18 Only a Real Man Could Be That Scary

The silence at the foot of the mountain was almost oppressing. The tension was so high that it weighted down the shoulders of all present. All three of the attackers had a sour expression on their faces, especially the dagger-wielding one. But still, the one in the innermost turmoil was Ye Lang.

'Did he deflect the dagger strike with an arrow?'

He was the one with the highest fitness of all present, being close to maxing out his mutant geno points. But even then, he barely saw the arrow. And he never even noticed that the man was hiding in the shadow.

'If that was aimed at me, could I have survived it?' Unknowingly, he gulped. He knew he was facing a dangerous man.

His two henchmen weren't as smart, though.

"You little bastard! What did you do to my brother?" The man with the sledgehammer roared and swung his weapon towards Ling Yun.

The man in question, simply looked impassively at him approaching. He didn't even make the effort to retrieve his spear that was standing tall with the blade buried in the ground.

As the man approached him, his grip tightened. And when he was so close you could hear his ragged breath, he moved.

The hammer strike came diagonally descending towards him, but he paid it no mind. He quickly retrieved his spear and masterfully deflected the strike. He wasn't sure his strength was enough to block it. The warhammer was a heavy weapon, after all.

After he deflected the force by spinning on his axis, he slashed a total of four times in quick succession. The movement was so quick even Ye Lang could only see the gleam of the blade as it moved under the sun.

Once Ling Yun finished his attack, the four of them stood still for a second, but the silence was broken by the collapse and shrieks of the man once wielding the giant weapon. He fell to the floor like a rag and looked to be having difficulty moving.

"You bastard! What did you do to me! I'll kill you!" But even in his state, his mouth was still moving.

"Maaah, you are a very loud pig. I just sliced your tendons, so you won't be able to leave anywhere in the immediate future." He said emotionlessly, almost as if he was bored.

"But you still haven't answered my question, have you? What would you feel if I were to kill you while you were helplessly laying on the ground, without the means to defend yourself?" As he said this, the blade on his spear flashed towards the downed man's neck and made a shallow cut. It wasn't life threatening, not even something that would require medical attention.

But it bled. And when people's necks start bleeding, no matter the severity of the wound, they start to freak out. This was the case for the Ye Lang and his buddies. The injured man was almost pissing himself by then.

"Friend, I don't know you, and please forgive this idiot for his offense. But why are you meddling in my business? That scum you are protecting couldn't even give you a penny as compensation." Ye Lang tried to maneuver himself out of the dire situation.

"And you could? Ye Lang, right? Please refresh my memory, because I remember no prominent family with the name of Lang. The only one that comes to mind is a little consortium that owns a couple of small mining planets. Surely you aren't referring to them, right? Because if you were, then you couldn't even afford the pinky toe of a man like him." Ling Yun answered in complete sincerity.

He was a doctor first and foremost. To him, all life was precious. He didn't like killing creatures, but it was the only way he could get stronger. And he ate them, anyway, so it wasn't just wasteful killing.

But there was an exception to this rule; scums. People that, in his eyes, could no longer be called humans. They were the ones who raped, those that murdered, robbed, blackmailed, and harmed innocent people. And he could read appearances very well, so he knew Fen Xi was a victim. An innocent left at the mercy of three scums.

"You..!" Ye Lang knew his family wasn't as well off as others and he could barely be considered mildly wealthy, but it was a thing he took pride in. He was very arrogant, and now here was a nobody talking to him like this. He wanted to kill him, but still identified him as a threat, so he sought a less violent resolution.

"I assure you, friend, that I can pay you well enough if you just walk out of here. This is none of your business, and my family's name is strong. You don't want to mess with us." He replied arrogantly.

"Really? Any price I say?" Ling Yun asked in what appeared to be an interested tone. Ye Lang looked very satisfied with himself.

"Yes, of course. Any price you want."

"Oh well, in that case, I want your life." He replied seriously and sprinted towards his opponents.

Ling Yun was willing to let bygones be bygones as long as they left after one of their own was severely injured, but they still tried to kill him even though he was helpless. He didn't tolerate this type of people, and he had an already established way of dealing with them.

'If you are a scum, then you die!'

"Kill him!" Ye Lang said as he readied his sword and got into a stance. The second henchman summoned his dagger again and he too sprinted towards Ling Yun in a pincer attack.

Meanwhile, Ling Yun did the unthinkable. He feinted stabbing at Ye Lang, who didn't see through it and moved his sword to block. Once he did, he made a circular motion with his spear and deflected the sword. After that, he reversed his grip on his weapon, so the blade was facing the dagger-wielding man. He quickly hit Ye Lang's vital points with the blunt end of his weapon. One hit in the kidneys, one hit in the stomach, one hit in the throat. He was on the ground bruised and temporarily incapacitated, but otherwise unharmed. He then shifted his attention towards the man targeting his back. He moved the spearblade to deflect his dagger and quickly retracted it only to attack again, slashing the tendons on both of his wrists.

The effect this time was immediate, as he quickly screamed in pain. As his eyes shifted from Ling Yun to his wrists, he did the same thing with his ankles. Now, just like the hammer guy, he was crippled for the time being.

Having finished with the pests, he moved towards the still harmless Ye Lang and before he could do anything to defend himself, he slashed his four tendons too.

And while this may take some time to be told, it only happened in three seconds.

Now, those three were practically useless, and Ling Yun managed to get a good idea on his skills.

'Man, I didn't think venomous rattlesnake could be so useful. Instead of overbearing attacks, it is deadly in its agility and unpredictability.' Making sure those three weren't trying to get away, he finally moved his sight towards Fen Xi.

"Are you okay? You took a pretty rough beating."

It was with this words that Fen Xi was snapped out of his trance. In just three seconds, a sole man managed to destroy two people he would've never could even stand up to regularly. Unbeknownst to him, admiration towards his savior was growing.

"Uh… Yes, thank you. I'm fine, just a little bruised." He answered awkwardly.

"That's good to hear." Ling Yun nodded. "By the way, do you know how far are we from Glory Shelter? I've been on the move for over two weeks and I really want a shower."

"Uh, yeah, of course. It's about a way in that direction." He pointed south. "But before you leave, you should know that those three have some backing in the shelter and Alliance. You should remain hidden." He warned.

This man had just saved his life, so he wouldn't be cruel and let him go into the lion's den unknowingly.

"Well, that's very kind of you, but it won't be necessary. After all, we are all businessmen here, aren't we, mister Lang?" He asked the blood-soaked figure of the gang leader.

Of course, being who he was, how could Ye Lang not understand what Ling Yun was referring about? They were harmless and immobile. They were basically at his mercy.

"Of course, we will give compensation." He answered reluctantly.

"Well, why don't we begin with you. You were pretty adamant to start fighting, right? So, why don't you start paying, too?" Ling Yun smiled as he walked towards the hammer-wielding moron. He once again took his spear and placed it on the man's neck.

"Give me all of your beast souls, and you can live. Refuse, and die." He said in a steel voice.

Of course, as we have established, he wasn't the smartest of the lot.

"Fuck you! I will give you nothing! I will kill you, you hear me!? I WILL KIL…AAAARRGHH"

Ling Yun had just severed his left arm right above the elbow.

"You see, if you don't treat this shortly, you will bleed out and die. And since you are right-handed from what I could see, you can still wield a weapon. So, I will ask again. Give me all of your beast souls, and live." He answered calmly. He did it immediately.

And after his display of brutality, the second henchman and Ye Lang himself did too.

Of course, Ling Yun made sure they were all of the beast souls they had available, and the big boss himself had been stabbed three times on his left leg before he coughed up his remaining two beast souls.

After reading their expressions, he believed they didn't have anything else of value.

When he had finished collecting his loot and started walking towards Fen Xi, the annoying voice of Ye Lang sounded again.

"Hey, we gave you everything we had. Can we at least leave now?" He asked.

"What rubbish are you talking about? Of course you can't leave." Ling Yun answered. He then returned his spear to the sea of soul and summoned his bow and his three arrows. Two primitive and one mutant.

"Bastard! We gave you our beast souls! We had a deal!" He screamed in rage and resignation.

"Well yes, I had to make sure they wouldn't disappear when you died, you know? These things can fetch a pretty penny." Ling Yun said with a sickly smile.

What came next was a fine example of why his archery was at the mastery level. He readied his three arrows at the same time and, taking a fraction of a second to aim, released all three of them almost simultaneously while moving his bow. The result was three corpses with an arrow sticking out of one of their eyes.

They only spasmed for a little before falling dead.

Ling Yun apathetically searched the corpses and took all the money they had in their wallets. A hundred thousand in total. After staring at them for a few seconds he summoned little ugly.

"Hey boy. Are you up for some snacks? They might not be the best, but they sure beat ordinary meat. That one over there is probably better than some primitive ones."

The pet centipede stared at him in what he could only assume was disbelief, but it still crawled down his body and ate the three corpses. Five minutes later, the only evidence a fight took place here was the amount of blood.

Ling Yun then recalled little ugly and summoned the jet lizard and got on his back. He just stayed there for a couple of seconds until he finally spoke.

"Hey, are you coming?"

Realizing he was talking to him, Fen Xi dumbly nodded and got on the back of the lizard as well. There was only one thing on his mind at the moment.

'Yes, I'm certain of it now. Only a real man could be that scary.'