Everyone looked over in the direction where the voice came from.
They saw an old man coming in from outside with his hands clasped behind his back. He took no notice of Gaoming and the others and didn’t even seem bothered by their savage demeanor.
Everyone was stunned by his appearance.
They did not expect that they would meet such an expert in a small county.
He Gaoming and Li Boqing, the best among the group, couldn’t even tell what the strength of this elder was, let alone the others.
In their eyes, the old man’s strength was a mystery.
“Is this why you refused to apologize in the hospital?”
Pointing at the elderly man, He Gaoming turned to stare at Zhang Yiran and asked coldly.
“Humph.”
Zhang Yiran snorted in disdain as he scoffed, “A bunch of rubbish!”
Everyone’s countenance changed when they heard that.
This woman’s attitude varied from minute to minute, each of which followed a well-designed pattern. They would have given her a sound beating if they had known she would break her promise!
“Don’t you think you should be ashamed of what you did? You are nowhere near a decent human! You beast!”
Ling Zhenhua rose to his full height, pointed at Zhang Yiran furiously, and swore, “My daughter is only eight years old! EIGHT YEARS OLD! How could you hurt her so badly? No matter how mighty the man you found to help you today, I will make you suffer ten times or even a hundred times more than my daughter!”
“Brave words indeed, but are you able to do that?”
The old man’s voice came abruptly.
Before Ling Zhenhua could make a move, the elderly man flashed over, his powerful aura overwhelming him. With a look of disdain on his face, he responded with a sneer, “You good-for-nothings?”
“It’s hard to say who’s a good-for-nothing.”
He Gaoming shouted, “Get into formation!”
Liang Fen and the other seven people immediately fanned out nimbly and got into their formation.
The others also took up a fighting stance to confront the old man!
“Ho ho.”
The elder grinned sardonically. As the group came toward him, he made a quick masterful opening move. This palm attack that was particularly swift and fierce brought forth a gale-force wind of energy Qi, which instantly sent the four people at the front flying upward toward the sky. Then, they smashed hard against the floor-to-ceiling window, causing dense cracks to appear.
Fortunately, the window didn’t shatter into pieces.
Their first confrontation greatly shocked He Gaoming and the others.
The elder was exceedingly powerful!
But even so…
No one flinched.
They were here already. How could they withdraw from seeking justice for their brother?
Besides…
The old man did not show up in the first place but came in from the outside after they entered the office. His intention was obvious — to block their retreat and then defeat them.
Even if they retreated, he would shame them all first!
Not a single one of them was willing to undergo this humiliation.
All of them were very clear about their current situation.
Their strongest power would be from the sword formation led by He Gaoming. With it, they might be able to match the other side.
However, this office was a little narrow. When too many people were crowded in the office, the nine brothers couldn’t give free play to the sword formation.
“Bros, come with me!”
Li Boqing waved his large hand.
He took the lead in rushing forward.
As a sixth-class Martial Superior, he could at least withstand a few strikes even if he couldn’t gauge the strength of the elder and was no match for him. When Li Boqing distracted the old man, the others brothers could take this opportunity to attack.
After his call, a large group of more than 20 people charged at the elder together.
“Humph, you’re courting death!”
The old man snorted contemptuously and made his move, knocking Li Boqing back with a punch, but this time, Li Boqing unexpectedly remained rooted to the spot.
This change gave Li Boqing a glimmer of hope.
He blocked his opponent’s punch with tremendous force. The fact that he could withstand it proved his opponent was not invincible.
Immediately, he poised himself for a counterattack and pounced on the old man again.
On the other side, the old man had already knocked down several other brothers.
When Li Boqing took action again, the elder switched his attention back to Li Boqing.
He delivered a good punch.
But this time, Li Boqing chose not to meet the blow head-on. Instead, he dodged sideways and tried to trap him with flexible steps.
However, the old man was also agile and quick to spring into action.
Before long, he beat back Li Boqing with his fists and injured the twenty or so brothers who swarmed toward him.
“Boqing, take our brothers out.”
He Gaoming grabbed Li Boqing’s shoulder and whispered in his ear. Then, the group made up of He Gaoming, Liang Fen, and the other seven brothers closed in on the old man.
Each of the nine people took up their positions.
“A formation?”
Seeing the nine people setting the formation, the old man narrowed his eyes and said with a sneer, “Is this a fist formation?”
The faces of the nine people turned gloomy.
Indeed, there was not enough time for them to prepare this time round. Besides, they didn’t expect such a thing to happen, so these brothers didn’t bring any swords. In these circumstances, they could only rely on their fists.
On the other side, Li Boqing was injured. For fear that they might become a burden to He Gaoming and others, Li Boqing could only take this opportunity and order his wounded brothers to run downstairs through the door. At the same time, he stayed at the office door, ready to come to their aid.
Li Boqing had searched for Zhang Yiran but found that she was gone. He didn’t know when she managed to make her escape.
The crowded office immediately became spacious.
The nine of them launched a joint attack!
Even without swords, they could still make full use of the core part of the Combined Attack Sword Formation. Although the absence of their swords significantly reduced the formation’s power, they dared to wage their decisive struggle against the elder without a note of horror.
Because they noticed that Li Boqing could withstand a few moves from the old man, He Gaoming, who had reached sixth-class, took the leading role in the formation and attacked crazily with the support of the others.
Under the combined fierce attack of the nine people, the pretentious elder soon no longer had the upper hand in the situation and was now somewhat on par with them.
He Gaoming and the other eight people fought him every inch of the way.
Their fight got increasingly intense. Before long, the nine brothers managed to injure the elder. Though he was only slightly wounded, it made him furious.
In a gush of uncontrollable anger, he directly launched a series of fierce attacks in a row, intent on murdering them.
After more than a hundred movements, he finally launched an effective attack when his strength fell short of his will, which slightly held back the Combined Attack Sword Formation.
The quick-witted elder seized the moment, hurling himself upon one man whom he had injured, which quickly led to the breakdown of the sword formation!
He Gaoming had an ominous feeling that something would go wrong.
If their fight continued, the elder would soon gain the upper hand and disintegrate their sword formation. Then everyone would be in deadly danger!
“Leave!” He Gaoming struck upon this bright idea and yelled.
Then he stood facing the old man, taking Liang Fen and the other seven under his wings. Slowly, they retreated cautiously, walked out of the office, and hurriedly turned to run.
In the office, the old man did not follow up on his victory to attack but stood where he was, waiting.
“This formation can produce such a powerful force from a sixth-class Martial Superior and several fourth-class cultivators. Not bad! I have to find a way to get it!”
The old man murmured to himself.
“Crack.”
A soft sound was heard.
Abruptly, a door on the wall behind the chairman’s desk opened, and from there, Zhang Yiran, who had initially disappeared from sight, emerged.
“You let them go just like that?”
She asked.
“I want to get something valuable from them, so I’d like to keep them alive for a few more days.”
A sneer of satisfaction crossed his face as he said, “Check out this group of people for me. I need to know their background.”
“I can investigate.”
Zhang Yiran nodded and continued, “You let them slip away this time, and I’m sure they will return for revenge. What should I do then?”
“Don’t worry.”
The old man smiled contemptuously and promised, “When I get what I want from them, I will help you get rid of them all!”
“Okay.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yiran smiled delightedly and said, “I’ll have my people check it out right now.”
…
The group had run out of the building.
He Gaoming brought his group out and ran wildly into the street. Only when they ran for some distance did they finally stop in an alley.
“Didn’t he come after us?”
Looking back, Li Boqing asked with a grave face.
“He wouldn’t dare!”
He Gaoming shook his head and said, “He knew very well that the nine of us couldn’t fully display the formation in a small office, but even in that case, we could be evenly matched with him without weapons. If he caught up with us outside, our Combined Attack Sword Formation could give full play to its power without the space limitation, so I guess we could do better than before. In a more open place, we can attack him from all angles at any time, and he may not be able to resist our onslaught.”
“Absolutely!”
Liang Fen nodded his agreement and said, “Moreover, we managed to hurt him. Although he was only slightly injured, his strength would be affected, so he won’t chase after us for the time being.”
Hearing that, everyone exchanged relieved glances.
But as soon as they relaxed, the anger and grievance in their hearts immediately surged up.
Especially when they saw how Ling Zhenhua was seriously wounded, everyone felt annoyed and perplexed.
Compared to everyone else, Ling Zhenhua felt even more miserable.
In his view, his brothers got injured because of him, which made him feel very guilty. Meanwhile, he blamed himself for being so useless that he couldn’t even avenge himself!
This team was utterly demoralized by this defeat.
Li Boqing seemed to notice this and asked, “What should we do next?”
“This old guy is very strong. We can’t beat him if he fights us with all his strength.”
He Gaoming thought for a moment and said, “I can only ask the oldest to help us!”
Everyone heard what he said.
They nodded in unison.
“I’ll call him right away.”
He Gaoming took out his mobile phone. Although he felt a little ashamed, he dialed John Doe’s number.
“Hello?”
The call was connected.
“Master, we were beaten up by an old guy. Everyone was injured.”
He Gaoming spoke up.
“Who did it? Why?”
John Doe questioned closely.
He Gaoming told him everything in detail.
“The address?”
After he heard the whole story, John Doe asked for the address immediately.
“Dongbei Province, Qingyang Country.”
He Gaoming replied.
“I’m in a nearby city. I’ll be there in an hour.”
John Doe answered and hung up the phone.
“Boss is not far from us. He can arrive here in an hour.”
After the phone call, He Gaoming announced the news to everyone and added, “Now the top priority is to transfer the child to another place as quickly as possible. I am afraid that the other party may retaliate!”
Hearing this, Ling Zhenhua immediately grew frantic.
Everyone got up one after another and rushed to the hospital.
Fang Qiu hung up the phone. He was staying in a small hotel, and his face fell instantly.
He didn’t expect that there would be masters in this place.
However…
No matter who it was, no one was allowed to bully his brothers!
