Chapter 31 : Chapter 31
Chapter 31: I Surrender
...
On Spiral Light Bridge, someone was driving through the air.
Flying itself was nothing unusual. Once one broke through to the Yuan Gang Realm, flying through the sky became possible.
But flying a car was rare.
It required top-tier mental fortitude, flawless precision in judgment, and superb driving skills.
In the entire country, there were no more than a handful of people who could do it.
“Madman!!!”
“Lu Zhan is a fucking madman!!!”
“I must be out of my mind. Why the hell did I ever provoke him?!”
Whatever smugness and elegance he had managed to pick back up, he had thrown it all away again in an instant.
After going in circles, all he had left was utter misery.
Run!
As long as he survived this time, he swore he would never provoke Lu Zhan again for the rest of his life.
Peach Blossom Alley was forbidden ground.
“Oh? Now you want to run? What were you doing earlier?”
BOOM!
The car had only just hit the ground when Lu Zhan charged out.
Getting out of the car and drawing his saber were done in one smooth motion.
Then—
streams of Saber Energy poured out like a torrential storm.
In an instant, the concrete slabs of the bridge, the iron railings, the streetlights, the cars—everything in sight was shredded to pieces by the saber energy.
“So you like mocking people, huh? You like putting on an elegant act, huh?”
“I’d like to see what gives you the right to provoke me and still dare strut around in front of me.”
One wave of saber energy after another came crashing down.
Every single one radiated a power that made the heart tremble.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sparks had not stopped flying since Lu Zhan got out of the car.
Ruthless. Violent.
He showed absolutely no mercy.
Wang Botao swallowed hard. In all his life, he had never seen such a savage fighting style.
In barely over ten seconds, Black Snake’s body was covered in countless small wounds, blood dripping ceaselessly from them.
He had become a man drenched in blood.
His condition was utterly miserable.
Even Shangguan Ling, who was usually carefree to the point of being heartless, could not help shaking her head and sighing.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. How miserable. Really, why did you have to go and provoke Brother Lu?”
“The three of us were patrolling the Western District just fine, and then you came out of nowhere and dropped the two of us in one shot. Who are we? We’re people under Brother Lu’s protection.”
“It would’ve been one thing if you had only slapped Brother Lu in the face, but then you ran. And even after running, you still dared act all cocky in front of him?”
“If you don’t die, then who should?”
Good lord. After hearing Shangguan Ling scold him like that, even Wang Botao felt this man deserved to die.
“You raised a rat tide with human lives, attacked a Jurisdiction Head, and even cost me a Rejuvenation Talisman...”
“Black Snake, tell me—should I tear you apart, or skin you alive?”
Lu Zhan dragged the Longevity Saber behind him.
It left a long gouge across the bridge deck.
Feeling the icy killing intent pouring off him, Black Snake’s will to resist finally collapsed completely.
He screamed.
“No! Don’t come over here!!! Stay back!!! I surrender... I surrender!!! Aren’t you with the Demon Extermination Bureau? I have important intelligence to report about the Five Poisons Sect!!! Spare me!!! I’m useful, I’m very useful!!!”
A chill swept over him.
He looked up.
What met his eyes was a pair of pitch-black, ice-cold eyes, along with undisguised killing intent.
That was Lu Zhan’s answer.
“So you’re Black Snake, huh? Then in my capacity as the person in charge of Peach Blossom Alley’s jurisdiction, I hereby sentence you to death. Sentence to be carried out immediately.”
“You can’t kill me!!! Doesn’t the Demon Extermination Bureau spare those who surrender? I surrender!!! If you kill me, you’ll be breaking the rules of the underworld!!!”
“Are the people in charge of Mengren Street and Jade Bottle Bay dead or what? He’s arresting someone across jurisdiction lines, and you’re just going to do nothing? I surrender! Handing me over to the Demon Extermination Bureau would be a major achievement. Aren’t you tempted at all?!!”
“Cowards!!! You’re all spineless cowards!!!”
“I, Black Snake, look down on every one of you!!!”
Those who surrendered were not killed.
That was how most Jurisdiction Heads dealt with human captives, and it was also the unspoken rule accepted by the people in charge of each jurisdiction and those who caused trouble within them.
Handling things that way could keep the other side from being driven into a corner and fighting like a desperate beast. If it came to a life-and-death struggle, it was still impossible to say who would come out alive.
All they had to do was maintain order within their jurisdictions. As for anything else, who would risk their life for no benefit?
Still, these were only unspoken rules. If someone refused to follow them, then once someone in that jurisdiction caused trouble in the future, that person would likely have no path left but to walk straight into darkness.
That would only make future jurisdiction management more difficult.
Although the Demon Extermination Bureau was aware of this situation within the jurisdictions, it could only choose to turn a blind eye.
After all, the people below were all doing work that cost lives.
Black Snake cursed furiously, yet not a single Jurisdiction Head answered him. His heart instantly went cold.
...
There were quite a few onlookers on the shore.
Among them were also the people in charge of nearby jurisdictions. Lu Zhan’s pursuit had alarmed them all.
“Damn, what exactly did that guy do in Lu Zhan’s jurisdiction for him to chase him this far?”
That was the question in everyone’s mind.
“Did he dig up the guy’s ancestral grave or something? How big does the grudge have to be for this?”
Generally speaking, jurisdiction heads were far more tolerant toward humans than toward demons.
As long as someone had not committed too serious an offense, the usual approach was to drive them out of the jurisdiction. A thousand-mile pursuit like this, a thankless and exhausting task, was something no one was willing to do.
“Lu Zhan? A newcomer, right? But this newcomer’s pretty fierce. Hey, Wang Lie, I heard you had a conflict with him. How did that feel?”
The man was clearly making fun of him.
But Wang Lie was not angry in the slightest. Instead, he laughed heartily. Sitting in his wheelchair, even after being beaten into such a state, there was not a trace of resentment in his eyes.
“What’s there to ask? Brother Lu is obviously insanely fierce.”
“Come to think of it, it was also because my foolish little brother didn’t know any better and provoked Brother Lu two days ago. Fortunately, Brother Lu was magnanimous and only taught us a lesson.”
That was truly how he felt. At the very least, Lu Zhan had spared his life.
“Now I’m much clearer-headed. Don’t even think about sowing discord between me and Brother Lu.”
“If anyone else came into Mengren Street to arrest someone, then I, Wang Lie, would naturally have a few things to say about it. But if Brother Lu comes into my jurisdiction to arrest someone, then that is an honor for Mengren Street.”
On the far side of the broken bridge, Wang Lie immediately made his position clear.
Originally, he had planned to pretend he had seen nothing, but Black Snake had directly called out Mengren Street and Jade Bottle Bay by name, so naturally he could no longer stay out of it.
So he chose to yield without hesitation.
He had already experienced Lu Zhan’s strength firsthand. He was convinced from the bottom of his heart.
Back then, Lu Zhan had used only one move. With a single move, Wang Lie had been defeated. He even suspected that Lu Zhan had not used his full strength at the time.
If Lu Zhan had gone all out, then he likely could have killed him in a single blow.
How could such terrifying strength fail to command respect?
When Wang Botao saw this, he was instantly dumbfounded.
“I remember Wang Lie definitely didn’t look like this when he saw Brother Lu the day before yesterday.”
Shangguan Ling muttered inwardly, “As expected, Brother Lu’s fists are what clear people’s heads the fastest.”
Hearing Wang Lie’s words, Black Snake fell into complete despair. He had never expected Mengren Street, which prided itself on being nothing but muscle, to choose submission.
“Mengren Street, you don’t deserve the word ‘fierce’! Cowards!!! A bunch of fucking cowards!!! A bunch of soft-boned weaklings!!!”
“I, Black Snake, look down on every one of you!!!”
Mengren Street had made its stance clear, though it was far beyond everyone’s expectations.
But what about Jade Bottle Bay?
Everyone slowly turned their gaze toward the opposite side of the bridge.
On one of the suspension cables stood a young man facing the wind, a sword in his arms. His calm gaze rested on Lu Zhan in the middle of the broken bridge.
His expression was perfectly composed.