Chapter 25 - What Have You Pledged Before?
Walking out of the guest hall, Chen Chen reached the Zhang family's compound.
Being one of the top-three families in Shichuan county, their compound was as large as three basketball fields. At that point, Zhao Biao was standing in the middle of the compound.
Soon after Chen Chen walked out, a group of horse thieves surrounded him.
Upon seeing the scene, the edges of Chen Chen's mouth rose, speaking to Zhao Biao, "What about that?"
Listening to this, Zhao Biao, who wasn't far away, laughed. "Can't you see what I mean? I may have had a hard time incapacitating you in the guest hall, but now that you're out, I can outnumber you with ease."
Chen Chen was not surprised at all. Instead, he looked at Wang Wei, who was next to Zhao Biao, and asked him, "Wu Wei, is this the trustworthy hero you spoke about? Seems like just an average bandit to me."
Sweat dripped down Wu Wei's face. Seeing Zhao Biao's technique of forfeiting promises, he grew more and more worried about the promise Zhao had made with him.
'Would he just get rid of me afterwards?' Wu thought.
Considering this, his legs softened, and he knelt in front of Zhao Biao.
"Lord… Lord Biao, I was being foolish before. Please forget everything about 'half of the Zhang's properties' and 'Zhang Xiaoya'; I want them no more. I only desire to be of service to Lord Biao!"
Wu Wei's words came out with much sniveling and tears. Apparently, he was very frightened.
Zhao Biao rubbed Wu Wei's head upon hearing his words, his face somewhat satirical. "Wu Wei, you voluntarily forfeited these. I kept my promise."
"Yes, yes, yes! I forfeited these! Lord Biao is a fine specimen of a man----how will he be untrustworthy!"
Wu Wei kowtowed as if he was a hammer pounding garlic. At this point, he only sought to stay alive; he had no brain power left to consider anything else.
Zhao Biao nodded in satisfaction, then pointed his knife at Chen Chen, saying ferociously, "I am trustworthy to the average person, but expect retaliation by all means if you kill my brothers!
"Brothers! Move together, let's retaliate for our dead brothers!"
The group of horse bandits immediately began to mobilize; in no time, dozens of people were dashing towards Chen Chen.
Chen Chen laughed. Inside his body, ethereality rushed to his finger at insane speeds; all of his fingers sparkled with fire.
As the dozen people were about to chop him into pieces, Chen Chen jumped up several meters into the air. Then, with a dance of his ten fingers, ten bursts of fire descend into the air, hitting the ten closest from him.
In no time, those ten burned like oil-soaked torches.
By the time Chen Chen landed softly, all ten had been burned to ashes.
With a breeze, the dark ash floated around the ground for some distance. By that point, the presence of these ten people was long gone from the world.
After killing the ten, Chen Chen raised one hand, his five fingers sparkling with fire. He then looked at the horse bandits around him, all of them stunned, and laughed, "I was intending to have a melee with your leader; now that he refuses to recognize his promise, don't blame me for burning you."
The horse bandits, looking at the ash and machetes laying on the ground and the fire in Chen Chen's hands, couldn't help but shiver from fear; they looked to Zhao Biao with despair in their eyes.
The smile on Zhao Biao's face had long frozen, his eyes filled with nothing but fear.
He never would have dreamt of the Zhangs getting a cultivator! One that even knew how to use spells!
In his eyes, fairies didn't bother with these civil affairs. Consider the county magistrate, who was practicing in unknown places despite all the fights occurring between the three households.
Why did this cultivator in front of him even bother with this?!
As he shivered without any idea of what to do next, a running horse dashed in from the street. One of his subjugates jumped from the horse, kneeling down on one knee.
"Boss, major issue! The Wang's are eliminated! Per some spectators, it was done by a cultivator that can burn people into ashes with just his fingertips. Should we keep a lower profile?"
After this, another breeze swept through, blowing black ash into this horse bandit's eyes, forcing him to rub them. That's when he realized that the mood of the scene seemed rather weird.
After looking at the young man with the calm face surrounded by horse bandits and black ash, his pupils shrunk abruptly as he took in the full situation.
'Oh my God, we are done!'
Suddenly, a thought flashes through his mind. With a quick idea, this horse bandit stood up immediately, got onto the horse, and made a standard fist-and-palm salute. He said, "Sorry, you aren't my boss, I recognized the wrong person. Excuse me!"
Immediately afterwards, he spanks the horse's ass, leaving Zhang compound at several times the speed he came in, as if a tiger was following behind him.
This man came quickly and left just as fast, leaving many of the horse bandits confused.
By the time they realized what had happened, further attempts to fight were already out of the question. As they tossed their machetes away and dashed away, the compound soon descended into chaos.
Chen Chen dashed forward and caught Zhao Biao's shoulder. Dragging him, he flipped Zhao Biao onto the ground.
"Zhao Biao, where are you going?"
"Lord cultivator, mercy! I give all my wealth and treasure to you!" Zhao Biao kowtows as if he's a hammer pounding garlic, exactly like Wu Wei did earlier.
"What have you sworn?" Chen Chen asks from atop.
Thinking of his oath, Zhao Biao gave himself a hard slap, crying, "Lord cultivator, please don't take that seriously, I was only making a joke! Lord cultivator, please don't take it seriously!"
"Aren't you a hero of the area? Aren't you retaliating for your brothers?"
"What hero, I am a piece of feces! Neither are those my brothers; I don't even know them!"
Zhao Biao had forfeited all etiquette for his life. He slapped his face as he talked, and his face swelled up before he knew it.
Some weirdness was present in Chen Chen's eyes. He spoke in a solemn tone, "I heard that true heroes don't care about minor issues and can tolerate shame for revenge. Zhao Biao, I think you are the real hero."
Zhao Biao's eyes immediately filled up with fear. Before he could hear anything, a ray of flame grew bigger and bigger in his eye; the next thing he knew, he was on fire.
After killing Zhao Biao, Chen Chen looked at Wu Wei, who had collapsed on the side, the areas below him already wet.
"Wu Wei, I heard you were going to be of full service to Lord Biao. Is that true?"
Wu Wei, looking at Zhao Biao, surrounded by flames, shook his head as if he was a chaff sift. He hugged Chen Chen's thigh and cried, "Cultivator, I was being forced into it! All of this was forced onto me by Zhao Biao! I didn't want to betray my uncle!
"Uncle's family has given me so much mercy, how can I do anything bad to them?
"Especially my cousin! He gives me the finest of attention, and I feel there's not enough time in the day to appreciate him! Cultivator, if you are my cousin's brother, you are my brother! Brother, don't kill me!"