Chapter 549: The Haven of Fierce Beasts
Hundreds of fierce beasts were spotted on the sea surface in the southern side of the island. Some of these fierce beasts were swimming on the surface of the sea, while some others were moving about and strolling idly on the sea surface. Another dense pack of thousands of fierce beasts was seen on the shore. Some were taking nap, some were hopping, and some others were running around.
"Heavens!!! This place… how could there be so many fierce beasts here?" Despite having a strong self-control, Gu Xiaoxue couldn't help but call out in alarm at this time.
A glint flashed inside Tang Xiu's eyes. Although he didn't know why there was so many fierce beasts in this place, what he had in mind was as if he actually saw countless fierce beasts being reared by him, and the countless cultivation resources that were piling up like mountains.
"Xiaoxue, though I don't believe in heaven, I still want to thank it at this moment. With so many fierce beasts in this place, this is practically a timely assistance for us. If we can take care of this place and put all the beasts below under our control, we won't need to capture ordinary fierce beasts and domesticate them."
Gu Xiaoxue's eyes lit up, before it dimmed a second after as she forced a smile and said, "But Grand Master, this place is too terrifying. Even if we have high cultivation levels, I'm afraid we can't control them all, no?"
"We are indeed unable to control them all, but we'll bring more experts to get things done. I'm sure we can have them under our control sooner or later. Huh? Something's wrong…" Tang Xiu smilingly said.
Suddenly, Tang Xiu's complexion drastically changed and he quickly grabbed Gu Xiaoxue's waist. His figure streaked toward the wooded hill like lightning. In the blink of an eye, he appeared inside the dense forest of the wooded hill.
"What's wrong, Grand Master?"
Gu Xiaoxue, who had never be touched by a man, was now being hugged by Tang Xiu on her slender waist. The warm heat transmitted from Tang Xiu's big hand and the smell of man exuding from Tang Xiu caused her body to become slightly weak. Even her ears turned slightly red at this moment.
Tang Xiu, however, didn't notice Gu Xiaoxue's unusualness. He didn't release Gu Xiaoxue at this time, but took her quickly toward the north shoreline instead. Two minutes later, he had already returned back to the liner with Gu Xiaoxue and ordered to set sail.
The liner set sail and was anchored on the shoreline of Clam Island, but the location was now on the northern coastline.
"What is the situation, Grand Master?" Gu Xiaoxue secretly relaxed after Tang Xiu released her.
Tang Xiu creased his brows and forced a smile, "It seems like I was deluding myself. I thought we had chanced upon a great fortuitous encounter, but I forgot about the troubles the heavens could cast upon us. I encountered gatherings of fierce beasts like this on several occasions, and I even bumped into a huge number of immortal beasts. If my guess is correct, then the neighboring island has already been occupied by fierce beasts and even has turned into a fierce beast paradise. Furthermore, there are two essential conditions for a haven of fierce beasts to form."
"What exactly are these two conditions?" Asked Gu Xiaoxue in astonishment.
"Firstly, there must be an enormous spiritual vein underneath the island, and it must be very active," said Tang Xiu seriously.
"Indeed. I can feel a rich concentration of heaven and earth spiritual qi when we arrived on that island. It's several times higher than on Clam Island." Gu Xiaoxue nodded.
"This is only the first condition." Tang Xiu continued. "Secondly, there must be a very terrifying fierce beast residing on that island, and the fierce beast must be at least at the high-order level. With my current cultivation level I won't be able to deal with it. I even suspect that the strength of this fierce beast is far beyond mine; it should have reached a very high order. The number of beasts we saw there surpasses two thousand, and that's only the number we can see on the surface. Who knows how many beasts there are in the seabed?"
With a drastically changed expression, Gu Xiaoxue quickly asked, "Then what should we do? That island is an excellent place to rear fierce beasts, it's really a pity if we give it up. If we can't solve this problem, even if we acquire Clam Island I'm afraid that dangers will loom over us when we plant the medicinal herbs here."
A hint of a smile appeared on the corner of Tang Xiu's mouth as he said, "We may not be able to face the strongest fierce beasts there, but don't forget something; our Everlasting Feast Hall still has a very powerful expert."
Gu Xiaoxue stared blankly, and her face immediately turned bright. With an excited face, she said, "It should be Elder Ji, right, Grand Master?"
"Yeah, it's Ji Chimei." Tang Xiu nodded. "Although she is currently injured, she's still a Crowned Immortal, nonetheless. Her strength may have been reduced to the level of an ordinary immortal at the moment, but it won't be a problem for her to destroy the entire Earth in one strike, much less dealing with these fierce beasts."
"You're right, Grand Master." Gu Xiaoxue let out a bright smile. "Elder Ji will definitely be able to deal with the strongest fierce beast directly. Do you want me to send someone back to call Elder Ji here?"
"No hurry, the purpose of our visit this time is to survey and investigate the site." Tang Xiu waved his hand. "I'm very satisfied with the result of the survey, so let us get back to Jingmen Island first. We'll come here again after I acquire Clam Island and its neighboring island through my connections. Also, I originally planned to leave some people here, but now it seems that the security issues here are kinda dangerous, so we'll leave with everyone else."
"Are you going to take that classmate of yours back as well?" Asked Gu Xiaoxue curiously.
"Yeah, I trust her." Tang Xiu nodded. "I believe she won't divulge the things I told her. But assign someone to keep an eye on her to prevent eventualities."
"Understood!" Gu Xiaoxue nodded.
The passenger liner then returned to Jingmen Island late at night. The group didn't stop and headed straight to the Everlasting Feast Hall's HQ.
"What is this place, Tang Xiu?" A curious look was painted Cheng Yannan's face as she asked and sized up the Everlasting Feast Hall's manor with amazement.
"Jingmen Island's Everlasting Feast Hall," said Tang Xiu with a smile.
"How long will we be stopping over? You said earlier you'll let me stay on Clam Island, and now you bring me here. What exactly do you have in mind?"
"I found some looming dangers on Clam Island after investigating it. Hence I had to take you back for your safety." Tang Xiu said. "Don't worry, though. We'll go back there, but I need to do something before we do that."
"All right!" Cheng Yannan nodded.
Soon after, Cheng Yannan had been properly settled by a member of the Everlasting Feast Hall in the guest room next to Yang Le's. In the middle of the night, when Tang Xiu and Gu Xiaoxue saw that Cheng Yannan had entered her room to rest, the door next room was opened as Yang Le, who was behaving stealthily like a thief, poked his head out. After seeing Tang Xiu and Gu Xiaoxue, he immediately smiled and straightened his back, "Brother Tang, you're back! I'm afraid I was gonna die suffocated in this guest room if you didn't come back. That Ouyang fella has been staying in the hall below since yesterday morning."
Ouyang Lei?
Tang Xiu smiled and asked, "How come I didn't see him when we arrived?"
Yang Le rolled his eyes, "Like you don't know the many customs employed in the Everlasting Feast Hall. Nobody is allowed to get out of their guest room here, do you think that brat wants to leave? Regardless, I heard the Ouyang Family made quite a huge move yesterday. It seems like they closed many of their businesses. Hahaha..."
"What did you do, exactly?" Asked Tang Xiu. "How come the Ouyang Family made such a ruckus because of it?"
Yang Le strode forward and grabbed Tang Xiu's arm and dragged him to his room, whereas Gu Xiaoxue followed behind out of curiosity.
After picking up several account books from the bookcase, Yang Le showed them to Tang Xiu and smilingly said, "Brother Tang, it was you who asked me to fix him up. Hence I checked his address and snatched some stuff from his place. These account books record most of the gray or black businesses belonging to the Ouyang Family that mustn't come to light. Even though I can't figure out some of the things on it, I dare say that the Ouyang Family will be in for quite the trouble if I were to disclose these records outside. Literally huge trouble!"
Tang Xiu grabbed the account books and started reading them. After flipping through them for more than ten minutes, a strange expression then appeared on his face. He now understood as to why Ouyang Lei was still here. The contents recorded on these account books were truly too… troublesome.
"The goal has been reached. This will be enough to make things hard for him, and he won't be able to have a good sleep. I'm gonna call him over!"
After saying that, Tang Xiu took out his mobile phone and dialed Ouyang Lei's cell number.
At this time, Ouyang Lei was currently smoking inside the guest room. His eyes were bloodshot, and the ringtone of his mobile phone startled him. He darted to the locker and grabbed his phone. When he saw the number on the screen he nearly cried, but no tears came out. With trembling fingers, he pressed the answer button and called out in a trembling voice, "Sister's… no, that's not right… Brother, Brother Tang Xiu, you finally called me back!"
A smile was outlined in Tang Xiu's mouth as he said, "Oh my, wasn't big brother Ouyang Lei calling me brother-in-law before? Ah, wrong, it should be prospective brother-in-law, right?"
"No no no… I won't call you that even if I was beaten to death!" Ouyang Lei's face was sullen. "Brother, Big Brother Tang Xiu, please tell me. Are my things in your hands?"
"Yeah, they are in my custody." Tang Xiu laughed. "Do you want them back? Then go out and head to the hall on the first floor. I'll be downstairs."
"They are really in your hands? Great!!! I'll be there right away."
Ouyang Lei hung up the phone and his face transformed into one of ecstasy. He couldn't care less about how Tang Xiu had made things so difficult for him by taking his account books away. As long as he could get them back, he wouldn't refuse to face north to kowtow and bang his head on the ground eight times.
A few minutes later, Tang Xiu wore a faint smile as he brought Yang Le to the hall on the first floor. When he saw Ouyang Lei's bloodshot eyes, messed up hair, and disheveled appearance, Tang Xiu handed him the account books and smilingly said, "What do you think? How did these two days feel like?"
After receiving the account books, Ouyang Lei didn't even try to reply Tang Xiu. He quickly flipped over the account books and read the records on it. After discovering that everything was correct, he finally calmed down.
"Thank you. Thanks a lot, Brother Tang Xiu!"
Chapter 550: Visiting Someone to Demand Debt Payment
Looking at Ouyang Lei with a strange and disbelieving expression, Yang Le said, "Say, Ouyang Lei, are you nuts? Tang Xiu told me to steal from you, yet you thanked him for it? What reasoning is this? Properly speaking, you should have taken one of your shoes and thrown it at him, no?"
The grateful expression on Ouyang Lei's face froze. He stared blankly at Tang Xiu and Yang Le. At this moment, he looked like he was just abruptly awakened from a dream. That's right! Why on earth did I thank him? Thanks to them I almost collapsed in the past two days!
In a flash, the feeling of gratitude inside Ouyang Lei's heart vanished. He wanted to vent his anger, yet dared not do so. Firstly, needless to say, Tang Xiu was in front of him. Also, the fella named Yang Le was… way too powerful. This guy was likely a godly thief.
After having observed the changing expression on Ouyang Lei's face, Yang Le burst into laughter and then said, "Anyways, let me introduce myself. I'm Yang Le, a disciple of Thief Branch of the Occult Sect. One percent of the major burglaries in the world are my masterpieces."
Thief Branch?
Ouyang Lei's complexion changed greatly, and a vigilant look filled his eyes. For common families, they may not be aware what kind of existence the Thief Branch was. However, due to the relationship with his mother, he had heard many legends of the Thief Branch.
"Yang… Big Brother Yang."
Ouyang Lei coughed and squeezed out a smile. Like the ancients said, be not afraid of the theft itself, but do fear the thoughts of the thief. And Yang Le, in particular, had just thrown the Ouyang Family into confusion, yet he did that in the absence of malicious intention. If because certain matters he was to set his eyes at the Ouyang Family, then no good days would come to them later.
"Big Brother, eh? That's very kind of you, Brother Ouyang." Yang Le grinned. "Since you're Brother Tang's brother-in-law to be, you will also become our people in the future."
Tang Xiu rolled his eyes at him and waved his hand, "No more nonsense, alright? You guys take a rest early, since you still have things to do tomorrow. I got things to do, so I'm not going to keep you guys accompany."
After saying that, he returned to the second floor to his room, took a bath and put on pajamas brought by Gu Xiaoxue. Although it was already late at night, Tang Xiu took out his mobile phone and dialed the Tang's old Family Head's cell number. Soon after, his phone call was connected and the voice of his grandfather sounded.
"Xiu'er, is there something urgent for calling me this late?"
"It's indeed a bit urgent, Grandpa," said Tang Xiu.
"What's the matter?" Asked Tang Guosheng.
"Auntie should have informed you that the Yao Family is about to rent Clam Island in the South China Sea. I myself have obtained accurate information about that. The Yao Family's purpose to rent Clam Island is to unite various big families and make good preparations to train their armed forces. However, the real person-in-charge in the negotiation with the government is Yao Qingteng, whereas Yao Xinhua is just a cover. The reason I'm calling you this late is because I must acquire this Clam Island along with another island a few kilometers away from it. So to say, I must rent these two islands."
Startled, Tang Guosheng asked, "You're going to rent two islands? What are you going to do?"
"Clam Island is very suitable to cultivate medicinal herbs, while the other island is suitable to rear fierce beasts." Tang Xiu explained. "If I can take these two islands, I can make the Tang Family's strength soar to a hundred times of our present strength."
"Are you sure?" Tang Guosheng's tone became extremely serious.
"I guarantee it," said Tang Xiu with the same serious tone.
Tang Guosheng fell into silence for two minutes before saying in a heavy and deep voice, "I understand. Wait for news from me."
"Wait!" Noticing that Tang Guosheng was going to hang up, Tang Xiu hurriedly said, "Grandpa, I also have something important to inform you. Perhaps it will be helpful for the Tang Family to take Clam Island and the other island."
"What is it?" Asked Tang Guosheng.
"I just returned from Clam Island." Tang Xiu elaborated, "I encountered the Yao Family's men there. Some of them were killed by me, while Yao Qingteng and the rest died on Clam Island. Anyhow, I've also taken some of the documents and procedural formalities from them. Do you want me to send them to you?"
"That's great!" Tang Guosheng was ecstatic. "Send them to me immediately! Ah, right. Can you guarantee its safety on the way here?"
"No problem," said Tang Xiu.
"Since there's no problem, then I'll be waiting for the documents in Beijing. Once I have them in my hands I'll be able to think of better ways to act with the conditions on the documents as a basis."
After the phone call ended, Tang Xiu looked for Gao Feng and issued an order to bring several experts to Beijing overnight in order to send the documents to his grandfather, and urged him to hand them over to Tang Guosheng personally.
The next morning.
At the First Public Hospital of Jingmen Island, Yao Xinhua, who had been in a comatose state for two days, finally woke up. He was not healed by the doctors at the hospital, but naturally awakened instead. White walls came into his sight, and the smell of carbonated water drilled into his nose as he tried to sit up. He had been shot with saline water for the last two days.
"Where is this?" Yao Xinhua looked at the man sitting on the chair beside his sickbed and asked with a drowsiness.
The old man looked up and stared blankly. After he realized that Yao Xinhua had woken up, he was startled and suddenly bounced up from his chair. He then replied ecstatically, "Young Master, you… you finally woke up? I, I, I… I'll call the doctor. Please wait a bit."
Yao Xinhua frowned. He called out to the man to stop him and then asked in a heavy voice, "You haven't told me where this place is. What's wrong with me?"
The middle-aged big man forced a smile and said, "Young Master, you fell into a strange comatose state at the charity party organized by the Ouyang Family. Regardless of any attempts to wake you up, you didn't even stir. The most important of all is that, after we brought you here to the hospital, the doctors were unable to find the cause and you remained unconscious no matter the examination and the diagnosis conducted by them. That's right, this place is the First Public Hospital of Jingmen Island, and you've been here for the last two days."
"You mean I suddenly fell into a comatose state at the charity party that night?" Yao Xinhua frowned.
The middle-aged big man nodded.
A look of recollecting memories could be seen on Yao Xinhua's face as he tried to recall what happened before he fell into a comatose state. A moment after, his face drastically changed and he asked in a deep voice, "What about Tang Xiu? Where did he go after I fainted?"
"You mean… the Tang Xiu from the Tang Family?" The middle-aged big man was confused.
"Yes, him." Yao Xinhua said in a heavy voice. "Before my memory went dark I was with him. Where was he at that time?"
"Young Master, when we found you fainted he had long disappeared. However, an accident happened to our people that night," said the middle-aged big man with a forced smile.
"What exactly happened?" Asked Yao Xinhua.
The middle-aged big man forced a smile and said, "Didn't you assign two groups to set up an ambush in the vicinity of Sheraton Hotel? The two snipers of each team went to the opposite building of the hotel to prepare for the ambush. Since you remained unconscious and we brought you to this hospital, I personally issued an order to the two teams to retreat. Who would have thought that the two snipers had already been killed? There's an inconceivable fact about it since their foreheads were… were pierced with silver needles. It was just silver needles, yet it pierced the most important part of brain nerves and directly led their death."
Hiss… Yao Xinhua couldn't help but gasp cold air upon hearing it.
He still clearly remembered the content of his conversation with Tang Xiu back then; who would leave Sheraton Hotel while standing still, and who would leave "falling asleep". There was no doubt that Tang Xiu did something back then and he ended up losing.
Why did he not directly kill me at that time? With his terrifying abilities, I'm afraid that not even gods and ghosts would notice if he killed me. Furthermore, for one to be able to kill those two snipers who were going to ambush him, the murderer was absolutely terrifying. Was it Tang Xiu who did it himself? Or one of his men?
Yao Xinhua kept thinking, but every thought sent a chill down his spine. He finally realized as to why he lost so miserably when he fought Tang Xiu in the struggle for the two provinces in the southern region. It must be due to his extremely fearful abilities. And it highly likely that Tang Xiu had an extremely terrifying armed force under him.
After a long period of time, Yao Xinhua looked at the middle-aged big man and asked in a deep voice, "Has my Second Uncle already come back?"
"He hasn't come back yet." The middle-aged big man shook his head. "We called his satellite phone, but nobody answered. Furthermore, we also lost contact with the passenger ship."
Yao Xinhua's complexion greatly changed as he quickly asked, "How is it possible that you lost contact with the passenger ship? The ship is equipped with special, state of art communication equipment!!!"
The middle-aged big man forced a smile and said, "The communication equipment on the passenger ship has been turned off, so our phone calls didn't connect."
Yao Xinhua fell into silence for a short while before saying, "I see. Let's put off discussing the other issues for now and go back to Beijing first."
The middle-aged big man hesitated for a moment, before saying with a cautious look, "Young Master, there's someone who came to demand a debt payment or something this morning."
Someone came demanding a debt payment?
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Yao Xinhua angrily yelled. "What debts do we owe?"
"That person said that he was sent by Tang Xiu," reluctantly answered the middle-aged big man in a low voice. "He said that it's the 1 billion gambling debt."
1 billion gambling debt?
Yao Xinhua was dumbfounded. He suddenly remembered the bet between him and Tang Xiu at the charity party. He was jolted inwardly and immediately felt unwell and sullen. Although he didn't know what Tang Xiu did to him, the end result was that he was the one who fell and was carried outside by others, whereas Tang Xiu left by himself.
What should I do? Don't tell me I really have to hand over 1 billion RMB to that bastard Tang Xiu?
Yao Xinhua clenched his fists as a look mortification appeared in his eyes. He then said in a heavy voice, "We'll go back first and discuss this later."
"I think you don't need to wait to discuss it. You agreed to the bet, so you must pay it. That's the rule of gambling. Since Young Master Yao lost to me, you couldn't be thinking of repudiating a mere 1 billion debt, right?"
A teasing voice suddenly came from outside the ward.
Tang Xiu strode inside along with two stalwart men just as the voice faded away. A faint smiling expression was outlined on his face as he looked at Yao Xinhua, who had just come down from his bed.