Everyone was confused as to what the ‘Empire State Building’ was, but the guard interrupted their cries with a roar. He then charged at Travis and swung. “Wang Tao, my master is too busy to sweep up all of the worthless pieces of dust in the world, so allow me and my brothers to teach you a lesson!” The remaining sixteen guards all charged. 

Travis looked confident on the outside, he had learnt to mask his emotions and put on a threatening face ever since he had been in the old world. Living in the ghetto was extremely hard. It was like Jiang Hu, it was a very unforgiving place. If you didn’t at least seem strong on the outside, you would be taken advantage of. People would rob you, or punk you, or just straight up disrespect you. Seeming strong when you were actually weak was one of the first rules Travis had ever learned for survival. 

Now, he was nervous as hell. Truthfully, he had never fought before. He had fought Zhao Yu, but that didn’t count, and he had just taken out four guards - but he was confident enough to take on their attacks with the strength of his body. Sixteen guards… he didn’t want to think about it. Their spears and swords would turn him into a Wang Tao shish kebab, and one that definitely did not taste very good. 

Travis felt a gust of wind by his side. He turned around, and Li Dong was right next to him. Li Dong looked at him and smiled, “We are brothers, we fight together, and we die together. When we finish here, I reckon I’ll be able to eat a whole ox.” Li Dong looked at the guards running towards them and frowned. A mad light danced in his eyes, and his chubby cheeks shook as he clenched his jaw. 

Travis looked at Li Dong and a warmth entered his heart. Truthfully, Jiang Hu had never felt real for him. There was always a disconnect, a thin insulate layer that kept him from truly feeling like he ever had to live in this world. People didn’t feel real to him - more like characters in a game that amused him. But when he saw Li Dong now, he fully accepted him as a friend; a friend he would have had in his old world. Although he still thought of Jiang Hu as a fantasy world, Li Dong was real. He was a friend. 

A look of solemnity brushed across his face. He remembered that Wang Tao had learned a few techniques, but they were slapdash - techniques Wang Tao had learned because they were easy to learn. Travis scanned through his memory, trying to find something to work with. 

‘Fireball technique, nope. Water blade, nope. Star-plucking technique… this will definitely come in handy one day, but nope.’  Travis stopped searching when he found something that made him grin evilly. 

By now, the fight was underway. Li Dong had charged into a group of four and was going crazy. He was almost like a berserker, completely different to his true nature. Travis didn’t know if it was because he was still high, but Li Dong had completely gone wild, using his bare fists and ignoring his own defence as he knocked through every single one of the guards with one blow. Six more went to go help their fallen comrades, leaving six guards to surround Travis. 

They were angry, very angry. They began their assault, throwing beams of dazzling light. The colours were beautiful, but deadly, and Travis began to dodge them. Travis was shocked at how effortless it was - he knew how bad Wang Tao’s body had been before. Although the guards were only on the third layer, it shouldn’t have been so easy to dodge their attacks. It seemed like it wasn’t something that came just from the Sky Divine Grass or Travis’s cultivation though. No, this seemed like it had something to do with the mystery of Wang Tao himself. Travis was confused, but shrugged off his thoughts for the moment. He had almost been pummelled by a yellow hammer. 

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Travis kept dodging and punched two guards in the face. With a crash, they toppled over, and crumpled to the ground in a heap of golden armour. With four guards left, they stared at Travis. 

“Formation!” The guard who had started the assault yelled. The guards arranged themselves in a diamond pattern, with Travis in the middle.

‘He must be the leader,’  Travis thought. 

The guard leader raised his sword, and shouted, “Triumph of War, first offensive formation… gallop!” The four of them pointed their swords at Travis. One by one, they charged at Travis and changed positions with the guard who was opposite them in the formation. The formation was a formidable one, acquired by the Ye clan, and was designed to stimulate a horse’s charge into battle. It was supposed to build momentum, and get stronger and stronger with each successive charge until the target crumbled from the onslaught. 

Travis was beset from all sides, from the front, back, right and left directions. The first few cuts to his body didn’t leave any marks, much to the surprise of the guard leader, but they persevered, and after a while, cuts started to appear on Travis’s body. The guard leader smiled, and gestured to stop. 

“So, Wang Tao, will you kneel?” Ye Xiaofan was delighted at the scene, and a smug smile adorned his face. Li Dong off to the side was dealing with the attacks of three guards, while seven lay on the ground around him. Although he had put on a shocking battle, he was almost at his limit. Ye Xiaofan had won, like he always did. Lei Wei was sure to reward him after he snatched back face for the Silver Wolf Gang after stomping over the two of them. 

Although Ye Xiaofan was pampered and arrogant, he didn’t enjoy trampling over people. He wasn’t so eager for validation as other rich young masters were. He was a pretty good person at heart, but he understood the reason for appearances in Jiang Hu. The guards were nothing more than decorations for his image - and image was necessary in Jiang Hu. Much like Travis, he understood the importance of the exterior in such a ruthless world. Human nature respected those with strength, and disdained those without it. Ye Xiaofan wasn’t so dumb as to really want someone to kneel off of a whim. Nobody that blindly arrogant and short-sighted could have ever understood the profound concepts of the Absolute Zero law. It was necessary, so Ye Xiaofan did not hesitate to do so.

Looking at their struggles, Ye Xiaofan admired them. But it was futile. A cold glow entered Ye Xiaofan’s eyes. He had planned for this opportunity. He knew that Wang Tao and Li Dong ate at the mess hall everyday, but when he hadn’t seen them at breakfast he frowned. He waited, and when he got the word that they had arrived, he had quickly rushed to meet them. The Silver Wolf Gang was a Qi Condensation faction that had existed for a long time, so many of the most powerful people in the sect were alumni. They always had express permission to deal in what they dealt in; deaths being the only objection. Even they couldn’t circumvent those sect rules so blatantly. 

Their strengths shocked him; by his estimates, they must both have been at the beginning of the fifth layer of Qi Condensation. They wouldn’t be able to defeat his guards. And even if they did, Ye Xiaofan was there to pick up the pieces. 

Truthfully, the Silver Wolf Gang didn’t need to reclaim any sort of face - the Zhao Yu incident happened at a chaotic time, and nobody had the mind to watch what was happening. What Ye Xiaofan was here to reclaim was the status quo. The Void Immortal Sect was merely a drop in the sea of sects that existed in the Necklace of Buddha, but even they understood the need for hierarchy. Without putting people in their places, they wouldn’t be able to control them; not having control over people would lead to anarchy. If the Silver Wolf Gang didn’t show their power, other factions, like Chen Jian’s gang would take advantage of them.

Travis looked at Li Dong, who was at his limits, and looked at his own body and the thin cuts that crisscrossed all over it. He grimaced. He didn’t want to have to do it, but it was necessary. He sent Li Dong a voice transfer.

 - Li Dong, on my signal, we run away. -

 - What? Why? - Li Dong sounded angry, a far cry from the Li Dong who was going to kowtow to Zhao Yu. 

 - Even if we beat all of these guards, we still have that guy left. - Travis’s eyes narrowed. - A man knows when to retreat. But, Li Dong, this isn’t surrender. I have a plan. - 

 - Okay then. - Li Dong sighed. 

Travis looked up at Ye Xiaofan. They locked eyes for a second. Ye Xiaofan looked into Travis’s eyes and shuddered. He had never seen eyes like those - eyes filled with a controlled madness - almost as if he would do anything to reach his goals. Beads of sweat trickled down Ye Xiaofan’s back. He was about to say something when Travis yelled,

“You smell like a fucking virgin. I bet you would fuck your own sister for a slice of cheese. Look at you, you cuck bastard. Your mother is so damn fat, when I asked her to touch her toes she said, ‘what are those?’ You look like the type of nigga to fart in the toilet then flush it!”