Chapter 4065 — Crippled

Unfortunately, he sobered up far too late. His opponent's strength surpassed his by at least a full tier, leaving him no chance to resist or struggle—by now, even opening his mouth to beg for mercy was a fool's fantasy.

In his earlier lust-addled folly, he had thoroughly offended the two women—and the powerful figures behind them.

Under the gaze of the entire crowd, and before the four honored retainers of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, this expert of the Chongtian Pavilion began to torture Si Haitao inch by inch.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Before everyone's eyes, every bone, tendon, and meridian in Si Haitao's body was ruthlessly destroyed by a domineering surge of true qi, shattered until they were completely severed.

At first, Si Haitao still had the strength to howl in agony, but moments later he no longer even had the strength to scream. To the onlookers, he was like a duck held by the neck—veins bulging across his forehead as he strained his throat with all his might, yet not a sound came out.

Watching this, the crowd whispered among themselves, and their verdict on Si Haitao's miserable fate came down to three words: pitiful, laughable, pathetic.

Bang! The Chongtian Pavilion expert tossed the unconscious Si Haitao onto the ground and turned to the two women to ask, "Miss Ning, Miss Shangguan, shall we take this man back and deal with him properly?"

Though the man was the branch manager of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, and under normal circumstances no one save the guild's upper echelon at headquarters had the right to punish him, today's affair involved the two young ladies of West Island and the Chongtian Pavilion—Si Haitao had brought it entirely on himself. Even if they took him back and killed him, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild would have no face to intervene.

Hearing this, Shangguan Lan'er and Ning Xuefei exchanged a glance and shook their heads in unison. Neither was hard-hearted; loathsome as the old scoundrel was, being publicly tormented to this degree was punishment enough. He had gained no real advantage over them anyway, and there was no need to pursue him further.

"In that case, we'll spare his miserable life for now." The Chongtian Pavilion expert nodded, then withdrew behind the two women with a solemn expression.

Watching from a distance as Si Haitao lay on the ground barely breathing, Wei Zhao, like everyone else, could not help clicking his tongue in amazement—the branch manager who had been so lofty and high-and-mighty was now no different from a dead dog.

And after what had happened today, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild behind him would not only refuse to protect him—to answer to West Island and the Chongtian Pavilion, they would even punish him severely.

In short, Si Haitao, the newly appointed branch manager, had enjoyed his glory for only a few days before being finished in the blink of an eye.

"Little junior brother, let's go. Find a place and tell your senior sister properly—when exactly did you become a clerk for the Hong Clan Merchant Guild? How come I knew nothing about it!" Shangguan Lan'er said, pouting in vexation.

Wei Zhao had not told her about the matter of the Far North Island, and Ning Xuefei had kept her in suspense too. From beginning to end she had been kept in the dark, an outsider to it all—which vexed her even more than being slandered as a brothel woman by Si Haitao.

"Yes, yes, I have something very important to ask you too!" Ning Xuefei immediately cast aside her earlier displeasure and, unable to hide her excitement, tugged at Wei Zhao.

"Well... all right." Wei Zhao nodded helplessly in agreement. Judging by how the Hong Clan Merchant Guild was in complete disarray, he would not be able to buy anything for a while anyway, so for the time being he could only go along with these two little ladies.

Flanked on either side by two breathtakingly beautiful young women, Wei Zhao's treatment made everyone around them drool with envy—and when they thought of the two women's formidable backgrounds, it drove them wild with jealousy!

To attach oneself to either one of them would mean gaining both power and beauty—a winner in life. And here he had two at once! The lad looked thin and frail, no expert by any measure, with nothing particularly outstanding about him—so how was he so favored by Heaven?

Of course, envy was envy. Looking at the five golden-core experts of the Chongtian Pavilion stationed around the two women, and with Si Haitao's bloody example right before their eyes, no matter how unbalanced the crowd felt, they could only stare helplessly without daring the slightest move.

Compared to Wei Zhao's enviable fortune with the ladies, Si Haitao's fate was truly a tale of bitter tears. By the time he was faintly roused by the unbearable agony wracking his body, a full day had passed.

And when he finally realized the surroundings he was in, he was so shocked that he could not help drawing a sharp breath—as the esteemed branch manager of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's North Island branch, Si Haitao had actually been dumped in the street of the market's inner lane, left to fend for himself!

"Hey! Are you all dead? How dare you treat your manager like this—I'll have every last one of you fired today!" Under the strange looks of passersby, Si Haitao's old face flushed bright red, and he cursed in a fit of humiliated rage.

Even if he had made such a low, laughable mistake yesterday, he was still a branch manager, after all—surely he would not end up like a beggar wandering the streets.

Si Haitao immediately cursed and struggled to rise, but after several exhausting attempts he found he simply could not stand. Only then did it dawn on him: the meridians of his four limbs had been shattered by true qi long ago—he was now a cripple.

Even so, Si Haitao did not shed his lifelong arrogance. Straining his voice at the passersby, he called out, "Someone come carry me! Carry me to the Hong Clan Merchant Guild and your manager will reward you richly!"

Had this been yesterday, the inner lane's open day, perhaps some passersby ignorant of the truth might have been willing to try. But today was no open day—only people of status and standing on North Island could come and go here. And Si Haitao's foolish "heroic deed" of yesterday had long been spread far and wide; no one would pay any attention to such a blind fool.

After shouting himself hoarse for quite some time and seeing the passersby still unmoved, Si Haitao finally stopped his dry howling in despair. Yet he refused to give up—if no one would carry him, then he would crawl there himself!

The inner lane was only so big; even crawling all the way from the street to the Hong Clan Merchant Guild was not too far a distance. And once he reached the guild, it would be his own domain.

Enduring the pointing and whispering of the onlookers, Si Haitao gritted his teeth and actually crawled all the way to the gates of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. Yet the subordinates and clerks inside, who had once fawned and flattered him so shamelessly, merely froze for a moment at the sight of him before averting their eyes as if they had seen nothing at all.

"You useless, undiscerning lot—what are you standing around pretending to be busy for? Hurry up and carry your manager inside! Don't you want your jobs anymore?" Si Haitao cursed furiously. R1152