Gao Wu: I became the minor villain that the protagonist was about to destroy.

"Ten million?!" Ji Ba exclaimed in shock, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could Wubai owe you so much money?! You're talking nonsense!"

Seeing Ji Ba's excited reaction, Ye Ming smiled instead: "You guessed right, he really didn't owe anything."

"You!...You tricked me!" Ji Ba was so angry that he trembled all over, feeling like a monkey being teased.

"It was just a little joke, a test of your resolve." Ye Ming's joking expression vanished, and his tone became serious. "I told you, what I value is his talent, and I want him to join my guild."

Suppressing his anger and humiliation at being mocked, Ji Baqiang asked, panting, "How...how did you know about Wubai's talent?"

This was his biggest question: even he didn't know about Wubai's awakened path and characteristics, and even Wubai himself didn't know what his awakened path was like.

"You don't need to know that," Ye Ming said calmly.

"I have my own intelligence channels."

He looked again at Ji Ba and the thugs behind him, who, though still terrified, remained unmoved. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strange penetrating power, as if it could reach straight to the heart:

Are you willing to accept this?

"Are you willing to live like a rat in these sunless ruins for the rest of your life? Are you willing to let the people you care about continue to live in fear and despair?"

"Ji Wubai has potential, and you are loyal. Instead of wasting your lives here, come with me."

Ye Ming opened his arms, his movements casual yet seemingly capable of embracing the entire night, his gaze sharp as a knife.

"I can also give you strength, give you resources, and give you a 'future' where you can truly stand up and live."

"An opportunity that could change the fate of all of you is now before you."

"Should we let it rot in the gutter, or grab it and take a gamble...?"

"The choice is in your own hands."

Ji Ba's underlings were beginning to waver, because what Ye Ming said was exactly what they wanted.

"Boss Ji..."

Ji Ba looked at his brothers around him and knew what they were thinking. Their biggest dream in living in the gutter was to leave this place.

If what this young master said is true, then that would be the best outcome. But if it is false, then they will be doomed.

His only concern was that his younger brother, Wubai, could achieve success.

"Alright! Quiet down!"

Ji Ba looked at Ye Ming and said, "Why should I believe you!"

Ye Ming said slowly, "If I wanted to kill you, I could do it with just a thought. There's no need to waste time here with you."

"If you're willing to risk your life to protect someone, our gang would welcome people like you to join."

"As for your Ji Wubai, I came here only because I value his talent. If his character is not good, I will not recruit him. There are many geniuses, but those with good character are rare."

Ji Ba frowned, pondering the truthfulness of Ye Ming's words.

("That guy is right. With his limited strength, he could have killed us just now.")

"...Okay! We'll join your guild!"

"However, I can't guarantee whether Wubai will join you. After all, he's an adult and has his own ideas."

Ye Ming nodded: "Of course."

"But I'd also like to ask you to act in a play with me."

Ji Ba was puzzled upon hearing this: "Huh? Acting? How would I know how?"

Ye Ming's lips curled up slightly: "Don't worry, you don't need to do anything. Just let him see you fake your deaths."

Upon hearing this, Ji Ba immediately understood what the other party wanted to do.

He hesitated for a moment and said, "But I'm afraid Wubai will go crazy."

"If he goes insane because of this, then there's no reason for me to recruit him."

"You won't really die. When the time is right, your appearance will bring this show to a close."

"I...I understand."

The scene changes.

The thugs were now covered in fake blood, lying on the ground with their eyes wide open in death.

Looking at the blood-smelling red liquid smeared all over his body, Ji Ba couldn't help but wonder, "Is this really okay...?"

"That's too fake. Wubai is so smart, he couldn't possibly be fooled."

Ye Ming's lips curled up slightly: "That depends on how much you mean to Ji Wubai."

A moment later, hurried and disordered footsteps approached from afar, accompanied by a boy's calls: "Brother, brother."

"....."

"That's strange. Usually, all the brothers should be at the door, but why is there no one here today?"

Just as Ji Wubai walked into their base as usual, the scene before him was like the cruelest ice water, chilling him to the bone from head to toe.

Time seemed to freeze and shatter at that moment.

The color drained from his face instantly, his lips turned deathly pale, slightly parted, yet he couldn't utter a sound. His eyes, which always held a hint of stubbornness and liveliness, were now wide open, the pupils shrinking sharply to pinpoints the moment they came into contact with the "corpses" scattered on the ground, before uncontrollably dilating, leaving a hollow, deathly silence.

His gaze finally fell on the most familiar figure lying at the front. Ji Ba's "unclosed eyes" and the glaring "blood red" on his chest were like a red-hot iron, burning fiercely onto his retina and into the depths of his soul.

"..." A faint, incoherent breath escaped his throat, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably, staggering and almost losing his balance.

The next second, the accumulated despair and grief broke through the dam.

"elder brother--!!!"

A heart-wrenching howl, like that of a dying beast, ripped through the silence of the ruins. Like a runaway cannonball, he lunged at Ji Ba's "corpse," his hands trembling like withered leaves in the wind, wanting to touch it, yet withdrawing abruptly as if afraid of shattering an illusion. He futilely tried to cover the almost dried-up "wound" with his hands; the sticky, warm touch utterly broke him.

"Who...who is it?! Who did this?!" He suddenly raised his head, his once clear eyes now a terrifying blood red, filled with overwhelming hatred and a madness that wanted to destroy everything.

A powerful, scorching, chaotic, and extremely unstable aura, like an out-of-control volcano, erupted from his body, shaking the ground around him and causing fine cracks to appear and dust to fly everywhere.

In the shadows, Ye Ming calmly assessed the situation: "His talent is indeed astonishing. Emotions are the key to his power, and he is inherently domineering... But his temperament is as fragile as glass. He is on the verge of collapse over this little storm. If he is not tempered and refined, he will ultimately be nothing but trash."

He watched as Ji Wubai's initial collapse and wailing gradually turned into suppressed sobs squeezed from the depths of his throat, his body convulsing and spasming from extreme pain, and the uncontrolled turbulent currents of power forming small storm vortexes around him.