Chapter 11603 — Fatso, You Looking for a Fight Again?

"Hm? Fatso, you looking for a fight again?"

Wei Baizhan's face darkened at once.

Li Qinghe clapped his palms without a care. "A fight it is, then—you think I'm scared of you?"

The two of them bristled like drawn swords, and one wrong word would have set them to blows on the spot.

Wei Zhao was long past being surprised by any of this.

After ten thousand years of trial, the Kingdom of Sin's roster of top fighters had turned over several times; of the original Ten Great Sins, only a scant few—Zhan Yingxiong, Black Eagle, and the like—had endured to this day.

Wei Baizhan and Li Qinghe were both monsters of talent with boundless potential, the sort who would never fall behind in any era.

And by nature the two simply could not stand each other, so every year they had to trade a few blows.

On the whole, Li Qinghe held a slight edge, but Wei Baizhan's tenacity was formidable, and the gap between them had narrowed without cease—by now there was hardly any difference at all.

Yet for all their squabbling, the two still knew what mattered and what could wait.

It amounted to nothing more than a clash of words; had they truly dared to come to blows in this place, heedless of time and occasion, Wei Zhao would have taught them their place in a heartbeat.

Once the two had lowered their flags and stilled their drums, every eye in the hall at once shifted to Wei Zhao.

The crowd did not understand how, with Wei Zhao's strength, he had managed to bring a mad brute like Wei Baizhan to heel—but they understood well enough that, for now, Wei Zhao was the one who called the shots.

Wei Zhao swept his gaze over the hall and said mildly, "You all wanted my Institute of Rule Design, and you seized my people. Is that the truth of it?"

"……"

The crowd was as silent as cicadas in winter; as one, their eyes turned to Ren Xuande, hoping he would step forward to smooth things over.

After all, among them only Ren Xuande had any personal acquaintance with Wei Zhao, and he had all along been the loudest voice urging that Wei Zhao not be provoked.

If anyone's words carried weight with Wei Zhao, it was surely Ren Xuande and no other.

Yet Ren Xuande sat with eyes on his nose and nose on his heart, showing not the slightest intention of stepping forward.

It was not that he was putting on airs, unwilling to step in and clean up this mess; rather, he knew full well that matters had come to this pass, and that even if he did step forward, it would be too late to mend anything.

At bottom, he and Wei Zhao had met but once, and it could hardly be called a personal acquaintance at all.

How much weight his words carried with Wei Zhao was very much open to doubt.

What was more, whatever he had done before, the fact remained that he had failed to stop Wang Lai from swallowing the Institute of Rule Design—and for that alone he had not the face to speak up now.

Seeing Wei Zhao's expression darken, the men of the Night Central Palace could hold out no longer.

A councilor of the deepest seniority steeled himself and stepped forward.

"Young Master Lin, Wang Lai was the root of all this evil!"

"It was his greed that drove him to deceive his superiors and conceal the truth, to commit these crimes under the banner of the Night Central Palace. We freely admit our failure of oversight—we were muddled along and dragged onto his sinking ship."

"Now that Wang Lai has been executed, if Young Master Lin is still unsatisfied, we are willing to offer compensation in the fullest sincerity, to soothe the anger in your heart."

At these words, the Night Central Palace crowd nodded one after another—only Ren Xuande was filled with disappointment.

The Night Central Palace was finished.

Matters had already come to this pass, and these people were still thinking of settling things with compensation, believing that would be enough to send Wei Zhao on his way. What arrogance!

He thought back to the beginning, when they had all been full of fire and high spirits, pooling their strength and wisdom, and the Night Central Palace had grown from an obscure private estate, rising steadily day by day into the colossal thing it was today.

Who could have imagined that this same group of people would, without their even noticing, sink into such a state as this?

Fat-bellied and bloated, drawing pay and doing nothing.

The Night Central Palace had not fallen unjustly.

Sure enough, Wei Zhao's expression turned playful. "Shoving all the blame onto a dead man—that leaves your own hands spotless, doesn't it? Do you really think that line of argument holds up? Without the tacit consent and support of all of you, could Wang Lai truly have come this far?"

The leading councilor choked on his words, then offered an awkward, placating smile. "If Young Master Lin has any demands, by all means state them, and we will do our utmost to satisfy them."

Wei Zhao smiled. "My demand is simple. Since you swallowed up the Rules Design Institute, then I don't want it anymore either. From now on, the Night Central Palace is mine. As for all of you—I'll give you one day to pack up and get out. My Night Central Palace does not keep dead weight."

At these words, the whole hall erupted in uproar.

Everyone was struck dumb.

Good heavens! Truly, good heavens!

Wang Lai had swallowed his Rules Design Institute, and now he meant to swallow the entire Night Central Palace!

The difference in scale between the two was a hundredfold at the very least. Even a snake swallowing an elephant was not done in such a manner as this.

The leading councilor's face darkened. "Young Master Lin, do you know what you are saying?"

Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow. "I know very well. Is there a problem?"

The leading councilor spoke in a low voice. "The Night Central Palace is not merely our Night Central Palace. By doing this, you are openly making an enemy of the entire Inner Royal Court. Have you truly thought this through?"

Those words were no idle threat.

The key to the Night Central Palace's growth into greatness lay in one thing above all: shared interests.

From the seven great princely estates on high down to every faction below, anyone worth naming had inextricably entwined interests with the Night Central Palace.

Were it not so, Wang Lai's personal ability alone would never have been enough to so easily persuade all seven great princely estates to stand idly by.

Wei Zhao rubbed his ear, half amused. "If I understand correctly, you're threatening me?"

The lead councilor had regained his composure, and his voice carried fresh confidence. "Merely a piece of well-meant advice."

"A fine piece of well-meant advice."

Wei Zhao looked toward the rest of the Night Central Palace gathering. "Do the rest of you think the same?"

Every man in the hall caught his breath. They were no fools; they knew full well they were playing with fire.

Provoke Wei Zhao, and they would lose not only the Night Central Palace but their lives, right here and now.

Given the way Wei Baizhan had just slaughtered the Twelve Halls of the Inner Royal Court, wiping them all out together was hardly a stretch of the imagination.

And yet to back down now, to hand over the vast holdings of the Night Central Palace just like that, was more than they could stomach.

In the end, the men of the Night Central Palace chose silence.

Silence was consent.

Only Ren Xuande spoke up, loud and clear: "I relinquish all my shares in the Night Central Palace and withdraw from it from this day forth."

The whole hall erupted.

The rest of the Night Central Palace were shocked and furious by turns.

In taking this stand Ren Xuande had not merely set himself against them; the crux of it was that his example would only make them look all the more stubborn and unyielding in Wei Zhao's eyes.

They might have been spared out of caution before, but set beside Ren Xuande, they might well have truly stirred Wei Zhao's murderous intent.