It all happened so suddenly that many people inside the shop didn't even have time to react.
Many stared, dumbfounded, at the men who had just burst in. They watched helplessly as the tall, burly man raised a thick arm and swung it viciously at the beautiful young woman.
Xu Luo's gaze turned cold in an instant. But before he could make a move, a short sword, just over a foot long, suddenly appeared in the hand of Lianyi, who had been standing beside him with a gentle smile. A cold light flashed.
SWISH!
A spray of blood arced through the air.
"AHH!"
The charging brute let out a terrified scream. "My hand!"
PLOP!
Blood gushed from the wound where his wrist had been severed.
On the floor, a large hand lay pooling blood.
An uproar erupted.
It was only then that everyone in the shop snapped back to their senses. Many people's first reaction was to run outside, while others let out terrified screams.
"You're courting death!"
Her face now an icy mask, a chilling light shot from Lianyi's eyes. With a sharp cry, she thrust her short sword, which had never stopped moving, directly at the man whose hand she had just severed.
PFFT!
The short sword plunged straight into his chest. With a twist of her wrist, Lianyi instantly pulverized the man's heart.
Then, she withdrew the blade.
Not a single drop of blood stained the sword.
Lianyi turned her gaze to the other brutes who had rushed in with him, her eyes filled with a murderous aura. She no longer looked like a sweet little Maid; she was clearly a cold-blooded assassin.
"Run!"
The remaining brutes, their ferocious expressions long gone, turned and fled.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A few dull thuds came from the doorway as the men who had just sprinted out were kicked back inside.
They collapsed on the ground, groaning in agony.
A grim-faced, middle-aged man walked in from outside. His eyes fixed on the man closest to him as he asked in a cold shout, "You ignorant fools. Who sent you here to cause trouble?"
The brute on the ground trembled, unable to utter a single word. The kick he had taken felt like a giant boulder smashing into his body; he had no idea how many ribs were broken.
"Not talking? Then die!" The middle-aged man lifted his foot and stomped down hard on the brute's chest.
CRACK!
The crisp sound of shattering bone rang out as the man's chest caved in.
The brute's eyes rolled back, a gush of blood poured from his mouth, and he died a violent death.
The middle-aged man ignored the other men, who were about to faint from fear. Instead, he bowed to the remaining customers in the shop and said gently, "My apologies, everyone, for the fright. Any clothes you were just looking at, our shop will gift to you for free as a token of our apology and to calm your nerves."
Lianyi glanced at the middle-aged man, her short sword still in hand, and said flatly, "I need an explanation."
The middle-aged man's attitude was extremely deferential. He bowed to Lianyi. "I'm sorry, Miss Lianyi. I will be sure to get to the bottom of this and give you a satisfactory account."
The other people in the shop watched this, full of shock and suspicion.
This shop was an old establishment in the Imperial Capital, having been open for several hundred years. The clothes inside were extremely expensive; only the wealthiest and most powerful families could afford them.
Even ordinary nobles couldn't afford to shop here, but very few people knew about the shop's background.
The sudden incident today had left many people horrified.
'The waters of the Imperial Capital truly run deep. It's one thing for a Maid to be a shockingly powerful killer, but even the owner of this shop is this formidable.'
"Lianyi, let it go." Xu Luo patted Lianyi's shoulder, then smiled at the middle-aged man. "Sorry for bringing you trouble. If you need, I can help you resolve this."
The middle-aged man's expression changed drastically. He bowed to Xu Luo and said, "Second Young Master, what are you saying? How could we dare trouble you over such a trivial matter? It is our shop that was not thorough enough. Please, forgive us, Second Young Master!"
Xu Luo glanced at Lianyi with some surprise. She shook her head slightly at him, then snorted. She wrapped up the few sets of clothes they had picked out for Xu Luo and said to the middle-aged man, "You handle this yourself. The young master and I will be leaving now."
"Of course. Farewell, Miss!" The middle-aged man's attitude was extremely respectful, as if he were very grateful to Lianyi.
Meanwhile, Zhao Chong, who was hiding in the shadows, was scared witless. He never would have imagined that a master like this was hidden by the side of that trash, Xu Luo.
A sweet Maid who looked so delicate and shy she would blush before speaking had just drawn her sword and killed someone without batting an eye.
That strike that severed the brute's wrist, in particular, had looked so effortless. As a fellow Martial Artist, Zhao Chong was horrified. Even with a Divine Weapon, if the wielder wasn't a powerful expert themselves, it would be impossible to cut off a man's hand so easily.
The shop owner's subsequent actions filled him with even more regret.
'It's just a shabby-looking storefront. So what if it's on the Imperial Capital's most prosperous thoroughfare, Cyan Dragon Avenue? In the Imperial Capital, for a merchant to challenge a noble is an act of suicide!' Zhao Chong couldn't understand where this shop owner got the nerve to kill someone.
Although he was seething with resentment, right now he didn't even have the courage to show himself. His legs felt a bit weak.
After Xu Luo and Lianyi left, the middle-aged man's gaze fell on the remaining brutes. He made no attempt to hide the killing intent in his eyes and said coldly, "Who sent you? A few street thugs dare to cause trouble in my shop? You must be tired of living!"
One of the brutes was relatively tough. Though he was trembling all over, he still replied with a mournful look, "Sir, we were wrong! Just treat us like farts in the wind and let us go! We picked the wrong target..."
"Let you go? Hmph. You all have families, don't you? Wives, children, parents? If I let you go... who will let me off?" The middle-aged man's voice was utterly frigid. He was furious with himself, feeling he had lost face in front of Miss Lianyi and the Second Young Master, and he loathed these troublemakers. 'Especially the one Miss Lianyi killed,' he thought. 'He dared to insult Miss Lianyi like that. He truly deserved to die ten thousand times.'
"Punishment shouldn't... shouldn't extend to our families. Sir, why must you press us so hard...?" The brute was a man of the streets and had sharp eyes. He could tell the middle-aged man wasn't just bluffing. His face turned deathly pale, but he didn't have the guts to expose the person behind this.
"Heh, that's fucking hilarious. You have the balls to cause trouble here, and now you say I'm pressing you too hard? You're just a bunch of bastards who won't cry until you see the coffin." The middle-aged man sneered at them, then ordered, "Men! Go and slaughter all their families!"
"Wait, wait, Sir! We give up! We'll tell you everything! We beg you to spare our families!" Another brute who had been kicked until he coughed up blood scrambled over, knelt, and kowtowed forcefully, tears and snot streaming down his face. "We were sent by Young Master Zhao, Zhao Chong, to cause trouble for the Xu Family's young master! We were wrong! We deserve to die! We beg you to let us go, Sir!"
"We beg you to let us go, Sir!" The other brutes also scrambled over and kowtowed desperately.
When you kick an iron plate, you have to admit defeat. As for whether Young Master Zhao would retaliate later, that was the last thing on their minds. Seeing how powerful this middle-aged man was, they figured Young Master Zhao's end wouldn't be pretty either.
"Zhao Chong? Never heard of him." The middle-aged man glanced at the several figures standing silently beside him, who radiated a grim, murderous aura, and asked, "Do you know him?"
One of them replied, "He should be that piece of trash the Second Young Master beat up at the Fengyue Building some time ago. I hear he's the son of some minor noble family."
"The son of a mere minor noble dares to be so arrogant and presumptuous? Men! Go and ransack his family's home as an apology to the Second Young Master. If there is any resistance, kill them on the spot!" the middle-aged man ordered nonchalantly, then added with a cold smile, "It seems we've laid low for too long. No one in this Imperial Capital remembers us anymore."
"Then let's kill a few to remind them who we are," one of the men with the murderous aura said flatly.
This exchange sent a cold sweat down the spines of the few customers who hadn't left yet. At this point, who would dare to take the shop's free clothes? They only wished their parents had given them two more legs as they all fled in terror.
The middle-aged man frowned, looking with some confusion at the trashed shop. He sighed, "What a pity. After so many years of business, it's ruined at our hands. Who will dare to come shop here in the future?"
A person beside him chuckled. "Don't worry. This will probably make us even more famous. Let's raise the prices tomorrow!"
The middle-aged man thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "You have a point. In that case... let's double the prices tomorrow. We can't be too greedy. Raising them too much might upset our regular customers."
...
In the Imperial Capital, the Zhao Family, a minor noble house, was ransacked. The attackers were only three or four middle-aged men, but they stormed the Zhao residence as if it were undefended. The few who dared to resist were beheaded on the spot. The rest were scared into silence, allowing the intruders to plunder all the family's wealth.
At the same time, the Zhao Family's young master, Zhao Chong—that lackey of Leng Ping and Wei Ziting—mysteriously vanished that day, never to be seen again.
The entire Imperial Capital was in an uproar!
"This is a blatant violation of the Empire's laws!"
"Just a mere merchant! Killing in the streets, ransacking a home—who gave them the audacity?"
"If this continues, everyone in the Imperial Capital will live in fear! An internal crisis will erupt before any external threat arrives!"
"We strongly demand severe punishment for the murderers!"
"The murderers must not be spared!"
"These killers must have a connection to the National Guardian General's Mansion! Otherwise, why would they have such an attitude towards the National Guardian General's Mansion's Second Young Master and a Maid?"
"The National Guardian General lets his underlings run rampant, acting with arrogant impunity! We strongly demand that the National Guardian General be held accountable!"
In a short time, all sorts of voices filled the entire Imperial Capital. Fueled by certain people working behind the scenes, the flames of controversy gradually began to lick at the National Guardian General's Mansion.
However, what confused everyone was that the Imperial Palace remained completely silent, with not a single word coming out.
No one knew what the person sitting on the Dragon Throne was thinking. Could it be that he was truly wary of the Grand General of National Guardian, Xu Ji, who held immense military power in his hands?