Nanze's Foremost Dandy

Zheng Shaohua's face darkened, and he violently swung a slap across her face! Smack! The woman was instantly knocked off her feet, slumping onto the floor as her cheek rapidly swelled into a red welt. Spitting out two teeth along with a mouthful of blood, she pointed a finger at Zheng Shaohua and cursed, "You bastard! How dare you hit me?!" Yet in the next breath, Zheng Shaohua stepped forward and viciously stomped down, snapping her shin! He ground his heel down slightly, and a chilling crunch immediately echoed from her fair leg. Her agonizing shrieks rang out incessantly as jagged white bone tore through her skin. The rouge and powder on her face ran together with her cold sweat. Only now did she remember who this man before her was! Nanze's foremost dandy, the eldest young master of the Zheng Clan! Zheng Shaohua calmly lifted his foot. Just as the onlookers thought the matter was over, he slowly crouched down, looked at the woman with frigid eyes, and sneered, "Which finger was it that pointed at me just now?" As he spoke, he drew a hammer gleaming with a cold glint from his storage ring and slammed it straight down onto her slender jade-like fingers! Bang! Flesh and blood turned into a gory mush—the entire index finger of her right hand was pounded into mince. Her shrieks resounded through the entire Treasure Pavilion, yet not a single servant in the building dared to step forward and intervene. "Young Master Zheng! Lord Zheng... I was wrong... I was truly wrong..." "I shouldn't have run my mouth... Please... I beg you, spare me..." Her eyes filled with terror, the woman knelt on the floor and repeatedly knocked her head against the ground in desperation. Yet Zheng Shaohua placed an index finger to his lips and whispered softly, "Shh!" The woman went quiet immediately, and the crowd in the hall grew quiet as cicadas in winter. The young man muttered in annoyance, "Don't talk. You're making me forget which finger pointed at me." Bang! The hammer smashed heavily onto the woman's middle finger, sending bone shards scattering across the floor. A shrill, agonizing scream tore from her mouth. Her bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the young man, her lips trembling so violently that she could not utter a single word. The corners of Zheng Shaohua's lips curved upward slightly, as if delighted to have found the finger that had pointed at him. Looking down at the woman with cold indifference, he said, "I didn't bring a dagger with me today, or I would have sliced out your tongue." "Cai Juan, did you truly think you could climb onto my branch, hmm?" "Just on the strength of your Cai family? Hahaha! If you don't have a mirror, don't you even have piss to see your reflection in?" "Take a good look at what you are!" Casually tossing the blood-stained hammer to the floor, Zheng Shaohua narrowed his eyes slightly and cast an icy gaze across his surroundings. "Today, I'll see for myself just what kind of grand VIP Fu Gui'er is attending to!" The disturbance here quickly alerted Fu Gui, and upon hearing the news, the chubby deacon's expression shifted drastically! Rising to his feet, he handed the counted spirit stones to Li Guanqi and urged, "Honored guest, I advise you to leave Nanze City as soon as possible. Some... unexpected trouble may find its way to you. So please leave through the back door and depart promptly." With those words, the deacon bowed in farewell and backed out of the room. Li Guanqi furrowed his brows slightly at the warning. He summoned an attendant nearby to ask a few questions, and soon understood what had transpired. However, he had never possessed any fond feelings for such profligate scions, much less when one came looking for trouble with him. Sneering, he transferred all the spirit stones from the storage bag into his storage ring. Looking down at a jade slip in his hand, he felt somewhat conflicted. After taking stock of all his demonic beast materials, he had bought the remaining ingredients needed to refine the Longevity Pill at Treasure Pavilion. All that was missing now was an alchemist capable of brewing it. Unfortunately, Cao Yan was not around at this time, so he could only ask the deacon to help introduce an alchemist. The Longevity Pill was undoubtedly among the most difficult third-rank pills to refine. Ordinary third-rank alchemists wouldn't dare take on the job, which troubled Li Guanqi quite a bit. Stowing the jade slip away with a flick of his sleeve, he could only take things one step at a time and see if he could find the alchemist Fu Gui had recommended. He had less than two years of lifespan remaining now. Fortunately, as his cultivation advanced, his youthful appearance had gradually restored itself somewhat. Otherwise, he would have had to show himself looking like an old man. Yet the lost lifespan could not simply be restored that way. Whenever this topic came up, the sword spirit would selectively play dead. Because earlier, Li Guanqi had asked her whether that single sword strike could still have killed Fang Yishan if she had drawn less of his life force. To his surprise, when he posed the question, the sword spirit had hemmed and hawed, answering in circles. Li Guanqi's face had darkened on the spot. In other words... Back then, the sword spirit had been fully capable of drawing less life force to slay Fang Yishan. Yet now that things had turned out this way, the sword spirit stubbornly insisted that without drawing that much power, she wouldn't have been able to kill Fang Yishan. At this point, Li Guanqi could hardly do anything about it. Instead, the sword spirit had shamelessly chimed in at the time, "Aiya, look at the bright side! If not for me, how could you have broken through realms so quickly, right?" Shaking his head, he suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind. Right now, he was genuinely torn between waiting to break through to the Nascent Soul realm while he still had lifespan left, or extending his lifespan first. Ultimately, the sword spirit's advice had been to increase his lifespan first. That way, once his vitality became more vigorous, it would be of immense help when breaking through from the Core Formation realm to the Nascent Soul realm. Reflecting on what the attendant had said earlier, Li Guanqi stood up and simply left through the rear exit. As he walked along the street, Li Guanqi did not know that the deacon of Treasure Pavilion had had both legs brutally broken! Yet until the very end, that manager hadn't breathed a single word of information regarding Li Guanqi. In the end, when Zheng Shaohua was about to inflict fatal harm, the chubby deacon only escaped with his life by invoking the name of Treasure Pavilion. From this alone, one could see just how terrifying the Zheng Clan's influence in Nanze City truly was. And precisely because of this, Zheng Shaohua, having had his pride wounded repeatedly, strode out of Treasure Pavilion with a gloomy face. He barked an immediate order, "Pass the word down! From this moment on, no one is permitted to enter or leave Nanze! I'd like to see just what formidable outsider dared to disrespect me!!" Soon, the eight great city gates of Nanze closed one after another! Yet this did not cause much of a stir. Such occurrences happened in every major city; after all, when the population inside grew too crowded, they would choose to shut the gates. This scene did not cause much of a stir. Upon returning to Xunfang Tower, Li Guanqi picked a random seat on the third floor near the central courtyard and sat down. On the other side, Zheng Shaohua mobilized his clan's power and began investigating everyone who had entered the city today, then began combing through those staying at the city's taverns. Yet no matter how thoroughly he searched, he found no suspicious individuals staying in the taverns. Furthermore, during that earlier time window, only a handful of people who had entered the city today had actually left their taverns.