Chapter 1166 — The Tables Have Turned: Wei Zhao Was Not Clear on the Reason, but if Shen Yushu Would Not Speak of It Herself, Then He Would Not Take It Upon Himself to Ask — It Might Concern Another's Private Affairs

Shen Yushu's words left Feng Xiaoxiao slightly stunned as well. True, she had found the old man a touch suspicious afterward, but it had never once occurred to her that he might be hiding his strength. Now that Shen Yushu had put it into words, it all made sense.

Earlier, before Wei Zhao walked over, the old man had indeed been overbearing, pressing Xie Yufeng to apologize. Any ordinary scrap-picker—one of the weak and the downtrodden—facing such a swaggering young master, would surely have done nothing but apologize, and apologize again; the notion of resisting would never have crossed his mind.

Yet this old man had resisted, and calmly at that, as though he were someone formidable.

But the moment Wei Zhao walked over, everything flipped: the old man wilted on the spot, and without so much as a word turned to leave.

Which told them something more. Wilted or not, this old man was a man of real strength, with a proud bone in him—so even in retreat, he would not stoop to soft words.

And now Tang Yun and Gu Mengyao recalled that business of Xie Yufeng deliberately concealing his strength in front of Wei Zhao and getting thrashed by a few petty thugs. Could today be the same?

Wei Zhao smiled faintly, parked the car a short way off, and said, "Xiaoshu's right. But by now, I'd say it's the old man who's giving Xie Yufeng a beating, isn't it?"

Xiaoshu had brought along a very complete set of equipment this time—she had not even left out the binoculars—so they all took a pair from the trunk and looked off toward the beach, and sure enough, they saw something utterly astonishing.

Xie Yufeng was enjoying that beating so much that he never even noticed Wei Zhao's departure. At last he had found his balance; the grievances of the past days poured out in that one moment. So what if you are an expert at the peak of the late Profound Rank? Aren't you still being pounded by me, an expert at the peak of the early Profound Rank?

And I have not used a single thread of true qi—I am beating you with my bare hands alone!

But Xie Yufeng had not been gloating long before he felt as if his fists were striking a slab of iron.

The next instant he realized, with a jolt, that the old man had once more gathered his true qi—and then the old man exploded into motion, chopping a palm strike straight at him.

Xie Yufeng was aghast. He had never expected the old man to hide his strength so long and then suddenly erupt. What was going on? Had he decided to stop hiding?

Xie Yufeng glanced around instinctively. Where was Wei Zhao now? Wei Zhao was gone. An instant later, cold sweat broke out across Xie Yufeng's forehead.

Why had Wei Zhao left? He had not finished beating the man yet! Even if you meant to go, couldn't you have told me? I would have gone with you. Now look what has come of it: the moment you leave, the old man's strength comes back—aren't you screwing me over?

Xie Yufeng wanted to run, but before he could, Grandpa Zhu landed a devastating blow on him.

"Aah—!" Xie Yufeng let out a wretched scream and instinctively summoned his true qi; but how could an expert at the peak of the early Profound Rank stand against one at the peak of the late Profound Rank? Several whole tiers lay between them.

Grandpa Zhu had no wish to kill Xie Yufeng, and so it became a one-sided savaging.

Old man Zhu nearly choked on his own rage. You, an expert at the peak of the early Profound Rank, dared to hit me? If I had not been afraid of Wei Zhao finding out, I would have beaten you into a hospital bed long ago. You did not beg for mercy—you dared to do this to me?

So now that the tables had turned, how could old man Zhu let Xie Yufeng off? If he did not beat Xie Yufeng into the hospital, his name was not Zhu!

Watching from the sidelines, Chen Xi was a little dumbfounded. What was going on? Grandpa Zhu, who had been taking a beating a moment ago, suddenly seemed divinely aided, turning from the beaten into the beater? Wasn't that turn a little too fast?

"You little brat—weren't you hitting me? Weren't you ruthless? Let's see if you can still manage it now!" Old man Zhu was truly furious. You are a son of the Yu family of the mundane world, and you put on airs like that? If you were stronger than me, then fine—give me a beating and I would say nothing, call it my bad luck! But your strength is so pitiful, and you still dare to posture with me. Do you have a death wish?

"Spare me, Grandpa, spare me, I was wrong!" Xie Yufeng gave in at once; he had not the slightest thought of resisting.

He was a Profound Rank expert too, but only at the peak of the early Profound Rank, while old man Zhu stood at the peak of the late Profound Rank—too wide a gap by far, one that left Xie Yufeng without the nerve to resist. Had it been Wei Zhao, with his superior cultivation method and his pure true qi, he would have dared to fight above his level; but Xie Yufeng's strength had been piled up entirely out of pills and miracle cures.

As a direct-line young master of the Yu family, he was naturally a key target of the clan's cultivation, so his martial skill had, to a great extent, been force-ripened; he lacked real combat experience, and was no match at all for an old creature like Grandpa Zhu.

So it was wise of him not to resist; to resist, presumably, would only have made things worse. As it was, Xie Yufeng kept his true qi circulating to shield his vital points, and old man Zhu had no intention of beating him to death, so though Xie Yufeng looked badly hurt, no harm had come to his meridians—only his muscles and bones were injured, and a spell in the hospital would set him right.

Xie Yufeng had not expected to be so unlucky today. Sure enough, the sight of Wei Zhao meant an unlucky day for him!

The eldest young miss, Xiaoshu, Tang Yun, and Xiaoxiao passed the binoculars among themselves, and at the sight of Xie Yufeng's miserable state they laughed until they were doubled over. Wei Zhao had called it after all: the one being beaten now was Xie Yufeng!

After old man Zhu had thrashed Xie Yufeng soundly, he too feared drawing attention, so once his anger was more or less spent, he turned, pulled along a dumbstruck Chen Xi, and hurried from the scene. Xie Yufeng's two hangers-on, Li Panghu and Wang Congming, naturally did not dare block their way.

They were even less a match for old man Zhu; letting them go was letting them go, and the pressing matter was to get Xie Yufeng to a hospital at once for treatment. From the look of him, he had been beaten badly; a little longer and his life might be in danger!

Old man Zhu was not afraid of much. He did not believe Xie Yufeng would call the police; scions of such great houses seldom did after taking a loss—and Xie Yufeng, too, had been hiding his strength, so he could hardly go about spreading this abroad. As for his own strength, he worried about that even less: if Xie Yufeng spoke of it, that would amount to laying bare his own hand as well.

He did not know why Xie Yufeng was concealing his strength, but old man Zhu did not need to know; it was enough to know that he himself was in no trouble.

It was Chen Xi, though, who looked at her Grandpa Zhu with a somewhat odd expression: "Grandpa Zhu, you're so strong—why didn't you fight back earlier?"

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