Butterfly Rogue yawned lazily, glancing at the women with a bored, powerless gaze.
The crowd of women saw this and grew even more furious, grinding their teeth. Isn’t this guy supposed to be a flower thief? Are his eyes blind or what?
"I usually don’t like hitting women, but anyone who follows that Cao dog isn’t even human, so don’t blame me for being rude." As soon as he finished, Butterfly Rogue’s smile vanished. He leapt from his horse, sword in hand, and slashed at them with decisive, practiced moves—no hesitation at all.
The women were instantly intimidated by his aura. The intel said this guy’s only decent at lightness skill and the rest is just basic stuff, so what’s going on? Why are his moves so fierce now, and why does fighting him feel so hard?
The black-clad man standing among the women frowned slightly at this. What’s going on? Judging by his moves and power, he’s nothing like the Empress Dowager said—supposedly can’t fight at all. In fact, his martial arts are clearly above mine. Could it be that the Empress wants someone to kill us off?
Thinking that, the black-clad man’s face grew even darker. Watching the women around him drop one by one, coughing up blood, he realized he’d run into a true expert.
That damned old woman actually wants to use someone else’s hand to kill him? He’d done so much for her—using these women to settle all those ministers who didn’t want Song Zhijue as emperor. Now what, she wants to use this guy to silence him too?
"Ah—!" Another miserable scream rang out. A woman collapsed to the ground, convulsing, her face turning black and twisted in horror.
"You’re using poison!" The remaining women cried out in shock. For them, their looks are the most precious thing in the world, and now this bastard is actually using poison to ruin their faces—absolutely unforgivable.
"Why so angry? You’re all so ugly anyway—does it really matter if your faces get ruined or not?" Butterfly Rogue shrugged, watching their outrage with a deadpan.
His words only made them grind their teeth in rage.
Do you even have eyes? If we're ugly, then there are no beauties left in the world! Woman A shouted, baring her claws in fury. After all, every minister in court had fallen for her—how could this guy not see her beauty? He must be blind!
Hahaha, so you’re the frogs in the well my wifey always talks about—so ignorant! Let me tell you, in the whole Serpent Realm, no woman can compare to my wifey. You’re not even worthy of her fingernail! Felix sneered, dead serious.
Bastard! The remaining dozen women roared, unable to take the insult, and rushed at him, intent on gouging out his eyeballs to use as soccer balls.
So cocky. Felix snorted and charged right in. That Cao witch really doesn’t see me as the main character—does she really think I only know lightness skill? What an insult!
Of course, except for those five guys, no one really understands his change right now. This guy’s basically an octopus reincarnated—every day he drags someone to teach him martial arts. Luckily, there are five of them, so each takes a turn, and it’s only every four days he cycles through them. Otherwise, being clung to every day would drive anyone crazy. And the one who doesn’t know martial arts, Qin Yan, hasn’t escaped his pestering either: ‘I’m so tired from training, Little White Rabbit, make me something tasty! Little White Rabbit, I almost poisoned myself practicing today, give me some recovery soup!’ And so on, and so on.
Scenes like this make those guys really want to ditch him.
Seeing more and more women falling around him, the black-clad man realized they were no match for Felix. Thinking it over, he stopped trying to kill him—after all, as the saying goes, as long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood. Compared to high office, life itself matters more.
Big brother! One sharp-eyed woman saw the black-clad man leap away to escape and shouted anxiously.
Felix shrugged. "So that’s your big brother, huh? Picked the wrong leader, I guess."
Of the more than thirty women, only four or five weren’t seriously injured. They exchanged glances—if the black-clad man could figure it out, so could they, just with a bit more nuance. Clearly, big brother and the Empress Dowager were working together to get rid of them, probably afraid they’d leak secrets about those ministers. So shameless!
They’d done so much for the Empress and the emperor, but got nothing in return. Now the two of them were teaming up to get rid of their sisters?
They all nodded knowingly, and in the next second, without any explanation, they fled just like the black-clad man. As long as they were alive, they could do anything!
Felix frowned, confused by what just happened. He froze for half a beat, then shouted, "Hey, you killers are way too irresponsible! Is this how you treat the main character? I haven’t even busted out my ultimate move yet!" No matter how much he yelled, none of the fleeing assassins came back.
Was I… just too strong? Felix blinked, then broke into a grin. Ha! He told them he wouldn’t lose to those other five guys!
Now that things were settled, he’d better hurry to the palace and meet up with his wifey. Thinking that, he leapt onto his horse, cracked his whip, and shouted, "Hyah!"
Meanwhile—
"Look, what’s all this?" Among the more than fifty black-clad men, the only one in silver clothes smiled and opened a huge box in the corner.
In an instant, piles of dazzling gold spilled out, so bright it hurt the eyes. The sight made all fifty-plus black-clad men swallow hard—the temptation was huge!
"And this, and this, and this, and this…" With each word, the silver-clad man opened another box—more gold, more jewels. So much treasure, the alley was flooded with blinding light.
Gulp, gulp—the fifty-plus black-clad men couldn’t stop swallowing. So much money! This was more than they could even dream of in several lifetimes.
Click, click, click—Caleb Miles, sitting on his horse, smiled and kept flicking his golden abacus. "Judging by eye, if the whole box is full, that’s ten million taels of gold."
Wow, ten million taels of gold?! One of the black-clad men couldn’t help blurting out, but his words earned a glare from the silver-clad man.
Seeing the glare, the man quickly ducked his head and dared not speak again, though his eyes couldn’t help flicking toward the treasure.
Caleb ignored their shock and kept clicking his abacus. "But if there’s only one layer, it’s just a hundred taels of gold."
The man in silver clothes turned pale at that, but quickly forced a smile. "How could that be? It’s all treasure underneath, I swear."
Oh, is that so? I thought the top was gold and the bottom was bricks.' Caleb shrugged.
Heh, no way!' The silver-clad man laughed awkwardly.
But for those fifty-plus black-clad men, even if the bottom was bricks, a hundred taels of gold was more than enough to last several lifetimes!
Caleb nodded. "So, what do you want?"
The man in silver clothes smiled. "As long as you switch sides, all this is yours."
Oh?
Don’t believe me? Come down and see for yourself—we won’t touch you.' The man in silver waved everyone aside to clear a path.
Caleb, still on his horse, raised an eyebrow and made a face. "What should I do? What to do?" Then he said, "But what if I don’t want it?"
'What?' The man in silver was stunned. How could Caleb not want it? Everyone knew he was a greedy miser, never passing up a single penny—how could he not want so much treasure?!
I, Caleb Miles, do love treasure, but actually, it’s the opposite—I don’t like what’s handed to me. I only like snatching treasure, or getting what others refuse to give me. That’s where the real challenge is, right?' Caleb shrugged, looking helplessly at the silver-clad man.
You’re nuts!' The silver-clad man exploded in rage. Was this guy a total freak? He wouldn’t take treasure handed to him, only wanted what people wouldn’t give—what an idiot, what a pile of dog crap! Yeah, dog crap!