Screw stealth—Ryan burst out, not caring if he blew his cover. First order of business: trash these bandits!
The second he charged out, Alice and Hepburn were already snatched up by two thugs. These guys were pros—they started tearing at the girls' clothes, hell-bent on finding out where the vault loot went. No way they'd let top-tier treasure slip away.
"Let go of those two girls—the stuff was all taken by me!" Ryan Ling snorted coldly, sweeping his eyes over every bandit.
"You little punk, you’ve got guts—stealing from right under my nose! Hand it all over and maybe you live. Otherwise, I’ll bleed you dry!" The bandit chief barked, and his crew boxed Ryan in tight. Not that Ryan cared—he was cool as ice. He'd already sealed the whole mansion, inside and out, while looting the vault. No matter how wild things got, nobody outside would hear, and nobody inside could run for help. He had all the time in the world to slaughter every last one of them.
"Sorry, but I already swallowed everything. You want me to hand it over? Not happening." Ryan grinned, not even bothering to take these bandits seriously.
"What did you just say?" The bandit chief was stunned—nobody in Stan City had ever dared talk to him like that. And honestly, Ryan was acting even more like a bandit than the bandits themselves.
"Boss, why even waste words with him? Let’s just skin him alive right now!"
"Yeah, boss! We’ve run this city for years—never taken crap like this! He’s basically digging up the ancestors’ graves. We have to skin him alive!"
Two of the bandits shouted, and the rest instantly drew their blades—Ryan’s words had completely pissed them off.
"Benefactor!" Alice was already terrified. Back at Lord Gore’s manor or in that tiny backwater town, Ryan could go wild and it made sense—their enemies there were nothing special. But now they were in Stan City, and these thugs were real pros. They’d just killed a Profound Immortal, and Ryan—even as strong as he was—was still just at the Divine Immortal Realm. Both she and Hepburn knew that. So going head-to-head here was definitely not the best plan.
"Go! Break his damn legs first!" The bandit chief was absolutely furious, barking out the order.
"On it!" The bandits didn’t hesitate for a second—they all rushed in, every one of them wielding top-grade Immortal Artifacts. For a moment, it was like the whole mansion lit up.
"This is really bad—what do we do now?"
"Benefactor, I’m afraid we’re in for it this time!"
Alice and Hepburn couldn’t help but tense up. First, this was the bandits’ turf—they had home-field advantage. Second, almost every bandit was piling on, and the formation they were using was specifically designed to hunt Profound Immortals. It was the bandits’ classic move: once they locked onto someone, nobody could escape their pursuit.
"You two chicks are still worried about that punk? You better start worrying about yourselves."
"That’s right. If you two don’t serve us properly, maybe if we’re in a good mood we’ll let you live!"
......
The two bandits in charge of Alice and Hepburn couldn’t help but start yelling—clearly, they thought Ryan was dead meat, and these two beauties were about to become their spoils.
Right then, Ryan decided to make his move. He loosened his fists, looking at the crowd without a care in the world.
"Wipe him out!" The bandit chief screamed again, his voice already hoarse with rage.
Almost half the bandits unleashed a wild barrage at Ryan Ling. The strike was insanely powerful—like the whole mansion was about to explode. Sure enough, the Earth Veins split open, the roof blasted out holes, and it looked like everything around Ryan was about to be obliterated.
Ryan was right in the middle—under that kind of force, he should’ve been dead for sure.
Alice and Hepburn were on edge, while the bandits just laughed like maniacs, convinced that defying them meant dying without a trace.
But at the critical moment, something unbelievable happened. The Earth Veins that were about to split, the roof that was exploding—suddenly, everything healed itself. All that power just vanished, wiped out by some mysterious force.
Every bandit was stunned. The chief stared, wide-eyed—he hadn’t imagined anything like this. Whoever pulled this off had to be a Profound Immortal, and not just any Profound Immortal, but someone top-tier. But Ryan’s skills—no matter how strong—weren’t supposed to be at that level yet. How could he unleash such overwhelming force?
"It’s gotta be a trick—a total fake! Don’t panic, brothers! Hit him with everything we’ve got! I don’t care if the whole place blows!" the chief yelled, clearly ready to risk it all.
The bandits didn’t hesitate—they refused to believe some nobody like Ryan could pull off such a feat. Now, every single bandit except the chief joined the attack. The force they unleashed was more terrifying than ever.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Every bandit screamed, their voices wild and arrogant, ready to go down with Ryan. Now the formation around the mansion activated—this was their strongest attack, the kind nobody could survive, not even a Profound Immortal!
But unbelievably, Ryan—who was just at the Divine Immortal Realm—actually took the full blast head-on. And not only that, he handled it with ease; none of the attacks could touch him.
"No way! That’s impossible! Is he really stronger than a Profound Immortal?" The chief was seeing things—he kept rubbing his eyes, refusing to believe what he saw.
Ryan didn’t just tank the hit—he was about to go full beast mode. The raw power made the bandits freeze, eyes bugging out and feet stumbling backward. The weaklings coughed blood; one even dropped to his knees, looking beyond pathetic.
"Holy crap, he’s a monster—the strongest guy I’ve ever laid eyes on!" Alice screamed, practically swooning. Hepburn was just as fired up, both girls totally convinced that being Ryan’s woman was the jackpot in this hellhole world.
"You bastards—today's your apocalypse! I'm wiping out every last one of you!" Ryan bellowed, done wasting words. He was just here to steamroll them. He'd already pocketed those blinged-out boxers, and now the only thing left was to figure out what kind of secret was hiding in those flashy undies.
"Damn it, I’ll never let you win! I’ll hack you to pieces!" The chief screamed, finally joining the fight himself. A massive force crashed down on Ryan...