Chapter 148: Grind the Bones to Dust and Scatter the Ashes

Since he was the one who had committed the murder with his own hands, Wan Rong feared that someone might grow suspicious. Eager to have the matter settled as quickly as possible, and unwilling to trust anyone else with the task, he insisted on making the trip himself.

He planned that once he had tied up loose ends that morning, he would immediately call Jiang Lifu to notify him of the deaths of Jiang Liliang and his son.

As for any subsequent moves Jiang Lifu might make against the Yongxing Branch, he was not overly worried; he had already turned the Yongxing Branch into a monolith under his sole control.

Within the entire branch, anyone more senior than him was already dead. Those with seniority comparable to his had either had their limbs broken and been thrown into the trash cans, or were dead as well.

Now, in the Yongxing Branch, Wan Rong's word was absolute law.

"Beep, beep." From some distance away, Xiong Junhai pressed the remote control for his vehicle. Just as he was about to rush forward to pull the car out of its parking space, his expression suddenly shifted.

"Who are you?" he demanded harshly, addressing the four figures who had suddenly appeared behind the vehicle.

Xiong Junhai's shout pulled Wan Rong out of his daydreams and dragged him back to reality.

Wan Rong cast his gaze around. It was not just four people who had emerged behind his car; behind him, to his left, to his right, to his rear-left, to his rear-right...

Groups of four, nearly ten groups in all, had abruptly materialized around him!

"Phone! Call for backup!" Wan Rong's expression changed instantly, and he immediately barked an order at Bi Jinzhou.

No matter how skilled a fighter he was, three men against forty offered zero chance of victory. Moreover, judging by their demeanor, every single one of these adversaries was formidable. Apart from calling for reinforcements, Wan Rong had no other option.

However, it was already too late.

Just as Bi Jinzhou pulled out his cell phone with his left hand, a broadsword flashed through the air and plunged directly into his back.

The screen of his phone had barely lit up before he crashed face-forward to the ground.

"Who are you? Just who on earth are you?"

Experts could tell the caliber of their opponents the moment a move was made. The instant the enemy struck, Wan Rong knew that he would not survive this trial today.

Even if he managed to call for help, the attackers could easily wipe them out before any reinforcements could arrive.

Right now, he simply wanted to know whose audacity was so grand that they dared to assassinate him on Yongxing Hall's own turf.

Furthermore, how on earth had this group managed to get in? Were the guards at the entrance of Yongxing Hall mere ornaments? Hadn't they managed to sound a single alarm?

"Wan Rong, I'm going to trouble you to head down there and pass a message to my younger brother." A voice, cold to the marrow, rang out from behind Wan Rong.

Wan Rong felt a jolt run through him and spun around in a hurry.

It was Jiang Lifu!

It was him! No wonder he could move in and out of Yongxing Hall as if stepping through uninhabited territory! In an instant, Wan Rong understood why the enemy had appeared out of nowhere without even a warning from the gate guards.

"Wan Rong, once you get down there, please tell my brother that I will avenge him regarding Hua Tianyu!" Jiang Lifu said, looking at Wan Rong with a playful yet chilling gaze.

"Master of the Hall, I didn't kill the Hall Master! It was Hua Tianyu! What are you doing?" Wan Rong was still clinging to a sliver of hope.

"To seek justice for the brothers who died last night—is that reason enough?" Jiang Lifu sneered.

"Go to hell!"

Hearing this, Wan Rong realized that it was a fight to the death today.

He had no time to ponder when or how the events of the previous night had been exposed.

Therefore, the moment Jiang Lifu's voice fell, Wan Rong let out a furious roar, drew the weapon from his back, and lunged directly at Jiang Lifu with a vicious slash.

Seeing Wan Rong hurtling toward him, Jiang Lifu sidestepped slightly to evade the initial strike. As Wan Rong's momentum reached its dead end and he was unable to retract his blade in time, Jiang Lifu delivered a vicious palm-strike to his ribs.

Struck by this blow, Wan Rong staggered. Just as he tried to reset his stance and execute a second move, four or five broadswords came whistling toward him from different directions.

In the next fraction of a second, he only had time to block two of the blades before three cuts landed on his body. Before he even had a chance to cry out in pain, the second wave of blows was already upon him...

In less than a minute, inside the garage of Yongxing Hall, three corpses lay in pools of blood, with Wan Rong's body in the most gruesome state of all.

He had been slashed over a hundred times; even his clothes had been shredded into rags, and his original appearance was completely unrecognizable.

Yet, until their boss gave the order to stop, Jiang Lifu's subordinates continued to swing their blades relentlessly, hacking down again and again upon the corpse.

"That's enough!" Jiang Lifu finally spoke up. "Take their three bodies back and grind their bones to dust!"

"Understood, Boss!" Yang Liu acknowledged from the side.

"Liyuan!" Jiang Lifu called out a name.

"Big Brother! What are your orders?" A middle-aged man who bore a striking resemblance to Jiang Lifu stepped forward and answered.

"The territory of the Yongxing Branch will be overseen by your Changxing Branch for now," Jiang Lifu said.

"Thank you, Big Brother!" Jiang Lifu's face lit up with joy. Although the Yongxing Branch had suffered heavy losses in terms of strength after this incident, it still represented a substantial sphere of influence.

Now that he had taken it over, his Changxing Branch would firmly cement its position as the undisputed leader among all the branches of the Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall.

"You must remember one thing! The Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall will always bear the surname Jiang! Anyone who dares to think of changing the surname of the Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall—today's Wan Rong will be their example!" Jiang Lifu said with a ferocious expression.

"Rest assured, Big Brother!" Jiang Lifu answered with a grim look.

The Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall was the foundation upon which the Jiang brothers had built their standing. Should anyone dare to threaten that foundation, the Jiang family members would not hesitate to grind them to powder!

As for Hua Tianyu, you just wait. Regardless of whether you killed Jiang Liliang and his son or not, since you dared to make an enemy of our Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall, you must be prepared to die at any moment!

...

Tianjing City, the capital of the Huaxia Nation. Inside a certain military compound, within a secure archive room.

A towering military figure with the surname Wang looked with a solemn expression at the flashing red warning dots flickering incessantly across the screen.

"Tell me, whose top-secret archive access permissions have just been triggered?" Elder Wang demanded.

"Reporting to the Superior, the top-secret archive access permissions for Dragon Soul Leader Hua Tianyu have been triggered—and it happened twice," a young officer replied with a grave expression, his hands flying rapidly across the keyboard.

"It's Hua Tianyu of Dragon Soul? Investigate! Immediately conduct a thorough investigation! I want all detailed materials regarding this security breach involving the top-secret archives, and I want them today!"

"Understood, Superior." Without missing a beat, the young officer's hands continued to fly, dispatching a series of orders with his fingertips.

In an instant, the entire archive room buzzed with intense activity. Every single person wore a tense expression, no less grave than if they were facing an active battlefield.

Observing the bustling activity in the archive room, Elder Wang nodded with satisfaction. He turned intending to leave, but after taking a step toward the door, he paused, reconsidered, walked back, and sat down in his previous seat once more.

"I will stay right here and wait for your report," Elder Wang said slowly to the young officer beside him.