As Yun Lie made his way out the door, he was interrupted by a devoted and trusted messenger who had a message to deliver.

“Master Lie! Master Lie! I have urgent news!” Cried the messenger.

“Hmm? Speak up, what is it?”

“The Meng family denounced the engagement, even though they hid the fact that their daughter was engaged to your son for quite a while. But now, to allow you to lose face, they exposed the engagement and how they broke it!”

“What!” Yun Lie almost spat blood. He was wondering how the Meng family would break off the engagement, but he never expected something as unfathomable as this.

“Oh? And from where did the Meng family pull out this level of confidence? From out their asses or from picking their nose?! Nonsense! If anyone should break off the engagement, it would definitely be us, who do they think we are!” Yun Lie was angered to the extreme. At this point, there was no reasoning with them, this would definitely mean war!

The messenger was extremely afraid of Yun Lie and this sudden outburst of rage. He hurriedly put himself into order and stood there, waiting for his next command.

“Call on Lang! Tell him to round up all our men and pay the black iron sell swords to join us in this fight! If they really want to pick a bone, I will break their bones!” Yun Lie spat with fury seething out of all his pores.

“Ye-yes sir!” The reliable and experienced messenger stuttered and flinched at this level of pure fury coming from Yun Lie. In all his life he had never skewed or butchered a single word while speaking, that is one of the major reason why he was preferred as a messenger, but today something big happened. He butchered his first word! Albeit quick, the stutter definitely happened and was heard by Yun Lie. But Yun Lie couldn’t and wouldn’t give a shit about such a small matter.

And so ran the messenger, to deliver the declaration of war to Yun Lie’s men and his allies.

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“Our spies have told us that Yun Lie has rounded up his men, and prepared to start a war with us, sir!” A messenger reported.

“Oh?” Meng Su was surprised, as he didn’t expect the declaration of war to occur, this was only due to the promise Meng Jia made to him last night. If he didn’t have full confidence in remaining safe, then he definitely wouldn’t have done something rash like that. And now that his plan was foiled, he was shivering in his boots. He simply didn’t know what to do!

“Leng Pu! How many men do we have available for deployment within a 4 km radius?”

The old, reliable looking man named Leng Pu looked at some files he kept in his hand. He looked back up with a sour face and looked around at the surrounding people. His expression made everyone in the meeting room feel worried and scared.

“Speak up! Why don’t you tell us how many men we can deploy!”

“fiv-five hundred and twenty-six” Reported the man whilst fidgeting.

Meng Su and the elders at the table around him felt fear as their fists clenched and their faces paled.

“And how many men is Yun Lie capable of deploying?”

“ptoo!” Leng Pu spat out blood as he was shaking.

“Eight thousand and nine hundred and seventy-three men. And that is not including the sellswords that he has hired.” The man said, with sweat glistening on his forehead as his knees buckled.

“Haha!” One of the elders laughed self-deprecatingly.

“We are all dead, aren’t we Meng Su?” The same laughing elder said grimly.

“Haha, it might seem so..” Meng Su said with obvious worry.

“Meng Jia! Come here now!” Meng Su called his daughter with an angry tone.

“Yes, father?” Meng Jia came in with an innocent expression and an innocent tone which caused much of the anger in Meng Su’s heart to dissipate.

“Didn’t you say that you have Yun Bai wrapped around your finger? Then why has his father declared war against us?” Meng Su said with obvious frustration.

A look a confusion was cast on Meng Jia’s face.

‘No, this isn’t right! Even if his father has a temper, there is no way that he would disregard Yun Bai’s opinion. What exactly is going on here?’

Meng Jia was in shock, for she was the one who told her dad that he was safe from the Yun family under almost any circumstance. How could she not know Yun Bai’s feelings after all these years of being acquainted with each other?

“I-I-I don-don’t...” Meng Jia couldn’t fathom such a result. Ever since she was born, everything has gone her way. One could say the only upset she ever experienced in her life was Yun Bai entering it. With Yun Bai in the picture, she had to say goodbye to her childhood dreams of marrying a handsome prince in a castle, and could only settle for a complete cripple.

Now, feeling this feeling of failure and depression yet again, she couldn’t help but break down into tears. Her father felt extremely sympathetic, for she was only a 14-year-old girl and in the end, it was truly his fault.

Meng Su soon became worried by the fact that Yun Lie was coming, and he was coming for real this time. In his heart, he knew he messed up. In fact, with the assurance from his daughter, he was stupid enough to even insult Yun Lie by announcing the breaking of the engagement. Now that he was vulnerable of being killed, he was extremely apprehensive.

‘How can I prevent Yun Lie from attacking us?’ Meng Su didn’t comfort his daughter but instead took time to think of a solution. He couldn’t think of anything currently but that didn’t mean that an answer didn’t exist.

Meng Jia stopped crying by now, at this point her face was no longer covered with agony and melancholy, instead it was filled with hatred, pure, unventilated hatred. Ever since her birth, she had never truly hated anyone, but now, she unrestrainedly hated Yun Bai with all she had. If he hadn’t existed, she wouldn’t have had to feel the fear and shame she felt when they were engaged, that was one thing. Now, he is causing her family issues, even threatening war due to the broken engagement. In the end, who would really marry such a monster like Yun Bai.

She lost all reasoning and thought of thousands of ways to kill him and his hateful father, but in the end, she was too weak and had no power capable of killing him. But an idea suddenly struck her. Hesitation crossed her face for a second, but it was quickly masked as anger and cruelty began to seethe out of her body.

“Do not worry father, this time I will really take care of things.” She said as she got up and made her way towards the door before she closed the door behind her, she looked back at her father with fear and despair in her eyes. She turned around and left.

-----------

Yun Lie was marching towards Meng Su’s manor. He was seething with anger while leading the large army of men behind him. Different beasts and breeds of horses littered the army and just the aura around them was frightening enough to send anyone near them to piss in their pants on the spot. Such a fearsome aura can only be created by men who have been in countless battles and killed many men.

“Onwards, Leave no one but Meng Su and his daughter alive! Kill his wife, his brothers, every man you see is dead!”

The soldiers grave faces hardened and they nodded solemnly at the orders Yun Bai gave them. While working under him for these past 20 years, they realized that he was a very calm, kind, and benevolent man, but seeing his attitude now, they realized that those who offended him must have really touched his reverse scale.

--------

Yun Bai was still sitting in his room at this moment.

“Ah, I can’t wait till father comes back!” Yun Bai was moved by not only his dad’s love and protectiveness over him, but also because of the frightening aura his dad was emitting. What son doesn’t want a badass father who is extremely capable?

------

The Next Morning:

Yun Bai was awakened by the sounds of heavy footsteps and swords clashing.

Cling! Cling!

The fearsome sounds of blades crossing occurred and frightened Yun Bai heavily, he woke up and left his room. As soon as he opened his door, he was greeted by trees and buildings on fire, with the workers and guardians of Central White Fox Merchant Company fighting opponents. Fearsome clashes of strength were occurring throughout the whole manor. Yun Bai was frightened until an old man came up to him and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the action.

“Young Master, come with me!” Yelled the man as he pulled Yun Bai away from all the action. He didn’t allow Yun Bai to catch his breath as they ran through the long wooden halls towards their destination. He ran towards a dead end, but he didn’t stop.

“Watch out!” Yun Bai was afraid of this seemingly insane person who wanted to run into a wall at full speed.

As the man pushed against the wall, the wall flipped and pushed them to the other side, completely removing them from the premises of the mansion.

“Wh-Who are you?!” Yun Bai took time to catch his breath before asking this grandpa about his identity.

“Me? I am your father's most trusted brother, your father left me with a mission, and that is to protect you at the cost of my life!” The old man yelled.

“What? Why would you need to protect me? No offense but I am sure that I am already well protected.” Said Yun Bai with a voice full of suspicion.

“Ah,” Sighed the man with a depressed face.

“Tell me, boy, who do you think those men are that are attacking us?” said the man.

Yun Bai took a minute, searching through his memory.

‘Wait! I remember those robes! The Meng family?’

“The Meng Family? But how? Didn’t my father take an army to go and get revenge? They should all be dead. Because how is a tiny Meng family capable of defeating my father's Central White Fox Merchant Company? Where’s my father? He can deal with them easily.” Said Yun Bai with slight anger.

“Ahh,” The old man sighed with tears dripping on his face.

“Boy, your father is dead!”

Bam!

As if lightning from the seven heavens struck Yun Bai, he spat blood. No tears leaked from him, in fact, there was no expression on his face at all. He simply sat there, as if he was soulless.

“F-Father is dead? He can’t be! HE CAN’T BE!” Yun Bai yelled with pure anger and an expression capable of planting a seed of fear even in the most mighty cultivator.

In his heart, Yun Bai knew that life would never be the same again.

-END OF CHAPTER