Chapter 424: His Trump Card Was Already in My Trophy Case
"Ye Yan's martial talent is exceptional. In just five short years, he has reached the peak of the Grandmaster Realm and can even contend with a Great Grandmaster. Within a year or two, he could achieve the Heavenly Human Realm and even has hopes of becoming a Land Immortal. And now, Ye Yan has descended the mountain and is secretly accumulating strength, preparing to retaliate against you and the Yanxia Shen Family!"
At this point, Long Hao stared intently at Shen Anyu, his eyes wide with a desperate, triumphant fervor. He had just laid his ultimate trump card on the table, a threat so monumental it should have sent shockwaves through the very foundation of the Shen Family. He watched, expecting to see the arrogant smirk wiped from Shen Anyu's handsome face, replaced by a mask of panic and terror.
But he was disappointed.
Shen Anyu's expression remained unchanged, a placid, almost bored smile playing on his lips. There was not the slightest hint of fear, no flicker of concern, no sense of impending doom. He simply leaned back in his luxurious leather chair, the fine Italian wool of his suit not even wrinkling, and asked with the casual air of a man ordering wine:
"Keep going. Is that all?"
The words, spoken so softly, landed like thunderclaps in the silent room.
Long Hao's jaw went slack. A pregnant silence descended, so thick and heavy he could feel it pressing down on his chest, making it hard to breathe.
'What… did he just say?' Long Hao's mind reeled, struggling to process the response. 'Is that… all? Is he insane? Did he not hear me? A future Land Immortal! A master from the Heavenly Human Realm backing him! A vendetta against his entire family! Is Shen Anyu, this profligate, silk-panted young master of the Yanxia Shen Family, missing a goddamn screw in his head?'
His meticulously planned revelation, the ace up his sleeve that was meant to secure his freedom and turn the tables, had just been swatted away like a common fly. The sheer audacity of it left him speechless.
'He must not understand,' Long Hao rationalized, a cold sweat beginning to prickle his brow. 'That has to be it. This hedonistic fool only knows how to play with women and squander his family's fortune. He doesn't grasp the weight of these names, the terror a Heavenly Human powerhouse represents in the martial world. They aren't common thugs; they are walking calamities! Even a colossal entity like the Yanxia Shen Family cannot afford to ignore such an enemy!'
The frustration was so overwhelming, so physically potent, that Long Hao felt an almost uncontrollable urge to leap forward, grab Shen Anyu by his bespoke collar, and scream the terrifying reality of the situation into his infuriatingly calm face. He needed to make this idiot understand the gravity of the problem, the blade hanging over all their necks.
"If that's all you have to say," Shen Anyu's voice sliced through Long Hao's frantic thoughts, his tone laced with a final, chilling boredom, "then let's proceed with the castration." He waved a hand languidly towards one of his guards, a silent, imposing figure who had been standing motionless in the corner. "Bring the knife."
The guard nodded once, his movements economical and precise. He produced a slender, gleaming instrument from a case—not a crude blade, but something that looked terrifyingly surgical. The polished steel caught the overhead lights, sending a sliver of cold brilliance dancing across the room, a light that seemed to suck all the warmth out of Long Hao's body.
The sight of that knife jolted Long Hao from his stupor. The abstract fear of a future enemy was instantly replaced by the immediate, visceral terror of losing his manhood.
"Wait! Wait!" he yelped, his voice cracking. All thoughts of playing hard to get, of demanding concessions and benefits, evaporated like morning mist. Survival was the only thing that mattered now. "Shen Anyu, I can help you! I can help you deal with Ye Yan!"
He scrambled for more words, his mind racing. He had to make Shen Anyu see. He had to paint a picture so terrifying that even this fool would be shaken.
"Don't underestimate Ye Yan! Even if you dismiss potential as some ethereal concept, you can't ignore the force standing behind him! Ye Yan has a supreme powerhouse at the Heavenly Human Realm as his master!" he exclaimed, his words tumbling out in a desperate torrent.
"His esteemed master, Tian Yunzi, is a legend! An old-guard Heavenly Human expert whose strength is immense, almost unfathomable! But he's more than just a powerful warrior—he's the old Hall Master of the Netherworld Palace! He views Ye Yan as his true disciple, his heir! He's passing on his entire legacy, including control of the Netherworld Palace itself, to Ye Yan!"
Long Hao paused for a dramatic breath, trying to gauge Shen Anyu's reaction. There was still nothing. He pressed on, his voice growing louder, more frantic.
"The Netherworld Palace! Surely you know of the Netherworld Palace? It's a top-tier force in the international Dark World, a behemoth of shadow and steel second only to colossal entities like the Martial God Hall! They have ninety-nine mysterious, fortified bases scattered across the globe and over ten thousand elite powerhouses in their ranks! An army of assassins and martial experts!"
To save himself from the knife, Long Hao shamelessly exaggerated, embellishing the power of Tian Yunzi and the Netherworld Palace until they sounded like an unstoppable international juggernaut capable of rivaling the world's greatest powers. He poured every ounce of his conviction into his words, his face flushed, his eyes wild.
He finished his impassioned speech, panting slightly, his heart hammering against his ribs. He had laid it all bare. The full, terrifying scope of the threat. No one, not even the most arrogant heir, could dismiss this.
And Shen Anyu's reaction…
A faint, almost imperceptible chuckle escaped his lips. His smile widened, a perfect, predatory curve that held no warmth, only a deep, unsettling amusement.
"And then?" he asked, his voice a silken whisper that was more terrifying than any shout. "Is that all?"
'This bastard! This insufferable, arrogant, pig-headed bastard! Can't you feel a single shred of crisis?!'
Long Hao felt a wave of utter exhaustion wash over him. It was like trying to reason with a mountain. His gaze, desperate and pleading, darted away from Shen Anyu's mocking face and landed on the two stunning women standing silently behind him. His eyes fixed on Xu Ruoshui—or rather, the woman he knew was the far more worldly Xu Ruoxue.
"You two!" he blurted out, pointing a trembling finger. "You must know! You must know how terrifying the Netherworld Palace is, right?"
He clung to this last, desperate hope. The beautiful CEO Xu Ruoshui might be ignorant of the Dark World's brutal politics, but Xu Ruoxue, the formidable head of intelligence for the Blood Skull Mercenary Group, she had to understand. She would know the truth of his words. She could make this idiot listen!
At this moment, Xu Ruoxue, inhabiting her sister's body, turned her gaze towards Long Hao. Her expression was peculiar. It was a complex cocktail of pity, bemusement, and a hint of something that looked disturbingly like contempt.
"The Netherworld Palace, you say?" she asked, her voice calm and melodic.
Long Hao's eyes lit up. Finally! Someone who understood! Hope surged through him, a drowning man spotting a lifeline.
He nodded so vigorously his head felt like it might come loose. "Yes! The Netherworld Palace! A top-tier major force in the international Dark World! The Netherworld Palace with a martial arts titan from the Heavenly Human Realm at its helm, ninety-nine bases, and countless powerhouses!" he recited, his voice filled with renewed urgency. "An organization of that magnitude cannot be ignored, not even by the Yanxia Shen Family! And Ye Yan is their chosen heir, a man determined to seek revenge! I can help you resolve this threat!"
He had initially planned to posture, to make Shen Anyu beg for his help, to extract a heavy price for his future knowledge. But now, just saving his family jewels was a victory. He would ask for nothing more.
'I've emphasized the danger again and again, but this pig of a teammate, Shen Anyu, refuses to believe me. He's impossible to lead!' Long Hao seethed internally, even as he projected an image of sincere cooperation. 'But that's fine. Let him be useless. When I rise to power, when my destiny is fulfilled, I will make him regret everything. He'll regret stealing my fiancée, Su Hongmian, and he will pay for today's humiliation—with interest. I'll make him grovel… hehehe…'
A dark, vengeful sneer flickered in the depths of his mind.
Hearing his frantic, detailed explanation, Xu Ruoxue's strange expression only deepened. A soft, delicate chuckle escaped her lips, a sound that was both beautiful and utterly soul-crushing.
"The Netherworld Palace you mentioned…" she began, her voice tinged with an almost clinical detachment, "it disappeared half a month ago. It was completely eradicated by some unknown major force."
She paused, letting the words hang in the air like a death sentence.
"There is no Netherworld Palace in this world anymore."
As the head of intelligence for a top mercenary group, Xu Ruoxue was naturally privy to such earth-shattering news. The incident had sent tremors through the entire Dark World. Who could possibly possess the power to wipe a force like the Netherworld Palace off the map so cleanly? All clues had been severed, all leads went cold. It had become one of the great unsolved mysteries of the international underworld.
Lately, she had felt that the entire global situation was becoming increasingly abnormal, as if a colossal, invisible hand was manipulating events from behind the curtain, a power so vast it was simply unfathomable. And the source of that power was sitting calmly in the chair right in front of her.
"What? The… the Netherworld Palace… is gone??"
Long Hao felt as if a bolt of lightning had just struck him between the eyes. His brain short-circuited. The world tilted on its axis, colors and sounds bleeding together into a meaningless blur.
Gone? The Netherworld Palace? The colossal, unstoppable behemoth he had just spent the last ten minutes describing in terrifying detail… was gone? Annihilated?
What about Ye Yan? The future master of the Netherworld Palace? The chosen one destined to become a Land Immortal?
The system notifications chimed in his mind, a merciless digital funeral dirge for his shattered hopes.
[Ding! The Child of Destiny, Long Hao, has been struck by a critical mental blow! Plundering +9999 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! The Child of Destiny, Long Hao's, mindset has collapsed! Plundering +9999 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! The Child of Destiny, Long Hao, is doubting his existence and has suffered a severe blow to his confidence! Plundering +66666 Destiny Points!]
The destruction of the Netherworld Palace was, of course, Shen Anyu's handiwork.
He had orchestrated the entire operation, using the elites of the Yanxia Shen Family and the An Family as the core of his strike force. He had supplemented them with the ruthlessly efficient guards extracted from his Destiny Plunder System. To add insult to injury, he had deployed his other captured protagonists—the former Dragon King Han Qi and the fake young master Xu Ping'an—as pawns in his grand game. All ninety-nine bases of the Netherworld Palace had been systematically and utterly dismantled.
The few remnants who had survived had wisely surrendered, pledging their allegiance to their new, terrifying master. Under Shen Anyu's command, these remnants, led by the resourceful Guo Laoliu, had been reformed into a new organization: the Dark Shadow Society. It was now another of Shen Anyu's dark gloves, destined to rise alongside the Dragon King Society—one to operate beyond Yanxia's borders, the other within.
Incidentally, thanks to his Damage Reflection Aura, the fake young master Xu Ping'an was toiling away diligently in the Dark Shadow Society, dreaming of accumulating enough merits to one day marry the big, cute girl named Leilei. He had no idea that his boss's boss's boss was Shen Anyu, the very man who had claimed his two older sisters and thrown his life into chaos. Nor did he know that his crush, Leilei, was actually a girl much older than him.
As for Ye Yan and his so-called legendary master, Tian Yunzi, they had been dealt with by Shen Anyu long ago. There was simply no need to mention such trivialities to a dying ant like Long Hao.
At this moment, Shen Anyu looked down at the mentally shattered man before him, his smile unchanging. He spoke leisurely, his voice dripping with condescending pity.
"Long Hao, is that all you have? Your so-called impending doom doesn't seem so bad to me."
He gestured again toward the guard with the knife.
"Let's just castrate him anyway…"
Shen Anyu was curious. He wanted to see what other valuable information a truly desperate Long Hao might cough up. Secrets about the future, perhaps? Or something else entirely?
Long Hao was going crazy. The sheer, relentless obsession with his crotch was maddening. Why did they keep wanting to castrate him? Why were they so fixated on his most precious asset?
'Shen Anyu, you scoundrel! You demon!' he screamed internally.
'What do I do? What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!'
He watched, horrified, as the guard began to walk towards him, the knife held steady. He could see his own terrified reflection in the polished blade. He could feel its sharp, cold glint on his skin, a phantom chill that promised excruciating pain. Long Hao scrambled to his feet, pacing anxiously like a caged animal.
'I've got it!'
Just then, as the shadow of the guard fell over him, a flash of inspiration, a memory from his past life, pierced through the fog of his terror. His eyes lit up with a final, desperate spark.
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