Chapter 799 — The Nervous Yu Family

"Exactly! Shubin, you're brilliant — one sentence from you struck me like a thunderclap and cleared my head in an instant!" Kang Zhaoming said, delighted and astonished. "Everyone's on Weibo and the like these days, aren't they? See if you can find out Guan Xin's Weibo, and check whether she's written anything about her hobbies?"

"All right, leave this to me!" Wang Shubin thought of that money-grubbing nurse woman from yesterday. He would go ask her again today, slip her a little something on the side — there was no way he wouldn't get something out of her.

* * *

Yanjing, the Yu family compound.

Yu Kun lay on a sickbed swathed in bandages from head to foot. A beautiful middle-aged woman sat at the head of the bed dabbing at her tears, while another man, his face heavy with worry, paced the room without pause.

"Your own son has been beaten into this state, and instead of going out to take revenge, what are you doing pacing around here?" the woman snapped at the man, her voice thick with weeping. "The Yu family is supposed to be so almighty — and now that we've been trampled on from above, you've no temper left at all? Yu Bide, do you even care about your son?"

"Enough!" The man called Yu Bide waved a hand impatiently. "You think I'm not anxious? We don't even know who hurt little Kun. He came back and hasn't woken since — every meridian in his body has been shattered. He's a cripple now. I'm more frantic than you are! But what can be done? We still have to wait for Second Brother to decide."

Cowed by Yu Bide's shout, the woman fell silent and sat on the bed, sobbing into her sleeves.

The Yu family had swept through the martial world for years and had never once suffered such a blow. Calamity falling from a clear sky was a thing they had long since felt was far behind them; among all the great clans of the mundane world, not one dared refuse the Yu family a favor, and fewer still dared raise a hand against one of their own.

And now someone had not only struck Yu Kun, but dealt him permanent damage, stripping away his martial skill and turning him into a useless man. He would never cultivate internal-style arts again, and even if he took up external techniques, he would be hard pressed ever to amount to much.

As the outstanding talent of the Yu family's younger generation — second only to the son of the family head, Second Brother — Yu Kun had been groomed with the highest expectations, and yet he had been beaten into critical condition for reasons no one could make sense of, his life hanging in the balance.

Just then a middle-aged man pushed the door open and strode in quickly, and at his side came a young man whose features closely resembled Yu Kun's, though between his brows sat an arrogance that brooked no one.

This middle-aged man was the same Yu family member who had appeared at the auction: Yu Bifu, the current head of the Yu family, who had already reached the peak of the late Profound rank, a single step from advancing to the Earth rank.

And the young man at his side was his son, Yu Feng, the finest fighter in the Yu family after Yu Bifu himself, possessing the peak strength of the early Profound rank.

"Second Brother, you've come at last — you must stand up for our little Kun..." The woman rose hastily the moment she saw Yu Bifu enter and poured out her grief. "Kun's every meridian has been shattered by someone; he's a cripple now and will never cultivate again. You must cut the man who did this to him into ten thousand pieces!"

When word reached Yu Bifu that Yu Kun had been injured, he too was shocked beyond measure.

The night before last, Yu Kun had called him, saying only that he had been badly wounded, and after that there had been no more news. Alarmed, Yu Bifu had at once 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 insensible. Once he was home, the family's physicians had hastened to treat him, but the results were far from encouraging: his life had been saved, his martial arts were gone entirely, every meridian severed — he was a cripple.

The moment that grim news reached Yu Bifu, he had hurried over with his son.

"We still don't know who injured little Kun, so what is there to say about revenge?" Yu Bifu frowned. "Kun already had the strength of the late Yellow rank. In this mundane world there aren't many who could hurt him, and those who could are all on good terms with our Yu family. Who would dare strike?"

"That..." Yu Bide was equally baffled. Just who had wounded Yu Kun? By rights, those few old fellows of the mundane world were all on fine terms with the Yu family and could not have been the ones to act. And the people of the hidden clans were strictly forbidden from meddling in the affairs of the mundane world.

"Bide, you needn't grieve too much. Our Yu family is rich in resources and possesses rare treasures for martial cultivation. So long as Kun keeps his life, where the green hills remain there is no fear of want of firewood — he can still make a name for himself through external-style arts!" Yu Bifu said. "When the time comes, I will expend every resource the family has to aid his cultivation."

"Thank you, Second Brother. I suppose that's all we can do." Yu Bide sighed. Things being what they were, this was the best possible outcome.

"There is something strange about this. Kun went to investigate the whereabouts of the fragmented map, and was wounded instead. From what I know, the strongest external-style fighter in Songshan City, Li Fu, has only the peak of the late Yellow rank — and external arts are a grade below internal arts. That means at best he could fight Kun to a draw; without some deep grudge, he would never have clashed head-on with Kun." Yu Bifu said. "My feeling is that whoever did this to Kun must at the very least be an internal-style expert at the peak of the late Yellow rank."

"Second Brother, could it have been the Zhao family of the hidden clans?" Yu Bide asked suddenly. "I hear Zhao Qibing, that bastard son of the Zhaos, has been kicking up quite a fuss in Songshan City lately — demolishing here, putting up buildings there. Perhaps the Zhaos, seeing a branch of our Yu family raking in money in the mundane world, have grown impatient? Besides, the Zhao family has never been friendly with our Yu family. Could their people have hurt Kun? After all, only their people would have the strength for it."

"Hard to say. It's possible, but I hear the Fire Wolf Gang is also operating in Songshan City," Yu Bifu said. "A tiny place like Songshan City, a mere patch of land, and yet so many forces have appeared there — it's truly complicated. One wrong move and we'd be caught on the crest of the wave, and that serves no Yu family interest. Neither the Zhaos nor the Fire Wolf Gang is something our branch of the Yu family in the mundane world can contend with."

"True. If it really was the Zhaos or the Fire Wolf Gang, then we may have no choice but to contact our eldest brother over there..." Yu Bide heaved a deep sigh. Though the hatred in his heart was unappeased, he knew his own measure well enough to know that those hidden clans and top gangs were not something he could shake.

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