My Core is the Boss

The two people and the dog instinctively distanced themselves from Qi Yuan. Honestly, who could blame them? Not only were the tracking dog's words chilling, but the entire situation also seemed a little too neat and convenient. At least, it’d explain why Qi Yuan could be so powerful despite being a newcomer.

Qi Yuan stared incredulously at them. "Do you have a screw loose? If I were the Sea God, why would I go through all this trouble to marry my own child bride? What would be the point of this whole roundabout scheme?"

He had long concluded that genuinely intelligent people were rare in this world.

The remark left An Qiao momentarily speechless. The man in black uniform was equally baffled. He wanted to ask, “What exactly does any of this have to do with whether you're the Sea God or not?”

Still, if Qi Yuan really were the Sea God, he probably wouldn't be wasting his time talking to them. That thought eased the tension in the man's chest a little. Maybe Qi Yuan really wasn't the Sea God after all.

Then, a ten-meter wall of water surged from the horizon, roaring across the surface toward the shore. It swept everything in its path, heading straight for the eight-bearer sedan chair. Xiaomei was locked inside. She’d obviously die if the wave struck the sedan.

Qi Yuan sighed. "This isn't how it goes on TV. Looks like I'll have to jump the gun on this kidnapping."

On TV, someone always stopped to ask questions before the rescue. Yet as far as he was concerned, nobody was asking questions at the moment. Just as he stepped forward, ready to act, everything changed.

Like thunder, a voice crashed down from the heavens. "Die, every single one of you!"

A figure came stumbling into view, radiating the immense pressure of a Jade Blood realm. In the next moment, it thrust its palm forward, and blood-red killing energy boiled upward. White, jade-like light shimmered, within which eighteen bloody handprints took shape.

At the same time, the ear-splitting cry of some enormous beast tore through the air. It was the innate martial technique of that powerful Jade Blood madman.

The palm exploded outward, smashing into the crest of the wave. Eighteen blood handprints relentlessly hammered down one after another.

Boom!

The wave shattered.

"That's a madman!"

"He just attacked the Sea God!"

An Qiao's face was a picture of astonishment. The one who had struck was the madman they had been secretly following.

Soaking wet, the madman hovered in the air with his hair loose, his expression impossible to discern. That was all it took for him to intimidate nearly everyone. The blow he had just unleashed was beyond ordinary human capability. Even if he faced a thousand enemies, he could probably still walk away.

Then, the madman cried, "All demons must die!"

He launched another strike into the sea, then another, each blow raising towering waves to no effect. The village chief trembled uncontrollably. The rest of the villagers were paralyzed with fear.

An Qiao said anxiously, "How insane... Venting like this and using his blood martial qi. He wouldn’t have any power left to face the Sea God later."

The man in black’s face was clouded with suspicion. "Who is this person? Yunyan County has no Jade Blood people!"

Someone replied in a heavy voice, "He is Luo Bufan."

Two men had appeared quietly near An Qiao. When she saw who it was, her face lit up. "Captain!"

With the captain here, she felt steadier. Though he wasn't a Jade Blood warrior, he had reached the peak of the Qi Blood realm and was the strongest among them.

The captain's gaze flickered with surprise the moment he saw Qi Yuan. "You actually made it here."

Qi Yuan shrugged at Chen Fan. "What a coincidence, matching up with you again."

With the captain clearly recognizing Qi Yuan, the doubts of An Qiao and her colleague dissolved without a trace. The tracking dog wore an odd expression, sniffed hard at the air again, and said nothing.

Everyone's attention snapped back to the raging madman raging.

"Luo Bufan, as in... that Luo Bufan from the Luo family?" An Qiao's eyes went wide with sudden understanding. "Wasn't he just at the initial Qi Blood realm stage? How is he already at Jade Blood?"

She could see why he’d go insane. His entire family and his fiancée's entire family had been murdered. Regardless, this sudden leap in cultivation was deeply unsettling.

Chen Fan's gaze was deep and immensely complicated. "Because he was the one who killed the Luo and Chen families."

"What?"

An Qiao and the man in black went rigid with shock.

It was not the answer anyone could just accept. Their mission was to investigate the truth behind the massacre of the Luo and Chen families. They were not just to find the killer, but uncover the motive and what lay beneath the surface.

An Qiao's expression grew complicated. "So he slaughtered his own kin to advance his cultivation? Was his goal to extract their bloodlines?"

The two other men in black beside her cycled through several shades of pale. "What a ruthless person. He wiped out his entire clan just to break through a single realm!"

Chen Fan simply stared at the sea ahead.

Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes, watching the raving Luo Bufan. "He did kill them, yes, but I suspect there's a more interesting reason behind that."

[Luo Bufan[1], early-stage Jade Blood realm warrior. Erratic and unhinged. The slaughter of his own kin will remain a wound he bears for the rest of his life.]

That was the hidden information he'd glimpsed on Luo Bufan today. Yesterday, most of it had been about Luo Bufan's own martial arts. The information changed depending on when Qi Yuan looked.

The group watched Luo Bufan's breakdown from a distance. Not one of them dared step closer to intervene lest they suffered as well.

Just then, the village chief went rigid. The cloudiness in his eyes sharpened into something cold and reptilian. His pupils narrowed into vertical slits like a cobra's.

He rose into the air. "Luo Bufan. After slaughtering your entire family, you now dare come and disrupt my wedding? What is the meaning of this?!"

The Sea God had possessed and spoke through him.

Luo Bufan froze, then turned around and glared at the village chief with deep-seated hatred. "Demons that corrupt the world deserve to die!"

1. ***E/N: No, that’s Itachi ☜