"I wouldn't dream of ruining your good time, sir."
Meanwhile, at an airport in Jiangbei, a flight from abroad touched down. The entire plane had been chartered. Moments later, a team of people emerged from the arrivals gate. Leading them was a man with a tall, upright physique, dressed in a suit and tie. Even though it was late at night, he wore sunglasses to hide his blinded left eye—a wound sustained on the battlefield.
Behind him followed a squad of fifty people—mostly men, with only a few women. Their skin tones varied from yellow to white to black, and shades in between. One could tell at a glance that this group hailed from many different nations. Furthermore, every one of them possessed a cold, steady gaze; these were not ordinary people, but veterans who had slaughtered their way through battlefields.
"Long Country, I am back!"
"I swear, if I do not avenge the destruction of my family, I am no man!"
The man in sunglasses spoke with profound grief. He clenched his fists, gritted his teeth until they nearly cracked, and a murderous aura erupted from his eyes. His team remained silent behind him.
"Scorpion, take the men to prepare the weapons. Everyone else, get some rest and adjust to the time difference; we move tomorrow," the man in sunglasses ordered in a low voice. He looked up and stared at the night sky. *You little bastard, just wait. Tomorrow will be the day you die!*
***
The next morning, Ye Chen woke up early to prepare breakfast for two. Once it was ready, he went to wake up Lin Ruoyi. She chided him, asking why he hadn't returned to his room last night. Ye Chen had to make an excuse, saying he hadn't felt well and didn't want to disturb her sleep.
After breakfast, Ye Chen drove to the company. The business he had just taken over was still unstable, and he wanted to hold an all-hands meeting that morning. His goal was simple: to intimidate those who refused to accept Gao Lan as the acting president.
After the meeting, Ye Chen returned to the villa. He intended to tell Lin Ruoyi he was heading out to handle an important matter: finding the King of Jiangnan and killing him.
When he entered the villa, he didn't hear Lin Ruoyi's familiar voice. He assumed she was in one of the rooms and called out to her, but there was no response. Frowning, he searched the entire villa, but she was nowhere to be found. Ye Chen examined the floor carefully and discovered footprints that didn't belong to either of them. His expression darkened instantly—Lin Ruoyi had clearly been kidnapped!
**Chapter 23: I Warn You, Don't Touch Her**
Ye Chen immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Lin Ruoyi’s number. After several rings, the call connected. He remained silent, waiting for the other party to speak first.
"Brat, I knew you’d call. Your woman is in my hands! Worried, are you? Hahaha!" A man’s triumphant, arrogant laughter echoed from the other end.
"Don't you dare touch her! If anything happens to her, you will all be dead and buried without a grave!" Ye Chen roared a warning. A sudden, uncontrollable rage surged through him; he wanted to tear the kidnappers to pieces.
"Watch your tone with me, kid! You think I won't kill your woman right now?" the voice sneered.
"You dare!!!" Ye Chen bellowed, his voice like thunder.
"What do you think I don't dare to do? If you're going to keep acting so arrogant, let’s have you listen to your woman’s voice. Take the gag out of her mouth." The man was gloating; he wanted to see Ye Chen lose his mind.
"Brother Ye Chen... I was kidnapped by a group of bad men, I'm so scared... *sob*..." Lin Ruoyi’s weeping came through the phone, full of fear and despair.
"Ruoyi, don't be afraid! I will come to save you! Trust me!" Ye Chen urged, trying to comfort her.
"Alright, gag her again. How annoying," the kidnapper scoffed. "You heard her, right, kid? If you want to save your woman, you’d better behave!" He hung up the phone with a sinister, triumphant laugh.
On a highway, a car sped toward the outskirts. The man in sunglasses sat in the passenger seat, a smug, dark smirk on his lips. In the back, Lin Ruoyi sat between two men, her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged. Her hair was disheveled, and her face was filled with terror, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you just yet," the man in sunglasses sneered. "I want you to watch as that brat kneels and begs me to let you go. Then, I’m going to make him watch as I kill you!"
He hadn't stated his demands immediately because he needed time to prepare. Once the perfect trap was set, he would wait for Ye Chen to deliver himself to his death.
Lin Ruoyi let out a muffled whimper, her terrified face flushing with anger. She wanted to curse these bastards who had kidnapped her, but she could not speak.
The car continued toward the countryside. Back at the villa, Ye Chen stood frozen, clutching his phone for a full half-minute. He hadn't expected that in just the few hours he’d been away, Ruoyi would be snatched away. It was his carelessness; he hadn't anticipated such danger. Now that Ruoyi was in peril because of him, he felt immense self-reproach.
Regardless of the cost, he had to save her. Ye Chen recalled the sounds of wind and engine noise during the call—the kidnappers were taking her somewhere. And as for who was behind this, only one person came to mind: the King of Jiangnan!
Thinking of this, Ye Chen’s rage soared to the heavens. The King of Jiangnan dared to kidnap his Ruoyi! He had planned to go kill the King tonight anyway; now, he would see to it that the King died immediately.
Ye Chen left the villa and drove straight toward the King of Jiangnan's mansion in Jiangdong City. *Damn the King of Jiangnan—you dare kidnap my woman? Your time is up!*
Jiangdong City was indisputably the most powerful of the three major cities in Jiang Province. At the King’s mansion, the King of Jiangnan was furious. "Still no news? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
A night had passed, and there was no news from Jiangbei. He had waited all morning, and still nothing.
"Sir, we can no longer reach anyone we sent to Jiangbei!" a nervous aide reported, trembling. "I don't know what the situation is, but I've already sent people to investigate!" He couldn't understand how, after a whole night, they had not only failed to receive good news but had lost contact with their own men.
"How could you lose contact?" The King of Jiangnan smashed his pipe. It was a priceless piece of jade, but he shattered it in his rage.
"Sir, please calm down! That is absolutely impossible! With five masters of the Martial King Realm, there is no opponent in the entire Jiang Province who could stand against them!" The aide knelt, not daring to look his master in the eye.
"Go find out, now! And mobilize more men! I don't believe that even if that brat is strong, he can turn the world upside down!" the King roared. In Jiang Province, anyone who offended him was to be exterminated. The aide scrambled to carry out the order.
Meanwhile, Ye Chen was speeding toward Jiangdong City, closing in on the mansion. Within a 500-meter radius, the estate was heavily guarded; trespassers were to be executed on sight. Roadblocks stopped his car, so Ye Chen got out and began to walk.
"Halt! Who goes—" Four officers in camouflage uniforms leveled their guns at him. Before they could finish, Ye Chen, fueled by pure rage, threw a few punches into the empty air. The four officers had no chance to parry and were dead in an instant. Ye Chen picked up two of their rifles and sprinted toward the mansion. He had only one thing on his mind: kill the King of Jiangnan and save Ruoyi.
The alarm sounded, causing the King of Jiangnan, sitting inside, to be stunned in disbelief. The alarm had never been triggered since the day he became the King of Jiangnan. What kind of person had the audacity to invade his mansion?
"Someone! What is happening outside?" the King roared.
"Sir, there is an intruder!" the aide rushed in, panicked. "He is charging the mansion with a rifle; the guards outside cannot stop him!" The entire mansion was in chaos. The guards had been passing the time playing cards, never expecting an intruder.
"I asked you who the hell dares to break in here!" the King of Jiangnan bellowed.
"I... I don't know," the aide stammered. "The man is too fast, I couldn't see his face."
"Absurd! Tell the men outside, if they let the intruder into the mansion, they will all die! Guards, hold your positions!" The King of Jiangnan sat squarely on his throne. No intruder would ever set foot in his house.
Suddenly—*BOOM!* With a thunderous sound, the mansion’s gate was kicked into splinters. Ye Chen appeared in the doorway, holding two rifles.
**Chapter 24: Direct Assault on the King of Jiangnan’s Mansion**
"It's you!"
"Sir, it's Ye Chen!" The aide was shocked to see him. He never imagined the intruder would be Ye Chen. How dare this brat infiltrate the King of Jiangnan's mansion? This was a forbidden zone where entry was prohibited without authorization!
"Shut up! I’m not blind!" The King of Jiangnan kicked his aide away. He remained on his throne, his gaze cold and sinister as he stared at Ye Chen. So this was the brat who dared to challenge him? *He looks just like that person! As expected of the seed left behind by that person!*
The mansion's guards lined up in front—over two hundred of the finest elites, including forty or fifty masters of the Martial King Realm. They glared at Ye Chen, waiting for the order to crush him. Outside, three or four hundred more officers surrounded the estate, cutting off any chance of escape.
Ye Chen stood proudly at the entrance. The barrels of the two rifles in his hands were red-hot; he had emptied several magazines, rendering the weapons useless, and tossed them aside. He had used them to plow through the guards on his way in. Over a hundred bodies now littered the path, and the five hundred guards initially stationed outside were down to fewer than four hundred.
"King of Jiangnan! Today is the day you die!" Ye Chen roared at the man sitting on the high dais. His powerful voice, infused with a terrifying murderous aura, tore through the air like a shockwave. Stones shattered and the ground shook. Guards with weaker constitutions had their eardrums ruptured, bleeding from their seven orifices and collapsing on the spot.
Ye Chen’s rage was at its peak. Ruoyi was the most important person in his life. He would kill anyone who dared to touch her.
"Brat, you have quite a mouth!" The King of Jiangnan sneered from above. "You want to kill me? Do you even have the ability? Surround him!" He looked at Ye Chen as if he were an ant. In his eyes, ordinary people were just ants whose lives were cheap. *And now, an ant dares to challenge me? Death wishes it!*
At his command, the five hundred guards and officers closed in, surrounding Ye Chen in a tight circle. "To kill you is easy! This place will soon be your tomb!" Ye Chen said coldly, his aura rising.
"Damn brat, you're on the verge of death and you’re still shouting!" The King’s aide pushed through the crowd, posturing aggressively. "Do you know who sits before you? He is the King who rules all of Jiang Province! Kneel and beg for mercy, and we might leave you a corpse!"
"A barking dog!" Ye Chen reached out and grabbed the empty air. An invisible force gripped the aide's throat. *CRACK!* The aide, who had no martial arts training, had his neck snapped instantly and slumped to the ground dead. Ye Chen kicked the corpse toward the King’s throne. It was a message: *This is your final destination.*
The King of Jiangnan’s facial muscles twitched; his eyes grew terrifyingly dark. "All of you, listen! Do not use your guns! Capture him alive!" He wanted Ye Chen alive because he had plans for him. He feared that bullets would simply kill the brat.
He didn't know that guns were useless against Ye Chen. The hundreds of bullets fired on his way here hadn't touched a hair on his head.
"Attack! Challenge the King’s authority and die!" Five hundred guards charged. Ye Chen exploded with murderous intent and stomped his foot. *BOOM!* A powerful surge of true qi expanded outward, shattering the stone floor into deep fissures.
"Argh!" The impact sent waves of attackers flying, their internal organs pulverized before they even hit the ground. Whether they were Grandmaster Realm officers or Martial King Realm elites, the outcome was the same. In front of Ye Chen, none could survive.
The remaining thugs were dumbfounded. How could a single stomp be so terrifying? Even Martial King Realm masters couldn't resist it? The arrogance on their faces vanished, replaced by sheer terror.
The King of Jiangnan leaped to his feet in shock. He could see clearly now—the brat’s true qi was so formidable it crushed Martial King masters effortlessly. How was this possible? How could he have achieved such strength after being crippled and vanishing for three years?
"Attack! Whatever it takes, kill him!" the King roared, abandoning his plan to capture Ye Chen alive. This child had to die!
The thugs raised their guns, lining up to aim at Ye Chen. *Rat-tat-tat!* Countless bullets poured toward him. Ye Chen leaped into the air, moving faster than the projectiles could track, and landed behind the line of gunmen to continue his slaughter.
**Chapter 25: Did I Find the Wrong Person?**
"Quick! He's over here! Kill him!" someone shouted. Hundreds of gunmen turned their weapons toward Ye Chen. He flashed across the crowd, taking down a few men, snatched two more rifles, and returned fire. *Come on, who’s afraid of whom?*