"Overbearing? When he had someone run Uncle Chu down, did he think that was overbearing?" As he spoke, Wei Zhao set to work inflicting injuries on An Jiande's body—injuries of a kind that likely only Wei Zhao himself could undo; otherwise, even if An Jiande were pulled back from the brink, he would be nothing but a vegetable.

Watching the bloody spectacle before him, An Jianwen's face twitched several times.

He had always thought himself ruthless enough, cruel and vicious to the bone; but now, watching Wei Zhao stamp on a man with a face utterly devoid of expression, An Jianwen understood—Wei Zhao was the real devil. That is, provided you had provoked him; otherwise the fellow seemed almost harmless.

"All of Gu Pengzhan's holdings, plus a billion." An Jianwen named his terms.

He knew full well he could never escape Wei Zhao's palm. Three Earth-rank experts had failed to escape—what chance did he have? So An Jianwen wasted no words and named his price for keeping his life.

"Is a billion a lot?" Wei Zhao dropped An Jiande—his life now uncertain, his body no longer recognizably human—and turned to look at An Jianwen.

"I had no part in the business of running Uncle Chu down. Afterward I even gave Yaoyao a hundred thousand to help ease the burden of her medical costs." An Jianwen said, "The terms I just offered—plus two billion more!"

"Fine. Hand the things over." Wei Zhao nodded, his face expressionless.

An Mingyue sighed and turned to go upstairs; all the documents were in the safe. But he did not dare to flee—if he ran, then An Jianwen, An Mingri and An Jiande would likely never leave this room alive.

Amiable as Wei Zhao might appear, the sight of him reducing An Jiande to a half-man, half-ghost in the middle of a pleasant conversation made it plain that today's rumor—one move annihilating three Earth-rank experts—was no lie.

An Mingyue brought down the transfer documents and the share certificates, signed each one in turn, and handed them to Wei Zhao.

Then he made a phone call and transferred two billion into Wei Zhao's account. Wealthy as An Jianwen might be, parting with two billion would badly sap the An family's strength.

The earlier claim that those funds had been borrowed from Gu Pengzhan had been pure fiction—they had never existed at all. So this time the An family had gained nothing whatsoever; instead they had sunk two billion into the affair.

"You have everything now. Will you let us go?" An Jianwen asked.

"The things were mine to begin with. Did I ever say I would let you go?" Wei Zhao asked mildly.

"You—" An Jianwen's face flushed crimson, furious at Wei Zhao's words.

Wei Zhao was about to say something when his brow furrowed—for in that instant he sensed a powerful aura closing fast on the villa!

Peak late Earth-rank strength!

A foe, not a friend. Wei Zhao needed no great thought to guess that an expert of that caliber appearing here at this moment could mean no good.

The next moment, a man in black appeared in the An family's living room. He swept his gaze over everyone present, scarcely sparing a glance for An Jiande lying on the floor like a dead dog, and fixed his eyes on Wei Zhao.

"You are Wei Zhao, I take it?" the man in black asked, looking at him.

"And you are?" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath; he had not expected to meet such an expert here.

"My name you need not know. You need only know that I come on the orders of the Fire Wolf Gang's branch chief to protect An Jianwen and his family. That is enough." The man in black made no effort to conceal his strength; his peak late Earth-rank power was on full display.

"Heh..." Wei Zhao was startled inwardly, but only smiled faintly. He had not circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, and no aura emanated from him at all.

This, of course, was deliberate. Were he to reveal his early Earth-rank strength now, the other man would only grow more overbearing.

"I know you are strong—strong enough to annihilate three Earth-rank experts in a single move, one of them late Earth-rank." Seeing Wei Zhao smile, the man in black felt some uncertainty about where Wei Zhao's limits lay. "But you surely have not advanced to Heaven-rank, so your strength is at most equal to mine. To keep them here with me standing in your way—that will be very difficult."

"Then what do you propose?" Wei Zhao asked, betraying nothing.

Wei Zhao knew that an expert at peak late Earth-rank speaking to him in such courteous tones was entirely down to the effect of his one-move annihilation of three Earth-rank experts. But if he showed the slightest weakness now, what awaited him would be an onslaught like a storm.

"You must have heard of the Fire Wolf Gang?" the man in black asked. "If you leave, then we go our separate ways in peace. If you insist on keeping An Jianwen here, you might by luck best me by a move or two—but what awaits you then is the Fire Wolf Gang's revenge."

"Have him break his own legs, and I leave." Wei Zhao pointed at An Jianwen, his tone brooking no doubt.

The man in black pondered, his expression shifting uncertainly as he looked at Wei Zhao. Truthfully, the intelligence the Fire Wolf Gang had received could not be false: Wei Zhao had annihilated three Earth-rank experts in one move, and annihilated them he had. So the man in black could not be sure whether he himself was a match for Wei Zhao.

If Wei Zhao's martial skill was truly that formidable, then even if the man in black won a move or two by luck, he would surely pay a bitter price.

So after a spell of hesitation, the man in black said nothing; he merely waved his hand, and An Jianwen gave an agonized groan and dropped to his knees.

With Wei Zhao's eyes, he could naturally tell that the man in black had merely fractured An Jianwen's legs—a minor injury. But Wei Zhao did not press the matter further. To make a peak late Earth-rank expert compromise by playing the pig to eat the tiger—that was no small achievement.

"Good. Farewell!" Wei Zhao cupped his hands and turned toward the villa's door. From first to last he had not used true qi, so he now walked like any ordinary man, one step, one footprint, out of the room.

Watching Wei Zhao's departing back, the man in black did not stop him. His task this time was to preserve An Jianwen's life, and that he had done; naturally he would not stir up further trouble.

He truly could not gauge Wei Zhao's depths, so there was no need to make an enemy of him. As for the feud between Wei Zhao and An Jianwen, that was no concern of the man in black.

"Phew..." Wei Zhao's oppressive presence had left An Mingyue and An Mingri drenched in sweat; only after he had gone did they collapse limply to the floor.

"Quick—get Jiande to the hospital, hurry..." An Mingri suddenly remembered his son's life and cried out.

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