"This is Young Master Yang Jin," soone said.
The grand banquet hall was plunged into a dead silence. The guests, already steeped in horror, stood petrified, their eyes wide and their mouths agape.
Qin Lie shot to his feet while a panicked Qin Zhuo scrambled forward to check on the body.
Qin Zhuo reported in a horrified voice, "It's... It's Yang Jin, no doubt about it."
"Quick! Get him downstairs for dical treatnt!" Qin Lie roared anxiously, his face twisting in alarm.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
Several mbers of the Qin Family imdiately rushed over.
"It's no use," Qin Zhuo said, shaking his head. His eyes were filled with a mixture of terror and fury. "Young Master Yang Jin... is already dead."
Qin Lie: "..."
The crowd: "..."
Dead?
But... this Young Master of the Yang Family wasn't so useless profligate. He was a top-tier, twelfth-level Fist Master. He only stepped out to take a call, and he was killed? Seeing the state of his body, one could only imagine what horrors he must have endured in those few minutes.
Most importantly, this was the territory of the Qin Royal Family! To kill with such impunity here... Heh... one had to admit, the killer had so nerve.
Silence.
The entire banquet hall was as still as a tomb.
Yang Jin had been sent by the Yang Family as reinforcent for the Qin Family. Tens of thousands of their Personal Guards were already on the way. But now, he was dead on Qin Family grounds. How would the Yang Family react?
In that mont, many eyes subconsciously turned toward Qin Lie.
"Damn it!" Qin Zhuo's expression was grim as he charged out of the hall at top speed. "I want to see just who dares to cause trouble on my Qin Family's turf!"
In fact, many of the younger Qin Family mbers had already rushed outside, but there was no sign of anyone.
"Start the search imdiately!" Qin Zhuo's face was ashen as he bellowed. "I don't care if you have to dig three feet into the earth, find that killer!"
The Qin Family mbers quickly sprang into action.
Qin Lie stepped out as well, clutching a mobile phone, his expression hesitant. He had to inform the Yang Family of Yang Jin's death, but how was he supposed to break the news?
"Father, we absolutely cannot admit that Yang Jin died at our family's estate!" Qin Zhuo said hastily, seeing right through Qin Lie's thoughts.
Qin Lie shook his head. "As long as he died on Qiyun Road, do you really think it matters whether his body was found on our property?" As the master of Qiyun Road, as Old King Qin, he bore an inescapable responsibility for Yang Jin's death.
Qin Zhuo's expression shifted multiple tis. He knew a thing or two about the temperant of the Yang Family Head. If he were to beco enraged and assign bla, the Qin Family would not be able to bear the consequences.
"What if... we find a thirteenth-level expert to be the scapegoat?" Qin Zhuo was so worried that his judgnt was becoming clouded.
Qin Lie remained silent. How could such a crude trick possibly fool the Yang Family?
RING! RING! RING!
Just as the tension in the air was becoming palpable, the phone in Qin Lie's hand suddenly rang.
When he saw the caller ID, Qin Lie's pupils contracted, and his heart gave a violent lurch. It was his childhood friend, the current Yang Family Head, Yang Tiancheng. He was also Yang Jin's grandfather. Why would he be calling now?
"Father, you don't think Yang Tiancheng... already knows, do you?" Qin Zhuo asked nervously.
Qin Lie didn't respond, simply answering the call.
Before he could even speak, he was hit with a barrage of questions from the other end. "Qin Lie, where's Yang Jin? What happened to him?
"I was just on the phone with him when soone attacked him! They even had the gall to tell they were going to take Yang Jin's life! After that, his phone just kept ringing! Qin Lie, you tell the truth. What happened to my grandson?"
"Yang Jin... is dead," Qin Lie said, taking a deep breath and telling the plain truth.
The line went silent. Qin Lie said nothing more. At that mont, he didn't know what else he could possibly say.
"I want to know everything that happened." After a long mont, Yang Tiancheng's cold, detached voice finally ca through.
Qin Lie held nothing back, recounting the incident in its entirety. He concluded, "Tiancheng, I am so sorry. But rest assured, I will find the killer and personally deliver him to you."
"That won't be necessary. I'll send my own people to investigate."
CLICK.
With that, Yang Tiancheng hung up.
Listening to the dial tone, a deep chill seeped into Qin Lie's bones. He could feel it clearly: the childhood friend he had grown up with was now a world away.
"Sigh..." Qin Lie let out a long sigh before instructing Qin Zhuo, "Investigate imdiately. You must find this trash!" His tone was bone-chillingly cold.
If they could find the killer before the Yang Family's n arrived, it might not be enough to nd his relationship with Yang Tiancheng, but at least it would be a form of explanation.
"Don't worry, Father!" A cold glint flashed in Qin Zhuo's dark eyes as he clenched his fists.
「In the distant Holy Sea, at the Yang Family estate.」
BANG!
A stone table exploded into dust under the palm of an old man in a white robe.
"Qin Lie, you utter waste!" the white-robed elder—Yang Tiancheng—hissed, crushing his phone into powder. "Yang Jin died on Qin Family grounds, right under your nose, Qin Lie... Heh heh..."
"Third Brother, take the remaining Personal Guards and set off for Qiyun Road at once."
A black-robed man standing nearby stepped forward. "And what about Qin Lie...?" he asked coldly.
Yang Tiancheng was silent. The black-robed man, Yang Tianli, said no more, quietly awaiting Yang Tiancheng's reply. After all, Qin Lie and his big brother shared a deep bond. Without his elder brother's approval, Yang Tianli wouldn't dare make a move against the Old King Qin of Qiyun Road, no matter how murderous he felt.
After a mont of contemplation, Yang Tiancheng turned and walked away with his hands clasped behind his back, leaving a single sentence hanging in the air. "It would be best if Yang Jin's death has nothing to do with Qin Lie."
"I understand, Big Brother," Yang Tianli nodded, the corner of his mouth twitching into a slight smirk.
...
「In front of the banquet hall.」
Qin Zhuo was just about to leave when a butler ca rushing over, shouting frantically, "O-Old Master! There's trouble!"
Hearing the commotion, the already agitated Qin Lie's expression darkened instantly.
Qin Zhuo snapped at the butler, "What's all this shouting about!"
"Old Master... Qin Qiu, Qin Mo... their entire branch of the family has been abducted!" the old butler stamred.
Both Qin Zhuo and Qin Lie froze. A mont later, Qin Zhuo laughed, his voice tight with rage. "Who did it?"
"We... we don't know for certain yet! All the guards were knocked unconscious, but I've already sent n in pursuit!" the old butler reported, trembling.
"Useless trash!" Qin Zhuo roared. Then, as if a thought struck him, he turned to Qin Lie. "Father, the one who abducted Qin Qiu's family must be that Sixth Grade Martial General. If so... could Yang Jin's death also be connected to him?"
Qin Lie had made the sa connection. But a re Sixth Grade Martial General? Does he have that kind of power? Yang Jin's strength reached the twelfth level. To kill him so easily would require at least a thirteenth-level expert, soone on par with Thousand-Faced Yama. I've never heard of a Sixth Grade Martial General possessing that kind of strength.
"Go and get them back for now!" One crisis piling on top of another had made Qin Lie's face so dark it looked like a storm cloud about to burst.
...
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