Chapter 277: No taste for skullduggery or deception
“Alright,” Alicia began to ask as she placed her bag of popcorn down on the ground, “why…did Zhen Liu tell him all that? Also, hello, when were y’all going to mention about returning to Roaring Tide?”
“I’m with the redhead on this,” Bellona chimed in, “why?”
The two of them were staring straight at Jin Fang as they asked this question.
Out of the four ladies present, three of them were actually interested in the doofus pretending to be an evil mastermind, and among those three, one of them had been dating them the longest, ergo, understood the fuck he was doing.
Jin Fang had her fingers steepled as she thought about what her boyfriend was doing telling these would-be assassins the clan’s future plans… until it dawned on her.
“I…I think he’s forcing an ultimatum,” Jin Fang observed.
“What?”
“What do you mean by ultimatum?”
“Just watch.”
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‘Fuck! What do I do now?! Do I apologize? Do I defend our actions? But he already dismissed the issue as being “silly”, how do I argue against the indifference of a powerful man?!’
After the Overlord informed Zhen Li about his connection with the Zhen Clan, the latter began to inwardly panic while outwardly pretended to be as calm as possible. He didn’t want the man to see him grovel and panic for fear of annoying him, he had a feeling this Overlord would end him in an instant if he did.
Whatever the case may be, he had to apologize, now.
“Apologies sir! We didn’t mean to-”
“Ah yes, the groveling apology! A classic for those caught in clandestine actions! How…cliche,” the robed Overlord interjected, “but please save it! You’ve already opened the bottle and spilled it’s contents, there’s no fixing at this point…only clean up.”
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“Was…was that supposed to be intimidating?”
“I mean…it kinda worked. Look at Zhen Li’s face, he thinks he’s about to get eighty-sixed.”
“Eighty what?”
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“Now don’t get me wrong, if your master and you decided to roll up all proper like and challenge Patriarch Zhen Shi to a duel with a touch of respect, I wouldn’t have given a damn,” the Overlord said with an exaggerated tone of exasperation, “conflict like that is good for the soul sometimes, allows one to grow and just like theatrics, I am a sucker for those old school duels at sundown…but then y’all decided to start being all sneaky and shit…and I hate skullduggery.”
“Skull-what?”
“Deception.”
“Ah…okay…”
The Overlord resettled in his seat again.
“Holding a man’s family hostage, tugging at their heartstrings to get an advantage, now that ain’t right… how’s one supposed to get the satisfaction of kicking someone’s teeth in if the other guy is just letting you win? Not very… honorable, is it?”
At the mention of the word, “honorable”, Zhen Li couldn’t help but twitch a bit.
The fact that the man in the mirror was simultaneously questioning his honor while mocking them for caring so much about it was hypocritically infuriating…which might have been point.
“And so with this mind,” the Overlord continued, uncaring for his counterpart’s increasingly sour face, “I present to you a two prong road.”
Emphasizing his point, the Overlord presented two hands, open palm facing upwards.
“The first is to take my information and take this simple suggestion to heart: go home.”
“What?!”
Expecting this reaction, the Overlord continued.
“Since you already know that Patriarch Zhen Shi is planning to bring his clan back home to make ammends with both the main branch and the royal family, so you can take that information back home and make preparations. Throw a tournament, a feast, whatever. Hells, now that I think about it, y’all could even go and visit them and make plans go back home together. One big family road trip!,” the Overlord said happily as he got up from his throne and dramatically pose, “at which point, you can just call me a passing memory. A freak encounter that inspired you.”
Zhen Li didn’t know what a “road trip” was, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t have liked it, especially with the suggested company in question.
“Alright…but what if I…what if my master says no?,” Zhen Li asked, “what if…he plans to use this information you provided to…plan an ambush? A more elaborate assassination? Send more people.”
As soon as he asked that question…the Overlord deflated. Not in a negative way or a “I’m tired” way…more like…the wrong question has been asked, and the answer is violence.
“Now that is a good question…well…questions” the Overlord began to say, his voice suddenly changing to something far more sinister and a lot less jovial, “what would happen if you chose the other road…”
As the Overlord trailed off on his answer, he slowly walked towards Zhen Li on the other side of the mirror. Every step the Overlord took, Zhen Li swore the air around him was getting heavier…hotter…almost electric.
“Well…for starters, you would have provoked my ire and guaranteed that the Zhen Clan would have my protection for the entirety of the trip. I am very protective of my disciples and those they consider to be close to.”
“Oh…shit,” Zhen Li cursed, aware of the gravity of the threat.
“Oh shit indeed,” the Overlord agreed, “but it gets worst from there.”
“Worst?”
Zhen Li was so caught up with the Overlord’s sudden threat at this point, that he failed to notice that in the area behind, three monstrous figures suddenly appeared.
“If you do not heed my words and do send more people, I will personally hunt them down, break them into five pieces each and the send the pieces to the doorstep of the Zhen Clan in lovely little boxes. Express shipping, of course.”
“W-what?”
The image on mirror suddenly began to waver as the two operatives acting as the Overlord’s method of displaying himself started to thrash as a sign of protest and wiggle to freedom.
“Ah, ah ah,” the Overlord said as he reached out the sides of the mirror, and held the display still, “can’t have you two freaking out on me yet while I still have a message to deliver. I’d rather not risk breaking the connection…by breaking your necks.”
When that threat left his mouth, the two spies suddenly grew still. While Zhen Li couldn’t actually the other side of the mirror, he swore he heard whimpering.
‘I’ve watched these men kill whole families before! What kind of a monster can cause a reaction like this?!,” Zhen Li cursed.
Funnily enough, he was about to find this out personally.
