Chapter 127 - 100: Playing a Joke
Ye Jingshuang pointed at Zhou Wang’s corpse.
Tong Yan had only just noticed. He took one look, and his expression changed drastically.
"Zhou Wang! Zhou Wang!?"
He quickly reached out to shake him, but Zhou Wang had been dead for a long time. How could he possibly respond?
"What happened? What happened here?"
Tong Yan’s face was stricken with grief. "Zhou Wang, you... Who did this to you? Who was it?"
At this, he suddenly glared at Jiang Ran.
"It was you, wasn’t it!? You... You’re so heartless, so vicious!!"
Jiang Ran just sighed.
"Before you say that, why don’t you take a look at your own hands?"
"My hands? My hands..."
Tong Yan glanced down instinctively and saw that his hands were dripping with blood.
The next moment, images began to surface in his mind.
He and Zhou Wang had quietly retreated after the group from Heterodox Manor attacked.
Although every person Tong Wanli had brought was an unparalleled martial arts master, they had no confidence without Tong Wanli himself present.
Ye Jingshuang and Liu Wenshan had also been abducted. Naturally, they needed to find Tong Wanli first before deciding what to do next.
But unexpectedly, before they could find Tong Wanli...
...they encountered a young master dressed in fine silks.
The young master wore a half-mask, looking exceedingly noble.
His eyes were just as exceedingly indifferent.
Tong Yan only met his gaze for a moment before it was as if he was seeing Jiang Ran.
And in that instant, he felt his mind slip completely out of his control. He madly attacked ’Jiang Ran’.
But this ’Jiang Ran’ only defended, never attacking. Eventually, as one who only defends is bound to lose, he was struck down.
Yet the fire in his heart still hadn’t subsided.
Even after ’Jiang Ran’ was dead, he couldn’t stop himself from venting his rage.
"It wasn’t Jiang Ran... It was Zhou Wang. I... I killed Zhou Wang with my own hands..."
Tong Yan’s pupils lost focus again. His mind shattered in an instant. He laughed hysterically, tears streaming uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.
He and Zhou Wang had grown up together.
They did everything together.
When he made a mistake, it was Zhou Wang who took the punishment for him.
When he was sick, it was Zhou Wang who watched over him day and night.
When he was in danger, Zhou Wang would appear before him even faster than Tong Wanli.
In the past, Tong Yan had never felt there was anything wrong with this.
He had always felt that Zhou Wang’s purpose in life was to help and support him.
But now... he had killed Zhou Wang with his own hands.
This filled him with an indescribable anguish, as if something was stuck in his chest. He couldn’t swallow it down or cough it up. It filled his torso, accompanied by a potent self-loathing.
Unacceptable, unimaginable, unbearable.
Tong Yan suddenly leaped to his feet. Not knowing where to direct his rage, he could only break into a desperate sprint.
"Trying to run?"
Ye Jingshuang was taken aback.
Jiang Ran murmured,
"He probably can’t accept it... Besides, he won’t get far."
Sure enough, just as Jiang Ran’s voice fell, there was a loud THUD.
It was accompanied by a cry of alarm:
"Yan’er!!"
At the same time, Tong Yan’s body came flying back, smashing into the ground. Before he could even struggle to his feet, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
From within the mist, a short, stout figure slowly walked out.
"The Young Manor Lord said to let you languish in your madness. How dare you sober up on your own? That’s a capital offense!!"
As he spoke, the man suddenly looked up and saw Jiang Ran and Ye Jingshuang. He was startled and immediately leaped backward.
After flipping a dozen or so somersaults in a row, he charged out again.
"Who are you?"
As he said this, a hand suddenly shot out of the mist, seized him by the neck, and lifted him clean off the ground.
The small dwarf struggled for his life, but with the back of his neck seized, he couldn’t break free no matter how skilled he was.
With a sickening CRACK, the owner of the hand snapped the man’s neck.
Blood flowed from his seven orifices.
The hand tossed the corpse aside, and its owner stepped out of the mist. It was Tong Wanli.
He first glanced at Jiang Ran and Ye Jingshuang, his pupils contracting slightly.
Then his gaze fell upon Tong Yan.
He immediately strode over to Tong Yan’s side and took him in his arms.
"Yan’er, Yan’er!? You... answer your father."
Tong Yan struggled to raise a hand, clutching at Tong Wanli’s clothes. He opened his mouth to respond, but only a torrent of blood flowed out.
The dwarf’s previous strike had shattered most of his internal organs.
With his chest and abdomen caved in, his life force was already gone.
In the end, he couldn’t say a single word. His head lolled to the side, and he died.
Tong Wanli was overcome with a grief so great he wished for death. Cradling Tong Yan, he couldn’t help but roar at the heavens.
His Inner Strength erupted from his body, sweeping through the surrounding grass and trees.
It pushed away all the surrounding mist.
It also exposed a group of dwarves hiding in ambush nearby.
Some of them were crawling along the ground, some were rolling cautiously, and others were walking on their hands.
They now looked at each other, hesitant, not knowing whether they should continue their attack.
Jiang Ran glanced around, a hint of disappointment in his voice:
"Where did your Young Manor Lord go?"
’I thought Tong Wanli was fighting the Young Manor Lord, but it seems that’s not the case at all.’
’He was fighting these dwarves.’
The dwarves looked at each other, but none of them answered Jiang Ran’s question.
Instead, Tong Wanli looked up at Jiang Ran and Ye Jingshuang.
The simple, honest look on his face had completely vanished, replaced by sheer viciousness and cold fury.
"You... were you two putting on an act for me before?"
"Senior Tong has sharp eyes. This junior wouldn’t dare deceive you,"
Jiang Ran said with a smile.
"When you were drinking with me, Senior, I had already discovered that you had tampered with the wine.
"A trivial poison like that is not enough to harm this junior.
"Mm, everything after that was just me playing a little joke on you, Senior."