chaotian became.

This wasn’t the reaction he had wanted.

He wanted to see terror in Shen Lang’s eyes, to see him begging for mercy...

But right now, there was no trace of any of that.

’This piece of trash! How dare he be so calm in front of me? How dare he smile? He should be crying! He should be on his hands and knees, weeping and groveling before me!’

SLAM! Tang Chaotian smashed his hand on the table and shot to his feet. Planting one foot on the chair he’d just vacated, he said venomously, "It’s simple if you want to leave. Crawl between my legs, and you can walk right out of here. Otherwise, I’ll break your damn legs..."

Shen Lang said nonchalantly, "There’s no grudge between us. Why must you be so humiliating?"

"HAHAHAHA!"

"The trash is begging for mercy! He’s begging!"

"It’s too late for begging, haha!"

"Trash, cut the fucking crap and start crawling!"

The surrounding crowd roared with laughter, their taunts wild and unrestrained.

Shen Lang frowned and rubbed his chin. "Let me think about it."

"Good. You think it over carefully. I’m not usually this merciful," Tang Chaotian said with a smug grin.

"Yes, I do need to think carefully... about whether or not I should let any of you go," Shen Lang said with a smile.

"What did you say? You piece of trash—"

Before Tang Chaotian could finish, he felt a gust of wind on his face. A black shadow flashed, and Shen Lang, the "trash" he’d been mocking, was already in front of him like a phantom.

’How is this possible...?’

Tang Chaotian was stunned. Before he could react, he saw Shen Lang’s right leg lift high into the air and then slice down like an axe.

CRACK!

With the sound of splintering bone, the leg Tang Chaotian had propped on the chair went limp. A bloodcurdling scream, like a pig being slaughtered, immediately ripped through the air.

He thrashed on the ground, his agonizing shrieks making everyone’s blood run cold.

"You trash, how dare you harm my young master! Die!" Behind Shen Lang, the guard who had mocked him earlier drew a longsword and swung it straight down at his head.

At the same instant, Xu Ping, who had been blocking Chu Xiuxiu and was also behind Shen Lang, lunged forward with his own sword, his face twisted with malice. His thrust was aimed to kill!

Shen Lang sneered. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, he suddenly swiped his hands across a table, grabbing two chopsticks. He then sidestepped and took a step back. The guard’s arm landed on his shoulder as the longsword whistled past, missing its mark.

Meanwhile, Xu Ping’s sword strike grazed the hem of Shen Lang’s clothes.

Both men froze for a fraction of a second, but by the time they tried to switch tactics, it was already too late.

Shen Lang twisted his body. With a "SHUK! SHUK!", the two chopsticks struck the chests of the guard and Xu Ping.

Xu Ping and the guard stared in disbelief at the chopsticks embedded in their chests. Before a scream could even escape their lips, Shen Lang swung his right leg back in a powerful kick, sending another charging guard flying out the window.

Then, his right hand shot out like a bolt of lightning and yanked Xu Ping’s belt clean off. The very next second, as Xu Ping’s pants began to slide down, the belt in Shen Lang’s hand whipped through the air like a Divine Dragon. Before anyone could see what was happening, Xu Ping and the first guard were tied together and, with a casual toss from Shen Lang, thrown straight out the window.

Xu Ping’s pants, now falling, got snagged around his ankles. All the women in the room gasped and covered their eyes.

Many of the men, however, got a clear view. Xu Ping was a big guy, at least six feet tall, but down below... he was sporting a little button mushroom.

It looked like they now had some prime new material for mocking Xu Ping in the future.

After tossing the two men out, Shen Lang spun around. His right hand shot out and latched with perfect precision onto the Vein Gate of another attacker. With a flick of his wrist...

...the man’s own longsword twisted around and sliced clean through his arm!

"AHH!" The man clutched the stump of his arm and joined the chorus of screams, his cries rising and falling with Tang Chaotian’s in a gruesome duet.

Shen Lang was a man who returned favors in kind. If these people had only come at him with fists, he would have, at most, knocked them down with his own.

But for those who tried to kill him with swords and blades, he wouldn’t hesitate to cripple them directly.

’If you try to kill me, I’ll kill you first!’

In the blink of an eye, he had crippled the first few to charge him, including Xu Ping, a cultivator at the Qi Martial Realm Third Heaven!

With the guards from the City Lord’s Mansion out of the picture, the only ones left were the young scions from the various families. Why would they be willing to throw their lives away for Tang Chaotian?

Terrified, they all backed away as if Shen Lang were some Ancient Fierce Beast.

This Fierce Beast was smiling at them, but it was a smile that no ordinary person could withstand.

Many of them would have preferred him to look ferocious; anything was better than that smile.

As for Shen Fengyun, who knew him best, his mouth was hanging wide open, making a choked gasping sound. It was impossible to tell what he was trying to say.

"Everyone, please, sit down." Shen Lang was still smiling.

Having witnessed his terrifying skills, there was a great CLATTER and SHUFFLE as everyone scrambled back into their seats. Only Shen Lang and Chu Xiuxiu remained standing, motionless.

"Xiuxiu, you shouldn’t be here for this. Go on home. What’s about to happen isn’t going to be pretty, and it’s not for you to see." A flicker of warmth appeared in Shen Lang’s eyes as he spoke to Chu Xiuxiu.

Chu Xiuxiu opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. After a moment, she finally managed, "Shen Lang, be merciful where you can... And please, be careful."

With that, she turned and hurried down the stairs.

The moment Chu Xiuxiu was gone, Shen Lang’s gaze turned frigid. He gave the room a sweeping glance, and anyone who met his eyes felt a chill seep into their bones. It was the feeling of being targeted by a Fierce Beast, and many began to tremble uncontrollably.

Shen Lang casually flicked the longsword he’d acquired, tracing a light cut across Tang Chaotian’s other thigh. A spray of blood shot out...

At that very moment, Shen Lang’s left palm swept through the air as if it were boneless. A ball of Spirit Light flashed, and the spray of blood instantly enveloped it, coalescing into a Blood Ball that spun rapidly just above his palm.

"What... what is he doing?" Everyone stared, completely baffled.

Suddenly, with a slight movement of his palm, the rapidly spinning Blood Ball shot overhead. Then, with another gentle sweep of his left hand, the Blood Ball burst with a soft POP!, shattering into dozens of individual droplets that flew in all directions...

PLINK... PLINK... The scattered droplets landed with unerring accuracy in the wine cups before each person, the blood slowly dissolving into the liquid.

"This... that requires an immense amount of Divine Thought..." The crowd was dumbstruck, their eyes wide with terror.

’Is this really Shen Lang, the piece of trash?’

To control so many droplets of blood and make them land with perfect precision in all the surrounding cups... not even a master at the Sixth and Seventh Heavens of the Qi Martial Realm could necessarily do that!

Shen Lang dusted off his clothes, pulled over a chair, and sat down, a perfectly innocent, harmless smile on his face.

"Everyone, please, have a drink..."

The entire room was frozen, the expressions on everyone’s faces as stiff as stone.

The waiter, who had just peeked his head up the stairs, quickly ducked back down and went THUMP-THUMP-THUMPING back to the first floor.

Only the screams of Tang Chaotian and the disarmed guard continued to echo, rising and falling in a macabre competition, as if neither was willing to be outdone.

"It seems nobody understood what I said. But I don’t like repeating myself. What’s to be done?" Shen Lang said, looking annoyed as he pressed a fist to his temple.

Before anyone could react, the crowd watched as the fist he was pressing against his temple suddenly shot open, palm facing a member of the Xu Family across the room.

CRACKLE!

A fork of lightning shot from his palm and struck the Xu Family member on the head.

The man screamed as his hair stood on end. Smoking, he collapsed to the floor, his body twitching uncontrollably.

"Shen Lang, you’re taking this too far!" a large man yelled, slamming his hands on the table as he stood up.

CRACKLE!

The words had barely left his mouth when Shen Lang raised his palm again, unleashing another bolt of lightning.

The large man immediately joined the first victim, collapsing with smoke rising from his head. The two began a competition to see who could twitch more violently.

But just as the large man hit the floor, someone behind Shen Lang leaped into the air. A longsword moved as fast as a gale, and five beautiful plum blossoms bloomed in the air, instantly enveloping Shen Lang completely!