Chapter 106: Rising Malice, Overflowing Intent to Kill

Chen Qi carried Yun Tianxin on his back, feeling a slight jolt of alarm as four figures suddenly appeared to block their path.

The next moment, he lowered Yun Tianxin to the ground, his right hand resting lightly against the hilt of his sword.

His heart was filled with frustration: Why is it that every time I return to the sect from the mountains, I run into contractors blocking the way? Wait, these people look somewhat familiar, especially the girl in leather armor.

Chen Qi scanned the four individuals one by one, methodically assessing the strength of each.

Then, he heard the gleeful, arrogant shouting of the man in gold-rimmed glasses:

"Boy? You dare to extort us! Caught you now, haven't we?"

As he spoke, his triangular eyes, shielded by his gold-rimmed spectacles, made no attempt to hide their wicked intentions. They roamed hungrily over Yun Tianxin’s delicate frame, not even sparing a glance for Chen Qi.

Standing behind Chen Qi, Yun Tianxin put on an intrigued expression, then timidly hid behind him, revealing only half her face. She tried her best to conceal herself behind his cloak, as if she could not bear the aggressive, predatory gaze of the man in the gold-rimmed glasses.

Catching this playful glimpse of her, the lecherous grin on the man’s face deepened. He wiped a bead of saliva from the corner of his mouth and continued his warning:

"I’ll give you a chance to live. 1,000 general points per person, and you can leave. Remember, only you get to leave!"

The two men and one woman behind him had also arrived. They bypassed the man in gold-rimmed glasses without hesitation, quietly sealing off Chen Qi’s path of retreat, their auras beginning to flare.

Chen Qi did not stop this. On the contrary, he was pleased to see himself surrounded, as it meant the man in the gold-rimmed glasses had moved a little further away from his teammates. That man had to die.

Upon hearing this, Yun Tianxin continued to feign a look of pitiful helplessness. Her large, misty eyes fluttered as if she were terrified. She trembled, giving Chen Qi a slight push, and cried out in a tone that was half-coaxing and half-begging:

"Junior brother, don't hand me over!"

Before Chen Qi could speak, the man in the gold-rimmed glasses chuckled and cut in:

"Beauty, that man can't protect you. Why not come with me? I’ll show you what a real man is like. My prowess is not something that weakling beside you can compare to."

Suppressing the surging murderous intent in his heart, Chen Qi’s mind raced, calculating how to take down this man with absolute certainty.

Of course, if the situation allowed, he wouldn't let any of the four escape.

A dragon has a reverse scale that, if touched, spells death; Yun Tianxin was his reverse scale, even if he knew she was just putting on a performance to tease him.

Struggling to hide his inner turmoil, Chen Qi did his best to look hesitant. His right hand, placed near the scabbard, trembled as if he were too afraid to draw his blade.

After a long silence, Chen Qi cast his gaze toward Yun Tianxin behind him, forcing a look of guilt into his eyes while making his body tremble more noticeably. His left hand clenched and unclenched, as if he had something to say but couldn't bring himself to utter it.

At this moment, his focus was not on Yun Tianxin at all, but entirely on the man in the gold-rimmed glasses to his side. He prayed with desperate longing:

"Three steps. As long as he dares to come within three steps..."

Seeing this, Yun Tianxin rolled her eyes at Chen Qi in annoyance. Her cheeks puffed out slightly, and she began to complain to herself that her junior brother wasn't immediately unleashing a storm to gouge out those malicious eyes.

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses not far away also saw Yun Tianxin’s anger, and he decisively interpreted it as the woman's reaction to Chen Qi’s cowardice.

Laughing, he stepped two paces closer and made a beckoning gesture toward Yun Tianxin:

"Fairy, come here! Am I not more manly than that pretty boy next to you? Why not come over and experience it for yourself?"

The man's laughter grew louder, his burning desire clearly visible. Even his teammate, Liu Luo, looked displeased, though she seemed held back by something and did not act upon it.

Yun Tianxin also felt a deep sense of disgust. She resisted the urge to tear that face apart herself, stepped hard on Chen Qi’s foot, and whispered in his ear:

"If you can't take him down, don't come looking for me again."

Chen Qi maintained his cowering facade, though a bitter smile tugged at his heart.

It seemed he had no way out now; this battle was a matter of life and death.

Watching the man in the gold-rimmed glasses press his advantage, the two contractors with spears and the tall, burly man seemed to enjoy the scene as well. They began to whistle, and the spear-wielding contractor said flippantly:

"Count us in too, Fairy! Serving one man is the same as serving three."

"Heh heh, not bad at all," the burly man immediately chimed in. His eyes were bloodshot as he watched Yun Tianxin’s alluring appearance, already imagining her whimpering beneath him.

Only the female contractor named Liu Luo did not join in. Instead, she frowned, feeling an inexplicable sensation that the man and woman being surrounded were acting rather strangely—though she couldn't quite put her finger on what that strangeness was.

Feeling a strong sense of dissonance, she couldn't help but blurt out:

"Make that man hand over his weapons and sign a contract first!"

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses looked at her with disdain. Far from stopping, he stepped even closer.

Seeing the surrounded pair acting like devoted lovers, still whispering to each other, he finally turned his full attention back to Chen Qi, a vicious thought forming in his mind:

"Humiliating the woman alone might not be satisfying enough. But if I force myself on her right in front of this boy, that would certainly be interesting."

At this thought, the man in the gold-rimmed glasses felt blood rush to his head, and he felt a surge of excitement. He took another step toward Chen Qi and reached out his left hand:

"Alright! Hand over your weapons. One thousand general points each, and I won't kill you. You can just sit on the side and wait for your little girlfriend."

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses spoke with a laugh. By the time he finished, his face was overflowing with malice. He seemed to hear the woman’s miserable cries and the man’s desperate, helpless growls in his ears, which only excited him more.

He had never worried about having any accidents.

For one thing, he believed that if the boy had intended to resist, he would