Chapter 63: The Watermelon

Geng Zhiwei laid down three conditions: first, the Yu Family Pharmacy would give him a 50% share; second, Yu Nan would marry him as his Sixth Concubine; and third, Yu Nan would be beaten in public.

Yu Nan’s face paled.

Jia Quansheng, standing beside Geng Zhiwei, chimed in, "I think my brother’s three conditions are excellent, Boss Yu! Marrying into the Geng family is your blessing!"

Before Yu Nan could respond, one of the guards behind her couldn’t contain himself any longer. "Geng Zhiwei, you bastard! I’ll curse your ancestors for eight generations!"

Geng Zhiwei spat on the ground. "Who do you think you are, you dog? Do you even have the right to speak here? Shopkeeper Yu, I’ve stated my conditions. Do you accept?"

He wasn’t there to negotiate; he was there to humiliate them!

Yu Nan rose to her feet. "Young Master Geng, it seems we can’t come to an agreement. Since you’re being so shameless, let’s schedule another time to settle this the Wulin way. Let’s fight to the end!"

This meant a fight was about to break out.

"Refreshing! I like your refreshing attitude!" Geng Zhiwei laughed. "We don’t need to schedule another time. Today is perfect! Let’s start now!"

Two guards behind Geng Zhiwei charged forward with their blades. Yu Nan drew her gun and aimed directly at Geng Zhiwei.

Geng Zhiwei remained seated in his chair, sipping tea, showing no fear whatsoever.

One of his guards stepped in front of Geng Zhiwei. Yu Nan pulled the trigger, and a bullet struck the guard in the chest.

Blood gushed from the guard’s chest. He staggered slightly but continued to charge towards Yu Nan, brandishing his machete.

Such formidable physique!

Was he a Body Cultivator?

Yu Nan quickly fired a second shot at him.

Tick-tock!

The hammer of the revolver struck the bullet’s primer, but the bullet didn’t fire.

A dud!

Yu Nan fired a third shot, but it was another dud.

Such bad luck?

It wasn’t just luck. In Prolo State, gunpowder was unreliable. Guns had less than a 30% chance of firing successfully. Duds were a common occurrence.

This was why Li Banfeng hadn’t encountered firearms yet.

In Prolo State, firearms weren’t the preferred choice of weapons. Revolvers were acceptable, but relying on recoil-operated pistols was troublesome when encountering duds.

Yu Nan fired six shots in quick succession, the cylinder turned a full circle, but only two bullets hit their mark.

Both bullets struck the guard, and blood flowed from his body, but he didn’t fall. Instead, Yu Nan received a cut on her shoulder from the guard’s machete.

He took two shots and didn’t even react?

This wasn’t just defending or dodging; he took the bullets and withstood the impact!

This couldn’t be explained by ordinary physical strength. This guard wasn’t an ordinary person.

From Yu Nan’s understanding, this man was likely a Third Level Body Cultivator.

But why would a Third Level Body Cultivator serve as Geng Zhiwei’s guard?

As far as Yu Nan knew, the highest-level guard Geng Zhiwei had was a Second Level Body Cultivator.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one guard who was so powerful. Another guard was fighting two of Yu Nan’s shop assistants.

The shop assistants had no weapons; they fought the guards with chairs.

A chair leg broke, and a shop assistant stabbed the chair leg into the guard’s body. The guard bled, but his fighting power remained undiminished.

One shop assistant had his chest pierced by Geng Zhiwei’s guard and fell to the ground, unable to rise.

The other shop assistant was one against two, fighting desperately against the opposing guards.

"Shopkeeper, run! Get out of here!" the shop assistant screamed, as the guard’s machete pierced his stomach.

Shouts of fighting also came from downstairs. The shop assistants from the Yu Family Cloth Shop had started fighting with the people from the Geng Family Pharmacy.

A man from the Geng Family Pharmacy had his head split open by an axe, covered in blood, yet he could still fight with a dagger.

His head was split open, and he could still fight?

Could it be that everyone Geng Zhiwei brought today were Third Level Cultivators?

That was impossible…

Yu Nan took another cut to the leg, her eyes filled with panic.

Late at night, Yu Nan led her people back to Baixiang Village.

Of the thirty-three shop assistants, eleven had died. Two corpses were brought back, while the other nine remained at Wangchun Restaurant. She didn’t know how Geng Zhiwei would defile their bodies.

Everyone, including Yu Nan, was injured, and the injuries were severe.

As for the Geng family, many of them were also seriously injured, but Yu Nan didn’t see anyone on the opposing side fall before she retreated.

She never imagined that the Geng family’s strength had reached such a level.

After quickly treating the wounds, Yu Nan instructed her subordinates to set up a mourning hall to first mourn the dead brothers.

After everyone kowtowed, Yu Nan kept vigil alone. After burning two stacks of joss paper, Yu Nan sighed and said, "Brothers, take it easy on the road to the afterlife. I’ll be there soon."

Li Banfeng entered the mourning hall and burned some paper along with Yu Nan.

Although he didn’t know them, this was respect for the deceased.

Yu Nan looked at the corpses in the mourning hall, lowered her head, and said sadly, "I thought Geng Zhiwei invited me to the banquet to at least be polite first before resorting to force. I didn’t expect him to lure me out and start fighting directly.

I knew that in terms of strength, I couldn’t beat the Geng family, but I didn’t expect his strength to be at this level.

Geng Zhiwei will probably come to Baixiang Village tomorrow to find me. I can’t escape this calamity.

Seventh Master, take Boss Qin and leave quickly. I can’t even protect myself, so naturally, I can’t protect you."

Li Banfeng asked, "Knowing you can’t beat the Geng family, why did you still attend the banquet openly?"

Yu Nan lowered her head and said, "I had no choice. He sent the invitation, so I had to go. These are the Wulin rules."

Li Banfeng asked, "Is Geng Zhiwei a man who follows the rules?"

"No," Yu Nan replied softly.

"Then what’s the point of your rules?"

After a long silence, Yu Nan raised her voice, "If I didn’t go, my brothers and I would never be able to hold our heads high for the rest of our lives!"

Li Banfeng looked up at the two corpses in the mourning hall and asked, "Can they hold their heads high now?"

Yu Nan lowered her head and remained silent.

Li Banfeng asked again, "Tomorrow, if you’re killed by Geng Zhiwei, will you be able to hold your head high?"

Yu Nan couldn’t answer.

Li Banfeng asked once more, "Tell me, what’s the point of your rules?"

Yu Nan was speechless.

She didn’t want to mention the Wulin rules anymore.

After stumbling for so many years, she had always thought of herself as a member of the Wulin world.

But after encountering Geng Zhiwei this time, Yu Nan felt like she didn’t understand the Wulin world at all.

After a long silence, Yu Nan sighed, "Seventh Master, maybe I was wrong, but now is not the time to dwell on right and wrong.

Geng Zhiwei won’t let me go, and he definitely won’t let you go either. He will find you sooner or later. I just want to remind Seventh Master to leave quickly."

She was right. If Geng Zhiwei had smooth sailing and continued to kill his way through, he would find Li Banfeng sooner or later.

It wasn’t that difficult to find Li Banfeng. He could just capture a few of Yu Nan’s subordinates, torture them, and get the information.

As they spoke, a young woman, with tears in her eyes, walked into the mourning hall, holding a sharp knife in her hand. "Shopkeeper, this knife belongs to Eighth Lao. I want to keep it as a memento."

This woman was called Wang Xuejiao, the older sister of Eighth Lao.

Eighth Lao had died, and his corpse hadn’t even been brought back.

Yu Nan nodded. "Take it."

Li Banfeng looked at the knife, with red spots all over it, seemingly with blood stains. Li Banfeng smelled a strange fishy smell.

"This young lady, can I take a look at the knife?"

Wang Xuejiao handed the knife to Li Banfeng, who sniffed it carefully. "This is a watermelon knife?"

"Nonsense!" Wang Xuejiao snapped. "This is Eighth Lao’s knife. Eighth Lao has been holding this knife since the day he started following the shopkeeper. This knife is covered in the blood of those Geng family bastards!"

Li Banfeng looked at the red spots on the knife. "This isn’t blood. This is watermelon juice. This knife must have been used to cut watermelons all day!"

Watermelon?

Yu Nan was stunned. Wang Xuejiao yelled at Li Banfeng, "Who the hell do you think you are? Why are you insulting my brother!"

Li Banfeng looked at the girl and didn’t offer any explanation.

Yu Nan had people persuade Wang Xuejiao to leave, and then picked up the knife and smelled it herself.

There was a fishy smell, but Yu Nan couldn’t tell if it was blood or watermelon juice.

Li Banfeng said to Yu Nan, "Bring more weapons. We’ll examine them one by one, and we’ll know."

Before long, the shop assistants brought over a dozen weapons. Li Banfeng sniffed them one by one and confirmed his judgment. "This is watermelon juice. Although there’s a bloody smell, it can’t hide the sweetness of the watermelon."

Yu Nan didn’t believe it. "I can’t smell it."

Li Banfeng picked up an axe from the weapons and scraped off a piece of rust from the rust spot.

Anyone else would have taken it for rust residue, or perhaps even for meat crumbs from the Geng family.

But only Li Banfeng could discern it by its smell.

It wasn’t residue of any kind.

Li Banfeng cleaned up the piece and broke it open. The black outer shell had a white core. "Take a closer look. This is a watermelon seed."

Yu Nan looked closely for a moment, her pupils constricting.

This time she saw it. It really was a watermelon seed.

End of Chapter