stjorthotic Chapter 19 Inviting the Enemy into the Trap
Chapter 19 Inviting the Enemy into the Trap
The night breeze on Beijing's East Third Ring Road carried the heat and extravagance of early summer, yet it couldn't suppress the pungent, bone-chilling stench of blood emanating from the rooftop corridor of the Heaven on Earth nightclub—expensive Chanel air fresheners were torn to shreds, and every gust of wind carried the chill of the dead, seeping into one's very bones.
"Da da, da da..."
The twelve-centimeter red-soled high heels clicked crisply on the gleaming marble floor, sounding like a death knell. Ye Hongyu walked ahead, her silk cheongsam soaked with cold sweat, clinging tightly to her back and perfectly outlining her exquisite curves. But her usually captivating figure was now nothing but a trembling mess.
She didn't dare to breathe heavily, her peripheral vision scanning both sides of the corridor. Her heart felt like it was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, the pain almost suffocating her.
Lying haphazardly were the bodyguards at the peak of internal strength, whom the Ye family had hired at great expense—ruthless figures in the underworld who could take on ten men at once, each one a master who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. But at this moment, they didn't even show any signs of resistance. There was only a thin red line on their necks, and before the blood could even seep out, they had already become cold corpses.
Fast! Too fast!
The security cameras in the corridor only captured a blurry afterimage; they didn't even see Lu Yuan raise his hand before these top bodyguards were already decapitated. Ye Hongyu's teeth chattered uncontrollably. She didn't even dare to think about what kind of terrifying strength the seemingly ordinary young man behind her possessed.
The doors of the private elevator slowly closed, and in the enclosed space, only the hum of the elevator motor going down could be heard. It was so quiet that you could hear Ye Hongyu's own heart pounding wildly, as if it was about to burst out of her chest.
She pressed her hands together in front of her lower abdomen, her fingers digging into her palms so hard that her sharp nails almost dug into her tender white flesh, and crescent-shaped bloodstains were faintly visible—only in this way could she force herself not to collapse to the ground and barely maintain the dignity of the eldest daughter of the Ye family.
Just who is this kid?!
The intelligence report clearly stated that he was just an ordinary high school student who had just finished the college entrance examination, with no background or strength, at most possessing some brute force. Yet this "ordinary high school student" effortlessly annihilated the Zhao family's 150-year-old monster who had already reached the divine realm—a being even the Ye family had to bow down to. Even a pig that had lived for 150 years should have become a spirit by now; how could he have been silently eliminated without even a whimper?
Ye Hongyu glanced furtively at the young man beside her, and her heart sank again.
Lu Yuan stood with his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed on the numbers flashing on the elevator door. His face remained completely expressionless, as calm as if he were strolling through a market, as if he had just personally slaughtered a group of top bodyguards and annihilated a Divine Realm expert, and that was merely stepping on a few ants.
He was definitely not a disciple of some reclusive sect! Those disciples from prestigious sects all put on airs when they came out of seclusion, constantly spouting "eliminating demons and protecting the righteous path," and even when they killed someone, they would come up with a bunch of high-sounding reasons, their pretentiousness was nauseating. But this person in front of me killed without blinking an eye, without even flinching, and that cold indifference to life was more terrifying than any demon from hell.
Ye Hongyu's mind raced, cold sweat trickling down her temples and dripping onto the collar of her cheongsam, chilling her to the bone. She had to find a way to keep him calm. Within the Ye family compound lay a protective array left behind by that master from years past. If she could lure this brat into the main hall and activate the array's death gate, even a true immortal would be severely injured and die a horrible death!
Thinking of this, Ye Hongyu finally regained a little confidence. She quietly reached into her designer bag and her thumb precisely touched a metal cylinder the size of a lipstick—that was the Ye family's highest-level alarm. With just a light press, the clan's protective array over there would be preheated in advance, and everything would be ready, just waiting for this kid to walk into the trap.
With a slight press of her thumb, her fingertip touched the alarm button. Just then, Lu Yuan's voice suddenly rang out in the elevator. It was calm and even, but it carried an undeniable pressure, like a thunderclap in Ye Hongyu's ears.
"The 12.5 MHz encrypted frequency band is outdated."
Ye Hongyu's hand trembled violently, and the metal cylinder almost fell out of her bag. Her blood froze instantly, and she stiffly turned her head, only to see that Lu Yuan was not looking at her at all, still staring at the elevator door, his tone full of disdain: "In the cultivation world, this frequency is not even as good as the lowest level of transmission talisman."
He paused, then looked up, his gaze finally landing on Ye Hongyu's pale face. A cold smile curved his lips, and his tone was blatantly sarcastic: "Go ahead and massage her. It'll be good for them to wash their necks clean, so my hands don't get dirty when I do it."
Ye Hongyu swallowed hard, a gurgling sound rising in her throat, and the cold sweat on her back thickened. She suddenly realized that her prized intelligence network and meticulously planned schemes were like transparent glass in front of this young man, utterly devoid of secrets. He had seen through her thoughts long ago, even manipulating her calculations. This feeling of being completely controlled and at his mercy was worse than death.
"bite--"
The elevator doors slowly opened, and a chill from the underground parking garage rushed out. In a private parking space, a black Rolls-Royce Phantom sat quietly, its gleaming body a testament to the Ye family's power and wealth. Upon seeing this, the driver, dressed in a black suit, hurried forward, respectfully opened the rear door, his head bowed low, not daring to look up at Lu Yuan behind Ye Hongyu.
"Young Miss, shall we return to the compound?" The driver's voice trembled slightly.
Ye Hongyu ignored him, suppressing the fear in her heart, turned to the side, and made a stiff gesture of invitation to Lu Yuan, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace: "Mr. Lu, please."
Lu Yuan bent down and sat in the back seat, his movements casual and without the slightest restraint. Ye Hongyu followed closely behind and sat down, pulling the soundproof partition in the middle of the room shut behind her—she needed some time to calm her wildly beating heart and also to confirm whether the formation on the other side of the compound was ready.
The car smoothly drove out of the garage and merged into the traffic flow of the ring road in the middle of the night in Beijing. The air conditioning was on in the car. Ye Hongyu had just broken out in a cold sweat, and now, as the cold wind blew, the hairs on her body stood on end, and a chill ran from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
She hurriedly took a bottle of vintage Romanée-Conti from the car's wine cabinet, and poured a small half-glass with trembling hands. The dark red liquid swirled in the glass, and she tilted her head back to take a sip. The spicy liquid slid down her throat, but it did nothing to suppress the fear in her heart. Instead, it made her hands tremble even more violently.
"Mr. Lu," Ye Hongyu said, trying to appear calm. She adjusted her posture, deliberately letting the slit of her cheongsam reveal more of her fair thighs. Her voice became sweet again, attempting to test the waters with her beauty. "You just said that the bone belonged to a demonic cultivator... Our Ye family are just business people in the secular world. When that expert took the Spirit Gathering Jade back then, he only said he would borrow it for a few years. In exchange, he helped us set up a feng shui array in the courtyard. We really don't know anything about demonic cultivators, and we had no intention of offending you."
Her words were half true and half false, and her eyes held a calculating intent—as long as they could figure out Lu Yuan's true purpose, if it was to seek revenge, then the Ye family could reveal all the clues about that expert, diverting the trouble to the other side, causing them to suffer losses, and the Ye family could reap the benefits.
But Lu Yuan simply leaned back in his leather seat, his eyes closed, not even lifting his eyelids, his tone icy and piercing, shattering her illusions: "You don't need to test me."
"I don't care if you were used as pawns or willingly became dogs," Lu Yuan's voice was flat, yet carried a destructive force. "If you touch my family's things, you'll pay with your lives. There are no exceptions, and there's no room for negotiation."
Ye Hongyu's hand holding the wine glass jerked violently, spilling the dark red wine onto her fair thighs. It was cold and sticky, but she felt no discomfort whatsoever. Instead, she felt a chill run through her body, and her heart sank to the bottom.
This is impossible to talk about!
This person doesn't play by the rules at all. No talk of benefits, no conditions; he just flips the table right off the bat, cutting off all her escape routes with a single sentence. The carriage fell silent again, broken only by the whirring of the air conditioner and Ye Hongyu's increasingly rapid breathing.
Half an hour later, the Rolls-Royce turned into a quiet alley—this was inside the Second Ring Road of Beijing, where land was incredibly valuable. The entire alley belonged to the Ye family, the foundation upon which the Ye family had been rooted in Beijing for hundreds of years, and their last resort.
The car stopped in front of a very large courtyard house. Two tall white marble lions stood guard at the entrance, majestic and imposing. The vermilion gate was studded with gilded copper nails, and the mottled patterns revealed the aristocratic grandeur of the Ye family for hundreds of years, exuding an aura of intimidation that kept strangers at bay.
Four burly men in training uniforms stood at the entrance, their temples bulging, their muscles bulging, and their auras steady—all of them were martial artists who had mastered external strength. In the underground boxing matches outside, they would be ruthless characters who could kill a bull with a single punch. They were the Ye family's last line of defense.
Upon seeing the Rolls-Royce stop, the four burly men immediately approached, their sharp eyes scanning the interior of the car. When they saw Lu Yuan's unfamiliar face, a hint of wariness flashed in their eyes, but due to Ye Hongyu's identity, they did not ask any further questions.
The driver jogged to open the car door, and Ye Hongyu got out first. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she immediately took three steps back to create distance between herself and the car door—this was a safe distance she had calculated in advance. As soon as Lu Yuan stepped out of the car, she would immediately shout for action, then turn around and rush into the gate. Once she crossed that threshold and entered the range of the clan's protective formation, she would be safe!
Lu Yuan slowly stepped out of the car, his gaze sweeping over the two white marble lions at the entrance. A mocking smile curled at the corner of his lips as he shook his head slightly, his tone full of disdain: "Placing the array's core in such an obvious place, the person who set up the array is a half-baked amateur."
Ye Hongyu couldn't understand a word he was saying; her entire attention was focused on Lu Yuan. She abruptly took a step back, pointed at Lu Yuan, her voice shrill and piercing with fear and agitation, almost a scream: "Attack! Kill him! Now!"
The four external martial artists were stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting to make a sudden move. However, years of training had given them an instinctive reaction. Almost the instant Ye Hongyu finished speaking, the four of them simultaneously drew their blood-grooved triangular military daggers from their waists. With a flash of cold light, they pounced on Lu Yuan from four directions, their moves ruthless and deadly!
A martial artist who has mastered external strength can dominate a region on his own. When four of them join forces, even a master of internal strength will have to temporarily avoid their sharp edge. What's more, they also have poisoned triangular military daggers in their hands. A mere scratch can be fatal!
Ye Hongyu had no interest in watching the outcome of the fight. She turned around, and in her high heels, ran towards the door with all her might. Her skirt fluttered, and the sound of her high heels hitting the ground was rapid and frantic. Every step felt like a race against death.
Ten steps! Eight steps! Five steps! Three steps!
She was only three steps away from the vermilion gate! Ye Hongyu's face was filled with the ecstatic joy of surviving a disaster. Just one more step and she would be safe, able to activate the clan's protective formation and completely slay that demon!
But just then, four muffled, heart-stopping explosions suddenly came from behind—"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sound was like four water-filled balloons being crushed by a large truck, dull and piercing. Immediately afterward, warm liquid mixed with fine bits of flesh poured down like a torrential rain onto Ye Hongyu's back and hair. Sticky, warm, and with a pungent, bloody smell that assaulted the senses, it was nauseating.
Ye Hongyu's feet froze on the spot, her body stiff, even her breath stopped. She dared not turn around, dared not look at what was happening behind her, but the warm touch, the pungent smell of blood, and the faint sound of bones cracking in her ears all told her that the four martial artists who had reached the peak of external strength were dead.
"Thud—"
A bloodied arm lay heavily at her feet, its fingers still twitching nervously, blood dripping from its fingertips and spreading a glaring red across the bluestone pavement.
Lu Yuan's footsteps walked slowly past her, very light, yet it felt like they were treading on her heart, making her tremble with every step. He didn't even glance at her, as if she were just a roadside stone, insignificant.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Yuan raised his foot and, without the slightest hesitation, kicked hard at the vermilion door that symbolized the Ye family's century-old glory, a door ten centimeters thick and covered with iron sheets!
"boom--!"
A deafening crash echoed throughout the alley! The vermilion gate, which had withstood centuries of wind and rain and witnessed the rise and fall of the Ye family, along with the blue brick walls on both sides, was instantly kicked to pieces. Wood chips, bricks, and dust flew everywhere, blotting out the sun.
Ye Hongyu's body went limp, her legs could no longer support her, and she collapsed to the ground. Looking at the ruins before her, the ecstasy on her face froze completely, leaving only extreme fear and despair. Her pupils dilated, and she murmured to herself, "No... impossible... this is impossible..."
Lu Yuan stood before the ruins, his gaze coldly sweeping across the courtyard. His voice, icy as frost, echoed throughout the entire Ye family compound: "The Ye family, what you owe me, you will repay in full today!"