Acting on behalf of Heaven

Long Chen looked up and turned around to see three people standing not far behind him, their eyes glowing as they stared at Long Chen—no, it should be said they were staring at the fishing cage in his hands.

"Kid, what are you still dazed for? Hurry up and present the Qi Ling Fish!" one of them yelled angrily when he saw Long Chen spacing out.

Long Chen nodded, lifted the fishing cage, and placed it on the ground. The three men immediately stepped forward, reached into the cage to grab the Qi Ling Fish, their faces filled with excitement.

"It really is the legendary Qi Ling Fish. I've heard this thing is an earthly delicacy that no one can resist. Who would have thought we would actually be able to catch one!" one of them laughed loudly.

Long Chen looked coldly at the three excited men without saying a word; he wanted to see if there was any bottom line to their intelligence.

"It's a pity we have nowhere to put them. Interspatial rings can't store living things. Otherwise, if we caught a few more to take back and raise, and they spawned countless small fish, we could treat ourselves to a feast often," one of them said with some regret.

"Hehe, that won't stump me. Our Lingnan Zhao Family had a master weapon refiner in our ancestry. Do you recognize this?" A man with slightly crossed eyes took out a ring and said with a smug look on his face.

"What is this? It looks a lot like an interspatial ring," the other two asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Hehe, you don't know, do you? This is called a Life Ring. It can store living things and was crafted by my Zhao Family ancestor personally," the cross-eyed man said smugly.

"It can store living things? How powerful! Doesn't that mean you can keep pets in this Life Ring, Brother Zhao?" the other two said with envious expressions.

"Ahem, I suppose it could, but this is a relic from my ancestor. I only keep it as a memento and have no intention of putting a Demonic Beast inside; that would be a desecration of my ancestor." The cross-eyed man coughed dryly to cover up his inner embarrassment. In reality, the Life Ring could store Demonic Beasts, but his ancestor was merely a half-baked weapon refiner—to put it bluntly, just someone's apprentice.

This Life Ring was nothing more than a defective product; it could only store creatures with weak life force. It couldn't even hold a slightly larger wild beast, let alone a Demonic Beast, but he absolutely could not reveal the true reason.

"Brother Zhao, does that mean this Qi Ling Fish can be put into the Life Ring?" one of them asked.

"Of course, no problem," the cross-eyed man said proudly.

"Aren't you afraid of desecrating your ancestor?"

"That's different. If you put a Demonic Beast in there and it urinates inside, that's a desecration of the ancestor. But if I put a Qi Ling Fish in here, it's an earthly delicacy. My ancestor would surely be pleased; it absolutely cannot be considered a desecration," the cross-eyed man said without blushing or panting.

"This…" The other two hesitated. There were three Qi Ling Fish now, and each could have one, but with them all being kept by the cross-eyed man, they still felt a bit uneasy.

"Do you two not trust your brother?" the cross-eyed man said, somewhat displeased. "We are all people following Brother Lei. Surely you don't lack even this bit of trust, do you?"

Upon hearing this, the other two hurriedly said, "How could that be? We were just curious about how to raise fish in a Life Ring, that's all. Don't misunderstand."

How could the cross-eyed man not see through their thoughts? However, he didn't expose them and said indifferently, "We are all followers of Brother Lei. Our Families have sent many benefits out, and although Brother Lei has taken us in, after arriving here, you have also seen how cruel the competition is. With combat power like ours, we can barely be considered first-rate… Bastard, what are you laughing at, kid?"

When the cross-eyed man reached this point, he saw Long Chen's expression was strange and couldn't help but get furious, pointing at Long Chen and shouting.

"Nothing… please continue." Long Chen struggled to hold back his laughter; he really couldn't stand this group of clowns.

At the same time, through the cross-eyed man's conversation, Long Chen roughly guessed that all three of these men had sent heavy gifts from their Families to the Lei Family, which was why they were being looked after by Lei Qianshang.

Judging by these idiots' appearances, they were born with faces that just begged to be beaten—as if, if you didn't give them a beating, you'd be doing a disservice to their parents for birthing them this way. Lei Qianshang definitely wouldn't think much of such people; he was only taking them in because he had no choice, having received orders from his Family.

Seeing Long Chen turn his head away, the man thought Long Chen was afraid of him. He couldn't help but snort coldly and continued, "Although our combat power is first-rate, there are too many people with first-rate combat power here. There are even a few who are better than us. We need to have a sense of crisis."

The other two nodded after hearing the cross-eyed man's words. Although the cross-eyed man claimed they were first-rate, that was just self-aggrandizement; they knew exactly what rate they were.

"Therefore, we must show absolute loyalty to Brother Lei so that our relationship can be more secure," the cross-eyed man said.

"That's right, Brother Zhao is absolutely correct," the other two said with admiration.

"So, let's stop being suspicious of each other. Things like this should be offered to Brother Lei as a tribute. What do you think?" the cross-eyed man asked.

"Yes, yes, yes, Brother Zhao is absolutely right. If it weren't for Brother Zhao's guidance, I would have almost made a huge mistake. Brother Zhao truly has a Dharma Eye like a torch; you see things so thoroughly," the other two said with expressions of admiration.

Upon hearing their praise, the cross-eyed man's eyes glowed, his eyes crossing even more intensely, his face filled with smugness.

"Hehe, you flatter me. Many ignorant people mock me for being cross-eyed, but actually, I do this to concentrate on observing things, which is why I can see more and further than others."

Long Chen almost spat out his drink. This cross-eyed man was too good at saving his own face; he had to hand it to him.

After finishing his humble-brag, the cross-eyed man took out the Life Ring, walked to the side of the pool, drew a large bucket of water, and stored it inside the Life Ring. A moment later, the bucket reappeared, now empty; he must have been injecting water into the Life Ring.

"The space inside my Life Ring is ten zhang in circumference. I've now converted it into a small pool, so I can put the Qi Ling Fish inside," the cross-eyed man explained when he saw the two were confused.

After busying himself for a while, the cross-eyed man stopped drawing water; he must have injected quite a bit of water into the ring. At the same time, the Qi Ling Fish in his hand disappeared.

"Alright, no problem. Give me your Qi Ling Fish too." After saying this, the cross-eyed man took the Qi Ling Fish from the two men and stored them in the Life Ring as well. Only then did they start to size up Long Chen.

Seeing Long Chen staring at the Life Ring in his hand, his eyes rolling around, the cross-eyed man sneered: "Kid, you've never seen such a magical treasure, have you? Envious, aren't you? Jealous, right? Hmph, a country bumpkin. You thought that just by riding a Third-Rank Demonic Beast you could run rampant across the world? Who doesn't have a Third-Rank Demonic Beast in their Family? We just aren't willing to show off, that's all."

"Back then, you relied on the power of a Third-Rank Demonic Beast to fight against Qi Xin, and you were incredibly imposing. What's the matter? Regretting it now? Without that Third-Rank Demonic Beast, you are just a snail without a shell, only able to be manipulated by others. Now, honestly tell us how you lured these Qi Ling Fish. I advise you to be honest, lest you suffer some physical pain," the cross-eyed man said, staring viciously at Long Chen.

They had discovered the Qi Ling Fish a long time ago. Whether using fishing rods, nets, or setting traps, they had tried everything but hadn't managed to catch a single fish. They had been walking around the pool to see if they could find a better place to fish, and as a result, they had encountered Long Chen. Therefore, they were now very desperate to know Long Chen's method of fishing and directly threatened him to hand over the secret recipe.

Long Chen crossed his arms over his chest, looked at the three people calmly, and smiled sincerely: "Your arrival makes me very happy, truly."

"Stop talking crap, hurry up and tell us the method!" one of them said angrily.

"I originally had a matter to discuss with you properly, but since your attitude is poor, I've decided to change the way we discuss it."

After Long Chen finished speaking, without any warning, he waved his large hand and slapped the cross-eyed man across the face. The cross-eyed man never dreamed that the snail without a shell in his eyes would dare to hit him.

"Slap!" An extremely loud slap rang out. The completely unprepared cross-eyed man was sent flying directly, rolling more than ten zhang away and knocking down countless thorns, looking incredibly disheveled.

"Refreshing." Long Chen secretly gave himself a thumbs-up in his heart. The cross-eyed man in front of him was too annoying; slapping him actually gave him a sense of pleasure, as if executing justice on behalf of the Dao. It felt incredibly good.

"You're courting death!" After the cross-eyed man was sent flying, the other two were furious. They both shouted and attacked Long Chen. Those two were actually also Late Stage Blood Condensation experts, their Aura steady.

However, it was a pity that their attacks had too many openings; they were entirely by the book and deadly rigid. Still, it had to be said that their expressions were very on point, very much like experts, especially their demeanor when shouting.

"Slap, slap." A large hand consecutively slapped the two men's faces, producing explosive sounds. The two immediately followed in the footsteps of the cross-eyed man and went flying sideways.

Whether it was their posture, angle, or direction while flying out, it was exactly the same. The cross-eyed man, having been slapped until he saw stars by Long Chen, had just climbed up from the ground and hadn't even figured out which way was north, south, east, or west, when he was knocked flying again by his own companions.

"Bastard!" The three men were furious and shouted, their Aura exploding, blood energy rolling, as they charged toward Long Chen like angry lions.

"Slap, slap, slap, boom, boom, boom…" Amidst the continuous explosive sounds, mixed with screams, sounds kept ringing out by the pool side. The birds that were originally resting nearby were scared and flew away in all directions.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the explosive sounds disappeared, and the screams were gone too. The cross-eyed man looked at his two companions beside him, whose heads were covered in bumps and who had almost been beaten into pig heads. At the same time, feeling the waves of sharp pain in his own face, he guessed he wasn't much better off than them. For a moment, he was both shocked and angry.

Originally, they thought Long Chen was just a playboy, likely even more of a playboy than them, who only relied on a powerful mount and had no real talent or learning. Because no matter how they looked at Long Chen, he didn't look like an expert. He didn't have the domineering Aura and arrogance that Lei Qianshang and the others should have; he gave people the feeling of a rogue who loved to show off.

Therefore, the three of them hadn't considered Long Chen a threat, but the recent "fierce battle" had ended with them being severely beaten. As for Long Chen, he had a look of relaxed pleasure, wearing an innocent smile, and said kindly to the three of them: "Now we can discuss things properly, can't we?"