Chapter 34 Three Thousand Ruthless Bandits, The Entire Nest Unleashed!

Before leaving, Gu Qingcheng had taken special care to bring it along, just in case. Ye Tian took the horizontal blade with a wide grin.

Blade in hand, he moved forward, the cold gleam of steel flashing as the scabbard and blade parted in an instant—the blade swirling like a wandering dragon with his every step, while the empty scabbard dropped to the ground behind him.

“These vermin love to play dirty. Stay alert,” she warned.

“I understand.” Without turning his head, Ye Tian strode straight toward the line of approaching ninja.

An indescribable aura radiated from him, spreading outward in the dark of night. In that moment, Ye Tian’s eyes glimmered like fluorite, shining with an uncanny light.

Sight of Qi—the art of perceiving aura.

Through this technique, the true cultivation of the group was laid bare before him.

“A pack of ninjas, none of whom have even reached the Grandmaster realm, yet by relying on cunning tactics, they managed to force my senior sister into peril more than once. How curious.”

Muttering to himself, Ye Tian extended a hand, fingers curled as if to grasp something in the air.

With that simple gesture, the five ninjas at the forefront were instantly immobilized, terror etched across their faces.

“What—?”

The exclamation, in perfect Japanese, rippled through their ranks. The five struggled frantically but remained rooted to the spot, unable to move a single step.

Dragon-Seizing Art.

As the name implied, even a true dragon soaring the skies could be snatched and subdued by this technique. In practice, it was a common method for locking down an opponent’s vital energy—disrupting their inner flow of qi and rendering them helpless.

When one’s martial cultivation vastly surpassed another, the technique could even squeeze the life out of its victim.

“How pitiful, to be caught so easily,” Ye Tian sighed in disappointment. As the five quailed in panic, he stepped forward.

“Damn you! You think you can stop us with a wave of your hand?” a ninja nearby shouted, hurling a flurry of shuriken at him, a storm of steel filling the air.

But Ye Tian merely flicked his blade, tracing a graceful arc through the air. The flying weapons were effortlessly deflected, clattering to the ground.

A sickening crack followed—the five heads fell to the earth in unison.

Since advancing to the Beidou Realm, Ye Tian’s senses and physical prowess had soared to new heights. Now, purely by reflex and raw strength, he could easily slaughter these ninjas.

The disparity was simply too great.

“How boring.” Gu Qingcheng watched for a while, then turned away, intent on resuming her skewer. Yet when she glanced up, she saw the vendor had already fled with his cart, two miles down the road.

“Dammit! I paid, and you haven’t even finished my order!” she fumed.

“It’s fine. We’ll eat somewhere else.” As she shouted after the departing vendor, Ye Tian had already returned.

“Why did you stop? Did they run off?” Gu Qingcheng tilted her head.

“They’re all taken care of. Lying on the ground,” Ye Tian replied, a trace of helplessness in his voice.

He’d hoped to test his post-breakthrough limits against them, but these ninjas relied on nothing but tricks—pathetically weak, truth be told.

Clearly, their gadgets could only deceive or trouble martial artists of lower realms. For those at the Beidou Realm or higher, with their supernatural perception, such distractions were useless.

“Tch, listen to you brag,” Gu Qingcheng scoffed with a laugh. “Let’s find a different place to eat.”

“No rush,” Ye Tian said calmly. “We still have company.”

At his words, Gu Qingcheng immediately sensed the change. Birds scattered in alarm, and the insect chorus that had filled the night vanished into silence.

The next moment, the hush was shattered.

A thunderous tide of footsteps, accompanied by the shrill whistle of command, rolled toward them. An endless mass of people—bare-chested, tattooed arms glistening, each gripping a weapon—surged forth, instantly sealing off every exit along the street.

As far as the eye could see, heads crowded together. Even the far end of the road was swallowed by darkness.

These were the infamous underground gangs of Zhongdu.

“Aren’t these the idiots from the Death Arena?” Gu Qingcheng wondered aloud.

“Yes, that’s them,” Ye Tian replied, hands clasped behind his back and smiling.

“They’re not placing bets at the Arena tonight—what do they want with us?”

Ye Tian grinned mischievously at his senior sister’s question.

“Obviously, they’re here for trouble.”

He briefly recounted how he’d snatched the Zhou family’s two heiresses from the gang’s hands.

“You’re bold, little brother! You dared snatch someone from Xu Manjin’s own turf?” Gu Qingcheng’s eyes widened, giving Ye Tian a thumbs-up. “Do you know their underground emperor, Xu Manjin, is a martial artist at the very peak of Taishan? I was arrogant once too—until he broke me.”

Ye Tian only smiled, making no further comment.

As the two spoke, a man stepped from the throng—a sharp-featured, impeccably dressed figure in a suit, strikingly out of place among the three thousand bare-chested ruffians. He was none other than their leader, the bandit king Xu Manjin.

Yet, the mob parted to let him pass, bowing their heads, awaiting his command.

Following him was Wang Zizai, present at the previous encounter.

“Well, Old Wang, long time no see,” Ye Tian greeted Wang Zizai with a smile, pointedly ignoring Xu Manjin.

“Ye Tian, don’t try to be friendly with me!” Wang Zizai, who had hoped to remain unnoticed, broke out in a cold sweat at Ye Tian’s greeting.

Xu Manjin was notoriously suspicious. Ye Tian’s words immediately drew his attention to Wang Zizai, though he quickly returned his gaze to Ye Tian.

“Leave off the cheap tricks. I’m not so easily fooled,” the middle-aged man said coldly as he approached. “You must be Ye Tian.”

“The one and only,” Ye Tian replied with a shrug.

At that, murderous intent exploded from the man, almost tangible as it enveloped Ye Tian and Gu Qingcheng.

“You’ve got guts, snatching people on my territory. But do you know—even if the three great clans joined forces, none would dare face me head on?”

“Tell him why,” he commanded.

At his words, a tidal wave of voices erupted from the crowd surrounding Ye Tian and Gu Qingcheng:

“Three thousand warriors—invincible and unstoppable!”

“Where we pass, nothing survives!”

Each thug shouted with all his might, pouring his true energy into the words. In an instant, the quiet night seemed to quake. Windows in the surrounding buildings shattered from the sheer force of their roar, glass cascading from above.

Three thousand hardened criminals—so terrifying in their unity that an ordinary person caught in their midst might be scared to death by bloodlust alone.