With wide eyes and a salivating mouth the man swaggered his way over to the counter followed by the two white haired men and stopped inches away from Zhi Ruo.

"Oh hello, I haven't seen you around here before," said the tall man with sharp features, a long nose and a grim smile.

"I'm the young master of the Huang clan, who might you be?"

Zhi Ruo eyebrows scrunched up in disgust. she took a couple steps back saying, "I don't care who you are or who your little shit of a clan is."

She answered with a flare of fury in her eyes.

"How dare you!"

Answered the yellow robed man. He stayed silent for a while then stated.

"You are lucky I like a woman with a bit of feistyness" as he smiled.

The plump man behind the counter had a discontented face and greeted the young man "young master Huang, how can I be of help?"

The tall yellow robed man didn't even put the man behind the counter in his eyes, waving his hands casually saying "no need can't you see I'm making a new friend today."

The plump bald man set his jaw, he had liked his conversation with the high spirited red haired girl and now this animal of a young lord wanted to violate her, his heart was telling him to make a move but his head was thinking about the consequences after.

Not to mention running a business in the Verbena district in future would be impossible.

This young master Huang had quite a vile and lustful reputation among the people of the Verbena district, stories has been circulated around town of the man's shameless acts of sexual violence against defenseless women.

The man would have sex with them while slicing pieces of their flesh from their bodies in glee and after days of being his toy, some would emerge from the Huang manor with a spaced expression, staying in this vegetated state for long periods of time while the young master just moved onto the next one.

Hartley stepped over with quick hurried steps, saving the plump man from making a rash decision. He took Zhi Ruo hand and led her towards the exit without saying a word, steam was coming out of his ears as he gritted his teeth. He was planning on not getting involved in a fracas.

At this time the tall yellow robed man retrieved a fan and started fanning his face, when he saw Hartley intimately take the hand of the beautiful red haired woman, raged boomed in his heart.

"Wait!"

He shouted.

"I will give you a thousand gold, leave her with me and come get her at the Huang clan manor about dusk."

The white hair men nodded their heads in commendation, like chicken pecking at corn.

"The young master is a reasonable man, he could have just taken her but instead he offered reasonable compensation. It is truly your honor to have met such a young master today, hurry up and thank the young master boy."

Just as he was going to exit the door of the shop Hartley stopped and slowly turned around, eyes squinted and teeth gritted. He spoke and the words fell like cubes of ice from his tongue.

"You!" Hartley growled with irritation seeping into his words while pointing at the young master.

"Kowtow a hundred times and beg her forgiveness and pray to the creator that she forgives you."

Hartley was finding out slowly from his experiences that these shameless malevolent people are everywhere and such people would have to be dealt with mercilessly..

"Heaven has got free admission but instead you are tearing down the doors barring hell!" one of the white haired men shouted aggressively as he came forward to shield his young master.

The young master kept fanning himself with a smile and said, "aren't you overestimating yourself just a little, I have given you some face and yet you refused my good intentions. Don't blame me for being cruel. I will have her for two days now," he said all of this as he pointed his chin to the sky still fanning his face, acting like he was doing Hartley a favor.

Hartley's face regained a tranquil and serene appearance, the soft creaking of his tendons was audible while making a fist with his right hand. He tried his best to restrain himself from instantly killing the pompous bastard standing there with a mocking smile.

The puzzling thing for Hartley was that none of these guys were even as strong as a core disciple of the Lou clan, where did they find the gall to be this brazen in public.

Hartley in his rage had forgotten that he kept his aura completely hidden subconsciously.

If Qin Li were present these people would not have dared to make trouble. The white haired men were nothing in Hartley's eyes, one a 1st layer xanthian the other a 2nd layer, the young master still at the peak of the houtian realm, If he so desired this would be like butchering chickens. *****

Night at the Huang Manor.

A dark figure blurred through the night appearing at the back wall of the Huang manor, the masked person found an unguarded section of wall and walked up the 20 meter high wall as if it was the floor.

Once perched atop the wall the dark figure jumped down into the manor landing silently onto the grass.

Yellow light from torches mounted on the outer walls danced, creating a mesh of moving shadows, offering an inviting oasis for one determined to be in the dark.

A gurgling noise of someone choking on their own blood sounded as the dark figure approached the main building of the clan, leaving a trail of dead or dying guards hidden in the shadows.

With lithe nimble steps the masked dark figure entered the main building of the Huang clan.

A tall lanky expert dressed in white just happened to step around the corner and meet face to face with the masked dark figure.

The tall man immediately noticed multiple blood splotches on the intruders dark outfit, added to the missing patrols that should have been roaming the area.

His eyes went round and the color drained from his face, he opened his mouth to call out in frantic alarm while fumbling for his weapon.

Before a single sound could exit his mouth, a fist surrounded by a bright blue glow thundered into his throat.

His Larynx was shattered, the man dropped clawing at his throat, trying to draw a single breath of air through his crushed windpipe.

He rolled around on the concrete floor clutching at his neck before becoming still.

The body twitched twice, his surprised lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling with the horror of knowing death was at hand but could not be prevented.

It was an unwilling and hopeless stare....

The dark figure paid the dead man no further attention and moved into the building.

The agile figure defied the laws of physics as he skillfully walked up the vertical wall on the left side of the hall, after four or five steps the figure transitioned into the main living quarters of Huang manor.

In a corridor on the third and final floor of the main building, the intruder dressed fully in black dropped from the ceiling making a loud thud.

All stealth had now been abandoned as the figure emerged from the dark, shocking the two on-duty guards holding spears at the entrance to the corridor.

A red short blade appeared in the dark figure's left hand, with a flash of blue, one guard's head instantly went flying, showering the other in blood.

The dark figure made a move running for the other shocked guard.

The remaining guard frightened and in panic moved backwards and screamed at the top of his lungs while pushing his spear forward in hopes of skewering the opponent.

The dark figure running in a straight line towards the guard suddenly veered to the right after three steps and ran along the right hand vertical part of the wall like a spider, easily out flanking the guard.

The intruder quickly jumped from the side wall and landed behind the man in a blur, he then proceeded to slowly cut the man's throat like a sadistic killer enjoying every second of his kill, the guard wheezed and gurgled out his last breath before collapsing to the floor.

The dark figure then kicked in the door of the master bedroom, with a blue flash the doors were rented off the hinges, splintered into fragments not bigger than a baby's wrist and flew back into the room.

Bits and pieces flew all over the floor leaving a dust cloud billowing.

The dark figure had partly entered the room when two 4th layer xanthians lunged at him from opposites sides in ambush.

Others couldn't see it, but they both froze in time and their heads flew off in the direction they had been coming at him from.

Geysers of blood erupted as both headless bodies fell to their knees with a thud, making a surreal scene akin the devil entering his domain amidst a guard of honor from the kneeling headless blood-spewing corpses.

"Who are you?" asked the remaining occupant of the room, he was an elderly looking man with white hair and a fluffy beard, small in stature and somewhat overweight.

"Who sent you?" he asked as his voice cracked and his hands shook.

Then the unsettled dust in the room flew up again with chaotic swirls.

An unseen force pressed down on the man's body that he couldn't explain, it felt as if he there were heavy iron chains dragging his body to the floor.

The elder with the fluffy beard had never been this scared before and couldn't refrain from releasing all the contents in his bowels and bladder.

He had defiled himself in front of the predator, a look of dread in his eyes as he was in no position to defend himself.

With the dust still swirling and an eerie silence....tap...tap...tap.

The dark figure walked slowly over towards the man as if he was enjoying every single second of this.

He stopped in front the soiled elder and said the first words he had said since entering the manor.

"You and your people have offended and tried to humiliate someone very special, that person have absolutely not forgiven a single one with the surname Huang and so I can't forgive a single one with the surname Huang either."

The dark figure then slowly pushed his red short blade into the man's left eye, the crunching sound of the sword slowly breaking through the man's eye socket and entering into his brain were drowned out by the man's screams that only stopped when the sword exited through the back of his head...