Chapter 554: Chapter 554 Are you not afraid?

「In a breakfast shop.」

Ye Xiu, Qin Qing, Chloe, and An Dongye were having breakfast.

"Little Bro, with a single combo last night, you drew a huge wave of animosity toward the entire sponsor team, drove a wedge between the Ye Family and the other members, and disabled all of the Long Family’s Second Realm War Gods except for their leader. It was a complete and utter victory," An Dongye said with immense admiration.

"And not just that," Chloe added. "All those people from around the world who attended the auction at Ming Feng Pavilion will now become free assets for the young master. Your plan to enter the global medical market will proceed that much more smoothly." Despite having witnessed many great storms with Ye Xiu, she remained in awe of his strategic mind.

A swell of pride filled Qin Qing’s heart. She felt a great sense of honor for having such an outstanding husband. She asked, "Gong Jin said that Wang Yue doesn’t have long to live. The Wang Family has been looking for you all night. If they ask for help, will you save him?"

Ye Xiu didn’t answer. He hadn’t decided yet.

CRASH...

At that moment, the sound of a bowl shattering on the floor echoed through the shop, accompanied by a curse.

"Fuck, this is disgusting."

Ye Xiu and the others looked over to see a burly man with a face contorted in anger. On the floor beside his table lay the pieces of a smashed bowl of stew.

Ye Xiu frowned. He recognized the man: Qiao Ba, ranked 2,107th on the War God Ranking. He had also participated in the previous night’s auction and the fight for the Marrow Cleansing Pill.

"Sir, is something wrong?" a waiter asked as he hurried over, his foreign language broken.

"What is this slop you served me? It stinks! Is this pig shit?" Qiao Ba bellowed.

"This is Yunluo City’s most famous delicacy, sir. That’s its natural flavor," the waiter explained.

SMACK!

Qiao Ba slapped the waiter across the face. "Bastard! Only you lowly Xuanse people would eat a delicacy made from pig shit. I am a high and mighty War God! Feeding me this trash is an insult to my status."

Seeing Qiao Ba strike the waiter, the expressions of Ye Xiu, Qin Qing, and An Dongye darkened. Chloe looked mortified. Since her arrival in Xuanse, she had seen far too many arrogant and overbearing foreigners bullying the local people.

The other customers glared at Qiao Ba, but upon hearing him declare he was a War God, they all fell silent. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to intervene or were afraid of offending a foreigner—it was simply that their opponent was too powerful.

"Sir, you’ve misunderstood. I didn’t mean to insult you. The stew really is supposed to taste like this..." the waiter explained, his voice trembling with indignation.

SMACK!

Qiao Ba slapped the waiter again, sending him spinning to the ground. He landed face-down in the very stew he had just spilled, right on top of the sharp fragments of the broken bowl, which cut him in several places.

"You dare talk back to me? This shop has defiled the mouth of a revered War God. You will compensate me, or I’ll kill you all," Qiao Ba threatened, his foot pressing down on the waiter’s head with despotic arrogance.

With his face pressed into the spilled stew, tears of humiliation streamed from the waiter’s eyes.

Just then, the shop owner rushed over, apologizing profusely. "Sorry, so sorry! This waiter is new and doesn’t know any better. He’s offended you. How about this? I’ll bring you a menu, and whatever you’d like, our chef will prepare it for you. How does that sound?"

SMACK!

Qiao Ba backhanded the owner, sending him stumbling. "My mouth has already been defiled! And you still want me to eat the pig shit from your shop? You’re deliberately trying to humiliate me! Compensate me for my loss now, or I’ll kill you."

"I’ll pay, I’ll pay," the owner quickly agreed, swallowing his humiliation. He then asked, "Um, how much do you think would be fair compensation?"

Qiao Ba considered it for a moment. "One million gold."

"What?" The owner looked as if he had been struck by lightning. "Sir," he said, his voice cracking, "I’m just the owner of a small breakfast shop. I can’t possibly come up with that much money."

Upon hearing Qiao Ba’s extortionate demand, the other patrons rose to their feet in anger, but still, no one dared to step forward.

"If you can’t pay, then you can die!" Qiao Ba threw a punch at the owner’s head.

"Qiao Ba, you’re quite the big shot, aren’t you?" Ye Xiu’s voice cut through the tension.

At his words, Qiao Ba’s fist stopped abruptly in mid-air. He turned to look for the source of the voice. Since Ye Xiu was in a corner and the other standing patrons blocked the view, Qiao Ba couldn’t see him. The patrons, however, all turned to look at Ye Xiu, thinking he must be incredibly bold to dare stop a War God from killing someone.

"Who just spoke?" Qiao Ba demanded, brusquely shoving people aside as he made his way to Ye Xiu’s corner. Ye Xiu’s back was to him, so Qiao Ba only saw his silhouette.

"I did," Ye Xiu said, standing up.

"You’ve got some nerve, trying to stop me from killing someone. Do you have a death wish?" The burly Qiao Ba charged forward like a rampaging bear and threw a punch at the back of Ye Xiu’s head.

Ye Xiu slowly turned around.

Qiao Ba’s massive fist, just inches from connecting with Ye Xiu’s head, froze in place. He forced an embarrassed laugh. "M-Mr. Ye! Heh, so it’s you. What a coincidence..."

This scene stunned the owner, the waiter, and all the patrons. Only then did they realize that Ye Xiu was no simple man, to have caused such a drastic change in a War God’s demeanor.

"Qiao Ba, you have quite a temper," Ye Xiu said coldly.

"Haha, not at all, not at all," Qiao Ba said, laughing awkwardly. "Since Mr. Ye is here, I’ll give you face and let these two go."

Ye Xiu snorted. "You, a foreigner, assault the people of Xuanse on their own soil, attempt to kill them, and even dare to insult them as an inferior people. You think this can be resolved by ’giving face’?"

Qiao Ba frowned. "Mr. Ye, how do you suggest we handle this?"

"First, you struck the owner and the waiter. You will leave behind the hand you used. Second, you will compensate the owner and the waiter with one million gold each. Third, you will kneel and apologize to every Xuanse person here," Ye Xiu stated icily.

The shop erupted in an uproar. The owner, the waiter, and the patrons were all dumbfounded. They had thought Qiao Ba’s demand for one million gold was outrageous, but the conditions Ye Xiu proposed were even more so.

"Mr. Ye, isn’t that a bit excessive?" Qiao Ba’s expression turned ugly. "I’m only giving you face out of respect. You propose such humiliating terms because you think I’m afraid of you?"

Ye Xiu’s hand shot out and grabbed Qiao Ba by the throat. "Aren’t you?"

As Ye Xiu’s fingers tightened around his neck, Qiao Ba instinctively tried to resist, only to find his entire body had gone limp and powerless. He couldn’t move at all. A moment later, a current of Berserk energy flooded into him from Ye Xiu’s palm, instantly shattering his Dantian.