Chapter 799 — The Nervous Yu Family

"Exactly! Shubin, you're brilliant — one remark and it hits me like thunder, clearing my mind all at once!" Kang Jingming exclaimed in delighted surprise. "These days microblogs and whatnot are all the rage, aren't they? Do you think you could find out Guan Xin's microblog, see if she's written anything about her hobbies and such?"

"Sure, leave it to me!" Wang Shubin thought of that money-grubbing old nurse from yesterday. Today he would go ask her again, slip her a little something, and he refused to believe he couldn't pry it out of her!

……………………

Yanjing City, the Yu family compound.

Yu Kun lay on a sickbed wrapped head to toe in bandages. A middle-aged beauty sat at the head of the bed wiping her tears, while another man, his face equally careworn, paced ceaselessly about the room.

"Your son has been beaten to this state, and instead of going to take revenge, you just pace around here — what good is that?" the beauty snapped at the man, her voice choked with tears. "The Yu family is so high and mighty, and now that someone's trampling all over our heads, we've lost our temper? Yu Bide, do you even care about your son or not?"

"Enough!" The man called Yu Bide waved his hand impatiently. "You think I'm not anxious? We don't even know who hurt Xiao Kun. He's been unconscious since he came back, every meridian in his body shattered by a beating — he's a cripple now, and I'm more frantic than you! But what can we do about it? We still have to wait for my second brother to decide!"

Cowed by Yu Bide's shout, the beauty fell silent and sat on the bed sobbing and dabbing at her eyes.

The Yu family had swept through the martial world for years without ever suffering a blow like this. Such unforeseen disasters seemed to have long been a distant thing from the Yu family. No clan in the secular world dared to refuse the Yu family face, and still less dared to raise a hand against one of their own!

And now someone had not only struck Yu Kun but done him permanent harm, ruining all his martial skill, reducing him to a cripple. He would never again be able to practice inner-family techniques, and even if he took up outer-family techniques, he would be hard-pressed ever to achieve anything.

As the outstanding figure of the Yu family's younger generation — second only to the son of the second brother, the family head — Yu Kun had been the object of high hopes, and yet here he lay, grievously wounded for no known reason, his life hanging in the balance.

Just then a middle-aged man pushed the door open and strode quickly in. Beside him was a young man whose features closely resembled Yu Kun's, though his brows and eyes carried an insufferable arrogance.

This middle-aged man was the same Yu family member who had appeared back at the auction. He was Yu Bifu, the present head of the Yu family, whose cultivation had already reached the peak of the late Mystic rank — just one step from advancing to the Earth rank!

The young man beside him was his son, Yu Feng, second only to Yu Bifu himself among the Yu family's experts, possessed of strength at the peak of the early Mystic rank.

"Second brother, you've come at last — you must stand up for my Xiao Kun…" Seeing Yu Bifu walk in, the beauty hurriedly stood and poured out her grievance through her tears. "Every meridian in Xiao Kun's body has been shattered by a beating, and now he's nothing but a cripple. He'll never be able to cultivate again. You must hack the one who did this to pieces!"

Yu Bifu was likewise profoundly shaken to hear that Yu Kun had been injured!

The night before last, Yu Kun had called him, saying only that he had been badly wounded, and then the line went dead. Aghast, Yu Bifu had immediately sent men to Songshan City to find Yu Kun and bring him back to Yanjing.

By the time the Yu family's people found Yu Kun, he was already unconscious and senseless. Once he was back, the Yu family's doctors had hastened to treat him, but the results did not bode well: his life was saved, but his martial arts were gone entirely, his meridians all severed — he had become a cripple!

Receiving this disastrous news, Yu Bifu too had hurried over with his son.

"It still isn't certain who injured Xiao Kun, so how can we speak of revenge?" Yu Bifu frowned. "Xiao Kun already had the strength of the late Yellow rank. In this secular world there are few indeed who could harm him, and those who could all enjoy friendly relations with our Yu family. Who would lift a hand against him?"

"That…" Yu Bide was equally puzzled. Just who could have wounded Yu Kun? By rights, those few old fellows in the secular world were on good terms with the Yu family — none of them could have done it. As for the hidden clans, their people were strictly forbidden to meddle in the affairs of the secular world!

"Bide, don't grieve too much. Our Yu family is rich in resources and possesses rare treasures for martial cultivation. So long as Xiao Kun keeps his life, where there's life there's hope — he can still make a name for himself practicing outer-family techniques!" Yu Bifu said. "When the time comes, I will devote the family's wealth to aiding his cultivation!"

"Thank you, second brother! That's all we can do now!" Yu Bide sighed. Matters having come to this, it was the best outcome available.

"There's something strange about this affair! Xiao Kun went to investigate the whereabouts of the remnant map, and was wounded instead. As far as I know, Li Fu — the strongest outer-family expert in Songshan City — is only at the peak of the late Yellow rank, and outer-family techniques are a grade below inner-family ones. That means at best he could fight Xiao Kun to a draw. Without some deep-seated hatred, he would never have clashed head-on with Xiao Kun." Yu Bifu said. "My feeling is that whoever could beat Xiao Kun into this state must be an inner-family expert of at least the peak of the late Yellow rank!"

"Second brother, could it have been someone from the hidden Zhao family?" Yu Bide asked suddenly. "I hear Zhao Qibing, that illegitimate son of the Zhaos, has been kicking up quite a fuss in Songshan City lately — pulling down houses one moment, putting up buildings the next. The Zhaos must be getting impatient, watching a branch of our Yu family rake in money in the secular world. And the Zhaos have never been on friendly terms with our Yu family. Could it be their people who hurt Xiao Kun? After all, only they would have the strength for it!"

"That's hard to say. It's possible, but I've heard that the Fire Wolf Gang is active in Songshan City as well!" Yu Bifu said. "A tiny place like Songshan City, a mere patch of land, and yet so many factions have cropped up there — it's truly complicated! One wrong move and we'll find ourselves caught between the crossfire. That doesn't serve the Yu family's interests! Whether it's the Zhao family or the Fire Wolf Gang, neither is something our Yu family's branch in the mundane world can contend with!"

"Indeed. If it really was the Zhao family or the Fire Wolf Gang who did this, then we may have no choice but to contact our elder brother over there..." Yu Bide heaved a deep sigh as well. Though the hatred in his heart had not subsided, he knew his own limits, and he knew that those hidden families and top-tier gangs were not something he could shake.