Chapter Forty: Ruthless

Chapter Forty: Ruthless

These men were clearly from the underworld; to offend them would mean a life of endless trouble. Shen An’s gaze settled on the man before him.

Tiger called him Brother Bai.

In Shen An’s perception, this man was an Awakened. Yet his strength was pitiful—he couldn’t even control his own aura. The elemental energy within him had already been detected by Shen An.

“Young Master Chen asked me to bring you back. Come with me.” Bai Liang obviously had no idea of Shen An’s true ability; in his eyes, Shen An was at best an ordinary fighter with brute force.

Such a person would never catch Young Master Chen’s eye.

Still, since this was Chen’s order, he had no choice but to obey—or else the consequences would be dire, and he didn’t have the nerve to go against them.

“Brother Bai, please, stand up for us. He beat us so badly!”

“Shut up.” Bai Liang clearly had no regard for Tiger and his men.

Shen An opened the security door without sparing Tiger and the others a single glance.

“Where are we going?”

He spoke with a careless air.

It seemed the other party still didn’t know his identity. Had the higher-ups of the Chen family not warned the younger generation?

Shen An pondered this after replying.

Meanwhile, news was already making its way back to Chen Zi’an. He was told the boy was en route, and someone had even sent him footage.

Clearly, their power was formidable, able to transmit surveillance video straight to the phone.

Chen Zilin sat in a private booth, two beautiful women attending to him. He squinted, watching the man with curiosity.

Suddenly, he flipped through a stack of documents.

These papers had been sent by a family steward not long ago, telling him he must read them and return home immediately, not to linger outside.

Chen Zilin scoffed at such warnings, barely skimming the file before tossing it aside.

Now, seeing the man on-screen and matching him to the profile, he noticed the family’s attitude toward this person:

“At all costs, kill him.”

Simultaneously, the family had ordered the younger disciples to return home for protection, to prevent any retaliation should this man lose control.

“Shen An… Ha! Father is always berating me for being useless. Isn’t he just an ordinary Awakened? Is there any need to be this afraid?”

He felt his family was being ridiculously cautious.

With that, he made a phone call.

“Bai Liang, that guy’s with you, right? Here’s your order: kill him, at all costs.”

He hung up swiftly.

After the call, Chen Zilin summoned several others.

As a young master of the family, he was assigned some experts for protection. Besides Bai Liang, there were several martial artists among them. He called a few over and gave them his instructions.

“Assist Bai Liang. Kill Shen An. Don’t worry about the consequences. Spare no effort. Succeed, and each of you gets five million in cash.”

These people worked for the Chen family. Though they could be commanded at will, it was still necessary to offer incentives.

Chen Zilin was generous with such rewards.

He considered the family’s response an overreaction. Just an Awakened—today, he would handle this personally, and the family would have no choice but to recognize his achievement.

While Chen Zilin was envisioning his triumph, the martial artists eagerly set out to hunt Shen An.

Five million was no small sum. They were used to the young master’s assignments, but today’s reward was so generous that it thrilled them.

Bai Liang ended the call and glanced at Shen An, who was walking beside him.

This guy seemed oblivious to the situation.

Bai Liang sneered and struck without warning.

With a swift motion, his dagger slashed across Shen An’s throat.

The sudden attack startled Tiger and his men.

But seeing Bai Liang kill Shen An, their faces finally broke into grins.

Yet, just as their smiles appeared, they saw—

The Shen An whose throat had been cut vanished. In an instant, he reappeared at Bai Liang’s flank.

“Impossible—when did you—?”

Bai Liang’s voice quivered as he realized something was terribly wrong.

He spun around quickly, meeting Shen An’s smile.

In that moment, reality seemed to slip away.

This man…

Bai Liang’s heart sank.

This was no ordinary fighter—this was a master among Awakened.

No matter how many lives he had, they would not be enough.

Recalling Young Master Chen’s phone call, Bai Liang understood at once.

This was not something a mere Awakened like himself could handle.

“Spare me.”

Recognizing the situation instantly, Bai Liang dropped to his knees, making the only move he thought might save his life.

Tiger and the others were stunned by Bai Liang’s sudden submission.

One quick-witted underling glanced at Shen An, then looked away in confusion.

Hadn’t they just seen Shen An’s throat cut by the dagger? What was going on?

A hallucination?

They would never know—it was simply an afterimage left by Shen An’s speed.

Shen An ignored Bai Liang’s pleas.

With a thought, a dark iron blade appeared in his hand. The flash of the blade was gone in an instant.

Bai Liang, kneeling, slowly toppled to the ground, his face filled with unwillingness.

All this had happened in less than a minute—Bai Liang had been slain by Shen An.

None of Tiger’s men noticed where Shen An’s blade had come from. Now, with Bai Liang dead—the once-powerful bodyguard of Young Master Chen—their expressions changed completely.

“Spare us, sir, we were wrong, we shouldn’t—”

Before he finished, another slash fell.

Then a second, and a third!

Shen An showed no mercy.

After dispatching the lot, he turned his gaze into the distance.

Several plainly dressed middle-aged men were approaching at speed.

“There he is. Kill him.”

One of them was about to rush forward, but suddenly caught sight of the bodies on the ground.

Among them lay Bai Liang.

“Bai Liang is dead? How could this be?”

Their faces went pale with shock. They had planned to join forces with Bai Liang to eliminate this man, but before they could even arrive, Bai Liang was already dead.

Judging from the scene, Bai Liang had died pleading for his life.

The men exchanged glances—the meaning in their eyes clear.

“Retreat!”

They had come prepared, not taking Shen An seriously at first.

But now…

They knew Bai Liang’s strength well—normally, two out of the three of them could not defeat him; only all three working together could barely match him.

Yet Bai Liang had been killed before their eyes, apparently while begging for mercy.

Against such a man, five million—or even ten million—was not worth the risk.

After all, what use is money if you’re dead?

But just as they tried to withdraw, Shen An would not allow it.

Locking onto them with his senses, Shen An moved. In a flash, he was upon one of them.