A Small Punishment, a Big Warning!

"Little troublemaker, it's been so many years and you're still this disobedient. You don't need to stay here anymore. Come home with me. Don't forget, you still owe me a karmic debt. Of course, if you refuse to admit it, that's fine too. I, Mi Jingzi, have always preferred to win people over with virtue."

With that, the young Daoist, dark circles under his eyes or perhaps just naturally shadowed lower lids, suddenly reached into the empty air in front of him and snatched a fox-like dog out of nowhere. After a brief struggle, the fox-dog wore a very human expression and, looking utterly dead inside, let the young Daoist pull it into his arms. He kept stroking its snow-white, silky fur over and over, and as if the attention had gotten to it, the little fox-dog actually sprawled in the young Daoist's arms, looking delighted, and sneezed a few dazed little sneezes.

Hearing hurried, panicked footsteps outside, the young Daoist shouted irritably toward the door, "What time is it? Are you Hongxing people really this clueless about the clock now? As expected, you're all just a bunch of brainless thugs who know how to hack people and nothing else."

Chen Haonan, who had just reached the studio door and was about to push it open, frowned at that. He wasn't Taizi; he wasn't nearly as impulsive as Taizi. He walked straight into the rundown photo studio and, seeing the young Daoist petting the fox-dog, said respectfully, "May I ask if you are Daoist Tiantong, Master Mi Jingzi?"

"Mm. Did you bring the Black Iron Token?"

Chen Haonan took out the box and opened it right in front of the young Daoist. The Black Iron Token inside was gone without a trace. When Chen Haonan looked back in panic at the mysterious young Daoist, the Black Iron Token had already appeared in his hand, and he split it cleanly in two!

With a light squeeze, Mi Jingzi snapped the Black Iron Token in half and said angrily, "It's fake. Looks like your Boss Jiang doesn't want you making it back alive."

Chen Haonan's expression changed. He hurriedly explained, "How could it be fake? This was handed to me personally by Boss Jiang..."

Before Chen Haonan could finish, Mi Jingzi tossed the Black Iron Token, already broken into two by his fingers, back in front of him and said lazily, "The Black Iron Token, as the name suggests, is made from outer-space black iron. Even divine weapons and famed blades can barely scratch it. It may look the part, but fake is still fake."

Chen Haonan picked up the token, now split in two, and examined it closely. He found that it was indeed the same one Jiang Tiansheng had given him, but now it had been accused of being a counterfeit right to his face. That was turning into a real mess.

Though he still had many questions, Chen Haonan kept his cool and put away the token that had been split in half, then asked Mi Jingzi again, "When does the Jianghu Giants Ranking Battle start?"

"The Jianghu Giants Ranking Battle only exists when the Black Iron Token appears. You haven't even seen the token, and you're talking to me about the Jianghu Giants Ranking Battle? You're Hongxing; if you're that capable, hold the tournament yourselves. What does it have to do with this Daoist? Xiao Bai, show them your fangs!"

The fox-dog in Mi Jingzi's arms immediately bared its teeth and claws at Chen Haonan and the others four, fierce and threatening. But because it was naturally so good-looking, and looked so adorably fierce, no matter how you looked at it, it came off as baby-fierce and ridiculously cute.

As the saying goes, when the ruler is insulted, the minister dies. Being looked down on like this by some hairless wild Daoist who nobody knew where he had crawled out of, even a clay Buddha has three points of fire, let alone these hot-blooded young men from the underworld. Shan Ji was the first to step up and say with a hostile look, "So you're saying you look down on Hongxing?"

"I do look down on it. At the end of the day, you're nothing more than a bunch of low-level punks. My master and I aren't the same; I don't have his mercy and compassion. A bunch of trash is trash. If you die, you die. What's there to pity? Punks like you deserve to die."

That really was how Mi Jingzi felt. Compassion could exist, but it depended on the target. For no other example than the four standing in front of him, which one of them didn't have a blood-soaked murderous aura around him? One look and you could tell they'd hacked people down, maybe even killed before.

No matter how righteous or glorious you made yourself sound, at the end of the day weren't you still an outlaw with crimes piled high? Could you really say you never collected protection money, never bullied the weak, never loaned out usurious money on the street, never sold pirated discs, and never touched gambling, sex, drugs, and the rest?

Do you actually believe that yourself?

"Kid, remember this: the one beating you up today is me. My name is Shan Ji, the Ji in cock!"

As soon as Shan Ji finished speaking, he threw a punch at Mi Jingzi. The result was that the punch went straight through Mi Jingzi's body and landed squarely on his own boss, Chen Haonan's face.

Caught completely off guard, Chen Haonan took the blow full on. His celebrity-level handsome face was almost disfigured by Shan Ji's fist. Just as he came back to his senses, he found Shan Ji charging at him again, with no intention of stopping at all. Chen Haonan immediately swept out a Dragon Tail kick and sent Shan Ji flying.

As one of Hongxing's double-flower red sticks, Chen Haonan was still extremely strong. He was basically the ceiling among the four, so beating Shan Ji was no problem. Even so, Chen Haonan could tell something was very wrong with Shan Ji right now. It was obvious that the young Daoist named Mi Jingzi had done something to him.

When you don't know how deep someone's abilities run, Taizi-style people usually treat life and death as nothing and just go all in. Chen Haonan would never do that. Instead, he preferred to plan first and act later. That was also why Jiang Tiansheng had sent him instead of Taizi.

Chen Haonan was able to bend with the wind and said weakly to Mi Jingzi, "I'm sorry. My little brother here doesn't know the rules. Please show some mercy, Daoist."

Mi Jingzi didn't even bother with Chen Haonan. He just looked at Shan Ji, who still wore a baffled expression, and mocked him, "Hey, punk, was that good? If it wasn't enough, this Daoist can play with you a little longer!"

Realizing he had been a little too unrestrained and had damaged his image as an expert, Mi Jingzi withdrew his divine power and returned to his earlier lazy expression. "I'll let this slide as a lesson for you. If you try to fool me with fake junk again next time, you won't just end up bruised and swollen."

After saying that, Mi Jingzi strode off grandly with his newly acquired little treasure in his arms. On Chen Haonan's side, not a single one of them even thought about stopping him, and Chen Haonan even felt, for the first time, a real fear of "not being able to contend with him."

What could you do against someone like that, practically a demon among men?

Take a knife and slash at him?

Are you sure the thing you end up slashing won't be your own brother standing beside you, or that you won't be the one hacked to death by your brothers beside you?

Bao Pi was completely scared stiff, and even seriously suspected that what Mi Jingzi was holding in his arms wasn't some fox-dog at all, but a fox, maybe even the legendary fox immortal from these parts.