Chapter 383: The Problem With Men Like Head Luo
Near the window, the quiet lieutenant finally drew a short handgun, but he kept the muzzle lowered.
"Release enough pressure for us to move," he told Luo. "You’re pinning down your own men."
"If I loosen it, he burns the room," Luo snapped.
The man’s jaw tightened as he shook his head. "He’s already burning the room."
"Am not," Lingyun corrected, still smiling. "I’m burning him. The room itself is fine. It would take too much effort to rebuild the room after I’ve burnt it down. I’m not about to do that."
He increased the heat one final time, then released the lieutenant. The man collapsed beside the desk, clutching at an arm that would never work properly again.
The resentment that crossed the quiet man’s face lasted less than a second, but Lingyun saw it.
Yup... he really was going to be the most useful man here. He would live if he didn’t do anything overly stupid in the next few minutes.
The gunman started circling the desk, trying to reach an angle that didn’t place another body between them. Lingyun let him move.
The pressure field made lifting his arm difficult, but it didn’t prevent him from flicking one finger.
A spark appeared beneath the gunman’s thumbnail.
The man jerked and nearly dropped the weapon. Before he could understand what was happening, the heat travelled beneath the nail and into his hand, burning along the nerves and tendons that controlled his grip.
His fingers opened and the gun hit the floor.
Lingyun never threw a fireball. He never scorched the maps, melted the weapons cabinet, or damaged the desk Rouxi would technically own when he finished.
Instead, he took the office apart through contact, sparks, and lines of heat too small for Luo’s power to crush.
Suppressing his fire hadn’t made him less dangerous.
It had only forced him to get closer.
Head Luo increased the pressure again, causing Lingyun’s right knee to hit the floor.
Pain travelled through his leg while the wood cracked beneath him. His lungs refused to expand, and his arms felt heavy enough that lifting either one would require more strength than he currently possessed.
Luo finally came around the desk.
Victory had already begun settling over his face, though he remained cautious enough to stop several steps outside Lingyun’s reach.
Lingyun lowered his head as his shoulders began to shake.
The remaining men assumed he was struggling to breathe.
But in reality, he couldn’t stop laughing.
It started silently, trapped behind the pressure crushing his chest, but eventually a low sound slipped free.
Head Luo stopped.
"Restrain him," he ordered.
The gunman stared at Lingyun from beside his fallen weapon. One hand hung uselessly at his side, the fingers already swelling around the damage Lingyun had buried beneath the skin.
He didn’t move.
Luo turned toward him. "I gave you an order."
Lingyun slowly raised his head and smiled at the lieutenant.
"You should listen to your boss."
The man took one step back.
That was the first real crack in Luo’s control.
His face twisted, and the pressure shifted away from Lingyun long enough to catch the lieutenant. The man cried out as the invisible weight struck his back and forced him forward.
He stumbled within reach.
Lingyun caught him.
One palm settled against the man’s chest, and heat drove through cloth, skin, and muscle before Luo could pull him away. The lieutenant’s body locked in Lingyun’s grip. Smoke escaped between his lips as Lingyun released him.
He dropped to the floor, still alive, his chest moving in shallow jerks.
The pressure weakened for half a heartbeat while Luo stared at his fallen man.
That was enough.
Lingyun wiped the blood from beneath his nose with the back of his hand and forced one foot beneath himself. His legs shook as he rose, but the smile stayed exactly where it belonged.
He stepped over the smoking lieutenant and faced Head Luo.
"Now... it’s your turn."
Head Luo’s face twisted as Lingyun stepped over the smoking body between them.
Whatever amusement he had found in the situation was gone. So was the broad pressure weighing down the entire office. Suddenly, it shifted so that it was now like a narrow beam, concentrating around Lingyun until the floor beneath his boots cracked.
The force hit his chest first.
Lingyun flew backward and slammed into the front of the desk hard enough to knock several ledgers onto the floor. Pain tore through his ribs, followed by a sharp crack that told him at least one of them hadn’t enjoyed the impact.
Before he could straighten, the pressure wrapped around his right arm and pinned it against his side.
Luo stalked toward him, every step measured now that he understood exactly what would happen if Lingyun got close enough to touch him.
"You should have stayed beneath Jian Yuche," he snarled.
Lingyun breathed through the pain crushing his lungs and smiled. "You should’ve stayed behind your desk."
The pressure increased.
His shoulder struck the edge of the wood again. Something shifted inside the joint, and his vision blurred for a second while blood ran freely from his nose.
Across the room, the weight had lifted from Luo’s lieutenants. The man with the burned hand dragged himself away from the desk, while the one Lingyun had cooked through the chest remained curled on the floor, struggling for every breath.
The quiet man near the window stood perfectly still with his gun in hand.
Luo glanced toward him. "Shoot him."
The man raised the weapon.
Lingyun watched his finger settle against the trigger, but the gun remained pointed toward the floor.
Head Luo’s attention sharpened as he looked at the other man. "I gave you an order."
The lieutenant’s jaw tightened. "You’re holding him against the desk. Move aside."
It was a reasonable excuse.... but not a single person in the room believed it.
Luo’s power shifted again, this time hitting the quiet man. He grunted as invisible pressure struck his shoulders and forced him down onto one knee.
That was the problem with men like Luo.
They became so used to controlling everyone around them that they forgot control only worked while people believed obedience was safer than resistance.