Nie Changhai knew there was no chance to argue anymore. He let out a long sigh and said, “Jiang Tian, I admit it—this is indeed true…”
“Why?”
Jiang Tian asked with interest, “What were you really thinking? If it was about money, just getting the Pharmaceutical King Group would have been enough for you! Go on, tell me—don’t make me torture you. I have a hundred ways to make your life worse than death!”
Nie Changhai’s eyes were filled with fear. He swallowed hard and then said in a trembling voice, “It’s the East Ocean Sakura Society… They wanted a fragment of an old map from the Jiang family. Apparently, this ancient map fragment involves the secrets of the martial arts divine realm…”
“The Sakura Society—what kind of organization is that?” everyone asked, confused.
“It’s a militaristic organization with a huge influence in East Ocean, much like the Dragon Group in our Huaxia,” Xu Ruocheng said, her expression slightly changing.
“Despicable!”
Zhou Zhenghao bellowed in fury, his voice shaking with anger: “Back in the day, the East Ocean invaded Huaxia and massacred three hundred thousand innocent people in Jinling. The rivers ran with blood, and the bodies piled up like mountains. As a descendant of the Yan and Huang emperors and a member of Jinling’s native families, how could you ignore the nation’s hatred and your country’s grievances and willingly act as a lackey for the East Ocean people?”
“Absolutely shameless—you’ve forgotten your ancestors!”
“Utterly disgusting!”
“This man is clearly a traitor! Working for those East Ocean devils—he deserves to be chopped into a thousand pieces!”
Everyone was filled with righteous anger, shouting insults at the top of their lungs.
Among them, people like Long Wu and Zhou Zhenghao weren’t exactly good guys—they robbed, killed, and did all sorts of terrible things—but even they held onto certain basic principles. Matters of national honor and duty were not something you could be vague about!
“Amitabha. You truly are sinners against our people. You should just kill yourselves to apologize to the world! I’ll chant scriptures to guide your souls!”
Tang Shaoze chanted a Buddhist prayer, shaking his head as he urged Nie Changhai and the others to just end it themselves.
“Mr. Jiang, why are you still wasting words with him? Let me just give him a quick death with one strike!”
Xu Ruocheng in particular was burning with rage, grinding her small white teeth, wishing she could tear Nie Changhai and his people into a thousand pieces.
“So that’s how it is. I never imagined that behind the three great families—the Nies, the Suns, and the Chens—stood the East Ocean people!”
Jiang Tian’s eyes narrowed slightly, and a flash of killing intent came and went in an instant. “Looks like I’ll need to make a trip to East Ocean! And as for you—willingly acting as their dogs—you deserve death even more!”
Seeing the glint of murderous intent in Jiang Tian’s eyes, Nie Changhai spoke in a deep voice: “Master Jiang, our three families schemed and plotted in every possible way, yet in the end, we didn’t succeed. Why won’t you let us off the hook?”
“Heh, let you off? If you had succeeded, would you have let the Jiang family off?”
Jiang Tian’s tone was as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice—frigid, devoid of any emotion whatsoever.
He had returned after ten thousand years of cultivation, all for revenge. How could he possibly show any mercy now?
If he didn’t slaughter them completely, if he didn’t destroy their families, how could he ever be satisfied? How could he ever be willing to stop?
“Jiang Tian, are you really determined to fight to the bitter end, smashing the pot together?”
Nie Changhai shouted, completely breaking down.
Jiang Tian had arrived far too quickly. If he had come just one hour later—no, even just ten minutes—they would have already escaped, fleeing on a smuggler’s ship to Southeast Asia or America.
“Fight to the bitter end?”
Jiang Tian picked up his teacup, took a gentle sip, and said with a smile, “You’re really trying to put gold on your own faces. Look across all of Huaxia—what family, what organization, what force is worth me fighting to the bitter end? Including your big backer, Wudang Mountain—they’re nothing more than ants that I could crush with a flick of my hand.”
“Break out—now!”
Nie Changhai suddenly gritted his teeth and roared, “Bian Xuedao, Wang Ba—you two take the lead! Everyone, charge out together!”
“Yes, sir!”
The two burly men responded loudly, then exhaled deeply and charged toward the door with a group of bodyguards.
Wang Ba and Bian Xuedao were the two most powerful fighters under Nie Changhai—both had reached the level of Iron Body Mastery. Their punches could shatter rocks, and a single kick from them could kill a leopard or a tiger. They were his most important escorts for this escape attempt.
Both Wang Ba and Bian Xuedao had been wanted criminals back in the day, but Nie Changhai had taken them in, pulled strings, and cleared their names.
You could say that without Nie Changhai, they would have been caught by the police and executed long ago.
That’s why they were completely loyal to him.
Even knowing that the odds were grim, each of them grabbed a machete and led the charge toward the villa’s entrance.
“What garbage. The foundations of your Nie, Sun, and Chen families are truly pathetic!”
Seeing this, Jiang Tian’s expression remained calm. He didn’t even move—just sipped his tea and let out a disdainful, quiet laugh.
Wang Ba and Bian Xuedao reached the villa’s entrance in the blink of an eye.
“Looking for death!”
From within the crowd, Xu Ruocheng’s face turned cold and stern. With a proud, arrogant snort, she drew her blade and sprang into action.
Her graceful yet sensual body spun through the air with the nimbleness of an antelope leaping across a cliff. Her razor-sharp long sword swept down like molten silver pouring over the ground, covering a wide area. And then—whoosh!—
Wang Ba’s head was blasted over a meter into the air by the blood spraying from his neck. His headless body collapsed to the ground, splashing out bright, glaring waves of blood.
Bian Xuedao was cleaved cleanly from his right shoulder down to his left ribs. His body fell in two pieces, his steaming hot entrails spilling all over the floor.
Skree—skree, skree—!
The sharp sound of shoe soles scraping against the floor suddenly filled the air.
Everyone slammed to an abrupt halt, their eyes filled with shock and terror as they stared at Xu Ruocheng.
Under their frightened gazes, Xu Ruocheng used her blood-dripping blade to draw a line of blood across the doorway.
“Those who cross this line shall be killed without mercy!”
Having just killed two Iron Body experts with a single strike, Xu Ruocheng’s expression didn’t change at all, as if she had simply crushed two ants.
The scene was filled with terror. Some women sobbed, some children wailed, some prayed to Buddha, and some trembled uncontrollably.
“Who else dares to come and die?”
Xu Ruocheng rested one hand on her hip, twirled her right wrist to create a dazzling flash of steel, flicked the blood off her blade, and swept her gaze across the crowd as she demanded in a deep voice.
Xu Ruocheng’s ruthless and merciless attack fully displayed the overwhelming killing intent of Jinling’s Underground Queen. Nie Changhai’s face turned as pale as dirt, while many others grew grim, despairing, and too frightened to make a sound.
The two strongest fighters of the Nie family had just been cut down by Xu Ruocheng in a single strike. Who would dare to stand against her?
“Forget it, forget it. The tide has turned.”
Nie Changhai stood in a daze for a long time, then let out a deep sigh, knelt down before Jiang Tian from a distance, and begged in a trembling voice:
“Master Jiang, plotting against the Jiang family was my fault, and has nothing to do with the rest of the Nie family. I can bear the responsibility alone and die to atone for my crimes. I beg you to spare the others in the Nie family!”
“Father!”
“Brother Changhai!”
Seeing this, many of the Nie family cried out in shock, their hearts filled with pain, sorrow, and despair.
Nie Changhai had dominated Jinling for decades—he was cunning, ruthless, and full of schemes. Yet here he was, kneeling and begging for mercy, showing that he could no longer think of any way to fight back or escape.
Nie Changhai had always been proud and defiant, unafraid even of the city’s Party secretary. But now, abandoning all dignity and pride, he knelt before Jiang Tian and begged. It was a complete loss of face—utterly miserable and pathetic. This sight made Chen Donglin and Sun Lingyun feel the sorrow of a fox mourning the death of a hare.
“Take your own life.”
As soon as Jiang Tian spoke, thwack—Zhou Zhenghao tossed a dagger over to him.
Nie Changhai’s entire body began to tremble.
The whole room fell silent. Everyone’s eyes were filled with fear.
The dagger was about half a foot long, its sharp edge fully exposed. It gleamed with cold light, radiating an extremely chilling aura.
Just looking at it made their hearts feel three parts colder. Using it to stab into one’s own heart or cut one’s own throat was unthinkable.
But now, Nie Changhai had no other choice.
In the dead silence, his eyes dull and hollow, he slowly picked up the dagger.
“Father, no!”
Nie Mingyuan let out a wail of anguish. He tried to step forward but was kicked to the ground by Ghost Kick.
As for everyone else, they had long been scared stiff by Jiang Tian’s overwhelming power. Who would dare to say a word?
Nie Changhai’s heart was filled with bitterness. Shaking with fear, tears welled up in his eyes. His gaze slowly moved across his old mother, his son, his wife—regret, pain, and helplessness filling his heart.
His life had been soaked in blood, with countless kills. He had once seen the hopeless, helpless tears of his opponents, but he never imagined that his turn would come so soon. And he certainly never imagined that his life would end in such a miserable way.
But he had no right to blame Jiang Tian.
Because this was the way of the underworld. This was the cruel truth of the world—the strong devour the weak.
If you fall, if you lose, it’s only because you weren’t strong enough. If he had defeated the Pharmaceutical King Group, he would have felt no pity either. He would have hunted down Jiang Tian without mercy—or even been more cruel.
“If I kill myself, will you spare the Nie family—the old and the young?”
Nie Changhai breathed rapidly, his fierce eyes filled with tears as he pitifully begged. Holding the dagger with both hands, its tip aimed at his own chest, his gaze was resolute yet tragic.
“Jiang Tian, please, I beg you, spare my father! I’m willing to die in his place! We already know we were wrong!”
Nie Mingyuan could no longer control himself. Abandoning all dignity as a young master of Jinling, he fell to his knees and begged for mercy, slamming his head against the ground crazily until blood seeped from his forehead.
“You are all losers. You have no right to bargain with me.”
Jiang Tian’s tone was cold, but inside, he felt a mix of pain and exhilaration.
In his previous life, when the Pharmaceutical King Group was crushed by the Nie family, he too had begged like this, kneeling and pleading.
But the Nie father and son had been like lofty aristocrats—cold, merciless, looking down at him like an ant, refusing to even speak to him properly.
Now, the wheel of fortune had turned. The great revenge that had built up over ten thousand years was finally being satisfied. Jiang Tian felt sheer, unbridled joy and satisfaction.
“Mingyuan, don’t make trouble!”
Nie Changhai turned his head and scolded him. Then, reluctantly, he swept his gaze over the Nie family members and said in a deep voice, “After I die, you must remember this: never speak of today’s grudge again. Furthermore, no member of the Nie family may compete with others for profit, practice martial arts to fight, bully men or women, or act arrogantly. You must pass down the family through scholarship, live peacefully without contention, and treat others with kindness. Otherwise, I will die with my eyes open!”
“Father!”
“Brother Changhai!”
“Uncle—”
The younger members of the Nie family all fell to their knees, wailing loudly. Nie Changhai’s old mother cried so hard that her hands and feet convulsed, and she passed out.
The Nie family was now a complete tragedy. They were the meat on the chopping block, with no power to resist, at the mercy of others.
Nie Changhai was determined to die. Only by taking his own life to atone could there be any chance that Jiang Tian would spare the rest of the family.
Stab—!
Nie Changhai gave everyone one last resolute look, then raised the blade and brought it down. The sharp dagger plunged directly into his heart.
The blade sank in completely, leaving only the handle visible—a clear sign of how deeply committed he was to dying.
Blood poured down, and foam bubbled from Nie Changhai’s mouth. He gave a bitter, tragic smile and asked, “Master Jiang, is this enough?”
“No.”
Jiang Tian looked at him with a pleasant smile, the corners of his mouth curling into something cruel and ruthless.
