Chapter Sixteen: The Marble Table

Shen Ye was now in a perilous situation, his mind racing—what should he do? If only he had brought some weapons for self-defense, he wouldn’t be so vulnerable.

At that moment, he spotted a dining table. This French-style villa’s second and third floors both had grand reception halls furnished with sofas and coffee tables. The second floor, in particular, boasted an enormous marble dining table. The table was one and a half meters long, ninety centimeters wide, and weighed about two hundred pounds.

Such a table was impossible for one person to move; ordinarily, it required at least two strong grown men, and if they were mere homebodies, at least four would be needed to lift it.

Suddenly, a realization struck Shen Ye—his greatest advantage was his strength! A strength rating of three was no joke.

One must know how to leverage one's strengths.

He placed both hands on the massive marble table, feeling the immense weight, but it was still within the limits of his power. With a sharp shout, “Up!” he summoned every ounce of force from his biceps, triceps, and even the smaller muscles in his arms, unleashing the maximum strength he could muster.

Boom! The two-hundred-pound marble table was hoisted up by Shen Ye alone.

Without hesitation, he swung the marble table directly toward Du Wenfeng.

Imagine—a person lifting a colossal marble table, one and a half meters long and nearly a meter wide, and hurling it forward. The scene would be one of utter destruction, shattering everything in its path, unstoppable.

Du Wenfeng, who had been relentlessly stabbing at the masked stranger with two short knives, forcing him to retreat step by step—was just moments away from finishing him off.

He never expected that, in the blink of an eye, the masked figure would seize the marble table and fling it at him. Du Wenfeng was stunned. He’d fought hundreds of battles in his life: street brawls, nightclub fights, late-night duels, but never had he encountered anything like this.

He glanced at his two sharp knives, barely a foot long.

Then at the massive marble table, weighing two hundred pounds.

For the first time, his knives felt pitifully inadequate.

He wanted to flee, but the marble table came crashing down too fast.

He wanted to fight back, but faced with that enormous table, all courage deserted him.

At the final moment, he managed to dodge slightly to the side, but not far enough.

Bang!

The marble table slammed down.

Du Wenfeng was crushed onto the floor, his body cleaved in two at the waist. Blood sprayed everywhere, and his chest and abdomen were reduced to a mangled mess of bone and viscera, shattered beyond recognition.

His face twisted in agony, clearly suffering immensely in his final moments. His upper body still writhed and struggled, like a dying grasshopper.

But within seconds, he was utterly still.

The air grew thick with the scent of blood.

Several tiles on the second-floor floor cracked beneath the impact, and the ground itself vibrated for a moment before settling.

Shen Ye casually picked up a bamboo chopstick and strode toward Du Wensheng.

Du Wensheng’s face had changed dramatically. Though he was dubbed one of the "Du Family Twin Tigers," he was, in truth, only a driver, riding on his brother Du Wenfeng’s reputation. Even Ma Guosheng’s care for him was out of regard for his brother. Now that Du Wenfeng was dead, he had no courage to confront Shen Ye, nor dared to entertain thoughts of revenge.

He retreated, step after step.

Whoosh!

Shen Ye brandished the chopstick and, with lightning speed, stabbed it into Du Wensheng’s throat.

Only then did he realize that, back in the pyramid scheme organization, he’d developed a habit of stabbing people’s throats with bamboo chopsticks. Now, he’d instinctively done it again. Had he awakened some innate talent for this?

Bang!

Du Wensheng’s body slowly collapsed.

...

“What’s going on? Why so much noise? Keep it down.” The door on the fourth floor swung open.

Yawning, Ma Guosheng emerged in just a pair of boxers, followed by Zhang Ning in a skimpy bikini, her smooth, long legs and voluptuous figure on full display—utterly seductive.

Ma Guosheng had a peculiar hobby.

He enjoyed watching Japanese adult films while making love to Zhang Ning.

Moreover, he liked to turn the volume up to an absurd level, perhaps for the thrill. So, when renovating the fourth floor, he had his room outfitted with KTV-style soundproofing. That way, he could blast the films as loud as he wished, and no one outside would hear. Of course, unless there was an extraordinarily loud noise, he couldn’t hear anything from beyond the room either.

Just moments ago, Ma Guosheng had been watching a teacher-student film starring a famous actress.

He liked to act out scenes while watching.

For example, he’d just had Zhang Ning dress up as a female teacher, specially ordering the costume online. With a stick in hand, she pointed at the wall, playing the teacher’s role to perfection.

Ma Guosheng, meanwhile, played the student, listening intently to the lesson for a few minutes before pouncing—and then engaging in a series of primal motions.

In the midst of this pleasurable interlude, he heard a tremendous noise from below, which piqued his curiosity. What were Du Wenfeng and the others up to downstairs?

That sudden, thunderous crash startled him, and, being not particularly robust in such matters, left him spent. Helplessly, he finished, slipped on his boxers, and came out.

Zhang Ning, too, donned her bikini and stepped out to see what had happened. In truth, she didn’t mind showing off a bit of skin—watching Ma Guosheng’s underlings ogle her, swallowing hard yet not daring to stare, was simply too amusing.

Neither Ma Guosheng nor Zhang Ning could have imagined, no matter how they guessed, the scene that awaited them.

Blood everywhere.

And, suddenly, a bizarre killer wearing a mask of the legendary Lord Guan.

The deaths of Skinny Tiger, Fat Pig, and Du Wensheng were not so consequential. But even Du Wenfeng, the foremost tiger general, had perished at the hands of the intruder—this was too uncanny, too terrifying.

(This chapter was updated a bit later than usual.)