Chapter 422: A Regressor's Desperate Gambit
"Yes, yes, it's me, it's me, Long Hao, not some petty thief."
Long Hao, seeing that Shen Anyu recognized him, breathed a sigh of relief, his face showing joy.
At this moment, Long Hao's mask had been torn off, and his arms were clamped tightly by two strong, powerful hands, like iron bands, rendering him completely immobile.
Especially the two guards holding him; they showed no mercy. The men, flanking him like statues carved from granite, wrenched his arms back with brutal efficiency. A sickening pop echoed from his shoulder sockets, a sound of cartilage grinding against bone, as if his limbs were about to be torn clean from his torso.
A wave of white-hot agony shot through him, making him gasp. His vision swam, and his face, already pale from shock, turned a ghastly shade of white. Large, cold beads of sweat erupted on his forehead, tracing oily paths through the grime of his disguise.
He was Long Hao, a martial arts prodigy! In his prime, he had reached the peak of the Innate Realm at an astonishingly young age. His name carried weight, not just in the Sichuan Martial Arts World, but across the vast expanse of Yanxia. He was the Third Young Master of the Long Family, a name spoken with a mixture of envy and respect.
But for some cruel, inexplicable reason, his cultivation hadn't just stagnated; it had regressed. The potent inner strength that once coursed through his meridians had withered away, leaving him a shadow of his former self. Now, he was barely at the Early Stage of the Post-natal Realm, his inner strength a mere trickle compared to the roaring river it once was.
And the men holding him? Shen Anyu's personal guards. They were monsters. Each one radiated an aura of at least the Innate level. Among the figures standing sentinel around the room, he could sense the chilling pressure of Grandmasters and even the suffocating presence of Great Grandmasters. Against such power, he was less than an ant.
Cold sweat soaked the cheap waiter's uniform he wore, plastering the thin fabric to his skin.
'Damn it, I was careless… so unbelievably careless…'
Regret gnawed at him, a bitter, acidic feeling in his gut. His disguise had been flawless, his concealment perfect. He had blended into the background, just another nameless servant in this palace of opulence. But then he'd heard the news—the Asura Demon King Chu Yun had been captured, and the Martial Alliance Master Yan Lingxiao had fallen. The shock had been so profound that a gasp had escaped his lips, a single, fatal mistake that had drawn Shen Anyu's predatory gaze.
This feeling… this suffocating helplessness of having his destiny held in another's hands… it was nauseatingly familiar. It dragged him back to the most humiliating moment of his previous life, the day Su Hongmian stood before a crowd of elites and publicly, mercilessly, broke off their engagement. He was a joke then, and he was a joke now.
'Damn it all! I was too reckless. I should have been more patient, more stable!' he seethed internally, the pain in his shoulders a dull throb compared to the sharp sting of his own stupidity. 'I'm a regressor! I hold knowledge of the next two and a half years of world events! I have the damned Investment Return System! What was the rush? Chu Yun and Yan Lingxiao were unexpected variables, but I could have adapted! I could have waited!'
His resentful gaze flickered towards Shen Anyu, who watched him with a detached, almost clinical curiosity. 'And this bastard, Shen Anyu… I've already announced my identity, and he still won't tell these brutes to loosen their grip! You son of a bitch! These are my shoulders, not a pair of roasted chicken wings for you to tear apart, you…!'
[Ding! Child of Destiny Long Hao is displeased. Plunder +5555 Destiny Value!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Long Hao is cursing inwardly. Plunder +7788 Destiny Value!]
The system prompts were a cold comfort. Shen Anyu observed Long Hao's pained, sycophantic smile with a flicker of amusement in his dark eyes. He could practically hear the venomous curses swirling behind that pathetic facade. His own smile was a playful, dangerous curve as he spoke, his voice leisurely, cutting through the tense silence of the room.
"I must confess, I wasn't aware that the esteemed Third Young Master Long Hao of the Sichuan Long Family had taken up a position as a waiter at my Zhenxiu Pavilion. Tell me, Young Master Long, when exactly did you apply for this job?"
"I… I…" Long Hao stammered, his mind racing, trying to concoct a plausible lie—no, an explanation.
Before he could formulate a response, the manager of the Zhenxiu Pavilion, who had been hovering nearby with a face drenched in sweat, scurried forward. He bowed so low his forehead nearly touched the polished floor.
"Young Master Shen! I can personally vouch that our Zhenxiu Pavilion has never employed this man! I oversee every single member of the waitstaff myself. He must have snuck in!"
A moment later, a guard returned, dragging a dazed and bruised waiter behind him. The man was dressed only in his undergarments, his uniform gone. He was the one Long Hao had ambushed and stripped.
Long Hao's expression froze, his last hope of bluffing his way out evaporating.
The real waiter shot a furious, tearful glare at Long Hao before turning to Shen Anyu, his voice trembling with fear and indignation.
"I-I was just in the back getting a drink of water, and this person appeared out of nowhere and knocked me unconscious! I don't know what happened after that. My head… the back of my head is still throbbing." He pointed a shaky finger at Long Hao. "I had nothing to do with him, Young Master Shen, I swear! Please, you have to believe me…"
Shen Anyu simply waved a dismissive hand. The guard understood immediately, leading the distraught waiter away. The casual, absolute authority in that simple gesture sent a fresh wave of ice through Long Hao's veins. Shen Anyu then turned his gaze back to him, his eyes narrowing into predatory slits. He spoke deliberately, each word a drop of poison.
"Sneaking around like a phantom, your intentions are clearly malicious. Perhaps you were planning to slip some poison into my wine? Or maybe…" His eyes drifted down, a cruel smirk twisting his lips. "...you were planning to castrate me?"
The blood drained from Long Hao's face. The casual, off-handed suggestion struck him with the force of a physical blow. He broke out in a cold sweat, his voice cracking as he blurted out, "You—I didn't poison you! This is an illegal private punishment! It's against the law!"
"Then sue me," Shen Anyu replied, his smile widening, utterly unfazed.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Long Hao is speechless and frustrated. Plunder +9999 Destiny Value!]
Long Hao was rendered speechless. Sue him? Sue the Young Master of the Yanxia Shen Family? The idea was so ludicrous it was almost funny. The saying that all were equal before the law was a fairy tale for commoners, a comforting lie to maintain order. In reality, a man of Shen Anyu's station was practically a modern-day prince. The law was a tool for him, not a chain.
Unless the entire Shen Family, a titan that had stood for centuries, somehow collapsed overnight, Shen Anyu could harm or even kill someone with near impunity. The consequences would be handled, smoothed over, and forgotten.
If Shen Anyu decided to have him castrated right here, on the floor of this ridiculously expensive restaurant, there was genuinely nothing he could do about it. At least, not now.
'No, no, no! I went through the impossible to be reborn! I have the Investment Return System! I can't end up a eunuch! That would be a fate a thousand times worse than my previous life!' The thought was a spike of pure terror in his heart. 'What would be the point of regressing then?! To become the richest, most powerful eunuch in history?!'
A guard near the wall began to unsheathe a short, wicked-looking blade, its edge catching the light. The sight sent a paralyzing cold through Long Hao's limbs. He was out of time. All pretense, all strategy, all thoughts of hiding his true advantage evaporated in a blast of primal fear.
He wrenched his gaze towards Shen Anyu, his voice raw with urgency.
"Shen Anyu! Young Master Shen! Do you know that you are about to face a great disaster?"
The preemptive strike, a desperate shot in the dark, seemed to land. A surge of confidence, however fleeting, coursed through him. This was his chance. If he could pique Shen Anyu's interest, he could not only survive this crisis but potentially turn the situation to his advantage. He could use Shen Anyu's immense power to accelerate his own development.
With his knowledge as a regressor, posing as a prophet or a divine seer would be child's play. He had planned to invest in several rising protagonists, but what was one more? Especially one as anomalous and powerful as Shen Anyu.
In Long Hao's mind, the plan was flawless. He held a piece of information so crucial it could save the Shen Family from a future catastrophe.
Ye Yan, the last remnant of the decimated Magic City Ye Family, was not dead. He had survived the purge. Not only that, he had been taken in as a disciple by the legendary Tian Yunzi, a magnate who had reached the world of Heavenly Human Unity. Ye Yan had since become a peerless martial arts expert and founded the Netherworld Palace, a shadowy organization built for the sole purpose of orchestrating his revenge against the Shen Family.
By revealing this, Long Hao was certain he would instantly gain the trust and favor of Shen Anyu. He would be transformed from a captured rat into an honored guest. It was a foolproof plan!
'Ye Yan, my friend, I'm truly sorry,' Long Hao apologized silently, a flicker of guilt quickly extinguished by the overwhelming need for self-preservation. 'To avoid being turned into a court eunuch, I have no choice but to sell you out. Don't blame me…'
In Long Hao's memories, Ye Yan couldn't defeat the Shen Family in the early stages. It was only much later, after forging powerful alliances and reaching the legendary world of a Land Immortal, that he finally gained the power to challenge the behemoth.
By exposing him now, Ye Yan's path to vengeance would be cut short. He would be hunted down and exterminated before he could ever become a true threat.
But it was a necessary sacrifice. A sacrifice made to preserve his own future happiness… and his manhood. With a heavy, yet resolute heart, Long Hao abandoned Ye Yan, his once-chosen investment target.
…
"What? My… brother-in-law is in great danger?"
Xu Ruoshui's face turned deathly pale at Long Hao's words. The word "husband" had almost tumbled from her lips before she caught herself, a frantic reminder that she was currently inhabiting her sister Xu Ruoxue's body.
But in that moment, she couldn't care less about the charade. Her husband—the Young Master of the almighty Yanxia Shen Family—in great danger? How was that even possible?
Normally, Xu Ruoshui's brilliant mind would have analyzed the claim with cold logic, but worry had clouded her judgment. The mere suggestion of a threat to Shen Anyu sent her into a spiral of anxiety, her heart clenching painfully in her chest.
Xu Ruoxue, feeling her sister's panic through their connection, also grew anxious. But she reacted in an instant, her beautiful face freezing over into a mask of glacial fury. She fixed Long Hao with a gaze so cold it could have frozen flames.
"Nonsense! How could Shen Anyu possibly be in great danger?" she questioned, her voice laced with ice.
Long Hao was startled by the sheer intensity of her stare. It was terrifying. According to the rumors from his past life, the older Xu sister, Ruoshui, was the gentle and kind one, while the younger, Ruoxue, was aloof and proud. Why did it seem to be the complete opposite right now?
And just as Long Hao was wondering, Shen Anyu pulled Xu Ruoxue into his embrace, patted her gently, and smiled.
"Forgetting to call me husband? Have you forgotten the family rules?"
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