The Foster Family's main base was in Southridge City, more than two hundred kilometers away from Riverstone.
After speeding all the way, Cliff Foster and Ian Song finally made it back to the Foster estate after more than two hours.
On the way, Cliff interrogated Derrick Fu, but with his cultivation abolished and his mind set on death, Derrick refused to reveal anything about the current situation in the Foster Family, no matter how Cliff pressed him.
Ian actually had a way to make him talk—he could just use Puppet Mastery Divine Art to enslave him. But he was worried about exposing Puppet Mastery, so he never interfered.
Cliff's strongest bodyguards, Uncle Rick and Uncle Wayne, were both still recovering from their injuries, so they had stayed behind in Riverstone.
"Young Master, you've returned."
The gate guards greeted Cliff respectfully, and everything seemed perfectly normal.
With a thought, Ian activated Clairvoyant Vision and scanned the Foster manor. What he saw shocked him—the entire estate had been set up as a kill-zone, a literal inescapable net just waiting for them to walk inside.
"Hold up, Cliff."
Ian called out to Cliff, who was about to drive through the gates.
After everything they'd been through, Cliff trusted Ian completely, so he immediately told the driver to stop.
Unfortunately, the driver acted as if he hadn't heard, and instead sped up, charging straight toward the old manor.
"Hmph, looking for trouble!"
Ian's eyes went cold. With a knife-hand chop to the driver's neck, the man let out a muffled grunt and passed out instantly.
Ian grabbed the driver, tossed him into the back seat, then leapt into the driver's seat to try reversing—only for the two main gates to slam shut with a boom.
Immediately, a rush of footsteps sounded as dozens of gunmen with submachine guns surged out from all sides, surrounding the car.
Seeing this, Cliff's face instantly turned pale. He said to Ian, "Ian, I'm sorry. I dragged you into this!"
"Relax, it's just a few dozen guns! Leave it to me. Duck your head!"
Ian threw the car into gear and, instead of backing up, charged forward, ramming into three men ahead. At the same time, he flicked both hands, sending five coins shooting out from each side.
"Thud, thud, thud!"
A chorus of screams rang out as all ten coins hit their marks—ten gunmen dropped on the spot. Ever since Ian got the Storage Ring, he'd exchanged thousands of coins at the bank and kept them in the ring as hidden weapons.
"Bang!"
At the same time, one gunman failed to dodge and was sent flying seven or eight meters by the car.
"Rat-tat-tat!"
"Rat-tat-tat!"
A storm of gunfire erupted as the other shooters opened fire, bullets rattling against the car in a dense barrage.
Luckily, Cliff's car was a custom bulletproof model; it wouldn't be breached so easily. Seizing the moment, Ian spun the steering wheel, making the car skid and screech as the tires grated against the ground.
The car spun around, and with a stomp of the pedal, it charged at the main gates like a raging bull. At the same time, another ten coins shot out the window, killing ten more gunmen.
"Not good!"
Suddenly, Ian sensed a massive threat—a rocket-propelled grenade was heading straight for them.
He darted to the back seat in a flash, grabbed Cliff, and shoved him out the car door, leaping outside.
"Boom!"
The moment they burst out the car door, the rocket slammed into the vehicle. The car exploded with a thunderous blast, and the shockwave crashed into Ian's back.
"Bang!"
The two of them were sent flying into the air.
"Open fire!"
Someone shouted, and a hail of bullets instantly rained down on Ian and Cliff.
Even with true qi shielding his body, there were just too many bullets—Ian still took three hits, and Cliff was shot seven or eight times.
"Radiance of Life!"
At this critical moment, Ian didn't hesitate—he cast Radiance of Life on both himself and Cliff, then tapped Cliff's sleep acupoint to knock him out.
"Bang, bang!"
Ian and Cliff's 'corpses' hit the ground; the gunmen stopped shooting and quickly closed in.
Just then, Ian activated Gravity Domain.
"What the...?"
More than thirty gunmen suddenly felt their bodies become unbearably heavy, and their submachine guns clattered to the ground.
At that moment, Ian sprang to his feet and unleashed a storm of coins.
With a series of "thud thud thud thud" sounds, every gunman was killed by his hand.
Meanwhile, a man in his fifties led a group over. When he saw all the gunmen dead at Ian's hand, he couldn't help but gasp.
"Who the hell is this kid? How is he so freakish!"
At that moment, Ian glanced over at them.
"Quick! Kill that kid for me!" the older man shouted in terror.
"Hmph!"
Ian kicked Cliff behind the flowerbed, then launched himself forward with Ninefold Dragon Step.
Mid-charge, he used the Thousand-Buddha-Hand technique to throw dozens of coins.
A series of screams rang out as more than half of the twenty-odd attackers were killed or wounded by his coins.
But the older man had already slipped back into the crowd as Ian charged, narrowly escaping death.
Still, Ian landed among them, coins flying everywhere.
Except for the older man, everyone else was killed by the coins.
"Don't kill me!"
Staring at Ian like a god of slaughter, the older man collapsed to his knees, begging for mercy.
"You must be Cliff's second uncle, right? Why did you try to kill him?" Ian stared coldly, pressing for answers.
"I pretended to support Denwen, knowing he was heading to Xiangcheng to kill Cliff. So I took control of the whole Foster family. No matter who won and came back, I'd kill them—and then the whole family would be mine!" The old man confessed, not daring to hide anything.
"All this madness just for the head of the family..." Ian shook his head in disbelief.
He kicked the old man's abdomen, crippling his cultivation, then walked over to the flowerbed and released Cliff's sleep acupoint.
"Huh? Wasn't I dead? How...?" Cliff muttered in confusion, touching his body. There were no wounds where the bullets had struck, though his bloodstained clothes proved he'd been shot. He was utterly baffled.
"You were dead, but I brought you back," Ian replied with a smile.
"How did you do it?" Cliff stared at Ian in astonishment.
"That's not what you should be worrying about. You need to think about what to do with your family," Ian reminded him.
Cliff nodded and got up. Seeing the carnage, he couldn't help but gasp. Then, spotting his unconscious second uncle, his gaze darkened—only his second uncle could have orchestrated such an attack.
All for the family head position, both his second and third uncles had tried to kill him. For a moment, Cliff felt utterly dejected.
As the eldest son, Cliff still commanded great respect in the Foster family. He quickly took charge, dismissed the servants, and then suddenly knelt before Ian. "Ian, can you save my father? Please, I'm begging you."
Cliff wasn't foolish. At first, he couldn't understand how he was alive, but soon realized Ian must have used some mysterious means to save him.
His father wasn't dead yet, but was close—gravely wounded and poisoned.
Helpless, Cliff could only swallow his pride and beg Ian.
Just then, a tearful girl burst in, crying out, "Big brother, Dad's dying! Please, find someone to save him!"