Chapter 344: Terrifying Scion
*Pow!*
“GAH! MY TEETH!”
‘Whoa! What the fuck?!’
Yang Bao, like many of his fellow main clan members, reacted with shock when they saw this young master of the branch clan suddenly and violently kick a man in the teeth.
They were even more shocked when they saw him break one of the man’s loose teeth with his bare hands and apparently summon forth a kidnapped baby hippo from within said teeth.
As this “Zhen Liu” began to explain why he did what he did,a whole little lecture about Spatial Teeth beavers, and even breaking more of those teeth to demonstrate what this Victor guy could do, Yang Bao noticed one of those spatial teeth laying at his feet.
“Hmmmm.”
Out of curiosity, he picked up it and tried to break it with his bare hands too…only to find said tooth to be unbreakable.
‘What the fuck?’
From what he saw, these teeth were pretty average looking and he didn’t feel Zhen Liu use any aether when he broke the teeth so they couldn’t have been that tough…right?
Yang Bao pocketed the tooth for later, to see if it was just a fluke or maybe see if he needed someone stronger to crack it open.
‘I mean…I know that he is an Aether Master, but it can’t be that an Aether Master is needed to break this…right?’
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[Man, I keep forgetting how weirdly merciful our lord is,] Hurricroak observed, [I mean, we’re the ones to be merciless for him sure, but still, letting a dude who can steal with interdimensional pocket teeth go after he almost kidnapped Mini? That’s weird, right?]
[Not…really…,] Frosttusk replied,[it’s…a…plan…]
[Huh?]
[Hurricroak, you consume more media than the rest of us,] Nepherage plainly stated, [does this Afnac guy seem like the type to be his own thief, or probably works for some bigger fish?]
[Weasely personality, weird ability that would normally get your ass hunted down by everyone under the sun and a little too willing to take an offer of mercy? He’s definitely some other guy’s…oh.]
[Yeah.]
[…is our lord crazy?]
[Probably.]
[Yes…]
=I think the term y’all are looking for is long term investor.=
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In the span of ten minutes, Victor Afnac proceeded to literally spit up everything that he had stolen in the past two weeks, as promised, from his spatial teeth.
Initially it wasn’t anything too impressive, worn clothes and some random junk, but then Zhen Liu threatened to kick in the man’s teeth again. After that, Afnac finally spat up something valuable: an entire crate filled with high grade aether crystals.
While the value of the crystals varied from person to person due to not everyone being compatible with every type of aether, the monetary value was enough for Zhen Liu’s left hand to start twitching.
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‘Yeah, let’s not expose my most sensitive secret to a whole a bunch of people.’
<...yet.>
‘What was that?’
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Evidently,the sight of this crate wasn’t just shocking to Zhen Liu, but also everyone else from his clan.
“Oh shit! I know that crate!”
“You do?”
“Well not personally, check the markings. Ain’t that the Diggers Union logo?”
“Oh yeah…wait! I remember hearing about this. The diggers found a crazy motherlode of high grade aether crystals like a month back and lost one of the crates because it just straight up disappeared without a trace. Guess we know what happened to it now.”
“Yeah…think we can keep it?”
“I mean…”
“Okay that’s everything, I swear this time! Can you please get your hippo off of me now?!,” Victor shouted in fear.
Zhen Liu hummed a little bit as if to show he was deep in thought about the decision.
“Hmmm. Alright, you kept your promise so I shall keep mine. Tiny?”
“Grunt?”
“Just trust me.”
“Grunt…”
“Ku?”
Tiny, unwillingly, lifted herself off of Victor, immediately easing up a ton of pressure on the man’s back.
The moment Victor felt the relief upon his back, he tried his best to immediately bolt from the area.
Emphasis on the word, “tried”.
Before Victor could even get a foot away from this crazy hippo and her crazy violent owner, the aforementioned crazy owner grabbed Victor by the shoulder and pulled him close enough to whisper.
“Ababababa! Wait just one minute, my friend!”
In this moment, Victor felt as if he was in the jaw of a dangerous beast. It didn’t help that the guy holding him back was also stupid strong.
‘Its like being caught in a fucking vice!,’ Victor cursed as he felt the strength of the hand squeezing his shoulder.
This was the same hand he saw break his teeth multiple times, the same teeth that he used to bite through rocks for his job. Understandably, he was a tad worried.
“Now, I need you to understand something,” Zhen Liu began to whisper in Victor’s ear, “That I am only letting you live not necessarily because of what you handed over, but because I felt like it.”
“Uh…okay…”
“So I want you to understand something very important…,” Zhen Liu leaned in closer as he said this, “that if you and I ever cross paths again and it has something to do with you robbing me or hurting anyone I know again, I will personally remove every single one of your teeth, jam them into your skull and then shake your head about until your own teeth liquify your brains in the process. Understand?”
“Y-yes,” Victor nodded in fear and in hope that this crazy young man would just let him go quicker if he agreed fast enough. Normally he’d consider such threats to be boasting, but the pressure on his shoulder made him think this guy could actually do it. Why did this guy have to smile as he made this threat, it didn’t feel right!
“Good…okay, thanks for the presents. Bye~”
As soon as he said those words, Zhen Liu released his grip and allowed Victor to run off into the distance and away from the caravan.
Several members of both the main and branch clans were confused at Zhen Liu’s show of mercy.
Zhen Liu might have extorted the man to handover a lot of goods he had stolen, but who’s to say that Victor wouldn’t start stealing again?
Shouldn’t the punishment be more severe?
Granted, none of them had heard what Zhen Liu had said when he let Victor go.
However, some of the ones with sharper perception did hear what he threatened Victor with and concluded that this young master was absolutely terrifying.
“Well with that out of the way,” Zhen Liu said aloud for everyone to hear, “take this as a lesson from the branch clan. Aether Beasts don’t lie, if they act in a weird way, there’s probably a reason. Now, can we finally get a move on? I’m pretty sure the main clan won’t appreciate us being late despite how long the trip takes.”
Several main clan members took that statement as cue for themselves to return to their carts and make sure everything was ready to go. As for the branch members, they were tad confused.
Tiny and Mini have been a part of the branch clan for a while and while they understood how dangerous the former could be, the latter was only a baby. Didn’t they have to take her back to the stables?
“Fourth young master,” a branch member called out, “don’t we need to return Mini to-”
*Fwip!*
“Hello, I’m here to pick up a baby hippo?”
“Oh. Never mind!”
The moment Lucille showed up, the concerns of the branch members disappeared with it. They could leave the returning of Mini to the new Grandmasters in charge of the estate.
“Wait…when did the elders get someone to call for Miss Lucille?”
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Zhen Yan and the uncles looked on in confusion at this turn of events.
They had honestly expected this moment to be a case of Tiny being surly and not wanting to do stuff.
None of them had expected that the man she lashing against was some crazy kidnapper/theif with rare dimensional pocket abilities!
“Hold up…did any of you guys call for Lucille?,” Zhen Yan asked his brothers.
Collectively, they all shook their heads.
“Huh…”
“Zhen Yan?”
“Yes, Zhen Jin?”
“Gonna be real honest with ya…your son is weird and he kinda scares me.”
“That…is a fair assessment.”
Among everyone watching these events unfold, they were some of the few that could hear Zhen Liu make his threats against Victor Afnac.
Zhen Liu for the most part was rather quiet and polite, so hearing him make a threat that graphic seemed rather out of character to them.
As he watched his son hand off Mini to Lucille, he couldn’t help but have a single question pop into his head.
‘Is he like this because of the trauma of coming back from the dead, or is it because of his master?’
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‘Question: Do you and Archanidame have a clear image of that Victor guy’s face?’
[As day, milord. Did you want us to teach him a lesson?]
‘Oh no need for that…yet. But do keep an eye on him for me, I have a feeling that Mister Afnac will be a bit of a payday for us.’
[Excellent…before I go, why are you talking like a budget Moriarty?]
‘Honestly? Kinda running off of the high of literally kicking in a man’s teeth. I never actually got to deliver that threat for real until now.’
[Ah. Understandable.]
