Asano Ryo's sharp rebuke caught the attention of Zhang Yuanqing and the others. Then, a man's voice drifted in from outside: "Oh? Feeling bold today all of a sudden? Ah, I get it now. I heard you're a member of Yuanshi Tianzun's guild, and among the team the Five Elements Alliance sent to do our grunt work, a few happen to be your guildmates."
At this point, the man sneered.
"So you think you've got backing now? How ridiculous. In the Free Federation, in Heaven's Punishment, the only person you can rely on is me. The only thing your Thousand Cranes Group can rely on is Heaven's Punishment. Those guys from the Five Elements Alliance are just here to do grunt work, get it?"
Asano Ryo retorted indignantly, "You're a shameless, despicable creep."
Hearing that, the man's tone darkened.
"Asano Ryo, you really are a naive, foolish girl who lacks real-world experience. If you had any sense at all, you'd know that dating me is the only right choice.
"If you had any experience, you'd know that offending me means terrible things will happen to both you and the Thousand Cranes Group. But you just brushed off my words as an empty threat. No, let me tell you, that wasn't a threat. It's about to become your reality."
Hearing this, Zhang Yuanqing turned to Brother Red Chicken, astonished. "What are you waiting for? You can take this lying down? Go charge out and beat the crap out of him!"
Brother Red Chicken wore a blank look. "I don't understand what they're saying."
*Right, my bad! How could I expect a Fire Mage to understand a foreign language?* Zhang Yuanqing immediately stepped out of the office area. In the corridor, he saw Asano Ryo clutching a cardboard box, standing opposite a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man with handsome features and an air of sullen arrogance.
The man wore an impeccably tailored light blue suit, exuding an overbearing, uncomfortable pride.
Guan Ya and the others filed out behind him.
When Asano Ryo saw her guild leader come out, she darted over like a fledgling swallow returning to its nest, stopping right next to him. But after a quick thought, she quietly shifted beside Guan Ya.
—Guan Ya was the team's public leader.
The young man in the blue suit brightened at the sight of Guan Ya and Sun Miaomiao, unable to stop himself from letting out a low "Woah."
As a Scout, Guan Ya took only a single glance to see through his sleazy thoughts. Frowning, she asked, "Is this Brady Meade?"
Asano Ryo nodded vigorously. "That's him."
Zhang Yuanqing looked between them. "Who's Brady? What's going on?"
Asano Ryo explained in a whisper, "Brady Meade is the guy who's always harassing me. He's from the Meade family—Chief Executive Officer Sean Meade is his uncle. Brady has a lot of girlfriends and keeps mistresses among several female colleagues in the office.
"Ever since I started working at Heaven's Punishment, he's been constantly pestering me. At first, he sent gifts and asked me out to dinner. After I turned him down a few times, he started making threats. He said if I didn't date him, he'd arrange high-risk missions for me and send a 'guidance team' to strip the Thousand Cranes Group of its autonomy.
"He even froze my bank card and payroll card in New York. Assistant Emma had to intervene before they were unfrozen, but even Assistant Emma can't afford to provoke him and could only give him a warning.
"I feel like he's been losing his patience lately. Fortunately, I usually stay right here at the Heaven's Punishment branch, and since I'm still an intern, I haven't been assigned field missions yet. Otherwise..."
There were only three ways a man ever tried to get a woman: money, affection, or force.
It was the same in every social class.
Hearing this, Brother Red Chicken's fists instantly clenched. "Don't you work in the prosecution department? A guy like this wouldn't hold up under an investigation, right? Is your boss, that Chief Prosecutor, a pushover? A useless piece of trash?"
Never missing an opportunity to deflate him, Tianxia Guihuo said coldly, "For someone with that kind of family background, unless his backer falls, you could slap ironclad evidence right onto the prosecutor's desk and it would still be tossed into the wastebasket like trash."
As they spoke, Brady Meade walked over and stopped in front of Guan Ya. His eyes gleamed as he extended a hand.
"Hello. I'm Brady Meade. Chief Executive Officer Sean Meade is my uncle. Are you free tonight? I'd like to treat our friends from the Five Elements Alliance to dinner."
Guan Ya glanced down at his hand and made no move to take it.
"Don't go!" Asano Ryo said in Chinese. "I heard he often uses parties and dinners as an excuse to drug and seduce women. It's happened multiple times before... Um, Brady doesn't understand Chinese."
Brother Red Chicken immediately barked, "Dumbass, get lost!"
Brady Meade's expression shifted, and he glared at Brother Red Chicken. "What did you say?"
He followed it up with a muttered, "Fuck."
"See? He does understand!" Brother Red Chicken quipped, raising his fist to strike. "Dumbass foreign devil, how dare you swear at me!"
*Can't you understand curse words too...?* Guan Ya rested a hand on Brother Red Chicken's shoulder, checking the hot-tempered Fire Mage. Looking at Brady, she replied in crisp, fluent English:
"Thank you for the invitation. We will consider it when we have time. Right now, these are working hours. Mr. Meade, please return to your post."
With that, she turned to lead Asano Ryo back toward the office area.
Seeing them turn away, Brady Meade hastily strode forward a few paces to block their path, wearing a shameless grin. "In Heaven's Punishment, turning down a colleague's invitation is quite impolite. So—"
Before he could finish, Zhang Yuanqing sidestepped and lashed out with a kick as swift as lightning.
Brady Meade reacted remarkably fast. Leaping backward to dodge the strike, he caught a draft of wind and glided back several meters.
"You dare attack me?!" Brady was stunned. He hadn't expected that even after declaring his name, this yellow monkey from the Second District would dare lay a hand on him.
Brady glared viciously at Zhang Yuanqing, barking, "Do you have a death wish here in New York, you filthy yellow monkey? Even if you drop to your knees and beg for mercy, I won't forgive you! Go to heaven and confess to God, because you've crossed me!"
Guan Ya clamped her hand back down on Brother Red Chicken's shoulder, fixing Brady Meade with a cold stare. "Don't provoke us—unless you want a brawl inside this building."
She could tell Yuanshi had held back with that kick, treating it merely as a warning, which meant he didn't want to start a full-blown fight here either.
Brady Meade glared coldly at their backs for a few seconds before turning on his heel and storming off.
Taking the elevator back to the Operations Department floor, he shoved open his office door, grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet, poured half a glass, and downed it in one gulp.
*Knock, knock!*
A rap sounded on the frosted glass door. A middle-aged man with blond hair, blue eyes, and slicked-back hair pushed the door open and stepped in.
"Young Master Brady, have you met the reinforcement team from the Five Elements Alliance? Did they upset you?" the middle-aged man asked with a slight bow.
"Richardson, I'm going to butcher that yellow pig from the Five Elements Alliance! I'm going to slaughter him!" Brady slammed the glass onto the table with a heavy thud, gnashing his teeth.
Richardson was a spirit walker groomed by the Meade family and served as Brady's personal assistant, handling everything from his daily life to his work affairs.
He was the person Brady trusted most.
The roughly fifty-year-old Richardson listened quietly to the young master's recount before speaking:
"Young Master, they are merely a pack of uncivilized monkeys. They aren't worth dirtying your hands over. The Chief Executive Officer would not wish to see you get into a conflict with the Five Elements Alliance."
"I know," Brady said, taking a deep breath. "But they belong to Winni Berent's faction after all. My uncle can ignore those ants because stooping to target ants would insult his status, but I have to do something."
***
"Remember, here in New York, you must beware of both men who offer you everything they have, and women who welcome you with open legs."
Back in their office, Zhang Yuanqing was giving solemn advice to the guild Saints. "Especially the 'open-legged welcomes' from the Desire class. Not only will they squeeze you until you're completely limp, but they'll also squeeze you until you're dead broke. Brother Red Chicken, you're a Fire Mage with boundless energy—make sure you steer clear."
Brother Red Chicken protested, "Tianxia Guihuo is a Fire Mage too! Why aren't you warning him?"
Tianxia Guihuo remarked flatly, "Compared to paying an exorbitant price, I am far better at suppressing my desires."
"So you only take freebies," Brother Red Chicken retorted, hitting the nail on the head.
*Freeloading really isn't right, though—after all, an inch of time is worth an inch of gold...* Zhang Yuanqing was about to speak when he noticed Yuan Ting poking his head through the doorway, his eyes glittering with intense curiosity—and gossip.
"Who is this guy? Why do you all listen to him?" Yuan Ting asked suspiciously.
He had been eyeing this "Jumang" for a while now.
With one word from Jumang, Sun Miaomiao and the others had scuttled obediently into the office; when Jumang went to drink water by the cooler, Sun Miaomiao and the rest eagerly gathered around him.
He was practically treated like the darling of the group.
A little, unknown Beast King—on what grounds?
Everyone turned to look at him and replied in unison, "You don't need to know, and we're not telling you."
Struck like a bolt from the blue, Yuan Ting clutched his chest in agony, looking like a heart attack patient.
Just then, Sun Miaomiao tugged at her collar, fanning herself as she glanced around. "It's so hot. Why did it suddenly get so hot?"
Tianxia Guihuo sensed the temperature and said, "The ambient temperature is rising rapidly. It's currently thirty-one degrees... The air conditioner is blowing hot air."
Blowing hot air in the sweltering heat?
The weather in mid-October was still hot; without air conditioning, life was miserable.
Guan Ya immediately had an Extraordinary stage assistant inspect the unit, only to discover that someone had switched the AC to heating mode and broken the control panel and power switch.
They contacted Heaven's Punishment's front desk for maintenance. The receptionist agreed with a beaming smile, yet the repair technician was nowhere to be seen.
Just as the Five Elements Alliance members were drenched in sweat, the power in their office section went out.
With the computers off, work ground to a halt, and the office became stiflingly muggy. Since the maintenance crew had still failed to show up, Guan Ya led all eighteen members of the team to the common lounge area to enjoy the AC while repeatedly pressing the front desk to follow up with repairs.
As before, the receptionist agreed with a pleasant smile, and as before, did absolutely nothing.
And that wasn't the end of it. While the Five Elements Alliance members were simmering with frustration, trouble arrived.
Two men in shirts—unbuttoned at the collar to reveal muscular chests, sleeves rolled up to the elbows showing thick forearms—strode in, radiating the demeanor of suited thugs.
The two Heaven's Punishment members approached with unmistakable purpose, eyeing the Five Elements Alliance members crowding the lounge sideways and grumbling loudly:
"Oh, God! The lounge has been overrun by a bunch of uneducated, uncouth foreigners. This is a public area, not your office. Beat it and roll back where you belong!"
A Scout from the Five Elements Alliance held back his temper and stepped forward to explain, "We're very sorry. The air conditioning in our office broke down, and the power went out—"
Before he could finish, the other Heaven's Punishment member gave him a violent shove. "Get lost! You ill-mannered trash, all spirit walkers from the Second District are shit!"
The Scout stumbled backward, nearly losing his footing.
His face flushed with fury, yet he dared not voice his anger. After all, this was their turf, and Heaven's Punishment had dominated the world as the strongest official organization with an overbearing, aggressive grip for an entire century.
The official walkers from the Five Elements Alliance harbored an ingrained fear, unable to hold their heads high or straighten their backs, instinctively feeling inferior.
Someone was clearly targeting them!
The Extraordinary stage walkers of the Five Elements Alliance felt both humiliated and infuriated, yet had no senior authority to turn to for redress.
"Practicing high jumps over a toilet—that's crossing the shit-line!" Brother Red Chicken's body erupted in flames, and he launched forward like a cannonball, hurtling straight toward the two Wind Mages from Heaven's Punishment.
He had held back once, twice, but he couldn't take it anymore.
Right at that moment, a gale howled through the corridor adjoining the lounge area, shrieking shrilly as it whipped through the passage.
The very next second, Brother Red Chicken was blown backward like a stray projectile, slamming violently into the immaculate white wall, the impact spiderwebbing the surface with charred cracks.
On the left side of the corridor, a middle-aged man of about fifty with sunken cheeks and slicked-back hair strode through the whistling drafts. His light hazel eyes swept sternly over the Five Elements Alliance members as he said:
"Attacking a colleague without authorization carries penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment and execution, depending on the severity! Even though you belong to the Five Elements Alliance, if you violate Heaven's Punishment's laws, you will not be spared."
"Who the fuck are you?" Brother Red Chicken wiped the trace of blood from the corner of his mouth, baring his teeth in pain.
The middle-aged man said calmly, "Someone who maintains order. Furthermore, in New York, and within Heaven's Punishment, you speak English. That, too, is a rule."
The Extraordinary stage walkers of the Five Elements Alliance swallowed their rage in silence. This man appeared to be a senior deacon of Heaven's Punishment. When the AC was sabotaged, he hadn't shown up. When the power was cut, he hadn't shown up.
Now, he stepped forward right on cue.
"Who is he?" Zhang Yuanqing asked Asano Ryo beside him.
"He's Brady's assistant, secretary, and bodyguard—Richardson, a Level 6 Wind Mage," Asano Ryo said with indignation. "It really was Brady's doing! What should we do? Should we tell Assistant Emma?"
***
Emma pushed open the office door and looked toward Minister Winni behind the luxurious desk, speaking softly:
"I heard Brady Meade cut the power to the reinforcement squad's office area, and before that, he made those young people sit through hot air blowing for an hour. Minister, should I step in and intervene?"
Winni Berent took a sip from her cup and asked, "Have they asked you for help?"
Emma shook her head. "No. But they almost got into a physical clash with people from the Operations Department in the lounge. If they violate disciplinary rules over this, it won't be easy for you to protect them either. That must be Brady Meade's objective."
Sean Meade would never accept these Five Elements Alliance Saints becoming Minister Winni's obedient subordinates.
If he couldn't have them, he would destroy them.
Winni shook her head.
"Sean is an arrogant man to an infuriating degree. He wouldn't stoop to such petty tactics against kids at the Saint stage."
Smiling calmly, she said:
"Leave them be and let them handle it themselves. If they can't even deal with something this small, staying here is just walking to their deaths, and I'll send them back home. In that Five Elements Alliance team, Guan Ya may be the ostensible leader, but when they entered the conference room, Jumang was the first to walk in and the first to walk out. I suspect he's the real decision-maker.
"Haven't you noticed how evenly balanced the levels of these Saints are? They're almost all Level 5. Guan Ya's level and status don't quite match the role of leader. Use this opportunity to see who handles things—Guan Ya, or Jumang."
"You're interested in him?" Emma asked.
Winni gave an affirmative "Mm," her refined lips curving slightly. "I hope he turns out to be a capable asset, not a witless fool."
"Understood." Emma bowed and backed out of the office.
Chapter 678