Chapter 138: The Figure in Black, the Mantis

Upon catching sight of the man in black standing opposite Little Yu, the anxious and worried heart of Director Fang Muren finally relaxed. He instantly quickened his pace out the door, his eyes completely ignoring the unreasonable Little Yu. As he passed Little Yu, he directly reached out and shoved him rudely to the side, not forgetting to leave behind a harsh remark: "He's one of us, you idiot!"

His voice was sharp, his tone grim and brimming with murderous intent. Little Yu had no doubt that if they were currently in the desolate wasteland, this hypocritical Director would ruthlessly eliminate him without a second thought.

Little Yu was fairly quick-witted. Realizing he had offended an opponent he could not afford to cross, he wore an apologetic smile and sensibly stepped aside, intending to shamelessly suck up and apologize for his earlier irrational and reckless behavior at the first available opportunity. After all, anyone who could make the Director himself approach with a flattering smile must possess an extraordinary background. In this society where influence reigned supreme, without a shred of situational awareness and a nimble mind, endless misery and darkness would be the only things awaiting him.

Little Yu was no stranger to offering a warm face to a cold backside. Therefore, he did not take it to heart when Director Fang Muren walked away with the man in black completely ignoring him. Watching the two walk side by side toward the office, Little Yu very sensibly cleared the already narrow corridor, respectfully standing guard at the door to act as a security guard.

As soon as he welcomed the man in black into the office, Fang Muren impatiently pressed him about the matter weighing on his mind.

"Mantis, how did it go?"

Because the man in black was fully suited and tightly concealed, Director Fang Muren could not read any genuine expressions on his face.

The man in black did not immediately answer Fang Muren's concern; instead, his expression turned exceptionally unsightly. Given his status within the Fang family, his position was of vital importance, and it was no exaggeration to say it was on par with Fang Muren's. However, the anger currently burning in the man's heart was something Fang Muren could not fathom.

Among the five-member team, the strongest in physical prowess was not this ox-strong man in black nicknamed Mantis, but rather the skinny squad leader Monkey, who had ordered him to leave first. Yet, after repeated attempts to contact him yielded no response, Mantis already had his own answer: Monkey, their unyielding and transcendent squad leader, had perished at the hands of that punk.

Bam! Without answering Fang Muren's question, Mantis delivered a powerful horizontal chop that cleaved Fang Muren's office desk cleanly in two, a testament to the boiling intensity of his rage.

For madmen commandos who had undergone devilish training, such a blow was effortless, let alone for Mantis, the powerhouse of the group.

His bloodshot eyes stared coldly at Fang Muren, who was anxiously awaiting an answer. Mantis radiated lethal intent, and his cold voice did not sound like he was speaking to one of his own; it carried the icy interrogation tone reserved for criminals.

"Fang Muren, you deserve to die a thousand deaths."

A single sentence could not vent the boundless fury in Mantis's heart. Finally, the instant the words left his lips, Mantis could no longer restrain himself and struck. A slap—fast, precise, loud, and immensely powerful.

For Fang Muren, who sat in an office all day, disliked physical exercise, and was burdened with layers of flab, the sheer force of such a violent blow was practically infinite.

Crack! A resounding slap echoed through the room. A majestic physique was sent flying like a volleyball, mercilessly crashing into the pile of wood that had once been Fang Muren's desk.

A blood-curdling scream followed immediately, accompanied by Fang Muren's fat body bouncing around in agony from the sharp pain. Most ridiculously, a long, slender wooden splinter had pierced rather indecently into Fang Muren's buttocks. Drops of bright red blood oozed down, and the faint scent of copper added to Fang Muren's fury over the stinging pain.

Opening his mouth wide, he let out an angry roar, practically itching to roll up his sleeves and crush the bastard opposite him with his fat-laden bulk.

Able to secure the position of Director, Fang Muren was at least not entirely stupid and knew how to exercise some restraint. Despite his immense displeasure, a shred of rationality kept him from blindly charging over to fight to the death.

Reaching up to touch his right cheek, which was swollen high and burned with a fiery sting, Fang Muren—not entirely devoid of sense—vaguely guessed that something ominous had occurred. Thus, instead of shouting curses, he asked in a low voice, "Did something go wrong?"

"That kid is strong." Mantis was brief, but his words were earth-shattering, leaving Fang Muren—who had previously dismissed Lin Yang—dumbfounded.

"How many came back?" With a gloomy expression and a tight-knotted heart, Fang Muren knew the strength of the five and understood the terrifying background of their Special Assassination Unit. Anyone coming out of the Fang family was certainly no pushover, but if even the other party called that kid terrifying, then the kid truly was terrifying.

"Squad Leader Monkey is probably dead." Mantis spat out the deeply unsatisfying answer with chilling indifference. He then recounted how Monkey had ordered him and Spider to withdraw with the others while they stayed behind to root out the problem completely.

Fang Muren listened intently, terrified of missing a single detail. When Mantis finished speaking, Fang Muren remained lost in thought, his mind turning freely.

"So you mean you didn't see the bodies of Monkey and the other two with your own eyes?" Fang Muren indeed possessed unique acumen; otherwise, how could the Fang family have entrusted him with the supreme authority of Jinhai? No sooner had he finished listening to Mantis than his agile mind raised this point.

However, sharp as Fang Muren's mind might be, he overlooked one crucial detail: the Special Assassination Unit had its own code—better to die in battle than to be captured alive. This was the fatal reason why Mantis was certain the three had perished; he knew that no matter how strong one's will, if the three chose to commit suicide, no one could stop them.

"They are definitely dead. As for why, you don't need to know. But you can go report and confess your failure to the Patriarch yourself this time. The person you wanted, I've brought him back; he's in the car in the courtyard. Deal with him yourself! We have to go back and report." Mantis's tone remained frigid, entirely unchanged by the fact that the fool before him was a fellow clansman, and it was even laced with deep dissatisfaction.

He turned abruptly on his heel, striding quickly to pull open the office door. Just before leaving, he glanced back and dropped a parting warning before striding away, not forgetting to flash a disdainful, cold smirk at Little Yu, who stood respectfully by the door saluting him.

"Next time you handle a task, you'd better check out the opponent's background first."

These words pierced like a sharp dagger straight into Fang Muren's heart. Watching the receding figure, Fang Muren clenched his fists. Arrogant and high-ranking as he was in Jinhai—where he could arguably be called second only to thousands—there were truly no shortage of people in the Fang family who could shit on his head. At the very least, he was completely helpless against anyone hailing from the Special Assassination Unit.

*Hmph, sooner or later, I'll make you kneel before me,* Fang Muren grumbled bitterly in his heart, yet his face instantly twisted into a fawning expression as he called out to the long-departed figure, "Thanks for the reminder, brother has taken note of it."

The explosive row between the two caught Little Yu completely off guard. Initially, seeing their intimate entrance, he had assumed their relationship was unusual; now, watching them clash with bickering hostility, he found himself trapped—standing at the door felt wrong, yet leaving felt wrong too. He could only stand there stupidly, flashing a naive, awkward smile at Fang Muren as the latter emerged from the office.

"Little Yu," Fang Muren barked in a deep voice, fixing the sycophantic Little Yu with a glare that was as icy as it could possibly be.

Suddenly called out, the nervous Little Yu reacted with conditioned reflex, snapping straight into a military salute and barking an acknowledgment.

"Go to the courtyard, bring the person from the car into the interrogation room. We have real work to do." Fang Muren pulled a haughty face, paying no mind to Little Yu's fawning attempt to butter him up.

A higher rank crushes you to death—this saying had been verified by countless people. Little Yu felt precisely this sort of suffocating grievance in his heart. With immense displeasure, he turned on his heel to carry out the Director's assigned task.

Meanwhile, Lin Yang had not wasted a single second along the way. The Fang family's relentless pressure was effectively driving the Bai family into a dead end, and now they had their sights set on "Naturally Flawless," the trump card for a turnaround researched with the help of Lin Yang, their newfound lucky star. Many lives had already been sacrificed for this promising future. Truly, this was something even a saint could endure, but this big brother certainly could not!

Though the road conditions were abysmal—potholes were everywhere, causing bone-shattering bumps that made for a terribly uncomfortable ride—both Bai Jing and Lin Yang had long since put that out of their minds.

"Xiao Yang, do you have any good ideas?" A woman relying on a man was no longer just a habit, but an innate nature, a truth from which even strong women could not escape.

Bai Jing was consumed by the crisis with the Fang family, but Lin Yang's concerns were far more complex. Though Guo Xiaoxiao's phone call had come quite some time ago, her words still flashed through his mind continuously, lingering and impossible to erase, as if they had just been spoken.

Everyone is selfish, and Lin Yang certainly did not consider himself a transcendent sage; naturally, he had his own selfishness. His decision to leave home was ultimately to carve out a world of his own using his own abilities, and now that a good opportunity presented itself, he was naturally unwilling to let it slip away.

While the Bai family represented a stepping stone for his rise, he had no desire to hang himself from a single tree. Kept on a leash by the Fang family, he would never escape his fate of being manipulated, and might even forfeit his young life in the process. Having faced assassination attempts time and time again, Lin Yang could not help feeling a sense of exhaustion.

He shrugged evasively, offering no response. He had no underlying sense of the true power wielded by the Fang family, nor did he know whether his own family would hold a grudge against the Fangs for attempting to assassinate him—much like the last time Tiger Girl had appeared and the medical association president had been secretly eliminated.

At the mere thought of Tiger Girl, Lin Yang's mind inevitably conjured the face of that most cherished person, the old man. Yet, more prominently, he recalled the bad news Tiger Girl had recently brought. He felt deeply anxious about the old man's health; the more he came into contact with the HSV virus, the more helpless he felt.