Era: Rise from the Wilderness

Two burly men with buzz cuts followed behind. The scarred man picked his teeth, while the tattooed man rubbed his stomach, looking relaxed and clearly not taking this "small job" too seriously.

Just as Ma Youcai's hand touched the cold car door handle, an unexpected incident occurred.

With a "whoosh" sound!

As if appearing out of thin air from street corners, alleyways, and shop shadows, more than twenty teenagers instantly surrounded them.

Their steps were swift and silent, like a pack of wolves hunting silently.

The sunlight was fragmented and cut off by the suddenly gathered figures.

The once bustling street suddenly fell into a suffocating silence in this corner.

Several vendors in the vicinity quickly packed up their goods and hid inside their shops, only daring to peek out through the cracks in the door.

The color drained from Ma Youcai's face in an instant, and the effects of the alcohol turned into cold sweat, instantly soaking his back.

The two burly men tensed up abruptly, standing back to back, their eyes scanning the crowd that surrounded them with suspicion.

There were too many of them, and they were all teenagers, around eighteen or nineteen years old, with fierce and reckless eyes. People of that age are the least likely to be ruthless when they strike.

The crowd parted slightly.

Li Yunjing came out.

He was carrying a hollow steel pipe that someone had given him; one end of the pipe dragged on the ground, making a piercing "sizzling" sound.

The wound on his calf was still throbbing, but the pain seemed to fuel the rage in his eyes.

He stopped three steps away from Ma Youcai, and the steel pipe slammed against the ground with a thud, raising a small cloud of dust.

The afternoon breeze ruffled the sweat-dampened hair on his forehead. He stared at Ma Youcai's pupils, which had shrunk to pinpoints in terror. His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a knife chilled to the bone, each word slicing through the stagnant air:

"Horse, have, wealth."

"My dad held back back then, just so you would learn a lesson."

"And you?"

Li Yunjing's voice suddenly rose, filled with barely suppressed anger and contempt:

"Can't swallow this insult? Feel wronged? You even dared to bring people to my doorstep, trying to cripple my dad's leg?!"

The steel pipe slammed heavily on the ground, reflecting his fluctuating emotions.

Ma Youcai trembled with fear, his lips moving as if he wanted to defend himself, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence: "I...I didn't..."

"Nothing?!"

Fu Chao stepped out from behind him, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, his eyes even more ferocious and direct than Li Yunjing's. He pointed at the two burly men who looked like they were facing a formidable enemy, "Bringing these two bastards along, discussing how to carry out a dirty trick on our turf? Do you think we're deaf? Do you think we're dead?!"

"Trying to mess with my brother and his dad?"

Ding Dong also squeezed to the front. Although he wasn't as fierce as Fu Chao, he was also furious, clutching half a brick in his hand: "Did they ask us first?!"

"Why waste your breath on them!"

In the crowd, a young man suddenly raised the wooden stick in his hand and shouted, "Brother Chao, let's do it! Let these out-of-towners know what's what!"

"Yes! Let's take them down!"

"Damn it, coming here to cause trouble!"

More than twenty people stepped forward in unison, their clubs, chains, and even nine-section whips, long knives, and red-tasseled spears gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

The angry roar was like a solid wall, pressing down on the three people in the middle, whose faces were ashen.

"Whoosh!"

Outside, adults, vendors, and students going out for lunch all gathered around, and through conversation, they understood what was going on.

Not only were they not afraid, but they also watched the spectacle with great interest.

The scarred, burly man's forehead veins bulged. After all these years in the underworld, he never expected to be caught off guard and cornered by a group of teenagers.

"You little rascals!"

He forced himself to remain calm, and shouted, his voice trembling with fear, "What do you want? Do you know who we are? Try touching us!"

"Snapped!"

Ding Dong darted forward with astonishing speed, slapping the scarred man hard across the face, silencing him from his next words!

"I don't care who you are!"

Ding Dong shook his hand, his eyes as cold as ice. "You dare to come to Young Master Fu's territory and try to harm my brothers and his family? Even if you're the King of Heaven, you'll have to kneel before me today!"

That slap completely shattered the other party's last shred of hope.

Upon seeing this, the tattooed burly man instinctively reached for his lower back, but two quick-thinking teenagers pounced on him, pinning his arms down and pulling a gleaming boning knife wrapped in newspaper from his lower back!

"Damn! He even brought a knife!"

The surrounding crowd gasped in anger and pressed closer together.

When Ma Youcai saw the knife being searched, his legs went weak and he almost knelt down on the spot.

The matter has escalated completely.

Li Yunjing took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

Pure violence cannot solve the fundamental problem; on the contrary, it may bring endless troubles.

He raised his hand, signaling everyone to calm down.

He walked up to the almost limp Ma Youcai, bent down, and gently lifted Ma Youcai's chin with the cold tip of the steel pipe, forcing him to look into his eyes.

"Ma Youcai, look carefully."

Li Yunjing's voice returned to calm, but this calmness was even more chilling than his previous roar. "Today, we outnumber you. It won't be difficult to cripple the three of you."

Ma Youcai's pupils contracted sharply, and a small patch of his crotch was already wet.

"But I don't want to push things too far."

Li Yunjing said slowly, "My dad held back back then to leave you a way out."

"By bringing a knife and men here today, you have cut off your own path to survival."

"Don't blame me for being ruthless!"

As he spoke, he raised his arm and brandished the steel pipe in his hand. His parents were taboo; to touch his father would be to offend him!

Just as the steel pipe, accompanied by a whistling sound, was about to fall heavily!

"Stop! Li Yunjing!"

A clear, urgent female voice suddenly pierced through the clamor of the crowd.

Everyone was stunned, including Li Yunjing.

His arm movement froze, and the steel pipe stopped in mid-air.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a girl in a light blue dress with a ponytail struggling to squeeze through the crowd from the outer edge.

Her face showed anxiety and a hint of barely perceptible fear; it was Li Wanting.

"Li Wanting? What brings you here?"

Li Yunjing frowned, but did not loosen his grip.

"I just finished eating and was passing by when I saw so many people gathered here..."

Li Wanting walked quickly to Li Yunjing's side, glanced at Ma Youcai who was trembling like a leaf on the ground, and then at the two people who were being held down and the boning knife that was gleaming coldly on the ground. Her expression became even more solemn.

"Li Yunjing, don't be impulsive!"

She took a deep breath, lowered her voice, but spoke quickly: "It's not worth wasting your life on someone like that!"

"They want to harm my dad!"

Li Yunjing gritted his teeth, the anger still burning in his eyes.